Hi Anthony. >> Hi. >> Thank you for being here with us today. So I have a few questions to ask you, and hope you could share your experience with us. >> Sure, sure, yeah. >> In our lecture we talk a lot about cultural values. Do you think that impacts Chinese consumers a lot? >> Of course, Chinese place a lot of emphasis on their traditional, cultural weddings so it effects, in many ways, what think and what they do. >> All right, so if you think that is important, how do you, can you give us specific examples. How does it impact the Chinese consumers? >> First of all, let's look at the way at the way they treat themselves, versus other people. So, how do they see the importance of themselves versus, say, their family, their colleagues, and the larger society. In China they tend to place much less emphasis on themselves, on the individual, versus what they expected to do for their family, and for their friends, for there colleagues, ect. So they need to take into account the social expectations on them, versus what they want to do as an individual. >> So, you think, that is also exactly what we find in a lot of our own research. But in that case, how can we use our textbook findings, or research findings, and apply it on real marketing techniques, or branding techniques? >> So, when you look at what consumers want, you have to look deeper into their thinking. What they really want behind what they have, or what they buy. They may not be buying something just for your their needs. They may also be buying this to satisfy what say, their parents want them to look like, or what they want to present themselves in front of their colleagues. So this idea of social image is pretty important in Chinese cultural behavior. >> I see, so in that case, if they are so concerned about other people, so under what circumstances do you think they will actually think about themselves, or actually they will think more about their peers, or families, or other people. So how as perhaps marketers, or brand builder, how do you understand that phenomenon. And how do you actually use that kind of understanding to market your products? >> Well, in that case, you first must look at the context of the consumption, is it something to be consumed alone, on their own? So in that case, they would focus more on quality, and price performance ratio, because it's for their own use, it won't be seen by others. Say if you go to a spa or a beauty house. But for other consumer products, if you are going to show it to your friends and colleagues, then you must consider its image as reflects upon you. So like your hand phones, so in China why do you see so many average office workers using iPhones, is because of the image projected by the product. So they must consider how the product will reflect on themselves, more than just the product functions itself. >> I see, so I understand you must have a wealth of experiences in looking at some of the cultural differences. So can you tell us a specific example, what something that you would particularly do in the Chinese market that you wouldn't do outside of China that can highlight these culture differences? >> One thing that stands out would be respect for the elderly, or the parents of the generation. In other countries and societies, it won't be as important as a consideration in your buying behavior, in the way you make decisions. But in China, it's very important to be seen as being good to your parents and the older generation. So when you buy something you take into consideration, you often see advertising appealing to this kind of respect for the family and respect for the parents as a reason for doing something. Or as a reason for building emotional bonding with the customer. >> Correct, so that is also what I observe when I look at the advertisement in China also. But I see that in our work, or in our research work, I see that in one direction, the Chinese consumer is changing. They are getting more and more individualistic. But at the same time, they have what you have mentioned just now, Filial piety, or family and friends, group adherence, how do you see these two trends will go? Will they be more in the individualistic side, or be more on the family side, or will it be a coexistence of the two? >> Well, one has to look at it in a bigger context, which is the China is a very big society, a very diverse country. So different places, different parts of the country would have different ways. And looking at this cultural value, say in the ultra big cities, metropolitans like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, so these kind of family values are less prominent. As in less developed places like [FOREIGN] or [FOREIGN], [FOREIGN]. So these places, there are very vast rogue intellect. So in the villages people to have very strong culture values towards the family, this is one aspect. The other aspect is the age segment, the age generation, we say the age cycle is very short in China, maybe, five years or so, would be a different generation, holding different values. So in China we used to say [FOREIGN], the 80s, the 80 or after. And then [FOREIGN], 85, [FOREIGN], 90, and [FOREIGN] so, each is a different generation. Of course, the younger they are, the less they will be influenced by family values, but you will still see them strongly influenced by family matters, as compared to their counterparts in other countries. >> I see, so what you mentioned just now is actually a very, very complex problems. You mentioned about the geographic region, the age, the product, whether it is a private product, or public products.. These all can affect whether cultural values have an impact on how they consume. So one very difficult question for the viewer is, if they are a foreigner, or if they just started to want to sell to Chinese consumers, how can they learn more about Chinese consumers? How can they start? >> Come and live here. >> [LAUGH] >> You think that will be the best way? >> That's the minimum they must do. Of course, they can partner with Chinese companies. They can hire more Chinese local staff. They can do research in China. But I think the most important thing to do is go out there and feel the pulse of the society, of the consumers, especially in the smaller cities. You won't get a feeling until you go there and see for yourself. >> All right, I think the viewers have learned a lot from your experiences. Thank you for being here with us today. >> Thank you.
