China calling

Mar 09, 2023 by Mark Baines Category: Business, Marketing, Social Media

Is the Chinese market in your crosshairs?

I’ve been doing some research and it is awesome how large it is. Here are some stats to either make your blood run cold or to fill you with excitement, depending if you’re a ‘glass half empty/full’ kind of person:

China has a consumer market of 3.2 billion;
In which GenZ is responsible for 38% of consumer spending;
25% of all the digital marketing spend in the world happens in China;
Over 13m videos are uploaded a day to Chinese social media.

I could go on, but I’m exhausted just typing out these facts. It is massive. Everything about it is massive. And that means your investment, in terms of commitment, time and money has to be massive too.

…go at it full throttle, or go home.

You can’t just play at it, or ‘dip a toe in the water’ – you either go at it full throttle, or go home. And that applies to B2B as much as consumer marketing – there are more trains and carriages on one typical cross-country railway line than there are in the whole of the UK!

Influencer marketing is a vital part of any campaign.

The predominance of social media is so great that you need to base your segmentation on behaviour rather than the traditional European values of age, job title etc. Having characterised and found your target market, you then need to be able to be able to engage with them, not preach to them. Influencer marketing is a vital part of any campaign. Even in B2B marketing, influencers have a disproportionate effect on sales.

You also have to be aware that there is such a big choice of social media in China that a platform or influencer can appear from nowhere or be dropped in a very short period of time. I read about one pop star who turned his attention to a sportswear brand and got 50m followers within 2 weeks!

So if you are interested in the Chinese market please let me know, and I’ll connect you to an appropriate Chinese agency – there’s no point in adding it to your UK agency’s list of ‘to-do’s’!

Mark Baines