How to reach Chinese consumers effectively in North America?

By now, it’s no surprise that Chinese consumers offer a major marketing opportunity for brands and businesses in North America. Research shows that almost 1.2 million Chinese residents in Canada account for $61 billion in consumer spending. 

The question is — what is the most effective way to capture the Chinese audience? It is important to understand their purchase behaviours and media usage. A deep understanding of the nuances of Chinese culture, the language, and the media platforms is key to the success of your marketing strategy. 

Here are some tips for your brands to target Chinese consumers in North America:

1. Social media is an extremely powerful tool 

Image via Ecommerce China

Our most recommended channels include WeChat, Sina Weibo, Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), TikTok, and online forums. These platforms hold most of the opportunities for your business to raise awareness and create leads with engaging marketing strategies.

WeChat is king for the Chinese audience, not Facebook or Instagram. Your brand should have a WeChat official account, acting almost similar to a traditional website. It offers a place for your business to post content, receive messages, build your brand, and create loyalty.

Weibo is often called the “Chinese Twitter”, and is a good mix of Facebook and Instagram. Xiaohongshu combines features of Amazon, Pinterest, and Instagram that allows its users not only to share lifestyle or product experience, but to purchase branded products. TikTok is a video-sharing platform with genres like dance, comedy, and education. 

Image via Walk the Chat

2. Offer information in Chinese and adapt your messaging 

Image via Hypebeast

This group prefers to consume content in their ethnic language. Chinese-language informational materials, such as printed messages, signs, and videos are more likely to be noticed and appreciated. 

Reaching this demographic requires more than just translation. They identify themselves mostly with Chinese culture. One of the most effective ways to promote your brand is to integrate Chinese traditional cultural elements into your marketing content.  

3. Work together with the local community

Image via JingDaily

Another effective marketing method is to create a group chat for gathering information and generating discussions on WeChat. 

Brands can also consider working with local Chinese KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders). They are influencers who are able to demonstrate and highlight products, giving more confidence to future buyers.

4. Understand tastes and preferences

Image via Barron’s

China's luxury market has proved unstoppable. They have shown to be high purchasing, especially in luxury retail. Reports show that the majority of Chinese, about 70 per cent, prefer their luxury spending overseas.

Doing adequate research into the styles, trends, and interests in the target demographic will help in tailoring the message (and products) to the Chinese audience. As well, understanding the mentality behind status and exclusivity can help drive marketing efforts.

At Spotlight West Communications, we help agencies and brands reach the large Chinese consumer market through websites and digital platforms. Experienced in identifying potential customers, trends, and purchasing habits, our team helps in developing online and offline marketing strategies. 

Connect with us at info@spotlightwest.ca or follow our social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to find out more about Chinese social trends or marketing tips!

The Complete Guide for your Mid-Autumn Festival marketing

Symbolizing the Chinese celebration of harvest and reunion, the Mid-Autumn Festival appears to be extra special this year — with China’s National Day and Golden Week all aligning at the same time. 

Having previously talked about the various traditions of the festival on our #SpotOn blog — we want to take time in 2020 to look at some intriguing examples of Mid-Autumn marketing ideas, from popular global brands.

Let’s start with Netflix’s collaboration with Pearl Studio and Lady M, the world-renowned luxury dessert brand, on an initiative to promote the upcoming animated musical Over the Moon. Fusing both Eastern and Western elements, the collaboration offers a limited-edition mooncake gift box housed in a lantern-shaped package, with a light-up feature and paper cutting details depicting scenes from the highly anticipated film. 

It’s a perfect balance of creative ideas, while showcasing the initiative and truly reflecting on the festival spirit.

View fullsize

Netflix’s Mid-Autumn collaboration with Pearl Studio and Lady M

Branded gift boxes are indeed a great approach to secure publicity in a timely manner, while offering customers a memorable experience that’s closely associated with brand identity. 

Last year, mooncake packages from Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and Fendi all made it into Weibo’s trending list, with their exquisitely designed gift boxes.

Loewe

Louis Vuitton

Tiffany & Co.

Fendi

American chocolatier Godiva also recently debuted their immersive pop-up at Fashion Zoo, an annual fashion exhibition in Shanghai. Featuring a golden colour palette that gives off some major autumn vibes, the photogenic space highlights their latest mooncake collections, which are artfully decorated with patterns of full moon and peony.

Godiva's Mid-Autumn Pop-up at Shanghai Fashion Zoo

Apart from branded gift boxes and pop-up activations, content creation also plays an extremely crucial role when it comes to engaging the Chinese market — especially with the younger demographics (mainly the millennials and Gen Z) who are always hungry for unique experiences and ideas. 

Luxury automobile companies such as BMW and Audi have all become skillfully adept at incorporating relevant Chinese trends into their marketing messaging — but no brand has come close so far to the trendsetter reputation that Durex China has established, with the mind-blowing creativity they continue to demonstrate each year.

Mid-Autumn Poster by BMW

Mid-Autumn Poster by Audi

Mid-Autumn Poster by Durex China

Feeling a bit inspired by these ideas? Are you trying to plan out marketing strategies for the rest of the year, to engage with more Chinese customers? Great news — we can help!

