What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism, and China's Modern Consumer
What Chinese Want provides a sweeping look at contemporary Chinese consumer behavior, how its cultural influences separate it from the West, and how marketers and businesses can harness the natural strengths of this age-old civilization to succeed there.

Today, most Americans take for granted that China will be the next global superpower. But despite the nation's growing influence, the average Chinese person is still a mystery - or, at best, a baffling set of seeming contradictions - to Westerners who expect the rising Chinese consumer to resemble themselves. Here, Tom Doctoroff, the guiding force of advertising giant J. Walter Thompson's (JWT) China operations, marshals his 20 years of experience navigating this fascinating intersection of commerce and culture to explain the mysteries of China. He explores the many cultural, political, and economic forces shaping the twenty-first-century Chinese and their implications for businesspeople, marketers, and entrepreneurs - or anyone else who wants to know what makes the Chinese tick. Dismantling common misconceptions, Doctoroff provides the context Westerners need to understand the distinctive worldview that drives Chinese businesses and consumers, including:

- Why family and social stability take precedence over individual self-expression and the consequences for education, innovation, and growth;
- Their fundamentally different understanding of morality, and why Chinese tolerate human rights abuses, rampant piracy, and endemic government corruption; and
- The long and storied past that still drives decision making at corporate, local, and national levels.

Change is coming fast and furious in China, challenging not only how the Western world sees the Chinese but how they see themselves. From the new generation's embrace of Christmas to the middle-class fixation with luxury brands; from the exploding senior demographic to what the Internet means for the government's hold on power, Doctoroff pulls back the curtain to reveal a complex and nuanced picture of a fascinating people whose lives are becoming ever more entwined with our own.

"1110775368"
What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism, and China's Modern Consumer
What Chinese Want provides a sweeping look at contemporary Chinese consumer behavior, how its cultural influences separate it from the West, and how marketers and businesses can harness the natural strengths of this age-old civilization to succeed there.

Today, most Americans take for granted that China will be the next global superpower. But despite the nation's growing influence, the average Chinese person is still a mystery - or, at best, a baffling set of seeming contradictions - to Westerners who expect the rising Chinese consumer to resemble themselves. Here, Tom Doctoroff, the guiding force of advertising giant J. Walter Thompson's (JWT) China operations, marshals his 20 years of experience navigating this fascinating intersection of commerce and culture to explain the mysteries of China. He explores the many cultural, political, and economic forces shaping the twenty-first-century Chinese and their implications for businesspeople, marketers, and entrepreneurs - or anyone else who wants to know what makes the Chinese tick. Dismantling common misconceptions, Doctoroff provides the context Westerners need to understand the distinctive worldview that drives Chinese businesses and consumers, including:

- Why family and social stability take precedence over individual self-expression and the consequences for education, innovation, and growth;
- Their fundamentally different understanding of morality, and why Chinese tolerate human rights abuses, rampant piracy, and endemic government corruption; and
- The long and storied past that still drives decision making at corporate, local, and national levels.

Change is coming fast and furious in China, challenging not only how the Western world sees the Chinese but how they see themselves. From the new generation's embrace of Christmas to the middle-class fixation with luxury brands; from the exploding senior demographic to what the Internet means for the government's hold on power, Doctoroff pulls back the curtain to reveal a complex and nuanced picture of a fascinating people whose lives are becoming ever more entwined with our own.

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

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

by Tom Doctoroff
What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism, and China's Modern Consumer

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

by Tom Doctoroff

Paperback(Reprint)

$18.99 
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Overview

What Chinese Want provides a sweeping look at contemporary Chinese consumer behavior, how its cultural influences separate it from the West, and how marketers and businesses can harness the natural strengths of this age-old civilization to succeed there.

