The Shaping of Transnational Imagined Community – Imagined Asia

The term imagined communities was first established by Benedict Anderson to describe a nation. He argues that the nation is formed by imagined communities. 'It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion' (Anderson, 1991, p. 59). The media is also said to contribute to the imagined communities concept by creating identities, for example through the broadcast of the Olympic Games, Soccer World Cup, or the regional singing contest Asian Idol.

The idea of Asian imagined community may sound unusual if we look into the multicultural nations, different history, and the fact that there has been tensions among several communities in the region. However, the regional cultural exchanges have always been various and intense (Iwabuchi, 2002; Moeran, 2001, cited in Cayla & Eckhardt, 2008), for example the Asian TV programs, musics (K-pop, C-pop, J-pop), dramas (K-drama, J-drama) that spreads all around the region and consumed by many. All of those have provided opportunities for Asian consumers to participate in trans-Asian cultural experiences thus creating the sense of imagined community. As stated by Appadurai (1996 cited in Roll, 2006), the space and identity people construct and hold onto their mind is more important than the identity based on the geographical space and that things that are able to connect people living in different places/states could actually possess bigger influence for them. In other word, the people create the sense of imagined community by certain factor that enables them to feel connected with the others for example because of similar interest or the fact that they share similar culture.

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The globalization of media has contributed to the rising of cultural and media exchanges between the Asia region and that it has managed to connect the people in the region even more than before. Cultural proximity is also one factor allowing people to be able to relate to the exchange of media such as tv drama, songs, or movie. The Asian drama, for example, reflects the lifestyle of Asian people and that is why it is popular among the people in the region. Carla & Eckhardt (2008) stated that those exhanges reflects the Asian experience of globalization. It is about how people in the region can access information through the media easily and about the shared experience of consuming the media products and how it will help them shaping the sense of community.

Brands, as stated by Cayla & Eckhardt (2008) and Roll (2006), contribute in constructing new identities for consumers and make consumers feel connected with each other by consuming the same products, which relates to the sense of living in a 'global village', the term in which established by McLuhan (2001), where the people in the separate places connect with each other through the help of media and technologies.  

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Brands can function as symbolic device helping to create the transnational imagined worlds, in this case, Asia region, and shaping transnational identities by operating along the time, space, and cultural dimensions (Cayla & Eckhardt, 2008). Brands can also provide new ways for consumers to think of themselves as Asian by its marketing strategy such as the TV commercial or print ads, such as what Tiger Beer does.

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Tiger Beer is one example of regional brand that uses the transnational identities building as its strategy. Tiger Beer advertises in different way for the Western and Asian markets. The advertisement for the Western market emphasizes more on the 'exotic & traditional' Asia (Roll, 2006, p. 34) whilst for the Asian market it emphasizes on the modernized Asia, which stays true to Asian roots but with the new image which focuses on the future (Roll, 2006, p. 34).

Tiger Beer advertising campaign in the Asia region focuses on the sense of temporal proximity (Iwabuchi, 2002 cited in Carla & Eckhardt, 2008). One of the TV commercial, 'The Quest' displays both the traditional side of Asia and the Asian modernity and it attempts to enhance the regional appeal of the brand by avoiding specific mention or references to a specific area or nation in Asia. The purpose of the CF is to potray the brand image as an Asian region brand. The CF is said to represent the 'Asian' journey, a journey to self-belief, maturing, and developing process and gaining power in the globalizing world. 

  

The image of Tiger Beer is as a regional brand which is considered deterritorialized (Cayla & Eckhardt, 2008) since there is no specific reference to one specific country. Such fact also reflects the idea that Asians are living in the imagined transnational space. The people are connected within that space that is beyond the geographical boundaries which also refers to globalization characteristic. To appear global as well as Asian, regional brands like Tiger Beer does not emphasize on their nation of origins but focusing on the region and create the sense of Asianness to emphasize the shared and imagined Asian world through the brand.

The Asian brand images are created from the multicultural reference to the Asian diverse culture which is created to appeal to the Asian consumers. The regional Asian brand like Tiger Beer potrays Asian consumers as cosmopolitan, urban, and modern thus creating the concept of Asian imagined community. The brand emphasizes on the cultural proximity in the region and try to reflect the globalizing and modern Asia.
In conclusion, the mix of cultural elements from different places is one essential part in the construction of imagined Asian world, not only for branding, but also other media products such as TV drama, music, or movie; and that the close distance factor or cultural proximity will always play a part in the construction of the imagined community in the Asian region.  

REFERENCES

Anderson, B., 1991, 'Imagined Commmunities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism' (revised ed.), in Sreberny-Mohammadi, A., et al. (eds.), 1991, Media in Global Context: A Reader, Arnold, New York.

Cayla, J. & Eckhardt, G. M., 2008, 'Asian Brands and the Shaping of a Transnational Imagined Community', Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 35(2), 216–230

McLuhan, M., 2001, Understanding Media, Routledge Classics, London.

Roll, M., 2006, Asian Brand Strategy: How Asia Builds Strong Brands, Palgrave MacMillan, New York.

Image and Video Sources:

Image 1: http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQXnOxxHxfKENhe_GETO5D5wOSFPxWh-g0euliL-rvX1lXaR4SMVw 

Image 2: http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles/81157/projects/7319313/0b31206b77c937f4ab5b77afd15fdc11.jpg

Image 3: http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles/52250/projects/122540/522501220333576.jpg 

Video (Tiger Beer The Quest Commercial) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz_DzZJJNvU

By: Anindya Widita