With a host of corporate scandals, product safety issues, and rampant counterfeiting in China, Chinese consumers are commonly mistrustful of corporations. As a result, it’s up to multinational brands to remain transparent and authentic in order to win over the trust of their Chinese customers. On the most recent episode of Thoughtful China, Geoff Beattie, the global head of corporate affairs at PR agency Cohn & Wolfe, discusses his firm’s recent reports on how brands can embrace a transparent and honest image to succeed in the China market. “People are genuinely crying out for a different kind of relationship with brands. You have to engage consumers in a much more open, honest, and mutually respectful conversation. Too often in terms of corporate communications and brand communications, it is a one-way flow and that needs to change, because the world has changed,” says Beattie. Watch the video embedded above for the full interview.
