Imagethief

Good lord, imagine the psychological consequences.

But it turned out to be not quite what I thought. In fact, the China Daily article from which I got this precious nugget of infotainment turned out to be commenting on violations of the "rights of Chinese consumers" rather than their persons:

Results of a China Consumers' Association study show most of the victims complained about "fake and shoddy products", "false advertisements misleading consumers" and "unaffordable house prices".

More than 42 percent of the victims incurred "major financial losses" and 28.3 suffered "mental stress". One in eight had to endure "physical injury" and 10 percent felt their "personal freedom" had been violated.

Other complaints focused on issues such as "frequent food safety scares", "quality of mobile phones", "defrauding consumers" and "inferior house renovation".

This can mean only one thing: it's World Consumer Rights Day in China again. Every year on the ides of March we go through this ritual.

Allegedly conceived by John F. Kennedy, World Consumer Rights Day is today perpetuated by Consumers International, who describe it thus:

World Consumer Rights Day is an annual occasion for celebration and solidarity within the international consumer movement. But more importantly it is a time for promoting the basic rights of all consumers, for demanding that those rights are respected and protected, and for protesting the market abuses and social injustices which undermine them.

World Consumer Rights Day was first observed on March 15, 1983, and has since become an important occasion for mobilising citizen action. Consumer organisations around the world use materials produced by Consumers International to generate local initiatives and media coverage for their work over the coming year.

Imagethief, who is himself a consumer and something of a lefty idealist, and who's brain has not been entirely subverted by the PR industry, is broadly sympathetic with the aims of Consumers International and World Consumer Rights Day. This year's theme is "unethical drug promotion". Who could possibly oppose such a thing? Unfortunately, Consumers International tends to dilute its good intentions with hyperbolic, self-satirizing language:

"Consumers are largely unaware of how their drug consumption choices are being shaped by corporate motives for gargantuan profits."

Well, at least they are only "largely unaware", and not "totally unaware". Think how worrying that would be. Personally I thought my drug consumption choices were mostly shaped by my college roommate, but Consumers International doesn't have much to say about him.

This Chavista rhetoric may explain why World Consumer Rights Day doesn't make much of an impact in the US. I can't recall having heard of it while I lived there. (Total control of all US media by sinister corporate forces is another possible explanation.) But it's a bang-up party in China. Every year at this time we in the corporate mind-control industry gird our loins for PR battle. Many Chinese newspapers feel compelled to honor World Consumer Rights Day with a good corporate scandal or two. Ideally, a scandal involving a foreign company, which is always good for readership. (Hey, newspaper readers are consumers too!)

In fairness, "fake" products do get some attention in China on World Consumer Rights day. But this page from China Radio International's World Consumer Rights Day special from 2006 will give you an idea of the general approach. Note that seven of the eight cited cases are foreign brands. The generic one is for PVC cling film, however the article takes pains to point out that all six of the factories in China that make PVC cling film are partly or wholly foreign owned.

It's also a great time for Chinese companies to take digs at their foreign competitors. Baidu, who recently put out a television lampooning their foreign competitor, Google, for not understanding Chinese users, has certainly spotted the main chance. Yesterday (in time to make today's papers) Baidu released the results of a study on how MNCs are losing their shine in China. The whole study is not yet available, so you'll have to make do with China Daily's coverage:

Multinationals have ignored Chinese consumers at their own peril and are losing out to domestic enterprises, according to a survey released yesterday.

The one-year research by Baidu.com the most popular domestic search service website showed that domestic brands have overtaken foreign ones for the first time in terms of consumer favor.

Zhou Min, in charge of the research at Baidu, said multinationals should introspect to find out why they are losing ground. Full details of the survey have not been released.

***

 "Multinationals should behave as honestly as in their home countries and show a good sense of corporate citizenship," he said.

But it's straight up, right? I mean, Baidu has no particular horse in this game, does it?

But with the Internet, Chinese consumers get first-hand information about other markets and know how to protect their rights.

Oh. Possible subtext: A Chinese search engine will give you more "honest" information about MNCs than a foreign one will? Just speculating here.

What is certainly true is that Chinese consumers have high expectations for foreign brands. In fact, they generally have higher expectations for foreign brands than for Chinese ones. What that means is that when they feel let down their disappointment tends to be sharp indeed. Foreign companies often get accused of having a double standard for Chinese customers. Some foreigners working in China that I have spoken to agree with this assessment. Any MNC that takes such an approach is flirting with real danger. Baidu has one thing right: as it is doing everywhere, the Internet is making it much easier for Chinese consumers to share their disappointment with each other.

And World Consumer Rights Day sounds like a sharing time, doesn't it? 

Update:
Speaking of March 15th, Apple has moved pre-emptively in China with a pledge to the Shanghai government to improve after-sales service for iPods in China. From China Tech News:

Apple has sent a letter to Shanghai Municipal Consumer Interest Protection Commission and said that it will make improvements on its after-sales service, which has seen many complaints from Chinese users.

Starting last year, Apple's after-sales service has been a frequent target of Chinese consumers. Chinese consumers' complaints mainly focus on two areas: Apple's shortening of the maintenance period from one year to three months for the iPod and its use of refurbished iPods to replace problematic electronics.

On December 23, 2006, Chinese media reported about Apple's unfair after-sales service for iPods sold in China, saying that Apple's Global Repair Policy contradicted the Consumer Law of China. However, Zhao Jiaoli, secretary general of SMCIC, says that Apple is the first international company that has made such commitments to improving its after-sales services after listening to Chinese consumers' requests.