China - 1.3Bil Customers?? Maybe not

Living in Shanghai you see and read many things from local and foriegn media about new products and large chinese and foriegn companies go for the big piece of the 1.3 billion chinese customers. This is a common misconception about China. There maybe 1.3 billion people but not all are customers - 800 million people live in rural areas and have little access to print media, tv, internet or any other form of advertising and earn about RMB500-2000(50 EUR/60 USD-200 EURO 250USD) a month.
China is a very large country with many cities with populations over 2 million these are the customers that the product driven companies should be looking at. These up and coming young chinese professionals are willing to spend RMB1200 on one pair of Calvin Klien jeans when they only earn on average RMB3000 each. Many chinese walk around Shanghai with RMB3000 phones, Levis and a Chanel bag. They are the latest customers in the capitalist consumer, however they often listen to the beat of the marketing drum. Unless they have heard or seen a catchy sexy ad they have little knowledge or time for the product. Whilst speaking to many clothing stall owners at one of the many clothing markets in Shanghai we found out that many of the major jean makers such as Guess jeans all though a big seller in other parts of the world doesn't sell that well as its has little brand recognition compared to say Levi's and Calvin Klien.

So the message to all the marketers and large companies out there you must think of a great marketing campaign which catches the Chinese youth or you will be looking at fewer sales.