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CHAPTER 12
Communicating with 1.3 billion people
in China
Ying Fan and Wen-Ling Liu
As a country with sustained high economic growth since the 1980s, China has been
dubbed ‘the world’s last and largest market’. This chapter presents the Chinese dimension
of integrated communication through an overview of the advertising and PR industry
with some of the latest statistical information, and through an examination of
renaming global brands in different cultures. The authors also illustrate the benefits and
drawbacks of using promotional events and sponsorship as a new type of media activity
for China, especially in the increasingly affluent youth sector.
China is undoubtedly a large and important
market with 1.3 billion consumers. The economic
reform and open-door policy since
1979 has set off an unprecedented consumer
revolution, which has significantly changed
the living standards and lifestyle of millions
of people. The phenomenal growth in the
market economy is mirrored by the dramatic
development in integrated communication in
the country, particularly in the advertising
industry. A virtually non-existent sector until
the early 1980s, the advertising industry is
now the second largest in Asia after Japan and
employs more than half a million people.
Contemporary advertising in China dates
back to the 1920s. Since then, it has experienced
many ups and downs. After the first
advertising boom in the 1930s, its development
suffered restrictions after the communists
founded the People’s Republic in 1949
and began to practise the Russian-style centrally
planned economy. During the Cultural
Revolution (1966–76), advertising virtually
disappeared being branded as ‘evil’ and
‘deceptive’. It returned to business in 1978
when China started the economic reform and
open-door policy.
The last decade of the twentieth century
witnessed a dramatic growth in the sector
with average annual growth rate of 39.8 per
cent. The total advertising revenue increased
more than thirty-one times from 2.5 billion
RMB to 79.5 billion RMB (US$ 10 billion)
between 1990 and 2001, putting China into
the top 10 largest markets for advertising services
(see Table 12.1). By the end of 2001,
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors