Since the reform and opening up in the 1970’s, many special economic zones have been set up in coastal cities of China to draw foreign investment.

This brought in many multi-national companies into the Chinese market. They built factories and sold products here, and also established their PR department, which gave birth to an emerging industry.

China’s rapid economic growth in the past 30 years has repositioned itself as the strategic market of many foreign companies and even the largest market in the world. Excellent local brands gradually appeared, and started to compete with their foreign counterparts in the Chinese market.

In the silent battle of fighting for market share, China’s PR industry has started from scratch and grew from strength to strength, playing an indispensable role in marketing strategies.

Since the reform and opening up in the 1970’s, many special economic zones have been set up in coastal cities of China to draw foreign investment.

This brought in many multi-national companies into the Chinese market. They built factories and sold products here, and also established their PR department, which gave birth to an emerging industry.

China’s rapid economic growth in the past 30 years has repositioned itself as the strategic market of many foreign companies and even the largest market in the world. Excellent local brands gradually appeared, and started to compete with their foreign counterparts in the Chinese market.

In the silent battle of fighting for market share, China’s PR industry has started from scratch and grew from strength to strength, playing an indispensable role in marketing strategies.

The birth of China’s PR industry

PR is a young industry in China, burgeoning in the 1980’s.

It is a vibrant industry for the young too, the average age of working

staff in this industry is around 30.

•The data comes from CIPRA

Market Volume

•The annual growth rate of PR industry remains at 30%

•It is estimated to reach 9.5 billion ＄ by 2015.

•The data comes from CIPRA

Market Volume

PR companies are mainly located in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Beijing takes up around 70% of the market, because here are the major media of China.

Shanghai

Beijing

Chengdu

Guangzhou

•The data comes from CIPRA

Market Volume

Automobile Industry

The lion’s share of the market are devoted to Automobile, IT, FMCG (fast-moving

consumer goods), Medical care and Finance. PR service in the automobile industry is the leading performer in China’s PR

industry, accounting for 25% of the market share. China’s automobile industry has

been blooming and China is now the largest auto market in the world.

•The data comes from CIPRA

Service Scope

New growth point: demand for PR services in government, NGOs and cities has increased.

Main services of PR companies

Brandcommunicat

ion

Brandcommunicat

ion

Eventmarketing

Eventmarketing

Crisismanagemen

t

Crisismanagemen

t

Activitymanagemen

t

Activitymanagemen

t

CorporateSocial

responsibility

CorporateSocial

responsibility

Digitalmarketing

Digitalmarketing

ProductspromotionProductspromotion

Industry trends

• Business evolved from IT sector to automobile, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), DCG (durable consumption goods), medicine, etc.

• Services become diversified from providing communication service to activity management, digital marketing, entertainment marketing, now heading for integrated marketing.

• Offices expand from the Beijing Headquarter to Shanghai, Guangzhou, now reaching 23 offices in China.

• As the largest and most successful PR agency in China, Blue Focus is an epitome of the development of China’s PR industry.

In the past 16 years Blue Focus:

Capital inflow: With more frequent capital flow and operation integration in this industry, more investment and institutions are coming in, greatly promoting the development of China’s PR industry.

Integrated service: PR companies will strengthen integration and transformation, spreading from coastal cities to inland cities, from single service to integrated service.

International PR agencies go local; local PR agencies become international

Steady growth in PR Input: thanks to China’s overall economic trend and the growing influence of PR industry, many

brands have raised their investment in PR industry to expand their market share and brand influence.

More frequent PR activities in New Geographic markets: because the purchasing power of the second-tier and

third-tier cities have been unleashed and major brands are penetrating into these cities.

They have been in Chinese market for long, with a large number of local staff even at the

management-level

Most of them have their own PR department and a lot of them cooperate with PR agencies

Some of them conduct cooperation with international PR companies through global

procurement; but more and more Fortune 500 companies choose local PR agencies,

because local PR agencies are familiar with the market, especially with media relations,

which is deemed as an important factor in PR services.

