The Chinese market is huge and is predicted by Nielsen to be the world's second largest consumer market by 2014.
But it's not an easy market to get your products and services in front of thanks to the varied cultural backgrounds, the sheer size of both the population and the country, and differing levels of wealth and sophistication.
There is no such thing as a typical Chinese consumer - the country needs to be broken down into provinces to be able to understand consumer preferences and market dynamics. Information on these potential markets tailored for your needs can be bought from specialist agencies.
While information on regional economies is increasing, little up to date, accurate and comprehensive marketing research and consumer insight data is available publicly.
Apart from wealthy modernised pockets of population, the idea that you can market and position your products and services is a relatively new one in China. In many places China is still a developing country.
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Key learnings
- Use Chinese-based experts.
- Break China down to digestible pieces.
- Don't take research results at face value - cross check the results.
- Remember a small Chinese niche is huge by New Zealand standards.
- Carefully research a brand name before launching into the Chinese market.
- Watch out for cultural traps around colours, numbers and images.
- Adapt your packaging.
- Price is a crucial factor in sales.
- When setting prices, remember costs will very likely be higher than you expect.
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Where to from here?
There's a lot to get your head around:
