Reviewed by Dale Fehringer Former Vice President, Market Intelligence VISA International

It’s hard to open a newspaper or magazine today without seeing an article about China. We have been inundated by information about China’s size and growth and the country’s efforts to compete globally, and we are aware China is quickly educating its youth to become world-class manufacturers, IT professionals and engineers.

What we don’t know well is how China’s young people behave, and why. Now there’s a book that offers insights into China’s Generation Y. The study is based on extensive travel and market research in China by author Michael Stanat. The book is China’s Generation Y: Understanding the Future Leaders of the World’s Next Superpower (Homa & Sekey Books, 222 pages, $17.95).

China’s Gen Y: Smart and Receptive

China’s Generation Y includes a huge generation of people (around 200 million by some estimates) who were born between 1980 and 1989, just as China was opening to the West. Today, many of them are educated, receptive to brands and tech-savvy.

These Chinese youth, who are now becoming adult consumers, were raised under China’s “One Child” laws, which produced a generation without siblings. As a result, many of them have been overprotected and spoiled. Sometimes referred to as “Little Emperors,” they are used to more material things than their parents, and an easier life.

China’s urban teens have grown up with television and computers and are influenced by what they see on TV and the Internet. They like foreign goods, which they view as superior to those made in China, and they are receptive to brands and advertising.

They have complex relationships with their parents. They are highly dependent on their parents and are expected to care for them in their old age, but different values have caused a generation gap.

Education is crucial to China’s Generation Y, whose focus is on learning and succeeding. For many of them, career success entails earning large sums of money in white-collar occupations.

Many of China’s young people are used to having and spending money. Between what they will make and what their parents will give them, they will have enough funds to be a major force in the Chinese (and global) economy.

Tips for U.S. Companies Author Michael Stanat offers these suggestions for understanding and marketing to China’s
Generation Y:

       • Appeal to their pride
         China’s young adults are proud of the changes their country has
         gone through, and they will respond favorably to praise of their
         optimism and self-dignity.

       • Create the “right” brand image
         Teens in China have been exposed to brands through television
         and the Internet, and they value the social status that the “right”
         brands can bring.

       • Emphasize quality

         This generation does not want to invest in shoddy domestic
         goods, and they assume that more expensive Western goods
         are of higher quality.

       • Stay tuned to trends

         Many Chinese youth believe that acquiring trendy products gives
         one respect and allows one to expand one’s “guanxi,” or
         relationship network.

       • Sell to their parents, too

         Young adults in China are generally closer to their parents than
         their American counterparts, and are more influenced by them.

       • Tailor to different markets
         As in the U.S., tastes in China vary from market to market. These
         differences sometimes require different marketing strategies in
         different parts of the country.

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