The Wu Way » Strategy

Face Shopping: the role that “mianzi consumption” plays in consumer choice in China

Jocelyn — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:32:43 +0000

When I walked into the wedding flower shop in Tonglu, China — my husband’s hometown — I knew exactly the kind of flowers I wanted: roses, just like the roses on my wedding dress. The shop owner, however, didn’t ask us what type of flowers we wanted. Instead, she asked us how much we were willing to spend: 380RMB, 580RMB or 800RMB.

The implication was this: money defines who you are. The more you spend, the better you are.

I came for roses, and I was holding my ground. Even if they were on the lowest (380RMB) tier of pricing.

But most Chinese consumers would probably be tempted to go for the 800RMB choice — whatever it was. Why? Because it makes them look good in the public eye…and just as the salesperson said, it’s the trendy choice.

Chinese culture has long valued face, or mianzi. And as a collective country, Chinese people tend to easily follow mainstream trends; they desire conformity. All this spills over into consumer behavior, creating what many refer to as “mianzi consumption.”

If you’ve spent any time in China, you’ve probably seen mianzi in action already. Think about gift-giving customs — the packaging is just as important, if not more so, than the actual product. (this has, not surprisingly, led to excessive packaging in China). You’ll find these elaborate, overwhelming packages, all in the name of giving the sender good face. Shanghai’s Maglev Train, supposedly one of the most hi-tech trains of its kind, was built in the name of giving the city some good mianzi. Doesn’t matter that the design (forcing riders to take the metro before switching over to it), hours (it only runs 8:30am to 5:30PM) and cost (40 RMB one way — a lot for a lot of inconvenience, considering direct buses only cost half of that) have rendered it utterly useless.

Mianzi consumption takes the concept of face into the world of shopping, allowing Chinese consumers to exchange their renminbi for services and products that will boost their face and reputation — sometimes at the risk of their own health and financial well-being.

For example, a Sohu article (Chinese) describes how college-age women will spend hundreds of RMB on name brand makeup and beauty treatments, even to the point where they haven’t enough money leftover to eat. But they’d rather “invest” the money on their face — literally — because, as far as they’re concerned, appearances count.

This article in the Youth Daily makes a link between the “Housing Slave” (people whose mortgages take up 50% of their monthly income) phenomenon in China and mianzi consumption. They suggest that people get into such a precarious situation — having an unmanagable mortgage — simply because they choose to buy homes they can’t afford, all to live a lifestyle they believe is theirs.

Mianzi isn’t going away anytime soon — and neither will mianzi consumption. Especially when it comes to high-end, often foreign, products, such as BMWs, Louis Vuitton Bags, and top-shelf liquors. But there is a certain manipulation involved at times, one that perhaps nudges Chinese consumers into purchases that they would rather not make. Just as Chinese consumers have a responsibility to make smart shopping decisions, companies have a responsibility to sell their products without preying on a consumer’s emotional or cultural vulnerabilities (remember the sleazy car dealers?).

Come on…give roses a chance.

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The appeal and illusion of foreign brands in China

Jocelyn — Wed, 09 May 2007 18:06:15 +0000

Photo: Wal-Mart in China

In China, Wal-Mart is synonymous with good quality and a pleasant shopping environment. It’s a far cry from the low quality – low price image prevalent among US consumers.

And Wal-Mart isn’t the only one.

Holiday Inn in China is often located in brilliantly decorated downtown high rises, instead of being just off the highway. Their clients aren’t budget travelers, but rather international businessmen or rich bosses from China.

Fast foods restaurants such as McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and Subway in China are renowned for their quality. These places are always packed with customers, especially young people. To them, it’s in fashion to eat there.

McDonalds, KFC, Holiday Inn, Pizza Hut, Subway, Wal-Mart and other companies are getting a high-class makeover in the Middle Kingdom, where these modest establishments suddenly transport Chinese consumers into a world of privilege, abundance and luxury.

Why are US brands often perceived so differently in China? Quite simply, US brands say quality, just as this article in Brandweek titled Emerging markets still like US brands will attest to:

“Branded international products are a mark of quality,” said Mike Sherman, executive director of customer insights for Synovate Asia, Hong Kong. “Even low-income consumers will pay a premium for a well-made, branded product.”

