Swiss Brands are Popular among Chinese Consumers
If you think about Swiss products, you might quite consider Famous Lindt Chocolate Box, Swiss Fondue Pot Filled With Yummy Melted Cheese or Rolex Watches (Top Brand In Switzerland). While these are definitely some top-notch products you can get, there are a lot more you may not realize coming from this particular country. Therefore, Swiss culture is characterized by diversity, which is reflected in a wide range of customs and traditions.
Swiss Business Culture VS China
According to Santander Website , The Swiss business culture is characterized by formality, risk aversion, and strict planning. As the most heavily insured people in the world, the Swiss tend to be extremely cautious and take long-term consequences of their decisions into consideration. Nevertheless, as a nation at the forefront of international trade and industry with one of the most successful economies in the world, the Swiss are also quite open to engaging in business with foreigners. The culture of companies can vary depending on the region, as the French-speaking and Italian-speaking parts of the country have a more laid-back approach. That being said, values such as sobriety, tolerance and punctuality remain essential throughout the country.
Most companies in Switzerland have a rigid and deeply entrenched hierarchy. Most senior managers make the final decision. Subordinates, especially the ones whose area of expertise is relevant to the deal, are given a chance to speak; however, the final decision passes unquestioned once it is reached. Swiss firms with higher international exposure tend to adopt a less hierarchical structure and distribute the level of decision-making lower in the company.
Personal relationships do not play an important role in securing a deal in Switzerland compared to Mediterranean countries. The Swiss tend to be reserved and do not appreciate any conversation about personal matters. Business is regarded with the utmost seriousness and humor is rarely used, even to break the ice.
Swiss popularity in China
In view of what we have reported previously, we can notice that the popularity of Swiss houses is primarily due to the very strong character of the business swiss etiquette.
in an innovative drive, and with the aim of perfecting the customer experience, we have noticed a new trend within swiss ability as Swiss producer start making pink cheese for the Chinese market.
According to the website thelocal.ch, a cheese maker in eastern Switzerland’s Toggenburg region has produced pink cheese for a customer in China. The award-winning Stadlemann cheese factory in the town of Ganterschwil spent seven months developing the unusual-looking cheese known as Pink Queen after a customer in Hong Kong requested an authentic Swiss cheese – but in pink. The Pink Queen is described as a mild cheese created especially with Asian tastes in mind. “The biggest challenge was finding a natural colorant that didn’t alter the maturation process of the cheese,” cheesemaker Jürg Stadelmann told Swiss news site 20 Minuten.
Initial attempts with beetroot and strawberry didn’t work but finally, a solution was found that didn’t affect the taste, Stadelmann explained.
What that solution is, the cheese maker won’t say, out of fear competitors could copy the idea. Stadelmann went on to say there are currently no plans to make cheeses in other colors. “We are just happy that the cheese came out well and met our quality standards,” he said. In an interview with regional radio station FM1, Stadelmann said there had already been interest from restaurants in Switzerland who had told him the cheese looked and tasted great. The cheese maker told FM1 that there had been no reaction yet from the customer in Hong Kong as the cheese was still on its way there.
How Switzerland companies Should Enter properly the Chinese market?
Using Cross border e-commerce platforms
Chinese e-commerce platforms are the easiest way to sell products in China. Developing your Business via Crossborder E-Commerce is a process that should be managed carefully. That means, you should :
- Select the most suitable Chinese e-commerce platforms
In China, we have Tmall, Taobao and JD.com, the giants of e-commerce. They are the biggest platforms and also the bests in terms of quality and safety.
Because these e-commerce platforms are very popular in China, it’s not easy to sell on that platform. Most of them only accept brands that have already a significant presence and realized high sales in China. That’s why most of the cheese brands failed to sell on the giant platforms, Tmall, Taobao or JD.com.
If you are a luxury Swiss brand or a premium brand, you can try to sell on Tmall and JD because the 2 platforms want to keep a high ranking and only offer to their consumers famous brands and quality products. That’s why they are so selective.
Don’t forget, the Wechat store that provides good e-shops. It’s a bit more accessible for beginners of this market.
- This Article replies to all Questions about cross-border ECommerce in China, ALL (logistics, customers etc)
Use Chinese Social Media to Promote Your Business
The most popular and used social networks in China are WeChat and Weibo. Therefore, you can promote your seafood business through these two platforms which can push your business reputation online to a new high level.
WeChat, developed by Tencent has more than 1 billion active users every day. The social media platform is more than just a simple social media app. Tencent developed a lot of other services to adapt content to users’ needs.
It’s also very convenient for brands to communicate with their audience and increase engagement. The platform is known for its communication services in which users can send messages, share images and videos, voice call and video call other users on a closed network. Having an account on WeChat enables you to promote your brand via mobile or tablet.
Weibo is the second-most mass-used social networking site in China, with around 82% penetration rate across the country and more than 650 million active users per day in 2018. Weibo is very popular because it’s the first place where Chinese users can express themselves without suffering from the government’s censorship. For the first time, Chinese people can speak about every subject, and they love it.
This social microblogging network has also attracted more than 130,000 companies. It’s very important for Swiss brands to create their own Weibo Official Account, and get their account verified. If your account is signed as verified, you will have more followers because it’s legitimacy proof for Chinese users who know that the Weibo process to have a verified account is complicated and long but ensure the legitimacy of a brand.
More than 56% of Weibo users follow at least one brand on Weibo. In addition, on Weibo, you don’t need to be connected first to follow a brand.
Be Visible via the SEO Campaign
Due to 75% of the research in China being on Baidu, you need to have a good ranking on Baidu to be visible if you want that consumers easily to find your business and buy cheese from you. To develop your visibility on Baidu, you can use different solutions:
Pay Per Click (PPC) or Search Engine Marketing (SEM): these solutions are very powerful and can be quite effective in the long term.
SEO is better for long-term strategies, and extremely efficient but asks you to collaborate with an SEO agency. SEO is a long-term process, requiring writing articles and content using keywords, in order to increase presence on the web for search engines.
Baidu has its own websites and redirects 27% of its traffic to these sites: Baidu Zhidao (Q&A), Baidu Baike (Wikipedia), and Baidu Tieba (Forum). This means that, in order to promote your website on the Chinese internet, you also have to be active on these affiliating websites of Baidu.
Do you have a Good Reputation?
In China, you have to always manage your reputation online. Chinese consumers check everything about brands before trusting them. It’s important for you to make sure there is nothing against you online. You should work with a digital marketing agency to help you to monitor your image online and erase all bad comments about you and your brand. Chinese people don’t trust brands that they don’t know and also trust recommendations from friends and family members.
Usually, Chinese customers go on the internet to look at online reviews, so they can make decisions about which brands, what products to purchase, or which services to use. According to a recent survey, 57% of consumers will only trust a brand if it has good reviews.
Many brands still think they can just ignore online reviews and are hopeful that reviews will quietly go away. Brands have been burned by customers who left bad reviews online, and it’s tarnished their credibility. As digital marketers, our job is to explain to our clients why they need to seriously protect their reputations.
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