陈凯师购物中心遍地开花，中国消费者自成一派-后现代邮报

陈凯师
媒体酷形象：经济学人的自嘲文案，纽约时报的“真相”广告
商场反思4
Chinese consumers
中国消费者
Doing it their way
自成一派
The market is growing furiously, but getting tougher for foreign firms.中国市场正在以疯狂的速度增长，但对于外国公司来说这也是一个难度越来越高的竞技场。Jan 25th 2014 | MIANYANG AND SHANGHAI | From the print edition2014年1月25日 ｜ 绵阳及上海报道 ｜ 印刷版

In the heart of old Shanghai is a magnificent villa that serves as the workplace of Guo Jingming, a provocative young film-maker. “Tiny Times”, his recent blockbuster, follows the travails of some fashionable college girls (pictured, in the walk-in closet of one of them). Its depictions of the high life, rarely shown in Chinese films, have set social networks ablaze; they have also been attacked by the People’s Daily for “unconditional hedonism”. Mr Guo says: “So what? Materialism is neutral, neither positive nor negative.” After all, he goes on, China’s cosmopolitans know at any given moment what movies are playing in New York and what fashions are on the Paris runways.
在上海老城区中心有一座豪宅，那是极具争议性的年轻制片人郭敬明的工作室。他最近出品的大片《小时代》讲述了几个时尚大学女生的人生起伏。该片描述了中国影片很少涉及的上层社会生活，立刻在各大社交媒体上引发巨大争议。《人民日报》批评该片“无保留宣扬享乐主义”。郭对此做出回应：“那又怎么样？物质主义是中性词，不涉褒贬。”他还指出：说到底，无论何时中国见多识广的消费者们都知道纽约在上映什么影片，或是巴黎的走台上在展示什么时装。
China’s once-drab and Mao-suited interior is not so far behind. In Mianyang, a middling city in the province of Sichuan, an enormous billboard featuring Miranda Kerr, an Australian supermodel, draped in Swarovski crystals welcomes shoppers to the Parkson shopping mall. It is one of half a dozen high-end malls in town. Luxury sales are exploding there. Local Audi and BMW dealers sell more than 100 cars each a month; Land Rover, Jaguar and Cadillac have just muscled in on the market.
就连过去曾土里土气、中山装遍地的中国内陆地区如今也不甘落后。在四川省中等大小城市绵阳市里立着一块巨大的广告牌，照片中身披施华洛世奇（Swarovski）水晶的澳大利亚超模米兰达·科尔（Miranda Kerr）迎接着每一位光顾百盛商场的顾客。该商场是绵阳市里五六个高端购物中心之一。该市的奢侈品销售额正在急剧增长中。当地的奥迪和宝马经销商每个月均能卖出超过100辆车，陆虎、捷豹和凯迪拉克也开始进驻当地市场。
Thirty kilometres (20 miles) away in Luxi, a town of 57,000 people, online shopping is hot. The first express-delivery office opened only three years ago, and handled perhaps ten packages a day; today, there are five, each handling 100 packages a day. Even 60km away, in rural Santai county where farm-workers are the customers, one modern shopping mall has sprung up and another is being built. “Customers are evolving very quickly from the low-end market to the middle and high-end,” says Yang Shuiying, proud general manager of the Zizhou shopping centre.
距绵阳30公里的芦溪镇人口5万7千。在那里，网购现在是一项热门活动。当地第一间快递站3年前才开张，当时每天也许只处理10个包裹。如今，该镇有5间快递站，每间每天都要处理100个包裹。就算是在60公里外，消费者主要务农的三台县农村地区也有一座现代购物中心，而且另一座也正在兴建之中。梓州购物中心总经理杨水映自豪地说：“低端市场顾客正在迅速向中高端转变”。
In the 1950s and 1960s the world economy was transformed by the emergence of the American consumer. Now China seems poised to become the next consumption superpower. In all likelihood, it has just overtaken Japan to become the world’s second-biggest consumer economy. Its roughly $3.3 trillion in private consumption is about 8% of the world total, and it has only just begun.
