Everyone loves a bargain and none more so than the Chinese. I’ll often hear my neighbours comparing the price of their freshly bought vegetables from the nearby wet market as they make small talk in the elevator, and at work the conversation among colleagues often turns to how to get the best price for something. This all adds up to a well ingrained ‘system beating’ mentality, with regards to getting the best price.
I read a great post about ‘System Beaters’, on Joel Rubinson’s market research blog. The post highlights how deals are increasingly guiding our path to purchase, especially in the advent of social media in its various facets, and I feel that this observation is particularly meaningful here in China.
Social media is a dream come true for system beaters; not only do we find the deals we want for ourselves but now we get to share them with all of our fans, friends, and followers. We retweet the deals we find, and we like them via Facebook so all our friends see them too. And by the way, looking for deals is a main motivator to like a brand page in Facebook in the first place.
System beating is not necessarily something new, it’s an established shopper segment. The reason that I think it is interesting is firstly because that it is so relevant to reaching Chinese consumers, and secondly that we now have abundant tools to act upon this knowledge. From my observations, the system beating mentally is intrinsic in most Chinese consumers, there are many examples of this innate need to find a bargain, or a special deal and I would cite the Velo discount coupon machines that are found in many shopping malls in major Chinese cities as being founded upon this insight. Increasingly sophisticated social marketing techniques and the high levels of connectivity in China, now makes targeting system beaters a viable proposition, as demonstrated by Starbucks in their recent Christmas mobile campaign (Excellent summary here courtesy of China Observer).
Rubinson ponders if this is the end of branding, and I agree with his suggestion that it is definitely not, in fact I think that appealing to system beaters can instead be complementary to branding as part of a successful tactical marketing plan. I think it is fairly safe, across any category, to acknowledge that in order to succeed in China, understanding this need for Chinese consumers to feel that they have found a bargain should be recognised and acted upon, and incidentally, I don’t think these activities necessarily devalue the brand, as much as they might in other more developed markets. Why? Well, the appeal of this kind of tactic stems from China’s bargaining culture, in which the price of things is often a talking point, and where bartering for the best price is almost expected, often like some kind of endurance sport. Victory is of course prized, and in turn everyone likes to share their tales of victory, this is why this kind of approach can be so powerful.
Two things that consistently come up in market research here in China is the power of sales promotions and word of mouth recommendations. Whilst this is not unique to China, I think it has a much stronger potency in China, and campaigns that combine these two elements well in a manner tailored and targeted towards system beaters will see a significant positive impact on campaigns that are focused towards encouraging purchase intent and behaviour in this brave new age of digital and social media sharing.
thank you for the kind words about my blog. I’m glad you found it useful and I was interested to learn that it is particular relevant to Chinese consumers.