Ni hao – this category features any blog posts that relate to the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese communist party, Chinese citizens, consumer behaviour, business, and Chinese business abroad.
It is likely the post will also in other categories too. For example a post about Tong Ren Tang might end up in the business section as well. Inevitably everything is inherently political in nature. At the moment, I don’t take suggestions for subject areas or comments on content for this category, it just isn’t worth the hassle.
Why have posts on China? I have been involved in projects there and had Chinese clients. China has some interesting things happening in art, advertising, architecture, design and manufacturing. I have managed to experience some great and not so great aspects of the country and its businesses.
Opinions have been managed by the omnipresent party and this has affected consumer behaviour. Lotte was boycotted and harassed out of the country. Toyota and Honda cars occasionally go through damage by consumer action during particularly high tensions with Japan.
I put stuff here to allow readers to make up their own minds about the PRC. The size of the place makes things complicated and the only constants are change, death, taxes and the party. Things get even more complicated on the global stage.
The unique nature of the Chinese internet and sheltered business sectors means that interesting Galapagos syndrome type things happen.
I have separate sections for Taiwan and Hong Kong, for posts that are specific to them.
It was the Super Bowl LII in the US which means a festival of TV advertising
If Super Bowl LII had a star it would be Tide’s ad as the most interesting because of the way it let the audience ‘in’ on the advert playing off against the cliches used in US advertising:
The car ad
The pharma ad with its disclaimers
The beer ad
Perfume ad
The rustic setting based ad (for conservative folks)
The car insurance ad
The luxury ad
Brittle Chinese sensitivities
Less about enjoyment and more about interest in social campaigns. Chinese netizen outrage at perceived slights is now affecting channels blocked in China.
Mercedes-Benz put up a filler motivational post on Instagram quoting the Dalai Lama. Instagram isn’t available in China, but that didn’t stop the Chinese web getting angry. Ok when I said the Chinese web, I meant a particular faction of it young people with extreme nationalist tendencies called 愤青 fenqing (said fen-ching). They are a diverse group in terms of beliefs, but a simple view would be to think of the nationalism of Britain First supporters, but with Chinese sensibilities.
Which caused further outrage as netizens wanted an apology on Instagram. So Mercedes apologised again. Mercedes is stuck between a rock and a hard place, an apology like that on Instagram would blow back on them outside China.
What you are likely to see is a greater degree of self censorship by brands.
Lunar new year
Talking of China we’re starting to run into the lunar new year advertising season and my favourite so far has been this one by Nokia. It also ties quite nicely into a campaign that they ran online over Christmas.
The focus on family moments shows a maturity in Nokia’s advertising versus many competitors who talk about features.
Taiko
Taiko versus a vintage big band sound
Mark Moore
I have been exploring mixes by London clubland legend Mark Moore.
I love Connie Chan blog posts and presentations. In this talk she covers how Asian applications manage to squeeze so much more features into their apps than their western equivalent to provide a fuller eco-system of services that she terms super-apps.
Connie Chan isn’t only smart, but manages to talk about Chinese eco-systems in a simple coherent way, which is an art in itself. More Connie Chan related content here.
