Chinese Consumers' Skepticism Toward Advertising

Author:

• Song Tian (University of Alabama)
• Yorgo Pasadeos (University of Alabama)

Abstract:

This study examined Chinese consumers' skepticism toward advertising for five media types (television, radio, newspaper, magazine, and the Internet) and six product categories (cosmetics, automotive, drug, retail, food, and real estate) as well as different media use habits. Based on a survey of 310 Chinese respondents in Beijing and Guiyang, the study has revealed some important findings. First, Chinese consumers held a general tendency of moderate disbelief toward advertising no matter in which market such as Beijing and Guiyang where the development of the advertising industry differs remarkably. Second, Chinese respondents' skepticism toward advertising seemed to be stronger for print media such as newspapers and magazines than for television. Furthermore, the Internet was viewed as the least reliable medium for advertising claims. Third, advertising skepticism in the Chinese market was discovered to differ by product type. Chinese consumers perceived food and automotive as relatively trustworthy advertising categories. Cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and real estate were the categories of which they were least trustful. This is probably due to misleading and deceptive advertising that overstate the benefits of products being prevalent in those industries. Fourth, hierarchical multiple regression analyses on the collected data indicated that media use was linked to advertising skepticism through the role of media as sources of both news and product information. Media consumption time did not show significant relationships to advertising skepticism, with an exception for reading the newspaper, which was negatively associated with the level of skepticism toward newspaper advertising.