Global Trendsetters: China

by Christian Rommel

Traditional Chinese Forms Mix Easily With Modern Fantasies To Establish a Bond Between Consumer and Package

Any attempt by foreigners who come to China for a short period of time in order to get a realistic and representative picture of the Chinese market for packaging seems ultimately doomed to failure by the sheer heterogeneity of what they get to see and experience.

For a start, the complexity of the Chinese notion of the term "quality" does not fit in our western schemes of thinking. Quality—by western standards—is a measure for the best possible result. It means to fulfill certain demands set by the customers or the company itself to 100 percent and to reduce divergences and tolerances to an absolute minimum. This subjective evaluation, or rather assessment, is based on the desire or the demand to achieve the technologically optimal and to live up to the self-made claims. In western countries, the result of this way of thinking and working manifests itself in a generally high standard of packaging (form, function, material and craftsmanship) that leaves the consumer with hardly anything to be desired. Most Asians, however, cannot follow this concept of quality.

In China, the quality of packaging follows other premises. It depends on individual (often changing) priorities from several angles: on the side of the customers, the respective branch of industry, the product, and also the available budget. Quality in China does not mean striving for perfection. Costs and profit have to be in due proportion with each other. This can easily vary within a company, according to the order and the job specification. Most Chinese companies offer their customers a variety of possible packaging solutions; for example, depending on whether native or imported materials should be used. Quality demand, quality level, and quality awareness are terms that can—depending on supply and demand—be handled flexibly both by customers as well as producers. This article will examine the flexible market forces driving packaging through the study of the exemplary and significant Chinese cigarette packaging market segment.

Production processes in China are limited by the availability of certain technologies. Of course, factors of time and financial input are being weighed against the potential market price for a certain product as much in the East as they are in the West. However, the conclusions drawn from such considerations are very different in China. Due to the enormous differences between manual and non-manual production costs, a certain product might be produced and fully packaged by means of machines one day, and produced and packaged by hand on the next day. As a result of the lack of a dual system of education and internal training courses, the level of quality of Chinese employees within the same industrial branch also varies so widely that the achievable results, too, are highly incongruent.

This scenario inevitably results in a highly ambivalent situation in the production process for packaging regarding the utilisation of technologies. The times of cheap and badly made letterpress soft packages with repeatedly recycled paper, loose sleeves, crooked adhesive folds, gloomy colors and unprofessional print design that—as a result of the communist economy of scarcity and uniformity—dominated the country, are mostly over. They are more and more surpassed by a surprising variety of extremely professionally produced flip-top boxes that are by no means inferior to their western counterparts. And still, one regularly finds a discrepancy in quality between high- and low-tech products in the very same market and product segment (this is by no means restricted to the tobacco industry alone) which would be hardly be imaginable in the western world.

Craftsmanship and improvisation

Despite the generally improving quality of packaging solutions in supermarkets, boutiques, street markets and kiosks, a strange mix of Chinese talent for improvisation and western craftsmanship in engineering is still clearly visible. In the packaging industry, the dominant western idea of the seemingly incommensurable "either/or" meets the Asian concept of the harmoniously combinable "as well as," which could possibly also be deduced from the traditional principle of "Yin and Yang."

However, quality and utilization of technology are not the only spheres where severe differences between western and eastern styles of packaging can be disclosed. Moreover, ways of packaging are not only modern testimonials of the efficiency of industry and economy. The also symbolize the progress and the standard of living of a society; they reflect consumer behavior and aesthetic taste; they express a way of life; they are used as status symbols and even fulfill functions of prestige.

What individual nations make of a simple folded box as a medium of cultural identity is not only surprisingly creative and follows a variety of diverging ways of thinking. It also produces a great bandwidth of outcomes. Especially in China, packaging design has undergone a fascinating change in recent years where the emphasis was about-faced again and again.

To retrace and understand these developments it is first necessary to throw a slightly polarizing glance on the principles of design in the western cultural context. In the west, mainly unobtrusive tinges are used; the symbolic content on the front of packages is reduced to a minimum; abstract patterns enhanced with computerized graphics dominate the appearance; texts are linguistically perfected and appeal to the unconscious; the design clearly corresponds to the product; and the overall appearance is clearly geared towards specific target groups.

Building personal relationships

Targeted packaging design in the west is not only a visible result of the craftsmanship of well-trained graphic designers, but it also reflects long years of market research and cleverly devised marketing strategies. The focus is always on the coherent and reciprocal relationship between package and customer.

In Asia, however, lively colors dominate: colorful, sometimes even flashy packages are omnipresent; traditional symbols and concrete images of everyday life are employed; texts are restricted to the informational content; the design is geared towards the emotional; a focus on one specific target group can hardly be found; and the professional background of Chinese packaging designers as classic artists is still clearly visible in the artistry of their designs. Of course, design is a question of individual taste. Nevertheless, a large part of Chinese packages not only seem exotically colorful to the western eye, but also rather poorly conceived and kitschy. In China, the relationship between the package and the buyer can be a very personal one.

A professional brand appearance, an individual profile, and a concise design that consciously stands out in the competition and which exercises a sales appeal via the subtle forms of package design still seems to be the exception. The realization of western advertising and marketing experts that package design is a very effective marketing device still seems to be in the fledgling stages with many Chinese companies.

In a country where smoking is seen as an essential part of the culture and as an integral part of social interaction, there certainly is no shortage of different brands. Traditional Chinese cigarette brands are an exotic kaleidoscope of Chinese art and culture. There is nothing that the imaginary fantasy world of the Chinese packaging designers could not conjure up. Like a microcosm, these illustrations represent the whole variety of Chinese package design.

