Research on the Change of Cultural Values in Clothing Company Brand Slogans

. The brand slogan change is an important measure to adjust the brand image and maintain the brand’s vitality in the ﬁerce market competition. Clothing is both a product of culture and a carrier of culture, and changes in clothing company brand slogans are closely related to changes in consumer culture. This study selects clothing company brand slogans that have changed in the Chinese market in the last 20 years (2000-2019) and adopts a combination of statistical analysis and content analysis to discuss the trends and characteristics of brand slogans in the process of change from the perspective of cultural values. It was found that: (1) the individualism, collectivism, and high power distance presented by Chinese clothing companies’ brand slogans increased sig-niﬁcantly between the two successive decades during the change process; the low uncertainty avoidance presented by them decreased signiﬁcantly between the two successive decades; while low power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and feminism did not change signiﬁcantly. (2) Among the cultural value claims, the claim “Succorance” in collectivism is found to have increased signiﬁcantly, while the claim “Plain” in low power distance has decreased signiﬁcantly. The remaining 28 demands did not change signiﬁcantly. This paper enriches the discussion of brand slogan change from the perspective of cultural values. When designing a new brand slogan, clothing companies need to anticipate the current consumer culture in the context of the times to develop a brand slogan that is in line with consumer values


Introduction
As the primary cue or tool for consumers to identify and recall a particular brand, brand slogans have received much attention from companies and academics [1]. In 2020 Quality Logo Products identified and analyzed the top ten classic Company Slogans, some of which are brand slogans that companies have reintroduced in their ongoing operations. Company brand slogans are not set in stone. However, academic discussions on brand slogans have mainly focused on the elements, characteristics, and effectiveness of brand slogans from the perspective of linguistics and advertising appeals and less on the appeals, cultural values, and changes reflected in brand slogans. Specifically, the academic community still needs to research "What are the characteristics of the demands and cultural values of the brand slogans of industrial companies? Furthermore, "How do the cultural values reflected in company brand slogans change over time?" The basic questions still need to be answered.
In an earlier study, Belk and Pollay (1985) found that the messages displayed in advertisements and contexts changed significantly between ten years ago and ten years later [2]. Brand slogans, like advertisements, can reflect cultural values within a certain period [3,4]. In the 21st century, although global economies and cultures are deeply intertwined, there are still significant differences in culture and values between national consumer markets [5,6]. In the context of different cultural values, brand slogans need to be adapted to suit consumers' values.
In this study, the brand slogan of a clothing company is chosen as the object of study. Clothing is both a product and a carrier of culture, and all clothing is an aggregate of human material and spiritual creations [7]. From the descriptions of Chinese and foreign scholars, it is easy to see that clothing is not only a reflection of human concepts, institutions, and other spiritual cultures but also a cultural form that reflects the general psychology of the members of society and the essence of the national spirit [8]. However, there needs to be a systematic theoretical framework among the current research findings. It has been established that advertising slogans inevitably display cultural values [9,10], and researchers have been able to understand not only the socio-historical context of a particular period in advertising slogans but also the evolution of cultural values in changing slogans [4,10]. Brand slogans, like taglines, have the value of content analysis and can reflect cultural and social history [11,12]. Therefore, this paper conducted a 20-year (2000 -2019) longitudinal study using clothing company brand slogans to examine how clothing cultural values reflected in slogans from two successive decades have changed over time.
The remainder of this paper contains: the second section reviews the main theories and presents the research questions. The third part describes the methodology of this study, including the selection of the research sample and coding principles. In the fourth section, the data analysis for this study is presented. The final section summarises the findings, and directions in which this study could be taken in depth in the future are suggested.