20世纪50年代和60年代美国消费者的崛起改变了世界经济。现在中国似乎已准备好成为下一个消费强国。其很有可能在最近已赶超日本成为世界第二大消费经济体。中国每年的私人消费达到3万3千亿美元，占世界总额的8%，而且这还是刚刚起步。
“The future of the world will be profoundly shaped by China’s rush toward consumerism,” says Karl Gerth, an expert on Chinese consumption at the University of California, San Diego. Although investment made the biggest contribution to China’s growth last year, and although private consumption’s share of output, now at 36%, fell between 2000 and 2010, that trend is unlikely to last, for several reasons.
加州大学圣地亚哥分校的中国消费专家卡尔·格斯（Karl Gerth）如是说：“中国疾步迈入消费主义社会这一现象将会在很大程度上左右全世界的未来”。虽然去年对中国经济增长贡献最大的部份还是投资，而且私人消费占总经济产值的比例（现在为36%）在2000年和2010年间有所下降，但是这一趋势不太可能一直持续下去，原因有几点。
First, boosting the people’s desire to consume is a stated goal of China’s leaders. Higher government spending on health care and pensions may encourage households to save less for such things. Higher interest rates may, paradoxically, discourage thrift if people reach their savings goals faster. Rising wages and an ageing population will also shift the balance towards consumption rather than saving. And although household debt is growing fast, China still has relatively little.
首先，中国领导人现在已将提高人们的消费欲望列为官方目标。政府在医疗和养老金方面的支出提高也会鼓励人们减少为这些方面准备的储蓄。利率提高有可能反而会让人们不再省吃俭用，因为人们能在更短的时间内存够储蓄目标。逐渐老化的人口和上升的薪资也会让储蓄和消费之间的天平向消费倾斜。虽然个人债务增长迅速，但中国老百姓的个人债务水平在世界范围内还是属于非常低的。
Besides, consumption has not fallen in absolute terms. It has, in fact, grown briskly—just not quite as quickly as the economy overall. In dollar terms, China contributed more than any other country to the growth in global consumption in 2011-13, according to Andy Rothman of CLSA, a broker. Moreover, China’s official statistics understate some consumption—spending on housing, for example.
此外，如果以绝对金额来看中国人的消费水平并没有降低。实际上，该数字一直在稳健增长，只是其增长速度不如整体经济增长速度快而已。根据里昂证券公司（CLSA）的安迪·罗斯曼（Andy Rothman）按美元计算，2011年至2013年间对全球消费增长贡献最大的国家正是中国。此外，中国官方统计数据一般会低估某些消费项目，例如住房开支。
A massive push to urbanise is also under way, which should produce tens of millions of richer citizens seeking retail therapy. McKinsey, a consultancy, forecasts that consumption by urban Chinese households will increase from 10 trillion yuan in 2012 to nearly 27 trillion yuan in 2022.
目前中国正受到一波巨大的城市化浪潮席卷。这会产生数千万更为富裕的国民寻求购物治疗。根据咨询公司麦肯锡（McKinsey）的预计，2012年中国城市居民总值10万亿元人民币的消费额到2022年会增长至将近27万亿元。
Fickle sophisticates
善变且老练
How much China spends is striking. Even more so is the way it spends. This is now one of the world’s most sophisticated consumer markets, heavily skewed towards expensive goods. Local property barons are now building half the world’s new shopping malls in China, many of them in smaller cities, because even punters without big incomes are becoming big shoppers. Research by IDEO, a consultancy, has found that many young migrant workers earning less than 5,000 yuan ($830) a month will spend a month’s wages on an Apple iPhone.
中国人消费的金额让人震惊。但更惊人的是其消费的方式。中国的消费者市场现在是世界最成熟的消费者市场之一，且高度倾向于昂贵商品。中国的地方地产大亨如今忙于兴建购物中心，占全世界建造中的新购物中心总数的一半。而且这些购物中心有很多建造在较小城市里，因为即使收入不高的顾客也开始大肆消费。咨询公司IDEO的研究发现很多年轻的外地打工族一个月收入不到5000元（830美元），却会拿一个月的薪水来买苹果的iPhone。
That points to another difference from previous consumption booms elsewhere: with the world’s largest e-commerce market at their fingertips, Chinese shoppers are online from the start. As a result, what was once a foreign marketers’ fantasyland is now the world’s fiercest battleground for brands.
