Respond to Your Clients Values: Lessons from Mary Kay in China

Mary Kay is the quintessential, American, direct-sales success—and, against odds, it has taken that success to China. The company faced roadblocks, including Chinese laws that forbade direct sales (until the law changed in 2006) and Chinese consumers’ lack of interest in make-up. However, as Slate reports, the company has worked around those challenges, leading people to ask, How Do You Say Pink Cadillac in Mandarin?

First, Mary Kay adapted its product mix for Chinese consumers.  The company learned to focus more on bleaching, anti-aging and skin care products, which appeal to Chinese women, rather than traditional make-up, which appeals less. Second, once Chinese law permitted direct sales, Mary Kay aggressively increased its sales force—even  providing small interest-free loans to women wanting to enter its sales force.  Third, the company made its internal and external marketing messages culturally appropriate.  Although it still uses lots of motivational phrases and maxims with its staff and the public, the company adapts them when necessary—in one case replacing a Christian reference to “a more anodyne statement about faith.”

Mary Kay succeeded by noticing and responding to the Chinese middle class’s changing values —towards Western glamour and entrepreneurialism.  What can you do to tap into and respond to the changing values of your clients abroad?  How can you alter your marketing messages, business strategy, services or products to respond to these changing values?

Staying on top of shifts in policy, culture and economics in your ideal foreign market is the first step.  Establish a system for researching and mining information about new developments abroad to detect opportunities.  Then, like Mary Kay, hone in on those trends that can be translated to innovation—and respond.