Cultural Influence On Brand Building For China's Middle Class

With the development of China's economy and the encouragement of various policies, China's middle class is emerging as a new social stratum, and will eventually become the backbone of society. China's middle class possesses strong economic influence, brings brand-new consumption concepts, and ushers a new consumption era. Therefore, how to attract middle class members, and retain them as loyal customers has become the primary concern to enterprises from home and abroad. Especially when the market is full of homogeneous products, more and more enterprises are aware that only superior brands can help them become invincible in this intense business war. China's middle class has been undergoing worldwide penetration of western values. As a new class, it not only inherits China's traditional culture, but also is affected by western cultures. Culture exerts a great influence on brand building, and middle class in China has distinctive cultural attributes along with sophisticated understanding of brands. Therefore, this thesis intends to focus on cultural influence on brand building for China's middle class. This thesis covers seven cultural dimensions in brand building for middle class: degree of individualism, degree of uncertainty avoidance, degree of power distance, affective vs. neutral, diffuse vs. specific, attitude toward time, attitude toward nature and harmony. Based on literature review and my observation, primary analysis of brand building is conducted, assumptions are put forward, and a questionnaire is designed and distributed. Then first-hand information is collected to verify my primary analysis and assumptions, and more perfect results will come out. Finally, the thesis reiterates the importance of cultural influence on brand building for China's middle class, and comes to the conclusions and constructive recommendations for domestic and overseas enterprises, which dedicate themselves to delivering superior brands to middle class in China.