Can Foreign Accents Affect Your Product Marketing in China?

Advertisers and marketers strive to create content that engenders a sense of familiarity. They want audiences to relate to their content to ensure that the message is effectively communicated. One popular way to achieve this goal is to use voiceovers that sound like their target audience. However, businesses often tend to forget one important aspect of this: accent.

Several studies show that accents have a great impact on how audiences perceive the message delivered by an advertisement. Particularly when it comes to product marketing in China, it’s crucial to get the accent right. China’s arguably the most linguistically diverse country in the world, after all.

The role of accent in product marketing in China

The fact that there are more than 130 ethnic-minority languages spoken in China makes it challenging to choose the right accent. That being said, it is possible to leverage an accent to market your product more effectively in the Chinese market.

Primarily, there are three advertising approaches taken when it comes to accents and languages in China. Let’s check them out!

 3 approaches to advertising in China

• Standard Mandarin advertisement
• Foreign-accented Mandarin advertisement (i.e. Mandarin spoken by A foreign spokesperson).
• Standard foreign language advertisement (i.e. English, French, etc.)

While English is taught in public schools starting in the third year of primary school, a large proportion of the total population of China is not well-versed in the English language. Other foreign languages share the same fate.

Therefore, the chances are that you will lose a large proportion of your target audience if you choose a standard foreign language. Foreign-accented Mandarin advertisements are a better choice, but oftentimes, they’re ineffective when it comes to making a real connection with the audience.

The standard Mandarin advertisement is perhaps the best choice for advertisement. It localizes the overall brand attitude and purchase intent for the advertised product, making it feel more familiar and relatable.

Final Words

So the answer to the question “Can Foreign Accents Affect Your Product Marketing in China?” is absolutely yes! It’s better to stick the local accents to successfully connect with the audience.

But that can quite tricky, as there are different tones of Mandarin and Cantonese. You can benefit from hiring a professional voice over services to carry out the dubbing process to ensure that you get the accent spot on when marketing your product.

Looking for professional voice over services to advertise your product in China? Get in touch with LIMPID. We’re a leading China language and Internet services agency that offers high-quality voiceover services to our clients. The native speakers at LIMPID speak fluent Mandarin and Cantonese, enabling you to market your product effectively in the Chinese market. For more details,