December 2, 2008
[Predicting the Future]
An article from over a year ago predicted that China will take Japan’s spot for the 5th largest market for consumer research by 2012. This prediction was made because the amount of money spent with market research firms has doubled in the last five years in China. When the article was written, China was in the number 8 spot, ahead of Spain and Italy.
My first assumption was that China’s growth in the research industry would be to learn about their domestic consumers. Instead, the growth in marketing research is to inrease understanding of Western consumers to better advertise Chinese brands to them. The next frontier for China’s brands is to strengthen their identity, instead of relying on Western brands to sell their products.
It is wise for Chinese brands to invest in consumer research. This will help them to better understand cultures and consumers who are very different from themselves. We will have to see if China’s take over continues enough to raise their spot to #5.