…

China, the premier emerging market, has a taste for not only Bud, but also Coke and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Safeguard soap is also very popular, as are Sony TVs. “China was closed down for so long, that they have more of a nostalgic pull for all things American,” said Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y. “They have an affinity for America as it used to be so they are flocking to brands that are more past than present.” Adidas, Armani, Chivas Regal, Lipton, Maybelline, Shell and 7-Eleven are among the brands with more Western appeal to appear among the Chinese most-preferred brands.

For Chinese, service from a foreign business seems to give people a sense of importance or superiority. They are apt to think all American products are good just as they tend to believe all Americans are rich. To be sure, these products/businesses do tend to look nicer in China. But much of this is just an illusion. In fact, when Chinese come to the US, they will be surprised to find that Wal-Mart looks less appealing, McDonald’s is just an average fast food restaurant — not a chic hangout — and Subway has restaurants in gas stations. Nevertheless it’s a profitable illusion for these well-branded companies who enter China.

So what about middle-market companies — or newer companies? Just being from a major Western country still has a lot of cache for the average Chinese consumer or Chinese businessperson. I spoke to a Chinese supplier for one of my clients, and he gushed about how trustworthy my client, an American, was. That’s not the first time I’ve heard Chinese consider Americans trustworthy. The very fact that one is an American in China brings along an entirely positive stereotype with it.

Though note to the Chinese…we’re not all trustworthy, so caveat emptor!

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Book Review: Mr. China by Tim Clissold

Jocelyn — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 22:57:45 +0000

Mr. China: A Memoir is a book for all of us who have ever longed to “crack” the China market and Chinese culture — and come out as the ultimate “Old China Hand”. “But in the end, it’s an illusion” states the author Tim Clissold of this pursuit. He should know — he’s gotten about as deep as you can go in China, from a meager Mandarin student in Beijing to a respected investment advisor hobnobbing with high-ranking Beijing officials, traveling from the chilly Northeast to the desert of Western China and all points in between. It’s been a wild and humbling ride for him, and Clissold tells all — at least the most salient points — in this striking memoir that holds lessons for anyone keen on the China market.

Clissold gets the China bug when he first travels to Hong Kong as a young man. What others describe as utter chaos becomes instead a fascinating challenge and paradigm of living:

I’d go into a restaurant and they’d tell me that there was no rice or I’d go to a bar and they’d pretend to be out of beer. I even found a restaurant in Xi’an that closed for lunch. But after a while, I learned to probe and question, cajole and persuade — and never to give in! So I barged into kitchens in restaurants to find something to eat and went upstairs in hotels in search of an empty room….Even going to buy vegetables was a challenge but I sensed a rapport with the people I met; it was almost as if they enjoyed the game of wits and they often gave me a laugh or a smile once they finally gave in. I never felt any malice from them; it was more like a bad habit that no one seemed able to break.

Clissold was, in essence, spellbound by the country, as most aspiring “Old China Hands” usually are. So much so that he found himself bored with his stomping grounds of London. In a desperate attempt to re-engage with China, he tries to persuade his managers to set up an investment office there, but ends up being all but written off as a nutcase. There was only one thing for him to do: quit his job and go to China to study Mandarin.

As the saying goes, be careful what you ask for. Just after the Tiananmen Square massacre, China warns against “spiritual pollution” making those few brave foreign souls on Chinese campuses — such as Clissold — largely ignored by the student population. Clissold’s foray into a life of Mandarin study is also short on creature comforts, from monotonous meals of cabbage and rice to a grubby winter existence of few hot showers, little heat and just-washed jeans that freeze instantly.

After a year of studying, shrinking finances force him to find work. As luck would have it, his former employer in London — Arthur Andersen — is hiring: they need someone to help investors find worthwhile projects in China. And so begins Clissold’s journey into the unchartered territory of financing the new economy.

He assembles a team to help him along the way: Pat and Ai Jian. Pat is a larger-than-life career banker who made a name in investment in Hong Kong and sees opportunity knocking in the great frontier of China. Ai Jian is an “ex-Red Guard and forced-peasant-turned-bureaucrat” relegated to a desk job at a hotel after getting into some trouble at Tiananmen, but he’s hungry to make a difference and has the contacts to prove it.

