Shopping habits of China’s ‘suddenly wealthy’

Published: August 21 2009 14:41

Neon lights lining a street in China

In the past decade China has become the workshop for the world, its low-cost labour force toiling in factories to churn out cheap goods destined for western consumers. Many of the raw materials needed to feed this industrial juggernaut have to be imported from other countries and today China is the biggest driver of markets in commodities such as copper, oil and iron ore.

But as well as a multitude of low-paid factory workers, the country’s manufacturing boom has also ­created a large and growing number of baofahu – literally, the “suddenly wealthy”. Their shopping habits and changing tastes are reshaping global trade flows at the other end of the production chain.

The rise of the Chinese consumer has ­provided unprecedented opportunities for enterprising global corporations and many now look to the country as their biggest growth market for the indefinite future. And while China’s nouveaux riches share many of the tastes of their counterparts in any other part of the world, there are also a number of customs and cultural legacies that have ­created new markets for ­products that have little value elsewhere. This has encouraged global companies to invest an increasing amount of time and money in understanding what makes the Chinese customer special and how best to market or customise products.

In some cases, traditional Chinese tastes, combined with the explosion in wealth during the past decade, have created a rapacious and unsustainable call for the body parts of endangered species. The manufacture of ­traditional delicacies, ornaments and medicinal ingredients has helped to cut swathes through populations of sharks, elephants, seahorses and other species across the world – and that demand is only expected to increase.

Jamil Anderlini, FT deputy Beijing bureau chief

. . .

Big cars, flashy cars

An illustration of a yellow car neon signIn the US, cars need giant cup-holders, but in China, it’s chauffeurs that are de rigueur. So when Porsche recently decided to launch a four-door sedan in the midst of financial Armageddon, it chose to do so in China – perhaps the last place on earth where anyone still has RMB2.5m (£200,000) to spend on a chauffeur-driven sports car.

At the Shanghai auto show in April, the Porsche Panamera – which offers the ample legroom required by China’s back-seat-riding bosses – premiered alongside the Geely GE, otherwise known as the Baby Rolls-Royce (much to the displeasure of the real Rolls-Royce). Then came news that China plans to buy Hummer and make it greener. China’s love affair with big, flashy autos is clearly just beginning.

The newly wealthy everywhere love to flaunt their money, but China’s rich are even more shameless than most: cars are not a means of locomotion for the affluent Chinese, they are a symbol of success, status and the naked power of the internal combustion engine over the bicycle or pedestrian.

According to Friedhelm Engler, director of design for GM’s Shanghai-based Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, cars in China are all about “face”. He says the bulky, “three-box” shape that is still overwhelmingly popular is deeply embedded culturally in a country where the rich traditionally rode in palanquins. To western eyes, that makes many Chinese cars look old-fashioned, especially on the futuristic streets of Shanghai, with its space-age skyscrapers. And parking such cars – not to mention parking a “Baby Rolls” – is a nightmare in the city’s congested, narrow streets.

China needs smaller cars, and some younger consumers are leaning toward hatchbacks; but in a country where grandpa or dad is often footing the bill, four doors still often win out over five (not least because grandpa or dad may not know how to drive, so they rely on the younger generation to squire them around at weekends in the three-box). This is a world where the young can start their motoring life with a Buick, not a 2CV or Beetle; Buicks are more popular in China than they have been in the US for decades.

But western car manufacturers are betting that things will change, as China’s budding love affair with the automobile matures. The country is on track to become the world’s largest auto market this year – several years ahead of expectation – and car styles could be transformed at the speed of light. “Chinese consumers are used to moving quickly, from no TV, to a flatscreen,” says Engler. Their auto style may be dowdy today – but in China, tomorrow is always just around the corner.

Patti Waldmeir, FT Shanghai correspondent

. . .

Gold

An illustration of a neon sign with three gold barsChina loves gold in all its forms: as a reserve currency, jewellery, an investment – even gold that is not real at all, or “virtual gold”, the internet commodity used as currency in online games such as World of Warcraft. The Chinese government is trying to crack down on trade in virtual gold, which is “farmed” by online gamers in China and sold to online gamers in the first world.

But when it comes to the real stuff – gold jewellery and gold bullion, for either adornment or investment – trade in China has risen sharply. Beijing recently revealed that it had been secretly buying gold for years in order to diversify its foreign reserves, and had almost doubled its bullion holdings. But they are not the only ones: the rising tide of wealth among middle-class Chinese has made China the second-largest gold jewellery market in the world since 2007, behind only India. Sales of gold and silver jewellery in China rose by an astounding 28.7 per cent in May year on year – proof, if any more were needed, that Chinese consumers have certainly not stopped spending money during the financial crisis. Total gold demand in China last year was nearly 400 tonnes, up by 21 per cent from 2007.

But Chinese people like their gold purer than their western counterparts: 24 carat, rather than 18 carat. The reasons for that, says Shi Heqing, gold analyst at Beijing Antaike Information, are partly historical: “Chinese people have gone through several wars in the last century, and the memory of those is still fresh, so they like secure ways of keeping their money. In the west, people seem to use gold more for decoration or beautification.”

