Sales and Marketing in China Proves More Difficult Than in the West

Western models of marketing have tried to dominate worldwide.  As countries like the United States, Germany, and Australia rose to become strong economic powers while globalization occurred, they attempted to push their sales and marketing techniques onto customers in other countries.  The thought was that styles which work at home on products should work anywhere on those same products, and ad campaigns were launched across the world in that spirit.

Of course, people do not work that way.  While Coca-Cola may stand for freedom, friendship, and fun in America, someone in China may not be interested in such things.  At the very least they will not be interested in the same ways and a message to them must be catered differently.  As powers came to see this, new projects were launched to crack the code of different states.  China, however, has proven to be a very difficult case.

Successful Strategies

Sales and marketing in China may not be as simple as in the United States or similar countries.  In the West, a model of branding has risen that provides steady results.  By appealing to the emotion of a customer companies have found they can usually find customers for their products.  Levi’s does not sell jeans – it sells comfort.  Coors does not sell beer; they sell the Rocky Mountain Way.

In China, branding has not proven as successful.  Some things have worked in this way, but for different reasons.  In the past, Levi’s have been popular in other countries not because they sell comfort, but because they are American.  By selling American products in foreign markets, companies were able to successfully brand.  But those days seem to be ending as new powers take America’s place and China tries to understand its own brand.

Finding a Solution

Much of the problem is that large markets cannot be pulled from the population.  While Americans can be divided into large groups of interests, it seems that is harder to do with the Chinese.  This makes it difficult to market a brand to a specific group because that group is rarely large enough to support such a marketing and sales campaign.

With time, it seems likely the key to sales and marketing in China will be found.  Certain things make certain people tick – you just have to find out what those things are.  The challenge companies face is not cracking the code, but rather cracking it before every other companies in China manages to.