#5 The Value of Targeting Overseas Chinese with Vera Wang

Welcome back to the only podcast to ask: China, WTF?! What’s The Future? 

Arnold Ma, founder of Chinese creative agency Qumin https://qumin.co.uk/, gets to the bottom of what tomorrow may look like, globally, by dissecting China's today. The podcast focuses on Chinese tech disrupters, people and cultures.

In this episode, we shine a light on the millions of Chinese people living overseas and highlight their value to Western brands. We invited Vera Wang to share her own experience of living abroad and working with Western brands.

With a million followers across social media, Vera Wang aka WG Empire is a famous Chinese Influencer living in NYC. Aside from being nominated the first Chinese blogger in the US, she created her own public relations company ‘WG Empire’ and recently launched ‘Verified’, a brand that showcases Chinese designers to the world. Her goal is in line with Qumin’s: Connect China and the West. 

Topics include:

00:36 Vera’s move from China to New York and her journey as the first Chinese blogger in America

02:28 Being a Chinese blogger in 2012 (Qumin was founded at the same time) 

04:10 Bloggers are ‘free’ brand consultants

06:15 Chinese people in China value the authentic stories provided by Chinese bloggers abroad 

10:00 How brands can ‘dip their toes first’ before they go into China

11:33 Three key myths about (overseas) Chinese consumers: they care about lanterns, dragons and red envelopes, they don’t use Instagram or YouTube, they only notice marketing that’s in Chinese 

15:50 The need for different marketing strategies for Chinese people in and overseas Chinese 

17:07 Why on the ground teams are essential when marketing to Chinese people in China 

23:55 The creative industry in the West vs technology innovation and service design in China 

26:48 Brands can be more experimental with overseas Chinese, as they are more open to different beauty standards

27:26 Although Chinese people are still very traditional culturally, China isn’t behind – it’s just different, and changing rapidly 

28:13 Brands should tap into existing cultural tensions 

29:57 More people are going back home to China and becoming advocates 

31:27 Being Chinese is a USP for Chinese bloggers overseas

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You can also watch the show on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSCZyPj532E&feature=youtu.be