Top 10 China PR Strategy checklist: Start-up guide to Chinese Market
China’s rise and the evolution of the PR industry have opened many doors for Startups to benefit from venture capital, accessing the biggest consumer market, and other benefits online as well as offline.
Media attention provides great perks, such as brand exposure, namely getting spotted by potential partners, investors, influencers, fans, and followers, all of which are designed to boost your company’s awareness and reputation.
Here are the 10 things one should consider when thinking about PR in China:
- GLOBAL CONTEXT WITH LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS
When expanding in China, you need to remember that your PR campaigns should be aligned within the framework of Chinese laws and regulations. You should also have a deep understanding of China’s cultural values and principles. You won’t be able to successfully market your brand and offerings if you lack the proper understanding of how the Chinese market and culture works.
Learn the fundamentals of cultural aspects while doing business in China here.
2. CHINA’S DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE
PR in China should be developed within the framework of Chinese laws and regulations, with a deep understanding of sensitive cultural values and principles, and yet Startups should be able to keep the global relevance of their products and services along with the benefits that they can offer in Chinese local market.
3. THE RISE OF CHINESE SOCIAL MEDIA
Chinese Social media outlets may have copied their counterparts. Instead of importing overseas-made products, Chinese Social media integrated Chinese characteristics within their functionalities and exported its products via Chinese netizens. WeChat, TikTok, Weibo, Zhihu, and scores of others are being used by Chinese netizens that are true and loyal advocates that inviting
the rest of the world to either accept new rules of the game or stay behind.
And, the game is just the beginning.
Learn everything about 10 main Chinese social media apps and its main functionalities here.
4. BAIDU IS NOT GOOGLE
If you were to expand to China, you need to know that the Chinese don’t use Google and any of its products and services in their daily lives. Instead, they have Baidu — the dominant search engine in mainland China that indexes all types of content in the Chinese language only.
With this in mind, if you want to increase your exposure on the Chinese search engine, you need to consider not only the language, but the cultural resonance in everything as well.
For technical matters, you also need to learn about Baidu’s infrastructure and functionalities so that you can strategize how your Start-up can come up in search results.
5. WECHAT IS THE CHINESE SUPER APP
Since its inception in 2011, WeChat has turned into a must-have app for both
consumers and businesses in China. It has almost a billion monthly active users in mainland China, all of which benefit from functionalities that are unique compared to other apps worldwide.
WeChat is one of the most valuable assets for PR campaigns to engage with your target audience, build rapport with your fans and followers, develop mining-programs for your projects, ideate cross-promotional strategic activities and most importantly, make use of Online to Offline campaigns that have the highest ROI.
In China, WeChat is considered the super app that does everything, so be sure to include it in must explore/research items in your strategy.
Everything about WeChat and its unique tools to scale your company here.
6. KOL CULTURE TAKES OFF
The influencer marketing industry in China is worth almost US$10
billion. It creates such a huge impact in the Chinese community that it
has transformed the purchasing, decision making and even thinking
habits of Chinese as well as Chinese speaking netizens.
Because of this phenomenon, more and more organizations are turning away from typical marketing efforts such as billboards and online ads and opting to partner with KOLs or key opinion leaders to increase their engagement with their target audience. KOLs have been instrumental to businesses in making a long-lasting impression online and offline. If you want to gain more attention in China, you better check which influencers you can possibly work with.
For KOL’s Dos and Don’ts in China check here.
7. LIVE STREAMING IS A WAY OF LIFE
In recent years China’s Digital Infrastructure opened many doors for local players to go global through live streaming apps. Live streaming has become one of the most effective ways for brands to reach out to more customers every day.
From 2015 to 2017, over 700 platforms offering live streaming content competed for consumers’ attention.
According to Deloitte, the live streaming market in China reached US$4.4 billion in 2018, an increase of 37% from the previous year.
Interestingly, it reached such a high value with even tighter government regulations in place.
Today, China’s live-streaming scene is dominated by some of the top tech firms in the country. To mention some: Weixin (WeChat), Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok), Kauishou, Yizhibo (Weibo’s native streaming app), Bilibili, Inke, and many more others.
8. GUANXI MEETS SOCIAL VALIDATION
More like anywhere, in China, it’s not about what you know, but who you know.
Guanxi, which literally means “networks” or “connections” provides businesses with opportunities to grow. Sometimes, creating Guanxi comes in the form of banquets, giving gifts, or networking. China is a Guanxi-rooted society. Utilizing digital strategy to build Guanxi with potential followers, fans, and even business partners, in the long run, can help brands gain a strong social validation essential in making a PR campaign successful.
9. COMMUNITY AMPLIFIES THE IMPORTANCE OF BRANDS
If Guanxi opens doors for social validation, continuously supporting communities on top of creating and launching PR campaigns is a great way to expand your reach in China.
Essentially, tapping into communities is a better and faster way to reach more customers, partners, and even perhaps potential investors.
10. LOCALIZATION, NOT TRANSLATION
One of the things that most Startups tend to overlook is the value of localizing their work. Contrary to popular belief, going global is actually impossible without going local first.
While translation only deals with linguistic aspects, localization helps companies adapt to a specific market.
In order to localize your products and services, you need to look beyond the surface of what it all means. For example, when HSBC expanded in China, it lost US$10 million when it mistranslated its message in its rebranding campaign. You might experience unrecoverable damages to your reputation when you mistranslate any of your messages, so you better be careful. Understanding what these points mean is only just the beginning.
For the failure stories of brands who got ‘lost in translation’ in China check here.
We have built Sinofy Studio with a single vision: to help your tech Start-up build its reputation in China.
We use our deep expertise, extensive network, and years of experience to
communicate your story to your audience, localize your narrative, and most importantly, make an impact at every stage of your marketing.
For more business development in China advice, as well as for news in the world of technology check our blog.
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