---
title: "The World Has Changed, Why Haven't You? — Changes in 2017 That Could Impact the Consumer Market"
description: "This article discusses various changes in 2017 that could significantly impact the consumer goods market, including the rise of Chinese consumers on the global stage, the formation of a unique market environment in China, the need for Chinese brands to develop their own characteristics, and the rapid increase in labor costs. It emphasizes that companies must adapt to these changes to remain competitive."
author: "老挺"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2017-02-03"
language: "en"
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# The World Has Changed, Why Haven't You? — Changes in 2017 That Could Impact the Consumer Market

> This article discusses various changes in 2017 that could significantly impact the consumer goods market, including the rise of Chinese consumers on the global stage, the formation of a unique market environment in China, the need for Chinese brands to develop their own characteristics, and the rapid increase in labor costs. It emphasizes that companies must adapt to these changes to remain competitive.

**Click to read the original text for details**
This year, many companies like to use the term "black swan" to describe the past 2016: Trump's election, Brexit, etc., simply to tell everyone that 2017 will be full of uncertainties and require extra effort.
In fact, there are changes around us that seem unrelated but may have a significant impact on future consumer goods marketing. The water is already heating up; we can use it to brew tea, or we could become the frog in the warm water.
**Chinese consumers are rapidly stepping onto the world's central stage—both an opportunity and a challenge**
In 2016, regardless of the "chaos" abroad, fearless Chinese people still rushed out of the country to "save the world economy." In the first three quarters of 2016, the number of outbound tourists exceeded 100 million, marking the first time this figure was surpassed in the first three quarters of a year. China has also been the world's largest outbound tourism spender for four consecutive years.
At the same time, people are also "buying, buying, buying" from home: it is estimated that in 2016, the total value of cross-border e-commerce imports will exceed 1 trillion yuan, with retail sales of imported e-commerce reaching nearly 250 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth rate possibly exceeding 80%, far surpassing the growth rate of overall online shopping transactions.
The impact of these two events may go far beyond the economic level; even for the consumer goods industry alone, their importance cannot be underestimated. The Chinese people have never been as close to the world as they are today: it seems that overnight, the entire world market has unfolded before the eyes of the Chinese people. "Foreign goods" have become clearer and gradually less "unattainable."
This process has undoubtedly accelerated the maturation of Chinese consumers. "Shanzhai" brands, once dubbed "grassroots heroes," are now being rejected by the Chinese people. The era when consumer brands could sell just by having a foreign-sounding name is truly over! People are no longer satisfied with "the best domestically," but increasingly evaluate all brands using world-class quality standards. **Many Chinese brands suddenly find themselves competing with brands from all over the world. Foreign brands also realize that this huge consumer market is constantly changing and cannot be viewed with a static perspective.**
**A market environment with Chinese characteristics is taking shape**
The attractiveness of the Chinese market is often reflected by the gap in "per capita consumption." After all, China's population base is enormous; as long as you divide the consumption of most consumer goods by the population base, the "market potential" emerges.
However, the actual situation in the past two years is that the Chinese market is not that simple. For example, China's per capita dairy consumption is only one-third of the world average, so several major dairy giants are growing rapidly.
But the Chinese market is highlighting its unique aspects. Taking the same example of "dairy products," the growth of the infant formula market is quite different from that abroad. Under the national call for "breastfeeding," China's breastfeeding rate for infants under 6 months has successfully dropped below the "world average," far lower than that of Japan, a developed country with the same East Asian ethnicity.
With the development of overseas shopping, the market share of imported formula is rising rapidly. This seems to be a direction different from global trends, but most Chinese mothers still tend to make such choices. After all, Chinese people have a living environment, family structure, and work characteristics that differ from many parts of the world; all of this is both contradictory and reasonable.
Another striking feature of China's consumer market is the use of e-commerce.
According to data released by Alibaba, the total transaction value of the 2016 Tmall Double 11 Global Shopping Festival exceeded 120.7 billion yuan, covering 235 countries and regions; on the day of Double 11 in 2016, logistics once again set a global record, with Cainiao Network generating 657 million logistics orders; in terms of payment, Alipay processed 1.05 billion transactions, a year-on-year increase of 48%.
Reports show that over 80% of Chinese respondents have used electronic payments, a proportion far exceeding that of other countries. In just two years, buying things with a mobile phone is no longer exclusive to young people; it has become an ordinary, everyday activity.
The vast online market has given Chinese brands new opportunities, leading to the emergence of various "Taobao brands." The original market leaders have suddenly woken up and are striving to integrate online and offline channels to gain new advantages. The development of e-commerce has greatly promoted the specialization of distribution channels, and its impact on overall marketing methods is not yet fully realized; it is just beginning.
