SHANGHAI — The Chinese consumer has gone global, according to a new book charting the ascendancy of the country’s spenders.
“China’s Super Consumers: What 1 Billion Customers Want and How to Sell It to Them” is written by Tompkins International Consulting principal Michael Zakkour and Savio Chan, president and chief executive officer of U.S. China Partners, a privately held business-development firm.
“This is the largest, most world-changing, most important consumer class since the postwar Baby Boomers in America, and in much the same way American consumerism shaped the world in the second half of the 20th century, we think Chinese consumerism is going to shape the world in the first half of the 21st century,” Zakkour said.
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The authors, whose book is touted as more than simply a “China 101” guide to doing business, are quick to stress the importance of an intimate understanding of culture, history, philosophy and mind-set, in order to grasp the nuances of the Middle Kingdom’s current purchasing power and the ways in which it is, and will be, yielded.
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“What I’m seeing out there with the dozens of companies I work with is that they are [in China] now and wondering: How do we really make this work? How do we expand intelligently? How do we localize intelligently? How do we plan for the future and absorb more local talent? How do we really ‘Chinafy’ to a much deeper degree?” Zakkour continued, adding that a key message of the book is the globalization of Chinese consumers and the need for brands and retailers to treat them as a worldwide, rather than simply China-based, demographic.
“If you’re a luxury brand, fashion brand or big jewelry and accessory brand, you need to integrate what you’re doing in China with what you’re doing in New York, with what you’re doing in Paris, with what you’re doing online,” he said.
The outdated idea of only being able to access Chinese consumers within China is one of the most common misconceptions coauthor Chan came across.
More than 100 million Chinese will travel abroad this year, and that number is expected to double by 2020, according to independent brokerage and investment group CSLA, whose research also points to a tripling in Chinese tourist spend over the next six years.
“One of the biggest myths is that people who are based in America don’t understand how they can impact China. They think, I’m not Chanel, Louis Vuitton or Ferragamo; to me, China doesn’t mean anything,” Chan said. “This is wrong. Chinese consumers are a global demographic. Even if you don’t want to leave New York, San Francisco or Oklahoma, you can still benefit.”
An easy way for Western brands and retailers to tap into this rapidly growing demographic of Chinese global consumers, according to Chan, is not to expect them to access information the same way Western customers do. Even without a presence on the Mainland, consumer information can be gathered in stores around the world and used to reach Chinese shoppers, wherever they may be.
“I am guiding a client now, a very high-end diamond retailer, and I keep telling them, ‘Do not let a Chinese customer out of the store without scanning their WeChat ID. You need to use the tools they use,’ ” Chan said. “We use Facebook and LinkedIn, but they don’t use them at all.”