Brief view about the medical equipment market in China

Xiao Han 11/12/2005

Report

Some facts a western company should consider while taking part in an exhibition in China.

Structure 1. Preface

2. How to arrange the booth, products and how to dress yourself 3. How to communicate with people

1. Preface

China is a traditional country, because the new People’s Republic of China is

established on the base of the feudal society, this society has a thousands year’s long history, we can say many ideas inside the Chinese mind are still quite “Chinese”. We can call it “Chinese characteristic”. And because of the Chinese characteristic, people must pay attention to much behaviour.

Second, China is a large country; there are quite a lot of differences between region and region. If you are doing business in Beijing and Shanghai, you will find China is a modern country, the way of people doing and talking are more and more like western countries. Most of all, people can easily accept the western ways. This kind of cities or areas includes Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou etc. But in some inland cities, like some western cities, the way people thinking and doing are still quite traditional; that is what made people feel complicated while doing business in China.

2. How to arrange the booth, products and how to dress yourself

There are some things to consider originating in Chinese culture:

Colours: don’t use the black colour in the business; try to use some light colour, especially red colour. The reason is in China, red means “lucky”, and black means “unlucky”. Also white colour is not so lucky in Chinese view. That is because in China, the funeral always be hold with the colour black and white, and some happy events like marriage, birthday, people like to wear red colour or to use red colour to decorate. So your catalogue should be in positive colour. Also not in yellow, yellow was used to indicate pornographic content. But the suits’ colour is not included.

Numbers: Do not use the number 4, prefer use of the number 8. This is because in Chinese, 4 has the similar pronunciation with “death”, so people should avoid using 4 in the business. In the business people love 8 so much, because 8 has the similar

pronunciation with “more money”, so you can see from many shops will make their products’ price with 8, for example,1000rmb will be made with the price 998. Chinese also like to make the business events on the date of 8, every month’s 8th, 18th, 28th are the most popular dates to open a shop. If you want to know the explanation of the reason, maybe that is because the Chinese still are traditional people. Although China has become more and more modern, but still people want a good omen, and the most important thing is people do believe it. This refers to the booth number, prices, and even technical data. Form the view of western countries’ people it seems a little bit ridiculous, but if you really want to do business in China, please believe this point.

Use Chinese language and characters at the booth and written material. English can be the subtitle. This fact however depends on what group of customers you focus. Have a Chinese name card.

You should let the customer feel comfortable. Offer something: Tea, coffee, juice, cakes, cookie and chocolates. Consider however the huge number of people who will walk by your booth. Have something to let the customer walk into and stay.

Women and men

Women should not dress too openly. They represent your company. The style of the dress should be according to the style of the company’s product – serious style in case of investment goods.

Try to find female assistants as beautiful as possible. There are many companies called “public relationship companies”. They offer service of well-trained staff. You also can find students directly.

Still, western women are considered very attractive and may be considered more attractive that Chinese for a western company.

Gifts for the people passing by

You should prepare gifts for people passing by. Gifts should be useful things (pen, notebook, bag, mouse pad) with the company name logo and website on it. A clock cannot be a gift, because clock (zhong) means “the end of the life” in Chinese.

Exhibits and products

Also your products should be colourful and eye-catching. Something should show a product is a foreign product, like writing “Made in Germany”, and even better its Chinese translation “德国制造“.

3. How to communicate with people

Chinese is a polite nation. There is a Chinese saying: Nobody will blame a person with too much manners. So if you want to do business in China, at the beginning, you

should be polite. Later maybe you become friends, and then you can be more freely.

Language： Although the level of English knowledge has improved quite well in China, it is still generally necessary to conduct the conversation in Chinese language,

because most of the customers (especially executives) will be middle-age or above people and their English knowledge is not so good. If you do not have a Chinese branch, then a lot of responsibility will thus be with your assistants. Take sufficient time for training of them. You can also hire a translator.

You need to learn the most elementary phases in Chinese like:

“Hello”, Nin Hao

“Hello Mr …”, Nin Hao, …Xian Sheng “Hello Mrs …”, Nin Hao, …Nü Shi “Welcome”, Huan Ying “Take a seat”, Qing Zuo

“Goodbye”, Zai Jian “Take this please“ Qing

“Thank you” Xie Xie

During conversation show your friendly attitude about the Chinese government.

Be friendly: Chinese are always shy, so that means, if you see a person looking at your products, you should talk to him/her first. But also not be molesting. In China, everything must have a limit. Communication should be neither to cold nor to warm.

Addressing people: In first conversation you should shortly introduce yourself (name, title).

Business card: how to hand over business card. You should hand over your

business card with two hands together. Use your thumb and your forefinger of both hands, hand over your business card with smile. In China, smiling is very important. Be sure your body is straight and your upper part of the body trends a little bit towards your customer. That is because it means your give your respect to him/her.

Understanding the name card: Most name cards have an English translation on the rear side. The family name is written first, so before the first name. This is also true for the English version of the name card. The one who gives his name card is usually the manager.

Try to make as good personal relationship with the manager as possible. This includes having meals together, giving a gift of something typical German.

If you make some mistakes, it is no problem. Do smile and say “Sorry, this is my first time to China.”