Keep things simple in the rising consumer market in Asia

by Adwright, 6 September18

“Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make things complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.”

Richard Branson


It is not new, Asia is Growing

Increasingly, consumer booms are powering Asia’s growth. The millennials are the new, optimistic generation driving the direction of their economies: the emerging middle class with higher spending power, technologically savvy, comfortable with the borderless consumerism and are inspired by their parents and grandparents’ stable consumption patterns.

These new consumers are exactly what Asia and the world need. They are inherently optimistic and incredibly open to innovation, making them enthusiastic importers as well as formidable competitive exporters. Like consumers everywhere, they will be a stabilising force in their giant economies. That means they are likely to play an anchor role for Asia’s prospect and growth.

Based on the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, the Household Final Consumption Expenditure as a share of GDP 2015 shows that Asia’s household expenditure is rising. The consumers in China are sprinting, with retail sales regularly clocking up double-digit gains in turnover. These Millennials are happily embracing credit, consumption and debt. They are taking advantage of e-commerce and online retailing, spending through these channels that are currently running at annual rates of close to RMB 4 trillion in 2015.1

In India, the retail markets are expected to expand rapidly to 2020 and beyond, lifting from USD600 billion in 2015 to USD 1 trillion by 2020. 2

In fact, Asia is much more than just China and India; economies such as Indonesia have equally rapid pace in terms of income growth and urbanisation over the last two decades. Within just 10 years,the share of Indonesia’s population classified as high-income or upper middle-income has risen from 15 percent to 60 percent in 2015, underscoring the consumption potential that the country has to offer in the future. 3

Perplexed by the Asian complexity

These growths within Asia excites businesses around the world as they see these as opportunities. However, many businesses may find it perplexing to communicate to the Asian consumers. The art of speaking to the Asian millennials can be tough. In Asia, while the business language is primarily English, it should literally be represented in at least 6 different languages. This is because Asia is one big fragmented continent. Without a doubt, consumers are willing to spend when they feel connected to the brand so when a brand is able to customise and localise in the community it operates in, it would be able to achieve greater buy-ins. The stories the brand tells is imperative to how the brand relates to its consumers across all touch points and media platforms.

Now more than ever before, a single piece of branded message has to be tailored so that the message can be targeted to the various audiences throughout Asia. The framed message even in different languages should be aligned to the brand’s ideals. There lies the intricacies of branding. A brand’s behaviour, tonality and how it outwardly connects to the audiences play a role in how consumers perceive the brand. Therefore for successful brands, there lies a brand guide and style that lay down the ground rules of how it speaks, walk and behave so the brand’s philosophy does not get diluted in any sphere it operates in. Branding goes beyond a logo, it encompasses a wide scope of components and requires understanding the nuances of operatives within brand narratives.

Keep things simple

Hang in there! Branding may seem like a roller-coaster ride but it really should not be. Once a company establishes its brand vision and why it exist, it makes communication much easier.

At Adwright, it prides itself for keeping things simple. Adwright has helped companies to organise and simplify brands’ product categories so that the brands are less cumbersome and allows consumers to understand its brands more efficiently. Adwright has also made great progress in cementing its reputation as a brand localisation agency as we have worked with a Fortune Global 500 company to communicate its brand in the local context.

If you would like to find out more on the services that Adwright provides, call us today on +65 6227 7227 or email



  1. Voice of Asia First Edition, January 2017,
  2. Nielsen, “India consumer confidence in Q1 2016 highest since pre-global recession levels,” May 17, 2016, 
  3. Deloitte, The evolution of the Indonesian consumer, May 2016, 

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