Stylus Marketing To Chinese Youth
- 2. CONSUMER LIFESTYLE
Marketing to Chinese Youth
It’s the biggest youth market in the world, but how much do we really know about it? Stylus spoke to
American Michael Clauss, who has become a specialist on the subject through LP33, a company
founded in 2010 to bring western media and technology into China.
Tell us a little more about LP33.
LP33 is a media and technology company that specialises in bringing new and disruptive media properties and
technologies into the Asian region, using worldchanging resources and methodologies.
The potential of the Chinese youth market is huge, but most western businesses find it harder than they
expect. Why should this be so?
It’s all about expectation adjustment. Western expectations are usually based on assumptions that customer acquisition
rates will be similar to their own markets.
In many cases, marketers can't fathom the drastic nuanced differences in China in brand management and loyalty – and
how quickly successful ventures (especially online and mobile) are cloned.
Beijing subway advert Michael Clauss
At a certain point, I think you quit vocalizing “why?” or “how can they allow that?” because it’s futile. I still think “why is it
like that?” on occasion (which is good because it gets you to the core of the issue), but you become more comfortable
with the fact that this is how it is here in China, and that thinking, as well as methods, need to be modified to succeed.
In terms of regulation and oversight of markets, there may be things you don't agree with and want to change, but over
time you realize it may not be changeable and you have to move around the obstacle rather than running it over – like we
are used to doing in the US and elsewhere in the west.
Are Chinese Youth intrinsically different to Western Youth?
As a marketer, and as part of that an amateur sociologist and psychologist/voyeur, I depend a great deal on observation
in the market, besides the numbers available – which show modest differences.
Empirically, I've noticed they are different at the edges of their personalities. Quieter in general, louder when able, but
much the same in the middle. I picture it like a parochial school kid in the US who gets out of that rigid school
environment and goes to a less strict public high school or college, where they enjoy their freedom and take advantage
because they were previously restrained. I find it the same in China. When not being watched and decorum allows, they
really let loose and have a lot of fun.
Any big surprises you’ve noted?
As an anecdotal example, every month I'm there I try to get out of my comfort zone and explore. So, I went to a dance
club in Beijing in late 2011 to check out the atmosphere and see what it was like and I was quite surprised.
These Chinese, who were all around 20 years old, were much more expressive than I'd ever seen, whereas on the streets
– where everyone is monitored at a low level – they are very stoic and reverent compared to the average kid on the street
in the US.
© SMG 2012
- 3. It wasn't like anywhere else. There was a tremendous spike of energy – not drug or alcoholfuelled, as far as I could tell –
that just seemed like explosive exuberance coming out.
I'm not saying that they got any crazier than I've seen in bars or clubs in the US or Europe, but it was enormously
powerful in that it's a much starker contrast – just because the baseline norm is so much more stoic on the street in
China.
Do they have the same kind of spending power as their Western counterparts? Presumably not just yet?
Generally no. The urban middle class is exploding in China, but the median income is still pretty low. However, the
Chinese youth have a way of making the most of what they have. I find it similar to my experience in Europe somewhat,
in that in some things brand is very important and they would rather have one branded item as opposed to three soso
nonbranded items. The Chinese strongly equate brand to quality.
However, in most cases the amount of money they make is probably the most they've ever made or had (as with all
young people), so there is an air of excitement about being a consumer at any level that is heightened in China.
In the US many young people are focused on being the best at something but the ability to innovate and possibility of
wealth has always been there. In China, because of communism and the new possibilities capitalism brings, people are
just excited about being part of the new system and era, as well as it bringing the possibility of success and wealth.
American and European youth aren't as excited to be involved, somewhat taking it for granted because they’ve always
had capitalistic opportunity, and because of the poor economic conditions in those regions and in many cases the
inherent lack of opportunity.
Many think that China needs rebellion and system upheaval. In China, no one I know wants to rebel against the system:
they're too busy trying to succeed within it.
What consumer characteristics have you noted in the youth demographic in China?
There are three issues I would suggest are pervasive:
1. Ambition is universal. Whether you come from a blessed or impoverished background, it’s the same.
2. The social hierarchy is pretty flat when it comes to money. All money is the same. The perception of new money vs
old money is the same. Success is success – and it's all the same.
3. Chinese youth's backgrounds are diverse, but they have a great deal in common as well. The need to get a foothold in
the professional hierarchy is important for them all. A more affluent education, which starts early, usually produces a
much better whitecollar job, which in turn makes it easier to build and maintain a more affluent lifestyle and build
purchasing power longterm.
Specifically on tastes in music, do Chinese youth display the same diversity of tastes that we see in the West?
Or is it all rather more predictable?
Very diverse and very unpredictable. Many Chinese youth respect and listen to international and Chinese classical music
and even Disney music because of the quality. This is great in my mind, even though it would be viewed as kiddie music
by our teens or twentysomethings. In the US, most teens wouldn't be caught dead listening to classical or Disney music
in a social setting.
