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March 13, 2000
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Most people change diapers. But for Chung-Kue Hsu, it was diapers that changed her. Working on the marketing of Huggies diapers cemented Hsu's decision to leave Taiwan and pursue a Ph.D. in the United States.
Hsu, who grew up in Taipei, Taiwan, discovered a passion for marketing research at her first job after college. In 1993 she left to pursue a Ph.D. in business administration, marketing, at the University of Illinois, where she met her husband, who's also from Taiwan. "My husband completed his Ph.D. requirements a year ahead of me and moved to New Jersey first. He is an assistant professor at Rutgers," said Hsu. "I heard about Montclair State's impressive reputation, so I submitted an application and was lucky enough to get a position here."
Although she likes living in the United States because the quality of life is better and because the academic environment is superior, Hsu misses her family in Taiwan. "Whenever special events like Chinese New Year come around I feel homesick." But Hsu said she loves teaching here and she recently discussed some of her research projects.
INSIGHT: How did Huggies Diapers change your life?
Hsu: After graduating from college in Taiwan I worked for two years at Kimberly-Clark Corporation in marketing research and brand management on the Huggies line. I enjoyed the research and became interested in consumer behavior, which led to a desire for more education. I also enjoy interacting with young people, so I decided that combining my marketing background with education would be a perfect career choice.
My father influenced me, too. He taught English at a private university in Taiwan and translated books from English and Japanese to Chinese.
INSIGHT: Why did you leave Taiwan to pursue a doctorate?
Hsu: One professor in Taiwan, an alumnus of the University of Illinois, highly recommended it, and that school was the first to offer me admission and assistantships. Besides, the United States offers the best higher education in the world. Teachers in the United States, from very early stages of education, encourage students to think, to be unique, to share their own ideas and to be whatever they want to be. In Taiwan, generally speaking, teachers don't encourage students to digest knowledge and come up with their own unique perspectives. A lot of professors from Taiwan come here to earn doctoral degrees then return there to teach. As a student, I saw that their knowledge was superior.
INSIGHT: Tell us about your research in consumer behavior.
Hsu: It stems from my dissertation, which is about how objective and subjective product information affect communication. Objective information is concrete, like when a product lists 10 grams of fat or five grams of fiber. Subjective information claims that a product has a large amount of fiber content that will benefit the consumer's life. It's abstract. I want to know which information people with different degrees of knowledge respond to, and how the effects may vary across different types of products.
INSIGHT: What sparked your interest in consumer behavior?
Hsu: Part of my job at Kimberly-Clark was to understand consumers' evaluations of products and advertising. I enjoyed that. Also, while at Illinois I attended a seminar course on consumer behavior. We discussed how memory, perception, and other individual and cultural factors shape behavior. That intrigued me. Anybody can relate to consumer behavior because everyone is a consumer.
INSIGHT: What are some common factors among consumers?
Hsu: One example is that consumers across cultures tune into celebrity endorsements. Consumer attitude toward a celebrity endorser may not always be positive, but there are some values in terms of getting attention‹good or bad. I would like to find out what kind of cultural values are projected by celebrity endorsements, and I'm analyzing the content of magazine ads to see if there are certain product categories that tend to be associated with celebrities.
INSIGHT: Name a marketing technique that might work well in the United States but may be considered taboo in Taiwan.
Hsu: A lot of American advertising is "hard sell." Marketers in Taiwan use a softer type of appeal, because people's values and lifestyles there call for a soft sell. Direct and indirect comparative advertising is widely used in the United States. In Taiwan, although it's legal, comparative advertising, especially the direct approach, is frowned upon.