TY - JOUR
T1 - Branding Cultural Products in International Markets
T2 - A Study of Hollywood Movies in China
AU - Gao, Weihe
AU - Ji, Li
AU - Liu, Yong
AU - Sun, Qi
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Weihe Gao acknowledges the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71572099, 71872106] and National Social Science Fund Major Project [Grant 18ZDA079]. Yong Liu acknowledges the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71728007, 71328202]. Qi Sun acknowledges the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71628303]. Part of this research was finished when Yong Liu was visiting China Europe International Business School, College of Business at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and College of Economics and Management at Tianjin University.
Funding Information:
The authors thank seminar participants at China Europe International Business School, East China Normal University, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, University of British Columbia, University of Texas at Dallas, University of Arizona, Lingnan University (Hong Kong), and the 20th Annual Mallen Scholars and Practitioners Conference in Filmed Entertainment Economics for valuable comments and suggestions. This paper was presented at the Retirement Research Workshop at University of British Columbia, which was held on October 20, 2017 to honor Charles (Chuck) B. Weinberg. Yong Liu is grateful to Chuck for his many year’s mentoring, collaboration and friendship and wishes Chuck the very best in retirement life and continuing to inspire many marketing scholars to conduct interesting and impactful research. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Weihe Gao acknowledges the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71572099, 71872106] and National Social Science Fund Major Project [Grant 18ZDA079]. Yong Liu acknowledges the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71728007, 71328202]. Qi Sun acknowledges the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71628303]. Part of this research was finished when Yong Liu was visiting China Europe International Business School, College of Business at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and College of Economics and Management at Tianjin University.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Marketing Association 2020.
PY - 2020/5/1
Y1 - 2020/5/1
N2 - Cultural products are a major component of the world economy and are responsible for a growing share of U.S. exports. The authors examine brand name strategies when cultural products are marketed in foreign countries. Incorporating the unique characteristics of these products, the authors develop a theoretical framework that integrates similarity, which focuses on how the translated brand name relates to the original brand name, and informativeness, which focuses on how the translated brand name reveals product content, to study the impact of brand name translations. The authors analyze Hollywood movies shown in China from 2011 to 2018. The results show that higher similarity leads to higher Chinese box office revenue, and this effect is stronger for movies that perform better in the home market (i.e., the United States). When the translated title is more informative about the movie, the Chinese box office revenue increases. The informativeness effect is stronger for Hollywood movies with greater cultural gap in the Chinese market. Moreover, both similarity and informativeness effects are strongest when the movie is released and reduce over time. This research provides valuable guidance to companies, managers, and policy makers in cultural product industries as well as those in international marketing.
AB - Cultural products are a major component of the world economy and are responsible for a growing share of U.S. exports. The authors examine brand name strategies when cultural products are marketed in foreign countries. Incorporating the unique characteristics of these products, the authors develop a theoretical framework that integrates similarity, which focuses on how the translated brand name relates to the original brand name, and informativeness, which focuses on how the translated brand name reveals product content, to study the impact of brand name translations. The authors analyze Hollywood movies shown in China from 2011 to 2018. The results show that higher similarity leads to higher Chinese box office revenue, and this effect is stronger for movies that perform better in the home market (i.e., the United States). When the translated title is more informative about the movie, the Chinese box office revenue increases. The informativeness effect is stronger for Hollywood movies with greater cultural gap in the Chinese market. Moreover, both similarity and informativeness effects are strongest when the movie is released and reduce over time. This research provides valuable guidance to companies, managers, and policy makers in cultural product industries as well as those in international marketing.
KW - branding
KW - cultural product
KW - emerging market
KW - international marketing
KW - movie
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U2 - 10.1177/0022242920912704
DO - 10.1177/0022242920912704
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85082971264
SN - 0022-2429
VL - 84
SP - 86
EP - 105
JO - Journal of Marketing
JF - Journal of Marketing
IS - 3
ER -