No More “Lazy Localization” – Marketing In China
“No more lazy localization”: That was the plea in a very compelling article about marketing in China I read this morning. MNC’s the world over have been looking to China’s new openness as a means to grow revenues. But many have entered the market without taking the time to understand what motivates Chinese consumers. Applying marketing techniques that work in the West to China just doesn’t work. I’ve written about examples of this in past posts here and here.
In “China’s Rising Retail Market“, author Shaun Rein makes some interesting revelations about who is the driving force in the new Chinese economy:
As selling to Chinese consumers becomes more important to multinationals’ bottom lines, the key to winning in China is to understand the needs and motivations of Chinese youth. Many multinationals find their core target market in China is much younger than in other countries. Companies, therefore, need to rethink the products they introduce to China, the sales channels they use, and the marketing-communication strategies they employ.
What I find most compelling about Rein’s analysis of the Chinese market is the evolution of Chinese culture as it adapts to new media. China is a very relationship based culture. As the internet has penetrated China, many are looking to others online to base decisions on purchases.
More than 70% of the young people we interviewed said they use search engines such as Baidu (BIDU) to find out more about products. They are also more likely to trust product recommendations on a stranger’s blog than from salespeople in stores or traditional advertising. As one 23-year-old in Wuhan told us, “I like to first read blogs of people who post about items I want to buy. If they give a thumbs up, I am more willing to buy. I do not trust salespeople because they push the brands they represent and get a commission on a sale. They will say and do anything to get me to buy something.”
I think marketers are going to find that the Chinese market will be a difficult one to approach. Right now, many companies are struggling with a learning curve as they try to figure out how to sell to the Chinese. This is a constantly changing variable since the society is absorbing new technology, new influences from the west, and new economic/political policies. And as rapidly as China absorbs these changes, I think we can count on one thing being constant: China will always be “uniquely Chinese”. I doubt the Chinese market will ever look even remotely like any other.
[...] I wrote a post about “Lazy Localization“, a term coined by Shaun Rein in a post he put up regarding the Chinese retail market. With [...]