The growing importance of the Chinese market makes establishing brand awareness paramount for international companies. With a population of over 1.4 billion and a rapidly expanding middle class, China represents “the opportunity of the century” for global brands according to many business leaders. In 2021, China became the world’s largest retail market with total sales reaching $6.3 trillion (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2022).

Brand awareness refers to the degree to which consumers can recall or recognize a brand. It encompasses both aided and unaided recall rates, with the latter being seen as a stronger indicator that consumers have formed a memory of the brand in their minds.

Brand awareness can be measured through consumer surveys and studies. This typically involves showing the brand name, logo, or products to consumers and assessing factors like:

• Spontaneous brand recall: Can they name the brand without prompts?
• Brand recognition: Do they recognize the brand after seeing the name/logo?
• Brand attributes: What qualities, characteristics, or image do they associate with the brand?

According to marketing guru Philip Kotler, establishing brand awareness is a prerequisite to creating brand equity and loyal customers. Tech billionaire Elon Musk is also a proponent of focusing on brand building over advertising in the early days of a company.

Statistics show that brand awareness contributes directly to financial success. A recent survey by Kantar found that strong brands in China grew revenues by an average of 11% in 2020 while non-branded products only increased by 6% (Kantar Consulting, 2021).

The keys to increasing brand awareness in the Chinese market include consistent messaging across channels, influencer engagement, social commerce, and understanding Chinese consumers’ high expectations for brand values. Companies should develop both broad-reach advertising efforts on channels like WeChat and ByteDance and targeted engagement with key opinion leaders in their industry. By taking a localized, customer-centric approach, international brands can successfully raise their profile in this critical market.