这点出了中国的消费浪潮和过去此类浪潮另一个不同之处。中国的消费者指尖下就是世界最大的电子商务市场，他们一开始就已是网购一族了。正因为如此，过去中国市场在外国营销人士眼中是梦寐以求的乐土，如今其已变成世界品牌竞争最激烈的修罗场。
Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, calls the Chinese “increasingly aspirational and conspicuous consumers” who routinely trade up to fancier labels even on staples. Newly middle-class types in cities in the interior are keen to try out new products, especially the ones they have seen on foreign television shows. Jeff Walters of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) points out that even country bumpkins are consuming global media, thanks to the wild popularity of local online-video services. Chinese consumers, he says, were watching the latest season of “Downton Abbey” on Youku, a video-sharing website, well before it was released in America.
伯恩斯坦研究公司（Sanford C. Bernstein）称中国老百姓做为消费者“越来越追求高品位，也越来越具有炫耀性”，他们会不断换新更高级的品牌，甚至连一些日用品也是如此。城市里的中产新贵们很喜欢尝试新产品，尤其是他们在外国电视节目里看到的产品。波士顿咨询公司（BCG）的杰夫·华尔特斯（Jeff Walters）指出，由于国内各种在线视频服务的广泛普及，即使农村乡巴佬也和世界媒体接轨。他说，《唐顿庄园》最新一季还没在美国上映之前很久，中国消费者就已经在视频共享网站优酷上观看该剧了。
This passion for fashion is, in theory, good news for multinational marketers. Unlike, say, Japan, where consumers heavily favour local brands, Chinese consumers hold foreign brands in high esteem. Torsten Stocker of AT Kearney, a consultancy, observes that foreign brands are doing well in sectors they introduced to China (chewing gum, chocolate); those that have “heritage” appeal (premium cars, luxury goods) and those where local brands are not trusted, such as powdered baby milk. The world’s fast-food and consumer-goods giants—Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, General Mills and so on—are also big in China, but they are increasingly dogged by local rivals. A recent study by Bain, another consultancy, found that although foreign brands still lead in some areas (biscuits, fabric-softener, bottled water), local brands are surging in others (toothpaste, cosmetics, juice).
从理论上来说，这种对时尚的热情对跨国营销人士来说是一个好消息。和某些国家，如日本的消费者偏好国产品牌不同，中国消费者很看重外国品牌。科尔尼咨询公司（AT Kerney）的托尔斯坦·斯托克（Torsten Stocker）注意到外国品牌在三种商品领域里表现不错，第一种为该商品本来就是由外国商家最早引入中国（如口香糖、巧克力），第二种为有“传统”吸引力的外国商品（如名牌车、奢侈品），第三种为国产品牌不受到信任的商品（如奶粉）。相较之下，一些世界知名的快餐及日用品巨头，像是宝洁、百事、通用磨坊等等虽然在中国的业务也都很大，但却日益受到国产对手的威胁。贝恩咨询公司（Bain）最近的一份研究发现虽然外国品牌在某些领域依然领先（如饼干、洗衣软化剂、矿泉水），在另一些领域里国产品牌的业务却蒸蒸日上（如牙膏、化妆品、果汁）。
Brand-hopping, though, is rife. Having grown up with radical economic change, Chinese shoppers are “very fickle, and hard to pin down to a strong brand loyalty”, says Mintel, a market-research firm. Yuval Atsmon of McKinsey reckons that brand-switching—between Pepsi and Coke, Colgate and Crest, KFC and McDonald’s—is common, “much more so than in most markets”. Swarovski, the crystal-maker, has discovered that over three-quarters of Chinese customers are eager to try new brands, a far higher figure than elsewhere. A recent study by Bain found that the top five brands in ten categories lost 30-60% of their customers between 2011 and 2012.
