China's Super Consumers: What 1 Billion Customers Want and How to Sell it to Them

Chapter 13The China Global Demographic

As Chinese consumers have become not just more sophisticated, but in many cases super sophisticated and after 20 years of buying virtually everything available inside the China market, a new demographic has emerged—a demographic that has helped define and expand the reach and impact of the world's second coming of the super consumer: We call it the China Global Demographic Market (CGDM).

More and more Chinese have started to travel the world for business, pleasure, and study (much as their American predecessors did). In fact, some 200,000 Chinese students per year are enrolled at American universities and another 100,000 per year are studying in Europe. China's going-global phenomenon has exploded. These students have changed the fortunes of many universities by paying full tuition and adding a richness and diversity to the student body, and many colleges and universities have set up recruiting offices in China to attract these students.

They are from Shanghai and Beijing, from Chengdu and Chongqing, from Taishan and Taiwan. They are from every city and market cluster. They are influenced by what they see, hear, taste, and experience abroad. They are the consumers who took Club Med in Maldives from a 5 percent Chinese customer base to 80 percent in the last five years. Chinese super consumers are a new global demographic. Twenty-five percent of all luxury purchases globally are made by Chinese consumers, and 60 percent of those transactions ...