The recent rollercoaster ride in the mainland stock market – which at one point last year had fallen by 70 per cent from its 2007 height, but has since crawled back to half the peak level – has also prompted more investment interest in gold in bullion form, gold market analysts say.

Mr Yu, a 55-year-old antiques trader in Shanghai who declined to give his first name, says he bought 500g of gold in 2007 and increased his holding to 2,000g at the end of last year. “I know people who are still buying stocks at this moment … but gold may be better for people my age who are more risk-averse.”

Or as Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research in Shanghai, puts it: “In China, the banking system has only recently become stable. Chinese people like gold: you can always melt it down and it’s easy to carry.”

Patti Waldmeir, with additional reporting by Yan Jin, former FT Shanghai news assistant

. . .

Barbie

An illustration of Barbie as a neon signNo one knows more about shopping than the women in the Shanghai typing pool: all those one-child babies have grown up into over-indulged 20-somethings with office jobs and 100 per cent disposable income. Their parents or grandparents pay for rent, food, healthcare and every other human need; all the rest goes on clothes, shoes, make-up and … Barbie?

Mattel is banking on Shanghai’s girlie-girls to revive its flagging fortunes. The biggest Barbie store in the world recently opened on the city’s Huai Hai Zhong Lu shopping street, where all six floors are infused with the spirit of that 1960s model of female perfection, the blonde and cinch-waisted doll whose brand must rank as one of the greatest successes in the history of world marketing.

But in China, Mattel is breaking that brand mould in a big way: Barbie is supposed to transform herself from a doll into a lifestyle. Nearly a whole floor of the store is devoted to Barbie clothing in grown-up sizes – exorbitantly priced sequined tops that my American eight- and nine-year-old girls would not be caught dead in because Barbie (to them) is a little kid thing. But Shaun Rein of China Market Research says “cute sexy” is what the typing pool wants, and judging from the huge popularity of the Hello Kitty character in that age group, it might just work.

Jinky Gu, spokeswoman for the Shanghai store, has another perspective altogether. “Chinese parents won’t stop investing in their children’s education even during the economic crisis.” The notion that Barbie is an educational toy might horrify the feminists among us, but it just might work among the stiletto-heeled Shanghainese. It would not be the first time that a jaded western brand got a new lease of life in China.

Patti Waldmeir, FT Shanghai correspondent

. . .

Spirits and fine wine

An illustration of a bottle and glass of wine as a neon signShanghai White is the latest product offering from Diageo, the UK drinks business behind such brands as Johnnie Walker and Guinness, and its launch this summer gave the world a glimpse of how the tastes of China’s new rich are changing the liquor landscape.

Shanghai White is being marketed as premium vodka but it is produced in a venture with a Chinese baijiu distillery, combining the distilling process of both vodka and baijiu. The “but” in there is because baijiu is the national firewater in China, with a taste sometimes described as a mixture of tequila and dirt.

Of the roughly five billion litres of spirits consumed every year in China, the vast majority is baijiu; the combined consumption of all foreign spirits is estimated at less than 1 per cent of the total. The allure of such a large market has convinced Diageo that it needs to adjust its product line.

In the wine market, meanwhile, bottles of Château Lafite and Louis XIII are indispensable accoutrements for display in the gleaming new mansions of China’s super-rich, although such badges of wealth are more likely to be seen as investments. The cachet of ordering an expensive bottle also still far outweighs the pleasure derived from drinking it, and Chinese nightclubs are filled with wealthy people ordering top-shelf cognac then mixing it with gallons of sweet, green-tea-flavoured soft drinks.

Only around 5 per cent of grape wine consumed in China is currently imported but this is changing and at numerous recent European wine auctions the winning bidder has been Chinese. While European winemakers have not yet contemplated changing their products to suit Chinese tastes, the marketing strategies of wine dealers are already shifting eastward.

Jamil Anderlini, FT deputy Beijing bureau chief

. . .

Ivory

An illustration of an elephant's head as a neon signFor more than 7,000 years, Chinese artisans have been crafting elephant ivory. Favoured by the Imperial household as far back as the Qing dynasty (1680), ivory has an illustrious reputation and an association with the wealthy and elite. But in 1989, the trading of ivory was banned worldwide through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), after more than half of Africa’s 1.3 million elephants were poached in a single decade. And yet, with a carving trade established in antiquity and a burgeoning middle class who, for the first time, can afford to buy ivory, China remains its biggest importer.

As Asian elephant herds dwindle, African elephants have become the only source of ivory. In late 2008, Cites authorities allowed China to bid with Japan for tusks from official stockpiles – consisting of ivory collected from elephants that had died a natural death – in four southern African countries. In an open declaration of a continuing demand, 12 Chinese traders bought 62 tonnes at an average price of $144 per kilo. Since this legal purchase, more than 11 tonnes of illegal African ivory have been impounded en route to China.

