China
has 380m consumers between ages of 18 and 34 -- more than the entire
population of the US. Not surprisingly, many western companies are
desperate to know just what makes this key demographic tick.
BIGresearch has come to the rescue with some research on the spending habits of these young consumers. Among the findings: Wal-Mart is challenging Carrefour's position as market leader with these shoppers, European brands continue to rise in popularity with young spenders, and Chinese women favour European brands over other imports.
Perhaps the strangest finding, at least for economists, is that Chinese consumers save more than their US counterparts and yet have a positive economic outlook.
BIGresearch then focussed in on how the media influence the purchasing decisions of China's young men -- all 191m of them.
Their biggest influences are, in order, reading an article about a product, internet advertising, TV, magazines and cable. In the US, by contrast, word-of-mouth is the biggest influence on what young men buy, followed by magazine advertising, articles mentioning the product, internet advertising and in last place, TV.
Only 22% of Chinese men say that word-of-mouth was important to them compared to 54% in the US.
Joe Pilotta, VP of Research for BIGresearch, says:
Understanding how media influences consumers in different countries is critical for marketers when developing their international marketing strategy. As marketers attempt to grow market share in China they need to be mindful of the uniqueness of the market, especially how Chinese consumers interact with the media."
The findings are from BIGresearch's China Quarterly, which monitors the purchasing behaviour and media consumption of more than 1,000 young adult Chinese consumers. The China Quarterly is available through BIGresearch in report or database format.
Id also have thought word-of-mouth would get much greater importance in China, so possibly BIGresearch's methodology or sampling is suspect.
Its also curious to see that internet advertising is far more influential in China than it is in the US, possibly because of its relative novelty. But the biggest surprise is the great faith that Chinese consumers have in articles in the press. Perhaps the most cost-effective marketing strategy for western firms in China is simply to bribe journalists to write nice things about their products. Im joking of course..
Geoff