ChinaConnect 2011 - Discovering the Chinese Consumer Part I

Hanging out during a break

I've been pitching the first ever European conference on digital marketing to the high-end Chinese consumer for many weeks now. I thought I'd get a couple of good tips on this fascinating and remote market, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be coming home with such a treasure trove of insight. Short of actually spending a lot of time in China - the old "boots on the ground" approach - this conference was as close as I've come to a better understanding of the challenges at hand for brands who want to (1) enter the largest market in the world, and (2) not embarrass themselves in the process. In the next several posts, I'll do my best to share some of the highlights and salient points of the conference from my social media perspective.

#1 Market composition
Contrary to popular belief, China is not a homogeneous market. Rather, it behaves more like a regional federation of sorts with different areas, customs, languages, populations, and even cuisines. So when you talk about the 470,000,000 or so Chinese netizens, you're really talking about a fragmented and diverse population. And trying to market to the whole instead of carefully targeting on a sociao-regional basis is not an optimal strategy.

#2 Stereotypes
The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, past Emperors - all the classic Western geographic or political stereotypes applied to China do not speak to the new generation. Matter of fact, you might even be insulting them by applying such themes to your product - I'm thinking, for example, of luxury watch dials depicting the Forbidden City. It's "has-been" and says "I haven't bothered to learn about the new China".

#3 Age matters
Yes, China has an aging population, like much of Europe, and that in itself constitutes a major challenge to its future growth. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Chinese netizens are under 34. The ratio is even larger for  mobile communities. The average QQ user is in the 17-25 age range. If you're not talking to a young, tech savvy, mobile-ingrained audience, you're not talking to China (unless you're Vacheron Constantin I suppose).

#4 Kids and the Cult of Family
Remember the one-kid policy? Guess what: it means that kids are at the center of Chinese life. If you figure four grandparents, two parents, and a housekeeper, that's seven people on average dedicated to serving each Chinese papoose. This, along with the cult of family, are two of the most powerful marketing levers in the Chinese market.

#5 Marketing Works. Sometimes.
How about a non-Chinese brand selling tea to an entire Chinese nation? Lipton was at the conference explaining that one. You see, Chinese people drink green tea. And they don't like black tea. That's right - and Lipton found out the hard way. Worse yet, they don't like or use tea bags. Bummer if your entire product line revolves around these two things. Nonetheless, Lipton was still able to overcome these great odds and penetrate the market by positioning their teas as strategically-timed "avant-garde" social experiences (and hiring the right bloggers). The "Lipton Moment" has now become hip in China with the younger professional crowd. Hey, everybody's doing it - maybe you should as well! Which comes to show that marketing does work sometimes, if not cheaply :)

Nathalie Omori on categorizing Chinese wealth