Consumer

Chinese Consumer Behaviour

An Introduction

Frans Giele 6 February 2009

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1 Introduction

This paper is a very preliminary attempt at a small meta-analysis on different subjects in the field of Chinese consumer behaviour. It lifts out a few aspects of Chinese consumer behaviour that might not be completely understood by most people and is merely an introduction. The first (general) part – consumer behaviour – provides a limited basis to which we can relate topics discussed in the second part. This second part is about the Chinese consumer and is subdivided into a part that looks upon Chinese consumers as a whole and a part that tries to nuance the view of one stereotypic Chinese consumer.

2 Consumer behaviour

Philip Kotler defines marketing as “a social and management process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.”1 An essential aspect of marketing is thus consumer behaviour: the understanding of what consumers need and what exactly influences their buying behaviour. The interaction between stimuli and reactions are often described by the stimulus-response model as shown in Figure 1. Marketing Stimuli Product Price Place Promotion Other Stimuli Economic Technological Political Cultural Buyer’s Black Box Buyer’s Characteristics Buyer’s Decision Process Buyer’s Response Product choice Brand choice Dealer choice Purchase timing Purchase amount

Figure 1 Stimulus-response model. Source: Kotler, p. 188.

The external factors (marketing stimuli and other stimuli) are converted in the buyer’s black box into responses. The buyer’s black box consists of two parts: the buyer’s characteristics and the buyer’s decision process. The buyer’s characteristics can be subdivided as in Figure 2. This introduction will mainly discuss cultural, social, personal and psychological characteristics of the Chinese consumers, as seen in Figure 2. We suppose that these models and the...