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Multicultural Marketing – Chinese Communities in the West

There is a common “Marketing Mistake” from marketing professionals that all the Chinese communities are very similar, and they are often confused of the differences between each Chinese culture.

Here is a list of common mistakes marketers or advertisers make when trying to reach Chinese communities in Australia, Canada or US.

1. More than just one language – The most commonly used languages are Mandarin, Cantonese and Hokkien. It really depends on where they came from – but in terms of written forms, thanks to the unification of languages - you only need to worry about 2 written forms – Simplified Chinese (used in China & Singapore) and Traditional (used in Taiwan & Hong Kong).

2. Different Dialects – As abovementioned, Cantonese used to be the most widely spoken language for migrants and is still a dominant dialect in many Asian communities, used by primarily earlier migrants. The rise of migration from mainland China has now seen a very rapid increase of Mandarin speakers, together with those from Taiwan initially, are now taking over Cantonese as the most widely used Chinese dialect. However, Taiwanese migrants also speak Hokkien, as well as many Malaysian and Indonesian Chinese migrants. Finally, people from Shanghai have a very large representation of today’s Chinese migrants, and Shanghainese is also becoming a very important dialect from marketing’s perspective.

3. Totally Different Culture – There is a substantial difference between Mainland Chinese migrants, Hong Kong migrants, Taiwanese migrants and SE Asian migrants. In general, those from Hong Kong, Singapore have received similar education systems as in the West, and tend to be better understanding in terms of finance and investments.

Those from Taiwan tend to have better knowledge in IT and international trades because they usually have successful businesses in exporting or electronics businesses.

Migrants from China vary from region to region, from cosmopolitan areas of Shanghai or Beijing to those from rural areas in China. It is impossible to form a generalization of Chinese migrants.

4. Different Social Status – Also different social status, in our research, the average wealth from mainland China is now rising very fast, with increasing number of China’s richest and middle class now migrating overseas.

Some particular Chinese communities consider social status more important than others, notably those from Shanghai and Hong Kong and Southern Taiwan, which in return, tend to spend more on luxury items and also more expensive properties.

5. Different Media – They also use different media – Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwanese migrants read different newspapers and magazines respectively. Some newspapers are set up purposely for a particular Chinese community. In addition, they also watch different Pay-TV channels, including both satellite and IPTV Channels, even listening to different radio stations.

6. Different Websites – Also different websites, Taiwanese and Hong Kong migrants tend to use Yahoo more than other Chinese search engines or news portals, Chinese migrants tend to use more China-based portals including Baidu, Sina and Sohu.

7. Cultural Sensitive Issues – Politics is always a sensitive issue between the 3 main markets – China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. If you are negotiating with a Chinese speaking customer, always try to avoid political discussions.

8. Localization, not Translation – The new marketing buzz word is localization, not just translation. When translating a press release, you need to find professionals that can “localize” the contents to reflect their cultural, understanding and different views in terms of value or terminologies they use. I always like to give a good example – the word “Tomato” or “Chocolate” is translated completely different between China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Always look for a Multicultural Marketing Expert when comes to planning or even translations. Yes, you can find cheaper providers in China for your translations, but it is best to have professionals based in the West if you intend to target a particular Chinese community in those markets or at least to have someone to proof read and audit the translation as the minimum.

And never rely on software or Internet to perform translations to avoid embarrassments, despite of the convenience, the accuracy of translation has been notoriously bad, and Internet can never perform localization for you.