Western Magazines and Japanese Magazines - Literature review Example

?An analysis of foreign women’s fashion magazines in China: A Comparative Study of how Chinese People Appreciate Western Magazines and Japanese Magazines. A Review of Literature Introduction This study investigates and analyses how Chinese consumers receive and value foreign women’s fashion magazines with an emphasis on attitudes toward Western magazines and Japanese magazines. A review of literature was conducted to provide a conceptual framework for interpreting the data collected and as a frame of reference for what is known and assumed about Chinese consumer culture and attitudes toward foreign women’s magazines. This chapter is therefore divided into five main parts: consumer culture in China; magazine readership in China with an emphasis on how Chinese women are reading/using and engaging with magazines; differences in readership along demographic lines; contents of magazines; and the relationship between magazines and consumption. Consumer Culture in China Davis (2005) conducted a qualitative study in which two groups of Chinese consumers in Shanghai were interviewed. The first group consisting of 51 men and women were interviewed in 1987 and the second group comprised of different Chinese consumers consisted for 46 men and women. The consumers were between the ages of 40 and 50. The interviews were open-ended and involved questions relative to consumption expectations in the future. The results of the study found that since the late 1980s, Chinese consumer culture, at least in relation to Shanghai has undergone a revolution of sorts (Davis, 2005). Chinese consumers have experienced significant changes in terms of increased income, improved standards of living, increased spending power, a greater variety of consumption choices and have embraced “globally branded foodstuffs, pop-music videos and fashion” (Davis, 2005, p. 692). The study found however, that while consumers embraced their new personal consumption freedoms, they recognized that income inequalities existed and they were caught between enjoying their new found consumer freedom and memories of a past in which choices were significantly limited (Davis, 2005). In other words, Chinese consumers in a large city like Shanghai are comprised of consumers with significantly different incomes although those with disposable income are enthusiastic about have a variety of choices and are amenable to foreign brands. Zhou, Arnold, Pereira and Yu (2010) offer some insight into Chinese consumer culture in China’s inland and coastal regions. According to Zhou, et. al.(2010), China is one of the world’s most important consumer markets although there is very little known about the different drivers of Chinese consumption trends and habits in China’s different regions. Using a cultural materialism approach, Zhou, et. al. (2010) analysed consumer decisions approaches among inland and coastal consumers in China. The study found that there were no material differences between coastal and inland consumers in terms of their style of shopping although their pleasure/hedonic shopping styles are different (Zhou, et. al., 2010). These differences are only important for marketers in determining what marketing approach to take for appealing to the pleasure of consumers in different regions in China. Xiao and Kim (2009) conducted a study to determine the extent to which the “changing value systems of modern China” impacted the consumption habits of Chinese consumers (p. 610). Using a multivariate analysis approach, the study found that functional, emotional and social values were linked in a positive way to foreign goods. Individualism and collectivism were identified as having positive links to foreign goods and life satisfaction. Individualists’ consumers were not as satisfied with their lives as collectivists were, but they were more amenable to foreign goods (Xiao & Kim, 2009). Dickson, Lennon, Montalto, Shen and Zhang (2004) conducted a survey of 1,628 married consumers in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai to collect data informing of China’s market segments where there is an appeal for foreign fashion. Using a conjoint analysis, together with cluster, multiple regression statistics, the study found that there were at least 6 market segments amenable to foreign fashion (Dickson, et. al., 2004). KPGM (2008) conducted a survey of 902 Chinese consumers of middle class and between the ages of 20 and 44. The consumers lived in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzen. The study found that the market for luxury brands in China has grown rapidly and Chinese consumers are committed to learning all that they can about the origins of a luxury brand. The study also found that while Chinese shoppers are “prolific” and “discerning”, they are amenable to foreign brands (KPGM, 2008, p. 5). Thus far, it has been established that Chinese consumer culture is varied and greatly impacted by globalization. With