Good Characters, Inc. Blog

AdAge reports that a new study from OMD Worldwide found that ethnic groups are turned off by ads that rely on stereotypes and caricatures rather than meaningful cultural cues.

Key points that are relevant when doing business in China or with the Chinese:

• “The respondents were saying, ‘We want to see ourselves represented in ads, but not in a stereotypical manner,’” said Pamela Marsh, group director-primary research and insights at the Omnicom media agency.
   
  Comment: This seems to be common sense although there is a fine line between typical and stereotypical.
   
• The ethnic groups agreed that messages should be culturally relevant, but they responded more positively to ads with multicultural cues, such as ethnic characters, phrases, expressions and values, than ads that were simply translations of general-market ads.
   
  Comment: Very often companies simply have their ads and marketing material translated from English to Chinese believing that simple translation will get their point across. Typically it doesn’t work this way. A more reliable method is to use culturally relevant ways to express the same idea instead of merely translating marketing ads.
   
• “Ad relevancy is more about communicating in kind than speaking in a language,” Ms. Marsh said. 
   
• Asians used the internet at significantly higher rates.
   
  Comment: Since the population in China is much greater than in the U.S., it is likely that in a few years there will be more people in China using the Internet than the entire U.S. population.
   
• According to the study, Asian-Americans also rely heavily on word-of-mouth because they are less receptive to ads than other segments of the population.
   
  Comment: Perhaps this is because several generations of Chinese and Taiwanese have endured several wars and various political propaganda. Hence they have learned to place less trust on the media and rely more on word-of-mouth. The good thing is that people are more ready to accept that an undesirable purchase was simply “bad luck” and they do not blame others or start lawsuits. On the other hand, the lower level of trust among Chinese makes life more difficult and less enjoyable. Until recently, you could not make a purchase in China or Taiwan and expect to receive a refund even if the product was defective or didn’t work as claimed. Thus people have to be very cautious before making a purchase.

What do you think?

Original:

• When Targeting Multicultural Audiences, Be Relevant
  OMD Study: Doing it wrong is worse than not doing it at all

1. TREND MICRO
2. ASUS
3. ACER
4. MASTERKONG
5. BENQ
6. MAXXIS
7. ZYXEL 
8. GIANT
9. JOHNSON
10. D-LINK

Link:

• Taiwan’s Top 10 Global Brands 2006 (Chinese)

When you think of China, do you think of the large country on the mainland or the little nation on an island? Do you think of the Republic of China or the People’s Republic of China? Do you know the difference between the two? Many people do not, and that is the problem with having two countries with nearly the same name. 
 
Until 1971, the Republic of China (ROC) represented the Chinese people in the United Nations. But in that year, the U.N. Security Council voted to expel the ROC and replace it with the People’s Republic of China (PRC, on the mainland). The ROC lost its status as an independent nation and recognition among other countries as China. It was more often known by the name of the largest island it occupied: Taiwan.

Since then, Taiwan has tried 14 times to gain readmission to the U.N. But the U.N. already has a Republic of China, so Taiwan applied under the name “Republic of China on Taiwan.” That was rejected. Taiwan applied again as “Republic of China (Taiwan).” Again it was rejected.

Because the PRC is so much larger than the ROC—in area, economic influence, military might, and political muscle—other countries have given in to its claim to the name China. And since most nations recognize only one China, Taiwan cannot use the name “China” in international affairs. In the Olympics, athletes from Taiwan compete under the banner of “Chinese Taipei.” In the World Trade Organization, Taiwan is called the “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.”

Taiwan’s president, Chen Shuibian, believes it is time for a new name. He, along with 79% of the 23 million people he rules, wants to make the official name of the country “Taiwan.” And he wants to apply once more for admission to the U.N., this time under the new name. The reality is that the international community recognizes, if not officially, two independent sovereign countries: a large Communist country it calls China and a small democratic country it calls Taiwan. The probable reality is that the two nations will not be united again. It is time, Chen believes, for the name to reflect the reality.