Working through Ai Jian’s contacts and beyond, the team travels across China, from the rivers of Sichuan to the frozen oil fields of the Northeast border with Russia, in search of investment opportunities, and discovers a hidden and sometimes perplexing world. There are mountaintop military factories looking to transition to civilian goods with unexplained colossal explosions in the background, and elaborate drunken banquets with high-ranking government officials where animal genitalia is a delicacy.

After over three months of traveling to visit factories across China — and days that “ended at one or two in the morning in the upstairs room of some awful karaoke bar with cracked mirrors and faded Christmas-tree decorations Scotch-taped to the walls” — then it was a matter of getting the investors on board. Pat introduced a number of interested Wall Street money managers to the team and, following several tense meetings in China, they eventually agreed to a deal: $158 million to be invested in manufacturing plants throughout China as joint ventures. Contracts were signed and money was wired to their chosen partners in China.

This is where the fun begins — not for Clissold, but for us — when every imaginable thing that can go wrong does. The businesses start falling behind budget, and closer investigation reveals more problems than the team bargained for. Millions of dollars disappear overnight, unaccounted for (in one case secretly laundered to unknown offshore locations). New unauthorized factories spring up, some as direct competition to the joint venture, and others manufacturing products that investors didn’t approve. Reckless managers infest the factories, threatening complete shutdowns or utter chaos, and resist any extermination attempts. And then there are the grossly unqualified products, such as where a beer factory churns out a bottle with brown liquid inside and the words “soy sauce” scratched out on an old label.

But it isn’t the situations that make this book fascinating — it’s how Clissold and his team responds. In doing so, Clissold ends up making every mistake imaginable and, from our retrospective viewpoint, the results are quite often nothing short of hilarious. It all comes down to assumptions:

Wall Street’s theory of “private equity investment,” investing in private companies like we had done in China, was based on two principles. First, that the system of law and other controls are reasonably effective in dissuading business managers from helping themselves to the cash, and second, that a management team will work hard over long periods for clear incentives. Under these conditions, the theory goes, the management team can be left reasonably free to run the business and report to a board of directors that sets budgets and reviews progress. We had applied this model in China — and it was obviously not working.

His egregious mistakes become lessons for the rest of us as he and his team scramble to bring order back to their nascent investment projects. Clissold battles with bankers, the legal system, the anticorruption bureau (which famously asks for a car and money before providing assistance), complicated personalities, misplaced employee loyalty, and hidden assets. If we pay close attention (after wiping our eyes from laughing so hard) we’ll be the wiser next time we set foot in China.

Even while we have a good time at his expense, Clissold teaches us a wealth of knowledge about China. Clissold has a passion for Chinese culture — a passion so deep that, at the nadir of his misadventures in China (just as he is about to turn his back on the Middle Kingdom) it beckons him once again to this rich country. He graciously shares cultural anecdotes, a primer on the beauty of the Chinese language and delightful insights into what makes China so fascinating for outsiders. With Clissold as your guide, you come to peel back the layers of this country, seeing beyond the grueling banquets and puzzling bureaucracy, and are left with a sense of respect and admiration for a country that we can only hope to understand and appreciate, not conquer.

Full disclosure: yes, the links in this article are affiliate links to Amazon — but I’d still be linking to this book even if I wasn’t an affiliate because it’s a terrific read. </em></p>

On managing the departure of a valued Chinese employee — Part I

Jocelyn — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:16:47 +0000

Our guest article this week comes from Gary Baney, CEO of Boundless Flight. Managing Chinese hires is an important part of a corporation’s reputation and impression in China. Gary shares somes of his practical and valuable insights on this topic.

Here’s Gary:
—————————————————————————————————

One of the reasons many companies have hesitated to hire Chinese national employees is their fear that they might one day suddenly up and leave, returning to their homeland, never to be heard from again. As I hope to show in this short series of articles, this fear should not drive hiring practices. I have always believed that the best course of action is to always hire the best person available for the job and work through the details and lifestyle issues to the benefit of all.

