Marketing to Chinese Men a Complex Task

The 18 July edition of Media magazine analysed various marketing strategies effective at reaching men in Asia. Eric Thain, account director in Beijing, offered his own views in a follow-up letter to the editor, which was published in Media on 1 June.

His thoughts offer a unique perspective into the consumer marketing environment in mainland China:

The world is changing. China is changing faster. For marketers and communicators, China remains one of the most challenging environments in the world. Changes in media happen as quickly as the landscape in Beijing and the whole nation gears up for the Olympics.

It is an era of contradiction and paradox. Growing prosperity is a certainty in China. In the certainty of the times lies the vast ambiguity of the future. China is going through a soul-searching phase. What is evident is that the people in China are treating themselves better. This has grown to an overall state of well being, whether from a consumerism, lifestyle or health point of view. However, that seems to be the only common knowledge marketers enjoy.

The Chinese character for “Man”

Sigmund Freud said there are two inherent desires that human beings enjoy: the desire to be appreciated and the desire for sex. It’s the same (maybe even more true) when talking to men. Marketers who can integrate both will rule the sky.

To achieve this, Chinese men in big cities such as Beijing or Shanghai aspire either to be cool or to be rich (better yet, to be both). The desire to be cool has grown fast as a way to express individuality. Along with it is the way cool is communicated. Relatively new brands to China, such as Diesel and Energie, are gaining a huge share of the young men’s market with cool and fashionable designs. Diesel has also begun to put a lot of advertising power in key communication channels, targeting both men and women with its ads. In the crowded cities, creativity and self expression are the fundamental characteristics for men to help define who they are. Concurrently, brands that have been around for a while in the country, e.g. Giordano and Textwood jeans, enjoy a healthy following with no need for heavy advertising campaigns.

In second-tier cities however, the aspiration to be affluent seems more prevalent. The existence of the “man bag” is still the icon of showing off wealth. Montagut successfully leverages the image of the affluent man to gain a big, grassroots following. Local fashion brands’ often apply this proven model for their TV commercials. 

The vast population makes targeting audiences correctly even more imperative. In China, there are more than 8,000 magazines, 2,000 newspapers and 2,900 TV stations. China’s media landscape is still experiencing development and reforms. So the key is where the brand chooses to speak to consumers in addition to how, which includes the Internet and blogs.

With China’s 130-million Net users (as of early 2007) and the existence of 45-million blogs (as of 2006), Net users are also commonly targeted with innovative and big-budget campaigns. MSN’s recent launch in China was first leveraged by Hugo to interactively reach millions of male consumers for the Hugo Energise male fragrance. Motorola and Reebok followed suit.

Finally, there is an old Chinese saying: “There is a woman behind every successful man”. Sometimes, marketers talk to women with the aim to reach men. For example, females buy an increasing amount of male fragrances as presents or play a key role in buying decisions. Biotherm places a lot of advertising emphasis in beauty magazines as both men and women aspire to its spokesperson Takeshi Kaneshiro. This contributed a lot to its successful launch into the Chinese male facial care market.

	Thailand MD Talks YouTube

Ken Hong, managing director, Thailand

Thailand has topped recent headlines with a ban on Net-based video service, YouTube. Reporting on recent efforts to shore up the state’s reputation, the Bangkok Post turned to Weber Shandwick’s managing director in that market, Ken Hong.

The high-profile, May 27, 2007 article, “Spinning a New Image,” extensively quoted Hong on how PR has become a force in Thai government and politics.

“Sooner or later, countries are going to realize that the way the international community perceives them on matters in business and politics is going to impact their bottom lines," said Hong.

He advised that openness and transparency are the key ingredients to good public relations:

"If people smell spin and propaganda, they shut you down right away. People have to believe you are being honest. Honesty is what separates effective communications from invisible PR."

Diving into the YouTube-blocking debacle, the article explained that while Hong “supports Thailand’s right to exercise its laws, he suggests spelling out and educating the international community on little-understood cultural laws in order to avoid conflict in the future.”

"Californians in Mountain View don't know about lese majeste laws," he said, adding that the situation could also be improved with more open communication to local citizens and the IT community.

"The decision makers in Thailand don't understand the IT community, where there's lots of knee-jerk, word-of-mouth exchanges. While the government might not consider this a priority audience, their negative perception of Thailand is well documented online and that influences others who read them. It’s no coincidence that many of the most influential bloggers are geeks."

“It's not just 18-year-olds anymore—communication is much faster among all audiences,” Hong continued. “The Internet has changed everything."

