China Buys A CrowdSurvey Production Imported Milk Purchases Findings of a survey conducted April 30, 2014

China Buys Past series of reports: 1.Domestic Milk Report Current: 2.Imported Milk Report Future series of reports: 3.Yoghurt Report 4.100% Juice Report 5.Mixed Juice Report 6.Milk Powder Report 7.Bottled Water Report 8.Carbonated Drink Report 9.Yoghurt Drink Report 10. Energy Drink Report 11. Tea Report 12. Coffee Report 13. Beer Report 14.Yellow Rice Wine Report 15. White Wine Report 16. Red Wine Report 17. Shampoo Report 18. Hair Conditioner Report 19. Body Wash Report 20. Sunscreen Report 21. Facial Wash Report And More is going on……

China Buys China Buys is a new series of reports on the purchasing behavior of those who will be the heart of China—that part of the population under age 40 that is enabled in more than one sense of the word. China Buys will ask large number of consumers every week where they buy different products, what brands they have bought recently and what brands they will buy in the near future. We will then look at the differences between consumers—do women buy differently from men? Do consumers in one province buy differently than another? How does age impact purchase location and preference? And we will bring these answers to you within a week. This is the second in a series of reports on surveys conducted by CrowdSurvey, China’s largest mobile research panel. Copyright CrowdSurvey, a joint venture of Weichaishi and nQuire China.

China Buys Imported Milk Our first survey was about Chinese purchases of domestic milk. This survey is about their purchases of imported milk. We will do some comparison between the two, as well as reporting the ‘headline’ numbers. The first difference is that we only got 500 consumers to talk to us about foreign milk, as opposed to ten times that many for domestic milk purchases. We asked almost 500 consumers to tell us about their past purchases of milk, the locations where they bought it and what brand they are most likely to purchase in the next 30 days. We’re working on a similar report for Chinese consumption of yoghurt. Stay tuned.

Who We Talked To—And Who We Didn’t Readers are strongly advised to look carefully at the demographics section at the end of this report. There are only a handful of respondents over the age of 60, for example. On the other hand, we achieved very good geographic representation, with respondents coming from almost 200 cities from every province in China. As with our first survey, their incomes look fairly representative, as do their educational achievements. Only a third of our respondents are married—that’s far lower than for China’s under 40s as a whole, but understandable when we see that 45% of our respondents are under age 25. This report is not intended to represent the opinions or behavior of all of China. It captures meaningful data about the consumers whose decisions and attitudes will be important to businesses all over the world. Our survey was conducted using a questionnaire delivered by mobile applications on smart phones. That alone means that we had no access to those without smartphones, nor to those who shy away from downloading mobile apps.

Q1: Where do you most frequently buy imported milk? Whether domestic or foreign, most milk is purchased at supermarkets. However, a lot (22.3%) of foreign milk is bought online. Not very much domestic milk is. Those under 30 comprised almost all of the online purchases of imported milk and almost all of those purchasing imported milk from a convenience store. Students were among those most willing to purchase imported milk online.

Q2. What was the brand of milk you purchased most frequently last month? Respondents reported having bought 57 different brands of imported milk in the past month. The top 10 brands accounted for 75% of purchases, with Oldenburger number 1 at 16.4% and Lactel number 2 at 11.1%, the only brands with more than a 10% market share.

Q3. Which brand of milk are you most likely to purchase in the next month? Respondents named 57 different brands of imported milk as the one they are most likely to purchase in the next month. Future purchasers are planning to shop more widely and consider other brands than the ones they most recently purchased.

If You Need More Information One key finding of this survey is that more than 21% of imported milk purchasers will buy a different brand of milk in May than they did in April. Those intending to switch brands have higher incomes than those deciding to stay with the brand they previously bought. We hope this information is valuable. We offer it to you for free. (Of course, we hope that you will want more information that we can charge you for. Not too much—just 3,000 RMB.) If you do want more information please send an to

Key Finding One key finding of this survey is that 21% of respondents to this survey said they will purchase a different brand of imported milk than the one they named as having bought in the past month. This is similar to the percentage of brand defectors in domestic milk and indicates that the market for imported milk products is in play to a considerable extent and can be influenced by marketing, promotions and store conditions. Okay, here’s another interesting finding—those intending to switch brands in May tend to have higher incomes and report higher levels of educational achievement.

Methodology CrowdSurvey is powered by China’s largest crowdsourcing company Weichaishi and nQuire China, a full service market research company headquartered in Shanghai. Respondents are recruited by an invite placed on their Weichaishi mobile application. Those who complete the survey are rewarded with 0.2 yuan. The survey consists of three questions and is part of their welcome dashboard when they start the mobile app. All of Weichaishi’s users are eligible to participate.

Demographics 1 Age -As we have mentioned in the report, our respondents are younger than China as a whole. However, respondents to this survey about imported milk were somewhat older than those who took our survey last week on purchases of domestic milk.

Demographics 2 Gender - As is often the case with surveys conducted electronically, slightly more women than men participated in the study

Demographics 3 Education

Demographics 4 Marital Status

Demographics 5 Employment by sector Respondents to this survey tend to be in more ‘modern’, service oriented businesses. A smaller percentage of students participated in this survey than the previous survey on domestic milk purchases.

Demographics 6 Income Participants in this survey on imported milk tend to have slightly higher incomes than those who participated in the survey on domestic milk purchases.

Wei Chai Shi & CrowdSurvey Thank you! Mailbox: Website: