Fig. 1: China has been hit by a serious of natuaral desasters lately. While Chinese companies and entrepreneurs have never been big philantropists, they discovered that publicized donations can contribute to positive PR. Fig. 1 shows an Australian representative donating money to the victims of the recent Qinghai earthquake disaster. 60 out of 62 available TV stations showed this gesture. Australia is a prime location for Chinese overseas investments and the leading country for Chinese language and international students.

In a Confucian society like China with a consumer value system based on principles like collectivism, family, respect and saving face, the fastest shortcut to bringing respect and glory to the group and family is through the display of famous brands. This is one of the main reasons for the success of such luxury brands as Louis Vuitton, BMW, Rolex and Armani in China.
In this chapter we will study the main aspect about Chinese consumers’ different responses when it comes to choosing a brand and how to use this knowledge to efficiently manage brands in China.

Definition

Marketing Communication are

“messages and related media used to communicate with a market.”

(source: Wikipedia)

Marketing Communication Management can be defined as the deliberate

“practice of advertising, branding, direct marketing, graphic design, marketing, packaging, promotion, publicity, sponsorship, public relations, sales, sales promotion and online marketing are termed marketing communicators, marketing communication managers, or more briefly as marcom managers.”

(source: Wikipedia)

Consumer preferences

Media habits

A recent survey conducted by McKinsey provides interesting insights into Chinese consumers' preferences of obtaining product information.

Tab. 1: Impact of various media in China as a source of information in the buyer's purchase decision making process.

With an average impact of 37% across China recommendations from friends and family ("word of mouth") have by far the most profound influence on  Chinese consumers, closely followed by television ("TV").

It should be noted that the percentages in Fig. are national averages. In some regions like e.g. in the South-west of China the influence of TV is reduced (only 19&) and the influence of word-to-mouth progaganda even strengthened (43%), which makes viral marketing the single most effective form of marketing communication in these regions. More about regional differences with respect to media habits of Chinese consumers can be found here.