Brand Slogans
As one of the core elements of a brand identity, a brand slogan is a cue or tool for consumers to identify and recall a particular brand [1,13]. A good brand slogan can help a company convey its brand image and raise brand awareness, helping the brand stand out [14], precisely because a brand slogan can evoke consumer recall, convey brand strengths, and even build and maintain a strong brand identity [1]. Slogans have been widely used in advertising since modern brand messaging began [15], introducing consumers to a company's products or services. In recent years, much of the academic research on brand slogans and consumers have been conducted to guide company marketing practices. At its core, they all discuss the characteristics of brand slogans and validate their effectiveness in guiding marketing practice activities. There needs to be more research on branding from the cultural and cognitive fields and more fundamental theoretical research. Consumer perceptions have changed over time [16]. Miller, Clinton, and Camey (2007) show that brand slogans that match consumer motivations and needs are more popular and that the popularity of a brand slogan is related to the level of engagement it induces [17]. In addition, M. Y. Lee and So (2007) discussed brand slogans and culture based on Hofstede's cross-cultural study, which found that brand slogans carry a clear cultural imprint and emphasised that brand design of brand slogans should take into account the characteristics of different cultures [18]. If brands ignore differences in cultural orientations in their cross-border operations, while they are in a way following the global consistency of corporate strategies, they also reduce the relevance of local markets and consumer preferences.

Cultural Values
Hofstede ([1980] 1984) defines culture as "the collective thought processes that distinguish members of one human group from those of another." The unprecedented survey was conducted with over 110,000 questionnaires [19]. Four dimensions of cultural values were identified through principal components analysis: individualism (vs. collectivism), power distance (vs. intimacy), uncertainty avoidance (vs. acceptance), and masculinity (vs. femininity).
According to Hofstede's (1980) definition, individualism describes a loose social framework. Based on the individualist framework, people focus on the concept of self, acting as individuals and independent of the group. On the other hand, collectivism describes a relatively tight social framework where people see themselves as members of a group and show cohesion, where people expect to be taken care of by the group, and where in exchange, members show loyalty to the group as a whole [19]. Hofstede (1980) defines power distance as the degree to which a society accepts the power imbalances exhibited in an organization [19]. The power distance dimension in Hofstede's (1983) [20] framework builds on related concepts originally developed by Mulder (1976) [21]. These concepts emphasise that power distance responds to the different weights that society assigns to inequalities in power, status, and wealth, and the expectations of members of society about the extent to which power is unequally distributed [22].
Hofstede introduces the uncertainty avoidance component proposed by Cyert and March (1963) in their study of national cultures to the national cultural values dimension [23]. In his study, Hofstede (1980, p. 45) defines the uncertainty avoidance dimension as the extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertainty and ambiguity. This definition states that when faced with the risk of uncertainty, a society will attempt to avoid these situations by adopting formal rules, ideas and behaviours that do not tolerate transgressions [24].
Hofstede defines masculinism and feminism separately. He argues that masculinity measures the extent to which a society emphasizes and rewards masculine assertiveness and access to money and things (Hofstede, 1980, p. 46) [24], while feminism refers to a society's measurement of values such as quality of life, maintaining warm relationships, caring for the weak and solidarity (Hofstede, 1994, p. 6) [25]. Higher masculinity is characterized by achievement-seeking, competition-seeking, and independence of mind; higher feminism is characterized by closeness to nature, attention to physical emotions, and cooperation-seeking.
In recent years of cross-cultural research, scholars still extensively use the national cultural value dimensions introduced by Hofstede 40 years ago (e.g., Chen et. al., 2021 [26], Eastman and Iyer, 2021 [27], Serravalle et al., 2022 [28]). Cross-cultural scholars have favoured the cultural value dimensions proposed by Hofstede due to the framework's convenience and ease of use. Considering the broad coverage, dimensional richness, predictive power, and more inclusive and stable characteristics of Hofstede's proposed cultural value dimensions, this study will use the four basic cultural value dimensions proposed by Hofstede ([1980] 1984) to measure and reflect the sociocultural differences in company brand slogans [19].

