Let’s draw a line at Element Fresh. Everyone in Chinese society who considers EF “a little out there” and has never eaten there is on the other side of the line. Anyone who considers it “comfort food”, “been there done that”, or “nice lunch place for western food every once in a while” is on this side.

Your future market in China lies on the far side of that line. The 99.9% of the Chinese population that has never been to Element, the Frog or Bamboo. They are the RCMCs – the Real Chinese Middle Class (earning around rmb10, 000 per month or more). Just because the big name western places downtown are seating 65% Asians at lunch doesn’t make it a traditional local place. Your future Chinese market doesn’t include that many office ladies who spend rmb45 for a bowl of pasta and an iced tea.

What can you do to reach people who have never heard of you and don’t necessarily care about you? What can you do to reach the realer China?

Selling to the Realer China – meeting the RCMC.
(I.e.: How do you start targeting a market that you’ve been happy to avoid up until now?)

1. Assess your options.
Any way around this? China is not a more convenient market, even if you are already here. This is doubly true for the RCMCs who have grown skeptical of westerners’ capabilities in the last few years. If your physical presence in Shanghai is your one and only competitive advantage then you may find it far easier to move somewhere else than to try setting up shop here.

2.Work backwards.
Start by plotting out a reasonable destination – not by getting the engine racing. When you don’t have a great idea about what you’re doing, working backwards from the goal is sometimes a good way to keep your focus. What’s your time-frame? Your revenue & profit goals? How has your brand changed in the future? Are you offering different products or services? Now work backwards and add the partners, employees, knowledge, resources and attitudes. Simple. HARD, but not complex to plan.

3.Find potential partners who compliment your skills and weaknesses.
Your key local partner will likely be a guy who has established, live marketing channels but a lack of products or services to market to an emerging real-China-middle-class. (Earning rmb 10,000 +) He is strong at the local marketing level – where you are weakest. You are strong at new product development – where your perfect potential partner is weak. People worry too much about IP theft in China. First of all, the vast majority of ventures never reach the point where the IP even sees the light of day. Second, if your idea is even moderately successful it will most definitely be pirated, copied and stolen – so stop worrying about it. Be confident and KNOW your IP will be swiped.

4. Learn how to hire marketers and sales channels.
If you aren’t already selling to RCMCs, then starting won’t be an easy process. You’re best off looking for someone who already had solid sales channels & capabilities. You aren’t likely to find a single partner who can meet all of your needs, so get good at figuring out who can do what. Check reference. Localize your marketing and product development processes. Don’t ignore social media – especially the LOCAL variants. QQ & KaiXin are good, Facebook bad. You may have to “rebalance” your team (again) if it is top-heavy with people who can’t market to RCMC.

5. Stay single as long as possible.
The word ‘Partnership’ covers a lot ground. It could mean long term supply chain relationship or it could mean legally binding equity relationship. You want the more relaxed kind – that doesn’t included exclusivity, nationwide territory or up-front investments. If you are looking for a local to market your product to regular Chinese consumers then you want to verify that your new agent can really do what he promises. THEN you can begin thinking about long term arrangements. Once you start talking about forming a JV that’s all you’ll ever talk about again – and your sales projections take a back seat.

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