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The data comes from CIPRA
PR is a young industry in China, burgeoning in the 1980 ’s.
It is a vibrant industry for the young too, the average age of working staff in this industry is around 30.
Since the reform and opening up in the 1970’s, many special economic zones have been set up in coastal cities of China to draw foreign investment.
This brought in many multi-national companies into the Chinese market. They built factories and sold products here, and also established their PR department, which gave birth to an emerging industry.
China’s rapid economic growth in the past 30 years has repositioned itself as the strategic market of many foreign companies and even the largest market in the world.
Excellent local brands gradually appeared, and started to compete with their foreign counterparts in the Chinese market.
In the silent battle of fighting for market share, China’s PR industry has started from scratch and grew from strength to strength, playing an indispensable role in marketing strategies.
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The data comes from CIPRA
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The data comes from CIPRA
Beijing
Shanghai
Chengdu
Guangzhou
PR companies are mainly located in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
Beijing takes up around 70% of the market, because here are the major media of China.
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The data comes from CIPRA
Automobile Industry
The lion’s share of the market are devoted to Automobile, IT, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), Medical care and Finance.
PR service in the automobile industry is the leading performer in China’s PR industry, accounting for 25% of the market share.
China’s automobile industry has been blooming and China is now the largest auto market in the world.
Main services of PR companies
Products promotion
Brand communicati on
Crisis management
Activity management
Digital marketing
Corporate
Social responsibility
Event marketing
New growth point: demand for PR services in government, NGOs and cities has increased.
Capital inflow: With more frequent capital flow and operation integration in this industry, more investment and institutions are coming in, greatly promoting the development of
China’s PR industry.
Integrated service: PR companies will strengthen integration and transformation, spreading from coastal cities to inland cities, from single service to integrated service.
International PR agencies go local; local PR agencies become international
In the past 16 years Blue Focus: •
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• Business evolved from IT sector to automobile, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), DCG (durable consumption goods), medicine, etc.
Services become diversified from providing communication service to activity management, digital marketing, entertainment marketing, now heading for integrated marketing.
Offices expand from the Beijing Headquarter to Shanghai,
Guangzhou, now reaching 23 offices in China.
As the largest and most successful PR agency in China, Blue Focus is an epitome of the development of China’s PR industry.
They have been in Chinese market for long, with a large number of local staff even at the management-level
Most of them have their own PR department and a lot of them cooperate with PR agencies
Some of them conduct cooperation with international PR companies through global procurement; but more and more Fortune 500 companies choose local PR agencies, because local PR agencies are familiar with the market, especially with media relations, which is deemed as an important factor in PR services.
Steady growth in PR Input: thanks to China’s overall economic trend and the growing influence of PR industry, many brands have raised their investment in PR industry to expand their market share and brand influence.
More frequent PR activities in New Geographic markets : because the purchasing power of the second-tier and third-tier cities have been unleashed and major brands are penetrating into these cities.
New comer foreign enterprises in the Chinese market: Most of them are sales companies who only set up offices in China. Their market share in China is waiting to be expanded and most of their brands are promoted by distributors or agents, without the setup of PR department.
These companies are not yet well-known in China. They don’t have a clear long-term promotion strategy. They mainly need services such as activity management, exhibition promotion and crisis management.
Foreign enterprises that seek to enter the Chinese market. They are interested in this market yet totally strange to it. PR services they may need are strategy consulting and market research.
Successful local brands which are competing in the global arena:
There are two types of Chinese companies in overseas market, first, the independent brands such as
Lenovo, Haier and Huawei; second, monopolistic stated-owned enterprises such as CNPC, Bank of
China and BAOSTEEL.
These brands have been navigating the international market for many years and have stable international market share. They have their fixed PR agencies in the local market or rely on their PR department in the foreign market.
Although most local brands focus their business on the domestic market, they have never stopped exploring new geographic markets.
In recent years, Automotive, fashion consumer goods (costume, watch and jewelry), airlines are entering the international market. Their demand for PR services in the local market have risen.
Chinese brands are showing the world that they know more about consumption experience and care about quality , design and innovation.
Johnson, Mayor of London, are traveling in China in the TX4 car co-manufactured by China’s Geely
Motor and the British Manganese Bronze, promoting London Olympics.
Shiatzy Chen
A Taiwanese brand which has entered the European market. It holds fashion shows in Paris every year, grabbing the attention of top fashion media.
The fusion of inspirational elements from
French and Chinese culture captures the ethos of Qeelin, China ’s first luxury jewelry brand. The brand was founded by Dennis
Chan and Guillaume Brochard who share the mutual dream of combining the rich aesthetic heritage of China with the
French mastery of luxury craftsmanship to create stylish, contemporary jewelry.
Launched in Paris, 2004, Qeelin swiftly became an international brand. All Qeelin collections are exclusively made of precious metals and stones, such as gold, platinum, diamond, sapphire, ruby and naturally, the Chinese national stone, jade
SHANG XIA
Founded in 2008, SHANG XIA is a brand for art of living that promises a unique encounter with the heritage of Chinese design and craftsmanship.
Together with the celebrated Hermes Group, renowned Chinese designer Jiang Qiong Er established
SHANG XIA with a mission to create a 21 st century lifestyle founded on the finest of Chinese design.
There is an increasing demand of Government to enhance city awareness in international market.
Issue marketing is a widely used way, which usually initiated by the government and put forward by domestic PR agencies together with agency in local market
Take London Olympic for example, many provincial capital cities have been promoting their images in London in the hope of attracting more tourists.
This year marks the 40 th anniversary of
Sino-Germany diplomatic relations. As the first Special Economic Zone in China,
Shenzhen is holding exhibition in the
Chinese Culture Center in Bolin to uplift its international profile.
New companies that are entering the Chinese market
Blue Focus is a comprehensive PR company, with many partners in various sectors in the
Chinese market. We can help companies who want to expand business in China break industry barriers, through conducting various marketing strategies.
If your clients or partners want to promote your brand in China or seek to understand the
Chinese market, we are definitely your best choice!
Chinese companies that have PR demand in the international market
As more Chinese brands are going global, their images in the international market are to be enhanced. We regard this as a huge opportunity.
At present, Blue Focus has hundreds of clients. In case they seek to promote their brands in the foreign market, we would recommend the IPRN members to them.
The following sectors enjoy the fastest growth in recent years:
A lot of clients show great interest in issue management to raise brand awareness in overseas market as well as Chinese market
Campaign like international sports event, international culture /art/music activities will be widely welcomed as a good way to promote their brands
Blue Focus is the leading agency in digital marketing of China. Though
Facebook and Twitter are blocked in China, we successfully put forward domestic SNS, such as Renren and Weibo. With extensive experience in social media, we can provide digital marketing plans that are well adaptable to the Chinese market for our international clients.
CSR is becoming more and more important in China recent years and some clients are seeking for new projects, so qualified international CSR campaign will be a good choice for them. And if you want to do CSR project in China, BlueFocus will be ready to support you too, since we have wide cooperation with NGOs in China and we have rich experience in planning CSR campaign for clients in different field.
Exchange mechanism and business growth points are base on effective communication.
Thus we have the following suggestions regarding how to enhance communication among the IPRN members:
Promoting IPRN to outside world: to raise awareness and influence of IPRN worldwide, like promoting our website or in twitter/linkedin; So that more and more clients may turn to IPRN for help if they have PR demand in certain market and IPRN members may also exchange information from these Social media platform
Promoting internal communication among IPRN members :
Newsletter will be a good way