Doctoral Dissertation Academic Year 2018 Consumption of Images: Country-of-Origin Image and the Perception Gaps caused by Global Marketing of Cultural Commodities Keio University Graduate School of Media and Governance 81449421 SUTER JILLIAN RAE Abstract Globalization allows the for the consumption of goods produced around the world. It also allows for images to be created and viewed globally. Global marketing is advantageous to many markets and increases the number of possible consumers. However, with changing frames of reference, the perception of the image also changes. While this phenomenon did not unilaterally affect the marketing of most consumer goods, it could have a profound effect on the increasing global consumption of images. This is especially true in terms of countries and their soft power. Most research has focused the country-of-origin and the quality of the commodities when comparing countries global markets. As more commodities become digitalized and image-based, a stronger knowledge foundation on how images are perceived globally is necessary to avoid misunderstandings. In this dissertation, I show how images can be reinterpreted depending of their frames of reference or context changes. The first is a part of the research consisted of a global survey of American and Japanese school children and their impressions of a new children’s character analyzed with SPSS. The second part was three observational research field-trips to Japanese marketing events with Japanese mascot characters called Yuru-chara. These two parts of the research combined to show where the gaps in perception are for image-based commodities between Japan and the United States of America, particularly with children’s characters and Yuru-chara. The results show that frames are a key point of context for consumers and the future production of images. Key words: frames, character images, country-of-origin, perceptions, marketing i ii Acknowledgement Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Takeo Kuwahara for the continuous support of my Ph.D. study. His endless patience with my research and expert guidance has been extremely helpful. He made sure I understood what was necessary to succeed. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank my co-advisor who I worked closely with, Prof. David Freedman. His conversations, questions, and suggestions allowed me to explore all possibilities with my thesis and related research. He has been my biggest supporter in my research. I would also like the rest of my thesis committee: Prof. Yoko Hasebe, and Prof. Thomas Hardy, for their insightful comments and encouragement, but also for the hard question which incented me to widen my research from various perspectives. My sincere thanks also goes to Ms. Elizabeth Quart and Ms. Oj Flohe, who helped me design my character for the research. Without their help and talent, my research would not have been nearly as successful. I thank the people who work in the school districts where I conducted my research and allowed me time to survey the students, Ms. Amy Reaume, Mr. Jim Sparks, Ms. Katie Kanous, Ms. Ruth Kanous, Mr. Bill Vanfleteren, Ms. Jan Kyle and Mr. Shinya Shimada. They were very kind and patient with me and my requests to survey the students for my research. I thank the members Prof. Freedman’s lab. Although I was not officially a part of the lab, the time I spent working with everyone was helpful beyond belief. They provided much needed insight to Japan during my time here. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family: my husband, Mr. Takeshi Harada; my parents, Mr. Joseph Suter and Ms. Nancy Richey; and my brothers, Mr. Michael Suter, Mr. Matthew Suter. Their love and support throughout this process was beyond imaginable. iii Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgement ................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ........................................................................................................... v List of Tables .......................................................................................................... vii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND ................................................................................ 4 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE .......................................................................... 6 Theoretical Concepts ............................................................................................ 6 Previous Research ............................................................................................... 14 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ................................................................................... 19 Quantitative ......................................................................................................... 19 Qualitative ........................................................................................................... 20 Target Research: Children vs. Adults ................................................................. 21 RESEARCH METHODOLGY .............................................................................. 22 Hoo Cross-Cultural Marketing Survey ............................................................... 22 Mascot Character Fieldwork ............................................................................... 35 Archival Research ............................................................................................... 36 History of Mascot Characters and Yuru-chara ................................................... 36 RESULTS ............................................................................................................... 40 Hoo Cross-Cultural Marketing Survey ............................................................... 40 Mascot Character Fieldwork ............................................................................... 62 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION .................................................................... 65 Hoo Cross-Cultural Marketing Survey ............................................................... 65 Mascot Character Fieldwork ............................................................................... 71 Overall Conclusion ............................................................................................. 72 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 75 ................................................................................................................................. 86 INDEX .................................................................................................................... 88 iv List of Figures Figure 1: Stuart Hall’s Diagram of Encoding and Decoding .................................... 8 Figure 2 Stuart Hall's Diagram modified for two-country frames ............................ 9 Figure 3 Dora the Explorer from Nickelodeon Productions ................................... 26 Figure 4 Google Image search of "Cartoon Owls" ................................................. 27 Figure 5 Final Mock-up of Original Owl Character by Elizabeth Quart ................ 27 Figure 6 Last Version of Hoo y Elizabeth Quart .................................................... 28 Figure 7 Stuffed Hoo made by Oj Flohe ................................................................. 30 Figure 8 Hoo Mock-up Book Covers...................................................................... 31 Figure 9 Variables based on the children's country ................................................ 44 Figure 10 Means COO influence on Japanese and American children .................. 54 Figure 11 Line graph of mean likability for American children based on age and COO ........................................................................................................................ 55 Figure 12 Line graph of mean likability based on age and COO for Japanese children ................................................................................................................... 56 Figure 13 Hoo Colored Sketch 2 by Elizabeth Quart ............................................. 86 Figure 14 Hoo Colored Sketch 1 by Elizabeth Quart ............................................. 86 Figure 15 Final Sketch by Elizabeth Quart ............................................................. 88 Figure 16 English Instructions for Character Survey ............................................. 89 Figure 17 Japanese Instructions for Character Survey ........................................... 90 Figure 18 Japanese instructions for USA COO ...................................................... 91 Figure 19 English instructions for USA COO ........................................................ 92 Figure 20 Japanese instructions for Japan COO ..................................................... 93 Figure 21 English instructions for Japan COO ....................................................... 94 Figure 22 Japanese instructions for unknown COO ............................................... 95 Figure 23 English instructions for unknown COO ................................................. 96 Figure 24 Japanese Survey page 1 .........................................................................