This behaviour is an essential component of the buying experience. It sits at the core of why businesses aspiring to sell in China need to understand how trade expos play a different role in the buying decision of a potential customer.
A trade expo in Singapore is about networking, flashy display of products and potential sales.
A trade expo in China is all of the above, but it is also about experiencing the product, getting a feel for it and assessing it in a practical way. Don’t just show a video of your water pump in action. You need to have a working example. The potential buyer needs to be able to try the boots on and kick the tyres before buying.
The potential buyer has already done his online research. I know what type and brand of boots I am interested in. I see the price, styles and options, but I want to hold them in my hands, feel the leather, and physically check the soles and how they are attached to the uppers.
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I want to determine if the online marketing on the website matches the physical product or if there are significant differences. This same approach applies to accounting software, virtual reality headsets, injection moulding equipment, gadgets and valves. The Chinese buyer wants to see, feel and experience the product before purchasing.
The Chinese trade expo is not a show and display exercise. Exhibitors who treat it as such are the ones who end up complaining: “We tried expos and they didn’t work.” They don’t work because the exhibitors have approached the expo experience in a Western manner and have not given the potential customer the information he wants.
The rubbish bins outside the expo are filled with discarded pamphlets and promotional booklets. Next time you attend an expo (it may not have to be in China), take a peek into the rubbish bins because their contents will tell you what doesn’t work at the expo.
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The measure of success is not how many flyers you hand out but how many genuine enquiries you manage. With large-scale Chinese trade expos, it is an expensive task handing out print material to the thousands who pass by your booth. It is better to let them explore your display area, touch the product, play with the software application, handle the item and let them ask for follow-up information on paper or USB drive.
Your customers have probably discovered your product online. They come to the expo to see it, so structure your expo experience to meet their expectations.
Technical outlook of the Shanghai market
The Shanghai Index dipped below the projected trend line B but then rebounded. This was also a successful test of the upper edge of the long-term group of moving averages in the Guppy Multiple Moving Average (GMMA) indicator. This rebound confirms the strength of support for the trend continuation.
The position of trend line B is adjusted to take into account the successful rebound rally. This rally is also a successful continuation of a breakout from the short-term downtrend shown by trend line C.
The GMMA indicator shows increasingly strong support that has acted as a springboard for this retreat. The degree of separation is increasing, indicating stronger investor support for the uptrend continuation.
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Wide separation on the long-term group of averages in this indicator shows that investors are more confident. Wider separation shows there is a significant spread in the assessment of the price and value relationship and this acts to support trend strength.
The developing rebound rally has resistance at the value of uptrend line B near 3,380. The rally rebound has the next resistance level near 3,435. This is long-term historical resistance at the upper level of the trading band.
The interesting but perhaps coincidental feature is the repeated pattern of rally and retreat within the broad trading band between support near 3,160 and resistance near 3,435. A sustained breakout above 3,435 breaks the pattern and leaves room for a retest of highs near 3,675.
The resumption of the uptrend was confirmed when the short-term GMMA bounced above the long-term GMMA. Typically, traders act much more quickly than investors and the long-term GMMA is slowly expanding as investors try to get a good position.
A sustained fall below the lower edge of the long-term GMMA as support near the lower edge of the trading band near 3,160.
Daryl Guppy is an international financial technical analysis expert. He has provided weekly Shanghai Index analysis for mainland Chinese media for two decades. Guppy appears regularly on CNBC Asia and is known as “The Chart Man”. He is a former national board member of the Australia China Business Council
