Tuesday, 22 July 2008 17:30

Loneliness is big business in China



A new kind of cultural revolution is taking place among China’s youths – a revolution in which technology has become comfort food to one of the loneliest generations in the world.

It may be the most populous country in the world, yet it contains one of the loneliest generations in the world, according to Harry Hui, chief marketing officer of PepsiCo International, China Beverages.

“Loneliness is big business in China,” he told the audience at the Global Brand Forum in Singapore in August.

Hui, who is a veteran expert on youth marketing, having also worked with Universal Music and MTV, Hui said the one-child policy meant that “250 million single kids are now having one-child families of their own”, hence “one of the loneliest generations in the world”.

Hui said that since 1979, when China opened its doors to economic reforms, the country had gone from one in which its people owned nothing to now buying everything.

There are now four generations, broadly speaking – six percent, the founding generation; 21% the Cultural Revolution generation – “in their 50s and 60s, low on academic qualifications and have worked their way up through the system”; 33% the open door generation – “they own western suits, they were the first to travel abroad and they signed the first joint ventures”; and 40% the strivers generation.

“Within those born in the post-80s, there are 470 million and their world is very different. The Gang of Four is a thing of the past. The Cultural Revolution is an art movement. They are brought up by their grandparents because their parents were working. They live in one household, shaped by three generations.”

Calling it “Confucian confusion”, he said these youths, while respecting Confucian values of heirachy and respect for elders and community, were also struggling to express themselves.

Their motivation – modernity inspired by tradition. “Think Mao Tse Tung in Prada.”

These youths are also in a highly competitive place. “There is such pressure to get jobs and not all of them are going to be successful.”

Quoting a Chinese saying, “It is a shame to be without friends”, Hui said this generation was not only looking for an identity but was also looking to make friends.

At the same time, this generation is also the most connected – 590 million mobile phone users and 245 million online users. “Friendster has more virtual friends in China than anywhere else,” said Hui.

Enter trend number two – technology as comfort food. “The mobile phone is more important than boyfriends or girlfriends for 90% of the younger generation,” said Hui, citing a survey by China Mobile.

With these insights in mind, PepsiCo launched its “Facebook on a can” campaign in 2007. It asked consumers to upload their pictures onto a website and people could then vote on the pictures they liked.

The top 20 winners’ pictures were then put on a billion Pepsi Cola cans throughout the country.

In the run-up to the Olympics, it then printed Limited Edition red cans in a campaign called “Dare to go red for China”.

All in, the company received three million photos and 163 million votes during the campaign.

So what does it take to succeed as a marketer in China? Said Hui, “You must be a keen observer of life, connect the dots and find the emotional connection.”