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Personal debt is a common problem among Hong Kong people. Personal loan marketers promote their products and services aggressively, especially to young consumers. The purpose of this paper is to examine how young consumers respond to personal loan advertisements.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 38 interviewees in the age group of 18-25 years. They were asked to report their perceptions of three selected personal loan TV commercials and their attitudes toward personal loan advertisements in general.

Four themes were identified from the data analysis: a personal loan is a modern way of solving a debt problem; personal loan advertisements encourage materialism and overspending; personal loan advertisements are misleading; and personal loan advertisements do not affect me. The overall perception of these commercials is that borrowing money is easy and quick. Some report that they would try the product if they need to borrow money in the future.

Given the small sample size, the findings cannot be generalized to the population. Future studies can use survey methodology to compare perceptions of personal loan advertisements by demographics.

Despite their effectiveness in communicating product features and benefits, personal loan advertisers suffer from negative brand image among young adults. The study has implications for socially responsible marketing for lenders.

Credit counselors, policy makers, universities and employers should look into the need for raising the financial literacy of young adults.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on consumers’ response to personal loan advertisements among young adults.

With the emergence of social media, online influencers have played a major role in brand marketing. This study aims to examine how Malaysian young adults perceive advertising endorsements of celebrities and online influencers within the framework of parasocial relations and multiculturalism.

This study engaged 42 Malaysian young adults aged 18–24 in semistructured interviews. They were asked to share a television commercial with celebrity endorsement and explain why it was impressive. They were then asked explicitly to compare traditional celebrities and online influencers in terms of attractiveness, credibility and endorsement effects.

Advertising execution strategies and emotional attachment to advertising endorsers are the two main reasons for making an advertisement impressive. Interviewees demonstrate strong emotional attachments to celebrities who are national icons. Online influencers are perceived as more relatable, authentic and credible than traditional celebrities. Interviewees perceive that endorsements by traditional celebrities were more effective for luxurious brands and brands targeting older consumers. On the other hand, endorsements by online influencers were perceived to be more effective for low-involvement product categories and brands that target younger consumers.

This study presents a summary of the parallel perceptions of online influencers and celebrities to explain how young consumers evaluate advertising with celebrity and social media influencer endorsement.

Malaysian young adults perceive endorsers as people who guide their experiences with ads. Adopting an endorser who is young, has a trendy image, and has a similar cultural background enhances the relatability of ads for young adults. National sports heroes can serve as nation-building agents through celebrity endorsement in advertising.

Few studies directly compare the endorsement effects of celebrities and online influencers in a multicultural setting. This study provides marketing and theoretical insights to unravel the influencing mechanism of parasocial relations and multiculturalism.

This paper aims to understand the importance of young female consumers in Asia as a market and propose strategies for retail marketers to effectively engage with them while respecting their evolving gender roles and identities.

Data are derived from self-administered questionnaires completed by Malaysian female secondary school students aged 13 to 19. Using statements about gender roles and identities, the authors first segment respondents based on their perceptions of ideal female gender roles and identities and subsequently investigate each segment’s shopping orientation.

This study identifies four segments of young female consumers based on gender identity: civic intellectuals, presentable intellectuals, career-oriented and family-oriented. While young female young consumers with higher presentable intellectual traits are more likely to go window shopping (recreational shoppers), those with higher civic intellectual traits are more inclined to look for things they wish to buy and spend less time doing so (utilitarian shoppers).

Marketers and retailers should continue to use profiling of young female customers to predict the psychological changes related to societal and economic changes. Merely focusing on females’ appearance and family responsibilities may no longer be relevant due to the evolving social order. This implication is especially critical for marketers and retailers targeting the female market.

The results of this study will have important theoretical and managerial implications for marketers and retailers interested in understanding the changing needs and beliefs among young female consumers and how these impacts their shopping orientation.

The purpose of this paper is to explore snacking behavior and perspectives on healthy and unhealthy food choices among adolescents in Mainland China.

Four focus-group interviews were conducted. Altogether 24 participants were recruited in Changsha, a second-tier city in China, through a convenience sampling process. They were asked to report their snacking behaviors, identify whether certain snacks are healthy or unhealthy and elaborate on factors affecting food choices.

Snacking was prevalent among the participants. The most frequently consumed snacks included fruit, milk and instant noodles. Participants’ evaluations for the healthiness of foods were based on the actual nutritional values of those foods, the effects on growth and body weight and word-of-mouth. Choice of snack was driven mainly by taste, image, convenience and health consciousness.

