Symbolic Meaning and Consumers’ Response to the Ads with the Theme of Cultural Diversity

SYMBOLIC MEANING AND CONSUMERS’ RESPONSE

TO THE  ADVERTISEMENT WITH THE THEME OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Adi Susilo Jahja

Dian Nuranindya

ABFI Institute Perbanas Jakarta, Indonesia

The theme of unity of the nation is the interests of all elements of the Indonesian people that consists of many different ethnics and cultures. Indonesian state symbol has motto:  diversity in unity. Indomie, one of the biggest company  in producing noodles in Indonesia uses the theme of unity in the nation in its television ads, with the diversity of cultural displays. It is interesting that the noodles indeed not from Indonesian culture, but from China. The objective of this paper is to find out how consumers understand the symbolic meaning on the ad and how they respond to the ad. This research is a qualitative research conducted interviews with 20 students ABFII Perbanas Jakarta, Indonesia, which come from various tribes. This paper describes how consumers understand the cultural meaning of the ads, and the response of consumers who were interviewed stated that the ad appeared to have no effect on the number of their purchases.

Keywords: Symbolic meaning, consumers’ response, cultural diversity, advertising

Jahja, A. S., & Nuranindya, D. (2009). Symbolic meaning and consumers’ response to the ads with the theme of cultural diversity. In Proceedings of Business And Information (Vol. 6). Kuala Lumpur: Academy of Taiwan Information Systems Research. Retrieved from http://bai2009.org