Cultural Values And Demands Reflected In Chinese And American Wealthy Magazine Commercials

As a segmentation of social groups, the rich have strong consumption power and social influence.There is varying differences between Chinese and American rich classes due to the different backgrounds of economy, politics and culture. Therefore, this article aims to explore different needs of the rich, thus to provide advices for luxury marketing by taking Chinese and American rich consumers as research objects. In addition, this article also explores the high needs in Chinese and American rich consumers to enrich and supplement the Maslow’s need hierarchy theory. Lastly, this article gives a further understanding of the cultural differences between China and America through the analysis of the advertisements in magazines for rich people.This article randomly selects two issues of the Robb Report both in Chinese and American version as the research samples, applying the method of semiotics analysis and documentary law to interpret images and copywriting in magazine ads.First, the article classifies the ads in Chinese and American magazines according to the product category respectively;then analyzes the unique product category ads and the mutual ones in each version; finally, systematically concludes the cultural values differences and which brings the enlightenment to the high needs of Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory.The results show that Chinese and American rich consumers vary significantly in the value of power, nature, life, interpersonal relationships, time and consumption. The research also indicates that there is a difference between China and America on the higher needs in Maslow’s need hierarchy theory like respect needs and self-actualization needs based on these cultural values difference, which was never brought up in previous studies.