China is a complex market, with many nuances to understand across different provinces and generations. One of the most common mistakes while targeting Chinese consumers, is to forget the segmentation, and that each individual is different regardless the fact that may be influenced by the same external factors.
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Knowing your audience is essential to strengthen communication effectiveness, and at the same time understand that e-commerce platforms are not to be seen as transactional places, but spaces where brands and customers interact in the same way that it happens offline, just faster and more conveniently for the consumers as they can do it from anywhere at any time.
TLG Commerce, e-commerce agency based in China, whose clients span from cosmetics to fashion, has recently completed a study on fashion and China, and gathered market challenges and best practices to better picture Chinese consumers.
Part 1 released earlier discusses the relationship between fashion, its luxury declination, China and its specificity, e-commerce, leaving us with the rise of product categories such as footwear and accessory.
Part 2 continues the journey into the market by profiling customers, and channels.
Chapter 8 profiles the notorious Millennials within the fast-pace environment of China, where individuals are tech-savvy and hyperconnected, but more importantly they use internet to spot trends and brands to be the trend setters. In this sense, “being the first” is the new black.
Chapter 9 provides a review of e-commerce channels in China, highlighting the two major giants, but more importantly analysing smaller players with capabilities of bringing innovation.
Chapter 10 presents marketing channels in China and besides the platforms, it also discusses influencer marketing and provides examples of KOLs to consider within the sector of fashion across channels.
Chapter 11 examines the success of players in China. Among them, there are luxury brands, but besides brand awareness, one and key and fundamental factor of their success is in the ability to adapt to new generations of consumers without diluting the brand DNA. The discussion brings up how marketing strategies are equally important to product development.
Chapter 12 summarizes challenges and opportunities of the market sharing best practices and key learnings from operating the market. TLG Commerce has a strong knowledge of Chinese market and they key learning from the study is that segmenting the market and understanding the target audience enables brands to elaborate the correct strategy and choose the right tools to make communication effective in a way that the product is perceived in its authentic nature. This based on the main challenge while operating in a foreign market that communication distorts from the sender to the recipient diluting the key message and projecting an image, which may not reflect the intention of the marketer.
In the specific case of China, customer-centric, localized communication, and seamless experience across channels are key in the development of a successful brand.
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Part 2
Ch. 8 Understanding Chinese customers Millennials
Ch. 9 Chinese e-commerce channels
Ch. 10 The best marketing channels in China
Ch. 11 Successful players in China’s fashion industry
Ch. 12 The Chinese Fashion industry: Challenges and Best Practices