Elephant poaching largely takes place in central Africa, where poverty and political instability are rife. Chronic unemployment, the availability of firearms and corruption all facilitate the illegal ivory trade. These regions are also home to unregulated domestic ivory markets, where carved items are bought and sold. According to ivory expert Esmond Martin, the majority of buyers are Chinese. In a scramble for Africa’s minerals and resources, the continent has seen a recent influx of Chinese workers – a presence that is visibly reflected in the illegal retailing of ivory. On a recent trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Martin recorded 1,433 items of ivory openly displayed in the city’s main streets and central market. Among these were 149 pairs of freshly carved ivory chopsticks, selling for $16 each – in sharp contrast to a Chinese retail price of $139 – and signature stamps and jewellery. All of these items were small enough to potentially smuggle through customs.

Martin had previously estimated that 4,900 to 12,000 elephants from central Africa were killed each year to supply tusks to the craftsmen of Africa, China and Thailand. Conservationists are deeply concerned. According to Barbara Maas, CEO of Care for the Wild International: “With the number of Chinese nationals resident in Africa rising, and poaching on the increase, the frontline between supply and demand for ivory is now perilously close, with a disastrous outcome for elephants.”

Rose Gamble, freelance journalist

. . .

Dairy

An illustration of a bottle of milk as a neon signThe Chinese have become the second-biggest consumers of milk globally, after Indians. Demand has been helped by Beijing bombarding the populace with health messages about the benefits of dairy, by urbanites adopting more western diets and by rising incomes. Dairy consumption in China has doubled since 2000, and reached some 30 million tonnes in 2007, according to Rabobank, the food- and agriculture-focused bank.

International dairy producers got a further boost last year in the form of China’s milk and infant formula contamination scare, which led to two death sentences for men involved in deliberately tainting the country’s milk supply with the chemical melamine. “China’s milk powder imports have more than doubled since the melamine crisis,” says Tim Hunt, senior dairy analyst for Rabobank. “It played a huge role in shoring up market prices for internationally traded products in the first half of 2009.”

Nevertheless, at just 22kg per head each year, China’s dairy consumption falls well short of wealthier Asian countries such as Japan (where people eat some 75kg of milk, cheese, ice cream and yoghurt each year) and is piddling next to European Union residents, who consume 223kg each year. Still, foreign dairy groups see potential in the Chinese market. Although consumption fell in the wake of the melamine scare, it is expected to return close to pre-crisis levels by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, MilkLink, the UK dairy co-operative, this year became the first British cheese maker to export Stilton to China, targeting urban Chinese as well as western expats. The company’s cheeses, which will soon include English cheddar, are being sold in supermarkets along the country’s east coast, including branches of Tesco and Wal-Mart. Simon Mercer, head of export at The Cheese Company, part of MilkLink, claims natural cheeses will be the next big growth story in China’s dairy sector, a forecast backed up by research group Zenith International. It says cheese consumption, currently less than 4 per cent of the country’s dairy market, will rise alongside the expansion of fast food chains such as Pizza Hut and McDonald’s.

As the dairy sector grows, Mercer forecasts China will “suck in” imports, but warns that the UK – where milk production is in decline – is not in a position to meet demand.

Jenny Wiggins, FT consumer industries correspondent

. . .

Dried seahorses

An illustration of a seahorse as a neon signThe aphrodisiac counter is always the most arresting section in the menageries that are Chinese medicine shops. Among the eyes of newts and toes of frogs are mounds of dried seahorses. In traditional Chinese medicine, consuming seahorses is thought to be beneficial for human kidneys, improving memory, reducing swelling, helping women give birth, treating arthritis and even curing breast cancer. But the most important function of the humble hippocampus is the treatment of impotence. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that seahorses are the only known vertebrate species for which males rather than females give birth. Or maybe it’s just because they are so exotic.

For most of the past 1,000 years, only the richest Chinese patients could afford to include seahorses in their love potions. But with industrialisation, rapacious modern fishing techniques and China’s economic renaissance, dried seahorses have become widely available and are even sold pre-packaged by the dozen in supermarkets across the country.

Chinese consumers demand up to 250 tonnes of dried seahorses annually, but populations in China’s own territorial waters have been so depleted that only 10-20 tonnes a year can be sourced domestically. The remainder is imported from places such as Vietnam, the Philippines, India and Africa. And because dried seahorses weigh so little, 250 tonnes is equivalent to tens of millions of seahorses killed every year for Chinese aphrodisiacs – figures so enormous that even some in the Chinese medicine industry have started to voice concern that this precious ingredient will soon be fished into extinction.

The obvious answer? Farming seahorses. But attempts to do so on a commercial scale have so far had little success.

Jamil Anderlini, FT deputy Beijing bureau chief

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“Penny pinching, ruthless, suspicious shoppers”

A Chinese man shops for trousers in a department storeHail the Chinese consumer, putative saviour of the global economy, writes Sameena Ahmad. China is still growing, at an enviable 8 per cent clip, and within that retail sales are rising by 15 per cent and more each year. The country now boasts more millionaires than the UK and glossy malls to serve them are springing up even in tawdry third- and fourth-tier cities. Parched of profits at home, a growing number of multinational corporations are betting on China’s billion-strong army of shoppers to bail them out and the rest of the world.

