By Mark Tanner*<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a new nightlife trend emerging in China\u2019s higher-tier cities:\u00a0Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) bars<\/a>.<\/p>\n These low-lit venues hum with music, but behind the bar where you\u2019d expect rows of bottles, sit drawers filled with herbs. Bartenders in white coats, often TCM-certified, engage each guest, asking about their lifestyle and habits before crafting personalised herbal cocktails.<\/p>\n There are three interesting developments at play here:<\/p>\n First, the continued\u00a0fusion of TCM into contemporary, trend-led spaces<\/a>; elevating it from a traditional remedy to a modern lifestyle symbol. Second, as hospitality in China increasingly leans into QR codes and self-service, the return of human interaction holds renewed appeal \u2013 particularly in categories where trust is important, such as health. And third, the growing importance of personalisation.<\/p>\n Personalisation has been a long-running trend in China. We\u2019ve been\u00a0emphasising its importance for over a decade<\/a>. But the level now available to consumers has stepped up significantly.<\/p>\n Until recently, true personalisation at scale was difficult to execute. Today, with the rise of AI and smart manufacturing, it\u2019s becoming far more achievable.<\/p>\n Take Haier. Once a provider of standardised home appliances that consumers adapted their lives around, it now enables users to co-design products online.\u00a0Appliances are tailored to their exact needs and lifestyles<\/a>, and have them delivered in near real time. If it can be done with fridges, it can be done with almost anything.<\/p>\n And personalisation is unlikely to stop at the point of purchase. As more products are embedded with technology, they can evolve alongside the user at\u00a0all stages of the customer journey.<\/a>\u00a0Appliances can adapt to seasons or occasions; EVs could one day reskin themselves to match your mood.<\/p>\n With Chinese consumers can be\u00a0exposed to\u00a0tens of thousands of new products daily<\/a>, relevance has never been more critical. Personalisation helps brands cut through, making products feel less generic and more attuned to individual needs, motivations, and contexts.<\/p>\n This growing capability is also driving expectation. Consumers are increasingly anticipating that both products and marketing will speak directly to them.<\/p>\n Not every brand can build AI-enabled, just-in-time production systems. But all brands should recognise the direction of travel.\u00a0Tailor where you can<\/a>, whether through more targeted SKUs, occasion-led offerings, or interest-specific variants, to avoid being seen as generic. And personalise communications too. With AI, it has never been easier to\u00a0deliver messaging that better aligns with individual needs<\/a>.<\/p>\n *Mark Tanner<\/a> is the CEO of China Skinny, a marketing consultancy in Shanghai. This article was first published here<\/a>,<\/a> and is re-posted with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mark Tanner* There\u2019s a new nightlife trend emerging in China\u2019s higher-tier cities:\u00a0Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) bars. These…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-375123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}