Our home appliances sell great here, why not in China?

Challenge

The client is a leading corporation, which has developed a premium brand of white goods for Japan. Despite their hard-earned success, they were having difficulty capturing a share of the higher-end of the Chinese market. They asked us to provide them with a deeper understanding of why their brand was not resonating with their target Chinese consumers, and how they could improve the situation without resorting to a complete change in strategy.

With an understanding that our client could not just stop and change direction, we looked at what could be changed or adjusted in their current model. We began with a study of how Chinese consumers perceive and evaluate design before, during and after a purchase.

Process

We set out on a mission to observe, learn and reveal areas of strengths and weakness that could help our client better connect this brand to its customers.

Our approach began by conducting quantitative research in homes and retail locations across many cities, focusing mainly on a higher income demographic. In addition to focusing on current users of the brand, we needed to observe users of competing products, and see how competitors were utilizing design styling, functionality and brand equity to gain customers.

By diving deeply into how people’s lives are affected by white goods, we could make recommendations on design imperatives, including better usability and clearer communication of highly-prized features. We provided actionable and fact-based guidance on how their brand could better connect with its current and future consumers, without changing existing strategies.

Outcomes

The client is now empowered with a better understanding of it users and target segments. They also have clarity with regards to how their design strategy can help bridge the gap between themselves and their customers.

This is the power of local knowledge.