Chinese market: What’s new?

The Chinese and Marketing channels

Chinese consumers are changing. They open more and more to the Western marketing channels and practices. However the rise of the local communication platform WeChat and its growing number of users threatens the email marketing strategies. According to Chinese authorities, half of the population now has access to the internet, although this access can be unstable due to government crackdowns – such as the one initiated in February 2018.

The overwhelming majority of Chinese internet users – around 95% – connect via their smartphones. A responsive design for your website is thus crucial, especially for e-commerce websites, which must provide users with the best user experience possible.

As for payments, local payment gateways – such as Alipay or WeChat – are increasingly popular and used on a daily basis. Using these payment solutions could help you earn your customers’ trust and develop your business more rapidly.

Communicate with customers

Earning trust from your customers also means addressing them in their language. As mentioned previously, Chinese consumers tend to trust local brands and companies more and more. Therefore, adapting your business techniques to the local culture and language can help you significantly.

Mandarin is a very subtle language and if you decide to translate your brand or tagline, you need to have native speakers do the job. In the 1980s, KFC – the American fast food restaurant – learned this the hard way when their first restaurant opened in China. Their famous “finger lickin” good” tagline became “Eat your fingers off” after a mistranslation, which didn’t sound very appetising.

Knowing your customers’ culture is essential. You need to take into consideration all the differences in language, humour and values. For example, you should avoid jokes with sexual connotations and focus on family values, which are much more socially acceptable.

Chinese consumers are now more connected than ever and therefore very reachable. Expanding to China – where consumers have a growing disposable income – could thus be very profitable, provided that you know how to communicate with them.

Do you need good translation to communicate with clients?

At LingoStar, we know that communication is critical to your business. That’s why we provide translations by native speakers and professional translators with more than 20 years of experience translating in their areas of expertise. For more information about our services, visit our website.

You’re in Vancouver? Let’s meet and talk about your translation projects!