Five things you need to know about building brands in China

1. Do not start from the question 'How are Chinese consumers different?' This question is posed to me often enough by brand managers and fellow admen that I suspect my answer has led to a sizable amount of ill-advised positionings and campaigns.

You see, when you ask me how Chinese moms are different, I feel obligated to tell you “they pay more attention to education”, but that doesn’t mean you should run an education-themed diaper campaign. In some cases, such a question over-amplifies the differences and distracts you from seeing the universal human truth. In other cases, it is based on the implicit assumption that the global or Western approach would work well in China, as long as we give it little tweaks based on the 'differences'. In all cases, it does not lead to truly relevant and engaging ideas. 

Approach Chinese consumers with a clean slate. Resist the urge to compare. You will then understand what are the fundamental drivers, what are the important cultural nuances and what are nothing more than interesting anecdotes for cocktail conversations.

2. Combine the endurance of a marathon runner and the velocity of a sprinter. The China market is dominated by short-term mindset and behaviour. There are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon, not the least important is the keen awareness by businessmen and government officials of the serious issues underneath the surface of a glorious growth story.

Global brands typically enter the market with the attitude and strategy of a marathon runner. Local companies have a lot to learn when it comes to strategic brand building, but they are fast, nimble and often led by incredibly intuitive entrepreneurs. While endurance and long-term planning are critical to brands, multinationals must improve their velocity to increase the chance of survival.

3. Re-train your gut, instead of trying to replace it with data. Brand building is art plus science. Multinationals in China are usually confident about the science and frustrated about the art.

Facing consumers and competitors who speak a completely different language, literally and metaphorically, many senior executives feel that they are unable to rely on their gut and take a leap of faith when judging ideas. A tendency then is to use more science or research to compensate.

Gut cannot be replaced by data. Here are a few things you can do to feed your gut: spend quality time with your consumers in their natural habitat, mingle with locals, follow Chinese pop culture, hire high-quality local talent and sincerely respect and trust their judgment.

4. Learn from the best practices of local players. Learning from the competitor who can hardly remember the 4P’s may sound counter-intuitive. While many local players are not well-versed in modern marketing, which was invented in the Western context by Western scholars and professionals, they are coming up with ideas that are based on sharp instinct and an intimate understanding of the market. They don’t play by the rules known to the multinationals. Though it is not a conscious goal of local players (making profit is), they might be in the process of rewriting the branding rules for the China market.

5. You don’t have to dumb down. As a native Chinese, I watched with amazement when a multinational company spent lots of time and resource debating whether Chinese consumers understand metaphor.

Sure enough, the average Chinese advertising appears less sophisticated compared to that of a mature market. But that’s a reflection of the developing nature of the industry, rather than a result of the innate ability of Chinese consumers. For anyone in doubt, discuss the recent big box office hit 'Let the bullet fly' (or any movie by Ang Lee) with a Chinese person and be prepared to be blown away by the their fascination with deciphering metaphors and codes.

Chinese consumers are able to decode highly sophisticated communication. The fact that people don’t laugh at our jokes doesn’t mean they lack sense of humour. We’ll just have to work on the jokes.