“Marketers entering China will need to evaluate their portfolios very carefully. A mix of brands, targeted to different demographic groups, or those that work well in India or other less-developed nations may struggle in China. The one child policy – as well as other core changes in Chinese society – has radically altered the population demographic profile of China from what is expected in a country with a similar level of development.”

Doug Anderson, Senior Vice President, Research & Development for Nielsen recently posted “The Aging Chinese Marketplace: Lessons for Marketers” on the nielsenwire blog. Anderson warns marketers entering China that “China is substantially different from other nations with similar levels of economic development,” for three main reasons: slow population growth, accelerated aging and a disproportionate ratio of men over women.

(From: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire)

Last week’s post entitled, “The New, Young Chinese Consumer” outlined the three focuses of Generation Y urban consumers in China. However, many of these young consumers have yet to alter their spending behavior to take into account the inevitable financial burden of caring for their elderly parents.

Richard Brubaker of All Roads Lead to China does an excellent job highlighting this trend in his recent post dissecting Richard Ho’s piece on The Top Consumer Trends Defining China’s Emerging Domestic Market:

“Speaking of 2020, and beyond, one of the most important determinants of the long term is going to come back to how successfully China manages the socioeconomic fact that its current population of spenders are soon going to find themselves to be primary caregivers to parents and grandparents.  That, while the post 80s crown may be flush with cash (provided by job and parents), this equation is going to flip on its head in the not so distant future… which will lead to new and interesting opportunities…”

Post-80’s young adults working in cities far from home will eventually have to ensure their parents who did so much for them will get something in return. They may welcome their aging parents into their own homes for personal care, or if they have enough money choose to send them to a nursing home, or hire live-in nurses, or… there will certainly be some interesting business opportunities that will emerge as a result of this trend and Generation Y consumers will likely be the ones opening their wallets to pay for the newly launched services on their parents’ behalf.

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