The Weekly China Skinny 9.26.12
There's been a lot of talk this week, and for many weeks now, about China's slowing economy and how it translates to doom and gloom for businesses exporting to China. While a number of brands have lowered sales forecasts in China, there are still many businesses seeing runaway growth in China. To name a few, Nestle sales grew 20% last year, and they're expecting double-digit growth in 2013, Pernod Ricard's sales of wine and spirits have increased 15% in Asia for the year, with China being the shining star for the region, and General Motors had a record August in China, growing 7.3% from last year.
Like every market, China will have boom and bust cycles. But with many product segments and geographies still relatively untapped, a well planned and executed strategy presents significant opportunities for growth in China, even when overall spending slows. This week has the usual Chinese marketing news, insights and opinions that may contribute to that strategy. Hopefully some of it helps you...
Chinese Consumers
In Chinese Culture, Consumers Seek Brands That Allow Them To Stand Out By Fitting In: More insights and a video with What Chinese Want author Tom Doctoroff and his take on China's Confucian society and how it translates for marketing.
Gap Campaign's New 'Thought-Provoking Pairing' May Not Sync With Chinese Consumers : Let's Gap Together - analysis of Gap's latest advertising campaign in China. They may need a little more to change their fortunes in the Middle Kingdom.
Internet & Mobile
China's Low-Trust Ethos May Slowly Be Changing: The creation of globally trusted business frameworks like Alibaba is giving a trustworthy environment online for Chinese consumers and enabling a new generation of Chinese innovators.
Chinese Internet Lukewarm On iPhone 5: Does the iPhone 5 have enough new bells & whistles to help Apple gain ground on Samsung in the smartphone market in China? Posts of Weibo have been lukewarm.
Food & Beverage
China Beer Market Insights 2012: Ganbei! The Chinese Beer Market Insights report is out. A short overview of the 188 page, $12K report with highlights and key market issues.
Entertainment
Chinese Pay For Product Placement In Hollywood Movies: Chinese firms use product placement in Hollywood movies to woo Chinese consumers.
Art
Fires Dim On Chinese Art Market: Although the slowdown is accompanied with increasing sophistication.
Travel
ACP Leverages Chinese Consumers With Chinese Harper's Bazaar: Sydney launches a magazine targeted solely at the more than 500K Chinese tourists visiting the city a year.
Luxury Goods
Let’s Be Real: This Is Not The End Of China’s Luxury Market: Burberry's slowdown in China doesn't mean the end of China's luxury market- its another sign to tone down the bling Burberry.
Chinese shoppers make more than half their luxury purchases outside of China: Chinese consumers buy more luxury goods outside of China than within it according to HSBC. Why? It's cheaper, increasingly easier to travel and the prestige that comes with buying something abroad.
Chinese Market Slowdown Impacts Global Brands: A roundup of news about sliding fortunes for global luxury brands in China.
That's the skinny for the week!
If you've missed earlier news or need to learn more, there's a trove of information about Chinese consumers in prior China Skinny Weeklys right here. You can have this delivered to your inbox each week by subscribing for email updates, or if social media is more your thing, please follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or Google+, or subscribe to our RSS feed. If you have any feedback or suggestions for future articles, please let us know.
