China, Apple and PR

China is  the world’s fastest growing economy, a communist country transitioning to capitalism, or it is somewhat internationally agreed. China still holds the instruments of a communist country and mostly controls the public speech, which means China can at any time start a PR war on the consumption of imported goods. China may have realized that it has a giant weapon in its hands: the worlds largest consumer population and control over it. The control China holds over its population may not be only through restrictive methods but also PR even it’s made through the state controlled mass media.

Forbes tells the story of a possible war between Apple and China. Summary: more than 20,000 college students applied for high interest loans. The students were buying fancy electronics, especially from Apple. So, China started attacking Apple on its warranty policies, shorter in China than in other countries, China claims. This happened not only on the national television but also on Weibo (China’s twitter like service) where Apple had 50.000 mentions, mostly negative. Forbes writes this seems a part of a long run campaign against foreign brands. Volkswagen also being mentioned.

Until recently China’s power held in its low cost manufacturing plants, but now it seems its most lethal weapon are its consumers, and it is only normal China will discover the power of advertising and PR war and will want those consumers for its own companies. All the companies are seeing China as an opportunity for growth with the traditional markets sinking, but China’s growth into a consumer market also means higher awareness for the Chinese state and desire to sell its own products to its huge market. It will be a marketing war and it’s not going to be all white tactics all the time, it will also be PR and it will be dirty. This also means China will be the place to be for marketers.