Glocal understandings: female readers’ perceptions of the new woman in Chinese advertising

Research in international advertising has often taken a dichotomized approach, as exemplified by the global standardization vs localization debate. It is assumed under the standardization approach that the globalization process will absorb different national cultures into a global commercial culture, such that standardized advertising should be preferred. The current research argues that the dichotomization approach may have oversimplified the way consumers read and interpret ad images. We postulate that consumers in a transitional economy apply a variety of reading approaches, including different cultural interpretive strategies and self-referencing, to absorb global images into their cultural and consumption schemas. This is commonly referred to as glocalization. We developed a typology of modern women images in Chinese magazine advertising, potential interpretive strategies, and self-referencing responses in this research. Results of a content analysis and a reader response study support our postulations. Implications are discussed.