THE CHINESE PET LOVERS GUIDE
DEMOGRAPHICS
Population: There were 62.94 million pet owners in China in 2020. There are more than 36 million dog owners (up 8.6% YoY) and 24 million cat owners (up 8.2% YoY) in urban areas across the country.
Gender and age distribution: The majority of pet owners are women. 81% of cat owners are women while only 19% are men. 77% of dog owners are women and 23% are men. Those in the Post-90s group (32-27 or 22 years old) have the highest proportion of pet ownership, followed by Post-85s (37-32 years old). Around 41% of those born in the 1990s (32-22 years old) and 34% of those born from 1980-1985 (42-37 years old) own cats.
Education background, income distribution: Chinese pet owners are highly educated, with more than 80% of them having a bachelor’s degree or above. They also tend to have high incomes. More than 50% have a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan. The most common monthly income bracket for pet lovers is 10,000 -15,000 yuan.
Family status and geographical distribution: 61% of Chinese pet owners are married and a majority of married pet owners have children. More than 20% of single people have pets. In terms of urban distribution, more than 80% live in first and second tier cities. There’s a lot of room for development in lower tier cities.
CONSUMPTION PREFERENCES
Monthly consumption preferences: 68.4% of cat and dog owners spend less than 10% of their monthly income on pet products and services. Only 5.6% of owners spend more than 20% of their monthly income.
Purchase channel preferences: Convenient, cost-effective online consumption is the primary purchase channel for many with nearly 90% of pet consumables are ordered online by pet owners.
Imported brand preferences: When pet owners choose pet products, they prefer domestic brands (Close to two-thirds) over imported ones. This is because of their high cost performance. The desire to support domestic products is another driving factor.
Pet product information channel preferences: Pets and pet products have a huge presence on the internet and a variety of pet apps have exploded. Pet apps can be divided into two categories: pet products and pet services. Pet services are prominent on social e-commerce platforms. Users can share photos of their pets, ask pet-related questions and buy pet supplies on one platform. Social commerce platforms for pet owners include Chongming(宠明), Renmeng(顽萌) and E-Pet(E宠).
POPULAR CATEGORIES FOR CHINESE PET LOVERS
The top 5 categories by market penetration rate:
Pet snacks (meat, biscuits and chews) (69%).
Pet products (beds, mats, food and water dishes, etc.) (63%)
Cleaning products (shampoo, ear drops, etc.) (61%)
Pet medications and health products (deworming pills, flea collars, etc.) (56%)
Pet toys (balls, frisbees, squeaky toys, etc.) (56%).
WHY DO YOU NEED CHINESE MARKETING RESEARCH AND STRATEGY?
It’s never easy to enter a new market, especially when it requires understanding the sentiment of a new group of consumers and their communication channels. By working with our agency, we offer you the following benefits:
- Helps you understand Chinese Pet Lovers
- Helps you understand your competitors targeting China’s pet owners
- Helps you to determine the positioning of your products and plan digital marketing and ecommerce strategies
- Helps you align your offerings more accurately with the expectations of Chinese customers.
WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING
OUR RESEARCH AND STRATEGY METHODOLOGY
Our China marketing research and strategy team gives you a detailed framework that will allow you to start and grow your business in mainland China. Our methodology mix is tailored for each project. In order to identify target consumers and understand their demands and develop marketing strategy for your product in China, Alarice team will develop tailor-made proposal for your project and discuss each phase methodology with your team to guarantee results. You can find more information about or methodology approaches here.
MARKET RESEARCH
- Online Market Research
- Industry performance research
- Market sizing
- Competitors Benchmarking
- Mystery Shopping
- Case Study
BRAND AUDIT
- Brand SMM Audit
- E-commerce Audit
- SWOT Analysis
- Perceived USPs
- Value Perceived
CONSUMER RESEARCH
- Online Survey
- Consumer Panel
- Focus Groups
- In-depth interviews
- Offline intercepts
- Semantics ( usage differentiation )
- Social listening
- Ethnographic research
- Sentiment Analysis
- Sensory Analysis
- Consumer Journey Tracking
STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
- Brand Positioning review
- Brand pricing strategy review
- Market channels strategy
- Content strategy
- SMM strategy
- KOL/Influencer strategy
- Roadmap timeline budget
- Seasonal events / campaigns
- Conversion funnel strategy
YOUR CHINA MARKETING TEAM
We have an unmatched ecosystem of services to help clients worldwide build their brand in China from 0 and enhance performance for those already in the market:
- Chinese Social Media Account Set Up. Chinese social media account set up and verification are steps which seem easy to handle. However, for newcomers, it can be a challenging process, especially when interfaces are only in Chinese or the English version is very different. Our team will help you with the list of documents needed, account options and the rest of the verification process. We also do account migration, account mergers, integration and more.
- Digital Brand Audit. We can do a full spectrum analysis of your digital marketing matrix and point out what’s effective, what’s hitting the mark, what’s missing and what needs urgent attention.
- Chinese Social Media Marketing. With our understanding of China’s unique social media landscape, we’ll help to select the most suitable platforms for your services and products and turn them into effective marketing channels with creative content. Apart from China’s top social networks, WeChat and Weibo, we also work with niche Chinese social media platforms suitable for different industries.
- KOL Marketing and Campaigns. Working with bloggers in China is very different from in most Western countries. In order to succeed in China, key opinion leader (KOL) marketing is not an option, it’s a necessity.
- Chinese Brand and Product Naming. Choosing the right brand name for the China market is one of the most sensitive aspects of an entrance strategy. We help with China brand name and slogan development.
- Digital Online PR . We help with China PR strategy to get attention from users and visibility in the market.
As each project is unique, we also organize free consultations to discuss your projects and suggest solutions. Contact us and we’ll help you turn your business goals into real outcomes
FAQ
Pet snacks,Pet supplies(pet nests, pet mats and so on),cleaning products, and pet toys are the key categories for pet lovers.Our research and strategy services help you conduct customer surveys and local interviews, summarize best practices in the pet industry, Communication channel analysis and so on.
For relevant brands, this is an opportunity market that cannot be missed. If you want to enter the Chinese elderly market from scratch, we provide local branding services, including brand and product naming, logo design,product guidelines and more.
Pet lovers are used to buying pet products and obtaining related information about pet products online. With over 60% of pet (cat and dog) owners choosing to buy pet staple food, snacks and pet supplies online.
Our digital advertising service helps you find the type of advertising that best suits your brand online. SEO advertising(Baidu,Sogo,360) or social media advertising(Wechat, Weibo,Zhihu,RED and so on) can help your brand reach a very broad target audience to gain more traffic and brand influence in China.
The majority of pet owners are women with a bachelor’s degree or above, married families with children and consumers in first and second-tier cities. At the same time, it is worth noting that the population below the third-tier and lower cities in the sinking market and happy singles have seen a significant growth pet raising trend.
We can provide comprehensive research and strategy service based on your target audience . You can obtain reliable customer information from local presence . Determine the right marketing channels to reach your target customers and avoid the common mistakes of foreign brands that do not understand the target customers in China enough to reduce unnecessary costs and avoid PR crises.