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One of my favorite things to read about and experience is how quintessential American brands have localized themselves around the world. It’s odd, for instance, to think of American mainstays like McDonald’s and 7-11 offering radically different products and services in their outlets abroad, but they do: McDonald’s, for instance, serves porridge in Singapore and Malaysia, and 7-11 sells video games and consoles in Japan.

And as China’s economy and level of personal wealth has exploded, so too have the number of Western companies doing business there. Unsurprisingly, Chinese consumers have made their imprint on companies like Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and, believe it or not, Pabst Blue Ribbon. Here are some funny, insightful, and just-plain-weird examples of stuff they sell in China:

5) Pig faces at Wal-Mart

Picture me, sitting at my desk in MLC World Headquarters, perusing an off-topic link sent to me by a colleague. “16 Items They Only Sell At Chinese Wal-Marts“. Imagine my horror as I scroll down to find pictures of pig faces – not the heads, just the faces – stacked in a bin.

Apparently pig face isn’t just a delicacy in China – in Spain, it’s called careta – and, in any case, I’m not one to criticize. I’ve eaten even more disgusting things on a dare.

4) Pabst Blue Ribbon – for $44 a bottle

Catering to the growing Chinese business class is proving to be quite a boon for some American manufacturers, including Pabst. Long known as a blue-collar (and later, a hipster) beer in the United States, Pabst Blue Ribbon has a special edition in China called “Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844″, is sold in a bottle that’s reminiscent of a high-end vodka, and advertisements suggest that the beer be served in – what else – a champagne flute. Retailing for an astonishing US$44 a bottle, the beer is marketed to the Chinese public as similar to scotch, brandy, and Bordeaux because all four are aged in wooden casks.

In a country where per-capita income remains just over $3,500/year, Pabst probably doesn’t move many units of this premium brew yet. But it’s an interesting anecdote illustrating an empirical truth – Chinese consumers are gaining purchasing power, and quickly.

3) Dragon dumplings at Starbucks

Starbucks has jumped into the localization game, too, by selling sweet glutinous rice dumplings called zongzi at their outlets in the Shanghai area. Zongzi, a delicacy served during the Dragon Boat Festival in late spring, are popularly called dragon dumplings in English. The dumplings are a perfect example of localization – they fit Starbucks brand image to a T, but in a way that endears the brand to the local population.

Despite their sweetness, zongzi have a dark origin; according to legend, they are eaten in commemoration of the ancient poet Qu Yuan, who committed suicide by jumping into a river in an act of protest against the Qin dynasty. The dumplings symbolize the crushed rice thrown into the river by his admirers, an effort to keep the fish from eating his body.

2) Buick

I’m a former GM consultant, so I have a natural bias here, but allow me to say that I love the Buick LaCrosse and Buick Enclave. They’re luxurious, comfortable cars with an awful lot of attention to detail, one of the things I value most in an automobile. I think everyone should drive one.

Despite all that, it’s not controversial to say that Buick is overcoming an image problem in the United States – its reputation as an “old man’s car”. Not so in China. Buick is one of the most popular brands in China, and has sold over 2 million cars in the last 11 years. Owning a Buick is  a status symbol, akin to owning a BMW or Mercedes-Benz in the US – a sign someone has truly “arrived”. GM sells more than twice as many Buicks in China as they do in the United States.

GM is smart, though – they’re actively incorporating local market knowledge back to their US operations. Chinese design teams collaborated with their American counterparts in the design of the 2010 LaCrosse, seen above.

1) Virtual gold

In the last 10 years, massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs, for short) have become immensely popular in Western geek culture. The games, including World of Warcraft, Everquest, and EveOnline, usually feature some kind of virtual currency, and can be called little economies. In-game “gold” has real-world value to players who want to be virtually rich, but don’t want to spend hours playing the game to make their fortune.

Spotting an arbitrage opportunity, Chinese entrepreneurs have set up “gold farms” – taking advantage of lower prevailing wages in China, and paying small armies of teenagers and young people to do nothing but log onto these games and earn money, selling the virtual currency in turn to richer players in the Western world.

China has taken steps to curb the practice, but gold farming remains prevalent in games like World of Warcraft.

MLC members, to learn more about China’s emerging consumer culture, please consider joining ChinaFocus 2010, Iconoculture’s first global Consumer Immersion Tour. Taking place September 19-25 in Shanghai, this all-inclusive journey to the center of the world’s fastest-growing market opportunity will give attendees a rich, insider’s perspective on the Chinese consumer — through exclusive discussions with native knowledge leaders, provocative demographic deep dives, and guided interactive explorations of homes, workplaces, retail venues and more — plus unique cultural experiences tied to the Shanghai World Expo and the annual Shanghai Creative Industries Week. Click here to download a digital brochure for details (PDF).

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