a growing economy and increases on income for many consumers, Chinese consumers have exhibited an enthusiasm over the prospect of purchasing global brands and in particular are amenable to making purchases of foreign goods regardless of whether they live inland or in coastal areas or whether or not they live in China’s big cities or not. Magazine Readership in China: Chinese Women Magazines are generally perceived as a medium through which consumers and members of the public in general may form identities, “fake individuality and a “commodity self” or “an image” (Luo, 2008, p. 69). In this regard, individuals will consciously target a particular magazine as a means of individualizing the self and “at the same time” magazines are perceived as instruments for acquiring identification with a group (Luo, 2008, p. 69). Liu (2009) conducted a survey of more than 2,900 young consumers in China. Research findings indicate that the young Chinese consumer likes to have an opportunity to learn all they can about a product or service. In this regard, the young Chinese consumer spends time looking for and interpreting advertisements. Although television is the preferred method for learning about a product or service, the young Chinese consumer does not have as much time as he or she would like to watch television as a result of time spent in school and doing homework. Therefore the young Chinese consumer spends a significant amount of time reading magazines (Liu, 2009). Fashion magazines began to focus more narrowly on the female image during the 1990s and this had a significant impact on women’s self-images. With the expansion of image columns in many magazines, “fashionable Chinese women” were eager consumers of cosmetics including blush, eye shadow, lipstick, blush foundation, masks, mascara and false eyelashes (Wu, 2009, p. 75). The focus on image designing in popular Chinese fashion magazines had a significant influence on the “appearance of Chinese women” (Wu, 2009, p. 75). Liu and Rodriguez (2012) conducted a study in which the psychological and social factors that motivate how fashion magazines are used by women in colleges in Shaghai was investigated. The study was conducted by virtue of an online survey among 236 female college students. The results of the study indicated that female college students are psychologically and socially motivated to purchase and read fashion magazines to enhance their body images and to prepare for their roles in their future career. It was therefore concluded that it can be assumed: That fashion magazines as sources of external cues that help female college students determine appropriate physical appearance for current and future roles (Liu & Rodriguez, 2012, p. 12). Zhou and Belk (2009) assume that fashion magazines are also read by women who cannot afford to purchase and keep up with some of the goods marketed in those magazines and therefore serve as a source for dreaming and fanaticizing about a higher standard of living. Therefore it can be assumed that Chinese women of all spectrums of Chinese economic status and culture are drawn to magazines either as a guide to what they should be wearing and doing and as a source for fanaticising over what they wish they could have, but cannot afford. In both cases magazines are read and used as a point of reference for informing Chinese women of the current and ideal image of women. Who Reads Women’s Fashion Magazines in China Haughney and Landreth (2012) present a portrait of a typical women’s fashion magazine reader in China. The female is a 24 year old publicist and a committed fashion follower in terms of trends and owns four Prada purses and is passionately drawn to fashion magazines. The female depicted in this profile is a regular subscriber to Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and is inspired by fashion images depicted in these magazines. More insight is provided by Lena Yang who is the manager of Hearst Magazines in China. Hearst distributed nine magazines in China including Marie Claire and Elle. According to Lena Yang, the typical subscriber to Hearst Magazines in China are 29.5 year old women who are usually unmarried with an average monthly income of US$1, 431 and spending habits that include US$938 on watches, US$982 on purses and shoes and US1,066 on clothes on seasonal shopping sprees (Haughney & Landreth, 2012). Interestingly, many of these women are an only child and being single, they are still living at home with either their parents or grandparents. What this means is that these women generally do not have persistent monthly obligations such as rent or mortgages and therefore have disposable income. However, these women do not save much of their income and are taking advantage of their consumer freedom (Haughney & Landreth, 2012). Moreover, Chinese women are far more willing to pay much more money for fashion magazines than Western women are prepared to pay for them (Haughney & Landreth, 2012). In the previous section we