7 Reasons Chinese Matters.

Written by Tim Kaney of The Geo Group Corporation
Data Sources: Ethnologue (16th edition), http://www.wikipedia.org, http://smallbiztrends.com.

Should you market to Chinese speaking audiences? Here are 7 good reasons why you should:

Sheer Volume of Consumers
Okay, obviously, not every Chinese speaking person will want to buy your product or service, but with over 1,000,000,000 speakers, the Chinese-speaking consumer market is not something to ignore. With its rapidly growing economy and global influence, more and more consumers that speak Chinese want to buy products in their own language. Simply put, there is a greater chance of making a higher profit because of the larger number of possible consumers in Chinese-speaking regions in the world.
Return on Investment
Those of you that do source translations for your marketing material already know that Chinese can be more expensive than, say, Spanish. Additionally, there is most likely a belief that because it is the second most widely spoken language in the United States, Spanish would have the highest return on the investment in translating your material. However, if you consider the number of speakers in both categories, you may realize there is a higher-chance for a good ROI with translating your material into Chinese, especially when marketing globally.
More Consumer Engagement
Think of the modern marketing world and the specialized role that social-media avenues play influencing consumer choices. Now think about the power that a large volume of consumers, speaking the same language and sharing a similar culture, has in that world. If you are providing ways in which your consumers can engage with you for all English speaking regions, consider that that total population is about half of the Chinese speaking variety. Food for thought.
Association with Perceived Prestige
When you see a company’s billboard outside, and maybe one of their ads online, do you notice if they are bilingual? Most likely if they are, Spanish is the other language and it doesn’t give you much thought. We all know in the Western World, Spanish is one of the second most spoken languages and it is not surprising, if not natural, to have a larger company creating bilingual advertisement. Clearly they have the marketing resources to do so. When a company puts out those same ads in English and Chinese, it conveys a strong sense of being a successful, highly-sought after, multinational organization, with a nice amount of capital to use. That is not to say that marketing to Spanish speaking consumers is a sign of an unsuccessful company. There just seems to be a perception among western consumers that if a company does business in China and its Chinese-speaking compatriot countries, it is somehow more prestigious.
Access to a Deeply Historical Culture
As marketers, it is always a great idea to pull from your target audience’s culture. In the west, there are myriad cultural, historical, and political sources and paradigms to draw from. Advertisements and marketing campaigns can draw from hundreds of years of cultural development as frameworks for selling a product or service. With the Chinese culture being thousands of years old, a marketer would likely salivate over the pantheon of cultural references to use in advertising campaigns.
Made In USA
Because of the rise in what is considered the Chinese Middle Class, there is an ever increasing demand for personal care products, consumer goods, and gadgets that are made in the United States. These relatively new consumer groups place a premium on “Made In The USA” labeled products and will back that up with paying a premium for them. Here in the West, that label is no guarantee that you can sell an item for a premium price profitably.
Maintain Your Competitiveness
While the rise of the Chinese market may not be common knowledge to some, it is no secret either. There is a very good chance that at least one of your top competitors is looking into or already doing business in China. In this age of the global economy, not taking the opportunity to gain a chunk of the big Chinese market-pie is foolish. In order to remain competitive on a global scale, you need to look into entering the Chinese market, and then how to do business there. Chances are, you are going to need an expert to help you translate your material. Keep us in mind!