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A changing China
On the back of three decades of spectacular growth and development, China recently became the second largest economy in the world behind the United States. The country has also become a major market for the worlds leading international consumer goods companies. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, companies are becoming more sophisticated in segmenting local stakeholders geographically, and have clear strategies in place for approaching urban versus rural consumers. However, we have found that communications strategies often fail to consider the enormous differences between the consumer generations born in each of the last three decades. Due to Chinas accelerated changes over the past 30 years, children born in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s have grown up in societies at vastly different stages of development. As we conducted focus groups to uncover what drives these consumers and what their needs are, we discovered that although they grew up in the same country, their world views and views of themselves are very different. Of particular interest for marketing and communications professionals are: Disposable funds and consumption habits View of world and self Discussion topics and interests Media consumption In this report, we look at the values, psychology and habits of urban Chinese consumers and draw some operational conclusions for marketers.
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MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupes PR, speciality communications and engagement group, advisors in all aspects of communication strategy: from consumer PR to employee communications, from public affairs to reputation management and from crisis communications to event management. With more than 2,900 people, its offices span 22 countries. Adding affiliates and partners into the equation, MSLGROUPs reach increases to 4,000 employees in 83 countries. Today the largest PR network in Greater China and India, the group offers strategic planning and counsel, insight-guided thinking and big, compelling ideas followed by thorough execution. Learn more about us at: www.mslgroup.com+ http://blog.mslgroup.com+ Twitter+ YouTube
Creating information
1970s:
1970s
Family
Time saver
1980s
Friends
Social arena
1990s
Self
Extension of self
The 80s are aggressive and goal-driven. They see themselves as individualistic but in fact, they are far from being rebellious; they tend to follow trends, and create self-expression within accepted rules. Like the masses in Monty Pythons Life of Brian, they are all individuals but in the same way. The 80s generation choose trends to follow rather than creating trends themselves. Tong, 25, talks about Lady Gaga: I like Lady Gagas music, not her dress. Its too shocking ( ), regular people wont wear it
Tongs quotation about Lady Gaga illustrates another important topic in understanding the differences between the three generations: language. Tongs slang word , lei, literally means thunder, but is a common expression for unbelievable in the 80s generation. You would seldom hear anyone born before 1975 using this word. Each generation has a distinctive jargon, conditioned by media consumption and societal change; in order to communicate effectively, marketers need to be sensitive to using the right words as well as finding the right tone of voice. This is particularly important online, where the chat room jargon of the 90s generation can actually be difficult to understand for readers of other age groups.
1980s
Accessible and trendy Respect need for relaxation Peer involvement
1990s
High level of interaction Provide opportunity for self-expression
To treat Chinese consumers as one, homogenous audience is a waste of money. Every campaign must carefully consider the gulf of differences between the different age groups. MSL Chinas marketing communications team provides five operational pieces of advice for marketing and communications professionals.
1. Dont try too hard to be trendy just because you are communicating with young people.
- The post 90s are less interested in trends created by others. They want to create the trends themselves. Many companies put too much effort into picking up trends rather than creating arenas for young people to express themselves. Also, tightly intertwined with the aim to be unique is the aim to showcase this uniqueness. This is a golden opportunity for marketing and communications specialists. With a professionally executed campaign, they can enjoy the benefits of true peer-to-peer marketing. This means that the target group voluntarily spreads the companys messages to their friends. Not only is it efficient, it is also considered as having high credibility.
5. Less respect for traditional authorities creates new opinion leaders. Target them and make them your ambassadors.
- The younger the target audience, the less influenced they will be by so called celebrity endorsers. Instead, they will turn to the opinion leaders amongst their peers. This creates some challenges for marketers, since the new leaders of opinion may be harder to identify than the traditional celebrities. On the other hand, it creates opportunities in terms of credibility, closeness to the brand and creativity. It is possible to target the new opinion leaders by studying their communication patterns online or through focus group interviews. Our recommendation is to identify them and to build long term relationships with them. A good example is the well-known sports company which, in addition to sponsoring professional athletes, also supports the best aerobic instructors at local gyms in every strategic city.
1980s Fun
1990s Excitement
MSL China regularly publishes Executive Whitepapers with insights and comments on trends, the industry and society as a whole. To get information from MSL China or to subscribe to future whitepapers, as well as to contact us for any other matter, please send us an e-mail on greaterchina@mslgroup.com or call us +86 21 5169 9311 (SH) or +86 10 8573 0688 (BJ). MSL China Executive Whitepaper November 2011 Copyright MSL China