The Growth of China Cool
More Chinese consumers buy domestic as China re-vamps its image.
Trend Description
Just a few years ago China had just joined the World Trade Organization, and the country was locked in a fervent embrace with globalization in its whirlwind rush to modernize. Western stuff was cool. Chinese stuff was not. The hippest hangouts, the places where China’s trend-conscious and A-crowd would gather, like Shanghai’s M on the Bund, served Western food, relegating Chinese high cuisine to old-fashioned formal banquets. Outlets such as McDonald’s and Starbucks began cropping up everywhere. Luxury retailers piled in too - Hugo Boss, Cartier, Louis Vuitton et al. all joined the fray.
Being “Western” was synonymous with superior quality, technology and prestige. Newly wealthy Chinese, wanting to show off their success with displays of affluence, did what was natural for nouveaux riches everywhere - they bought expensive Western products and showed them off to their friends.
Today, however, there’s a slow but noticeable change occurring in the Chinese consumer market. Growing self-confidence and pre-Olympic nationalism has meant that Chinese consumers are increasingly buying Chinese. Many mainland companies have stopped churning out poor quality goods, designing and manufacturing products that can compete with those made in the West, and often cost a fraction of the price.
A recent survey by McKinsey of 800 teenagers found that 88 percent trust Chinese brands, compared with 65 percent who say the same of foreign ones. The reasons are many, including a spate of stories about “safety issues” involving foreign consumer products and food. However, the perceived improved quality of Chinese brands is a major factor. These brands, including Haier and Lenovo appliances, Aigo electronics and Geely and Chery cars, aren’t well-known outside China (yet), but epitomize the rising fortunes of China and China’s changing image.
Image source: Shanghai Tang
Case Studies
Cool Food: Beijing’s Lan Club
China’s coolest restaurant is now Chinese – since its recent opening Lan Club’s chic design has wowed visitors. Financial movers and shakers mix with Beijing’s beautiful people in a cavernous space of 64,000 square feet.
The neo-Baroque Philippe Starck decor trumps the contemporary Chinese menu, with a sumptuous interior presenting oil paintings and glass chandeliers set against a luscious palette of jewel tones. Starck’s signature furniture - impossibly long tables, sleek chairs, gold-plated stools - spills throughout the enormous room.
Image source: Webshots
Cool Architecture: Ma Yansong
It’s not often that Chinese-designed architecture can be described as “sexy”, but then Beijing-based architect Ma Yansong’s work has never been that conventional. Ma was catapulted into the international spotlight after his design for two 50-story tower blocks in Canada won an international competition last year. Dubbed the “Marilyn Monroe buildings” for their voluptuous curves, the Absolute Towers in Mississauga have been hailed by critics all over the world for their shapely, innovative form.
By winning the Absolute contract, MAD became the first Chinese architectural company to win an overseas competition. This landmark achievement opened the international floodgates - now the company is poised to become the first international and global Chinese practice, opening an office in Tokyo, and embarking on projects in South America and Europe. A MAD-designed house in Denmark will soon become the first to be constructed solely from Chinese materials, shipped from China to the point of construction.
Image source: MAD
Cool Art: Zhang Xiaogang
Zhang Xiaogang is now one of China’s best-known contemporary artists. For years, his works - like those of other avant-garde artists of his generation - could not be exhibited in China, often because they were deemed too modern or questionable.
Today his paintings are not only collected by wealthy Westerners and leading foreign museums, but are increasingly fashionable among well-to-do Chinese and are being exhibited in China’s state-run museums and galleries.
At a time when China’s contemporary-art scene is red-hot, with dozens of galleries opening in Beijing and other cities and works being auctioned for record prices, few artists are as celebrated as Zhang Xiaogang, and his paintings are now selling routinely for as much as US$200,000.
Image source: Saatchi Gallery
Trend Impact
An increasingly popular means of engaging Chinese consumers is to generate brand-related content, especially in light of the growing importance of the internet in China marketing strategy. Brands need to adapt rapidly and constantly to create excitement and relevance in the Chinese market. Nike, for example, has stood out in introducing sports-related hip-hop culture into China, while at the same time appealing to China’s nationalistic pride and culture.
Brands need to be intrinsically linked to Chinese people’s lifestyles. Promotional events and targeted advertising remain options available to companies that want to generate involvement. However, in the context of China’s growing “sinofication”, foreign players have to learn how to tailor their strategies to fit in with the country’s unique values, beliefs and love of status. For successful Western companies this involves research and careful strategic planning – merely having a Western name is no longer a guarantee of sales.
Trends come and go in China and the local audience is often quick to jump on and off the bandwagon. Beyond status, companies need to create the kind of chatter often associated with cool products. They need to generate buzz. This is as close as China’s “cool hunters” have come to finding their Holy Grail, and almost without exception buzz generation starts in large urban centers where people have higher incomes, more choice and more media.