Horological Meandering

ThomasM
[PuristS]
14331

• Show profile
• Show other posts

For the most part I agree, but be careful before accepting the "obvious" conclusions from the "facts"

Dear Marcus,

The DOMESTIC Chinese market is a highly complex one - not the endless land of milk and honey panacea so many thought over the past 10 years, but also not the moribund one that now is so (wrongly) seen by the lemmings, either.

But too often there is semantic ambiguity and confusion in the use of "Chinese market" - if somehow one were able to categorize buyers by ethnic group (admittedly a dangerous step down a slippery slope) the Chinese buyer would likely be number 1 or 2 by sheer size. This is simply a statistical fact - population size = potential market size.

Interest and income (purchasing power) then becomes the next most important influencers of the relevant statistical results.

Thus, the smart businessman will focus sales on the mature ready to buy market while dedicating marketing and communications on BOTH mature markets ("call to action" to those just needing that last push) and HIGHEST POTENTIAL developing markets (to cultivate future interest when the cash or credit COULD BE READY TO BUY)

The "Chinese" market happens to tick both boxes;

The "US" market (which includes overseas Chinese as well as many TRAVELING Chinese) too.

The Singapore and HK markets are interesting anomolies - not only are they vibrant local markets with mature local enthusiasts and collectors / buyers, they are HUGE entrepot markets larger well beyond their domestiic market size.

And guess who were the largest proportion of those "transit" markets?

Interesting closing thought, and that is both the bane and boon of "small" production companies that inevitably face at some point the "stay small and boutique" or "grow and face future size related crises" dilemma.

Cheers,

TM