The finding was based on a non-probability sample. The paper also did not explore the contexts where snacks were consumed.

Parents can make healthy snacks more accessible at home and at schools. Educators can teach adolescents how to read food labels. Schools can increase the availability of healthy snacks on campus. Social marketers can promote healthy snacks by associating them with fun and high taste.

This is the first paper on snacking behaviors among adolescents conducted in a second-tier city in China using focus-group methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the common attributes of brick-and-mortar retail shops liked by young adults in the digitalized retail context. The 7Ps of the marketing mix were used as a framework to shed insights for marketing strategies.

A qualitative study using personal interviews was designed. A convenience sample of 24 young adults from 20 to 22 years of age was asked to take photos, showing the exterior and interior of their favorite shop in Hong Kong. They were interviewed face to face to explain why they like these shops. Other information about the shopping context, including frequency of visits and whether shopping alone or with friends, was collected.

The favorite shops of young adults are clothing retailers and stores for snacks. Attributes of favorite shops include stylish product design, variety of choices, cozy physical environment, technology-assisted shopping process and customer-friendly return policy. Young adults seek taste and artistic presentation in consumption. Self-expression and social communication of consumption play a major role in retail brand love.

The sample size of this study was small and may not be generalizable to populations of different socioeconomic status. A quantitative survey can be conducted to further examine the topic.

This study deepens the understanding of how young adults perceive product, store and process attributes of shops that are related to retail brand love. Tangible qualities such as product and physical space played a more important role than intangible attributes such as friendly frontline or sales staff. The results imply that retailers need to pay attention to a shop’s product offering, interior design, as well as develop a seamless integration of online and offline shopping processes to engage customers.

There are very few studies of young consumers and retail brand love using qualitative methods. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of young consumers’ perception of the retail stores that they love in the digitalized retail landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the banking experiences and awareness of marketing efforts of banks among youth in mainland China.

Four focus-group interviews were conducted. A convenience sample of 26 participants aged 17 to 20 years was recruited in Laiwu, Shandong, a medium-sized city in China. They were asked to report experiences that could illustrate good and bad banking services. They were also asked to recall bank marketing promotions.

Participants’ perceived service quality of banks was determined by staff attitude, service delivery, physical environment and comparison of user experience. The marketing communication activities they recalled most frequently included product placements, advertising slogans, entertaining commercials and co-branding with online games.

The findings were based on a non-probability sample. The study also did not differentiate between personal experience and indirect experience with family and friends. Similar studies can be conducted in large cities or in rural China to compare banking experiences in different social economic settings. Further studies can be designed using quantitative methodology to measure the importance of various factors in influencing perceptions of service quality. Online banking experience can also be studied in the future.

Banks in China can enhance their competitiveness and brand reputation through raising the professionalism of their front-line staff, improving efficiency and transparency and streamlining the service process. Banks can make contacts with youth through offline and online promotional activities, such as co-branding with popular online games.

This is the first study on banking services among youth conducted in a medium-sized city in China.

Online influencers are increasingly used by brands around the globe to establish brand communication. This study aims to investigate the characteristics of social media content in terms of presentation style and brand communication among online influencers in China. The authors identified how characteristics of social media posts influence young consumers’ engagement with the posts.

The authors analyzed 1,779 posts from the Sina Weibo accounts of ten top-ranked online influencers by combining traditional content analysis with Web data crawling of audience engagement with social media posts.

Online influencers in China more frequently used photos than videos to communicate with their social media audience. Altogether 8% and 6% of posts carried information about promotion and event, respectively. Posts with promotional incentives as well as event information were more likely to engage audiences. Altogether 22% of the sampled social media posts mentioned brands. Posts with brand information, however, were less likely to engage audiences. Furthermore, having long text is more effective than photos/images in generating likes from social media audiences.

Combining content analysis of social media posts and engagement analytics obtained via Web data crawling, this study is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, one of the first empirical studies to analyze influencer marketing and young consumers’ reactions to social media in China.

This study aims to test a conceptual model using public attitudes toward biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to predict respondents’ medical treatment choice.

A quantitative online survey was conducted using quota sampling. Altogether 1,321 questionnaires from Hong Kong residents of age 15 years or above were collected.

