Explore
For Enterprise
Join for Free
Log In

Arts and Humanities
Business
Computer Science
Data Science
Information Technology
Health
Math and Logic
Personal Development
Physical Science and Engineering
Social Sciences
Language Learning
Degrees
Certificates

Explore all of Coursera

Browse
Search
For Enterprise
Log In
Join for Free

1.7 Dialogue with Scholar: Professor Krishna Savani

Loading...

Selling to Chinese Consumers

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

4.8 (39 ratings) | 2K Students Enrolled

Course 1 of 4 in the Doing Business in China Specialization

This course is designed to help learners sell their products, goods and services to Chinese consumers. To achieve this goal, the course will use evidence-based research in psychology, economics, legal studies and marketing to help learners understand the historical, economic and legal contexts of doing business in China and the behavioral characteristics of Chinese consumers. The course will cover topics in Chinese and global marketing, Chinese consumers, institutional and cultural influence on consumer motivation and behaviors in Chinese markets, and brand management in China.

Reviews

4.8 (39 ratings)

5 stars
32 ratings
4 stars
7 ratings

MA

Apr 14, 2018

Excellent course to learn about Chinese consumers and China market

GG

May 21, 2018

great course , well explained , clear and interesting interviews

From the lesson

The Chinese Consumption Market

China is a big consumption market. It is a distinctive consumption market because of its unique contextual and cultural factors. Why do Chinese consumers spend big money on luxury brands? What roles do historical, contextual and cultural factors play in influencing Chinese consumption habits? The current module seeks to answer these questions.

1.1 The Growth of the Middle Class and of China as a Country6:30

1.2 The Sociological and Economic Characteristics of Chinese Consumers4:25

1.3 An In-Depth Look at Why Chinese Consumers Like Luxury Brands3:51

1.4 The Effects of Lay Elitism on Consumption Choices4:22

1.5 Dialogue with Scholar: Professor Chi-yue Chiu10:53

1.6 The Effects of Agency on Consumption Choices6:23

1.7 Dialogue with Scholar: Professor Krishna Savani10:20

1.8 This Week's Recap1:23

1.9 Dialogue with Practitioner: Susanna Chiu20:19

Taught By

Prof. Letty Kwan
Assistant Professor

Transcript

So when I was in the first

year of my PhD in 2005,

I was walking down the hallway

when I ran into Prof. Carol Dweck

from Stanford University,

so she asked me ‘Hey, Krishna

what are you doing these days?’

So I said ‘I'm thinking about do

people always choose what they like?

Are choices based on preferences?'

And then Carol asked me

‘What? Aren’t they the same?

Choices and preferences-what's the difference?’

I think Carol Dweck’s comment revealed the

Western assumption that choices should be

based on people's preferences.

But later that year, once the academic

year was over I was scheduled

to visit my family back in India.

So I thought okay let me actually test

whether this is always the case.

So I went to a college cafeteria.

I got five nice pens similar to what

what you just saw in this course

a few minutes ago.

I had students take each pen test out

how it writes and then evaluate the pen.

How much they like the pen,

how well does it write and how

good does it look and so on.

Then when they were done,

I told the participants, 'okay,

so just pick one of the five pens

that you like as a gift for

participating in the study’.

And I did the same thing at the

cafeteria at Stanford University

after returning.

What I found was that in the U.S.

consistent with my professor’s assumptions

large majority of people,

of nearly ninety percent, chose

the pen that they said that

they liked the most.

So people's choices were based on

their preferences. But in India

only sixty percent of people chose

the pen that they rated as liking the most.

I didn't have an opportunity to run

this study in China at that point;

but I'm sure the results would be

very similar as people don't always

buy and choose what they like

particularly in Asian cultures.

So, what do Asians or particularly

Chinese customers based their choices on

if not on their preferences.

This is typically the first question

that I get when I described

my findings to someone.

So over the years I found that

Asian customers think about

two particular things.

So one question is to think about

what would most other people

like me choose or buy.

Which pen is most fashionable?

What do I see the celebrities doing?

What is popular these days?

And then the second question that

they asked is what would

others want me to choose.

Which pen suits my personality,

or the type of person I am,

or the type of student I am.

What would my friends say

looks good on me or what would

my parents say is the type of pen

I should be getting.

So Asian customers are focused

more on other people's views

and other people's actions rather than

exclusively focused on their

own personal preferences.