When Xiaodong Yang announced to our software development company that he was returning to China in August, 2005 to once again be near his family, we could have taken the news as very negative. He had been my student at the Weatherhead School of Management, was one of our first four employees, had successfully headed up major projects for us with Goodyear, Penske Logistics, M.G. Maher, and others. He had invented our Blended Offshore Software Development Methodology and had exercised it with 100% success for more than a year. He had become a leader, a friend, a confidant, and he had FINALLY achieved a consistent proficiency at the English language!

We could have taken it badly indeed but instead, we chose to accept his personal needs as our own and dedicated ourselves to making the transition beneficial to all. This was quite a commitment for a firm that was then under $3M in annual revenue with fewer than 20 employees. Xiaodongâ€™s departure to his homeland was going to be a significant loss but we were committed to retaining him as an employee and doing everything we could to see him prosper with our company in China at the same pace he had grown here.

Our first challenge was to team Xiaodong up with another highly trusted and valued leader in the company so he would have an unbroken chain of connectivity to the company during his transition. Dave Brumbaugh, another of my former students, was selected to head up this effort. He worked closely with Xiaodong on several projects in the six months before his departure and spent a lot of recreational time with him to make sure the quality of communication was as high as possible.

This initiative has had a significant dividend as the two of them are still valued technicians for the company and staunch friends. They have jointly managed over fifteen high-profile software development projects for companies such as Chapura Software, Thompson Engineering and American Greetings. The initiatives managed by the two of them represented over 15% of our companyâ€™s total profits…and Xiaodong is STILL batting 1.000 as he has not had a single offshore development initiative fail using his model!

Our second challenge was to give him a proper leadership role in the company. Our goal was to design a position that would simultaneously provide him with the level of influence he is worthy of and provide the company with clear, unencumbered access to him so that influence would flow freely.

In the next article, we will detail how we accomplished, and are still accomplishing, this goal.

—
Gary Baney
CEO
Boundless Flight, Inc

Interview with Gary Wells of Dix & Eaton about international communications

Jocelyn — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:16:15 +0000

Jocelyn: Good morning, this is Jocelyn, weâ€™re at the Wu Way, this is January 29, and Iâ€™m here at the BP Building and I have the pleasure of meeting with Gary Wells, who is the Senior Managing Director for Media Relations and Global Communications for Dix & Eaton. I might add that Gary is a very well-traveled man. He continues to help broaden Dix and Eatonâ€™s capabilities and has helped establish media affiliations in 65 markets, right?

Wells: A little more than 65, around 75.

Jocelyn: Okay. And including in the China market, such as Beijing and Shanghai. Iâ€™d like to talk to him today about international communications. Gary and I were just discussing Starbucks and an interesting point aboutâ€¦that you have to be careful about the kind of message to a country when youâ€™re trying to move your brand into that market. Right?

Wells: Good morning, Jocelyn. I think itâ€™s critical for any company moving into a global market, an emerging market, is to keep in mind cultural sensitivities. Okay? Of all US companies, Starbucks is generally the most alert and sensitive to such cultural issuesâ€¦but lost sight of that with their decision to accept an opportunity to put the franchise inside of the Forbidden City. Itâ€™s one thing to install a Starbucks or any other American fast food restaurant in a shopping plaza, in a business center where thereâ€™s high traffic. Itâ€™s another to install what could be considered a foreign invasion in one of the most hallowed sites in all of China, the Forbidden City.

Jocelyn: Right.

Wells: The larger point here is for the global company building into an emerging market. Itâ€™s not enough to have a proprietary service that is in demand, you have to understand the cultural sensitivities. For China, for India, for other countries as well, these are countries that have for decades, for centuries were ruled and subjugated by foreign powers. They have long institutional memories. While they may not go looking for slights, perceived or real, they are very aware of slights as they see them. So the decision to install a Starbucks inside of Forbidden City couldnâ€™t be taken any other way than something as an insult and somewhat as a slap in the face. I think Starbucks has handled the situation quite well, to their business savvy, some companies perhaps would not. I doubt they would make that mistake again either in China or in someplace else.