But in order to sell successfully to the Chinese, you have to understand them – and too many international companies (still) don’t. While the country is growing richer rapidly, the absolute numbers remain relatively small. Total consumer spending in China reached $1,700bn in 2007, according to the most recent figures available, compared with $12,000bn in the US. In new research on the Chinese consumer to be published next month, McKinsey, the management consultancy, classifies just two million households out of a population of 1.3 billion as “wealthy” and that is based on fairly modest annual earnings of more than $30,000. The mass middle class is certainly growing and numbers some 70 million urban households, but these still earn just $5,000-$10,000 a year. That buys western shampoo, Ikea furniture and a television, but not many cars or diamonds.

The current healthy growth in retail sales is also not as good as it looks. Government purchases at retail stores are included in the figures and in many cities, including Beijing, the government has also been helping indirectly by handing out vouchers to finance purchases of anything from computers to weddings. The big spender in China, in years past and even more so today, is the state: private consumption as a percentage of gross domestic product has fallen from 60 per cent in 1968 to 36 per cent last year and could be as low as one-fifth in 2009 as the government ramps up capital investment.

In fact, the Chinese, who already have a world-beating savings rate of nearly 40 per cent of their income, tend to become more frugal when times are tough. As bank deposit rates decline, most of us spend more. The Chinese tend to stash away even greater sums to make up for the lost interest. The reason for this conservatism is the lack of a social safety net in China – citizens have to provide for their own medical care, old age and possible unemployment.

This makes them “penny pinching, ruthless, suspicious shoppers”, says Tom Doctoroff, north Asia director of advertising agency JWT and a writer on Chinese consumer trends. In a recession this behaviour only grows worse. “The downturn has made people keener on finding the cheapest deal,” says Yuval Atsmon, an associate principal in McKinsey’s Shanghai office. Even when they can easily afford it, buying a PC typically involves six visits to a store, and more often than not, customers will wait six months before making their decision after consulting blogs, online comparison sites and – the most important source of information in China – friends and family. Sales of copycat mobile phones, with all the functions of top models but a lower price, have soared from 17 million units in 2006 to 62 million units last year.

Brand consciousness is high, at least in the big cities, but brand loyalty is much lower than in the west. A price cut or good in-store promotion can often sway shoppers. And for cultural reasons, appealing to an individual’s taste or personal comfort typically doesn’t work, Doctoroff points out. A purchase either has to publicly signal status or wealth, like a flashy car does. Or provide a practical benefit: the latest craze in China is chocolate with added calcium, eaten not for pleasure but for the health benefits. The growing appeal of diamonds to women is not based on romance, but as a financial signal of a man’s commitment. Trust is another key issue in a country where so many consumer products are faked. Chinese mothers, for example, will pay 30 per cent more for safe baby milk – and this should favour foreign brands.

But foreign retailers and manufacturers have to cope with vast regional differences in demographics, language and culture that make it hard to plan a single marketing strategy – indeed treating China like a single country is usually a mistake. Natives of Zhejiang on the east coast like “toilet roll as rough as sandpaper”, the former head of Wal-Mart China liked to observe, a penchant thankfully absent elsewhere. Atsmon points out that cities even an hour apart can be entirely different: in southern Shenzhen, more than four-fifths of the population consists of migrant workers, mostly under the age of 35, who speak Mandarin and drink in bars. In nearby Guangzhou, migrants number just over a quarter, more people are older, enjoy watching Cantonese TV and go out to restaurants to drink with family members. Adequately addressing such niches requires an army of local suppliers, costly infrastructure and several layers of wholesalers and intermediaries. Even then, success may remain as elusive as it always has been: “No matter what you may be selling, your business in China should be enormous, if the Chinese who should buy your goods would only do so,” lamented Carl Crow, an advertising executive in Shanghai and author of the original book on how to sell to the Chinese … more than 70 years ago.

Sameena Ahmad is a business writer for The Economist


中國消費大趨勢


過去10年，中國變成了世界工廠，廉價勞動力在工廠中辛勤工作，大量生產為西方消費者定做的廉價商品。這個勢不可擋的工業巨頭所需的許多原材料都必須從其它國家進口，因此在銅、石油和鐵礦石等大宗商品市場，中國如今已成為最大的推動者。

但除了眾多的低薪工人外，中國的制造業繁榮還催生了大量數量仍在繼續增長的暴發戶。他們的購物習慣和不斷變換的品味正在重新構筑生產鏈另一端的全球貿易流。

中國消費者的崛起為雄心勃勃的跨國企業提供了前所未有的機遇，許多企業現在都將中國視為它們在無限期的未來最大的增長市場。雖然中國新富的品味與世界其它各個地方的新富有許多共同之處，但也有許多習俗和文化傳統為在其它地方幾乎沒有價值的產品創造了新市場。這鼓勵了跨國公司不斷增大時間和資金的投入，去了解中國客戶的特殊之處以及如何才能最好地營銷或定制產品。

