Tiers and Fears: An Investigation of the Impact of City Tiers and Uncertainty Avoidance on Chinese Consumer Response to Creative Advertising

Marketers in China have long used the government's system of city tiers as a de facto segmentation tool. Previous research shows that this has led to assumptions on the part of advertisers about differing levels of conservatism and uncertainty avoidance between city tiers. This in turn has resulted in advertisers’ reluctance to invest in creative advertising, particularly when it is directed at consumers in low tier Chinese cities. This paper...