Jocelyn: Yeah, itâ€™s interesting. I think itâ€™s a great example of what can go wrong when you donâ€™t think about how the media or how the public can perceive the message, maybe covert or overt, that your move in an international market may imply. And maybe, I was wondering if you could tell me some other examples of the challenges that a company might face when theyâ€™re trying to establish themselves in another country, some examples that youâ€™ve seen from your own work.

Wells: I think if youâ€™re a global company and youâ€™re looking to establish operations, if you see a market for your product or service in central market countries Brazil, Russia, India, Chinaâ€¦you have to understand the market forces, but also the culture sensitivities. Also political issues as well. Most companies will look at China and India as probably the two most important markets or two of the most important markets. Very different, very differently organized in terms of their politics. One of course is the Peopleâ€™s Republic of China is a Communist government. More of a market economy than ever beforeâ€¦but still run by the Communist party.

Jocelyn: Right. They call it â€“ what is it — Capitalism withâ€¦no itâ€™sâ€¦Socialism with Chinese characteristics, I believe.

Wells: And I think that China, to its credit, learned a lot by watching the mistakes that Russia made. Look at India, India is normally the worldâ€™s largest democracy. Itâ€™s a very messy democracy. Even though thatâ€™s a dichotomy when you talk about democracy as messy, it shouldnâ€™t be. However, in India, there was such difficulty pulling the country together some sixty years ago when the British left, that I think a lot of the princedoms, fiefdoms, empires if you will throughout India were given considerable autonomy but the states inside India have considerable autonomy instilled. If youâ€™re Microsoft, and this is a real example, if youâ€™re Microsoft and you look to expand operations throughout India, at the same time you do understand the importance of helping the country and its people in a land where poverty is ripeâ€¦.For example, the Gates Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sends money for helping a variety of schools there. But in one state, the governorâ€¦thought that Microsoft was too much of a monopoly, and instructed the schools not to use Microsoft Office. Despite the fact that the company had products that were much in demand, had through its foundation, contributed a considerable amount of money to easing poverty and improving the schools, [that still was the governorâ€™s decision]. Microsoft, to its credit, also reacted specially by making sure there was even more in the way of free software and free education to this particular state as well, and the governor relented. But thatâ€™s the sort of issue that a local company faces there and Iâ€™m afraid that not many â€“ outside of a Starbucks or Microsoft â€“ are as alert to these issues as they should.

Jocelyn: Sure. You know, that makes me think about how, you know, you talk about autonomous regions in India, you know, of course China has quite a few of its own. Like Xinjiang is an example of an autonomous region. Of course, countries such as India and China, they have thousands of years of history of these regions operating as just separate states. And each has its own culture, its distinctive identity. A lot of times, we come into a market, we assume that that market is just, you know, itâ€™s all one homogenous being, you know, itâ€™s all what we see in Shanghai or Beijing or in the case of India, New Delhi.

Wells: Particularly in a market as gargantuous as China — so many regions, so many cultures, languages or dialects â€“ it is absolutely incumbent on any companyâ€¦consumer products, business products â€“ to understand the cultures where they establish operations.

Jocelyn: Right.

Wells: If youâ€™re in the north, youâ€™re in the south, itâ€™s a much different operation. Youâ€™ve got to be aware of which dynasty ruled going back centuries, youâ€™ve got to be very alert to not just the current issues but the past issues as well. It has an impact on how youâ€™re perceived in the community, it has an impact on your ability to recruit employees for a region in China as well. Itâ€™s a huge issue for companies moving into China or India. The war for talent is acute. If you want to attract the best and the brightest, to borrow a phrase, then those people have to look at you as a tremendous opportunity. And not just to join your organization, but to stay with your organization. They have to see that thereâ€™s opportunity for them to grow. You also have to be well-regarded, well-respected in the community because they have to save face in the community as well.

Jocelyn: Sure.

Wells: If you donâ€™t have a good reputation in the community, if youâ€™re not seen as contributing to the community, you may have a difficult time even further attracting, much less retaining, employees.

Jocelyn: That reminds me of last year when you spoke at the [Going Global] panel and that was something that you had emphasized, was the internal communications in a company, correct? And thatâ€™s something that a lot of companies who go global, they often overlook this small piece of the puzzle that can be so important in perhaps, as you said, retaining employees and reminding people of the value they get from the company.

