3.2 Materialism in China

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Selling to Chinese Consumers

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The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Selling to Chinese Consumers

31 ratings

Course 1 of 4 in the Specialization Doing Business in China

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.

From the lesson

Materialism and Conspicuous Consumption

Chinese consumers are found to be more materialistic in a cross-national survey conducted by the I.C.E lab at CUHK. Unlike Western consumers, the rising levels of materialism for Chinese consumers are not driven by low self-esteem. This lecture explains how lay elitism and social mobility affect Chinese consumption characteristics such as materialism, conspicuous consumption and acceptance of culturally mixed products.

3.1 What Is Changing for Chinese Consumers?4:57

3.2 Materialism in China4:32

3.3 Reasons behind Materialism and Conspicuous Consumption in China - Part 14:09

3.4 Reasons behind Materialism and Conspicuous Consumption in China - Part 24:27

3.5 The Impact of Relational Mobility on Culturally-Mixed Products3:10

3.6 The Psychological Profiles of Chinese Consumers1:43

3.7 Dialogue with Scholar: Professor Carlos Torelli20:12

3.8 Dialogue with Practitioner: Anthony Lau9:40

Meet the Instructors

Prof. Letty Kwan
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology

In this segment, you will learn what

materialism is, how it affects consumption

in China, and the reason for the popularity

of materialism in China.

Materialism affects consumer choices,

but so do other values.

For example, individualism and its

attendant emphasis on self-expression

are regarded as core values

in capitalist economies.

Popularity of individualist values in a

country is an indicator of how much the

country has accepted capitalist practices.

To illustrate how a characteristic value in

China can affect Chinese consumers'

choices, in this segment I will focus

on materialism.

As mentioned in the previous segment,

we will use scientific findings from the

consumer research we carried out at

The Chinese University of Hong Kong to

address these issues,

instead of relying on our commonsense.

We, at the I.C.E Lab,

have carried out a cross-national survey

on consumption behaviors.

The participants in this survey are over

600 consumers from the US and China.

They completed standardized measures

of consumer values and experiences.

These measures have been shown to be

reliable and valid in published research.

Our respondents also reported their

consumption habits and attitudes towards

luxury brands, counterfeit products, and

mixing of cultures in consumer products.

What is materialism?

Materialism refers to the extent to which

an individual places material possessions

at the center of their life and regards

these possessions as the key to their

happiness. Often times, highly

materialistic people will evaluate

themselves and others based on their

material possessions.

Therefore, it is not surprising that

more materialistic individuals are more

inclined to purchase luxury brands.

Commercial advertisements often appeal

to the vanity motives of the consumers.

They present their customers as elitists

in the society. People who embrace

materialistic values will find these

commercial message particularly appealing.

In the West, materialism has been linked

to psychological insecurity and

the lack of self-esteem.

For example, consumers who have low

self-esteem tend to endorse materialistic

values. This is the case because

materialistic possessions may help low

self-esteem consumers to feel good about

the self because they own some valuable

commodities that others don’t.

Materialism drives conspicuous consumption.

Conspicuous consumption refers to

spending a lot of money on luxury

goods and service in order to

show off one’s wealth.

Are contemporary Chinese consumers

more materialistic than American consumers?

As mentioned earlier, we at the I.C.E lab

have collected data from over 600

consumers in China and in the US.

To measure how materialistic Chinese

and US consumers are, we invited the

participants to fill out the widely used

standardized survey of materialism.

The survey was designed by

Professor Richins and Professor Dawson.

It consists of statements like

“I admire people who own expensive

homes, cars, and clothes”.

The participants indicated how much

they agreed with each of these statements.

The results show that Chinese

respondents are indeed more materialistic

than their US counterparts.

We also measured the participants’

attitude towards conspicuous consumption,

a consumption habit that has been assumed

to be strongly associated with materialism.

As shown in this figure,

more materialistic consumers favor

conspicuous consumption more.

Not surprisingly, Chinese consumers also

have more favorable attitudes towards

conspicuous consumption than do

American consumers.

Do Chinese and American consumers

embrace materialism for different reasons?

As mentioned earlier, past research in the

US show that individuals with

low self-esteem are more materialistic

because they feel that they can use

materialistic possession to bolster

their self-esteem.

However, in China, there is no connection

between self-esteem and materialism.

That is, among Chinese consumers, those

who endorse materialism more do not

necessarily have lower self-esteem.

In China, self-esteem is not related

to the preference for conspicuous

consumption either.

If the Chinese consumers do not use

materialistic possession or conspicuous

consumption to bolster their self-esteem,

why do so many Chinese consumers

endorse materialism and

conspicuous consumption?

We will turn to this question in the next segment.

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