What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism, and China’s Modern Consumer

With insight and energy, Doctoroff (Billions), Greater China CEO for J. Walter Thompson, takes on the daunting task of explaining the Chinese character to business executives looking to enter that market. Though China’s economy and people are evolving rapidly, traditional culture still shapes the Chinese people both as businesspeople and consumers. The Chinese focus heavily on “standing out to fit in”; Doctoroff spins out this tendency to describe its effect on the rise of Chinese brands, recession tactics, digital China, e-commerce, piracy, consumerism, the new middle class, a booming luxury market, and society and hierarchy. Doing business requires an understanding of how to persuade consumers that the product will help them climb the social ladder—but not in a showy fashion. However, as Doctoroff suggests, though China is well positioned to become an economic superpower, it is not a threat to the U.S., and it will be decades before the country is poised to compete with the West on a global scale. The Chinese, infatuated with us, don’t want to beat us but to match our scale and ambition. This in-depth, lively précis of modern-day China is an invaluable guide to anyone hoping to do business in the fast-growing Eastern market. (May)