The impact of advertising appeals on Malaysian consumers’ preference towards Chinese smartphone brands.

China is currently playing a vital role in the global economy, almost every country in the world is enjoying “Made in China” products due to the convenience. However, most of the global consumers are still not confident enough with Chinese brands’ products. This certainly effecting the development of Chinese brands in the target countries. This study aims to find out the advertising appeals used in Chinese smartphone brand advertisements (online and offline), to discover how are advertising appeals perceived by the Malaysian consumers and how advertising appeals develop the likability of Chinese smartphone brands among consumers in Malaysia. Based on the review of the literature of persuasive appeals, discourse analysis, in-depth interviews, focus group and an online survey were carried out. The initial outcome from the analysis of responses demonstrated by Malaysian consumers were more influenced by hard-sell appeals (thinking sub-appeals) and quality appeals prior making purchasing decision of Chinese brand smartphones. However, from the findings of the emerging themes from interviews and focus group, it was discovered that both hard-sell appeals and soft-sell appeals is equally important in influencing consumers preference towards the Chinese smartphone brands, such as likability towards the brand or the possibility of purchase intention of these Chinese brand smartphones. The results indicate that advertising appeals do make an influence on developing likability of Chinese smartphone brands in the Malaysia market. This study concludes with a section of potential implications of the findings and the necessary recommendations for future research.