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Survey: Quality service a priority for customers

By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-05 07:52

Source: AlixPartners. Graphics by Li Yi

What is the key element that leads Chinese consumers to buy a product: service, experience, access, price, or the product itself?

A recent survey of Chinese consumers shows that service matters almost as much as the product to Chinese consumers, with price ranking much lower, despite tougher economic times.

The survey was conducted by global business advisory firm AlixPartners. Since 1999, the firm has carried out consumer brands surveys in the US and compiled a huge database on consumer performance.

In the inaugural AlixPartners China Brand Power IndexSM, nearly 5,000 consumers were asked more than 60 questions across eight consumer-goods sectors in five cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Shenyang.

The survey covered alcoholic beverages, casual clothing, consumer durables, cosmetics, home products, home technology, non-alcoholic beverages and personal hygiene.

Regarding consumers' relative preferences for the five "timeless attributes" of marketing: product, price, service, (store and in-store) access and (shopping) experience, product is viewed the most important factor, with service a close second, and in three sectors - namely home products, consumer durables and home technology - service ranks top over product.

In three of those sectors, domestic brands are found to be the "most trusted": Tsingtao in alcoholic beverages, Hearttex in home products and Master Kong in non-alcoholic beverages.

In the consumer durables and home technology sectors, Chinese brand Haier ranks significantly higher than many overseas brands in terms of service.

The remaining brands seen as most powerful in the survey were Olay (cosmetics), Nike (casual clothing), Safeguard (personal hygiene) and Sony (home technology) - all foreign brands.

According to the survey, price is ranked last in all eight sectors, which may challenge the Chinese traditional mindset that a low price is the most important factor - despite the recent slowdown in China's growth.

The study shows that as income has generally increased in China in recent years, many consumers now have the ability to purchase a wider range of products. This differs markedly with a similar survey conducted by AlixPartners in the US this year showing that price now ranks well above service for American consumers.

Fred Crawford, CEO of AlixPartners and a leading expert on consumer behavior, said the days are gone when a foreign brand sells well only because it is perceived as better quality.

"The results of our survey confirm that you cannot simply transfer a Western model to China and expect it to work. It has long been assumed by many foreign brands that their product will sell, despite a lack of aggressive marketing," he said.

Crawford pointed out that Chinese consumers today want manufacturers to give them honest and consistent service and persuasive information on why to buy particular brands, and domestic companies are increasingly delivering just that, gaining much higher trust from consumers.

"Clearly, their foreign counterparts need to react quickly if they ever hope to achieve their desired returns in this market," he added.

The study also offers a piece of valuable advice for foreign companies: pump more money into TV commercials.

For Chinese consumers, television is by far the most respected source of information after word-of-mouth, and ranked far higher than in the recent AlixPartners survey conducted in the US.

It is important for foreign companies doing business in China to take note of this market characteristic, according to AlixPartners.

Concerning how to translate investment into profitability, Ivo Naumann, a managing director of AlixPartners, warned against making any mistakes.

"The current global financial climate has caused US and European companies to look long and hard at their international operations, including those in China. For the past few years, the focus in China has been growth, not necessarily profitability. However, we are now increasingly advising clients on the structure, cost efficiency and ultimate goals of their China operations and how companies need to adapt to succeed," he noted.

Profitability in China has become such a severe issue that Naumann expected to see some foreign companies reconsidering their investments here.

"On the other hand, China remains a market of incredible opportunity for foreign companies of all kinds. And those that have trust in their ability to satisfy the increasing demands of Chinese consumers are likely to even increase their investment in this market. However, turning investments into profits is going to take a renewed push on operational excellence at all levels," he concluded.