For These Young Entrepreneurs, Silicon Valley Is, Like, Lame – WSJ – for most of the 18 entrepreneurs and investors, and especially for those in their 20s and 30s, last week’s visit largely failed to impress. To many in the group, northern California’s low-rise buildings looked shabbier than the glitzy skyscrapers in Beijing and Shenzhen. They can’t believe Americans still use credit cards and cash while they use mobile payment for almost everything back home – not terribly surprised. Silicon Valley is no longer the place ‘where wizards stay up late’. Agencies work harder than their Bay Area tech clients and it is full of hubris
Luxury is thriving in China again, thanks to millennials — Quartz – Chinese millennials start buying luxury younger, and they buy high-end products more frequently, the firm says. (It undoubtedly helps that they have more spending power than previous generations did at their age.) What they’re buying is also different. Bain surveyed about 500 Chinese millennials and found their interests leaned toward casual and street-inspired fashion – Supreme rather than Prada, put into context here
Huawei – Really Convincing Story, Not. | Radio Free Mobile – this means that this feature (RCS – Rich Communication Services), like its AI assistant, AI chip and its now commoditised imaging offering will be unable to generate any differentiation for Huawei in its devices. This leaves it exactly the same boat as all of the other Android handset makers who differentiate purely on the basis of hardware
Introducing the WhatsApp Business App | WhatsApp blog – a free-to-download Android app for small businesses. Our new app will make it easier for companies to connect with customers, and more convenient for our 1.3 billion users to chat with businesses that matter to them. Here’s how: Business Profiles: Help customers with useful information such as a business description, email or store addresses, and website. Messaging Tools: Save time with smart messaging tools — quick replies that provide fast answers to frequently asked questions, greeting messages that introduce customers to your business, and away messages that let them know you’re busy. Messaging Statistics: Review simple metrics like the number of messages read to see what’s working. WhatsApp Web: Send and receive messages with WhatsApp Business on your desktop. Account Type: People will know that they’re talking to a business because you will be listed as a Business Account. Over time, some businesses will have Confirmed Accounts once it’s been confirmed that the account phone number matches the business phone number. Free to download on Google Play in Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S – surprised that Hong Kong didn’t make this list
Mark Ritson: The Diet Coke relaunch shows its marketers have lost the plot – Marketing Week – a few things I don’t get. Moving away from the one Coke brand architecture. Are they trying to position diet coke against Red Bull? (Thinking about the can size). Or is there some shopper marketing related insight at play that says they need to maximise choice in a given shelf space? Decidedly odd, I would have expected this lot of ‘product’ innovation more in a market like Japan where you see constant consumer demand for the new new thing. Don’t even get me started on the ad creative…
How China’s market economy has fuelled a prostitution boom | South China Morning Post – My grandma was always grateful to Mao, mainly because she was upgraded from a concubine to a wife under the Communists “one wife” rule. – There is also the shredding of culture and community during the cultural revolution probably ruined community / support mechanisms
Luxury
The Pet Shop Boys are the face (and sound) of Christian Dior’s men’s collection this summer.
American Views: Trust, Media and Democracy – Edelman – I suggest that the public relations business move itself from a reliance on advocacy toward a new policy of informing the populace more broadly on subjects of the day. That means providing the positive and negative facts, with third party attribution
Should the Tech Giants Be Broken Up? | WSJ City – Apple and Microsoft supply 95% of desktop operating systems – but this point hides the huge disparity in market size and power between Microsoft and Apple still in the PC market
Benedict Evans on ten-year future predictions (well as good as anyone can)
One of the key issues of concern for the financial services sector has been the lack progress in passporting. This is where the EU says UK regulations and processes are equivalent to theirs and consequently allow market access. More related content here.
China Smartphone Market 2017: Top 10 Best-selling Models – Counterpoint Research – interesting read, basically Apple is the premium smartphone seller. Huawei’s Honor brand makes the top ten along with Xiaomi. It also explains why Huawei wants to get its main brand into the US as that is the main way it can increase the razor thin profit margins of its smartphone business. The real winner is BBK-related brands OPPO and vivo
ongoing by Tim Bray · Google Memory Loss – the whole Web is crushingly expensive, and getting more so every day. Things like 10+-year-old music reviews that are never updated, no longer accept comments, are lightly if at all linked-to outside their own site, and rarely if ever visited… well, let’s face it, Google’s not going to be selling many ads next to search results that turn them up. So from a business point of view, it’s hard to make a case for Google indexing everything, no matter how old and how obscure – the problem for Google would only be if you started to see search promiscuity
Knock and the door shall be opened unto you | FT Alphaville – in China, the data linked to technology companies is already central to the notion of credit provision. It also plays into the country’s planned social credit system. This has come alongside the rapid development of online payments, especially on WePay, part of WeChat. It would be no exaggeration to say that this is perhaps the most important technological development of the present moment, although, in part because of the impenetrability of the Chinese internet, it currently resonates less than it should
GoPro quits the drone business – The Verge – because of the grip that DJI has on the drone market. GoPro had expanded into drones in the face of declining growth in the action camera market. You can start to see drone footage being cut into extreme sports videos providing a variation of views that weren’t possible previously.
TCCC Unity on the App Store – Coca-Cola did an iPhone app to explain the ethos behind its bespoke fonts (presumably beyond not having to pay licence fees and hubris)…
AT&T Backs Off Deal to Sell Smartphones From China’s Huawei – WSJ – if true it represents a spectacular loss of face for Huawei. There would be likely internal repercussions in Shenzhen as it dents the company’s reputation as a brand on the rise, its aspiration to be seen as a globally recognised premium brand and the oft talked about objective of cracking the US handset market beyond burner phones
