Transforming How We Understand Asian Cultures and Consumers

Abstract

This chapter looks at connections between countries and people across Asia, as a way to understand the region and how it is building a new form of modernity. As explained in Chapter 2, Asian brands will increasingly have to move beyond functional benefits to appeal to Asian consumers. The first step is to understand Asian consumer culture. It is important for companies to realize that Asia is (see Table 3.1):

• A mosaic of cultures rather than a homogeneous region

• An urban form of modernity rather than an exotic continent

• A region of countries connected by history cultural heritage, religious affiliations, migration, and the pattern of rural vs. urban divide

• A region where Asian music and images are gaining prominence every day, rather than being invaded by Western popular culture.

Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia, and she is too old.

—Rudyard Kipling, 1891