Launching Your Brand in China – Three Top Tips for Success
China’s roaring economy is driving businesses from around the world to “sign when there are good”. This philosophy has allowed other investors that make sense to ignore the usual due diligence work that will last about market entry strategies elsewhere in the world.
Mattel and Best Buy are the two high-profile victim of a failure to understand the China market and how to maintain the brand in the country. Here are three tips to help you ensure your company does not make the same mistake.
Brand Aspiration
Brand is a relatively new concept in China, but with a certain class of people found themselves to be very, very rich aspirational brand is quickly able to increase their market share.
But market research is essential to determine whether China aspires to participate in your brand.
Localization
Size-fits-all approach will not always help, and once again the market research should help determine whether something will work or not in China. Color and the numbering scheme in particular need to check carefully to ensure they are “lucky” than those associated with death for example.
Starting in the Outback
Big bang launch of the Tier 1 cities like Beijing and Shanghai may be of interest, but if you fail in the locations you automatically fail everywhere.
Do not forget that the “face” is an important concept in China and if you’re wasting your brand stamped by running before you can walk, you will never again face a lost or customers that go with it.
China offers great opportunities but the way the Chinese are not in a hurry, and do not have to approach you to enter the market in a hurry. Approaching the country in a structured way to plan a step-by-step may not be glamorous like setting up a business in the entire upper tier cities and spending millions on marketing, but it has proven far more successful