与此同时，中国消费者转换品牌的现象非常普遍。市场研究公司敏特尔（Mintel）认为今天的中国消费者是在巨大经济改革时期长大的，他们“非常善变，很难建立起强烈的品牌忠诚度”。麦肯锡的尤瓦·阿特斯蒙（Yuval Atsmon）认为在竞争品牌，如百事可乐和可口可乐之间、高露洁和佳洁士之间，或是肯德基和麦当劳之间来回切换对于中国消费者来说是司空见惯的现象，“比大多数其它市场要常见多了”。水晶饰品公司施华洛世奇发现有超过四分之三的中国顾客很希望尝试新品牌，这一比例比其它地方要高得多。贝恩公司最近的一份研究调查了每个商品类别内销售量排前五名的公司，共调查了十个类别，发现这些领头羊们在2011年至2012年间流失了三到六成的顾客。
This creates several problems. With two or three times as many brands on shelves as found in other countries, competition is ferocious. This makes advertising and marketing vital—but the cost of publicity is soaring. Also, firms that thought they enjoyed a “first-mover advantage” have discovered that their brands are now seen as stodgy or old-fashioned. Olay, a cosmetics brand, defined skin care in China for a generation—but Carol Potter of BBDO, an advertising agency, reckons that “the new generation thinks it’s a brand from yesterday.” She adds that whereas Louis Vuitton once symbolised good and expensive taste in China, a new generation is seeking different, subtler luxuries.
这产生了几个问题。中国商店货架上的品牌数目是其它国家的两到三倍，在这样的背景下竞争异常激烈。因此广告和营销就变得至关重要，但同时宣传成本却与日俱增。此外，那些本以为自己“先发制人”的公司发现它们的品牌如今在消费者眼中显得又土又老。化妆品牌玉兰油（Olay）曾引领一代中国人步入护肤这一新天地，但天联广告公司（BBDO）的凯罗尔·波特（Carol Potter）指出“如今的年轻一代都把它视为昨日黄花。”她也补充道路易威登（Louis Vuitton）过去在中国象征着优雅昂贵的品味，但如今新的一代正在追求更新颖、更含蓄的奢侈品牌。
The empty suitcase
空旅行箱
Another complication for marketers is that many Chinese shoppers have a global outlook. When previous middle classes rose to prominence in America and Japan, the internet did not exist. People could not Google the latest European fashions or check discounts on Amazon. The arrival of cheap air travel has also made the Chinese more discerning shoppers. Mr Stocker argues that these factors have “compressed the discovery process”, which in Japan took 30 years, to less than ten.
对于市场营销人士来说另一个头疼问题在于很多中国消费者拥有全球化的视角。之前美国和日本的中产阶级崭露头角时，互联网根本还不存在。而如今人们可以谷歌最新的欧洲潮流或是在亚马逊上直接查商品减价活动。廉价机票的出现也让中国消费者变得更了解行情。斯托克认为这些因素“压缩了整个消费发现过程”。日本消费者当初经历这一过程花了整整30年，而中国的消费者不到10年就已掌握了诀窍。
The Chinese are already the world’s biggest shoppers abroad, but a report released on January 20th by CLSA forecasts that the number of outbound Chinese tourists will double to 200m a year by 2020 and that their spending will triple over that time. James Button of SmithStreet, a consultancy, reports a well established piece of etiquette: “You must let friends know when you are going overseas,” and take along an empty suitcase.
中国消费者已经是世界上最大的跨国购物团体。不过里昂证券1月20日公布的一份报告预测中国出国旅游人士的数目到2020年将会翻倍，达到一年2亿，届时他们的海外消费额将会是今天的三倍。史密斯街咨询公司（SmithStreet）的詹姆斯·布顿（James Button）谈到中国人现在出国有一项默认的基本礼仪：“你必须让朋友们知道你要出国了”，还一定要带上一只空旅行箱。
Many Chinese also use online shopping agents, who aggregate requests and bring back foreign goods. Sales by overseas purchase agents came to nearly 50 billion yuan in 2012, a leap of more than 80% on the year earlier; they jumped by half again last year to 74.4. billion yuan. Foreign websites, including Amazon, now offer direct delivery to China for certain products, and local e-commerce giants such as Alibaba run cross-border services.
很多中国人也使用网上代购。这些中间商积累订单后从国外带回商品。2012年中国海外代购的总营业额将近500亿元人民币，比仅仅一年前飙升了超过80%。去年该数字再次上跳一半，达到744亿元人民币。包括亚马逊在内的外国网站如今对某些商品实行直接向中国国内快递服务，而如阿里巴巴这样的国内电子商务巨头也都在经营跨国业务。
Buying overseas saves money, since mark-ups and hefty taxes are the rule in China. Many ordinary folk travel not just to Hong Kong, the most convenient spot, but to Jeju Island in South Korea (where they can visit without a visa and shop duty-free) to stock up on cosmetics that cost much more at home. Price, though, is not the only motivation. Another is to avoid the counterfeit goods so common on the mainland. Even more important, consumers say, are the variety and freshness of the products available overseas.
因为售价标高和巨额关税在中国极为普遍，直接从国外购买可以帮消费者省钱。很多普通老百姓如今不仅会去相对最便利的香港旅游购物，还会去韩国济州岛（中国游客免签证，免税购物）补充售价比国内低廉得多的化妆品。不过价格并不是唯一的动力。另一推动消费者出国的因素是国内市场充斥大量假货。消费者也补充，比这些都更重要的是海外商品种类繁多、新颖别致。
Nowhere is this wide-ranging urge to spend more obvious than in the market for luxury goods. Globally the Chinese are the biggest buyers of expensive items, accounting for some 29% of purchases last year. Some two-thirds of Chinese spending on luxury goods takes place outside the mainland; a fifth of it in Europe. (Harrods of London has seen sales to Chinese shoppers, its largest foreign contingent, increase by 50% a year since 2011.) Consistently favoured brands include Lanc?me, Gucci, Audi, Rolex and Tiffany.
这一涵盖广泛的消费欲望在奢侈品市场内最为明显。中国消费者是全世界最大的奢侈品购买团体，去年全球奢侈品总销售量有29%来自中国。约有三分之二的中国奢侈品消费花在国外，光是欧洲就占了五分之一（伦敦的哈罗德百货公司最大的外国顾客群就是中国顾客，它在该群体内的营业额自2011年后每年都增长达50%）。一直受到中国消费者青睐的品牌包括兰蔻、古弛、奥迪、劳力士和提芬尼等。
The Chinese are also the world’s largest consumers of Bordeaux wine and cognac, though sales (like those of Moutai, a local grain alcohol) have fallen in the wake of official campaigns against gift-giving. At Berry Bros & Rudd’s bonded wine warehouse in Basingstoke, in southern England, where 4.5m expensive bottles are stored, more than 1m of those are owned by oenophiles from greater China. No longer, says the firm’s chairman, should the Chinese be pictured ruining fine wine by pouring Coca-Cola into it.
虽然外国名酒（加上国产茅台）的销售额在官方严打送礼的活动后有所下降，中国消费者还是世界上最大的波尔图葡萄酒和干邑消费群体。贝利兄弟酒行（Berry Bros & Rudd’s）在英格兰南部贝辛斯托克镇（Basingstoke）的保税葡萄酒仓库存有450万瓶高价酒，其中超过100万瓶属于大中华地区的好酒人士。该公司的主席说，中国消费者不应再被看作是会往高级葡萄酒里倒可口可乐暴殄天物的无知之徒了。
Although a government crackdown on corruption has crimped mainland sales, and some luxury firms slowed down the rollout of new boutiques there last year, Coach, Prada and Bottega Veneta continued to expand. Apple expanded too; it now has more stores in Shanghai than in San Francisco, and launches new iPhones in Beijing when it does in California. Mr Button of SmithStreet thinks brands offering affordable luxury—Michael Kors and Kate Spade, say—can capture both the upwardly mobile and the “post-luxury” elites in the cities, who want less flashy brands.
虽然政府的反腐行动减少了国内的奢侈品销售量，而且一些奢侈品公司去年开始放慢在中国开设新店的节奏，但蔻弛、普拉达和宝缇嘉等名牌还在继续扩展业务。苹果公司也在国内扩展，现在苹果在上海的专卖店数量已超过旧金山，而且该公司如今会在北京和加州同步同时发布新款iPhone。史密斯街咨询公司的布顿先生认为有些品牌能为消费者提供价格可承受的奢侈品，如迈克高仕或凯特丝蓓，这类品牌既能抓住力图跻身上流的中层消费者，也能吸引那些追求炫耀性较低品牌的都市“后奢侈时代”精英们。
In the past, the Chinese showed little interest in Western art. That is starting to change, and may change quicker with the opening of a new museum of Western art in Shanghai. The richest man in China has just paid $28m for a Picasso, though he was condemned as “unpatriotic” on Sina Weibo. Ms Potter also observes that two-thirds of affluent consumers are keen to know the history and cultural background of foreign brands. So they love to buy Piaget watches in Geneva and Zegna suits in Milan, but reject unconventional offerings such as German watches or Japanese leather bags.
过去，中国消费者对西方艺术几乎毫无兴趣。这如今也开始改变，随着上海一座崭新的西方艺术博物馆开馆这一转变可能会发生得更快。中国首富日前以2800万美元的价格买下一幅毕加索作品（不过他在新浪微博上受到“不爱国”的谴责）。波特女士也发现三分之二的富有消费者喜欢了解外国品牌的历史和文化背景。因此，他们会偏好日内瓦的伯爵表，或是米兰的杰尼亚西装，但却对比较非主流的一些奢侈品如德国表或是日本皮包没有兴趣。
It is not only in luxury goods that Chinese shoppers are leading the way. China has become the world’s biggest e-commerce market, with spending forecast to reach $540 billion next year. On Singles Day, an annual online-marketing extravaganza held on November 11th, 400m Chinese spent $5.7 billion just on Tmall, an e-commerce platform run by Alibaba; Americans, on their Cyber Monday a few weeks later, spent only about $2 billion. China is the world’s biggest maker and consumer of smartphones, and will soon be the largest “mobile-commerce” market, too.
中国消费者不仅在奢侈品上处于世界领先水平。中国也已是世界最大的电子商务市场，预计明年网购总销售额将达到5400亿元人民币。去年，在中国网络营销一年一度的盛典——11月11日光棍节期间，全国4亿消费者总共在阿里巴巴的电子商务平台天猫网上花了57亿美元。相较之下，几个星期后美国迎来一年一度的网购星期一，全国总消费额却只有区区20亿美元。中国如今是世界最大的智能手机生产国和消费国，很快也会成为世界最大的“手机商务”市场。
Perhaps because they distrust official information, the Chinese rely heavily on peer reviews. Research by BCG has shown that they write, and act on, online reviews of products and services far more than Westerners do. A recent study of purchases of moisturiser found that two-thirds of Chinese buyers relied on online recommendations by friends or family; the comparable figure in America was less than 40%. Millions of online shoppers follow the thoughts of Miumiu and Viviandan, leggy twins from industrial Chongqing, who started posting pictures of themselves in the latest fashions, with wry observations on trends and prices, a decade ago. Even now they post recommendations nearly every day on social-media sites such as Instagram, or on Weibo. Their likes and dislikes make or break products.
可能因为中国老百姓不信任官方信息，很多人极为依赖网上点评。BCG的研究显示中国人写商品或服务网评以及参考网评进行消费的现象都比西方人多得多。最近对保湿乳购买情况的一份研究发现三分之二的中国消费者依靠朋友或家人在网上写的推荐。在美国这一数字不到40%。例如，工业城市重庆一对美腿双胞胎“呛口小辣椒”受到数百万中国消费者关注。她们从十年前开始在网上发自己穿着最新时尚的照片，并对潮流和价格做出揶揄评论。即使现在她们还几乎每天都会在Instagram或是微博这些社交媒体网站上发表推荐评论。她们的喜恶能够左右很多商品的成败。
Online shoppers in the remotest parts of China often know a great deal about a global brand’s attributes and pricing worldwide—which can put marketers on the back foot. Chinese consumers are no longer willing to pay a hefty premium for any old foreign brand. As they grow more discerning, multinationals are having to work harder to prove their worth—and are having to defend their brands on China’s wild social media. But creative approaches can pay off.
在中国极偏远地区的网上消费者很多时候清楚了解一个全球品牌的特点和其在世界各地的定价。这让很多营销者措手不及。中国消费者如今已不愿仅仅因为一个品牌来自国外就大把掏钱。随着中国消费者变得越来越精明，跨国公司也就必须更努力来证明自身的价值，还要在中国疯狂的社交媒体圈子内捍卫自身品牌。不过创意点子还是可以脱颖而出的。
When VF Corporation, a large American clothing firm, wanted to promote The North Face, a brand of outdoor clothing, in China, it struggled. Whereas climbers and hikers in the West relish the thought of conquering mountains alone, the Chinese generally think of outings in Nature as a spiritual escape, to be enjoyed with friends. So the firm created an online community linking amateurs to clubs devoted to outdoor pursuits. The website offers points for activity and loyalty that can be redeemed for products. Sales are soaring, and VF now has a detailed database of over half a million keen customers.
美国服装业巨头VF集团最早尝试在中国推广其户外服装品牌北脸进行得并不顺利。西方的登山者和攀岩者一般都喜欢视自己为挑战高山的孤狼，但中国人一般把大自然中的户外活动看作是一种精神上的解脱，是一种需要有好友陪伴的活动。因此该公司创造了一个将进行户外活动的俱乐部和业余爱好者联系起来的网上社区。该网站的用户可以通过参加户外活动或是支持该品牌而获得积分，这些积分可以用来换取商品。之后，VF的营业额飙升，而且该公司现在还拥有一个内含超过50万热情顾客资料的详细数据库。
The online awareness of Chinese customers has big global implications. According to Andrew Keith, the president of Lane Crawford, cosmopolitan Chinese consumers are now setting the agenda: “We are not teaching them, they are teaching us.” (He should know; his Hong Kong department store has half a dozen shops in greater China, 650,000 high-spending customers and, in the new Shanghai store, private suites for “Platinum VIPs” who spend 60,000 yuan or more a year.) Alexis Perakis-Valat, head of L’Oréal’s China business, agrees. He believes that the Chinese market, unlike those in Western countries, is driven by young urban consumers who are demanding something new and have no taboos. He points to peculiar and distinctive products developed for this niche in China, such as a black-foam face-scrub for men, which are now being launched around the world.
中国消费者对网购的认知度在全球范围都有巨大影响。连卡佛（Lane Crawford）的总裁安德鲁·凯斯（Andrew Keith）认为如今全球营销趋势是由中国见多识广的消费者决定的：“不是我们在教他们，而是他们在教我们。”（他可明白呢，他这间香港起家的百货公司如今在大中华地区有六座购物中心，65万名高额消费顾客，在其上海新店里，一年消费达到6万元人民币的“白金贵宾”们可以享受私人套间。）欧莱雅（L’Oréal）中国区负责人阿莱克西斯·佩拉克斯瓦拉特（Alexis Perakis-Valat）对此表示同意。他相信中国市场和西方国家不同，是受到要求新鲜事物、百无禁忌的年轻都市消费者推动的。他提到很多专门针对中国这一特殊顾客层开发的新颖特异产品，如男士专用的黑色泡沫洗面奶如今也在世界其它市场投放。
We’re all Chinese now
举世皆中国
He’s come a long way
今非昔比
Another sign of such innovation is the reinvention of Johnnie Walker, a mass-market whisky brand belonging to Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits firm, as a luxury brand in China. Keen to win over sceptical consumers more accustomed to baijiu (a local firewater), the firm opened Johnnie Walker House in Shanghai almost three years ago. For around 800,000 yuan, or $132,000, the company’s master blender (with the delicious surname of Beveridge) will fly in and brew a special batch of Johnnie Walker precisely matched to a customer’s tastes. Certain rare blends, including some bearing the marks of the Chinese zodiac, are sold only at this venue.
此类创新的另一个标志是世界最大蒸馏酒公司帝亚吉欧（Diageo）旗下的大众威士忌品牌尊尼获加（Johnnie Walker）在中国脱胎换骨跻身奢侈品牌的经历。该公司希望争取到更习惯于白酒、对威士忌持保留态度中国消费者，于是在将近三年前于上海开设了尊尼获加尊邸。花上80万元人民币，折合13万2千美元，该公司的总调酒师（巧的是，这位贝卫里奇先生的姓在英文里和“饮品”同音）会坐飞机前来特别调制一批精心搭配顾客口味的尊尼获加。一些稀有调酒，包括带有生肖的特别版只在该处有售。
This effort has helped Diageo introduce its whiskies to thousands of affluent customers, who in turn have pushed the firm towards new inventions—such as blends with a much higher alcohol content—which helped its whisky revenues grow twice as fast as the industry average. The concept has been such a success that the company has opened new Houses in Beijing and Seoul, and plans others. When Diageo unveiled Odyssey, a special-edition blend, in 2012, it kicked off the global launch not in London or New York but in Shanghai.
