Chinese Consumer: Some Imported Cheese With Your Stinky Tofu?
Local favorites bridge the gap for lesser-known foreign products in China
(Smelly Favorites: Cheese & Stinky Tofu)
“Have a taste, it’s just like stinky tofu!†the point of sale woman says to an unsuspecting fifty-something year old woman in the dairy aisle at Carrefour. The saleswoman was wearing a red and white pin-striped blouse with a bright red mini-skirt and a red buret on her head. Her left hand held a tray of imported Brie cheese while her right hand drew shoppers’ attention to her delicious free samples. I wanted to hear where this conversation was going, so I pretended to look at the label on a package of ridiculously overpriced Land-O-Lakes cheddar while I listened to her pitch…
Saleswoman: “It’s just like stinky tofu. It smells really bad, but when you take a bite it’s so delicious. Here try some…â€
The customer tried a piece of the cheese and to her surprise it was very much the same sensation as eating stinky tofu. Before she could even say “好åƒâ€ delicious, the saleswomen had already taken a box out of the dairy refrigerator and placed it in the customer’s hand. The customer walked away with the cheese and the saleswoman went on to her next target.
Let’s take a step back and look at two important findings from the November 18 post, entitled “Chinese Consumer: Making the Saleâ€:
1.   Salespeople at point of purchase are highly influential over the Chinese consumer’s purchase decisions ~ McKinsey
2.   Chinese consumers make 60% of their purchase decisions in store ~ CR Nielson
The above is another example of the influence point of sale salespeople have over customers who walk into a store with less than 50% of their purchases planned out. I found the saleswoman’s pitch to be extremely creative. She took a less-known foreign food product and associated it with a well-known existing local product. After the customer tasted the cheese she felt the same familiar sensation of eating stinky tofu and consequently was that much more convinced to make the final product purchase.
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