Responses of Chinese Consumers to Sex Appeals in International Advertising: A Test of Congruency Theory

Choosing celebrity endorsers for advertising campaigns in cosmopolitan China: Does their ethnicity matter?

“…In response to this trend, major multinational brand advertisers have featured Chinese endorsers and users in their promotional campaigns. A recent study by Cui and Yang (2009) found that evaluations of a fictitious digital camera with an English brand name were more positive when the 'faces' were Chinese than when they reflected the country of origin of the product itself. This finding strongly supports the appropriateness of congruency theory as a basis for analysis of the effect of the perceived ethnicity of individuals featuring in international advertising.…”

“…The choice of celebrity according to congruence theory and the degree of consumer ethnocentrism According to congruence theory, the literature shows that some Western advertisers in Asian markets are prone to using endorsers who are themselves Asian (Cui & Yang, 2009;Frith et al, 2004). Congruence theory (Newcomb, 1968) postulates that, in order to maintain cognitive harmony and symmetry, individuals tend to be more responsive to people who reflect their own beliefs and attitudes, and messages that are consistent with them.…”

“…For McCracken (1989), celebrity-endorsed advertising success depends on whether the celebrity endorser proves meaningful within a culture's consumer values and norms (Paek, 2005). For the Chinese market, one stream of the literature suggests that it is indicated to employ local celebrities because they will prove to be more congruent with the cultural values of Chinese consumers who, being generally fairly ethnocentric, will then be able to identify more with the famous person (Cui & Yang, 2009;Frith, Cheng & Shaw, 2004;Leach & Liu, 1998). Using a local celebrity may be a way for a company to express adaptation to the local market and identification with the native culture and language.…”

“…This is, of course, a specific case of the general globalization-versus-localization argument, which has become the subject of intense interest among specialist academics and thoughtful practitioners (Cheong, Zheng & Kim, 2011;Cui & Yang, 2009;Gan, 2006;Hong, 1994;Morimoto & La Ferle, 2008). In a context where celebrities are used as brand endorsers, our understanding is that companies that try to provide their products with a global international image might prefer to use foreign celebrities, while companies that desire to project a local image would possibly opt for choosing Chinese celebrities.…”

Consumer Responses to Explicit Sexual Stimuli in Advertising: Artistic vs Provocative Style

“…In general, the research hypothesis deals with the ways in which sexual content can alter these cognitive processes by reducing or amplifying the effectiveness of the content message and, in particular, the level of persuasion the consumer feels (Reichert, 2002;Thiyagarajan, Shanthi & Naresh, 2012). The main risk is that the sexual content in advertising, while capturing the consumer's attention, can distract him from other information that is more substantial and relevant as, for example, those related to the brand (MacInnis, Moorman & Jaworski, 1991;Cui & Yang, 2009). Doubtless the use of sexual content in advertising raises the level of attention (Belch, Holgerson, Belch & Koppman, 1981;Dudley, 1999;Reichert, Heckler & Jackson, 2001;Reichert, LaTour & Kim, 2007;Lombardot, 2007) and may help to make those messages more interesting and engaging.…”