What would you do if you knew the future? Wouldn’t you made decisions that anticipate on that future to be fully prepared? The alchemists over at trendwatching.com have made it their business to extrapolate contemporary facts (as valuable as lead) into projections of the future (as valuable as gold). Then again, trendwatching might not be just passively revealing existent trends, but when done in a convincing way, it is able to reinforce or create events. Probably a combination is the case with trendwatching.com’s newest trend of the month.
For everybody who has lived in China, like yours truly (Shenzhen), and/or has read the following books, the trend will forcefully resonate.
In Poorly Made in China by Paul Midler, see IP Dragon’s review here, you can see a first hand account of some of the challenges, including “quality fade” if foreign companies try to manufacture in China. In Dragons at Your Door by Professors Peter Williamson and Ming Zeng, see IP Dragon’s review here, have looked at some very interesting cases of e Chinese manufacturers that applied some neglected or outdated technology on alleged mature product categories to improve their features and make them cheaper at the same time in a disruptive way. Chinese manufacturers are generally well versed in tinkering with quality and functions. Now consumer trend firm trendwatching.com has described the trend they call MADE BETTER IN CHINA while acknowledging some challenges including intellectual property.
Trendwatching’s definition of this trend is:
“China still faces many potential obstacles in its attempts to foster a deep and lasting culture of innovation and creativity (State economics! Politics! Demographics! The environment! Intellectual property!).
However an avalanche of Chinese brands are already catering to an increasingly large and sophisticated internal market, and competing with and even beating established incumbents from all over the world at their own game. Just think what the future will hold when China is truly unleashed.”
Trendwatching.com gives three of the drivers of the trend:
1. Urban boom: Urban household disposable income is expected to double between 2010 and 2020 (Source: McKinsey, March 2012). In 2010, China had 18 million households with an annual income above USD 16,000. By 2020, this number will be 167 million households. That’s nearly 400 million people (Source: McKinsey, March 2012).
2. Best of the West in the East: Foreign companies specially start to manufacture products MADE FOR CHINA, and roll out the RED CARPET to Chinese consumers. Trendwatching’s thesis is that this will raise the expectations of Chinese consumers, and “give Chinese brands and entrepreneurs the inspiration and confidence to step forward, while still remaining mindful of the need to match – or exceed – the standards of quality set by the very best of their Western counterparts.”
3. Global brain: despite the Great Firewall of China, Chinese consumers are connected to the global brain of the internet.
Trendwatching.com gives some great examples in the categories: Designed better in China, Made better by China for all, Made greener, online, stranger, together, bigger, faster, more luxurious, in China, Made better in China for a while now.
Check it out here.
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