Advertising in a luxury fashion magazine: a comparison between Italy and China

In the general framework of globalization and internationalization, the paper focuses on the advertising strategies adopted by top companies in the luxury sector. The article reports on the preliminary data of a study to determine the importance of local culture in advertising content by comparing Chinese and Italian ads. In particular, this research analyses the content of advertisements from Vogue, one of the most popular and influential fashion and beauty magazine, both in China and Italy: the focus is on three industries, namely clothing, cosmetics and jewellery. The selected ads of Ôproduct pairsÕ allow to shed a light on the choices in terms of communications messages and conveyed image by top brands in both countries. The content analysis points out visual and textual elements contributing to the standardization-adaptation discussion: this research reveals that strategies are both affected by the country and the product category.