China is a Market of Enormous Opportunity and Complexity
China is a global hub for manufacturing, and is the largest manufacturing economy in the world as well as the largest exporter of goods in the world. It is also the world's fastest growing consumer market and second largest importer of goods. Since its accession into the WTO in 2001, China‘s share in global trade has doubled – accounting for 10.38 percent of the world’s merchandise trade exports and 9.43 percent of merchandise trade imports.
JS&A serves as a bridge to senior managers and executives at Fortune 500 Companies, as well as small and medium size enterprises looking to gain insight and a business edge in China. We enable our clients to achieve their commercial goals through tailored government, business, and media relations strategies; in-depth research reports on fast changing consumer goods industries; and, company-specific market research to empower organizations with the intelligence to act quickly, efficiently and decisively in China's marketplace.
Engine of Global Growth
China is a country that is constantly changing and its markets are evolving more rapidly than almost anywhere on earth.
Since 1949, the Chinese government has been responsible for planning and managing the national economy. But it was only in 1978 – when Deng Xiaoping introduced capitalist market principles –that the Chinese economy began to show massive growth, averaging 10 percent GDP growth over the last 30 years. During that period the size of the Chinese economy has also grown by roughly 50 times, from $168.367 billion (current prices, US dollars) in 1981 to $9.240 trillion in 2013.
China GDP as a Percentage of World Total
Source: IMF
China is destined to remain an engine of global growth, and the challenge of its market entry has become an increasingly important one for U.S. and western companies of all shapes and sizes.
As China's economy continues to grow and become more open to foreign companies, the rewards increasingly outweigh the challenges of doing business in this enormous marketplace. While the old adage "In China everything is possible, but nothing is easy" still rings true for many foreign companies when doing business in China, the extent of this difficulty seems to decline further with every passing year.
The China Market
China consists of about 25 distinct city/market groups, characterized by unique climates, levels of wealth and development, food preferences, laws, languages, traditions and spending motivators and habits.
With a population that exceeds 1.3 billion people and a land mass larger than the United States, the nature and make-up of markets in different parts of China varies considerably. There is no one-size-fits-all approach by which foreign companies should approach the China market. U.S. companies should think carefully about which geographical location offers the best vantage point to target the broader China market. Each company's China strategy is likely to be informed by any number of different factors – from industry sector, product type, company size and culture, through to long-term business aims and global corporate vision.
Long-term Benefits Combined with Real Growth
JS&A helps clients achieve global competitive advantage. We have deep experience helping clients achieve and accelerate growth in their core business and beyond in markets around the world. We combine in-depth customer insights with market expertise to help our clients create sustainable and organic growth.