It is estimated that that the population of China middle class is over 100 million. The middle class is the main consumption of so many products like watch, cosmetics, handbag, garment, jewels, car, wine, coffee, arts, tourism, gym, high-end education, and so on. While marketing to China, foreign companies should pay more attention to the middle class.
JyS China, through our own local knowledge and long observation, explores some interesting differences in psychology and behavior of the Chinese middle class from the westerners'.
A visit to a middle-class Chinese home can reveal amazingly insightful things. One would trade up and trade down both at the same time because there is not enough money to go around. People spend their money on products that make them feel and look good or give them social status. It can be clothes, mobile phones, fragrances or skin-care products. They don't spend money on products their friends and neighbors can't see. They may not be willing to pay premium prices for products like window cleaner or shoe polish. Additionally, a couple with a child will spend a lot on that child.
A Chinese middle class may say, "I can trade down on my car." He may decide that a car is no longer important, even if he is making more money than he ever has before. If he has additional savings or income, he might decide to buy better kinds of wine, to impress other people, and spend less on a car. He is balancing his portfolio, so to speak. This happens all the time for Chinese middle class.
Chinese middle class, especially the affluent, has the need to seek some form of expression by buying brands and wearing them as a badge. They buy brand -- not necessarily because they need the esteem and want to stand out, but because they actually want to fit in with everyone else who buys the brand goods. That is to say they buy brands so as "not to be left behind."
What makes marketing to China a challenge is how to position products with sufficient flexibility so that they can really touch target China middle class. Taking Oil of Olay as an example, Oil of Olay under Procter & Gamble, is an aspirational brand, not a common drug-store brand as in West, where Oil of Olay is about telling women to love their skin. In China the ads say, 'Oil of Olay will get you a handsome husband.'