有時候，傳統中國口味和過去10年財富的激增，滋生出對瀕危物種身體部位貪婪而不可持續的需求。傳統美食、飾品及藥材的制作，助長了對鯊魚、大象、海馬和世界上其它物種的捕殺，而這種需求預計只會增長，不會下降。

吉密歐(Jamil Anderlini)，英國《金融時報》駐北京記者

大型車、豪華車

在美國，汽車需要特大號杯托，而在中國，司機則是必需。因此，當保時捷(Porsche)最近決定在金融末日戰爭期間推出一款4門轎車時，它把地點選在了中國——這里可能是地球上最后一個還有人會花250萬元人民幣購買配備司機的跑車的地方。

在今年4月的上海車展上，保時捷Panamera和吉利卓越(Geely GE)一同首次公開亮相。前者有坐在后排的中國老板想要的寬大伸腿空間，后者被稱作小勞斯萊斯(Rolls-Royce)（這令真正的勞斯萊斯非常不高興）。接著又傳出消息稱，中國計劃購買悍馬(Hummer)，并令其變得更為環保。中國對大而豪華車的強烈喜愛顯然才剛剛開始。

每個地方的新富都愛炫耀自己的財富，但中國的富人比大多數人都更沒羞沒臊：對中國的富人而言，汽車不是代步工具，而是成功、地位和內燃機凌駕于自行車或行人之上的赤裸裸的權力的象征。

通用汽車(GM)上海泛亞汽車技術中心(Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center)設計總監殷福瑞(Friedhelm Engler)表示，汽車在中國完全是“面子”問題。他說，笨重的“三廂”車受歡迎程度仍然占據壓倒性優勢，這在文化上與中國富人坐轎子的傳統非常契合。在西方人眼里，這讓許多中國汽車看上去很過時，尤其是在上海新潮的大街上和超前的摩天大樓之間。而在上海狹窄而擁擠的街道上，停放這類車簡直就是噩夢，更別提“小勞斯萊斯”了。

中國需要更小的汽車，也有一些較年輕的消費者偏愛掀背車；但在一個常常由爺爺或爸爸付賬的國家，4門車還是經常戰勝5門車（特別是爺爺或爸爸可能不會開車，因此要依賴較年輕的一代用三廂車在周末帶他們出去兜風）。這是一個年輕人可以從別克(Buick)、而不是2CV或甲殼蟲(Beetle)開始其駕車生活的世界；別克在中國比在美國的數十年都更受歡迎。

但西方汽車制造商深信，隨著中國對汽車的熱愛從萌芽走向成熟，情況將會發生改變。今年，中國有望成為全球最大的汽車市場——比預期早了好幾年，因此喜愛的汽車類型也有可能在一夜之間發生轉變。殷福瑞說：“中國消費者已經習慣了快速發展，從沒有電視，一下子到液晶。”他們的汽車車型或許現在很落伍—— 但在中國，明天總是就在拐角處。

帕提•沃德米爾(Patti Waldmeir)，英國《金融時報》駐上海記者

黃金

各種形式的黃金中國都喜歡：儲備貨幣、首飾、投資，甚至是“虛擬黃金”——《魔獸世界》(World of Warcraft)等在線游戲中當作貨幣使用的網絡商品。中國政府正在努力打擊虛擬黃金交易，即中國在線玩家將“耕種”的虛擬黃金倒賣給第一世界的在線玩家。

但提到實物黃金——用作飾品或投資的黃金首飾和金條——這類交易在中國得到大幅增長。中國政府最近披露，為了使外匯儲備多元化，中國多年來一直在秘密購買黃金，所持金條增加了近一倍。但他們不是唯一的黃金購買者：由于中國中產階級財富的不斷增加，2007以來，中國已成為全球第二大黃金首飾市場，僅次于印度。今年5月，中國金銀首飾銷量同比增幅達到驚人的28.7%——縱然沒有其他證據，這也能說明中國消費者在金融危機期間肯定沒有停止花錢。去年，中國黃金需求總量接近400噸，比2007年增長了21%。

但中國人比西方人喜歡更純的金子：24K而不是18K。北京安泰科信息開發有限公司(Beijing Antaike Information Development)的黃金分析師石和清表示，這其中有一定的歷史原因：“上個世紀，中國人經歷了幾場戰爭，至今仍記憶清晰，所以他們喜歡安全的存錢方式。在西方，黃金似乎更多地是用作裝飾或美化。”

黃金市場分析師們表示，中國內地股市最近過山車一樣的表現——去年一度較2007年的峰值水平下跌70%，而至今已攀升至峰值水平的一半——也增加了人們對金條的投資興趣。

不愿透露名字的55歲上海古董交易員Yu先生表示，2007年，他購買了500克黃金，去年底，他所持的黃金已增加到2000克。“我認識的人里，現在有人仍在購買股票……但到了我這個年紀的人更不喜歡風險，因此黃金可能更好。”

