Although geopolitical challenges and nationalism are on the rise, the traditionally-foreign holiday of Christmas is as large as ever in China

Don't underestimate the importance of bricks & mortar touch points in China, and ensure they are integrated and optimised for consumer needs

Beijing's Common Prosperity is impacting the ways brands market in China

Sustainability is becoming a key requirement of doing business in China - both due to consumer-pull and Beijing-push

Foreign and domestic brands in China are increasingly employing marketing initiatives beyond price promotions to ensure long term ROI

Rising nationalism has been attributed to the rise in Chinese brands, but in many categories imported goods still hold an enviable reputation

Success in China needs localisation, but not a general China-wide strategy, rather a targeted multi-variable approach

An omni-channel approach, adapting data-led insights and optimising sales structures are areas foreign brands are falling behind in China

China's tech giants have read the tea leaves from Beijing resulting in pledges of billions to charity, with PDD making the smartest donation

China's fan clubs have become obsessive, and with changing family dynamics are on track to become more so, but Beijing is seeking change

Chinese brands' strategies are markedly different from in the West, and if the success of Shein in the US is anything to go by, we should pay attention

The drivers behind China's rising second-hand market provide some important trends which brands selling in China should take note of

Numbers and dates are regularly used in Chinese marketing because of their symbolism and sounds, but be careful

There are some staggering numbers highlighting the tough life for kids in China, all contributing to lowering fertility rates

The 618 mid-year shopping festival is now in full swing and is breaking more records, which seems to happen with every subsequent online shopping festival these days in China. Yet one of the traditionally least-sexy components of ecommerce – delivery – has come to the fore this festival and captured our imagination.

Earlier in May, after a month-long delay, China released much of the population statistics from its once-a-decade census. Whilst there were no real surprises, the data quantified many trends that can help shape China marketing strategies. At a personal level, tracking the changes from the 2010 and 2020 censuses gave us a reason to look back and trace the past 10+ years that China Skinny has been consulting in the market, and provided another reminder of the dynamism of China. Below are some of the snippets that we found interesting…

Besides Covid, the three terms that cemented themselves in the Chinese vernacular last year were PPE (个人防护), lockdowns (隔离) and livestreaming (直播). Over this time, there have been few articles talking about marketing in China that didn’t praise the wonders of livestreaming. The buzz around livestreaming has been infectious for both consumers and brands, with 30,000 new Taobao Live accounts opened by merchants in February 2020 alone.

Digital advertising has dominated media spend for some time in China. By 2019, brands were spending more than one and half times of their advertising budget on Alibaba platforms than they spent on television commercials. Once Covid hit, ad spending shifted further to online platforms, with digital ad revenue growing 23% last year in China, against an overall 15% fall in media spend in the 9-months to September.