论文部分内容阅读
【Abstract】： The growth of international business has been paralleled by the growth of international marketing. And there are many factors for marketers to determine how they might impact the marketing mix. Recent years have greatly witnessed the importance of cultural environment on the marketing success， which can differ from country to country. So for the sake of achieving success in the area of international marketing， business marketers must have a good knowledge of diverse cultural environments. Here list some advertising extracted about Huawei， and analyze the reasons why they have got such a success.
【Key words】： International business； Marketing and Advertising； Huawei’ advertising； Cultural environment
Nowadays every year more than 40，000 products are introduced into the global marketplace， and about 85% of these products fail. That’s to say， the road to international marketing success is built on the debris of failed marketing and advertising campaigns. And such failures are always caused by intercultural communication misunderstandings and the miscalculating or ignoring of the cultural environment. Here we extract two successful advertisements from Huawei and give a more detailed analysis for the reasons based on the theories of Intercultural Business Communication， hoping to help some multinational companies deal with the cross-cultural business marketing and advertising better.
1.Descriptions of Huawei’s two advertisements
The first advertising is designated for China’s market. A man walks through many dangerous places and tries to achieve his dream whatever the risks and dangers ahead are. When someone tells him that there is no way in front of him， he throws a big doubt on the statement. Instead， he answered that the road is not under our foot； Your dream will create your defined potential. The whole advertising is in Chinese， and no doubt what it intends to deliver is the watchword “Making it possible”.
The second advertising is the latest promotion advertising abroad， with the name of “Dream it Possible”. The whole advertising goes on with one English song of the same name by an American singer， Delacey. The advertising mainly tells a touching story happening on a little girl who has a strong desire for piano since her childhood. Inspired by her grandfather and supported by her family， she chooses to pursue her music dream further and eventually becomes an outstanding pianist. During the process， she has encountered many challenges and difficulties. But when she gets contact with her grandfather by Huawei phone who she loves deeply， she gains back the courage and at last she makes the dream possible. As the song tells， when your dreams come alive， you are unstoppable. We will dream it possible. The whole advertising is surrounded with one catchphrase “Dream it possible”. 2.Detailed analysis on the two advertisements
The two advertisements come from Huawei， the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world. There is no denying that those advertisements have reached their expected targets and enhanced their reputation at home and abroad. Here are some analysis we try to give based on the theory of intercultural business communication.
（1）The advertising combines the standardization and localization well.
There are two main schools of culture-cultural universals and cultural variations that relate closely to the development and creation of multinational marketing. They are George Murdock’s theory of cultural theory of cultural universals and Hofstede’s theory of cultural variations.
On the one hand， what we can see clearly from the two advertisements is that they both set the great store on the spirit of challenging. “Dreaming it possible” and “making it possible” are such that we can find in common between the two. And this is the spirit of Huawei， famous for his “wolf culture”， also widely shared by many nations and countries in the world. This is the claim of standardization that consumers in the world have the same needs and desires so that universal appeals can be utilized to persuade them.
On the other hand， it’s natural that marketing practices will vary from one to another. This requires the marketers to think locally directed entirely towards the targeted region or country. The most obvious point is the different languages it uses. The latter mainly targets for the western customers so it uses the universal language， English to advocate his product. And the main characters in the latter advertising are the typical images of one western family and the adoption of the English song helps greatly to get close to the customers abroad. Compared to that， the first advertising caters to the mentality of Chinese young generation to take risks and challenge the impossible.
All in all， from the advertising， Huawei did a great job in the combination 0f standardization and localization. Think globally and act locally and differently.
（2）The advertising makes good use of Hall’s high-and low-context orientation.
Edward Hall distinguishes among cultures on the basis of the role of context in communication. In high-context cultures most of the information is in the physical context or is internalized in the people who are part of the intention. But in low-context culture， very little is embedded in the context and most of the information is contained in the verbal message. From the two advertisements， we can see clearly that the former advertising targeting for Chinese customers uses more ambiguity words， but the targeted audiences know what they are meaning. The Chinese could decoded the encoded messages and acknowledge that Huawei is preparing to overcome the potential challenges and trying a totally new road to develop， inspiring the strong sense of identity among Chinese customers.