were able to identify what kind of women purchase and read magazines and why they read and use magazines. This section merely compliments the previous section and confirms that Chinese women reading fashion magazines act on the cues that are communicated in those magazines if they are in a position to do so. It is therefore fair to conclude that anyone who can afford a magazine or who has access to a magazine in China will read it. The heavy advertising that takes place in Chinese magazines and foreign magazines distributed in China is indicative of the fact that Chinese consumers and particularly women, are eager readers and users of magazines. Contents of Fashion Magazines Targeting Chinese Women According to Frith and Feng (2009) China is experiencing a revolution in terms of the contents of magazines. Between 1921 and 1976, there were only a few women’s magazines circulating in China and they were all owned by and controlled by the Chinese government. However, with China’s open door policy trends changed from the latter part of the 1980s and onward. With the influx of foreign magazines and the loosening of state control, local magazines began to change their contents and popular foreign magazines published in Chinese language are readily available throughout China (Frith & Feng, 2009). Although the Women’s Federation influenced the content of many Chinese magazines, competition from Western magazines forced some changes. Chinese magazines were committed to displaying women in domestic scenarios. For example, women usually appeared in spreads juxtaposed against domestic appliances in ways that emphasized the domestic role of women. These magazines targeted women in advertisements that drew attention to “child care, cooking, beauty and fashion” (MacKerras, McMillen, & Watson, 1998, p. 232). However, as competition for women readers increased with the infusion of Western magazines, Chinese magazines began to feature “glamorous cover-girls” which contributed to an image of Chinese women as “decorative and even as sex objects” (MacKerras, et. al., 1998, p. 232). With the increasing infusion of Western fashion magazines targeting Chinese women, Chinese magazines began to compete by publishing their own version for Chinese women during the 1990s (Wu, 2009). For example, a Chinese version of Cosmopolitan appeared in kiosks and newsstands titled Shishang. Other versions appeared such as Shiji Shizlmang zhi Yuan which was a Chinese versio of Elle; Frends was reproduced in the form of How, Fengcai; Rayli appeared as Ruili in its Chinese version, CHIC’s Chinese version was Xiaosa; Hers appeared as the Chinese Dushi Zhufu; City Beauty appeared as Dushi Liren; Good appeared as Hao Zhufu; Metropolis appeared as Dadushi; iLook appeared as Shijie Dushi; and Harper’s Bazaar appeared as Shishang Basha (Wu, 2009). In 2002, Marie Claire hit Chinese magazine circulation as Jiaren and in 2005, a Chinese Vogue hit the stands (Wu, 2009). A majority of the Chinese version of Western magazines were produced in joint venture contracts with Western companies (Wu, 2009). Feng and Frith (2008) observed that over the last ten or so years, there has been a steady and sustained expansion of foreign magazines in China. This expansion is largely a result of the reach of international brands and the need to advertise in China. Feng and Frith (2008) conducted a study to determine the spread of foreign magazines in China and the role that advertising plays in foreign magazines in China. The study was conducted by virtue of conducting a “content analysis” of advertisements in a Western magazine, a Japanese magazine and a Mandarin language magazine aimed specifically at women (Feng & Frith, 2008, p. 1). The study found that Chinese magazines were less “commercialized” than the Western and Japanese magazine (Feng & Frith, 2008, p. 1). The study also found that Western brands were the most frequently advertised products in foreign magazines. Moreover, the most frequently advertised products in women’s fashion and beauty magazines circulated in China were “beauty and personal care products” (Feng & Frith, 2008, p. 1). Another significance difference in the magazines’ advertisement content was model types. While Western magazines featured white models, Japanese and Chinese magazines featured Asian models (Feng & Frith, 2008). Yuliang (2010) identified and studied by virtue of a “semiotic analysis”, five narratives depicting the modern Chinese woman in four different magazines circulated on a regular basis in China (p. 179). The magazines chosen were Women of China, Family, Girlfriend and Trends Cosmopolitan. The study identified three prevailing images of women: the “iron girl”, the passive wife and the stylish woman (Yuliang, 2010, p. 179). According to Yuliang (2010), these depictions of the modern Chinese woman perpetuated “prejudicial social myths of women” as put forward by “traditional patriarchal society” and conceivably plays a significant role in providing an