[Ad] HSBC- The World's Local Bank 匯豐銀行- 跨國的當地銀行

The first advertisement was published in 2002, demonstrating the importance of local knowledge in customs and practices by a series of commercials through disclosing the cultural differences from country to country. In the beginning, the advert illustrated that some American managers prefer to have a meeting standing out to save time while the Japanese chairmen who like to take the time to have a dinner first before business discussion. It also presented a gesture or behaviour which was normal in one country might have different meaning in another country. Then the last scene implicated a successful deal between Japan and UK chairmen because both of them have acquired the cultural customs from HSBC before this meeting. This advert transmitted a message that HSBC never underestimated the importance of local knowledge, particularly when it came to the client’s money. What HSBC learned in one country can directly benefit their customers to another country. HSBC served people as the world’s local bank. In the following commercials, a particular sentence was repeated in the end regularly, which was “At HSBC, we never underestimate the importance of local knowledge. HSBC, the world’s local bank.”

這一系列的廣告發起於2002年，匯豐銀行透過文化衝突的情境劇，來展現匯豐銀行能為客戶帶來的服務。廣告先從美國與日本開會方式的不同做開端，美國人通常講求效率站著開會，而日本人會先表現友好，進行晚餐後才討論公事。下一個場景則換到在不同的國家，手勢代表著不同的意義，而最後把鏡頭拉回日本跟英國負責人談妥交易之後，雙方顧及對方的文化需求所表現出不同的禮節。然而這些文化衝突匯豐銀行都能夠幫客戶解決，因為匯豐是最了解當地市場的跨國銀行。

The advertisement illustrated a dinner meeting with traditional snake soup for Chinese and English businessmen. Even though the snake soup looked so disgusting for English businessmen, he still cleared his plate to show the appreciation to the host. However, in China, people regarded this behaviour as a questioning action towards their generosity. Consequently, every time when the English businessmen finished a bowl of snake soup, the Chinese businessmen would prepare a bigger and bigger snake in the soup for him. What differences from usual was that the advert added a new message in the end of video, which presented the reason why HSBC had local banks staffed by local people in more countries than any other banks.

以下這支廣告則是敘述英國和中國不同的用餐禮節。在英國，把盤中的食物吃完是表示對主人的尊重；然而在中國，讓客人吃飽喝足回家是主人慷慨大方的表現。結果，中國主人以為英國客人超喜歡鰻魚湯而準備越來越大隻的鰻魚。透過這樣有趣的文化差異，匯豐銀行在抓住觀眾的注意力之後，強調匯豐雖然是跨國大銀行，但銀行行員多數仍採用當地居民。

Move on to the next commercial, it was a washing machine market investigation for the blooming sales in India. HSBC illustrated a message that if people are going to do the business internationally, they should be with the bank who knew about the international business. HSBC commercial banking served for 64 countries and territories around the globe. Your business success is out there. It’s your bank. Even though the commercials transmitted a single message, advertising agency showed all kinds of creativity to catch audiences’ attention. In this advertisement, the reason of increasing sales of washing machine in India is that Indian people used washing machine to produce tropical fruit juice. All of these ideas were inspired by HSBC’s customer trends of easier travel and international communication on business. The local service of a global bank would be able to provide international businessmen the local information to understand the cultural differences and to create a greater interest in the world. HSBC and its clients can benefit each other through this simple idea in such business strategy.

這一則廣告則強調了印度市場，影片一開始透過洗衣機在印度銷售量大增的情況，公司派遣研究員到印度作實探調查。然而有趣的是，印度居民原來是透過洗衣機來做大型的果汁攪拌器。整體的創意構想別出心裁，也再度強調了跨國商人能夠透過匯豐銀行的服務達到更高效益的獲利。