China’s ‘common prosperity’ push, consumer nationalism stir new challenges for global brands
- Campaign to reduce wealth gap presents new marketing challenges for global brands, though most are positive about expanded middle class
- International brands also have to contend with rising nationalism and consumer sentiment that has not yet fully recovered from the pandemic
Multinational brands looking to tap China’s enormous consumer market are being forced to rethink their strategies amid Beijing’s “common prosperity” initiative, rising consumer nationalism and changes caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
While Beijing’s plans will help boost China’s middle class population to an estimated 500 million by 2025, it is unknown how the strategy may affect consumer sentiment in the world’s No 2 economy.
“We are very concerned about ‘common prosperity’, because we all need to grasp the market and economic directions of China in the next five or 10 years,” said Liang Qun, who runs an advertising company in Guangzhou advising global and domestic clients.
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Advertisers can no longer promote brands with the super-rich lifestyle that worked well in the past, Liang said.
