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.
German think-tank MERICS China Forecast 2020 is interesting watching if you can spare the time. It’s long, but some of the smartest content that I’ve seen recently, from a European perspective. The Americans seem to have done a better job on Sinology; for instance the likes of Bill Bishop or Kuo and Goldstein at Sinica. MERICS China Forecast 2020 was a collaboration between Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) and Handelsblatt. More China-focused content here.
Global Web Index have done an interesting analysis of Subway’s new product set aimed at tapping into the move towards plant-based diets. Subway – ‘Beyond Meatball Sub’ – GlobalWebIndex – was pitched at flexitarians rather than true vegans.
Meatless meatball marinara launch feels a bit ‘reality TV’ in tone.
Iris put together this work Every name’s a story for Starbucks UK. It won the Channel 4 Diversity Award 2019. It taps into the challenge of gender and identity. But also the primeval power of a name. I thought of Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea which explored the power of names as it was seen by different cultures. Just five or ten years ago this ad would have brought out sufficient protests for the likes of Starbucks to shy away from. It illustrates the complexity of values in modern Britain: conservative nationalism and cosmopolitanism.
https://youtu.be/pcSP1r9eCWw
ARTE have got a great interview with Edward Snowden – Meeting Snowden.
Iconic Wired cover featuring Edward Snowden.
Kraft is running a promotional contest for its new Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Big Bowls that targets parents of young children on Valentine’s Day. It’s interesting how Kraft are interpreting their product as what Scott Galloway calls a ‘time machine’. A product or service that allows people to get time from an activity where it otherwise would have been wasted. For instance, the telemedicine aspects of the Babylon Health app.
和 Virgil 一同「压轴登场」的 Arc’Teryx，是怎样的户外品牌？ – Chinese fashion show people trying to work out why Virgil Aboha wore Arc’Teryx goretex shell. Interesting that they don’t go to the obvious answer – technical outdoor wear is streetwear
Wristwatches (手表) | Mao Era in Objects – interesting read and gives a lot of food for thought on brand and perceived luxury products in the Chinese market
Study: Men who own luxury cars are often jerks – what types of people own these cars. Sure enough, he found that less cooperative, less kind, and less considerate men often drive high-status cars. “The same traits also explain why such people break traffic regulations more frequently than others,” says Lönnqvist. He found no connection between female self-centeredness and luxury cars. Before you start flashing the bird at passing luxury vehicles, know that not all classy car owners suck. In fact, some are quite dependable: The study also found that conscientious men and women—people who are organized, ambitious, respectable, and often high-performing—are also frequent owners of high-status cars, which Lönnqvist says likely reflects an appreciation for quality and an urge to present a self-image of classy reliability. – a bit more nuance to this than the title suggests
A new year marks a new phase of Hong Kong protests | Financial Times – some are calling on taxpayers to pay more. The aim of the so-called “$1 more” campaign is to cripple the tax authorities’ operations by forcing them to handle possibly millions of rebate payments, tying them up in bureaucracy and bringing the system to a grinding halt
Interesting interpretation of the current approach to online harmonisation by the Chinese government. There is an opinion that China’s censorship mechanisms are somehow overwhelmed. I don’t think that this is the case at all. Instead I believe its part of their wider approach to online harmonisation – As Virus Spreads, Anger Floods Chinese Social Media – The New York Times – this isn’t a government apparatus operating from weakness but smart. Online harmonisation allows just enough venting to stop it boiling over into angry action but not enough for a Velvet Revolution. The clue is in the Chinese government’s own name for this process online harmonisation – to give a harmonious Chinese society
Nightmares on wax: the environmental impact of the vinyl revival | Music | The Guardian – digital media is physical media, too. Although digital audio files seem virtual, they rely on infrastructures of data storage, processing and transmission that have potentially higher greenhouse gas emissions than the petrochemical plastics used in the production of more obviously physical formats such as LPs – to stream music is to burn coal, uranium and gas – vegan vintage wearing gen-z will look back on streaming not only as a cultural disaster, but a planetary one. Streaming is the music industry analogue to restaurant’s plastic straws and styrofoam cups
23andMe lays off 100 people, CEO Anne Wojcicki explains why | CNBC – surprised to see market turn… – I was surprised to see this late 20th century version of a faddish product from the Sharper Image catalogue do so well for so long given the privacy implications of it
Is Singapore’s ‘perfect’ economy coming apart? | Financial Times – Mid-level jobs in manufacturing and multinational companies are disappearing and being replaced by technology and financial services roles, which are easier to fill with younger, more affordable migrants. Singaporeans like Aziz struggle to get back into the workforce. Only half of retrenched over-50s are re-employed full time within six months. Nearly three-quarters of people laid off in Singapore in the third quarter of last year, the most recently available data, were what the country classifies as professionals, managers, executives and technicians, or PMETs – I’ve been re-reading John Naisbitt’s Megatrends at the moment and its interesting how these classic knowledge worker roles have been disappearing – whereas just 30 years ago they were the future. It does make me a bit skeptical of the ‘every kid should learn how to code predictions’. The increasing consumer debt is another interesting aspect of this
Today is the start of CNY 2020 (Chinese New Year 2020). January 24 is ‘New Years Eve’. It is the year of the rat, which symbolises another start in the Chinese horoscope cycle. Here are some of the best examples of adverts celebrating Chinese New Year (CNY 2020).
