China Market Entry Strategy

The Chinese market has huge potential opportunities for business growth due to its rapid economic development and large population (1.3 Billion). However, China has its fair share of challenges ranging from inadequate market data, vastly different sales channels, cultural differences impacting customer targeted marketing, and building solid relationships with local partners and government bodies.

In short, China is complex and unique. Ample time is needed to understand and successfully enter the China market. China, with its long history and rich heritage, has a distinctive culture and way of doing business, which many foreigners are unable to comprehend.

Many foreign companies have lost millions when entering the Chinese market despite their history of success in US, Europe and even in Japan. Plunging into a market without knowing its common practices and cultural norms is a scheme destined for failure. A carefully crafted China market entry strategy, one that includes on the ground familiarity with both China and the US or European market, is critical to success.

Research the Market

Any company looking into China market entry should gauge whether there is a demand for their products before committing to market entry. Darwin addresses this question with customized market research packages that identifies the potential opportunities and will provide China market entry packages based on the client’s assessment of the opportunity...

The following includes some advice for planning your China market entry strategy.

• Research keywords related to your products, services and competitor brand names on Baidu, Google, Sogou and other Chinese search engines.
• Investigate if competitors are selling in China across the leading e-commerce exchanges such as Alibaba, TaoBao, HC360, GlobalSources, etc.
• If your research leads you to believe that there is a good opportunity, localize (but do not just translate!) your website for China.
• Optimize them for Chinese search engines. This should be obvious in a world where many have found good results from Google; but remember Google is not the dominant player in China. You need to optimize for Baidu first.
• Attend a Chinese trade show and build brand awareness while getting valuable market feedback.
• If you plan to establish a physical business in China, developing a good relationship with the local government and other local organizations is also good business practice.