Instead， for the advertising shown especially for western customers， it adopts the method of telling one story. For one thing， it uses the song lyrics to tell customers what was happening and helps them to understand what the point is. For another， it pays more attention to the logic and details. Many small details in the video such as written words and gestures help to understand the plot. There are little non-verbal cues and complicated logic inside.
Because China is a typical high-context culture so Chinese people can understand the meanings embedded at many socio-cultural levels. But there are still other countries especially such as America， which belongs to the low-context culture. The people can’t understand visual messages easily and often understand meaning at one only level. So for the sake of reducing the ambiguity， the advertising uses more clear information and easy logic to help understand the point.
（3）The advertising considers fully the theory and the wisdom of Hofstede’s final five dimensional models of cultural values.
Here we present the breakthrough of Geert Hofstede and his final five dimensional modes of cultural values. He believes that cultures differ in power distance， uncertainty avoidance， individualism vs. collectivism， masculinity vs. femininity， and long-term vs. short-time orientation.
a. Individualism vs. Collectivism
Living in countries characterized by high individualism， people tend to rely on their inner values or standards in evaluating the products. And they emphasize the achievement of personal values. However， those living in high-collectivism context advocate interdependence and often distinguish between in-groups and out-groups. Collectivistic consumers tend to prefer ads that feature a social environment or stress social acceptance so as to appeal to their need for approval.
In the advertising especially for American customers， the story ends with the achievement of the girl’s music dream. The little girl reaches her goals and such endings are pretty acceptable for those customers living in America， a country of admiring for high individualism. And the advertising aimed for Chinese stressed the efforts it is making to go ahead and evoked the strong sense of identity and acceptance to buy the deal. The Chinese customers often regard Huawei as their in-group brands. In a nutshell， the plots of the advertising consider the cultural environments. （1）The international business marketers should have a good grasp of knowledge about the intercultural business communication and intercultural marketing communication.
Enterprises should enhance the training of marketing staff about the intercultural theories and foster the intercultural awareness. The marketers should know fully about the cultural environments such as the languages， signs and symbols， and rituals and religions in the targeted North-American marketplace. The advertising and marketing shouldn’t make obvious cultural mistakes and cause unnecessary cultural offence.
（2）International companies should deal with the relations between the standardization and localization better. Think globally and act locally.
As for the products for the targeted market， companies must ensure that not only the quality of their products are good enough， but also make the proper and attractive advertising and marketing to attract our expected customers. We should find one element in our product which is universally accepted in the world， and the element of course， caters to the pursuit of most people in the targeted marketplace. And based on different countries and regions， we should adopt different channels to express the universal values in order to impress the customers and persuade the customers.
Think globally， and the advertisements with the same themes that appeal to the basic human need can go international. Act locally and the ways to satisfy basic human needs can be varied in different cultures to best suit the targeted customers’ tastes.
Anyway， for a successful marketing and advertising in the cross-cultural environments， international enterprises have to think globally and act locally.
（3）International companies should consider enhancing the construction of cross-cultural team groups. Through employing local managers and local staff， companies could know more exactly what the potential customers want and integrate into the local cultural environment more easily.
（4）Cross-cultural companies should pay more attention to the rules’ construction based on the North-American cultural environment. And raise the awareness of patent protection and defend the legal rights of our own company.
（5）Enhance the relationship with the local government and foster the overseas merger and acquisition in a proper way. International corporations should set the big store on the importance of the ‘Relationship Marketing’ to overcome some potential damper from the government for the excuse of national security.
Complimentary Close：
Marketing is a crucial element of any business’s success， and it is an important channel to communicate the product to the targeted audiences. With the rapid growth of international business， we must make sure that our advertising and marketing are efficient despite the potential obstacles caused by the cross-cultural environment.
REFRENCES：
[1]竇卫霖.Intercultural Business Communication（Second Edition）[M].北京：高等教育出版社，2011：286-307.
[2]宋蕾.华为公司在北美市场的跨文化管理研究[D].武漢：武汉理工大学，2012：30-58.
