Beauty Device: How To Formulates Data-Driven Market Entry Strategy for China Market
Updated: Oct 22, 2021
If you need to enter an unfamiliar market, is there a way to quickly understand and help you develop a market entry strategy that actually works? In the following article, I'm going to use a case study of a new beauty device entering China to explain how to deploy low-cost desk research that can give you insights and help you make key strategic decisions in data-driven approach.
I have been in mainland China for more than 10 years and witnessed many miracles of Chinese business success. Today, China is still one of the most interesting markets, with plenty of opportunities for both local and foreign companies and I often meet people who are interested in developing a new business in China.
There are two types of people.
One is factory owners who have encountered growth bottleneck in their traditional OEM manufacturing industry. Similarly, some advertising or event agencies are under pressure in the unstable client market. Both of them, currently in the 2B businesses, are considering entering 2C consumer market by creating their own brands and products.
I also met some foreign friends whose products are selling well in their countries. They are very excited about China and want to expand their business to China.
They actually share a common goal, which is how to sell products to an unfamiliar consumer market in China.
I found that some business plans or marketing plans have shown a lot of data in the market analysis which are actually not relevant to their suggested solutions. Even worse, some proposals are just opinions without any supporting evidence at all.
Opinions are very subjective, and sometimes dangerous which may lead you to a wrong direction.
To help them make the right decisions, I realize that they need not only experience sharing and opinions, but also objective analysis with real consumer data, so that they can have a more comprehensive understanding of the market and consumers. Without this, it is impossible to come up with practical proposals that actually work.
So how can we get right information that helps?
Market research is essential to understand a market, and provide information to help you make better decisions. However, in most cases, those new projects or small overseas companies can’t afford the luxury to spend millions of dollars for traditional research.
Thanks to the era of big data, we can find publicly available reports and data-ming tools that aren't too expensive to use to help get reliable data.
I have developed a data-driven approach from consumer and competitive perspectives, mainly using desktop research, to mine data from the consumer’s journey, looking for any clues that will give us more objective data to support the reasons for the market entry strategies.
This method is very efficient, low cost and has high reference value. It helps you quickly understand unfamiliar markets and develop an effective entry strategy (GTM). It answers the following three key questions:
WHO: Who are you going to sell? What are they like? What market segments should you choose?
WHAT: What are you going to sell? What are the consumer needs (pains)? What are the scenarios do they use your product? What are your offerings for the product/market fit?
HOW: How are your competitors doing in the market? how can you reach your target market? What factors influence buying in terms of product, price, place and promotion?