The Truth Behind the Aspirational Growth in Luxury Sales in China
Many execs from the world’s luxury brands are likely to be toasting the resilient Chinese consumers who are the bright spot in otherwise abysmal sales. As LMVH’s global sales contracted 38% between...
View ArticleThe End of Something Big in China
Welcome back, we hope you had a great break if you’re based in China. As many of the 637 million trips were ending last week, so to was Jack Ma’s board position at Alibaba Group, as he took a further...
View ArticleHow China’s Demographic Shifts Will Impact Consumer Behaviour
Not long after the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, Chairman Mao declared motherhood to be a patriot duty to build manpower. Whilst there was no official policy, government...
View ArticleNew Innovative Marketing in China
Digital advertising has dominated media spend for some time in China. By 2019, brands were spending more than one and half times of their advertising budget on Alibaba platforms than they spent on...
View ArticleSustainability and Environmental Branding in China
2003 was the year that China surpassed the EU for greenhouse emissions. By 2019, emissions from China were more than four times that of the EU’s 27 member states combined, and over 30% more per capita....
View ArticleOnline Delivery in China is Nothing Short of Gobsmacking!
The 618 mid-year shopping festival is now in full swing and is breaking more records, which seems to happen with every subsequent online shopping festival these days in China. Yet one of the...
View ArticleLessons From L’Oréal’s Shanghai Concept Store for Creating Engaging Retail...
Brick-and-mortar retail has been hit hard by Covid the world over. People have stayed away from physical stores, opting for the safety of shopping from their own homes. Although China’s containment of...
View ArticleWhy China’s Rising Second-Hand Market is Important to all Brands
A little over 40 years ago the “four big things” in China – a radio, a wristwatch, a bicycle and a sewing machine – were regarded as the symbols of material success. Things have clearly changed since....
View ArticleKeeping Up With China’s Evolving Customer Journeys
The drivers that determine what Chinese consumers buy and where they buy it have shifted. Shoppers are placing much more emphasis on the experience, the convenience, the service and increasingly being...
View ArticleAccessible Data For Chinese Marketing Decisions
We often talk about rising obesity in China, but the other end of the spectrum is just as concerning. China has had a historic obsession with beauty. This beauty is largely defined as a one-dimensional...
View ArticleTime to Evolve Your China Marketing Strategy Beyond Pricing & Discounting
A few months ago, Kantar released their 2021 Beauty Industry White Paper sharing observations and analysis that can assist brands to refine their strategies in the category. Many of the findings are...
View ArticleChina’s Skyrocketing Wealth and the Challenges of Common Prosperity
Like many Skinny readers, we’ve watched with interest as big numbers have rolled out of China over the years. GDP has ascended from $1.2 trillion to $14.7 trillion over the past two decades. The number...
View ArticleHow Do We Communicate With Teams and Distributors in China?
Work-related communications have changed a lot since the pandemic hit last January. In China, increased remote working, coupled with intermittent challenges travelling domestically and virtually...
View ArticleThe Christmas Spirit is as Alive as Ever in China
Around this time every year, foreign papers typically have articles about incidents such as arrests in China for selling Christmas paraphernalia, churches being shut down, the odd university banning...
View ArticleHow KFC Was Too Successful Marketing in China
Every brand wants their campaigns to be runaway successes in China. Yet, like many marketing peculiarities in China, you need to be careful that they aren’t too successful as KFC recently discovered....
View ArticleSurprise, Surprise: Brands are Spending Less on Celebs in China
Last month, there were less than half as many celebrity marketing events in China as a year ago according to a report from Shiqu. The events were undoubtedly impacted by the extended tough lockdowns...
View ArticlePR Management in China: A Tale of Three Brands
Here is a tale of three brands, each who have seen quite different outcomes in China over the past-12 months. They provide valuable lessons in public relations (PR) in China’s increasingly sensitive...
View ArticleShould Food Brands Promote their Regional Provenance in China?
It was March 2021 when the EU-China agreement protecting geographical indications (GIs) came into force. This aimed to recognise and protect around 200 distinct agri-food producing regions. It included...
View ArticleWhat Brands Should Make of China’s Accelerating Innovation
Over the years, China has made the headlines for its cottage industry of fakes, from infant formula to condoms to fake zoo animals. This has left many with an impression that China is a nation of...
View ArticleLessons for Brands in China from 618
That ‘other big shopping festival’ on China’s calendar, 618, wrapped up over the weekend providing many lessons for brands in China. It also acts as a barometer to gauge Chinese consumers’ appetite for...
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