On an 8 p.m. Spring Airlines flight from Kunming to Shanghai, a crew member started broadcasting about the long night flight ahead of us. Of the travelers among us, he remarked that about 40% on the flight were riding a plane for the first time (how true this is, I have no idea).<\/p>\n
He then proceeded to describe the plane we were sitting in \u2014 an Airbus 380 flying at an altitude of just over 10,000 meters and a speed of 700+ km per hour, twice the speed of the high speed railway (\u9ad8\u94c1 \u2013\u00a0gaotie<\/em>).<\/p>\n As the country\u2019s first low-cost airline (their market position is similar to Southwest in the United States), the lowest fares were only available online, which required a credit card to purchase. \u201cYou can\u2019t find these fares at any agent or at our counter,\u201d he explained, saying this was how the company kept costs low.<\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps you don\u2019t have a credit card at this time, but now, you\u2019re in luck. We understand that many of our customers may not have any credit cards yet, so Spring Airlines has partnered with China Construction Bank, the second largest bank in China to offer you an exclusive Spring Airlines credit card.\u201d\u00a0 Additionally, he explained, you would be able to get 10% discounts at participating hotels and tour groups.\u00a0 And \u2026 the real kicker was \u2026 in understanding the (Chinese) consumer psyche \u2026 the first 25 individuals to apply today could apply fee-free, without requiring your shenfenzhen (the Chinese ID card).\u00a0 \u201cJust push the service button overhead your seat and we\u2019ll bring you an application\u201d<\/p>\n A\u00a0series of dings went off at that point, as up and down the plane, travelers started expressing their interest.\u00a0 More than 25 dings out of a flight of about 180 passengers (an astonishing 15+% response rate) went off within the first two minutes, and passengers around me started diligently feeling out the holy grail for all credit card companies \u2014 the application.<\/p>\n Even in a short 10-minute session like this, one could see the potential and uniqueness of the Chinese market.\u00a0 A low-cost air carrier who attracted budget-conscious travelers, many of whom may be experiencing their first flights ever on this segment, and then introducing the concept of reward-tied credit cards on this flight.\u00a0 Add in the sense of urgency while being able to hear others express interest, and you have the perfect target audience \u2014 any marketer\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n However, what I found most striking about this series of exchanges, was how it first started \u2014 instead of leading with the credit card offer at hand, the conversation started with a bit of educational information that would be of general interest to the majority of folks on the plane \u2014 where we were, our altitude, flight times, and some basics on the aircraft. It was an advertisement in the most Chinese form \u2014 building a relationship and general rapport before launching into an offer.<\/p>\n Earlier that day, while on a train from Lijiang to Kunming, I experienced something similar and this time around, a train attendant was selling microfiber bath towels. \u00a0Similarly, before launching into his infomercial-like spiel, the attendant first started by giving some general information on the train and even quipping a few jokes.<\/p>\n Again, the same sense of urgency and \u201cact now\u201d offer tactics were used, as he offered the first five buyers of the towels a buy-one-get-one free offer. As I sat in the hard seater section of the train (the cheapest section of the train), many of my fellow travelers were farmers who all sat transfixed at the demonstration.\u00a0 The lady next to me, a 50-year-old farmer from Keqing who belonged to the Bai minority, mumbled \u201cit just feels like a regular towel to me.\u201d<\/p>\n Nonetheless, he ended up selling 20+ towels in our train car alone in the first five minutes.<\/p>\n While these two scenarios represent very unique situations, both in travel, it was a representation of two basic Chinese business principles:<\/p>\n 1) \u00a0The Chinese consumer market is a growing one.<\/strong>\u00a0The demand for consumption within China is only starting to grow, and the next five years of China\u2019s growth \u2014 as the 12th Economic Five Year Plan posited \u2014 will come from a consumer-led one.<\/p>\n 2) \u00a0Guanxi is everything.<\/strong>\u00a0Even within short, direct-response, and lead-generation campaigns, establishing initial rapport is important. The relationship has to be mutually beneficial and especially in cases like this, need to start with information that consumers may find immediately helpful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On an 8 p.m. Spring Airlines flight from Kunming to Shanghai, a crew member started…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/SpringAirlines.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85,"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/85"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/work.wendyqi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}