[3]顾秀君.在华跨国公司跨文化营销策略研究[J].中国市场，2010，（18）：46-48，55.
作者简介：李杰（1996—），男，汉族，安徽巢湖人，安徽财经大学外国语学院2014级商务英语专业本科生。
【Key words】： International business； Marketing and Advertising； Huawei’ advertising； Cultural environment
Nowadays every year more than 40，000 products are introduced into the global marketplace， and about 85% of these products fail. That’s to say， the road to international marketing success is built on the debris of failed marketing and advertising campaigns. And such failures are always caused by intercultural communication misunderstandings and the miscalculating or ignoring of the cultural environment. Here we extract two successful advertisements from Huawei and give a more detailed analysis for the reasons based on the theories of Intercultural Business Communication， hoping to help some multinational companies deal with the cross-cultural business marketing and advertising better.
1.Descriptions of Huawei’s two advertisements
The first advertising is designated for China’s market. A man walks through many dangerous places and tries to achieve his dream whatever the risks and dangers ahead are. When someone tells him that there is no way in front of him， he throws a big doubt on the statement. Instead， he answered that the road is not under our foot； Your dream will create your defined potential. The whole advertising is in Chinese， and no doubt what it intends to deliver is the watchword “Making it possible”.
The second advertising is the latest promotion advertising abroad， with the name of “Dream it Possible”. The whole advertising goes on with one English song of the same name by an American singer， Delacey. The advertising mainly tells a touching story happening on a little girl who has a strong desire for piano since her childhood. Inspired by her grandfather and supported by her family， she chooses to pursue her music dream further and eventually becomes an outstanding pianist. During the process， she has encountered many challenges and difficulties. But when she gets contact with her grandfather by Huawei phone who she loves deeply， she gains back the courage and at last she makes the dream possible. As the song tells， when your dreams come alive， you are unstoppable. We will dream it possible. The whole advertising is surrounded with one catchphrase “Dream it possible”. 2.Detailed analysis on the two advertisements
The two advertisements come from Huawei， the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world. There is no denying that those advertisements have reached their expected targets and enhanced their reputation at home and abroad. Here are some analysis we try to give based on the theory of intercultural business communication.
（1）The advertising combines the standardization and localization well.
There are two main schools of culture-cultural universals and cultural variations that relate closely to the development and creation of multinational marketing. They are George Murdock’s theory of cultural theory of cultural universals and Hofstede’s theory of cultural variations.
On the one hand， what we can see clearly from the two advertisements is that they both set the great store on the spirit of challenging. “Dreaming it possible” and “making it possible” are such that we can find in common between the two. And this is the spirit of Huawei， famous for his “wolf culture”， also widely shared by many nations and countries in the world. This is the claim of standardization that consumers in the world have the same needs and desires so that universal appeals can be utilized to persuade them.
On the other hand， it’s natural that marketing practices will vary from one to another. This requires the marketers to think locally directed entirely towards the targeted region or country. The most obvious point is the different languages it uses. The latter mainly targets for the western customers so it uses the universal language， English to advocate his product. And the main characters in the latter advertising are the typical images of one western family and the adoption of the English song helps greatly to get close to the customers abroad. Compared to that， the first advertising caters to the mentality of Chinese young generation to take risks and challenge the impossible.
All in all， from the advertising， Huawei did a great job in the combination 0f standardization and localization. Think globally and act locally and differently.
（2）The advertising makes good use of Hall’s high-and low-context orientation.
Edward Hall distinguishes among cultures on the basis of the role of context in communication. In high-context cultures most of the information is in the physical context or is internalized in the people who are part of the intention. But in low-context culture， very little is embedded in the context and most of the information is contained in the verbal message. From the two advertisements， we can see clearly that the former advertising targeting for Chinese customers uses more ambiguity words， but the targeted audiences know what they are meaning. The Chinese could decoded the encoded messages and acknowledge that Huawei is preparing to overcome the potential challenges and trying a totally new road to develop， inspiring the strong sense of identity among Chinese customers.