或者，正如位于上海的中國市場研究集團(China Market Research)的董事總經理小山(Shaun Rein)所言：“在中國，銀行體系直到最近才變得穩定。中國人喜歡黃金：你隨時可以將它熔化，而且易于攜帶。”

芭比

要說誰對購物最在行，當屬上海寫字樓里的女性：那些獨生女已長成溺愛過度的20來歲的青年，坐辦公室，所有收入都可以自由支配。她們的父母或祖父母會支付租金、食品、醫療及其它一切生存需求；剩下的錢都用來買衣服、鞋子、化妝品和……芭比？

美泰(Mattel)正寄希望于上海女性化十足的姑娘們重振其萎靡不振的命運。全球最大的芭比店最近在上海的淮海中路購物街開張，所有6層店面到處都洋溢著上世紀60年代那個完美女性榜樣的精神。這個金發碧眼束腰玩偶的品牌必定身居世界營銷史最成功案例之列。

但在中國，美泰正在徹底打破這種品牌模式：芭比估計會從玩偶轉變成一種生活方式。幾乎整整一層店面都擺放著成人款的芭比服裝——定價高昂、滿是亮片的上裝。我8歲和9歲的美國女兒決不會想穿這種衣服，因為（在她們看來）芭比是屬于小孩子的東西。但中國市場研究集團的小山說，“可愛加性感”正是職場女性所想要的，并且從Hello Kitty在這個年齡群中受到的巨大歡迎來看，芭比或許也能成功。

上海芭比店的發言人Jinky Gu有一個完全不同的視角。“即使在經濟危機期間，中國的家長也不會停止對子女的教育投資。”芭比是一個有教育意義的玩具的觀念，可能會讓我們當中的女權主義者感到驚恐，但在穿細高跟鞋的上海人中，卻可能恰恰行得通。人們已經厭倦的西方品牌在中國獲得新生，這并不是第一次。

帕提•沃德米爾，英國《金融時報》駐上海記者

烈酒和葡萄酒

尊尼獲加(Johnnie Walker)和健力士(Guinness)等品牌的英國酒業集團帝亞吉歐(Diageo)今年夏季推出了其最新出品上海白(Shanghai White)，它的登臺讓世界看到了中國新富的口味正在如何改變酒業格局。

上海白被宣傳成是精品伏特加，但它是在一家與中國白酒廠的合資企業中生產的，綜合采用了伏特加和白酒的蒸餾程序。這里之所以用“但”字，是因為白酒是中國人普遍喜歡喝的烈酒，人們有時會用龍舌蘭酒與泥土的混合來形容其味道。

中國每年消費約50億升烈酒，其中絕大部分都是白酒；所有外國烈酒的消費總合估計還不到總量的1%。如此巨大市場的誘惑說服了帝亞吉歐，它必須調整其產品線。

此外，在葡萄酒市場中，拉費堡(Château Lafite)和路易十三(Louis XIII)瓶裝酒是中國超級富豪灼灼生輝的新豪宅中必不可少的展示品，雖然這類財富徽章更可能會被視作投資。點一瓶昂貴的酒帶來的虛榮心的滿足，也仍遠遠超出飲酒獲得的快感。中國的夜總會里面充滿了這樣的富人：點一杯最昂貴的干邑，然后將其混入幾加侖綠茶口味的甜味軟飲料中。

在中國消費的葡萄酒中，目前只有大約5%是進口的。但這種現象正在改變。在歐洲近期舉辦的許多葡萄酒拍賣會上，最終的贏家都是中國人。盡管歐洲葡萄酒生產商尚未開始考慮改變自己的產品，以迎合中國人的口味，但紅酒交易商的營銷策略卻已經向東轉移。

吉密歐，英國《金融時報》駐北京記者

象牙

中國工匠雕刻象牙的歷史長達7000余年。早在清朝時期（1680年），象牙就為皇室所喜愛，它享有盛名，常常會讓人們聯想到富人和精英階層。但由于短短10年間，非洲130萬頭大象中有超過一半遭到獵殺，1989年，通過瀕危野生動植物種國際貿易公約(Cites)，象牙交易在全球范圍內被禁止。盡管如此，由于象牙雕刻品貿易歷史悠久，而中國蓬勃發展的新興中產階層終于買得起象牙了，中國仍然保持是最大的象牙進口國。

隨著亞洲象群日漸減少，非洲大象成了象牙的唯一來源。2008年末，Cites機構批準了中國與日本共同競購4個南非國家的官方庫存象牙。這些象牙是從自然死亡的大象身上收集而來的。12家中國交易商以平均每千克144美元的價格購買了62噸象牙，公開宣示了需求的持續。在這次合法交易之后，已有逾 11噸非法的非洲象牙在運往中國的途中被扣留。

