Know Your Audience! The Ins and Outs of Successful China and South-East Asian Digital Marketing with Entrepreneur Chris Cheng

Knowing your audience is essential. This is one of the ground axioms of marketing in general but holds especially true when venturing into foreign markets. For Australian businesses especially, the South-East Asian market has significant, yet often untapped, potential: A huge consumer market,  low entry barrier with loose regulations, and eager to do business with other countries. However, reaching the South-East Asian consumer comes with its own sets of challenges. How do you even reach 1.3 billion potential Chinese customers, when some of Australia’s most popular digital platforms – such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter – are getting blocked? What are the differences between Western and South-East Asian consumers regarding the current trends in your niche? Does your business even stand a chance without a preexisting WeChat marketing strategy? Obstacles like these are exactly where South-East Asian digital marketing expert Chris Cheng comes into play. 

As one of Australia’s most knowledgeable digital marketers regarding the region of South-East Asia, Chris Cheng has founded Jetek Asia Digital in order to assist western businesses to step into the Asian market and reach their consumers. Jetek Asia Digital helps western businesses understand the Asian target audience better. And with success: since Jetek was established in 2017, the digital marketing agency has worked with reputable brands in Australia and across South-East Asia such as Princess Polly, Superdry, Michael Hill, and Mercedes Benz Adelaide.

Chris Cheng shares some of his insights on how to win at South-East Asian digital marketing. ‘Firstly, I see a lot of businesses attempt to “copy-paste” their Western marketing strategy onto the South-East Asian market even though the cultures differ on a lot of fronts. Businesses can’t simply expect their consumer drives to be the same as those of western consumers.’ As Cheng explains, his cultural background in both Australia and China helps him see ‘both sides of the coin’ and bring western and Asian businesses together. ‘Which brings me to my second point: seek advice from people who truly know the culture – don’t work with general or even biased assumptions.

Is your company interested in expanding into the South-East Asian market but do you feel your digital marketing strategy could be better targeted to the South-East Asian consumer? Reach out to Jetek Asia Digital!