International companies entering the Chinese market 

International companies entering the Chinese market 

New comer foreign enterprises in the Chinese market: Most of them are sales companies who only set up offices in China. Their market share in China is waiting to be expanded and most of their brands are promoted by distributors or agents, without the setup of PR department.These companies are not yet well-known in China. They don’t have a clear long-term promotion strategy. They mainly need services such as activity management, exhibition promotion and crisis management.

Foreign enterprises that seek to enter the Chinese market. They are interested in this market yet totally strange to it. PR services they may need are strategy consulting and market research.

Chinese companies going international

There are two types of Chinese companies in overseas market, first, the independent brands such as

Lenovo, Haier and Huawei; second, monopolistic stated-owned enterprises such as CNPC, Bank of

China and BAOSTEEL.

These brands have been navigating the international market for many years and have stable

international market share. They have their fixed PR agencies in the local market or rely on their PR

department in the foreign market.

Successful local brands which are competing in the global arena:

Although most local brands focus their business on the domestic market, they have never

stopped exploring new geographic markets.

In recent years, Automotive, fashion consumer goods (costume, watch and jewelry),

airlines are entering the international market. Their demand for PR services in the local

market have risen.

Chinese brands are showing the world that they know more about consumption

experience and care about quality , design and innovation.

Chinese companies going international

The world is ready for Chinese brand

Johnson, Mayor of London, are traveling in China in the TX4 car co-manufactured by China’s Geely Motor and the British Manganese Bronze, promoting London Olympics.

Shiatzy Chen A Taiwanese brand which has entered the European market. It holds fashion shows in Paris every year, grabbing the attention of top fashion media.

The world is ready for Chinese brand

The fusion of inspirational elements from French and Chinese culture captures the ethos of Qeelin, China’s first luxury jewelry brand. The brand was founded by Dennis Chan and Guillaume Brochard who share the mutual dream of combining the rich aesthetic heritage of China with the French mastery of luxury craftsmanship to create stylish, contemporary jewelry.

Launched in Paris, 2004, Qeelin swiftly became an international brand. All Qeelin collections are exclusively made of precious metals and stones, such as gold, platinum, diamond, sapphire, ruby and naturally, the Chinese national stone, jade

The world is ready for Chinese brand

The world is ready for Chinese brand

SHANG XIAFounded in 2008, SHANG XIA is a brand for art of living that promises a unique encounter with the heritage of Chinese design and craftsmanship. Together with the celebrated Hermes Group, renowned Chinese designer Jiang Qiong Er established SHANG XIA with a mission to create a 21st century lifestyle founded on the finest of Chinese design.

City Image Promotion in overseas market

There is an increasing demand of Government to enhance city awareness in international market. Issue marketing is a widely used way, which usually initiated by the government and put forward by

domestic PR agencies together with agency in local market

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Sino-Germany diplomatic relations. As the first Special Economic Zone in China, Shenzhen is holding exhibition in the Chinese Culture Center in Bolin to uplift its international profile.

Take London Olympic for example, many provincial capital cities have been promoting their images in London in the hope of attracting more tourists.

Blue Focus is a comprehensive PR company, with many partners in various sectors in the

Chinese market. We can help companies who want to expand business in China break industry

barriers, through conducting various marketing strategies.

If your clients or partners want to promote your brand in China or seek to understand the

Chinese market, we are definitely your best choice!

Any ideas to grow business exchanges between our network and your market  

New companies that are entering the Chinese market

Chinese companies that have PR demand in the international market

As more Chinese brands are going global, their images in the international market are to be

enhanced. We regard this as a huge opportunity.

At present, Blue Focus has hundreds of clients. In case they seek to promote their brands in

the foreign market, we would recommend the IPRN members to them.

Any ideas to grow business exchanges between our network and your market  

The following sectors enjoy the fastest growth in recent years:

Promoting IPRN to outside world: to raise awareness and

influence of IPRN worldwide, like promoting our website or in

twitter/linkedin; So that more and more clients may turn to

IPRN for help if they have PR demand in certain market and

IPRN members may also exchange information from these

Social media platform

Promoting internal communication among IPRN members :

Newsletter will be a good way

Any ideas to grow business exchanges between our network and your market  

Exchange mechanism and business growth points are

base on effective communication.

Thus we have the following suggestions regarding how to

enhance communication among the IPRN members: