China Marketing: Cracking the Code

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REACHING OUT
An increasingly popular means of engagement is inviting customers to generate brand-related content. Pepsi did this when it invited drinkers to create an ad that aired last year.

Or, as JWT did for the Kit Kat chocolate bar in Japan and then China, it can be linking a product with a basic emotion.

Through an integrated campaign of online, television and print ads, they got customers to use Kit Kat as a stress-breaker. One spot, for example, featured students taking high pressure exams. They pulled out the chocolate bars and broke them, not only to relieve the stress, but also for luck.

Almost overnight, Kit Kat achieved lucky charm status. Sales "skyrocketed," said Doctroroff.

In China, the company tried something similar, encouraging boyfriends to log onto the Kit Kat website and express their love for their partners. Here also, the level of exposure it generated was unexpected.

"The difference between passive exposure and active engagement is fundamental," said Doctoroff. "One of the reasons why brands have not become cult brands, where loyalty is practically absolute and people buy them as a fundamental part of their identity and lifestyle, is because the media is not nearly as engaging as it needs to be."

JWT now focuses much of its work on engagement planning.

"It is having a creative idea that becomes something that you can participate in. Chinese people are wired for engagement. Chinese youth, I would say."

The company is restructuring its entire operations network to create engagement at multiple levels. More than that, it looks to bring together different media - television, radio, internet, print - under a single idea. It is not about having a single sales pitch; it is an engagement platform aimed at a remarkably fickle set of consumers.

"We don't call it a creative idea any more. We don't call it a branding idea. We have an engagement idea," said Doctoroff.

"You cannot turn a tube of toothpaste or a roll of toilet paper into a tennis shoe or an investment or an education choice. But everything can be moved from relatively low involvement to relatively high involvement."

Brands and the people that manage them want the ability to be intrinsically linked to people's lifestyles. Events remain one avenue open to companies that want to generate involvement. However, foreign players have learned to tailor their strategies to fit in with China's unique values, beliefs and love of status.

Alcoholic drink companies - which have dedicated sales people in bars across China and regularly sponsor events - are a prime example of this.

"The drinking habits are different here. People buy bottles instead of cocktails," said Michael Ohlsson, the Shanghai DJ and promoter. "I think these companies, at least the first ones, learned that the hard way."

TROUBLE WITH THE LOCALS
Later this month a small crowd of the best hip hop DJs in China will compete in the annual DMC competition. They are arguably at the vanguard of Chinese cool as they try to make a storied, deeply urban and very Western musical style into something with Chinese roots.

But even they know that reaching an authentic local audience can be difficult.

"When local people go to a club, they don't care who sponsors or who organizes. They don't even listen to music. They just go there and play dice," said Gary Wang.

Trends come and go in China and the local audience is often quick to jump on and off the bandwagon. The trick may be to understand that, like consumers everywhere, not all will have similar likes and dislikes despite the shared values.

Even those who actually listen to hip hop may not be as committed to the music and the ideas it represents as marketers would like them to be.

"The local audience is hard to understand," said Wang. "If hip hop is gone in two years and something else comes up, they will just follow that music."