Instead， for the advertising shown especially for western customers， it adopts the method of telling one story. For one thing， it uses the song lyrics to tell customers what was happening and helps them to understand what the point is. For another， it pays more attention to the logic and details. Many small details in the video such as written words and gestures help to understand the plot. There are little non-verbal cues and complicated logic inside.
Because China is a typical high-context culture so Chinese people can understand the meanings embedded at many socio-cultural levels. But there are still other countries especially such as America， which belongs to the low-context culture. The people can’t understand visual messages easily and often understand meaning at one only level. So for the sake of reducing the ambiguity， the advertising uses more clear information and easy logic to help understand the point.
（3）The advertising considers fully the theory and the wisdom of Hofstede’s final five dimensional models of cultural values.
Here we present the breakthrough of Geert Hofstede and his final five dimensional modes of cultural values. He believes that cultures differ in power distance， uncertainty avoidance， individualism vs. collectivism， masculinity vs. femininity， and long-term vs. short-time orientation.
a. Individualism vs. Collectivism
Living in countries characterized by high individualism， people tend to rely on their inner values or standards in evaluating the products. And they emphasize the achievement of personal values. However， those living in high-collectivism context advocate interdependence and often distinguish between in-groups and out-groups. Collectivistic consumers tend to prefer ads that feature a social environment or stress social acceptance so as to appeal to their need for approval.
In the advertising especially for American customers， the story ends with the achievement of the girl’s music dream. The little girl reaches her goals and such endings are pretty acceptable for those customers living in America， a country of admiring for high individualism. And the advertising aimed for Chinese stressed the efforts it is making to go ahead and evoked the strong sense of identity and acceptance to buy the deal. The Chinese customers often regard Huawei as their in-group brands. In a nutshell， the plots of the advertising consider the cultural environments. （1）The international business marketers should have a good grasp of knowledge about the intercultural business communication and intercultural marketing communication.
Enterprises should enhance the training of marketing staff about the intercultural theories and foster the intercultural awareness. The marketers should know fully about the cultural environments such as the languages， signs and symbols， and rituals and religions in the targeted North-American marketplace. The advertising and marketing shouldn’t make obvious cultural mistakes and cause unnecessary cultural offence.
（2）International companies should deal with the relations between the standardization and localization better. Think globally and act locally.
As for the products for the targeted market， companies must ensure that not only the quality of their products are good enough， but also make the proper and attractive advertising and marketing to attract our expected customers. We should find one element in our product which is universally accepted in the world， and the element of course， caters to the pursuit of most people in the targeted marketplace. And based on different countries and regions， we should adopt different channels to express the universal values in order to impress the customers and persuade the customers.
Think globally， and the advertisements with the same themes that appeal to the basic human need can go international. Act locally and the ways to satisfy basic human needs can be varied in different cultures to best suit the targeted customers’ tastes.
Anyway， for a successful marketing and advertising in the cross-cultural environments， international enterprises have to think globally and act locally.
（3）International companies should consider enhancing the construction of cross-cultural team groups. Through employing local managers and local staff， companies could know more exactly what the potential customers want and integrate into the local cultural environment more easily.
（4）Cross-cultural companies should pay more attention to the rules’ construction based on the North-American cultural environment. And raise the awareness of patent protection and defend the legal rights of our own company.
（5）Enhance the relationship with the local government and foster the overseas merger and acquisition in a proper way. International corporations should set the big store on the importance of the ‘Relationship Marketing’ to overcome some potential damper from the government for the excuse of national security.
Complimentary Close：
Marketing is a crucial element of any business’s success， and it is an important channel to communicate the product to the targeted audiences. With the rapid growth of international business， we must make sure that our advertising and marketing are efficient despite the potential obstacles caused by the cross-cultural environment.
REFRENCES：
[1]竇卫霖.Intercultural Business Communication（Second Edition）[M].北京：高等教育出版社，2011：286-307.
[2]宋蕾.华为公司在北美市场的跨文化管理研究[D].武漢：武汉理工大学，2012：30-58.
[3]顾秀君.在华跨国公司跨文化营销策略研究[J].中国市场，2010，（18）：46-48，55.
作者简介：李杰（1996—），男，汉族，安徽巢湖人，安徽财经大学外国语学院2014级商务英语专业本科生。