Have you heard this one? A Turk, a Russian and an American share a flat in Shanghai…
It may sound like the beginning of a comedy routine, but it describes my life during the summer of 2008. I traveled nearly seven thousand miles from Chicago to China, where I began work on a marketing project for Pizza Hut.
Against the backdrop of the summer Olympics, I saw first-hand how a successful product is marketed in a country like China. The experience of visiting Shanghai was fascinating, particularly watching a bustling city of almost 19 million people growing at lightning speed into a consumption-based culture.
One of the things that puzzled me about China was the Jekyll & Hyde character of the country. Half of what I witnessed can best be described as Roman-like excess, accented by palatial structures and luxury … well … everything. Words like decadence and extravagance can hardly begin to describe the great wealth of China’s largest cities. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I snapped a couple to share with you:
Nightimte skyline of Pudong
View from Tencent HQ's
One of the first days in Shanghai, I took a boat tour of The Bund area with my two flat mates, Naz and Yulia (the aforementioned Turk and Russian). The cruise visually highlighted the dichotomy present in China. The river we rode along prominently separates the old section of Shanghai from the new. One side is dotted with boxy and drab buildings that Yulia described as being typical of Communist era architecture. The opposing side of the river is resplendent with futuristic skyscrapers that stretched for the stars.
New China - Pudong as seen from The Bund
Old China - The Bund
To turn to a more somber trend in China that illustrates its great divide, recent reports have detailed unprecedented violence in rural areas. Despite a ban in the Chinese media on discussion of the recent attacks, it has been reported by the BBC and New York Times that random knife and cleaver wielding adult males have killed and maimed between 50 and 100 elementary-aged school children.
Until now, this type of crime – school violence – has been mostly an American phenomenon. According to a feature story in The Economist , some Chinese have gone on record expressing concern that the country’s repressive politics might be partly to blame for the outbursts of aggression.
How – you may ask – does this morbid topic relate to marketing? Its relativity can be described by one word: psychographics. The practice, which is basically the opposite of demography, is a tool used by marketers to understand populations by attributes relating to personality, values and attitudes. To tie the strange happenings in China back to marketing, consider the premise that these attacks are symptoms of extreme stress in a rapidly changing society.
If you take a moment to deconstruct the violence, a striking insight can be uncovered. Consider first the nature of the crimes: attacks against young children on school grounds. Although this type of mayhem has roots in the United States, the crimes in China are slightly different. Instead of the typical student-to-student violence, a la’ the Columbine massacre, these scenarios are adult-to-child mass killings.
This is noteworthy when considering what a child represents. Across cultures a child is a symbol of the future and the perpetuation of a society. To kill a child – is in essence – to kill the future. This sentiment could not be more pronounced than in China, where the one-child policy permeates national consciousness. Pretty twisted, huh?
Art that reinforces the one-child policy can be found throughout public areas in Shanghai
The undercurrent of disharmony was certainly present during the time I spent in China. Nowhere was it more present than during working trips outside the urban centers. One weekend our team visited Oo Gen, a water town province outside of Shanghai. A mere hour and a half outside the city and the surroundings became undeniably third world.
Oo Gen: Water Town Near Shanghai
It was like ripping a page from National Geographic magazine, complete with peasants adorned in funny straw hats and wooden shoes, laboriously farming rice patties and tending fields with oxen powered ploughs.
Local man washing clothes in river
View of passing water taxi in Oo Gen
After visiting the one and only Pizza Hut restaurant in the area (which was like a resort with its Western-style bathrooms) we went to the local superstore. In China’s version of Wal-Mart, we saw throngs of peasants gathered in noisy crowds literally shouting at salespeople. What was the cause of all the raucousness? The sales teams were giving “how-to” demonstrations for products like diapers and toothbrushes.
At the end of the day it is hard to make sense of the extremes I witnessed. Present everywhere I looked was a great and striking divide – not only in geography – but also in the attitudes, opinions and beliefs of Chinese I spoke with. For a country that publicly prides itself on harmony, I saw quite a bit of dissenting evidence that makes a case for a great upheaval in response to the great divide.
During my time there I watched a human rights protestor of Chinese descent be thrown to the ground and hauled away in handcuffs for writing on the sidewalk with chalk. I smirked at a shoving match between two teen-age girls – about a boy – in a Pizza Hut, which caused guests to hang their heads and quickly scurry into the shadows like cockroaches. Every morning on the way to work, I navigated through a homeless camp of nearly twenty-five people living on cots placed along the street corner outside my gated and guarded high-rise flat.
What does this growing divide mean for China and for outside marketers seeking to enter the often touted and lucrative Asian space? One thing is clear: the incidents I’ve described above are reflective of the rapidly rising frustrations and tensions in modern Chinese society.
The country has been experiencing social transformation at a scale and speed that is virtually unprecedented. From early warning signs of growing pains – to the alarming and increasingly violent current divide – the pace of expansion appears to be unsustainable. My advice on China is to heed the early warning signs of cultural dissonance and proceed with caution into the great divide.
———————————————————————————————————
For a extended video footage shot at one of many shopping malls our team visited while researching Chinese consumer behavior click here:
About the Author:
Bronwen Murray and Wendy Chen in Shanghai
Bronwen Murray is currently a principle with In The Loop Communications. The strategic communications agency represents nationwide clientele in industries such as homeland security, executive staffing, transportation, and sports marketing.
Ms. Murray is a marketer who has participated in numerous early stage ventures and product branding roles in Fortune 500, start-up and non-profit environments. Her experience spans both traditional and digital marketing for consumer packaged goods advertisers such as Snapfish, Yum Brands!, QVC, and Pizza Hut.
She is a graduate of Northwestern University with a master of science from the Medill School. Her undergraduate degree in communication was awarded summa cum laude from Auburn University. As a teenager Bronwen worked as a professional actress, most notably, as Cousin Mary in Walt Disney’s Tom & Huck.
