When the aim is to realise sales, you'll need reliable buyers, agents, importers, etc. At the same time you need to know how to reach your specific target group with a product for which a certain demand is already present. You'll need to know as well whether your product in that particular form will be successful or not.
Performing market research in China is most troublesome. Modern techniques are only useful in a reasonably transparent market with easy access to relevant information. The problems with gathering independent and reliable information, the searching and finding of potential partners and implementing an adequate partner screening, still remain considerable in spite of assistance from the Chinese government, Chinese intermediaries and the diplomatic services, with databases, etc.
To a certain extent you are always dependent on the Chinese business partners you make use of in order to create a certain market. Next, you have to deal with the fact that Chinese companies are too much product oriented. They are too much focused on the production process, while study into the market potential is far from sufficient. The marketing discipline did not reach the same particular importance yet as it did in most of the western economies and emerging markets. With a Chinese Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) one nearly always has to start from scratch and it takes many years before one has managed to create a certain market.
The searching and finding of suppliers and buyers is very time-consuming and it means having to take a lot of effort in order to build up some useful business contacts. If one is determined to have success on the Chinese market, then still much attention has to be paid to the building up of a personal relationship with the partners involved.
Yujie Services comes each month with a premise that focuses upon a certain aspect of the Chinese business culture where things may go wrong.
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