By Sarah Morgan
I’ve just returned from a 10-day whistle stop tour of China visiting Shanghai, Chengdu and Beijing.
The focus of the trip, which was made up of delegates from NZTE, was to understand the voice of the Chinese consumer, with particular focus on food and beverage and health products.
Specifically, we wanted to understand consumers purchasing behaviours; how do they shop, where do they buy, what influencing factors play a part in purchasing certain products and what are their attitudes towards imported products? Within groups, we met directly with consumers, both in their homes and in-store to get answers to these questions. The learnings were massive, the insights were gold and there were two common themes that came through time and time again.
Consumers are looking for trust and authenticity
Within the growing middle class generation of consumers in China there are a couple of emerging trends of interest to all exporters; consumers are a lot more conscious of what they’re buying and where those products are coming from. Due to a number of factors such as food safety issues and environmental challenges, these consumers have a distrust of local produce and are extensively researching for alternatives. And rather than searching for known brands, consumers are looking for quality, trustworthy and authentic products.
To do this, they extensively research online forums, WeChat and social groups to gather knowledge and recommendations. They dig deep to understand where the product is sourced, farmed and processed. They want to know the whole story to ensure the product is safe and authentic.
Our job, is to collectively tell them that story and demonstrate trust and authenticity. On the product packaging, the promotional materials and by educating distributors on why our products can be trusted and are genuine. And this needs to be done across multiple platforms; in-store, online via promotions and leveraging Daigou and KOLs to ensure we tell a consistent and compelling story.
Interesting insight to know; when I speak with FernMark Licensees to ask why they applied for a licence these are the two key messages I hear time and time again; to communicate trust and authenticity.
Chinese consumers view New Zealand as a brand – not a country
We can take this desire trust and authenticity a step further. Insights tell us that awareness of New Zealand within the affluent middle class Chinese population is high and the attitude towards New Zealand is all positive. This is the premium market segment we collectively need to target to compete in the value, not volume, export market. So although we may not be known for any individual consumer brands like BMW or Sony that doesn’t matter.
Collectively, we can all leverage the New Zealand brand and share our stories about what makes our products so great. Yes, we’re still predominantly known more for our beautiful scenery but that’s just for starters. We need to extend our story to how we go about developing and making our products; the smarts and resourcefulness that sits behinds our thinking, the integrity of how we do business and build relationships and being mindful of the regulations we need to adhere to ensure safety and trust. That’s when we can really start making inroads and provide the back story that Chinese consumers are so hungry to hear to ensure they buy the best for their families.
One simple way to demonstrate provenance and trust is by becoming a FernMark Licensee. A programme that focusses on building New Zealand’s good country reputation to help all New Zealand exporters reach new consumers, around the globe, and share our collective country brand story.