The Culture of Clothing Consumption and Changes
As part of modern lifestyles, clothing culture has received extensive attention from sociology and marketing [29]. Clothing not only satisfies people's material needs but creates the spiritual needs of the times [30]. According to Huang Yanmin (2004), a costume is a cultural form that reflects the general psychology of the members of society and the essence of the national spirit [8]. Clothing is a unique carrier of social change, and changes in clothing can reflect social and cultural changes [31], and different times and contexts present different clothing consumption cultures. In their study, Ning and Ma (2006, p. 118) define clothing consumption culture as "the sum of people's values, consumer attitudes and life patterns in the process of clothing selection, purchase and use under certain economic and social conditions, which have spread, differentiated and developed during the historical development, reflecting the general psychology and life patterns of social members in a particular era [7]".
The clothing industry is characterized by a desire for newness and change. Fashion and trends in clothing are constantly changing with the development of the times, especially in the 21st century, when China's clothing market has matured, and consumers' psychology of clothing consumption has also gradually matured [31]. White and Griffiths (2000, pp. 1-4) argue that the history and theory of fashion have become an unprecedented area of academic interest in an ever-changing environment [32]. Consolidating the theoretical and empirical understanding of fashion will allow us to apply this knowledge to a multitude of social processes that extend far beyond the current field of application [29].
Therefore, this paper proposes two broad research questions: (1) What are the characteristics of appeals and cultural values of the company brand slogans in the clothing industry? And (2) How are the changes of appeals and cultural values in reflection of company brand slogans between periods?

Data Sources and Methods
This research collected brand slogans presented by clothing companies between 2000 and 2019 through publicly available sources and was able to search for 35 brand slogans used by 11 large companies in succession over 20 years. The research was conducted by three research assistants who identified a sample of company brand slogans in three main steps.
The coding principles proposed by Albers- Miller and Gelb (1996) were used as the criteria for this study, and the three coding assistants were asked to study and discuss the criteria in depth [33]. The standard effectively integrates Hofstede's ([1980] 1984) [19] theory of national cultural values with Pollay's (1983) [34] advertising appeals and applies to the coding of cultural values in advertising. The coding process consisted of three steps: first, two coders independently coded the 35 brand slogans, then a third coder summarised the coding, marked the codes with different opinions, and organized a discussion. Finally, the three coders work together to form a consensus on the coding situation. Individual cases of claims that could not be agreed upon were eliminated so that the coding reliability of the overall result was 100%.
In line with the aims of the study, the coded data will also be statistically analyzed using SPSS 26.0 to find differences in the demands and values presented by different industries over time. The results of the study will also be discussed in terms of the data to address the research questions raised in this study.

Descriptive Statistics
By analyzing the basic information of the sample, it was found that a total of 35 brand slogans from 11 clothing companies produced changes during the period 2000-2019. After dividing the study sample into the first phase (2000-2009) and the second phase (2010-2019), the brand slogans were categorized and summarised. In the first phase, 20 brand slogans were changed by ten companies. In the second phase, 15 brand slogans were changed by 11 companies. Among them, four brand slogans of the famous jewellery brand "Lao Feng Xiang" were proposed and used in the second stage.
The number of brand slogans differs between the two phases, as does the number of specific values reflected and the frequency with which they appear. The number of slogans for each of the eight cultural values and the frequency of occurrence of the 30 claims at different stages was obtained through a step-by-step categorization of all the slogan codes, shown in table 1.

The Test of Cultural Values
The study used an independent samples t-test in an attempt to investigate whether there was a significant difference between the values reflected in the brand slogans of clothing companies in the first and second phases. Four of the eight values were found to have significant changes.
The results of the test are shown in Table 2.
Based on the results of the empirical tests, the study had four findings: firstly, Individualism(p = 0.077, p < 0.1) and Collectivism(p = 0.051, p < 0.1) were found to be significantly different at both stages. In particular, the mean value of Individualism increased from 2.95 in the first stage to 4.13 in the second stage, and the mean value of Collectivism increased from 0.85 to 1.67, indicating that Individualism and Collectivism increased during these two decades. Secondly, the High power distance was significantly different between the two phases (p = 0.056, p < 0.1), with the mean value increasing from 2.15 to 3.73, indicating that the High power distance became greater over the two decades. Third, Low uncertainty avoidance was also found to be significantly different between the two stages (p = 0.082, p < 0.1), with the mean value decreasing from 2.95 to 1.6, indicating a decrease in and a decrease in relaxed attitudes to life and a tendency to encourage risk-taking. Fourth, the four cultural values of Low power distance(p = 0.313, p > 0.1), High uncertainty avoidance (p = 0.865, p > 0.1), Masculinity (p = 0.575, p > 0.1) and Femininity (p = 0.351, p > 0.1) did not show significant differences in the brand slogans of clothing companies.

