All too often Western businesses have simply looked to a Chinese work experience placement or short-term hires to handle Chinese feeds, a move which not only lacks strategy and oversight, but can also result in a fragmented and disparate experience for brands and consumers alike. Language and culture can also add perceived barriers. The differences between China’s rural and urban consumers are often overlooked by marketers who see the country as a monolith So simply seeing the whole country as a single group, as with any country, will ignore important local consumer needs and characteristics. Just look at the runaway success of Pinduoduo, which in just three years has risen to become China’s third-largest ecommerce company by sales share, driven in large part by its popularity with rural shoppers in China’s third- and fourth-tier cities – a demographic left uncatered-to by ecommerce giants like Alibaba and JD.com, who offer luxury goods to China’s burgeoning middle class. While the middle class is growing in China, there is still a large discrepancy between urban middle-class consumers and rural ones. Simply approaching the market as a huge single group of potential consumers is doing the region a huge disservice. What does strike me is how frequently smart businesses are rushing their social strategies into China, or simply getting it wrong. Much has already been written about China’s social media landscape, especially with regard to the state control. While the Tangle Teaser hair product may have launched in China from the strength of a single influencer’s post, not all companies can prove so lucky. One of the natural places to start on this journey is with social media to gauge the size and appetite of a potential audience, but here there are some common misconceptions that need to be addressed. Rakuten research recently found that Chinese shoppers tend to spend an average 193% more than British counterparts, so many brands could be forgiven for looking East to find new potential.

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