China's Super Consumers: What 1 Billion Customers Want and How to Sell it to Them

Chapter 3A Self-Contained Empire

Study the past if you would define the future.

—Confucius

Now we begin our quick and targeted tour of history: four millennia of backstory, highly condensed for its relevance to China's super consumers. As you read these short chapters, remember two incontrovertible facts: China is really big and really old.

The more you work with China, the more meaning and relevance you'll see in those simple truths. Modern China has grown from its own logic, from its own long-established patterns. It's true that China's super consumers are especially receptive to brands, especially intrigued by what brands mean, and particularly willing to spend extremely large amounts of money on consumer goods. But this behavior is not simply the result of marketing skill. It's the result of bringing Western-based marketing skills into a perfect storm: just the right time, conditions, and psychology.

Americans tend to call Europe and the places their ancestors came from the Old Country. When compared to China, though, the 1,400-year history of the English monarchy looks positively fresh—and America's 250 years? A mere blip. Among the reasons why Americans see China's economic power as a new phenomenon:

1. America does not have immediate neighbors other than Canada and Mexico. Further, it is a young and huge nation, bounded by two oceans. As such, America is so self-referential that it does not really have a mainstream collective memory of the history of nations other than ...