Digital Marketing

Marketers Chasing Growth Should Look East, Not Silicon Valley

IMF forecasts 4.6% growth for China and 6.4% for India this year. With Asia driving half of global online retail, Western marketers face three hard questions about where growth actually lives.

By James Calloway3 min read

Updated

Forget Silicon Valley, marketers chasing growth should look to Asia
Forget Silicon Valley, marketers chasing growth should look to Asiahomethods / Openverse

The brief

  1. The IMF expects China to grow 4.6% and India 6.4% this year, versus 2.3% in the US, 1.9% in Australia and 1% in Britain; China and India will add some 500 million consumers by 2030.
  2. Asia-Pacific accounted for 44% of global cultural exports in 2019, per Boston Consulting Group; Asia now drives almost half of global online retail sales.
  3. Uniqlo's sales across Europe and North America have more than tripled since 2021; John Lewis launched 20 K-beauty brands after Korean skincare searches on its site soared nearly 800%.

China and India alone will add roughly 500 million consumers by 2030, according to IMF projections that put China's growth at 4.6% and India's at 6.4% this year — against 2.3% in the US, 1.9% in Australia and 1% in Britain.

Those numbers frame a blunt argument for Western marketers: the growth they keep talking about is happening in Asia, and much of what looks futuristic from London, New York or Sydney already feels ordinary there.

The author witnessed this firsthand at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing five weeks ago, where a robot ran 100m faster than Usain Bolt's world record — twice. More striking than the technology was the audience. The stands were full of families and children watching robots run, box and play football. The atmosphere felt like a family day out.

Asia has arrived

The region hosts 4.8 billion people — nearly 60% of humanity and more than half its young people — and drives almost half of global online retail sales.

Patent data reinforces the shift. Tokyo–Yokohama leads the world in technology patents, followed by Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou, Seoul, Beijing and Shanghai–Suzhou. California does not make the top five.

For decades the West exported its way of life, from McDonald's to Porsche to Hollywood. The current now runs the other way. K-pop fills Western stadiums. Labubu became a global phenomenon. Asia-Pacific accounted for 44% of global cultural exports in 2019, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Beauty illustrates the reversal. A few years ago, few Western consumers had heard of COSRX. Today the Korean skincare company's snail mucin products sit on the shelves of Boots, Sephora and Superdrug. After searches for Korean skincare on its website soared nearly 800%, John Lewis launched 20 K-beauty brands.

Three implications for marketers

First, look East for ideas. Western marketers benchmark Western brands — Brits study Brits, Germans study Germans, everyone studies Americans. That makes life comfortable. It does not necessarily create growth. Asia shows which products are taking off, which business models are scaling and which technologies consumers adopt first. Korean skincare has already influenced ingredients, formats and routines — and what Western beauty companies now develop themselves.

Second, anticipate what Asia will bring home. Sales of Japan's Uniqlo across Europe and North America have more than tripled since 2021. China's BYD and other Chinese electric-car makers are pushing into overseas markets. COSRX, Beauty of Joseon and Medicube are entering mainstream Western retailers. The important question is what Asia is doing today that everyone else may be doing tomorrow.

Third, join the growth. Many Western companies still approach Asia with an old formula: develop something at home, then find somebody to sell it to in Asia. That worked when globalisation mostly meant Western companies exporting Western products and ideas. That world is disappearing.

Participating in Asian growth means understanding local consumers, competitors, price points and habits. Sometimes it means changing the product rather than translating the advertising. It certainly means abandoning the convenient idea that 4.8 billion people across 46 countries constitute one market called "Asia".

China has real problems — a property crisis, debt, an aging population, weak domestic demand and the question of Taiwan. Yet it sits in a part of the world with something Western executives desperately want: growth. Nobody in London, Berlin or Sydney has to book the next flight to Shanghai. But maybe they should.

Based on Marketing Week

Filed under asia-pacific, global-marketing, consumer-trends, korean-skincare, market-growth

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James Calloway

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Market editor covering media and advertising at Marketing Herald.

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