**Chinese brands urgently need to develop their own characteristics**
Facing challenges from global brands, China's unique market environment provides fertile ground for Chinese brands to make their mark.
In 2016, Huawei was undoubtedly one of the most prominent Chinese brands. In the mobile phone sector, brands like Huawei, OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi successfully captured market share leadership from Apple and Samsung. Among them, Huawei's success has had a more profound impact on consumers.
This company's R&D investment is on par with international giants, and it possesses its own core chip technology (not just talk). It has made efforts in both technology and marketing. Although it's just about phones, Huawei has significantly influenced Chinese consumers' attitudes toward domestic brands.
Beyond its impact on consumers, Huawei also serves as a role model for many domestic consumer goods companies. Many companies have internally proposed the slogan "Learn from Huawei." Concepts like "people-oriented, taking strivers as the foundation" and "let those who hear the gunfire call for artillery"—will these become new characteristics of Chinese corporate management philosophy? However, knowing is easier than doing; management methods that are "paper-oriented" are still everywhere: rigid standards, complex KPIs, lengthy OA processes, and apps that manage every action every day. Often, those who "hear the gunfire" can only listen.
**Rapidly rising labor costs require a new approach to employment**
Speaking of Huawei, its headquarters city, Shenzhen, was also in the spotlight in 2016. But not because of Huawei, but because of its soaring housing prices. The average price of new homes in Shenzhen rose from 45,000 yuan per square meter in January to 61,700 yuan per square meter by June.
Shenzhen has a large concentration of technical talent. When they work hard for years and prepare to settle down, they suddenly find their dreams becoming out of reach! This is just a microcosm of the nationwide housing price surge. Among the top 50 cities with the highest housing prices in China, only 7 saw year-on-year declines, and only 11 had increases lower than GDP growth.
This may seem unrelated to consumer goods marketing, but in fact, rising housing prices have raised everyone's expectations for earning money, labor costs have begun to rise rapidly, and companies' profit demands have also increased. Correspondingly, more and more companies find they "can't afford to keep employees"! Against this backdrop, the characteristics of "elite" and "shared" employment are becoming more prominent.
"Elitism" is not new; many companies are streamlining staff and improving efficiency, but in the past two years, more breakthrough methods are needed.
**First, the previous "human wave tactic" has been abandoned by most companies; staff are reduced wherever possible, including further slimming down of headquarters' functional departments.** Second, the remaining staff need to improve efficiency. Corporate training, as an important method for improving efficiency, also needs effective changes. In the past, companies treated training as a retention benefit or a long-term improvement method; when market conditions were poor, training budgets were significantly cut.
In the context of "elitism," companies should change their training methods and positioning. Some companies are turning corporate universities into departments with real power, focusing training more on practical use, extending the training process into actual work, and using resources to reward or punish changes in employee behavior. This approach is a bold and beneficial attempt.
**Another trend of "elitism" to enhance individual combat capability is providing better operational tools.**
More and more companies are using mobile terminals to manage sales teams. But in my view, many companies are going in the wrong direction. In the era of "elite soldiers," management tools should not remain at the level of "control," but should be more based on "assistance"—helping salespeople complete business operations faster and more efficiently, rather than burdening them with more baggage and tying their hands and feet.
**"Sharing" accompanies "elitism."** The most direct sharing is to delegate more functions to channel partners, such as distributors. This requires strengthening salespeople's ability to manage business through distributors.
"Sharing" itself was a very hot term in 2016, and "shared bikes" were undoubtedly the biggest trend. Mobike, OFO—when you are surrounded by bikes of all colors and your phone screen is filled with shared bike apps, your life has once again undergone profound changes.
We no longer need to carry bikes upstairs, worry about theft, or maintain them. The same principle applies to consumer goods marketing. Many of our resources are wasted repeatedly.
When we talk about community-based marketing directions, there are various people in the community doing marketing work in the business district: telecom selling broadband, milk delivery, bank credit card promotion, tutoring... There must be parts that can be "shared," and some have already started doing this.
**Conclusion: It's time to change**
In 2016, 34 films in the Chinese market had box office revenues exceeding 400 million yuan. These films, lasting only about two hours, generated sales exceeding the annual revenue of countless small and medium-sized enterprises. A teacher at a prestigious middle school earns less than 300,000 yuan a year, while a set of 23-hour course lectures posted online can earn a lecturer 200,000 yuan in course fees in one month.
China's market is beginning to show its own characteristics, and various changes are coming at us. What about you? Aren't you changing yet?
**Source: Weizhi**
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