Looking to build your Western brand in China? Whether you’re new to the Chinese market or looking to grow an existing brand, it’s an exciting proposition and one with huge potential too. After all, China is one of the world’s biggest consumer markets and the Chinese love quality Western products!

However, the size and scope of China as a market can make it daunting. It’s also incredibly complex and technologically sophisticated – far more so than the West in many ways.

So before seeking to build your Western brand in China, it’s helpful to pause before you launch into tactics. Here are some tips to help guide your direction in the most profitable way.

1. Take time to understand the China market

China is vast, fragmented, complex, and increasingly wealthy. Its culture is a fascinating blend of ancient and modern, which is nuanced, contextual and incredibly complex. Chinese people are also sophisticated consumers who absolutely rely on their smartphones to carry out every aspect of their lives.

It’s very easy to assume that China is simply a bigger version of European markets, but it is different in many ways. Western brands that are successful with their Chinese brand building invest time and effort into deeply understanding the market beforehand.

From here they will invest heavily in identifying their target market, their customer’s characteristics, and customer personas that they can focus on when creating their marketing.

Rather than diving into marketing channel plans, it can be helpful to focus on this information-building stage first and create a clear picture that guides tactical delivery. This stage might involve primary research, as well as secondary data gathering.

2. Focus on long-term marketing investments

A few years ago, Western brands would simply translate their local content into Chinese, and launch their existing brand into the China market in the hope it would work in this new market. But increasingly today, Western brands are taking the time and effort needed to commission fresh and bespoke Chinese-targeted content.

This is important because Chinese customers have their own specific needs, wants and desires, and they want to see brands seeking to understand and respond to them. The more effort you take to do this, the more respect you show, and the more sophisticated, relevant, and appealing your brand will be.

3. Localise with care

Investing in Chinese localised marketing is increasingly essential. This means creating targeted content, focusing on Chinese-optimised user journeys, creating bespoke digital assets and choosing the right KOLs. It also means being mindful of censorship and working within a different framework of rules.

This can be more time-consuming than simply translating your existing Western campaigns, but the results will be better.

This approach will also minimise the chances of inadvertently causing offence with a clumsy or thoughtless translation, whether by the brand itself, or its content. Even the biggest, most sophisticated global brands have made clumsy translation or localisation efforts that resulted in anything from humour to boycotting!

Chinese culture is so contextual that it is easy to make a mistake if you don’t have access to a blend of native language skills and Chinese digital marketing.

4. Maximise your ROI

By understanding what Chinese customers value, you can focus your efforts to the best effect. For example, Chinese customers value online advertising more than Western customers, who see it as a distraction or source of irritation.

In China, quality adverts demonstrate a good, reliable brand and they appreciate content that informs them about a brand and its offer. So Baidu PPC can be a great way to drive traffic, especially in the early days as your brand seeks to gain a foothold in your target market.

By tightly defining your target market – even down to individual tier cities as well as age/income/gender and /interest demographics, you can enjoy better results and start to build your database for ongoing decision-making and campaign metrics.

5. Get your digital foundation in place

Yes, you’ve probably heard about live streaming events and the use of VR in Chinese marketing… but unless you’ve started with the basics, it’s best to build your brand presence from the bottom up!

Chinese digital marketing is powerful and complex, and the starting point is to get your foundation in place with a locally hosted, Chinese UX-optimised website designed specifically for your target Chinese market. From this point, you can integrate apps and social media, create relevant landing pages for your PPC and build your ranking with SEO.

But a quality, localised Chinese-hosted website is your starting point. Remember that Chinese customers cannot access many website hosted in the West, including Google, Facebook, Instagram and so forth, so start from the beginning to ensure no Western sites, plugins or links affect your Chinese site.

6. Start with the social media basics

Similarly, start with the basics of social media! There are far more social media channels and platforms in China than there are in the West, ranging from huge super apps such as WeChat to niche apps, such as Weipinhui (Vipshop) which is popular for integrated discount fashion e-commerce amongst Gen Z customers – particularly luxury international fashion.

So rather than trying to do everything all at once, focus on carefully chosen basics. Understand which platforms are used by your target audience and focus on creating a solid brand presence with regular, targeted content, engagement, and advertising.

Measure your work and begin to understand what works well and what needs to be adjusted. This will help you to achieve a stronger ROI as you grow and ramp up your efforts.

7. Work with Key Opinion Leaders

In the West, the perception of influencers varies greatly. But in the West, Key Opinion Leaders, or KOLs, are valued, and their followers listen to their recommendations and advice. There are thousands of KOLs and they each have their own niche follower base, depending on their focus area and specialisms.

Brands can do very well partnering with KOLs who have smaller follower bases if they are strongly aligned with their own customer demographic. The key lies in finding the right KOL and arranging a partnership arrangement that unlocks the right results.

8. Find a digital partner

Your success at brand-building in China can be maximised – and achieved faster – by choosing a Chinese digital marketing agency that can act as your partner. Market Me China works with Western brands across all industries to create and deliver powerful Chinese digital marketing strategies that attract and convert customers.

Our friendly and highly experienced digital professionals have the native language skills and expertise needed to get results, and we work as flexible partners to our clients, in the way that best suits their needs.

Find out more

Please contact us today to find out more and for a no-obligation chat about your goals. With our evidence-based approach and excellent track record, we are here to support you with quality Chinese digital marketing services in 2024.