偷獵大象主要發生在充斥著貧困和政治動蕩的中非。長期失業、槍械容易獲得以及腐敗，均助長了非法象牙交易。這些地區也是無管制的國內象牙雕刻品買賣市場的源頭。據象牙專家埃斯蒙德•馬丁(Esmond Martin)稱，絕大部分買家都是中國人。為了爭奪非洲的礦產和資源，最近有大量中國工人涌入非洲大陸——這一現象在非法象牙交易中得到了直觀反映。在最近一次前往埃塞俄比亞亞的斯亞貝巴時，馬丁記下了在該市主要街道和中心市場上展示的1433件象牙飾品，其中有149雙剛刻好的象牙筷子（每雙售價16 美元，與中國139美元的零售價形成強烈反差），還有印章和首飾。這些物品都很小，足夠蒙混過海關。

馬丁以前曾估計，為了向非洲、中國和泰國的工匠提供象牙，中非每年有4900頭到1.2萬頭大象被捕殺。保護主義者對此非常擔憂。國際野生動物關懷組織(Care for the Wild International)首席執行官芭芭拉•馬斯(Barbara Maas)表示：“隨著華裔非洲住民和偷獵行為的增多，象牙供求之間的戰線正危險地日益靠近，將對大象造成災難性的后果。”

羅斯•甘布爾(Rose Gamble)，自由撰稿人

乳制品

中國已成為全球第二大牛奶消費國，僅次于印度。中國政府向老百姓大肆宣傳乳制品有利于身體健康，城市居民更多采納西方飲食，以及收入的增加，都促進了對牛奶的需求。據專注于食品和農業領域的荷蘭合作銀行(Rabobank)表示，2000年以來，中國的乳制品消費翻了一番，2007已達到大約 3000萬噸。

去年，中國的牛奶和嬰幼兒配方奶粉污染恐慌給國際乳制品生產商提供了額外的助力。在此次事件中，兩名男子因故意往牛奶中摻三聚氰胺而被判死刑。荷蘭合作銀行資深乳制品分析師提姆•亨特(Tim Hunt)表示：“自三聚氰胺危機以來，中國奶粉進口增長了一倍以上。此次事件在支撐2009年上半年國際貿易產品的市價方面發揮了巨大作用。”

不過，中國每年22千克的人均乳制品消費量，仍遠低于日本等較富裕的亞洲國家（日本人每年消費約75千克的牛奶、奶酪、冰淇淋和酸奶）；而與歐盟居民每年223千克的消費量相比，更是顯得微不足道。但外國乳制品集團看到了中國市場蘊含的潛力。盡管乳制品消費在三聚氰胺恐慌之后出現了下降，但到今年年底就有望恢復到接近危機前的水平。

與此同時，英國乳業合作集團MilkLink今年成為首家向中國出口斯蒂爾頓奶酪的英國奶酪制造商，目標是中國的城市居民和外國移民。在中國東海岸的各個超市，包括樂購(Tesco)和沃爾瑪(Wal-Mart)的分店，都有該公司的奶酪出售，很快還會包括英式切達干酪。MilkLink旗下The Cheese Company的出口負責人西蒙•默瑟(Simon Mercer)宣稱，天然奶酪將是中國乳制品業的下一個重要增長點，這一預測得到了研究集團國際Zenith (Zenith International)的支持。該公司表示，奶酪消費目前還不到中國乳制品市場的4%，但它將隨著必勝客(Pizza Hut)和麥當勞(McDonald's)等快餐連鎖店的擴張而增長。

隨著乳制品業的發展，默瑟預測中國將“吃進”外國產品，但他警告，牛奶生產正在下降的英國尚未準備好滿足這些需求。

干海馬

在實際上是中藥店的動物展覽中，最引人注目的總是壯陽藥柜臺。一堆堆干海馬擺放在蠑螈眼和田雞腿中間。根據傳統中藥理論，食用海馬具有補腎、增強記憶力、消腫、幫助婦女生產、治療關節炎甚至乳腺癌的功效。但海馬的最重要功能是治療陽痿。也許這是由于海馬是世界上唯一已知由雄性繁衍后代的脊椎動物。也可能只是因為它們長相怪異。

過去1000多年的大多數時間，只有最富有的中國患者才能把海馬作為壯陽藥的配方。如今，隨著工業化程度的提高、掠奪性現代捕魚技術的發展以及中國的經濟復興，干海馬已可以普遍買到，甚至在全國各地的超市都有按打包裝的干海馬出售。

中國消費者每年的干海馬需求高達250噸，但在中國自己的海域，海馬數量已急遽減少，現在每年只有10噸至20噸干海馬源自國內，其余部分需要從越南、菲律賓、印度和非洲等地進口。由于干海馬重量輕，250噸干海馬就相當于每年有數億只海馬被捕殺，用于中國壯陽藥的配制。這一數字是如此龐大，就連一些中國醫藥界的人士也已表示擔憂，這種珍貴的藥材很快會因為人們的捕殺而滅絕。

明顯的解決辦法？人工養殖海馬。但迄今為止，以商業規模養殖海馬的嘗試基本都未取得成功。

吉密歐，英國《金融時報》北京記者站副站長

“小氣、無情、疑慮重重的購物者”

