Advertising Strategy for Teenagers in Taiwan

While reaching different markets marketers realise the importance of culture in developing effective advertising campaigns. Global companies entering markets tend to localize their advertisement to fit local culture. Cultural values in the society change with the time. Previous research demonstrates significant cultural difference between Westerners and East Asians in cognition, value, and social behaviours. Taiwanese located in East Asia are regarded as an eastern culture in literature. However, being in a fast growing economy, Taiwan is regarded as one of the most high-tech nations, and its cultural values are influenced by globalization and in particular, the export of Western, mainly American values. This study aims to investigate whether localising of advertising to meet traditional East Asian, collectivist culture values and holistic thinking, is necessary while reaching out to Taiwanese young adults, since during the last few decades Taiwan has been influenced strongly by western values. The author recognises the multicultural experience of the Taiwanese young generation and proposes that global values will be more or at least equally attractive for the teenagers in Taiwan. Real food advertisement performances in Taiwan were examined to test the proposed hypothesis. The sample included advertisements for Dove chocolate (representing western values) and advertisements for Zhangjunya xiao meimei - a popular dry noodles snack (representing eastern values). The total number of respondents was 28, represented by college students with fluent English ability from one of the local colleges. Evaluating the effectiveness of advertisements was based on the criteria developed by Lucas and Britt. The results indicate that Taiwanese teenagers are likely to demonstrate favourable attitudes towards western commercials; however, they find local counterparts more attractive. Therefore, a specialisation strategy is suggested for marketers operating on this market. However, a limitation must be borne in mind when interpreting the results of this study. There is a source of subjectivity and error in choosing the sample, small sample group and possible influence of brand preferences. Further research should be conducted to confirm the results of this pre-study.