incentive for Chinese women to persist in the “consumerist ideology constructed by the patriarchal system” (Yuliang, 2010, p. 179). Even so, there is a persistent thirst among Chinese women for information on luxury items in China. As a result of a growth in advertisement by both foreign and local merchants, many magazines that are usually published on a monthly basis Western economies and other emerging economies, magazines targeting women and circulating in China have been forced to publish their magazines twice monthly. For example, Cosmopolitan now published two monthly magazines. Elle, which has grown to approximately 700 pages has been forced to break the magazine down to two monthly publications. In an attempt to keep abreast of the advertising trends, Vogue was forced to add four additional issues to its monthly fare. As a result of the large and voluminous fashion magazines targeting Chinese women, Hearst Magazines is now offering “plastic and cloth bags for women to easily carry these heavy magazines home” (Haughney & Landreth, 2012, p. B1). Warde (1997) informs that magazines that are aimed at women generally feature a fair share of contents that are aimed at perceptions of women’s tastes and preferences. In this regard, these magazines will usually feature a mix of beauty, health, food, fashion and problem solving columns. Magazines capitalizing on the realities of the modern woman usually split content between working women and family-centred women (Warde, 1997). Therefore in analysing the contents of magazines aimed at women in China it may not be fair to assume that these magazines are attempting to perpetuate stereotypical images of women in a male dominated society. It would appear that magazine contents aimed at women are aimed at what it is perceived that women are interested in more than promoting a male dominated view of women. The Relationship between Magazines and Consumption According to Consterdine (2005) magazines are brands and project a consumer’s self-perception. In other words, the chosen magazine sends a message about how the reader wants to be seen as a person. As Consterdine (2005): A brand’s power is that it conjures up a whole range of associations and ideas, which are primarily emotional (p. 17). Consterdine (2005) also points out that magazine readers, are usually loyal to a magazine brand and will purchase and read the magazine on a regular basis as a means of keeping them updated on trends and fashion and this usually influences their purchasing behaviour. Gray, Amos and Currie (1997) argue that self-image in the late modern times is primarily established through consumption. In this regard, the portrayal of images linked to attempts to encourage consumption is very important. For example an image presented in a magazine promoting what might be perceived as the latest fashion trend is “a part of the image production process” and is “integral to a potentially consumable image” particularly among young people looking for a self-identity (Gray, et. al. 1997, p. 506). Women’s magazines are particular influential in terms of women’s consumption habits because they are “influential vehicles of popular culture” (Warde, 1997, p. 44). Warde (1997) also argues that magazines usually “purvey visual fictions around consumption and appeal to feminine pleasures” (p. 44).Thus it is common for magazines to include what has been characterized as “survival strategies and day dreams” through which goods are held out as necessary for strategizing the exigencies of daily living and for fulfilling dreams (Warde, 1997, p. 44). Fung (2002) argues that fashion magazines circulated in China and Hong Kong tend to perpetuate either directly or indirectly, the ideal patriarchal attitude toward male dominance and female inferiority. In this regard, magazines in China and Hong Kong contribute toward the creation and perpetuation of “cultural consumption” which “constructs and circulates women’s identities” (Fung, 2002, p. 321). Fung (2002) conducted a study by examining letters written to the editor of a Hong Kong based women’s magazine and interviews with both editors and readers. The study identified three aspects in which identification processes are linked to consumption via magazines. First, women who read magazines identify specific “imaginary communities” (Fung, 2002, p. 321). Women generally feel that if they are emulating the conduct and style of those imaginary communities they somehow feel that they are establishing and maintaining connections with those imaginary communities. Secondly, the study found that women “identify with an idealized community-constructed beauty” and go out of their way to purchase and use goods that are suggestive of this “idealized beauty for them” (Fung, 2002, p. 321). Finally, the study found that women look upon these imaginary communities are escape routes from the “relational problems of real life” (Fung, 2002, p. 321). While magazines aimed at women tend to contribute to consumption habits