How Marketing Can Fail in China

Analysis of unsuccesful marketing - focus China
Max Braun May 29, 2013

Contents
1 Introduction - The Chinese Market 2 Failure Analysis - The four major obstacles 2.1 Direct cultural barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 Translation issues . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.2 Cultural issues . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.3 Methods of Preventation . . . . . . . 2.2 To little focus on the target market . . . . . 2.3 Not enough company identity . . . . . . . . 2.4 Early exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Conclusion 4 Ressources 3 4 4 4 4 5 7 7 8 9 10

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

2

Chapter 1 Introduction - The Chinese Market
If you could get them to spend more and save a little less, the U.S. would benefit Forbes Magazine

China is a rapid growing market and as such a major force to be reckoned with. Formerly a place of cheap labour force, many companies settled in the vast land. Considering the increasing purchasing power in China, many companies feel the need to expand their retails to the ’middle country’. While some of these attempts succeed greatly (compare Walmart), many result in failures. This can obviously be attributed to many different factors, some on a strategic, some on an operational level. In this paper, we will take a closer look at ways how different global players failed their marketing in China and elicit different ways how not to do marketing in China, while subsequently exploring ways how to mediate this problems. Due to the length restrictions of this paper, the main focus will be posed on the first part, as direct cultural barriers are the most unique part of marketing in a new country. Meanwhile we will only briefly dive into the other 3 problematic fields.

3

Chapter 2 Failure Analysis - The four major obstacles
2.1
2.1.1

Direct cultural barriers
Translation issues

Many western...