Red Dragons and Blue Jeans: Branding Colors across Cultures

In long-term social practice, world civilizations have formed contrasting understandings and emotional resonance to colors and endowed them with symbolic meanings. The differences between Chinese and Western cultures lead to widely contrasting perceptions of the meaning of certain colors. Therefore, color research based on western society may not be applicable to Chinese society. Color has a pivotal impact on whether a brand’s logo, advertisements, and products can attract consumers. Two experiments were conducted to explore the relationship between color, brand personality, and purchase intention. Study 1 explores the relationship between color and brand personality within the context of Chinese culture, tests the Chinese brand personality scale developed by Chu and Sung (2011), and shows that the association between color and brand personality is influenced by cultural factors. Study 2 is a cross-cultural study. Taking North America (the US and Canada) and China as examples, Study 2 explores the influence of people’s perception of brand personality on their purchasing decisions in different cultural backgrounds. The results suggest that consumers’ purchase intention is positively correlated with the consistency between the brand personality they perceived and the personality they preferred, and that the purchase intention of consumers in different cultures (collectivism/individualism) is affected by the product category (personal/nonpersonal products) and varies