Marketing guide demystifies China's youth
By Casey Hall |
April 14, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S 500 million-strong population under the age of 30 are the subject of a new marketing guide from author Mary Bergstrom.
As an American marketing expert with years of experience researching China's youth market, "All Eyes East: Lessons From the Front Lines of Marketing to China's Youth" is a how-to guide that demystifies the categories, subcategories, culture and subcultures of one of the world's most influential consumer markets. The book was released in the United States last month.
"Young people are in a different, more powerful position, in China than they are in other places," Bergstrom says. "Consumption-wise, if you want to understand where China's going, you need to understand the people who are really consuming and communicating in their communities."
As a generation of only children, or "little emperors," China's youth often might not look or dress all that differently from their Western counterparts, but their motivations and position at the forefront of a nation in the throes of ceaseless change make them a whole new category of consumer.
"The fact that they don't have any siblings, the fact that they are growing up in an economy where the pressure is always on them, in terms of their own family but also the nation, and also they are really the pioneers of development. There's a crux that occurs in China and nowhere else," Bergstrom says.
Flexibility the key
According to Bergstrom, the identity of these future super consumers is evolving so rapidly, any attempt on the part of international brands to import a tried-and-tested marketing strategy from elsewhere directly into China will not be accepted by China's youth.
"I could have retitled the book 'Flexibility.' That's what's been missing from a lot of international brands' marketing strategies. The equation should be: What are the brand values you bring to the table and how do you need to configure those values so that you have the most impact with your consumer base?" Bergstrom writes.
"You might mean one thing outside China, but to mean the same thing inside China, you might need to construct a different story to ultimately get to the same message."
To illustrate, Bergstrom points to Volkswagen. The car company recently made two ads demonstrating the value of a new model. The US version shows executives being criticized for putting a car on the market that was too cheap, considering its many features.
In China, the same message was conveyed with a wife chastising her husband because she assumed he must have spent a lot of money on a new car.
"You need to have the stories differentiated to create the same message, or the same appreciation of value in those two markets," Bergstrom says.
One of the major aims of "All Eyes East" is to define the subcategories of Chinese youth for international readers who might not know the major differences between the post-1980s (people born after 1980) and post-1990s generations.
These groupings are widely used in China and, most important, are embraced by young people themselves.
China's youth overwhelmingly see themselves sharing attributes and common experiences with their own generation and differentiate themselves from those born in a different generation, even if the gap is only a few years.
"One of the most striking differences (between Chinese and Western youth) is that young Chinese people self-identify with those groups. Elsewhere, you wouldn't hear somebody say, 'I'm very Gen-X,' and you certainly wouldn't see someone wearing a T-shirt that says, 'I'm Gen-Y'," Bergstrom says.
In terms of luxury goods, it's hard to find examples of international brands that have excelled in youth marketing. International heritage stories especially fail to resonate on a personal level with younger consumers.
"Luxury brands are feeling some pain now in terms of understanding that the largest potential luxury market is within China and the story they have created outside of China isn't something that they can just import directly, because young Chinese people don't necessarily have the same sense of historical connection," she says.
As an American marketing expert with years of experience researching China's youth market, "All Eyes East: Lessons From the Front Lines of Marketing to China's Youth" is a how-to guide that demystifies the categories, subcategories, culture and subcultures of one of the world's most influential consumer markets. The book was released in the United States last month.
"Young people are in a different, more powerful position, in China than they are in other places," Bergstrom says. "Consumption-wise, if you want to understand where China's going, you need to understand the people who are really consuming and communicating in their communities."
As a generation of only children, or "little emperors," China's youth often might not look or dress all that differently from their Western counterparts, but their motivations and position at the forefront of a nation in the throes of ceaseless change make them a whole new category of consumer.
"The fact that they don't have any siblings, the fact that they are growing up in an economy where the pressure is always on them, in terms of their own family but also the nation, and also they are really the pioneers of development. There's a crux that occurs in China and nowhere else," Bergstrom says.
Flexibility the key
According to Bergstrom, the identity of these future super consumers is evolving so rapidly, any attempt on the part of international brands to import a tried-and-tested marketing strategy from elsewhere directly into China will not be accepted by China's youth.
"I could have retitled the book 'Flexibility.' That's what's been missing from a lot of international brands' marketing strategies. The equation should be: What are the brand values you bring to the table and how do you need to configure those values so that you have the most impact with your consumer base?" Bergstrom writes.
"You might mean one thing outside China, but to mean the same thing inside China, you might need to construct a different story to ultimately get to the same message."
To illustrate, Bergstrom points to Volkswagen. The car company recently made two ads demonstrating the value of a new model. The US version shows executives being criticized for putting a car on the market that was too cheap, considering its many features.
In China, the same message was conveyed with a wife chastising her husband because she assumed he must have spent a lot of money on a new car.
"You need to have the stories differentiated to create the same message, or the same appreciation of value in those two markets," Bergstrom says.
One of the major aims of "All Eyes East" is to define the subcategories of Chinese youth for international readers who might not know the major differences between the post-1980s (people born after 1980) and post-1990s generations.
These groupings are widely used in China and, most important, are embraced by young people themselves.
China's youth overwhelmingly see themselves sharing attributes and common experiences with their own generation and differentiate themselves from those born in a different generation, even if the gap is only a few years.
"One of the most striking differences (between Chinese and Western youth) is that young Chinese people self-identify with those groups. Elsewhere, you wouldn't hear somebody say, 'I'm very Gen-X,' and you certainly wouldn't see someone wearing a T-shirt that says, 'I'm Gen-Y'," Bergstrom says.
In terms of luxury goods, it's hard to find examples of international brands that have excelled in youth marketing. International heritage stories especially fail to resonate on a personal level with younger consumers.
"Luxury brands are feeling some pain now in terms of understanding that the largest potential luxury market is within China and the story they have created outside of China isn't something that they can just import directly, because young Chinese people don't necessarily have the same sense of historical connection," she says.
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