STORES Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 44)

EXECUTIVE SUITE / RESEARCH Looking for brand names U.S. retailers seeking inroads into China can be heartened that young Chinese consumers want products with well-known brands — but they will need to push harder to get their brands recognized. Nearly 72 percent of young Chinese (compared with 55 percent of young Americans) said products with familiar labels are appealing. As the Chinese economy continues to develop, U.S. marketers will need to take steps to ensure their brands remain popular: Compared with earlier China Quarterly surveys, Chinese consumers are showing an increased propensity toward selecting domestic brands. For instance, preference for U.S. music brands decreased from 44.4 percent in the second quarter of 2006 to 28.8 percent this year, with preference for Chinese music rising about 10 percent during the same period. U.S. clothing brand preference also declined more than 19 percent year-over-year, and preferences for U.S. grocery and bever- Media Matters Advertising remains something of a novelty in China. Below are some differences in the way young Chinese and young Americans (ages 18 to 34) are influenced when it comes to purchasing electronics. CHINESE AMERICANS New Media Advertising Online Selling/Internet Ads Email Advertising Instant Messaging Text Messaging 52% 16.8 15.7 8.2 29.3% 22.6 9.3 — Traditional Media Advertising Coupons Magazines Newspapers Outdoor Billboards Television Cable Radio 32.1% 34.1 30.7 24.5 38.7 25.2 8.5 28.6% 32.5 19.5 11.3 37.0 29.0 27.0 Other Word of Mouth In-Store Promotion Read Article on Product Source: BIGresearch China Quarterly, Q2 2007 31.7% 38.4 41.9 48.3% 32.9 33.6 age brands are also down. Interestingly, while nearly 80 percent of young Americans seek sale prices when shopping for clothing and apparel, only 53 percent of Chinese consumers say sales are important. Chinese men in the survey said they are even less price-sensitive when buying. Young Chinese are fully engaged in the digital world, the China Quarterly reports, and are more likely than young American consumers to surf the Internet, e-mail, blog or instant message in their leisure time. Young Chinese women listed their top five leisure-time activities as surfing the Internet, shopping, listening to music, reading books and traveling: Nearly 87 percent of these women described the Internet as their favorite activity. Young American women, on the other hand, ranked their top five leisure-time activities as watching television, eating out, listening to music, going to the movies and shopping. The same general parallels also apply among men. With their growing appetites for consumables, young Chinese are generally more eager to research products online than young Americans. About 55 percent of young Chinese consumers regularly research products online before buying them in a store, compared with 50 percent of American consumers, and their searches are often triggered by Internet, cell phone and magazine advertising. In fact, the China Quarterly surveys highlight that the young Chinese are enamored of advertising – both online and traditional — as a novelty. Advertising is a relatively new concept in China, and these young consumers may not yet be as skeptical of the role of persuasion in consumer buying, BIGresearch StORES notes. M.V. Greene is an independent writer and editor based in Owings Mills, Md., who covers business, technology and retail. WWW.STORES.ORG 44 STORES / JANUARY 2008 http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - January 2008

STORES Magazine - January 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Build a 'Bot Sneak Peek at Fashion Trends What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story: Fishing for Talent Retail CEO Compensation Research Concept2Watch E-Commerce Payment Solutions Online Merchandising POS LPInformation LP Vantage Point Newsbeat Industry Watch Cover Story: Making LP PCI-Compliant Mall Security Video Surveillance Industry Perspective Forum RFID Business Intelligence Data Management Logistics Turning Green into Gold Love of – and for – the Outdoors Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - January 2008

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