How Foreign Brands Can Overcome The New VPN Ban In Mainland China?

Entrance of Foreign Brands in Chinese Digital Space

 

According to L2 2017 Digital IQ Index: China Luxury report, affluent Chinese consumers started to spend on luxury brands again after two years of decline in sales, therefore luxury brands were advised strongly to invest in comprehensive digital plan for China in order to capture affluent netizens attention.

Leading Brands

Big brands, like Cartier and Burberry placed an outstanding digital strategy and received genius rating for excelling in digital ecosystem of China consisting all areas; site and e-commerce, digital marketing, social media, and mobile. Other brands like Coach, Bulgari, Gucci, Forevermark, Loewe, and MCM were among fastest digital learners too. Over the year of 2016- 2017 other big and medium sized brands entered to create their digital presence in China to reach the affluent Chinese consumers.

 

Difficulties in targeting Chinese consumers

 

The global shift in economic wealth has made Chinese consumers as one of the most attractive market to serve but equally one of the most complex one too. There are hurdles ranging from language difficulty, closed digital eco system, online censorship and now VPN ban (virtual private network). VPN was secret passage for Chinese millennials who wanted to be more globally aware and enjoy rebellious freedom  but now with vpn ban Chinese millennials are no longer able to enjoy that freedom.

vpn ban

Only Solution for Foreign Brands to operate from outside China

Chinese millennials are fond of foreign brands, and so are foreign brands for Chinese consumers. With the given situation it has become difficult for big, small and emerging brands to reach Chinese consumers remotely as now foreign websites, social media platforms, YouTube are not accessible from mainland China.

Chinese Social MediaFashion China

 

Now foreign brands have to take even more informed steps if they want to capture the Chinese market such as having their own .cn website, official WeChat and Weibo set up. If foreign brands enter digital eco space of China, then the impact is far less, since they have their own online presence on sales channels. By being digitally present, it will not only help foreign brands to market their product well in China, in-built advanced paying methods will help Chinese customers to make payments conveniently too.

However, for the brands that are operating outside of China without any digital presence in China, are now nonexistent for Chinese consumers until they decide to have digital presence in mainland China.

source : Jingdaily

Tip: To access attractive digital market of China it is wise to connect with the experts in the industry rather than trial and error strategy.

1 comment

  • Patrick H

    China Great Firewall… not so strong!! More and more Chinese people use VPNs so brands need to target well their customers and then chose the right strategy, Chinese social media? Western ones? Both?

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