Marketing Research Components
The underlying Gallup information wisely took into account matters of geography, population densities, income classes, product categories, work attitudes, etc.
Among the more nuanced discoveries was the reveal of the "third China", second-tier metropolitan areas where first to market and other opportunities still exist. Another reveal: differentiated buying patterns based on differing consumer locales.
Customer Satisfaction
The Gallup effort unearthed even more. One area of scrutiny had to do with brand loyalty, “made in China” and other related statistical metrics. While the Chinese consumer has a tendency to support its domestic goods, the widening choices are making inroads simultaneous to a youth less wedded to such a notion.
As for a competitive environment, it appears that the consumer is appreciative of the widening choices. Increased competition may increase challenges to business, yet increased competition it appears to be, yielding ever more choices. “In Asia, the average person's living standards are currently set to rise by 10,000% in one lifetime!”(Levy, 2005) And so it goes.
Conclusion
This is the kind of information we need more and more of. To be better marketers, managers, strategic planners and so forth we must become Chinese. Any real lack of research may find us getting close enough yet not where we need to be, and that would be an affectation of being Chinese (close but no cigar).
Assuming for a moment one has enough information, one is sensitive enough (and China and business will be a high-growth arena for research for the foreseeable future), how a MNC would maintain any edge in the Chinese market will be predicated on customer service.
Internal customer service will distinguish the FDI and the foreign corporation from the old and tired domestic model. It will do so because it can. It has the resources to give more and has well-developed research to back up exactly how to do it best.
External customer service (and in many ways, internal as well), will need to be trained. Yet, armed with more and better research, becoming more and more Chinese, coupled with the wealth of Western wisdom on this matter … as is often sought in marketing, that's the Wow factor.
References
Levy, S. (2005, September 19). Honey, I shrunk the iPod. Newsweek. Retrieved from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4970&t=technology
McEwen, W., Xiaoguang, F., Chuanping , Z., & Burkholder, R. (2006, March ). INSIDE THE MIND OF THE CHINESE CONSUMER.. Harvard Business Review, 84(3), 68-76. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.libproxy.edmc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsh&AN=19707486&site=ehost-live
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