ShanghaiZhan: All Things China Marketing, Advertising, Tech & Platforms

China’s Beauty market is #2 behind the US at US$71 billion (Euromonitor 2020), and it’s expected to be the world’s biggest in 3 years.  Chinese women today are notably confident and embrace their own identity and style. Popularly, we call this "C-Beauty" as it competes with the more identifiable ‘J’ & ‘K-Beauty’. ShanghaiZhan welcomes Carol Zhou, Sr. Vice President for Innovation & Investments at Shiseido China to talk to us more about defining Chinese beauty and the big trends for the upcoming year.In this episode we talk about:1.  Our newfound stardom as KOLs by hitting over 8000 downloads2.  Carol’s 2022 beauty resolutions3.  Carol’s journey to becoming a beauty expert and having the best job in the business4.  The rise of C-Beauty, beauty diversity & what Chinese women want?6.  Global brands balancing act in China: the girl with freckles are to be celebrated7.  The “clean beauty” trend in China:  What it is and what it is not8. “Adjacent spaces”:  Shiseido’s innovation growth plans9. “Medical beauty” & why is it growing so quickly?10. Global vs. local beauty brands:  who is leading where and why? 11. Offline or online?  What’s the future of beauty offline as online continues to grow?12. Are brand stories still important for C-Beauty or is the market still highly imitative? 13. How has Covid affected the China beauty industry?14.  Beautiful men15. C-beauty in the metaverse. Believe it or not, there’s an App for that! (and yes, metaverse made it into the conversation!)Welcome to Shanghai Zhan, aka. Shanghai Station.  The only station in Shanghai’s world-famous metro that only exists as a podcast. Listen to Bryce Whitwam and Ali Zein Kazmi debate with guests on their experiences and aspirations for marketing in China.  Bryce & Ali are well connected to China for over 20 years and still work in the industry in Shanghai.  They are both fluent Mandarin speakers, with Bryce reading and writing, while Ali gets away with using his thick Beijing accent.Music:  “Bad Cough Syrup by Bryce Whitwam https://soundcloud.com/bryce-r-whitwam/bad-cough-syrup?si=cfb30a6e0c0e459da78b912bf60825acBryce on Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brycewhitwam/Ali on Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/alikazmi/Carol on Linkedin:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/carol-zhou-5a53472/

China is one of the fastest-growing economies and faces serious sustainability challenges.  Like the hosts, today’s guest completes 20 years in China, all of it helping China and the rest of Asia with real issues on waste, waste management, and social responsibility.  Richard Brubaker is Founder & Managing Director at Collective Responsibility and Executive Volunteer at HandsOn China. He draws comparison to the US and has lessons to offer on what they can do better.1. Picking sustainability because of a mega Sichuan earthquake.2. Exporting sustainability to the rest of the world.3. Look out the window, you don’t need to look too far.4. Takes time for companies to get out to do stuff.5. Serving the community with HandsOn, the easy one to talk to.6. ESG, EHS, sustainability is a lot more than trash talk.7. Marketing & brand management blamed getting a bad rep.8. Do good, get good talk, be like Starbucks, do little things well, every day.9. “Efficient sustainability” ready for export from China10. No one consumer in China map them against a problem to help solveMore about Richard Brubaker:Website: http://www.richbrubaker.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/rich.brubakerLinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richbrubakerInstagram: https://instagram.com/richbrubakerTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/richbrubaker Welcome to Shanghai Zhan, aka. Shanghai Station. The only station in Shanghai’s world-famous metro that only exists as a podcast. Listen to Bryce Whitwam and Ali Zein Kazmi debate with guests on their experiences and aspirations for China. Bryce and Ali are connected to China for over 20 years and are still in Shanghai working in the industry. They are both fluent Mandarin speakers, with Bryce reading and writing, while Ali gets away with using his thick Beijing accent.Music:  "Bad Cough Syrup" by Bryce Whitwam:  https://soundcloud.com/bryce-r-whitwam/bad-cough-syrup?si=cfb30a6e0c0e459da78b912bf60825ac

When the pandemic hit, the luxury business was doomed, or was it?  China was not only Luxury's comeback kid, but it also helped redefine the category for the post-pandemic world.   How can you define luxury through a complete mobile experience?   In this episode, we have modern luxury experts Artefact's Mike Zhu & Serena Shen talk about how China made it happen, and what are the lessons for the world.In this episode we cover:1.  What makes luxury tick?2.  Controlling supply & creating desire3.  Empty malls and the metaverse4.  Day day up up luxury5.  Personal service on live broadcast6.  Luxury, made in China7.  Late to the party, but running fast8.  Shopping at the Prada wet marketMusic:  "Bad Cough Syrup" by Bryce Whitwam:  https://soundcloud.com/bryce-r-whitwam/bad-cough-syrup?si=cfb30a6e0c0e459da78b912bf60825acWelcome to Shanghai Zhan, aka. Shanghai Station. The only station in Shanghai’s world-famous metro that only exists as a podcast. Listen to Bryce Whitwam and Ali Zein Kazmi debate with guests on their experiences and aspirations for China. Bryce and Ali are connected to China for over 20 years and are still in Shanghai working in the industry. They are both fluent Mandarin speakers, with Bryce reading and writing, while Ali gets away with using his thick Beijing accent.

In this episode, we talk with Pierre Delfosse, E-commerce Director at Pernod Ricard China, on the world's largest shopping festival, Double 11, which climaxes on the 11th of November of every year.  We are still big in Japan. We are a lot bigger in Hong Kong (S.A.R.) and even bigger in the USA. In this episode we discuss:  1. What we shopped for Double 11 
2. How has the spirits business evolved over the past 7years 
3. What Chinese consumers drink, white, yellow, and brown. 
4. Jiu Jiu or September 9 is Spirits Day in China 
5. Imported spirits hold 1.5% of share of spirits (minuscule when you put into consideration how much Baijiu is drunk in China). 
6. Success offline leads to greater success online, especially on that day – building brand is massively important 
7. Double 11 is not an Alibaba thing alone, all platforms are Double 11 crazy 
8. Building owned traffic and reducing dependency on the platforms. 
9. Pierre enjoys Glenlivet and Cognac but sometimes cheats with a Blue Label. 
10. Don’t drink and drive. 
Join us next week for another exciting show as we are investigating the evolution of sport.

In their inaugural episode, “After 20 Years of China Advertising:  Is There A Bright Future?” Bryce and Ali discuss:1) Being in China for over 20 years in China2) Bryce visits a slimming center and is wrapped in plastic.3) Losing relevance even if you are out of China, even if for a few weeks?!4) Use and application of data in a PIPL led-world, operating in platforms, is super important, and trusting platforms in exchange for better service & utility.5) Bryce likes looking at pictures of guns on Instagram6) Clients pulling advertising in-house, at speed, more strategic, more quantified.7) Alibaba is still a buy!8) Consolidation versus creativity.9) Preconditioned for careers that are “measured”.10) Too hard to let go. Oh! the energy and the addiction of China!