Marketing to China’s smaller cities shouldn’t be neglected

National - Consumers in China's smaller cities share similar social attitudes as their big-city counterparts, with a significant percentage describing themselves as self-confident, ambitious, risk taking, and open to new experiences, according to new research released by Ogilvy China and MindShare China.

"Tier 2 and 3 cities in China, where incomes are rising rapidly, represent a huge potential market. Many multinational companies continue to focus their marketing dollars on the Tier 1 cities, but only 33.5% of all retail sales in China currently come from the 24 largest cities. And competition for consumer spending in those top cities has become increasingly tough," Kunal Sinha, project designer and executive director of Ogilvy China's Discovery research program said. 

"The strong purchasing power in smaller towns will become the engine for continuing market expansion. But there is very little brand, consumer or media data available about this massive and critical market: this project is one of the initiatives to dig deeper into China and help address marketing issues," Arjun Ghosh, national director of MindShare Insights China said.

The research titled The Real China Revealed concluded that Chinese consumers in Tier 2 and 3 cities are just as eager to experience new products and brands as those in the wealthiest cities. While Chinese brands are currently market leaders in the smaller cities, the study found that foreign brands are stepping up their marketing and are making significant headway there.   

Although Chinese people in the 2^nd and 3^rd tier cities share common social attitudes as their big-city counterparts, they differ in shopping behaviours such as in-store shopping practices, future purchasing plans and media consumption.