In recent research, I found that

the most salient factor is what

people believe is the appropriate

thing to do in their cultural context.

Is it to go with what you like primarily?

Or is it to go with - not with your

preferences but what is the

right thing to do.

Again people in all cultures including

in the US and Western cultures

believe that you pay attention

to other people's views

and other people's actions.

But Asians are particularly attuned

to the social norm about

what is expected of them.

And in research I found that

social norms are not kind of

blanket. They can be changed.

So let me describe a couple

experiments that I ran

to test this idea.

So I got a group of Asian

participants and I randomly split

them into two conditions.

In one group, I give them an article

saying that the norm in Asian cultures

is to not choose according to

your own preferences all the time.

I told them that as a recent survey

found that a majority of people

believe that you shouldn't just do

what you want all the time,

you should also be considerate

about what other people would feel

or other people would want to do.

But then other group of participants,

I told them the norm in Asian cultures

is to just act on your preferences.

People value individuals who are strong,

who don't care too much about what

others are doing be true to themselves.

And then I asked them to make some choices.

I previously measured their preferences

so I could test whether the extent

to which people chose

according to the preferences or not.

And what I found was that even Asian

people’s behaviors are highly

influenced by the social norms

when they were told that the norms

says don’t do, always act

according to the preference.

This is a big gap.

Maybe people choose things that

they didn't really like very much

but when we tell them that the norm is

to go according to the preferences,

now we see a tight relationship

between people's choices and preferences.

Now even Asians end up choosing what

they like the most. So this shows that

Asians behavior is not ingrained

or due to an unchangeable fixed mindset,

but it's very responsive to what they think

the social norm is at a given moment.

So, one set of explanations could be

because of the type of environment

that they live in.

So, for example, most Asian countries

including Japan, Korea, China,

Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan,

India are much more dense,

have many more people per square

km than, say, large Western countries

like the US, Canada, or Australia.

And so in dense environment we

have to interact with a lot of

people all the time,

there might be a greater pressure to

conform to social norms.

Like in the U.S. I can choose

whether I want to walk on the left side

or walk on the right side;

and there're not a lot of many

people I’ll run into. But in Hong Kong,

I would be careful what side I’ll walk on

because if I walk on the wrong side

I'd be bumping against a hundred people

on my way from home to work.

So the environmental pressures

could lead people to follow social

norms to a greater extent.

And a second set of explanations

could be because of the cultural ethos

about how people view their self.

Do people view their self as

being very independent and

separate from the social context?

The right way to behave should come from

inside you, not from outside you.

Or do people feel that there is no

inherently right way to behave?

The right way to act comes from our

collective understanding of how one

should act and comport oneself.

So this more independent versus

interdependent view of

the self and society could also be an

explanation for this cultural differences,

and whether people always choose

what they like or not.

So typically most advertising targets

people's preferences. Advertise company

says ‘Look! Buy. My product is very nice.

Prefer my prices, have higher stronger

preferences for my products, and buy

my products. It's good in so many ways.’

But targeting preferences might not

be very effective if people don't always

choose according to their preferences.

So what my research suggests is that

if companies want to sell products

to Chinese customers or Asian customers

more generally, what they should be

targeting is people's choices,

they should be telling people choose

my product over other products.

And this claim would be more effective.

If they also provide other reasons

that, for example, most of the

people are choosing this product.

This product is considered more fashionable

or more popular than other similar products

or this product is the best product

objectively best item out there

that's being sold.

So the focus is not on the advantages

or key unique features of one given item

but on how this item compared with

the competitors’ and why people

should choose this item,

not just like this item at the same time.

So shifting the focus of advertisements

from preferences to choices

should make advertising

more effective in Chinese markets.

Explore our Catalog

Join for free and get personalized recommendations, updates and offers.

Coursera provides universal access to the world’s best education, partnering with top universities and organizations to offer courses online.

© 2019 Coursera Inc. All rights reserved.

Download on the App Store

Get it on Google Play

Coursera
About
Leadership
Careers
Catalog
Certificates
MasterTrack™ Certificates
Degrees
For Enterprise
For Government

Community
Learners
Partners
Developers
Beta Testers
Translators

Connect
Blog
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Instagram
YouTube
Tech Blog

More
Terms
Privacy
Help
Accessibility
Press
Contact
Directory
Affiliates