A Gap Inc. store in Shanghai, China. Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News.
By Adam Davidson, Jan 25, 2012 — The first time I visited China, in 2005, an American businessman living there told me that the country was so huge and was changing so fast that everything you heard about it was true, and so was the opposite. That still seems to be the case. China is the fastest-growing consumer market in the world, and American companies have made billions there. At the same time, Chinese consumers aren’t spending nearly as much as American companies had hoped. China has simultaneously become the greatest boon and the biggest disappointment. . . .
M. Ulric Killion's space 
That’s because our products often don’t have any brand cachet in China (particularly in the case of Mattel’s Barbie) and are more expensive than local equivalents.
The West sees the headline; “Second biggest economy in the world” and forgets; “GDP per Capita = $5,000 USD in China” – so while there are some very rich people, most don’t have money to throw away on expensive items that don’t deliver at least some social status to go with them.
By: shardsofchina on January 30, 2012
at 2:11 am
You made good points about both branding and wealth in the real Chinese world. As for branding in China, well, it is still a “relatively” new concept that is undergoing development, experimentation, and growth, which is a subject it and of itself. As for wealth, as usual the “Western perspective” seems to miss the target. For example, in the context of China, a seeming excess in foreign exchange reserves does not equate with a now firmly entrenched middle-class, let alone a substantial portion of the population now being deemed wealthy. Otherwise, thank you for insightful comments.
By: mulrickillion on January 30, 2012
at 12:01 pm