It's a consumption report from the leading media agency, MEC. China is changing in a dizzying pace. For some marketers, these changes will unlock significant competitive advantages. For others, dealing with their impact will be a major challenge. As change accelerates across the country, the odds of missing a beat rise significantly. It’s important therefore to have your finger on the market’s pulse – consumers. ‘Trends’ are broad points of view, and when you get a feel for them, market observations make more sense. The ability to grasp the implications of new trends will give advertisers the edge in their category. The goal of Consumption Trends China 2011 is to be a springboard to inspire marketers, and help them come up with new business concepts, new products/services and new experiences for their customers. The report is compiled using input from over 50 trend scouts from different parts of China, backed by desk research. The report offers an overview of what will be important to Chinese consumers in 2011.

1. Consumption Trends China 2011
Mandy Wu & Theresa Loo

4. T1: Low-Carbon Consumption

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their personal
carbon footprint calculators to
check progress on their

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8. T2: Frugal Consumption

9. Before After
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12. T3: Social Herding

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 On September 6, 2010 there was a Smart

15. Parents Won’t Let Their Kid
Lose At The Starting Line
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 66% of mothers believe that their kids
cannot lose at the starting line. And 43% of
mothers believe that the starting line is at
the pre-natal stage. When most mothers
are with these mentalities, the social herding
effect makes the crowd gets bigger. The
mentality is that if all the other kids are doing
that then my kid cannot miss out.

16. T4: Online Consumption

17. Bad weather, no parking space, no
shopping-buddy etc. are not going to
disrupt the mood for shopping
anymore. For the new generation of
Chinese consumers, the mouse is their
shopping tool. Big discounts, wide
selection of products, trusted WOM
and avoiding the embarrassment of
face-to-face bargain are all reasons to
join the online shopping crowd. The
continuous increase of online shopping
is likely to exceed 32% penetration
amongst internet users in 2011.
For many Chinese, especially those in
low tier cities and the rural areas, the
saying “there will only be things that
you cannot think of, there will not be
things that you cannot get hold of”
used to be an exaggeration. Now it is
coming true.

18.  In a MEC proprietary research on consumers
of low tier markets, it was found that the
percentage of consumers who e-shopped
were higher in 3rd and 4th tier cities than the
provincial capitals (2nd tier cities) in 12 out of
14 provinces surveyed. Data from Synovate’s
Media Atlas corroborated the findings.
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21. T5: Cluster-Oriented
Consumption

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24. T6: Renting Instead Of
Owning

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27. T7: Mass Luxury

29.  The Mass Consumer: If no big ones, easily
accessible ones are also satisfying
Quality of counterfeit articles are likely to I’ll buy expensive perfume and cosmetics
quality of the real ones
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31. T8: Consumption of Virtual
Products

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