FT.com / In depth - Chinese consumers prefer own products
Rated • 1 review • business, public preference • ft.com
A Chinese consumer-led boycott of foreign products? And this is to protect home-based proiducts and jobs?
Why can't we be so smart here?
From the page:
"Most Chinese consumers say they trust domestic brands more than foreign ones, according to a McKinsey survey that amounts to a stark warning for multinational companies about nationalist sentiment in China's booming market.
In spite of the furore this year in the US and Europe about the safety of China-made goods, the survey also shows that Chinese consumers are increasingly confident about the quality of products made in their country.
Andrew Grant, head of McKinsey's China practice, said the results indicated that multinationals that sought to make a virtue of the fact that their products come from a specific foreign country could struggle in the Chinese market.
"That model might have worked 10 years ago when companies were aiming at wealthy consumers in Shanghai," he said. "But now that there is a broader affluent class, that strategy is much less effective."