Talk to us about Chinese traditions, fun social media trends, or marketing tips to reach your desired Chinese demographics — just drop us a message at info@spotlightwest.ca, or say hello on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn!

Navigating COVID: How the fashion industry is adapting

Across Europe, China, and North America, fashion brands are having to come up with creative solutions in an attempt to stay relevant during these challenging times. Take Bottega Veneta for example.

With efforts to limit in-person shopping by enhancing the at-home experience, their team sent editors and influencers a projector for an immersive display of their menswear film — a gesture that goes beyond simply posting the video on their social media. 

Brands are also focusing on how to continue capturing the Chinese audience. Since China has rebounded earlier from the pandemic than other countries, luxury brands are depending on Chinese consumers and their domestic shopping habits, especially with international travel still limited.

For Burberry, sales in Mainland China grew more than 30% in June but fell 20% worldwide. To ride the momentum, the British label is partnering with Chinese tech giant Tencent to open their first “social retail” store in Shenzhen.

With rewards that can be unlocked through WeChat mini-games and an in-store cafe, the idea is to merge interactive experiences with conventional shopping to appeal to the tech-savvy younger generation in Shenzhen. 

Shanghai was the first major fashion week to experiment hosting the event completely virtual, as they live streamed in late March through Alibaba-operated e-commerce website Tmall. This allowed viewers to instantly purchase items as it rolled out the runway.

In June, London Fashion Week was also virtual. Despite fashion houses’ efforts to put on a full production, the three-day spectacle was met with 55% less social media engagement than London’s other 2020 shows in January and February.

Even Jacquemus’ physically distanced outdoor show with select friends and family in attendance received only half of its earned media value compared to a year before.

Although transitioning to digital events and scaling down shows produced less than optimal results, brands are not shying away from this opportunity to continue showcasing new collections while supporting their staff and teams.

Upcoming shows in Copenhagen and Stockholm are on track to be completely virtual and some fashion houses are eager to present to small, physically distanced audiences. Luxury brands are more open to redefining strategies within the fashion industry regardless of the tepid response and low numbers. 

Perhaps this new normal only needs some getting used to.

Five Essential Tips For Your Chinese New Year Marketing Plan

Year of the Pig is just around the corner! For any brand looking to establish a reputation or achieve sales and marketing goals with Chinese consumers, the Spring Festival is definitely an important time of the year.

Figuring out customer patterns under a different cultural background is exhausting, not to mention that there are so many cultural elements or implications to be aware of for Chinese New Year. We’re here to help!

1. The Essentials — What’s the most important element of Chinese New Year?

There are some who compare Chinese New Year to Christmas. Apart from the same shopping fever and decorating pressures, Chinese New Year focuses more on the idea of family and reunion.

This has to do with the fact that family values are an extremely important part of Chinese culture, and have been emphasized throughout history.

Numerous brands take this value into crafting their marketing messages to encourage reliability to the Chinese consumers, usually by showcasing family reunions in their campaigns. But is it enough?

2. Add Seasoning — What else do Chinese people like to spend time on?

There’s no better time than the New Year to indulge in Asians’ obsession with food. In fact, you may have underestimated the significance of their food culture. There’s an old proverb “民以食为天” which can be translated to “People consider food to be the primary need”.

Instead of “How are you?”, many Chinese people today still prefer the old-fashioned greeting, “Have you eaten yet?” After all, it’s not common to have eight different types of cuisine specific to one country — which makes it perfectly understandable that so much pride is taken in food.

3. Dig Deeper — Show that you’ve done your research

Painting your products red or simply slapping a zodiac animal sign on top of your logo doesn’t work anymore. To truly relate to the audience, show that you’ve actually invested time and done research.

Think about these questions: What do Chinese people like to do in their spare time? What TV shows do they watch? What are the hottest online trends on Weibo? What’s the latest popular sing-along song on Tiktok? What common phrases do they say these days?

Find that element which not only resonates with the generation you’re targeting, but also represents your brand voice.

4. Ask Locals — Identify and connect with relevant influencers

With a current population of 1.4 billion, China holds significant value to any brand or company. Although the country has prohibited access to western social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (you can only access using VPN tools), this has certainly given rise to a flooding number of Chinese social media sites.

Major global brands like Chanel, Adidas, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, have all been adept at taking advantage of the massive KOL resources in China — and the results have proven to be very successful. Jing Daily has also suggested working with more niche mid-tier and micro KOLs, to reach your core target audience.

5. No Hard Sell — Don’t make everything about your brand

We get it. You have amazing products, and you believe it will be a huge hit in the Chinese market. But let’s face it — nobody likes hard sells, no matter how great the product or service. When it comes to reaching audience from a different culture, we suggest taking baby steps. Focus on showcasing their culture first, before working your way to engaging them with your product.

To learn more about Chinese traditions, social media trends, or marketing tips to reach the Chinese community — drop us a message at info@spotlightwest.ca! You can also reach us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn!