China’s ‘Common Prosperity’ initiative and its potential economic impacts explained

In early 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a speech emphasizing the importance of ‘Common Prosperity’, setting this concept as a tone in policy making for the next few years. As a policy-guided and increasingly modernized country, China’s ‘Common Prosperity’ campaign gathers momentum and impacts all aspects of society almost instantly. What’s China’s ‘Common Prosperity’ […]
China travel retail market report

Now is the prime time to start your travel retail market strategy, and this report shows why. The new duty-free policies boost domestic travel retail shopping in China, including a cancellation of the 8K RMB / person spending limit for each item. Sales of Duty-Free goods in Hainan increased 103% YoY in 2020. Lastly, Brick […]
Cultural Opinion Leaders (COLs): The future of China’s KOL economy

As Li Jiaqi and Viya win the titles “king” and “queen” of this year’s Singles’ Day and fashion brands keep on collaborating with the same handful of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), China’s KOL economy is in flux. Gen-Z consumers looking for more authentic and deeper tastemakers are the main driver of change. KOLs’ standardized format […]
Through black cookies and creamy fillings, Oreo and Jay Chou linked sandwich cookies with Chinese ink art

On October 15th, Oreo, together with its brand ambassador Jay Chou, launched a music video titled “笑奥江湖, 玩心无极” (Laugh proudly at the world, keep a heart of innocence). Oreo linked the color of its classic cookies with the black and white in the traditional Chinese ink paintings. Oreo and Jay Chou’s ink art blockbuster landed […]
Unraveling Unilever’s marketing strategy in China

During 2021’s investor presentation about Unilever’s business in China, the Executive Vice President, Rohit Jawa, and the Head of Investor Relations, Richard Williams, depicted winning China as a priority for the British-Dutch Group. Despite the frequent ups and downs, Unilever’s marketing strategy in China proves the company’s long-term commitment to engage with local consumers. In […]
Checking the health of online clothing rental services in China

According to a report jointly released by Bain & Co. and the TMall Luxury Division, mainland China accounted for 20% of the world’s luxury industry last year and it is going to become the largest luxury market by 2025. Unlike the in the past, nowadays Chinese consumers’ reluctance to purchase pre-owned luxury clothing is gradually […]
Everything you need to know about crowdfunding in China

Crowdfunding in China started to develop relatively late compared to the global market: the market size peaked in 2016 with 48,467 successful campaigns in that year. Chinese crowdfunding models include investment-based, non-investment based and integrated crowdfunding. The investment-based crowdfunding model includes equity-based and property-based crowdfunding. Non-investment-based crowdfunding model includes reward-based and donation-based crowdfunding. How crowdfunding […]
Cider’s marketing strategy: what you should know about the most promising Shein wannabe

Shein, one of the most valuable startups and the fastest-growing e-commerce company in the world, has paved the way to a new way of conceiving fast fashion that has been labeled as “real-time fashion,” thus causing the mushrooming of low-cost cross-border e-commerce platforms attempting to emulate the great success of the Nanjing-based company. So far, […]
Prada’s back-to-back game-changing campaigns: What drives a luxury brand from cat-walk to wet market?

On September 24th, 2021 Prada introduced its spring 2022 women’s wear collection through two synchronous fashion shows in Milan and Shanghai. It is the first time in fashion history that a show happened in two different cities simultaneously. Successively, Prada packed up its glam and cat-walked into one of Shanghai’s traditional wet markets for it […]
Why Beijing’s crackdown on the Chinese entertainment industry matters to global brands

The recent crackdown on the Chinese entertainment industry is just one in a series of restructured regulations China has enforced in 2021. Other industries affected by such changing policies under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping’s ‘common prosperity’ campaign include gaming, private online education, and real estate. The recent crackdown on the […]
2021 becomes the year of crackdowns in China as the country’s tightening regulations spread through more spheres

In the second half of 2021, it seems almost every week we hear of a new crackdown in China, each of which impact a range of industries, throwing market dynamics for a loop. This article details some of the larger crackdowns and their impacts on the markets China’s crackdown on education for extra-curricular classes In […]
The strategy behind the colossal rise of Decathlon in China

Decathlon is both a manufacturer and retailer of sportswear and sports equipment based in France. Shipping worldwide, it is the largest sporting goods retailer in the world with 1,696 stores in 59 countries as of December 2020. Among them, China represents a massive market for the company. Present in China since 2003, Decathlon had 313 […]