China
Nike China benefited enormously from this advert done by Wieden & Kennedy Shanghai. Which is a take on the politeness of ‘oh no, you shouldn’t have but on a very amped up level’. Reminded me of my interactions as a small child with my Granny in Ireland ‘Ah go on, go on, you will, you will’ aspect a la Ms Doyle in Father Ted. Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% which provide runners with an unfair advantage play a starring role in the film.
The Great Chase by Wieden & Kennedy Shanghai for Nike China
By comparison, Adidas’ effort is beautifully made; with really high production values and a riot of colour like you’d expect for Chinese New Year. But in my opinion, it lacked that killer idea and talkability compared to Nike.
As with other countries Apple China’s shot on… series of adverts merges film directors, storytelling and ‘eats its own dog food’ by shooting using the Apple iPhone 11 Pro. As in previous years Apple stays away from the usual cliches. For CNY 2020, Apple tells the story of a single mother and her child. Single parents are seldom visible in Chinese advertising as so much emphasis in society is put on marriage. It’s well worth a watch.
Malaysia’s Chinese community may only make up 30 per cent of the population; but its Chinese New Year adverts punch above their weight in comparison to other countries and CNY 2020 was no exception.
Telenor-owned Digi Telecommunications film Home is about the family visiting an aspirational daughter in her new home for lunar new year. It cuts through some of the chintz of the celebrations with a working class family grafting away, but ultimately family bonds conquer all.
Panasonic Malaysia’s video takes a little while to get in the swing but when it does I could imagine it being a right ear worm. You put this on TV and radio to get a really efficient campaign. It also stays away from being overly sentimental.
https://youtu.be/Vlvz68wWtVw
Panasonic Malaysia – Sek Bao Mei
It wouldn’t be a round up of Chinese New Year adverts if there wasn’t at least one that tugs at the heart strings. Malaysian RHB Group who provide banking services came up with this tear-jerker. If you don’t well up just a little you’re a sociopath.
Singapore
One of the weakest efforts that I have seen this year was this effort by Dyson to promote the air purifying qualities of their fans. The sole nod to CNY 2020 is the brief red envelope with an engineering drawing on it at the start of the video. I don’t know who commissioned this for Dyson; but they should be hanging their head in shame.
https://youtu.be/ugWpkTsS4NM
SingTel’s recent festival related advertising have pulled on the heart strings, and been ‘anti-millennial’ – like The Gift shown for last Christmas. By comparison this one is a classic situation comedy highlighting all the benefits of connectivity. The humour reminded me of the Hong Kong film series All’s Well That Ends Well – which are usually in cinemas over Chinese New Year.
Prudential Singapore have a wider campaign going called #MindTheGenerationGap over CNY 2020 and have put together some nice branded content like this cooking programme with lovely interstitial animations
Hong Kong’s Industrial History : How Plastic Flowers Built A Global Metropolis – In the years after World War II, buying a bunch of plastic flowers was trendy, not tacky, and Li Ka-shing built their novelty into a business empire that now spans the globe – the Hong Kong manufacturing boom went on until the opening up of China. At this time Hong Kong was a more equitable society. The business entrepreneurs either pushed into China or deindustrialised and became Hong Kong property developers. As for plastic flowers, you often see them around you and don’t realise what they are. More on Hong Kong here
The durable history of Casio’s durable G-Shock watch – the company gets asked all the time about how it might create a smartwatch that lives up to users’ rugged expectations for its storied brand, but that any such product would have to be a G-Shock first. “I believe you can rest assured that it will be uniquely G-Shock in its form factor, unlike anything we have seen before.” If Casio carries its tradition forward, you’ll be able to read all about it—right on the face of the watch itself
Facebook does not understand the marketplace of ideas | Financial Times – The first critical flaw in Mr Zuckerberg’s thinking is the idea that the marketplace for goods is efficient without regulation. Much of the thrust of economics over the past half century has been to understand what regulations are needed to ensure that markets work. We have tort laws that ensure accountability if someone is injured and we don’t allow companies to pollute willy-nilly. We have fraud and advertising laws to protect consumers against deceptions — recognising that such laws circumscribe what individuals may say and publish – well worth reading the rest of the article (paywall)
How Loro Piana serves ‘nomadic elite’ with €7,000 cashmere coats | Financial Times – A recent report from consultants Bain & Co argued that new growth in the luxury goods industry was going to be driven by brands that go beyond just offering shoppers a product and were able to also provide a mixture of new experiences and ideas, and even provoke emotions
Jeff Staple On How Streetwear Set The Tone For Today’s Mainstream—And What To Expect Next – now, a single post can disrupt everything. A single verse from the right musician can kill off an entire brand. So the velocity at which retailers must adapt had to catch up. They could no longer wait for the Vogue “September Issue” or New York Fashion Week to see what was hot. It was blatantly obvious down to the exact number of “likes.”
Chow Tai Fook, Sa Sa closures deepen Hong Kong retail crisis | Campaign Asia – this is about deflating an overinflated retail and real estate economy. Its popularity was from the prevalence of adulterated products in China and the lack of sales tax in Hong Kong. Chow Tai Fook failed to look at international expansion and has no one to blame but its board of directors
