Marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok discusses the origins of the Chinese Spring festival and how it translates into modern times, on her vlog. On red envelopes, the dragon, and much more.
Ashley Dudarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
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Spring festival is the time when China’s consumers spend more than any other period during the year. How will their spending behavior in 2021 look like, after the Covid-19 disruptions of 2020. Marketing expert Ashley Dudarenok looks ahead for Technode.
Ashley Dudarenok:
While this Spring Festival may not look much like the pre-Covid glory days, the holidays this year will at least be more optimistic as China has accumulated a year of experience fighting against the pandemic. The Ministry of Transport predicted there would be about 1.7 billion trips made nationwide, which was 40% lower than in 2019 but still 10% higher than last year.
Domestic tourism will look different this year: Consumers are also showing different travelling patterns compared to previous years. As of Jan. 25, the average cost (in Chinese) of plane tickets on local online travel agency Qunar during the Spring Festival was RMB 651.36, about RMB 200 cheaper than in 2019. Ticket prices for traditionally popular routes are even lower. Usually sold out, holiday plane tickets from Beijing to Sanya, Hainan, are as low as RMB 610 on some platforms. While the demand for plane tickets has cooled off, staycations at local B&Bs and hotels are picking up. Hotel bookings for New Year’s eve grew 30%. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, and Chongqing were among the top cities with the most hotel bookings.
Spending intent is still high: Consumer sentiment is also looking promising. While some may choose not to return home this year, they are still purchasing products on e-commerce channels both for personal use and as gifts. Experts predict that the food and beverage category will soar in Q1 2021. Data from the first day of Tmall’s pre-Spring Festival sales campaign shows that edible items such as dried fruits, confectioneries, and Chinese pastries are still the best-selling items, although sales of single person instant meals (in Chinese) grew 15-fold to become the category with the most growth on the platform. Ada Yang, Head of Social Community at Pinduoduo, told ChoZan that she sees great potential for the sales performance of quality agricultural products, local brands, and imported products during the holiday season as Chinese citizens visit and present gifts to each other during the Chinese New Year holidays.
Like 2020, live streaming remains key to pre-Spring Festival promotions: Douyin ran pre-Spring Festival promotions from Jan 4. to Jan. 20. Celebrities, influencers, and brand livestreams, as well as billions of RMB in free traffic and platform subsidies, supported the promotions. Chinese entrepreneur and live-streamer Luo Yonghao has already started six Spring Festival live streams since the beginning of the campaign. Luo’s livestreaming on Jan. 10 achieved over RMB 200 million in GMV and over 347,000 orders. Douyin is also actively catering to young consumers this year by selecting trendy products from categories such as the apparel, shoes, bags, beauty, and home products. The platform is also launching Spring Festival themed gift sets by collaborating with brands such as Haidilao and the Summer Palace.
Spring Festival 2021 is poised to continue China’s economic resurgence and recovery. China marketing experts expect robust growth in consumer confidence leading into Q1 2021. More details, including Chinese consumers’ growing preferences for local tastes, Chinese culture, domestic brands, and health-conscious options, are described in our full report, over 600 pages, available for download on our website.
Ashley Dudarenok is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
Are you looking for more consumer experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.
China’s authorities are trying to avoid 300 million migrant workers to go home for Chinese New Year, in an effort to avoid another embarrassing corona lockdown like in 2020, says leading economist Arthur Kroeber in the New York Times.
The New York Times:
The Chinese government is trying to avoid a major outbreak that could undermine the country’s economic recovery. Last year’s lockdowns tipped China’s economy into its first contraction in nearly a half-century, but it later bounced back as officials ordered its state-run banks to lend and factories to open. Earlier this month, China reported that its economy grew 2.3 percent in 2020, most likely outpacing other large countries, including the United States.
Getting people to spend money has been less effective. Another widespread outbreak would cast a pall on any pent-up demand for shopping that usually accompanies the Lunar New Year holiday.
“What would be really damaging is if the virus spread enough to have to shut down more factories and construction sites,” said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Gavekal Dragonomics, an independent economic research firm.
Mr. Kroeber said the authorities did not seem eager for a repeat of last year’s draconian response.
“They are trying to walk a tightrope,” Mr. Kroeber said. To impose harsh rules on gatherings for a second year “would be embarrassing,” he added.
Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.
Are you looking for more strategy experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.
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| Ashley Dudarenok |
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| Kaiser Kuo |
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| Zhang Lijia |
Happiness glistened on our front door. Printed in gold on red shiny paper, the large character ‘fu’, meaning happiness or good fortune, shows a person knelt before an altar, prying for happiness. The character was stuck upside down, fu dao, in word-playing tradition to ensure that fu would arrive – dao – at our home. Behind the door, our whole family, dressed in our best outfits, gathered for the annual reunion dinner. Mine was a new cover, made of floral patterned cotton, for my padded Chinese jacket, and a pair of leather shoes instead of padded cotton slippers.
In keeping with tradition, Nai first brought in a fish cooked in soy sauce and announced: “We have fish every year,” then put it aside for later consumption. In Chinese, yu, or fish, sounds like the character for surplus or abundance. In such wordplay lie hopes for a prosperous year ahead.
At Ma’s insistence, Nai sat opposite the door, in the seat reserved for the most honourable person. Ordinarily she didn’t even sit at the table but ate her tiny portion in the kitchen, like a servant. Ma then stood up, raising a little porcelain cup with teardrops engraved around the edge. “A lot has happened this year. I retired, Little Li took over my job and I am trying to get another one.”
“Yes, go for the Confucius Temple job,” cut in my father who had rushed back for the festival. “Deng Xiaoping said, ‘whether white or black, a cat is a good cat so long as it catches the rat.’ I say a job is a good job so long as it pays.” Pleased with his remarks, he voiced them loud enough for the whole building to hear.
Ignoring her husband, Ma continued her speech. “‘Sesame stalks put forth flowers notch by notch’. I wish our lives will get better and better. Cheers!”
Our cups and glasses clinked in the air. I drank tea since I was allergic to alcohol while everyone else downed a type of white liquor, the firewater that soon turned their faces red. Even my brother Xiaoshi was helping himself. He was tall for his age, but painfully skinny, as if forgetting to grow horizontally. Some of his naughty friends were already whistling for him outside our window. It was Nai who made him sit down and eat.
“Eat, eat, I have loads more,” Nai urged, with an ear-to-ear smile that revealed her deep dimples.
With plenty of materials to work with, Nai and Ma had cooked the best New Year banquet for years: chicken soup; sweet and sour fish shaped like a squirrel; a ‘lucky reunion’ stew in a clay pot; stir-fired green vegetables; and Nai’s specialty, the ‘lion’s head’ – a dish of minced meatballs. Food is always the thread that binds Chinese families close together. As our appetites rose with the steam, our chopsticks seized their targets with speed and precision. Spring Festival was the only time we could enjoy food without limit.More at Zhang Lijia's website.
