Trade and Enterprise trade commissioner in Shanghai Damon Paling said the agency’s latest report on Chinese market perceptions of NZ holds some revealing insights to the Chinese psyche and how the country now regards itself on the world stage.
“Last time that research was done four years ago the respondents did not want the rest of the world looking at them and thinking they were somehow backward. The report, released last November, revealed more confidence, a sense the rest of the world was looking at China to see what it was doing and that change here is constant.”
Paling, who has 15 years’ experience in China’s trade sector, says what was once a commoditised market providing the necessity of protein for its populace is now a premium food market in many cities for NZ food exporters, with the government’s assertiveness reflecting the growing confidence of its people about their place in the world.
“So, from a NZ perspective, things like clean and green are not inclined to hold the same significance as they once did. Canada, Australia, even the United States can all play the same story.
“The relevance is now being sought on a more personal level.”
That has also come about with China’s own food safety laws being tightened and greater effort to feed itself from within its own borders.
But NZ firms have a level of agility about them that plays well in a market where food trends are in and out quickly, demanding a more tactical approach to market decision-making.
“There will always be someone with deeper pockets than you and that guy always wins.
“If you take the view you will just push more and more money into a market and product you may as well not come. You need to play the long game and you need to be prepared to change your approach if it’s not working.”
Two factors drive the need to keep marketing light on its feet.
“Many NZ food companies will be marketing to a post-millennial population that uses the web constantly and are very fickle given the choice that presents.
“Secondly, most NZ small-medium enterprises are around the $20 million to $50m sales mark and cannot afford to have big campaigns fail.”
The blue sky and Hobbits image of NZ that the 100% Pure campaign created over a decade ago worked for a period and created heroic products like dairy.
But as Chinese consumers become more sophisticated NZ is rapidly becoming part of their global pantry.
However, the connectedness between the two countries can offer a means to test a product’s likely success before trying to push it across the wharf at Shanghai.
“Take tourism, we now have over 400,000 Chinese tourists visiting every year, we have 40,000 Chinese students studying there and about 300,000 resident Chinese.
“They are all connected by the one app of choice in China, WeChat, so there is this ecosystem already in place to try a product at home with that community. They will soon let their friends and relatives back in China know about it, creating that demand pull for it.”
The low-cost, lower-risk approach embodies the daigou trade, which was so prevalent in the uptake of NZ-sourced infant formula.
Meantime there is young Chinese talent around keen to be part of the trade business, having a NZ education matched to contacts and language skills means some marketing programmes might be better left to young millennials with a smartphone to oversee.
NZTE has been involved in helping boards, chief executives and management from NZ develop more empathy with their Chinese consumers.
Paling also urges them to ride cities’ subways, get out on the street and divert from the usual airport-hotel-office route when in town.
“That includes getting them inside the homes of the Shanghai super mums to better understand what it is they need from products, something NZTE has helped them do.”
It is New Zealanders’ trustworthiness, openness and inclusiveness that plays well in an increasingly materialistic, dominant and confident China.
In terms of food NZTE work reveals proving the product is good for you and is part of an enjoyable dining experience are important.
While not as easy to articulate as a clean green vision, such concepts can be what helps keep NZ top of mind and valued by Chinese consumers.
Hear Richard Rennie talk to Farmers Weekly editor Bryan Gibson from China.
