Post by Chu Guannan

One thought that came to me this week is about localization. Earlier in my career, I worked with brands like Nike and ClassPass. The global strategy was already there, and local teams focused on adapting campaigns to different cities and cultures. But recently I've been thinking about a very different situation. What happens when a community-based brand from overseas wants to enter a first-tier city in China with a limited budget? In many cases, the importer becomes the local marketing team. The first priorities are usually straightforward: find the right consumers, build relationships with distributors and retail partners, get products into bars, cafés or bottle shops. But I've noticed an interesting paradox. For many channel owners, local visibility creates credibility. If they search your brand on Xiaohongshu, Douyin or local social media and find almost nothing, they may hesitate to stock your products—even if your brand is well respected overseas. On the other hand, if they search Google, your brand might have won international awards, built a loyal community, and have years of history. Globally famous. Locally invisible. That raises an interesting question: At what point does local content become a business development tool rather than just a marketing activity? Maybe building localized content isn't something that happens after distribution. Maybe it's what makes distribution possible in the first place. I'm curious how other importers, founders or brand managers have approached this challenge. If your brand has faced this situation before, I'd love to hear how you solved it.