Attitudes toward biomedicine in relation to TCM and perceived cost of TCM consultation were found to be significant variables in predicting respondents’ medical treatment choice of treatment. Perceived efficacy of TCM, however, was not a significant predictor. Older respondents, as well as respondents with higher education, were less likely to consult biomedicine first when ill. They were also less likely to consult biomedicine exclusively.

This study uses a convenience sample recruited through personal networks. The findings cannot be generalized to the rest of the population.

Respondents in the study generally perceived TCM’s efficacy to be high, but not high enough to make it the medical treatment of choice. To promote TCM in Hong Kong, there is a need to enhance trust in it. This can be achieved through strengthening scientific research and development of TCM, enhancing professional standards of TCM practitioners and educating the public about the qualifications of TCM practitioners. Strategic channel planning to reach potential target and reducing the time cost of TCM medication should be examined.

The study is the first to relate attitudes to and perceptions of TCM with medical treatment choices in Hong Kong.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the marketing opportunities for after-school educational services in the Chinese context by examining children’s perceptions of intelligence using visual methodology.

Altogether 30 Chinese children aged 9–12 studying in grades four to six were asked to draw what comes to mind for two statements: “This is an intelligent child” and “This is a child of average intelligence.” After doing the drawings, the children were interviewed face-to-face to answer questions about the personalities and social relationships of the children depicted in the two drawings that they had produced.

A child described as intelligent was imagined wearing glasses, studying hard and obtaining excellent academic results. A child described as of average intelligence was imagined as having many friends, playing a lot and experiencing tension with parents over studies. Participants had a restrictive view of intelligence and associated intelligence with academic success. They endorsed both a growth mindset and a fixed mindset of intelligence. On the one hand, they endorsed a growth mindset of intelligence as they associated intelligence with personal efforts and practices. On the other hand, participants endorsed a fixed mindset of intelligence as they tended to avoid challenges and appeared to be threatened by the success of others. Participants imagined that an intelligent child would experience poor relationships with friends.

The findings were based on a nonprobability small sample. The study did not investigate the socialization process of such perceptions.

Educational services and nonschool activity service providers can position themselves as agents to help students develop meta-analytical skills in embracing challenging tasks. Marketers can develop courses and learning materials that teach children different learning strategies. They can use incentives to encourage persistence and resilience in meeting challenges. This study uncovered the emotional and social needs of intelligent children. A new market segment was identified that targets children with high intelligence. Educational service providers can design curricula and activities to support high-performing children in developing empathy and good communication skills. Educators can assist those who perform well academically to nurture genuine friendships and improve social relations with peers.

The prevalence of the private tutoring industry in the Chinese context may introduce educational disparity, as families with low resources will not be able to afford these services. Nonprofit organizations can provide similar educational services at a low cost to bridge the gap. The narrow view of intelligence expressed by participants, and their lack of awareness of the wide range of types of intelligence, indicates that education service providers can develop the confidence of a child with average intelligence through appreciation of his or her unique talents beyond academic achievements.

This study explores attributes associated with intelligence among Chinese children using an innovative visual method. The marketing implications can apply to other societies where the after-school tuition market is prevalent.

Vocational education in Hong Kong suffers from an image problem. Stakeholders often perceive it as a second-best option for those who fail to advance in academic education. In 2016, to promote vocational education, the Hong Kong government launched a publicity campaign and rebranded vocational education and training (VET) as vocational and professional education and training (VPET). This study critically analyzes the new discourse crafted by this campaign and assesses its potential to change VPET’s status.

This study applies critical discourse analysis to the set of television public service advertisements produced as part of the government publicity campaign.

The messaging of the publicity campaign consists of two major discursive strategies. One stresses the ability to find self-fulfillment through VPET. The other stresses the academic ability and middle-class status of VPET students as well as the non-manual and high-end career opportunities for graduates. While the first strategy offers a new basis on which to value VPET, the second recreates assumptions about the value of academic achievement and what constitutes respectable employment, even as it attempts to challenge stereotypes. It reinforces that the ultimate goal of education is financial gain and social status. It overlooks other values of education and the potential value of VPET in enhancing individual choice and agency.

Discourse analysis does not provide information about audience perceptions and interpretations.

The government could consider reframing their messaging in terms of the diverse values and experiences of VPET students. Highlighting the values that VPET students themselves see in their education provides alternative discourses that can better challenge hegemonic ideas.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first discourse analysis of the government’s publicity campaign to promote VPET.