But Chen will have difficulty getting the name he wants. For one thing, popularity is plummeting for his corruption-laced administration. For another, China has threatened to attack the island if it openly asserts its independence with a new name. And finally, the choice of the name Taiwan may not be best. Chen, who likes to use the Taiwanese dialect in his speeches in an effort to move away from China, must realize that in that dialect the name is pronounced “Daiwan.” In English, it would be pronounced “Die One.” Not exactly the image a strong country wants to project to the world!

Links:

• Taiwan Benefits from Failed U.N. Bid
• Taiwan Will Try New Approach to Joining United Nations
• Chen Advocates Using “Taiwan” in Bid for U.N.

When does a business’s clever name become offensive? That may depend on where the business is located.

Take the restaurant Wu E Bu Zuo, for example. The name literally means “not-hungry-don’t-sit.” In other words, come and sit in this establishment when you are really hungry. The name is also a play on a Chinese idiom that sounds identical but is written with different characters. That Wu E Bu Zuo means, literally, “no-evil-don’t-do,” or “to stop at nothing in doing evil, to be as wicked as possible.” Many people in Taiwan, where a couple restaurants with this name are located, find the double meaning clever.

But in the city of Nanjing, formerly Nanking, a number of residents are complaining about the Wu E Bu Zuo restaurant close to Nanjing University. In that city a terrible incident took place during World War II. Japanese soldiers killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in an atrocity known as “The Rape of Nanking.” In their city, people “stopped at nothing in doing evil,” acting “as wickedly as possible,” and the residents do not want that memory enshrined in the name of a restaurant. The local authorities are threatening to impose a penalty on the restaurant’s owners for using an inappropriate name. 

When choosing a name, remember the realtor’s formula for success: “Location, location, location!”

Links:

• A restaurant named “Wu E Bu Zuo” (Chinese)
  街谈: 小吃店起名“无饿不坐”
• Chinese officials say using inappropriate and unapproved names can be punished (Chinese)
  烧烤店起名“无饿不坐” 不规范用字重者可处罚
• Local residents complain “Wu E Bu Zuo” could mislead or be seen as encouraging students to commit crimes (Chinese) 
  小吃店起名“无饿不坐”被指有误导学生之嫌
• Wu E Bu Zuo Restaurant in Orchid Island, Taiwan (Chinese)
  “无饿不坐”兰屿风味餐专卖图
• Wu E Bu Zuo Restaurant in Lukang, Taiwan (Chinese)
  鹿港美食‧無餓不坐麵線糊

The largest airport in the Republic of China is officially changing its name, and the change is causing quite a stir. President Chen proposed the new name, and it was approved by the Executive Yuan. On September 6, 2006, Chiang Kai-shek International Airport officially became “Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.”

Built in 1979 in Taoyuan County near Taipei, the facility was named in memory of Taiwan’s first president, Chiang Kai-shek. The Chinese called it Chung-Cheng (Zhongzheng), the name Chiang Kai-shek gave himself. It will continue to be identified internationally by the letters CKS.

The controversy over the name is a conflict between two political parties: President Chen’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), which was Chiang’s party. To KMT members, Chiang was a hero, and they believe in his dream of reclaiming the mainland under one, united China. Members of the DPP think of the mainland (the People’s Republic of China) and their land (the Republic of China) as two separate countries; they prefer the name “Taiwan” to “Republic of China.” They remember Chiang Kai-shek as a harsh ruler who persecuted them.

The DPP claimed that changing the name of the airport will make it easier for foreign travelers to know they are landing in Taiwan, not China. The KMT countered that the goal could be accomplished by simply adding the name “Taiwan” to the name the airport had been known by for 28 years, making it the “Taiwan Taoyuan Chiang Kai-shek International Airport.” The DPP, however, was firm in its resolve to remove the name of the late president. Since the KMT lost power to the DPP in 2000, the DPP’s name for the airport will stick.

Links:

• Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport Homepage
• Wikipedia: Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport
• News Comment: Why rename CKS Airport?
• Opposition: CKS Airport Should Be Renamed “Taiwan Taoyuan CKS Airport”: KMT
• Government to rename CKS airport
• BBC (Chinese)