This week, Alaric Fairbanks introduces us to some of the more unusual forms of advertising to be found on the streets of China’s capital city.

Advertising is known as and certainly likes to be considered as a creative industry. Here in Beijing, many advertising styles would be familiar to the average visitor from the UK and probably most other countries in the world. Beyond these common approaches, however, there is sometimes an amazing creativity at work that is often overlooked – that is in finding or constructing physical platforms for ads, whether they are posters, screens, multi-media or sound. Notable examples include moving advertisements on linear screen on the walls of the Beijing underground which follow the train, and the TV screens that seemingly festoon every lift in every Beijing office building and shopping centre.

Beijing is never a quiet city, and the pervasive advertising ranging from the expected to the unexpected, the weird and the intrusive to the illegal, is just part of the environment. The more common approaches include giant screens, moving adverts, flyers and megaphoned tape loops, and they are all competing for your attention, but with familiarity it all becomes just more background noise. I did say that there is creativity at work, and sometimes this can startle or bemuse. One of the more unusual ploys for new advertising space in Beijing has been ‘fake’ bus stops. These have been the subject of several campaigns to eliminate them, but some bus stops are, of course, supposed to be around.

The rationale behind these fake bus stops was to provide a vehicle (if you’ll excuse the pun) for selling advertising space. Consequently, entire bus stops, including signage and shelters, and complete with advertisements, were erected and, of course, provided advertising revenue for the owners. This unsurprisingly caused a few problems with confusion among passengers and drivers and the inevitable missed buses.

It does, though, illustrate a certain amount of ingenuity (among, of course, many less desirable properties). Imagine the thought process that went on to come up with this bus stop idea in the first place. I don’t think it was from the same people who produced tattooed lucky fish (see picture below to illustrate one of the latest crazes in China: pet fish tattooed with characters intended to bring their owners good fortune and happiness), but they may have similar characteristics.
 

The World Bank recently raised its forecast of China’s economic growth rate to 7.2% in 2009 from its earlier forecast of 6.5%. It now projects GDP growth of the world’s third largest economy to reach 7.7% in 2010.

Better than expected economic data from China is likely to raise hopes that the world’s largest emerging economy could help to pull the rest of the world out of recession. The National Bureau of Statistics announced an 8.9% jump in industrial output in May 2009 compared with a 7.3% rise in April.

UK direct exports to China in April were down 9% from a year earlier at £468m, while direct imports were up 15 % at £1.52 billion. ¹

All this growth and positivity is on the back of the fact that due to global change from the current recession, China’s overall competitiveness in the world has slipped to 20th position when compared to 17th position in 2008. ²

If you are interested in market research in China then please visit our website at http://www.b2binternational.com.cn/English/

¹ HMRC – http://www.hmrc.gov.uk
² IMD Business School – http://www.imd.ch/

In his latest Thursday Night Insight, Alaric Fairbanks gives us a glimpse into his life conducting market research in China.

Our permanent Beijing office has been up and running for about two and a half years now, and over this period I have been asked by both colleagues and clients outside the country about how working in market research here in China is different from in the west, and how it is similar. On a high level, there are obvious similarities: we have to win and design projects, identify respondents and sources of information, collect data and analyse data…the same as my colleagues elsewhere. This is pretty much as you may expect anywhere.

Things get slightly different, however, on the type of projects: For the first two years, the majority of projects were market analysis and market development, with less interest in more quantitative research projects like customer satisfaction. There is, though, more and more customer sat work happening, as clients become more established, and of course we become more established with existing companies. In our experience, market analysis demand tends to focus on both the factual (i.e. size, structure and trends) and the analytical (i.e. what this means for developing sales). These projects tend to feature more qualitative investigative techniques and, in some ways, are more akin to a jigsaw where you first have to find the pieces.

Clients have, in the main, been larger foreign companies and multinationals who already have a presence in China, but the projects are often commissioned abroad. Often this is because the market research function or strategic decision making unit is located in corporate headquarters, although we are seeing a lot more work commissioned from within China itself. Another reason for foreign-based commissions is the need for third party verification (or otherwise) of information coming from their China-based operations. On a practical level, having a large proportion of clients based in Europe and North America means that face-to-face meetings for commissioning and presentations are not so common, and telephone conferences and web presentations form a larger part of communications. This also means that interesting hours are often worked at commissioning and presentation meetings!