Today, most Americans take for granted that China will be the next global superpower. But despite the nation's growing influence, the average Chinese person is still a mystery - or, at best, a baffling set of seeming contradictions - to Westerners who expect the rising Chinese consumer to resemble themselves. Here, Tom Doctoroff, the guiding force of advertising giant J. Walter Thompson's (JWT) China operations, marshals his 20 years of experience navigating this fascinating intersection of commerce and culture to explain the mysteries of China. He explores the many cultural, political, and economic forces shaping the twenty-first-century Chinese and their implications for businesspeople, marketers, and entrepreneurs - or anyone else who wants to know what makes the Chinese tick. Dismantling common misconceptions, Doctoroff provides the context Westerners need to understand the distinctive worldview that drives Chinese businesses and consumers, including:

- Why family and social stability take precedence over individual self-expression and the consequences for education, innovation, and growth;
- Their fundamentally different understanding of morality, and why Chinese tolerate human rights abuses, rampant piracy, and endemic government corruption; and
- The long and storied past that still drives decision making at corporate, local, and national levels.

Change is coming fast and furious in China, challenging not only how the Western world sees the Chinese but how they see themselves. From the new generation's embrace of Christmas to the middle-class fixation with luxury brands; from the exploding senior demographic to what the Internet means for the government's hold on power, Doctoroff pulls back the curtain to reveal a complex and nuanced picture of a fascinating people whose lives are becoming ever more entwined with our own.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781137278357
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date: 09/24/2013
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 272
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tom Doctoroff is the North Asia Area Director and Greater China CEO for J. Walter Thompson (JWT), the author of Billions, and a leading authority on marketing in China and Chinese consumer culture. He has appeared regularly on CNBC, NBC, Bloomberg, and National Public Radio and has been featured in the Financial Times, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times among others. He is also a columnist for the China Economic Review and the Chinese magazine Global Entrepreneur. Doctoroff is the recipient of the Magnolia Government Award, the highest honor given by the Shanghai municipal government to expatriates, and was selected to be an official torchbearer for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Table of Contents

PART I: PROLOGUE
The Objectives of 'What Chinese Want'
Modern Middle Kingdom: Old Pipes, New Palace
PART II: CHINESE SOCIETY
Family and Country and Me: Chinese Society
China's Middle Class and Communist Party
The Long, Long March: Civil Society in China
Life in the Shanghai's Lanes: A Community Affair
A Day at the Shanghai Zoo: Families in Action
Christmas in China
Ritualistic Observation
Tycoon Tang Jun's Lost 'face': A Chinese Business Tragedy
Sex in China: Prudence and Prurience
PART III: DOING BUSINESS IN CHINA
Always and Anta: Chinese Business
The Rise of Chinese Brands: Not Anytime Soon
Brand Management in China: Three Golden Rules
Chinese 'Recession' Tactics: How Marketers can Win during a Downturn
The Chinese Boardroom: Face and Fear
Managing China: Stimulating Creativity in a Sea of Convention
Winning Designs: Standing out to fit in
Digital China: Liberated Consumers, Constricted Corporations
E-Commerce in China: Patriarchic Benevolence
Illegal DVDs: Why Piracy is here to Stay
The Business of Advertising in China: Incremental Progress, no Breakthrough
PART IV: THE NEW, OLD CHINESE CONSUMER
Never the Twain shall Meet: Chinese Consumers
The New Middle Class: Constants and Variables
China's Lower-tier Cities: Brighter Eyes, Bigger Markets
China's Booming Luxury Market: Goldmine or Landmine?
Car Crazy China: Where Anxiety and Egos Collide
The Senior Market: Gray Today, Golden Tomorrow
Ambivalent Tiger Moms: When in Rome . . .
Young Digital Lives
The Chinese and Food: Survival and Success
PART V: CHINA AND THE WORLD
Icons and Identity: Chinese Global Engagement
The China Worldview: Don't Rock our Boat
How China sees America: Dangerous Love
The Obama Brand in China: Beware of Cool Cat
Human Rights and Consumer Behaviour
Dealing with Dissenters and the Western Response
The 2008 Beijing Olympics
Shanghai's World Expo: A Domestic Affair
China and India: A Match made in Heaven?
China and Japan, Venus and Mars
PART VI: EPILOGUE
The Myths of Modern China

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