Mirrors of the soul

On the front covers of cigarette packages one can find drawings or photographic images of phantasmagorical landscapes abounding with canyons and waterfalls, bizarre rock formations, and gnarled trees. Impressive architectural monuments with graceful temples, seven-story pagodas, powerful city gates, and ostentatious palaces bear witness to over 4,000 years of Chinese cultural history.

The exotic Chinese fauna can also be admired on cigarette packs—apart from dogs and cats, tigers and rhinoceroses, roosters and oxen, butterflies and eagles, one can also find fish and penguins, dromedaries, and dinosaurs. Mythical creatures like the Garuda, the dragon or the phoenix complement this colorful arrangement. The reasons why depictions of animals are generally popular in China lie in the fact that their characteristics—like power or swiftness—evoke positive associations. Furthermore, many animals (the goldfish, for example) are said to be lucky charms.

Thus, the cover illustrations are a miniature reflection of the wishes and desires of the Chinese Everyman who, for a handful of Yuan, can buy a tangible bit of luck to put in his trouser pocket. Packages can be a true "mirror of the soul" and therefore not only represent the notions of design but the mentality of an entire people. This is exactly why those affectionately designed cigarette packs gain style points with the Chinese people.

New forms sprout from imitation

The social, political, economic and cultural transformations that began in the 1990s in China also had its implications for the packaging designs. The opening of the market, liberalization, globalization and the growing competition, a rising purchasing power and improved living standards resulted in a radical change. The general tendency seemed to be a movement to an increasing westernization of goods.

This new type of package orientates itself on contemporary western design and wants to give itself a modern outward image. Abstract designs—far away from the naturalistically concrete images of the '80s and '90s—with lines, geometrical patterns and coloured spaces with a screen across are the dominant features here. Directly copying the style and appearance of American, British, German, and Japanese brands, such packs consciously want to stand out from the old, traditional China. Trying to connect with the world of modernity and progressiveness and the foreign, it is hoped to increase sales opportunities.

Nevertheless, the current generation of Chinese cigarette packs that consistently assimilated foreign designs is only a transitional stage, since the abstract nature of the designs in a western style does not allow the average consumer to form any close relationship with the product. And it is especially this emotional appeal of the design which informs the Chinese consumer's liking and his decision to buy or not to buy a certain product.

Very soon the growing awareness of a cultural identity, the highly pronounced national pride and the local patriotism of the Chinese—84% of whom are extremely proud of their home country and the achievements of their state—will lead to a new trend. Surveys show that although currently every Chinese person who can afford it tends to enjoy buying imported brands, many would actually prefer native products of equal quality over foreign ones, since that would enable them to better identify with the respective product.

A connection to cultural history

If the Chinese remember the roots and traditions of their own cultural history, this will also help them to develop a distinct style of packaging. The future of Chinese packaging design clearly lies in the use of typical Chinese colors, symbols, and compositional elements that—although very different compared to 15 years ago—conform to the Chinese mentality and tastes.

Hardly anyone outside of the tobacco industry knows that already today China holds a dominant position in the area of package refinement. No other country on earth boasts so many cigarette packs that are elaborately grafted with metallic colors, shiny finishes, imprinted laminations, reflective coatings, and holograms than China. The Chinese are experts in the field of print finishing and take a strong liking to visual effects. European packaging technology makes everything possible, and 35% of all cigarette production lines installed in China boast the cachet "made in Germany."

Overloaded with extreme effects, the packages are considered to be desirable luxury goods and, as such, are being heartily accepted and bought. The fact that, according to the principle of "less is more," from a western perspective these results of technological top-rate performance could gain even more quality and appeal is another matter. This difference in mentality, however, also forms the basic reason for the attractiveness of intercultural contemplations.

It is a great challenge for the Chinese government and its Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, President Hu Jintao, and a population of nearly 1.25 billion to keep apace with the current rapid economic changes. Considering this, there is also still enough room for technological innovations, adjusted solutions, and intelligent concepts in all areas of the packaging industry. Changes in consumer behavior and new structures in the distribution of goods greatly change the role and function of packages as strategies of self-presentation and self-promotion, a function that could be largely neglected in the past. Visual and functional demands have to accommodate with the new needs and requirements of the huge country and its people.

At present, China still depends on imports to largely satisfy these needs. According to Xie Rongquan, the vice president and general secretary of the China Packaging Technology Association (CPTA) in Beijing, however, the government will provide 11 billion dollars (U.S.) over the next few years to make the packaging industry, as one of the key industries, fit for the growing demands of the coming decade.

One could easily imagine that thanks to its economic power and its strong potential for design in connection with western technologies, China might flood western markets with a new generation of goods and packages which will transform the generally negative connotation of the slogan "made in China" into a recognized statement of quality.

Chinese economy and packaging industry facts

• Average Chinese income has tripled since 1990
• About 80 million Chinese currently have the financial means to buy imported goods
• Packaging market volume is approximately 310 billion US$
• Packaging materials: 52% paper and cardboard, 31% plastics, 11% metal, 6% glass
• There are approximately 35,000 companies in the packaging industry
• Approximately 3.3 million Chinese work in the packaging industry
• Average annual increase of packaging industry between 1991 and 2003 is 27%
• China represents 30% of the world cigarette market volume
• Over 1,000 different cigarette brands are produced by roughly 125 companies

Christian Rommel has published three books on packaging design (www.little-treasures.de), is managing partner of ROX Asia Consultancy Ltd. in Hong Kong, a German consulting firm specializing in services in the Asian print and packaging market, and owns a collection of over 11,000 Chinese cigarette packs from three decades. Christian can be contacted at rommel@roxasia.com.