Wells: Itâ€™s actually reminiscent of the story over centuries about workmen in France. One of whom is asked what heâ€™s doing, says heâ€™s cutting stone. Another is asked what heâ€™s doing, says heâ€™s mixing concrete. Another is asked what heâ€™s doing and he says â€œIâ€™m building a cathedral.â€ Heâ€™s got a much larger vision and heâ€™s part of a larger team. And if youâ€™re establishing operations in China, or in India or elsewhere around the world, itâ€™s not an isolated facility. Those arenâ€™t people who work in isolation. Those are people who are part of a larger team. They will feel much more engaged if they understand they are part of a team which means introducing them â€“ perhaps electronically, perhaps personally â€“ to others on the same team, either in the same country or elsewhere around the world as well. Itâ€™s hugely important and I think too many companies miss out on that too.

(To hear more about Gary Wells’ views on international communications and China, listen to our full podcast. Total time: 18:32….WARNING – this is not NPR quality on the recording side, but it’s a great conversation.)

McKinsey looks into China’s hinterland…and sees opportunity

Jocelyn — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:51:35 +0000

Seems like Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities in China are the current darlings of the international business world. Who can blame them? The breakneck pace of development has produced a dizzying array of buildings, shopping malls — and accompanying stats — to make any marketer swoon.

Meanwhile, one has to wonder about the 70 percent odd people outside of China’s mega cities?

Enter McKinsey. They’ve just released a special report on Marketing to China’s Hinterland — and frankly, it’s about time. Here are a few juicy teasers from the intro:

The most attractive consumer segment in these markets consists of the aspirants: some 35 million households with average monthly incomes of about 3,800 renminbi ($475)â€”not far behind the average income in China’s biggest cities.

This segment is spread out among about 12,000 towns and small cities that dot China’s landscape. Companies must carefully weigh the costs of reaching them against the potential gains.

Appealing to the sophisticated aspirations of the segment and effectively sealing the purchase at the point of sale could be critical.

I think it’s a solid report worth looking into. Here’s to marketing life beyond China’s big cities!

Cultural icons as a brand: Starbucks in the Forbidden City revisited

Jocelyn — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:10:32 +0000

Back in January, I wrote about Starbucks’ unwelcome presence in the Forbidden City. Just yesterday, NPR’s Morning Edition did an interview with the man who gave the cause an extra jolt of caffeine – CCTV TV anchor Rui Chenggang. Steve Inskeep interviews Rui about the “invasion”. Rui explains:

People do need a place to buy souvenirs, people do need a place to rest. But, you know, if you are in the Forbidden City, you see people walking around with all these white cups with the big Starbucks logo on it, it’s obscene to me.

Inskeep asks what it is about this brand that makes it offensive and here’s his response:

First of all, we’re not singling Starbucks out. I think Forbidden City is a single brand. We should keep the integrity of that brand. I don’t think a Chinese teahouse brand…that would be equally unacceptable to me.

Note Rui’s remark that the “Forbidden City is a single brand”. In the business/marketing world, it’s easy to forget that branding goes beyond corporate identity. Cultural icons and historical sites have their own story/associations/ideas, just as a corporate brand does. Except, they’ve been around a lot longer — and mean that much more to the Chinese people.

Now Starbucks will have to bear another brand – imperialistic invader.

Apparently, Starbucks upper management is taking notice of this, among other things, as NPR also reports on how Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz believes the company is losing its soul.

Coffee anyone?

The Golden Pig Year baby boom and the power of superstition in China

Jocelyn — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:19:17 +0000

It’s no secret that superstition runs deep in Chinese culture. And this Chinese New Year is yet another reminder of that, as this NPR news story discusses in the baby boom for the Golden Pig year:

In China, city-dwellers are only allowed one child, so many are timing their pregnancies according to the traditional lunar calendar to promote the most auspicious birth. Some newspapers have called 2007 an especially lucky “golden pig year,” which only comes around every 60 years. And that is spurring a baby boom….

The city government has even stepped in, warning women to try to avoid getting pregnant this year. As Huiyuan points out, these piglets will compete for hospital beds and go on competing throughout their lives â€” for school places, university places and eventually, wives.

