“Bridge Crowd” Functions to Chinese Brands Cross-Cultural Communication

The thesis, which adopts the research method of in-depth interview, conducted in-depth interviews with 80 foreigners in China about the cognition and external transmission of Chinese brands. The interviews found that cross-cultural communication of brands is the process of establishing relationships and conveying meaning between enterprises and audiences. Foreigners in China, act as the bridge of Chinese brands cross-cultural communication, are the key links to resolving cultural barriers. They accept brand information under the Chinese cultural background, and then transmit it to foreign audiences abroad, converting “information flow” to “influence flow”. They are “opinion leaders” in cross-cultural communication of Chinese brands, who play vitally important roles in reshaping foreign audiences’ cognition of Chinese brands. Thanks to their cross-cultural identity, foreigners in China could understand the culture of the host country through direct and indirect experience. In the meantime, they do not abandon their existing position and view. Namely, they do not approve of the brand advertisements of the host country, which admire high cultural identification. Their “authentic, immediate, interactive brand experience” takes the place of “indirect, external, symbolic brand experience”.