05 9 / 2010
Shanzhai, customizing knockoffs
Shanzhai, a chinese terms for high quality knock offs, or the general idea of taking what’s cool from big rich brands and making it available for the masses. What’s interesting about these copy cat designs is how fast they can iterate the designs and how they localize it to their base consumers.
One example are the dual sim card iPhone knock offs and the sub $100 iPad knock offs running windows. Nobody really relies on land phones and travel around a lot; so having two sim cards is sweet. One for work, one for personal. As much as I hate Windows, but for the local people in Asia, it’s more familiar to them and the applications they need are in Win machines.
There’s a number of us who look at different web models and try to replicate it in Asia. For instance with Twitter, we see people using micro-blogging differently from US counter-parts. Users are more likely to use it from mobile and as an alternative to SMS-ing and MMS-ing people to a lot of people. Even with Foursquare, it will more likely be use as a form of customer validation then the novelty of broadcasting your check ins.
At the Patterns Ideo site they mention the 4 areas to push innovation and leverage the Shanzhai is:
1. Leverage the wisdom of common folks
Organize a Chinese version of Dragons Den, or innovation competition, to help grassroots innovation blossom.
2. Use tools for expression
Provide customizing tools that enable people to mark a bit of themselves on their products. Consider the gamut, from stickers of Swarovski crystal on mobile phones to prestige logos.
3. Go for liangdian, or ‘shiny points’
Be bold and explicit about the value proposition of a product. It has to make a clear statement of what consumers have paid money for.
4. Exploit grassroots sentiments
Harness grassroots humor to get closer to Chinese consumers in diverse regions. Such playful sentiments help build relationships with mass consumers.
I see it as crowd source to find what’s hot and what works. Embrace that ‘Pimp My Ride’ personalize/customization. Don’t be afraid to be loud or even cheesy on designs. And leverage word of mouth communities.
Localize the experience. Finding relevance. This where ‘copy-catting’ can be innovative and how these companies can beat the big brand names in these emerging markets in terms of monetization.
