Seven lessons for building a winning brand in China

Purpose – As Chinese consumers become more affluent, their expectations about what a brand should deliver are rising. To better understand the challenges facing companies that want to establish a brand in China, Accenture surveyed more than a thousand Chinese consumers to learn how they decide what to buy. This paper aims to examine those results. Design/methodology/approach – Accenture conducted 1,022 interviews from China that surveyed consumers of six categories of products and services: automobiles, appliances, consumer packaged goods, financial services, high‐tech products and apparel. Consumers chosen for the China part of the study were generally younger and wealthier than the typical Chinese consumer – a reasonable proxy for the initial target audiences for brands attempting to succeed in China. Findings – Accenture research shows that creating a successful brand in this environment requires a sophisticated understanding of what segments of the Chinese markets value in a brand and a willingness to reach China's increasingly choosy consumers through innovative media. Practical implications – The data about Chinese consumers' expectations translate into seven core lessons for marketers. Three of the lessons offer ways to shape brand image and four suggest how to best communicate the brand message. Originality/value – Analysis of the survey data identified six consumer segments, which – although they share much in common – each have particular differences in their set of brand values.