The Impact of Cultural Capital on Advertisement

The impact of Cultural Capital on advertisement

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Overview
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu first proposed the concept of cultural capital. Since the 1980s, social capital has become a popular concept in many disciplines concerned and analysis of important starting point. Hofstede (1980) published a study in the field of cultural significance of the research results. In 1980s, scholars did a large number of cross-cultural consumer behavior based Hofstede’s cultural construct. After the 1990s, globalization and technological revolution in the joint action, cultural issues in all areas of marketing, reflected in all directions, the impact of cultural capital on advertisement journals were seen everywhere.
"Advertising." The word of foreign origin, derived from the Latin word “Adteurture”; its basic meaning is the meaning of attention and induce the latter evolved into the English language “Advertise”. In recent years, advertising fills of people’s lives. From the television’s ads, newspaper’s ads, outdoor walls’ ads, to the network, advertising are seen every where. But in different cultural background, consumer values, consumption patterns and consumer behavior are different. Cultural capital has a deep impact on advertising, which cannot be ignored.
Today's society is in economic globalization; all the advertising companies cannot separate from cultural capital. We need to know when planning to advertise the nation's culture, and culture types, this is the ads, predictable.

"Cultural capital has three subtypes: embodied, objectified and institutionalized." (Bourdieu, 1986). According to three different types of cultural capital. Below, I will talk about my type of advertising of these three different effects.
Embodied cultural capital
Embodied cultural capital is embedded in the individual's cultural capital. One of the most important parts is the language of the capital.
"Linguistic capital, defined as the mastery of and relation to language, can be understood as a form of embodied cultural capital in that it represents a means of communication and self-presentation acquired from one's surrounding culture." (Bourdieu, 1990)
A hundred years ago, an American visited a Chinese government officer and his wife. First meeting, the American praised the officer’s wife was very beautiful. The officer replied: "Where, where." The American did not understand, thought and answered "from the top to the bottom." The officer still said "Where, where." The American got confused.
From this story is easy to see cultural shuck; when Chinese people are praised, they often reply "where" as a humble answer; meanwhile, Americans say "thank you". In advertising design should also consider this factor. For example, "white elephant" is a battery brand; they first translated their company name into English “White Elephant” directly, but found poor sales. Later, they realized that white elephant in some countries is considered to be useless things. Who will buy useless things? With the lion was sent to the company described as a powerful force. They renamed their company “Brown Lion”, meaning the battery is strong, powerful. Sales really improved.
In the study of language and culture, The Chinese company “Haier” was a successful story when it founded in China. The first time the company was called "qindao-libohaier", then before entering the international market, it changed its name to "haier", a catchy name is not only simple to speak, but also share the same pronunciation with "higher".
Language is the main tool of culture and communication. Languages of different ethnic groups also showed different ways of thinking. It is this difference that has cultural differences, but it also constitutes an obstacle to advertising. However, in various languages, the same concept can be used to explain things or title meaning. Furthermore, it is this commonness for different cultures that provides a basis for communication. In the design of advertisement, the use of this commonness can make the advertising language have less effective results.

Objectified cultural capital
"Objectified cultural capital consists of physical objects that are owned, such as scientific instruments or works of art." (Wikipedia)
These cultural products can be transferred to economic capital such as Physical nature, in advertising design, mainly in aesthetic taste, business negotiations, consumption patterns, new product development and packaging, the color range on the part of Objectified cultural capital.
Today，color is called a universal language; it shapes the character and not only has the function to open up markets, but also has great promotional role. For example, red has been accepted in many countries, especially Asian countries such as China, Japan, Korea, India, in the festive activities. In these countries, streets and people’s houses are decorated with red as the main colors; red ornaments are also very popular. But in Germany, people do not like red. A Chinese red package for fireworks that was exported to Germany was once slow moving. After a survey, the fireworks company found that consumers in German feel insecurity from red, then they changed the package color to gray. Sales increased sharply as a result. In the United Kingdom and the United States, gold and yellow are symbols of honor and loyalty, so they are the favorite colors of men. In the United States, a yellow taxi is the most popular; meanwhile, Kodak's film is also known for its yellow packaging, but in Japan, yellow sometimes has the meaning of morbid or unhealthy. Thus, yellow for Japanese men is a taboo color. The color of culture may have different advertising effectiveness.

Institutionalized cultural capital
Institutionalized cultural capital consists of institutional recognition, most often in the form of academic credentials or qualifications, of the cultural capital held by an individual. (Wikipedia)
Social structure affects the way people interact and their consumption patterns. Advertising design should be based on the country or region depending on the application of different social structure, market segmentation, product positioning. Family size and background, education, income, occupation, social class belongs to the division. In Middle Eastern countries, the average family unit is the family, including parents and children, family size lot, so advertising the focus should be on family.
Otherwise, a country's general education level of the factors that determine a lot of advertising. In some countries more than 70% of the population is illiterate; text ads apparently will not have very good market, its design means it should make more use of image-based.

Supplements
Beside Pierre Bourdieu's three subtypes of Cultural Capital, cultural capital of the advertising I think there is another important effect: the timeliness.
Different countries and nationalities have their own forms of traditional festivals and celebrations. China's traditional festivals are the Spring Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival. Europe and many countries have Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There are many different areas of the world with various cultural festivals. Festival time and content are different, but shopping during the holiday season often peaks. This is also advertising the best time, so designers should know in advance the situation festival, to seize the opportunity.
Another example，product placement is very popular in recent years. The film industries, and the market, continue to develop; product placement is bound to become more common. The film itself is a cultural product, in addition to its own original entertainment features; advertising has become a special carrier. Each film has its own schedule, so people tend to focus on the film that will be fixed in time or the first round of the premiere broadcast. Indeed, in the first release, the audience is full of curiosity with novelty, we look forward to most, when most concerned about; it should be the best advertising time.

Summary
Cultural ties and capital have been associated for more than 20 years. Numerous cases demonstrate the importance of cultural capital. Advertising should follow the laws of the market. The advertising industry is a cultural industry; culture is the basis for the development of the advertising industry. A national culture based on advertising will be a healthy campaign. Design should understand the culture of the international market, and according to their cultural analysis of advertising, production, adjust to better meet the target country markets, to meet the needs of the international market of consumers.