Can Emerging Markets Tilt Global Product Design? Impacts of Chinese Colorism on Hollywood Castings

Manuel Hermosilla (), Fernanda Gutiérrez-Navratil () and Juan Prieto-Rodriguez ()
Additional contact information
Manuel Hermosilla: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Fernanda Gutiérrez-Navratil: Universidad Pública de Navarra, 31006 Pamplona, Spain

Marketing Science, 2018, vol. 37, issue 3, 356-381

Abstract: In various cultural and behavioral respects, emerging market consumers differ significantly from their counterparts of developed markets. They may thus derive consumption utility from different aspects of product meaning and functionality. Based on this premise, we investigate whether the economic rise of emerging markets may have begun to impact the typical one-size-fits-all design of many international product categories. Focusing on Hollywood films, and exploiting a recent relaxation of China’s foreign film importation policy, we provide evidence suggesting that these impacts may exist and be nonnegligible. In particular, we show that the Chinese society’s aesthetic preference for lighter skin can be linked to the more frequent casting of pale-skinned stars in films targeting the Chinese market. Implications for the design of international products are drawn.

Keywords: entertainment marketing; innovations; natural experiments; international marketing; colorism; movies; Hollywood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2018.1089 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Can Emerging Markets Tilt Global Product Design? Impacts of Chinese Colorism on Hollywood Castings (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormksc:v:37:y:2018:i:3:p:356-381

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