2022 Dec.
An international artist’s cosmetic brand which is famous for playing bold and always trying to push the boundary in its communication is going to enter the Indian market in the coming year. Their global strategy has been aligned in all the developed markets, which proved very successful. So they set up an ambitious plan to roll out the similar strategy to attract the affluent Indian women with the similar progressive mentality in the market.
The global strategy especially the winning ones which were applauded in most parts of the world and disrupted the status quo is liable to fall into the pitfalls when it is transferred and adopted in the market which the consumers’ mindset is different from where the global strategy was born, usually in western world.
When Dove’s “Real Beauty” was rolled out in China years ago starting in 2002, it was destined to flop. The huge poster with a foreign old lady with wrinkles all over her face in Liu Jiazui metro station in Shanghai did not attract the admiration but secretly appalled most Chinese passing by. Even in Shanghai, the most westernized city in China where the largest population of single and professional women with the progressive mindsets commute in metro everyday. Maybe they admired her courage and fearlessness to be true to the age, BUT they secretly wished that they did not look like her. Even Dove China claimed that this campaign had caught the eyeballs and created the buzz on the social media. But how much effective this drove the sales or market share. It was unknown. That was around 2007.
Today is 2022, turning to 2023. The buzz around “Real Beauty” which was initiated by Dove local team here is coming to cease. On the contrary, in 2022, a 40 year old Chinese woman, the Taiwanese singer, Cyndi Wang reaped the unexpected huge success and fame by performing on the stage as a sweet girl in 20s. This is face reflecting what beauty Chinese audience both male and female truly identify with. See the snapshot I found online as below.
The ageless beauty, for Chinese women is eternal beauty, meaning you can beat the age and be as the same sweetheart as you were in 20s when you are actually 40. Cindy Wang’s appearance and her move are the solid proof that is achievable. So do the rest Chinese women, at least they believe so.
No wonder why all the self – claimed winning global strategy is going nowhere when it encounters challenges brought by the deeply grass-rooted mentality, with the existence over thousands of years.
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