Still, commercials for baby products are taking up double the air time, and companies are preparing for bumper sales.
Outwardly, China may be changing unbelievably fast, as skyscrapers sprout and farmland is gobbled up by ever-expanding cities. But beneath a modern veneer, traditional superstitions run deep.

What’s interesting to note is that the public seems mostly unphased by the prospect of looming competition for their “piglets”. Taking advantage of this “auspicious year” trumps all practical concerns.

So what’s the take home here? Never underestimate the sway of superstition to the Chinese public. Many practices that we might consider superstitious are simply part of life in China — such as choosing a fortuitous wedding date through a fortune teller.

If you’re marketing to the Chinese public, it pays to have some basic knowledge of superstitions and how they may affect your products/services. Sometimes, in the case of the companies selling baby products in China, you might just find yourself on a wave of profits — all because of good timing and superstition.

Reviving Chinese New Year in China — and what it means for the future of all things foreign

Jocelyn — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 23:29:34 +0000

Is Chinese New Year in need of a revival? The experts seem to think so.

Here’s the reason, taken from a Xinhua News article titled “Protect Chinese New Year” becomes a common idea in Chinese society:

This suggested idea of “Protect Chinese New Year” came about because these years Gao Youpeng [a professor at Henan University] felt “a definite threat to the safety of China’s traditional culture.” During the past 20-some years, Gao Youpeng conducted empirical surveys of traditional culture and regrettably found that young people — entranced with the internet and video games — increasingly followed Western civilization, craved Western holidays, but were more indifferent and lacked understanding of their own traditional holidays and culture.

This crisis is nothing new. After all, didn’t the government completely forget Chinese New Year’s Eve last month — the most important day of the year — when they left it out of the official national holidays? It certainly highlights China’s stubborn fascination with all things foreign.

Yet this new push to “protect Chinese New Year” also suggests a new search for a national identity. China’s traditional culture was all but demolished during the bulldozer run of the cultural revolution. Now people want to embrace those traditional cultural activities and customs that make China…well…China.

I think this means one thing: the “cache” of foreign brands, companies and products in China won’t last forever. Its days are numbered. Perhaps now we can still get away with waving foreignness in the face of the Chinese as a symbol of all that is exclusive, elegant and well-engineered. But sooner or later China will look closer to home and discover the beauty within.

In the meantime, it’s up to us to change the way we communicate with China. If Chinese people are putting more of a premium on their own culture, shouldn’t we do the same in how we deal with them? Think about your marketing materials, corporate identity or even how you interact with people in China — and how you can integrate a little Chinese culture into your approach.

Christmas becomes the third biggest consumer spending holiday in China

Jocelyn — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 19:19:30 +0000

Christmas may not be an indigenous holiday to China — but retailers had a VERY merry one this year. Merry enough to merit dubbing Christmas the third largest consumer shopping season in China.

Here’s the story published in Sohu (partially translated by yours truly):

Christmas Day is not an official holiday in China. Yet this didn’t dampen the enthusiasm for consumer spending in the least. According to online surveys conducted in Shanghai, among young people aged 14 to 30, 70 percent will choose to dine and enjoy themselves lavishly on Christmas, and 88 percent of lovers will choose to go to a Western-style restaurant to eat out.

Smart business owners, from hotels to small Western-style restaurants, cannot give up this grand opportunity. They should use any means possible to create a Christmas atmosphere and come up with a menu or program that encapsulates the season.

The Four Seasons Hotel, located in the center of Shanghai on Huaihai Road, held a special Christmas buffet where each person paid 1,700 RMB [Jocelyn: a little over $200], an increase of 15 percent over the previous year. That price is seven to eight times higher than what one would normally pay on a regular evening. The hotel employees said that the evening’s dinner was booked almost completely full, showing the draw and value of such a big Christmas dinner in Shanghai.

The note about 88 percent of young lovers in Shanghai preferring Western-style food once again reminds us how much of an opportunity this is for restauranteurs — and others in the hospitality industry — marketing their concepts in China. If you can design a beautiful, romantic evening, they WILL come.

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