As I already mentioned, an increasing number of clients are from within China and other parts of Asia. Again, the overlying characteristics of working with them remain the same i.e. understanding their needs, proposing a suitable methodology, negotiating timescales and price, etc. Where differences occur, however, are in lead times (longer) and very often in the brief itself. We have seen an increase in the number of specific written briefs, but these are still very much in the minority. Another interesting characteristic is how these clients prefer to communicate. After initial contact, many prefer to rely on instant messaging over the internet, mainly qq or similar services, for day-to-day communication, rather than telephone or e-mail. This is also having an impact on research methodologies.

Methodologies for data collection here include all the usual suspects and, language aside, would be largely familiar to clients and colleagues in other countries. There are, though, some differences in application, for example focus groups tend to work better in smaller numbers, 6 to 8 being optimum. It is often argued that, especially in business, face-to-face interviews are necessary here. Very often this isn’t the case. We recently had a project looking at the market in the ‘biosolids’ industry, meaning we had to talk to respondents in Chinese sewerage works. Initially this seemed quite daunting, until it became clear that these people were extremely receptive; no pushy sales people come and call (for perhaps obvious reasons), and they are seldom asked about the intricacies of their work. Recruitment was aided by the incredible take-up of social networking and bulletin boards among Chinese professionals. As a country undergoing rapid change, it is perhaps no surprise that methodologies and attitudes to them are changing too. From a ‘consensus’ of f2f being the only acceptable technique just a few years ago, telephone and indeed online have increased in importance incredibly quickly, with instant messaging even being used for in-depth qualitative work. Whilst respondents are often very keen to work with different approaches, the market outside China and occasionally inside sometimes sticks to believing outdated truisms.

In this short space available, it is clear that although many principles and approaches are of course similar, there are nuances affecting all aspects of the process. Where this may be more complicated or even contentious is around how this is manifested in everyday work, for example the amount of time required on quality checks, and HR issues and administration. I’ll try to cover these in my next post.

To learn more about our work and our team in China, visit www.b2binternational.com/China

Events in Beijing this week have caused Alaric Fairbanks to reflect on how we should never underestimate the value of seemingly obvious observations and recommendations.

This last Monday, around 5p.m. in Beijing, we had a visit from our building’s ‘Vigilance Department’. (Yes, that’s a rough translation, but it also is the English sign on their door.) This department is broadly equivalent to building security and safety, and I personally like these chaps – from their bouffant haired and rather dapper chief, to the security guards who are still smiling happily, or occasionally roller-skating, at 3 in the morning when I have been in the office having teleconferences with clients who have forgotten what time zones are.

Anyway, back to Monday, late afternoon, the visit was a quick, “please make sure your windows are closed when you leave this evening.” Naturally, we probably did not need to be told, and it sounded obvious, but then this was followed by, “I know, but we are just reminding everyone today as it is Lantern Festival and there will be a lot of fireworks, so we are being careful”. Again, probably nothing to worry about despite the fact that by nightfall there were rockets bouncing off the windows, which were, of course, firmly shut.

I am sure I would not have been thinking about this any further, but an unusually bad traffic jam prompted a quick look at the news on Tuesday morning: one of Beijing’s newest skyscrapers had been destroyed by a fire…with fireworks as the probable cause. I can’t comment on that incident, but full marks to the Vigilance Department in our building. It did get me thinking about the obvious advice we had received. The advice, although re-stating what should be normal practice, was pretty sensible and is reassuring to know that the slightly Orwellian sounding department is doing its job (it is covered by property management fees after all).

So what could have been dismissed as stating the obvious or spurious advice did have a point; a case, I suppose, of the Vigilance Department being vigilant. As researchers and consultants, we often feel that we are expected to provide “amazing” insights and recommendations and, indeed, I would like to think we do, but there is room, from time to time, for a “close your windows on lantern festival” type of recommendation.

Without being condescending, what may strike us as obvious or even common sense may have been neglected and/or not even considered, so it may be worth a reminder. For example, I know of cases where producers of highly technical equipment have invested in product adaptation towards Chinese users, looked at usage patterns and potential problems, and then provided promotional material or technical information in English not Chinese, missing out on sales opportunities. We all know of unbelievable findings that would never have been published if a bit of vigilance was employed in selecting the sample or even analysis, like 35% of Chinese people plan to join a gym in the next three months, or Milton Keynes is predominantly Buddhist (see The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer for that reference).

We probably all need a Vigilance Department at some time, and there’s no need to be afraid of supplementing those stunning insights with what we may feel is obvious, if it is useful, and especially if ignoring it has serious negative implications – although it may not cost us a skyscraper, bank or economy.