EDITORIAL

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Guest Editors Professors Tsang-Sing Chan and Geng Cui for developing an outstanding special issue of the Journal of Global Marketing on Strategic Marketing in China: Opportunities and Threats. This special issue is an outcome of 2 years of hard work and dedication on the part of the guest editors. The project started when I was a visiting scholar at the Department of Marketing and International Business at Lingnan University in Hong Kong during the Spring 2007 semester. To me, there was no better place than Hong Kong to start a project of this nature and scope. Professors Chan and Cui easily convinced me of the importance of the subject area and hence the development of a special issue on the very topic. I am now extremely pleased to see that this project has come to fruition in the able hands of these two outstanding marketing scholars. I am of the opinion that this special issue will make a great contribution to global marketing literature in the years to come. I applaud the guest co-editors as well as the manuscript contributors for their outstanding contributions. The year 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of China’s opening and the beginning of reforms. While the financial crisis looms over the global market, many have pinned much hope on China to provide the growth momentum to help the world ride out the slump. In China, there has been a shift in government policy to relying on domestic consumption instead of export as the new driver for China’s future growth. As the world keeps a watchful eye on the Chinese consumers, especially its rising middle class, how Chinese consumers perceive foreign versus. domestic brands, how to promote brands in light of high brand awareness yet low brand knowledge and loyalty, has been a priority issue in China marketing research. The confluence of country, company, and brand images on consumer choices and the three-way competition of domestic, joint venture, and foreign brands demand special attention in marketing to the consumers of the emerging market economies and the fast developing BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). As the largest emerging market in the world, China is leading the economic growth in the greater China region, with increasingly wealthy and sophisticated urban consumers. Since its accession to the WTO in 2001, China has been undergoing a shift in its growth pattern from FDI-led export to one that is based on domestic demand and consumption ranging from outbound tourism to luxury goods. In his recent book, The Rise of the Chinese Consumer, Jonathan Garner suggests that by 2014, the Chinese consumers will likely have displaced the U.S. consumers as the engine of growth in the global economy. Strong economic growth, steady appreciation of the Yuan, and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing will lead to a surge in Chinese consumer spending over the next 10 years and the Chinese consumers will account for a much larger share of global consumption spending. These statistics and changes are transforming the competitive scenario in China, representing both unique opportunities and challenges for local, regional, and international firms, and have tremendous implications for marketing to China’s rising consumer class.