As an example in China, one of my counterparts is a male twentysomething college educated Beijing native. We get in
his car to go to a meeting and he's listening to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack! In discussing it with him, he loves it
and wasn't embarrassed or affected by my questions at all.
By contrast, I have worked with several music companies full of young people in the US, and I guarantee you we never
listened to Disney music in their cars or offices.
© SMG 2012
- 4. Any other thoughts you would like to add on marketing to Chinese youth?
Aspiration, affluence, and amplification are the keys. This could be argued in most youth markets, but it’s especially true
in China where most everything is exaggerated and faster.
Chinese youth are hyperaspirational. There is an old Chinese proverb that translates as, “The old horse in the stable still
yearns to run 1000 miles.” I like it because it speaks to the universal aspiration of the young and old in Chinese culture.
They love affluence and being able to convey affluence, especially as they climb the ladder of success. Everything is
amplified and should be amplified across all types of networks. A girl with a new Juicy Couture bag in China would be
underusing it if she just carried stuff in it and didn't show it off in her web video – and weibo it when purchased.
In terms of the difference in men I recently heard an interview where the CEO of Coach Inc. mentioned that according to
their research 50% of men in the US don't know the brand of wallet they carry, let alone the brand of briefcase. I will say
this is very different in China.
I'd also mention that the Chinese accept and even expect to be immersed in marketing and commercialism everywhere in
every way. This means they put stickers and promotional signs on bus and subway ceilings, sidewalks, taxi headrests,
flashing signs and logos in places we would think are way overthetop in the US. The headrest covers on Air China flights
advertise Chinese Citic Bank before you even arrive!
When I first arrived I would go out on the streets for a meal or a walk and feel like I'd been picked up by the ankles and
literally dipped (like an icecream cone dipped in sprinkles) in consumerism and advertising. On my first couple of trips,
long ago, it felt very intrusive to me, but then I realized it's all part of the amplification as well and you just adapt and
barely notice it now.
The Chinese, especially the young, seem to have picked up on social media lightningfast: is this a trend
you’ve identified too?
Social media adoption and usage are growing incredibly quickly. Things are changing so fast (new jobs and companies
popping up, new social media emerging, new brands becoming pervasive) that the velocity of messages and attention are
split between many things at any one time.
There are also differences in that certain things become popular so quickly and aren't regulated as stringently (like knock
off products) as in the US. This produces a certain caveat emptor that isn't necessary in the US.
This is tricky at first – and you have to be careful. For instance, it’s fine to buy novelties or lowcost paraphernalia and
snacks at a street shop or market, but you wouldn't buy trendy highend goods thinking they're real, or hyped vitamins or
pharmaceuticals in that environment for safety’s sake, but it’s fine to buy them in the properly authorized shops. This
seems like common sense to most, but there are constantly stories in the news about Chinese natives and foreigners
(who are used to the FDA and such) buying the latest trending energy pill or pharmaceutical on the street and ending up
poisoned.
In the time frame that you’ve been working with China, have you noticed changes in Youth? Is this a fast
changing market?
To me, life in China for the young urban dweller is comparatively like living your whole life in the US as a teen in a year.
There is a book that came out several years ago called "bowling alone". It is about how tribes (demographic groups,
mostly in the US in the book) have become more secular, transient and professionally based. The primary example in the
book being the disintegration of the bowling league (which was one of the primary social outlets for workers) from the mid
20th century.
The Chinese youth tribes are changing radically in this way and even more quickly because of the hyper rural to urban
movements as well as in professional aspirations and opportunities. Young people are leaving their rural villages and
families by the hundreds of thousands and establishing new urban “tribes” based on new professional relationships and
impromptu initial living and social arrangements.
Add in mobile computing and social media – and the transience for professional advancement is almost unlimited in
China. I can't speak to the regional differences as much.
Do you find it restrictive working in a country where the government influence is so allpervasive?
No. As I mentioned above, as long as you can make certain adjustments to your expectations and learn to find work
around and compromise as opposed to considering forcing things as the only course of action.
A rebellious attitude in brand messaging would not be welcomed in China and could be seen as disruptive to the
collective good of the people, and therefore not allowed or censored. This is a judgment call by the Chinese government,
but also shows how a moving line might be approached, but should not be stepped over.
© SMG 2012
- 5. Stylus Summary
Conventional thinking has it that Chinese Youth tastes in music can
Chinese Youth are more deferential be surprising, including classical
than their western counterparts. Away music and Disney musicals!
from public settings, that may not be
so true.
The system is the system in China.
Understand it, work with it – a more
aggressive western approach may
prove inappropriate or counter
productive.
ARTICLE REFERENCES
LP33
© SMG 2012