向公認的全球經濟救世主——中國消費者致敬！中國仍在增長，速度達到令人羨慕的8%，其中零售額以每年超過15%的速度增長。如今，中國的百萬富翁的數量已超過英國，即使是在艷俗的三、四線城市，為百萬富翁服務的炫麗購物中心也在拔地而起。越來越多難以在本國贏利的跨國公司，正押注于中國十幾億購物者大軍將幫助它們以及全球其它國家擺脫危機。

然而，要成功地向中國人推銷產品，你必須了解他們——太多的跨國公司（仍）沒有做到這點。盡管中國正在迅速變得富有，但絕對值仍然相對較低。根據所能獲得的最新數據，2007年，中國消費總支出為1.7萬億美元，而美國為12萬億美元。在管理咨詢公司麥肯錫(McKinsey)本月將公布的中國消費者最新研究中，13億中國人口中僅有200萬家庭被列為“富有”，而且計算標準相當低，為年收入3萬美元以上。廣大中產階級肯定在不斷壯大，總計約 7000萬城市家庭，但他們的年收入仍僅有5000至1萬美元。他們會購買西方的洗發水、宜家(Ikea)家具和電視，但汽車或珠寶的購買并不多。

目前零售的健康增長也不像看上去那樣健康。數據中包括政府在零售店的采購，而且在北京等許多城市，通過發放代金券，為購買電腦到舉辦婚禮等各種支出提供資金，政府也間接提供了幫助。過去幾年，中國最大的支出者一直是政府，現在更是如此：私人消費占國內生產總值(GDP)的比例已從1968年的60% 降至去年的36%，隨著政府加大資本投資，今年這一比例可能會降至20%。

實際上，在時局艱難之際，儲蓄率已經居全球之首（近40%）的中國人往往會變得更為節儉。隨著銀行存款利率下調，我們大多數人會增加支出。但中國人往往會存更多錢，以彌補損失的利息。出現這種保守主義的原因是，中國缺乏完善的社會保障體系——國民必須自己負擔醫療、養老以及可能失業的費用。
廣告公司智威湯遜(JWT)北亞主管、曾就中國消費者趨勢撰文的唐銳濤(Tom Doctoroff)稱，這讓他們成為“小氣、無情、疑慮重重的消費者”。在經濟衰退時，這種行為只會變得更糟糕。麥肯錫上海辦事處副董事安宏宇 (Yuval Atsmon)表示：“經濟低迷讓人們更渴望找到最廉價的交易。”即便他們很輕松就能買一臺個人電腦，他們一般也會到商店跑上6趟，而且常常會先咨詢博客、在線比較網站以及——中國最重要的信息來源——家人和朋友，等上6個月再做決定。山寨機（具備高端手機的所有功能，但價格更低）的銷量已從2006年的1700萬部飆升至去年的6200萬部。

中國消費者的品牌意識很高（至少在大城市是如此），但品牌忠誠度遠遠低于西方國家。降價或店內優惠促銷通常都會讓消費者變心。唐銳濤指出，出于文化方面的原因，迎合個人品味或個人喜好的做法通常行不通。人們的購買要么是為了公開顯示自己的身份或財富，就像一部外表華麗的汽車一樣。要么能夠帶來實際的好處：最近中國出現了對加鈣巧克力的狂熱，食用這種商品不是為了享受，而是為了有益健康。鉆石對女性的吸引力越來越強，并不是基于浪漫，而是一個男人實踐承諾的財力信號。在一個如此多消費品是假冒產品的國家，信任是另一個關鍵問題。例如，中國媽媽會多花30%的錢購買安全的嬰兒奶粉——這應有利于外國品牌。

但外國零售商和制造商不得不應對人口、語言和文化方面的巨大地區差異，這讓它們很難制定一個單一的市場戰略策略——實際上，把中國視為一個單一的國家往往是一個錯誤。沃爾瑪中國區前負責人高興地看到，中國東部沿海省份浙江省的人喜歡“像砂紙一樣粗糙的衛生紙”，還好這種傾向沒有在別的地區出現。安宏宇指出，即便是兩座城市相距只有一個小時車程，情況也可能會截然不同：在南方城市深圳，超過五分之四的人口為外來民工，多數年齡在35歲以下，他們說著普通話，在酒吧里喝酒。而在鄰近的廣州，外來人口僅略多于四分之一，更多的人年歲較大，他們喜歡看粵語電視，與家人一起到餐廳喝酒。要充分應對這種小環境，需要一支由本地供應商、昂貴的基礎設施以及多層批發商和中間商組成的大軍。即便如此，成功可能還是像往常一樣難以抓住——上海廣告主管卡爾•克勞 (Carl Crow)曾感嘆道：“不管你賣什么，只要應該購買你的商品的中國人會去購買，你在中國的業務應該就會很大。”克勞曾著述過一本該如何向中國人銷售商品……70多年前。

薩密納•阿邁德，《經濟學人》(The Economist)商業記者。