这一努力让帝亚吉欧将其威士忌酒介绍给成千上万的富有顾客。这些顾客又反过来推动该公司进行各种创新，如酒精度比一般威士忌高得多的调酒。这让帝亚吉欧的营业额以市场平均值两倍的速度增长。这一概念如此成功，让其最近在北京和首尔开张更多的尊邸，还计划在其它地方建造这样的设施。2012年帝亚吉欧公布新的特别版混合酒奥德赛时，它选择了上海，而不是纽约或伦敦举办全球发布会。
Life was simpler for foreign brands when they first came to China, reflects David Roth of The Store, an advertising agency: “It was a land grab…you just had to create awareness as quickly as possible.” Now the Western invaders must not only cater to the world’s most demanding shoppers, but also cope with increasing home-grown competition. Chinese firms are starting to catch up with their fancier foreign rivals. Some even aspire to become global brands.
The Store广告公司的大卫·罗斯回忆道，当年外国品牌最早抵达中国时，一切都比现在要单纯得多。他说：“当时完全就像是占地游戏……你只需要尽快建立起品牌知名度就可以了。”如今西方入侵者不但要迎合世界最挑剔的消费者，还要在和本土品牌日益激烈的竞争中生存下来。中国公司开始赶上那些原本较高级的外国对手。有的公司甚至已把眼光放在跻身世界品牌上了。
Huawei, a telecoms-equipment giant, is making a big push into branded consumer electronics. “We have it easier than Samsung did,” says Colin Giles, chief marketing officer for its consumer business, because Korean firms paved the way for global acceptance of Chinese brands. Xiaomi, a startup smartphone manufacturer in Beijing, has developed a hugely popular phone-and-app system inspired as much by Amazon as by Apple. It could become China’s first global innovation powerhouse.
电信仪器巨头华为正在全力打入品牌消费者电子产品领域。负责其消费者业务的首席营销官科林·盖尔斯（Colin Giles）称：“我们面对的困难比当年三星起步时要小”，因为韩国公司为全球接受中国品牌铺平了道路。北京新兴的智能手机公司小米已发展出一个极受欢迎的手机和应用软件系统，这一系统不但受苹果公司的启发，也很大程度上借鉴了亚马逊的运营模式。它可能会成为中国公司中第一支靠创新打入全球的生力军。
[url= the local pack is Lenovo, an electronics firm that previously bought IBM’s personal-computer business (and on January 23rd agreed to buy its low-end server business, too). When it launched its latest Yoga tablet last year it chose Ashton Kutcher, a Hollywood star who had played Steve Jobs in a film, as its spokesman. David Roman, Lenovo’s chief marketing officer, says that even a few years ago it would have been unthinkable to do a global product launch in China with a single tagline, unified advertising content and a Western spokesman. But now he thinks there is “a global consuming class”, with more in common across borders than within.
国产公司中的领头羊如今要数之前买下IBM个人电脑业务的电子产品公司联想（1月23日联想和IBM再次达成协议，前者将买下后者的低端服务器业务）。去年该公司发布其第一款平板电脑Yoga时选择了在影片中曾扮演过史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）的好莱坞影星艾什顿·库彻（Ashton Kutcher）代言。联想的首席营销官大卫·罗曼（David Roman）认为就算是仅仅几年前，用仅仅一句广告词、各地统一的广告内容、一位西方代言人在中国进行全球产品发布还是难以想象的事。但现在他认为存在一个“全球性的消费阶级”，各国之间这一阶级的差异其实比一国之内这一阶级和其他人士的差异还要来得小。
That sums up the rise of China nicely. Future consumer markets everywhere are going to look more Chinese. They will increasingly be cosmopolitan, luxury-minded and online. Firms that can flourish in China are not only winning today’s toughest market, but are also positioning themselves for tomorrow’s.
这很好的总结了中国的崛起。未来全世界的消费者市场都会变得更像中国市场。消费者们都会变得更见多识广，更注重奢侈，也更熟悉网购。能够在中国做出成绩的公司不仅在抢占今天世界上难度最高的市场，它们同时也时在为明天的市场做好准备。