that perpetuate the stereotypical female in a male dominated society and to tap into the new conditions spurred by economic growth, magazines are also encouraging a specific type of male consumption in China. According to Song and Lee (2010), in more recent times a new consumerist magazine aimed at the lifestyles of men has emerged in China. These magazines are aimed at middle class males and seek to construct images of the “consumerist middle-class masculinities” (Song & Lee, 2010, p. 159). According to Song & Lee (2010), these magazines specifically target middle class Chinese men and their fantasies and obsessions with “status” (p. 159). Corrigan (1997) informs that magazines generally capture consumer attention and direct consumption trends by addressing a number of areas that appeal to consumers. For women this would necessarily include fashion columns, advice for using and buying new products and services, advice on beauty and make-up and would almost always include columns on “what’s in” and “what’s out” (Corrigan, 1997, p. 189). Corrigan (1997) also explains that magazines aimed at women will generally provide: Advice on what to wear with what to which occasion and what to serve and how to serve it, [which] are clearly part of the tendency to establish particular lifestyles through particular modes of consumption (p. 89). It would therefore appear, that Chinese magazines or foreign magazines distributed in China are not attempting to perpetuate a stereotypical image of women unique to China’s male dominated society. The images projected in Chinese magazines and by foreign magazines distributed in China are all indicative of a perception of women’s consumer perceptions and preferences. As Corrigan (1997) reported the women presented in and addressed in magazines do not exist “in isolation from developments in politics and the economy” (p. 89). These trends in magazines have been reflected in magazines in Australia, the U.S. and Britain since the 1930s. During the Second World War, magazines in Western war cultures made attempts to link women to the work force and made conscious efforts to disconnect women from the domestic sphere. By the 1950s this trend changed and magazines linked women more aggressively to domestic oriented situations. So consumption during the war years encouraged female consumption away from the family and during the 1950s magazines linked female consumption to within the family (Corrigan, 1997). According to Zhou and Belk (2009) magazines in China have more abstract role in consumption. Aside from the middle class and more affluent consumer, there is a class of consumers in China who cannot afford to spend as freely as other consumers. This lower class of consumer read foreign magazines because they are unable to afford the products with international appeal but can “still envy and yearn for higher standards of living” by looking at the images portrayed in the foreign magazines (Zhou & Belk, 2009, p. 122). This is referred to as “imagined cosmopolitanism” (Zhou & Belk, 2009, p. 122). Zhou and Belk (2009) suggest that magazines typically use foreign models as a means of exploiting the Chinese consumers’ “fascination with foreign things and places” and promote the “idea that ownership of these products” are aligned “with the better perceived lives of foreigners” (p. 122). Nevertheless, China’s consumer market is rich with a mix of consumers. Despite the high level of low income consumers, there is a growing rich and middle class consumer market. As of 2011, there were close to 100,000 millionaires in China with a burgeoning middle class. As a result the taste for high-end fashion and luxury goods is growing in China and magazines are laden with ads indicating the role that they play in feeding and encouraging consumer tastes (Branigan, 2011). It can therefore be concluded that magazines in China are directly linked to influencing consumer trends and spending and are encouraged by consumer trends and spending habits. In other words, magazines that are circulated in China have a reciprocal relationship with the Chinese consumers. On the one hand, these magazines are informed by the Chinese consumer as to what they want and on the other hand, these magazines inform Chinese consumers of what they should be coveting and purchasing. Conclusion A review of literature informs that magazines play a significant role in the processing and perpetuation of the ideal image in China. In particular, women use these magazines as a source of consumer and social information. Magazines inform women of current and future trends in fashion and help them to identify the image and the lifestyles that they want to aspire to. With Chinese women receiving disparate income levels, some women are able to realize their dreams through these magazines while others only use these magazines as a source for living out their dreams vicariously through the images projected in magazines. 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