What Chinese Want
Culture, Communism and the Modern Chinese Consumer
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4.8 • 5 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
What Chinese Want provides a sweeping look at contemporary Chinese consumer behavior, how its cultural influences separate it from the West, and how marketers and businesses can harness the natural strengths of this age-old civilization to succeed there.
Today, most Americans take for granted that China will be the next global superpower. But despite the nation's growing influence, the average Chinese person is still a mystery - or, at best, a baffling set of seeming contradictions - to Westerners who expect the rising Chinese consumer to resemble themselves. Here, Tom Doctoroff, the guiding force of advertising giant J. Walter Thompson's (JWT) China operations, marshals his 20 years of experience navigating this fascinating intersection of commerce and culture to explain the mysteries of China. He explores the many cultural, political, and economic forces shaping the twenty-first-century Chinese and their implications for businesspeople, marketers, and entrepreneurs - or anyone else who wants to know what makes the Chinese tick. Dismantling common misconceptions, Doctoroff provides the context Westerners need to understand the distinctive worldview that drives Chinese businesses and consumers, including:
- Why family and social stability take precedence over individual self-expression and the consequences for education, innovation, and growth;
- Their fundamentally different understanding of morality, and why Chinese tolerate human rights abuses, rampant piracy, and endemic government corruption; and
- The long and storied past that still drives decision making at corporate, local, and national levels.
Change is coming fast and furious in China, challenging not only how the Western world sees the Chinese but how they see themselves. From the new generation's embrace of Christmas to the middle-class fixation with luxury brands; from the exploding senior demographic to what the Internet means for the government's hold on power, Doctoroff pulls back the curtain to reveal a complex and nuanced picture of a fascinating people whose lives are becoming ever more entwined with our own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With insight and energy, Doctoroff (Billions), Greater China CEO for J. Walter Thompson, takes on the daunting task of explaining the Chinese character to business executives looking to enter that market. Though China's economy and people are evolving rapidly, traditional culture still shapes the Chinese people both as businesspeople and consumers. The Chinese focus heavily on "standing out to fit in"; Doctoroff spins out this tendency to describe its effect on the rise of Chinese brands, recession tactics, digital China, e-commerce, piracy, consumerism, the new middle class, a booming luxury market, and society and hierarchy. Doing business requires an understanding of how to persuade consumers that the product will help them climb the social ladder but not in a showy fashion. However, as Doctoroff suggests, though China is well positioned to become an economic superpower, it is not a threat to the U.S., and it will be decades before the country is poised to compete with the West on a global scale. The Chinese, infatuated with us, don't want to beat us but to match our scale and ambition. This in-depth, lively pr cis of modern-day China is an invaluable guide to anyone hoping to do business in the fast-growing Eastern market.
