A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Automobile Brand Website Design From Cross-cultural Perspective

With the development of global Internet technology, network has become the preferred channel for automotive customers to obtain the latest information. According to the scholars’ relevant researches, automobile brand marketing has a positive correlation with the cross-cultural web design connotations. Automobile website design content should properly reflect the cultural identity. From cross-cultural perspective, this research explores the differences and similarities of Chinese and American Automobile Brand Website Design.The selection of 30 Chinese automobile brands is primarily chosen among “China’s 500 Most Valuable Brands” list and the American Customer Satisfaction Index(ASCI) in 2014. Based on Singh’s framework(2003) and Callahan’s framework(2006), the frequency-counting of the cultural categories reported show that the cultural differences between two versions of websites are significant on the six dimensions of Collectivism(such as “cultural symbols”), Uncertainty avoidance(such as “FAQs”), Power Distance(such as “company hierarchy information”), Masculinity(such as “realism theme”), Long-term orientation(such as “search engines”) and High-context cultures(such as “politeness and indirectness”).The results of the research provide some significate support for global marketers and website designers. In the process of automobile website design, cross-cultural factors should be fully considered.Some Chinese cultural values such as “family theme” and “cultural symbols” would be emphasized when developing websites for Chinese customers. When developing websites for the American customers, cultural values such as “product effectiveness” and “hard-sell approach” would be considered. The results of this research also reflect the importance of marketing localization when designing global websites.