Abstract:

High growth Asian markets present huge opportunities for advertising and marketing industries. Self-report tools that have been validated over thousands of ads in western markets are useful, but less reliable, in Asian cultures due to the prevalence of response bias. Facial coding represents an opportunity to measure true emotional responses that can mitigate that bias, but facial expressions tend to be significantly more subtle and fleeting in Asian cultures. Given these dual challenges, we present a solution path towards better communication of, and the science behind, emotional insights. We also present results from the first facial expression-sales prediction study in China, in conjunction with Mars Inc., to further explore how facial expressions are connected to actual Asian consumer behaviour.