Good points - but if being successful in the Chinese market nowadays requires being hyper local, conversant with the guo chao movement, and offering low price points, then it doesn't make sense for foreign companies to compete in the space (especially Americans given the additional geopolitical tensions). And I'm sure its hypercompetitive too.
Not a problem for local Chinese entrepreneurs but if your audience is mostly foreign (American?) based it might seriously discourage going into the Chinese market
There's a variety of Chinese consumers with different preferences to tap into, being 'local' shouldn't just mean cheap and guochao.
Big brands like Nike is already doing all the things you've mentioned (aside from price points), for example, working with local Chinese designers like Feng Chen Wang. And for new brands that are considering to enter China, localization may start with the small things like the language on product packaging, models in marketing campaigns, whether the influencers it plans to work with cater to people with overseas/local background, etc., if they aren't ready to invest that much in localization, they can always start small and do some pop-ups to test the atmosphere.
Good points. Is it your sense that foreign interest is still very strong in vying for the Chinese consumer market, or have they backed away given the variety of geopolitical and economic factors that have sprung up?
I think there's still a lot of interest but marketing budget may be down in recent years due to the factors you mentioned. It doesn't make sense for businesses, especially the large ones, to give up on the 2nd largest consumer market. And if they pull out simply because of those concerns, it may cause further backlash.
From the business perspective, geopolitics is just one factor and is quite secondary compared to profits. Unless China does something that'd be so damaging to the foreign companies' image by association (i.e. invade Taiwan, etc.), there's no solid reason for them to exit unless the businesses are doing poorly.
I fell into the same trap as Evan--it’s hard to visit China as an outsider if your goal is to get a sense of the local mood... the people you end up talking to are naturally people in bigger cities inclined to talk to foreigners. In retrospect, it wasn’t surprising that people I came across shared basically my worldview.
Good points - but if being successful in the Chinese market nowadays requires being hyper local, conversant with the guo chao movement, and offering low price points, then it doesn't make sense for foreign companies to compete in the space (especially Americans given the additional geopolitical tensions). And I'm sure its hypercompetitive too.
Not a problem for local Chinese entrepreneurs but if your audience is mostly foreign (American?) based it might seriously discourage going into the Chinese market
There's a variety of Chinese consumers with different preferences to tap into, being 'local' shouldn't just mean cheap and guochao.
Big brands like Nike is already doing all the things you've mentioned (aside from price points), for example, working with local Chinese designers like Feng Chen Wang. And for new brands that are considering to enter China, localization may start with the small things like the language on product packaging, models in marketing campaigns, whether the influencers it plans to work with cater to people with overseas/local background, etc., if they aren't ready to invest that much in localization, they can always start small and do some pop-ups to test the atmosphere.
Good points. Is it your sense that foreign interest is still very strong in vying for the Chinese consumer market, or have they backed away given the variety of geopolitical and economic factors that have sprung up?
I think there's still a lot of interest but marketing budget may be down in recent years due to the factors you mentioned. It doesn't make sense for businesses, especially the large ones, to give up on the 2nd largest consumer market. And if they pull out simply because of those concerns, it may cause further backlash.
From the business perspective, geopolitics is just one factor and is quite secondary compared to profits. Unless China does something that'd be so damaging to the foreign companies' image by association (i.e. invade Taiwan, etc.), there's no solid reason for them to exit unless the businesses are doing poorly.
I fell into the same trap as Evan--it’s hard to visit China as an outsider if your goal is to get a sense of the local mood... the people you end up talking to are naturally people in bigger cities inclined to talk to foreigners. In retrospect, it wasn’t surprising that people I came across shared basically my worldview.
I appreciate your introspection :D
Any links to other good takes on the Evan Osnos article? I agree it seemed a little basic
A good thread here: https://x.com/sanguoromcom/status/1717026682220237115?s=20
and here: https://x.com/CaiweiC/status/1717204235073249666?s=20