• CMO Magazine, Monday, January 9, 2006 12:45 PM

Marketers who want to penetrate and succeed in China had better learn a new word: guanxi--a Mandarin term that essentially means "network of influence." That's exactly what marketers will need to succeed in a country where a market can be defined by a nearly invisible network of relationships. It's not just what you know but who you know--and who they know--that counts. "Familial piety here means a person sends home 10 percent of every paycheck to his parents--whether the parents need it or not," says Roy Tan Hardy, vice president of marketing for Hong Kong Disneyland. A person's identity is so interconnected with his family that in order for the individual to be a success, his family must also be seen as successful. As a result, loyalty to the group is much more important than in the West. So the bottom line for doing business in China recalls the old Bette Midler song: "You Gotta Have Friends."

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