Comparison the difference between eastern and western advertisement free essay sample

With the fast development of globalization, economical communications become more frequently, which brings more inter-cultural advertisements. The purposes of the commercial advertisements are to persuade customers to buy those products and to earn great interests trough describing the products lively and specifically. English, as the most wildly used commercial language, becomes more and more popular. But many companies often pay little attention to the cultural differences between Western and Eastern countries. Most of them just translate their source language advertisement to English, and the result of this consequence is that most of the foreigners cannot understand the meaning of the advertisements; even they will misunderstand the information of the advertisements. Advertisements should adapt to the customers’ minds and meet consumers’ needs. In order to enlarge the abroad markets, businessmen also need to think over the culture background and know the thinking pa tterns of the advertisements and use the powerful impact of the apt advertisements to earn the interest. Nowadays, the world is filled with large amount of information. Anyhow, not all the information could leave deep expression on people. What advertisers should do is to introduce the commodity to the customers by all means and persuade them to purchase the commodity through advertisements. What kind of advertisement could attract the public? What kind of advertisement could help the manufacture gain more profit? What kind of advertisement could be accepted by western people? What kind of advertisement could be accepted by eastern people? So being aware of the thinking patterns of the Western and Eastern ads are of great significance. The aim of this paper is to make comparison between the different thinking patterns of the western and eastern advertisements. â… ¡ The Characteristics of Eastern Advertisements In China, people are deeply influenced by Confuciusian. China nation has regarded nature and human as one harmonious unit, not as separate pieces.  China has a long history, of which advertisers tend to make good use to narrow the gap between the products and consumers. For example, the advertisement of Wahaha beverage saysâ€Å"Ã¥ ¤ ©Ã¥  â€šÃ¦ ° ´Ã¦ ² Ã§Å¡â€žÃ© ¾â„¢Ã¤ ºâ€¢Ã¨Å' ¶Ã¯ ¼Å'Ã¥ ¨Æ'哈哈çŸ ¿Ã¦ ³â€°Ã¦ ° ´Ã¨Å' ¶Ã© ¥ ®Ã¦â€"™â€ . This advertisement makes people feel the Wahaha beverage out of ordinary, but holy and mysterious. So this ad elevates the reputation of the product to some extent and arise the consumers’ desire to buy this goods then achieve the Chinese also have the psychology of hearing nice words, so from Chinese ads many nice words could be seen, such as longevity, happy life forever, good salary, healthy body etc. And eastern people are declined to express emotion in the euphemism tortuous way, which is affected by Confucian ideas—modest and conservative. Chinese culture prefers to family peace and harmonious, this would be connected with the long history and the self-sufficiency family’s economy. People should respect the aged, take care of the youth, and keep good relationship with the relatives, and have the responsibility to help those who are in trouble. For example, in China, there is a popular advertisement â€Å"Parents don’t receipt gifts this year. They just accept naobaijin(ä »Å Ã¥ ¹ ´Ã§Ë† ¸Ã¥ ¦Ë†Ã¨ ¿â€¡Ã¨Å â€š æ” ¶Ã§ ¤ ¼Ã¯ ¼Å'æ” ¶Ã§ ¤ ¼ Ã¥  ªÃ¦â€ ¶ è„‘ç™ ½Ã©â€¡â€˜) † . This is a symbolic advertise in China: when the most important festival—spring festival is coming, in order to show their filial piety, children would like to buy many presents to their parents and grandparents. But which is the best choice among so many goods in th e mall? This ad just meets the important psychology of Chinese consumers, for which this product has a good sales. There is another important characteristic of eastern advertisement—advertisers often use certificates and honor as a tool to attract Chinese consumers. Chinese customers trust in authority very much, such as IS9001 international quality certification system or China famous brand. Those certificates and honor don’t just represent the current quality but the future quality assurance. Owing to this reason, advertiser often put these certificates on the obvious place to evoke customers’ trust. Besides, official laws and regulars give some restricts to the advertisement language. Chinese laws stipulate that ads language be truthful and standardized, any contents about gender discrimination or ethic racial differences or breach of socialist civilization would be forbidden. A female movie star from Taiwan is a spokesperson of thermal protective suit lately. But official don’t allow this advertisement being screened, because the female star is too sexy. At  last, quoting