On 26 April 2007, billsdue (bbb.typepad.com/billsdue)—a blog about “China, Internet, Media, Virtual Worlds and Occasional Rants”—reported on the China launch of popular social-networking site, MySpace. “It is not clear why MySpace China will be successful. They don't seem to have anything special to offer, and they are late to join an already crowded field. The leader in China's social networking space is likely Sequoia China--backed 51.com, and they will also be competing with Baidu, Tencent, MSN (Luo Chuan's former employer) and many smaller sites.” (Click here to read entire post) In Touch approached experts in Weber Shandwick’s Asia Pacific Screengrab team for their thoughts on MySpace’ prospects in the country home to Asia’s largest population of netizens. Antony Cheng, senior consultant, Weber Shandwick in Beijing MySpace has a unique and huge global database, which distinguishes itself from local competitors. However, the Chinese market is also very unique and enormous, and sometimes typically successful marketing promotions and website structure, content and user interface do not work here. The key is how to make a tailored localisation to meet young people’s requirements, which are totally different from western people. Chinese people still remember the disappointing performance of Yahoo! China (now China Yahoo!). Even Google, the global internet giant, lost its leading position in China. The local industry doubts if MySpace can duplicate its success here or if it is just another Yahoo or Google. Maybe MySpace can learn from the lessons that Yahoo and Google have already found in China? Time will tell. Yeelim Lee, senior consultant, Weber Shandwick in Hong Kong Although it may be suggested that MySpace is a late comer to the China market given the existing sites available, the question of whether it will be successful is dependent on the criteria on which “success” is being measured.   I am sure MySpace isn't expecting to experience the same success as it has in the United States or Europe—It would be unrealistic given the time it is entering the market and the current players. However, given the prevalence of the brand, it probably expects to gain some market share. Loyal users of Baidu, Sequoia, MSN, etc., may use MySpace in parallel, whilst others may switch allegiance altogether. With the China market ever-growing and producing ever-more IT-literate youngsters, MySpace is certain to capture a percentage of the market.  In addition, with more and more of China's academics being educated abroad, brands such as MySpace are recognized and often de facto. Thus increasing demand is created when they return—adhering to a pattern other major global brands have created. So will MySpace be successful? I guess it really depends on what MySpace itself is setting out to achieve, but history shows that major brands eventually make it in China irrespective of substitute products and services.

Name: Claire Wang Position: Associate Director, Healthcare & Consumer Practice Office: Weber Shandwick in Taiwan Client: Mode Marie, a local lingerie design and sales company in Taiwan The Brief: The client requested a half-year PR plan to establish and promote a brand image; also to maximise media coverage for the brand and its products to benefit, indirectly, the sales volume. What made the pitch so interesting? Although Mode Marie has been around in the market for 15 years, there hasn’t really been a definitive brand spirit or image that the media or consumers could connect with. Therefore, the initial step of creating an “image” or “spirit” for the brand made the pitch become interesting and challenging. We had to work out how to connect with the Taiwanese audience’s heart. How did you pull off the plan? Focusing on special features of the spring/summer 2007 bra series, the team found out that the major design pattern of the season’s pick was the iris flower. Not only do irises convey grace, perfection, vitality, self-confidence, hope and wisdom, they can also be planted and will flourish in any weather or environmental condition. In other words, an iris symbolizes all kinds of women—despite confronting challenges, they hold strong faith in their strengths and elasticity to live their lives to the fullest. Centering on the spiritual essence of the iris, the team created a brand theme of “Love Yourself with Strength and Elasticity” to direct the half-year series of PR events and media dialogue. The team then adopted the emotional dimension of the brand theme “Strength and Elasticity” to correlate each woman—also our target consumers—with the brand. Who was there? Senior executives of the marketing team as well as the sales team were there to listen to our pitch team. On the day, we all dressed in yellow—the main color of an iris— to add a “flowery” touch. How did you create the buzz? During the pitch, we asked all participants, whether male or female, to close their eyes right before the brand theme came out. We wanted them to think about what kind of strengths make a woman glorious. Grace? Hope? Wisdom? Then we were able to connect all these symbolic meanings to an iris. What made the pitch succeed? The research effort and strategic thinking of our team cannot be over emphasized. However, our devoted passion for the brand and client’s products was most crucial. If you love and care for a brand, people can just feel it! What were the client's metrics on success? I believe the client was looking for a team with a high caliber of strategic thinking, planning and precise execution. Also, the braveness of accepting criticism, as well as the honesty to bring up our own criticism towards the client’s opinion, helped to win the trust of our client. What were the results? We won it! Is there anything you could have done better? Perhaps we could have considered bringing real irises to the pitch and have given each participant one for a more unforgettable “Iris and Elasticity” moment. Why was this a pitch to remember? We created an entire new brand theme, one that was based on strategic thinking for our client. It turned out that our client loved it!