HCR, a Chinese research company, did an analysis on Chinese consumers attitude to brands. It collected data from a sample of 5,000 consumers in more than 10 cities in China. HCR summarized four types of Chinese consumers based on the interview about brand attitude.
Indifferent
The first type is indifferent consumers, they don’t care too much for choosing brands, and they are too lazy to find out the difference of brands. Indifferent consumers are likely to shop randomly.
Explorer
Explorers take brands very seriously when they go shopping, they would pay attention to new brands or better brands. They like to know brands thoroughly and discover better ones.
Switcher
Switchers are not loyal to a single brand, they would choose flexibly among several brands to maximize their benefits. But they still think brands are very important.
Loyalist
Loyalist would not change brands causally, they are extremely loyal to brands.
We could tell from the chart that almost 60% were explorer and switcher. It seemed that some consumers were naturally switchers and explorers, they couldn’t stay loyal for one brand. And 24% were loyalist.
In terms of products, most consumers tended to be switchers on FMCG. And consumers were more likely to be explorers on products like chocolate and shampoo. Loyalists were found in cosmetic products and milk powder. Chinese consumers chose simply for FMCG and products they were familiar with, as the features of products increased, consumers tended to choose more discreetly and more likely to stick to their choices.
Demographics of the four types consumers showed that men were likely to be indifferent consumers, as for other types, women were much more than men.