the ancient idiom or phrases is another feature of Chinese advertisement. In many Chinese alcohol advertisements, we can see actors and actresses wearing ancient China style clothes, tasting the alcohol and reading the poetry. This is a symbolic image that appears in the ancient China. â… ¢ The Characteristics of Western Advertisement In contrast with eastern world, western culture insists the pluralistic, which emphasizes varieties of the world and self-development and freedom. So western culture encourages people to conquer the nature and pursues self-character. Advertisements owning these features can seize customers’ purchase. The ad slogan of IBM is a symbolical oneâ€Å"no business too small, no problem too big†. This slogan gives customers an expression that IBM Corporation could deal with any problems. This spirit conform to western value system, and could arise the same feeling that people is the master of the world. The similar slogans include the ad of Nike—just do it. Western advertisements tend to use the strong and direct marketing strategy, and regard a product of the â€Å"immediate results† as a selling point. For example, â€Å"go and get it at once†,â€Å"buy it†,â€Å"fit it well†,â€Å"take action right now†,â€Å"call now†etc. is the common use in foreign ads.ï ¹ Ã‚ ²Ã¯ ¹Å¾ What’s more, western ads describe the product in a direct way and choose the brief words. The slogan of Nestle coffee the taste is great is so classical that Nestle Corporation use it as the permanent slogan. This slogan just expresses the true inner feeling after drinking Nestle coffee, which people accept its direct expression, and which is the point where it is popular and classical. Of all the European and American values, individualism is probably the most basic. They take more emphasis on independence and individualism. So advertisers would like to attract customers attention trough the contents that trough individual efforts to get success in career and increase of social status and material wealth and that display personal characters, ideas, and humor. ï ¹ Ã‚ ²Ã¯ ¹Å¾Another feature of the western ads is that they won’t honor any identification certificates. Western customers would like to trust themselves to purchase the commodities, not rely on the certifications or honor. â… £ Analysis of the Elements of these Differences Take the advertisements of the Toyota Corporation as an example. The slogan of Toyota in the US is â€Å"Not all cars are created equal†. People who know the history of America will understand the first sentence of â€Å"the Declaration of Independence† is â€Å"all men are created equal†. Toyota uses this method to express that the cars of Toyota have better quality than other cars. But when Toyota corporation began to sell cars to China, it changed its slogan—â€Å"è ½ ¦Ã¥Ë† °Ã¥ ± ±Ã¥â€° Ã¥ ¿â€¦Ã¦Å"‰è · ¯Ã¯ ¼Å'æÅ"‰è · ¯Ã¥ ¿â€¦Ã¦Å"‰ä ¸ °Ã§â€ °Ã¨ ½ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã¯ ¼Å' which was applied mechanically an Chinese common saying and were accepted easily by Chinese consumers. There are many elements leading to the different use of the ad languages, such as history, moral rules, environments, religions etc. In a word, it is cultural differences. Language and culture are inseparable. Language is a part of a nation’s culture, from which we can see some symbolic characteristics of this nation; in another hand, culture is the origin of language, which takes great influence and restrict on the language. So a philosophy idea, thinking mode of race, the cultural mental state, moral concept, life style, customs and habits, social system, religion and faith†¦etc, will produce a function to the advertisement language by all means. No matter how the advertisements develop, advertise still covers these influences. Each advertisement has its trace of its native national culture. Owing to the differences of the eastern and western world, the choice of words, the style and the form and the content of the advertisements are very different. â… ¤ Conclusion It is said that, â€Å"While in Rome, do as Rome dose.† This sentence is also useful for advertisement. Take the culture differences into account; know what kind of advertisement content being accepted easily by people from different environments. Only to make the customers have cordial feelings could the products be popular and gain large profits. All successful advertisements are made according to the local culture, including the national culture and advertise culture. There are too many differences between western and eastern cultures. If producer don’t pay attention to the differences of the cultural features, the deal will be fail at last in any cases. It is the truth that a successful advertisement can bring large profit; meanwhile, an unsuccessful advertisement may cause the huge lost of the company and the whole country.