China Market Research Service

China is very different. Before launching a campaign, it's worth taking two weeks to better understand the market.

Our recommendations will save you time and money.

We can help you find the answers to questions like:

• Which marketing channels should you use?
• How will Chinese consumers respond to your product?
• Is there anything about your website that will cause people to not buy from you?
• What is it about your company that will make consumers want to buy from you instead of a competitor?

Why Invest in Market Research?

You could, of course, skip this step. We know you already have a good understanding of your home market, and maybe other markets as well. You could choose to jump right into a Chinese advertising campaign next week.

It's common for us to receive inquiries from Western companies that want to start doing in China whatever is working for them outside of China. However, we find that only 30% of them are ready to do so.

There's a whole industry of marketing agencies that will follow your lead, give you a free proposal, take your money and get you up and running as soon as possible.

Here are a few reasons that we don't do that, and think you shouldn't either.

• China is not just 'another country'. It is also not just that Google, Facebook and YouTube are blocked in China. It is so different in so many ways. Even if you are extremely successful in Japan, it's impossible to do the same thing in China and expect results.
• In China, many agencies receive more of their revenue from ad channels than they do from clients.And the amount that each channel pays varies greatly. Guess what those agencies will try to sell you.

Reports That You'll Use

You'll receive reports that are written in plain English. We'll share the templates with you ahead of time so you know just what to expect. We include the details and also sum it up in a concise marketing plan. Everybody from your company will be able to understand it, even your boss. (As long as they speak English, that is.)

Years ago, we wrote marketing plans based on what we learned in business school. They looked fancy and included many impressive words. But we found that nobody really used them. Over the years, we sculpted down our templates to include only the parts that people actually used.

1. Customers: Who are your customers and what do they want? We group your customers into types, include quotes straight from them.
2. Competitors: Who are your competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
3. Your position: How should you position your company in relation to the competition? What should you say?
4. Your promotions: How can you help people find you? Where should you post content or distribute ads?

For your marketing team, we supplement with Excel files that contain additional data, for example:

1. Estimated impressions, clicks, budgets for various marketing channels.
2. Competitor details, to assess their strengths in different areas of promotion.
3. Customer survey details.

The Right Balance for Action/Planning

Our research packages are relatively lightweight. We don't try to predict the future. We can't tell you just what your sales will be 6 months from now.

In fact, we want to get you into 'action mode' soon. Our roots are in iterative digital marketing, which means we prefer to try out new ideas in the real world, gather feedback then repeat.

The goal of research is to help you avoid making mistakes that will kill your progress.

The general turn-around time is only about two to four weeks.

Is The Nanjing Marketing Group Research Service For You?

Better question is, who is it not for?

1. It's for small and medium enterprises that want to move quickly. It's not for large corporations that want to gather massive amounts of information for a possible campaign next year.
2. It's for businesses that are nimble. It's not for you if you have little control over the China marketing campaign as a whole. For example, if you will only be responsible for Weibo marketing, you might not be able to use all of the insights we provide. We'll be looking at the big picture.
3. It's not for businesses that want fancy-pants service. We work mostly online, and we're glad to treat you to hot pot if you come to Nanjing. But, we do not charge the kind of fees that merrit sending a handsome man to your office and give a beautifully-crafted oral presentation including words like "synchronization".

Our service is only for nimble SMEs that want to start promoting themselves in China soon and grow quickly.