The Test of Appeals
By examining the 30 specific claims, it was found that there was a significant change in S uccorance(p = 0.062, p < 0.1) in S uccorance over the two phases. The mean value of increased from 0.25 to 0.67, indicating that clothing brand slogans are more likely to convey the expression of concern in collectivism to consumers. According to Pollay (1983) [34], the S uccorance appeal consists mainly of gratitude, pats n the bk, to feel deserving, receiving expressions of love (all expressions except sexuality).   The study also found that the low power distance of Plain(p = 0.047, p < 0.05) varied more significantly between the two stages. The mean value of Plain decreased from 1.05 to 0.47, suggesting that clothing company brand slogans communicate less of the "Plain" in the low power distance to consumers. Plain(p = 0.047, p < 0.05) appeal is mainly of "unaffected", "natural", "prosaic", "homespun", "simple", "article", and "unpretentions" The results of the test are shown in table 3. The remaining 28 value appeals showed no significant variation.

Discussion
This study verifies that some cultural values in Chinese clothing consumption have changed significantly, confirming that "clothing is both a product and a carrier of culture [7]", suggesting that clothing has a close relationship with consumer values. Secondly, this study shows that company brand slogans, like advertisements, can reflect cultural values over time [3,4]. This research is an exploratory study that responds to the inference that there is a change in cultural values. As we cite the cultural values advertising appeals collated by Albers- Miller and Gelb (1996) [33]. This includes 30 advertising appeals. We found that it is difficult to explain value change through a single appeal. That is, understanding cultural value change needs to be situated within a broad socio-cultural and historical context, and this is a direction that our team is deepening our research. Indeed, our research has been ongoing.

Conclusions, Implications and Future Research
Two main findings emerged from the quantitative analysis: Firstly, some of the cultural values in the change of brand slogans of clothing companies did change significantly between the two successive decades of 2000-2019. In this study, the four cultural value dimensions were divided into eight extremes, which found that Individualism, collectivism, and "sim-ple" in the change of clothing brand slogans increased significantly between the two successive decades; however, low uncertainty avoidance in the change of brand slogans decreased significantly between the two successive decades. The four values of low power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and f eminism do not show any significant changes.
Secondly, the clothing brand slogans reflected fewer changes in appeal and found that only two appeals changed significantly: (1) the collectivist appeal of "Succorance" increased significantly; (2) the low power distance appeal of "Plain" decreased significantly. The rest of the advertising appeals did not change significantly. This interesting observation provides new insights into brand management and cross-cultural research: the grand research of cultural values needs to be attributed in the context of macro-social development history and micro-industrial progress.
In conclusion, when the cultural values expressed in a brand slogan are adapted to the new needs of consumers, it helps the company to convey a good brand image and helps the brand to stand out in a competitive market.
This study analyses the change of brand slogans from the perspective of cultural values and is essentially exploratory. Several areas could be improved in the following areas.
Firstly, the study sample is small, with only 35 brand slogans. In the future, consideration could be given to increasing the number of brand slogans that have changed in non-listed clothing companies, extending the period for slogan collection, enriching the research sample, and drawing more relevant conclusions. Secondly, there needs to be a comparative analysis of combining other industries. A cross-sectional comparison of other industries could be added in the future. Finally, due to the space limitation, there are still areas for improvement in the content analysis of this paper. In the future, the mechanism of slogan change can be analyzed with political and economic historical data.