This is the third of three columns originally published in Dragon News, the membership magazine of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce (in China).

One of the first things we all learn about China is that China is not one market. For most of us this insight then leads to a process of peeling layer after layer off “the onion”. Some stop at a well defined socio-economic group or a given geographical area while others focus on one specific lifestyle or subculture. No matter if you are here to sell ideas or handbags – strict consumer segmentation is an absolute necessity and a fundamental starting point for anyone wanting to succeed here.

Naturally, the same goes for the exhibition in the Swedish pavilion at Expo 2010.

The organizers expect a tiny fraction of the visitors to come from other parts of the world and we hear numbers like 98% Chinese guests. So our target audience is, beyond all doubt, to be found among our Chinese friends. But stopping there would be a big mistake.

Of course it would be nice if every taxi driver in China, when you explain that you are Swedish, responded with “Innovative” before they said “Waldner”, but the world expo would not be an effective way to reach that result. In fact it would be kind of stupid.

So, taking the media (a world exposition in Shanghai), the nature of the Swedish brand and the interests of the partner companies into consideration the exhibition team started “peeling the onion”.

The exhibition should sell the idea of Sweden as an innovative and progressive country to our most important friends here in China. During the Expo in Shanghai these friends are decision makers from both business and politics, and young professionals. In both cases we believe they live in or around Shanghai, and in some cases they travel from other first tier cities in China.

Based on this we started working on the concept, story and form of the Swedish exhibition. An extremely important part of this process has been to constantly make sure that the content stay relevant to our two main target audiences. One of the tools for this has been focus group interviews. Everything from the theme “Spirit of Innovation” and the logo colors, to photos and interior features have been tested on groups of young professionals and decision makers. Their feedback, references and expectations have helped us identify better ways to engage the desired audiences and get our message across.

It is surprisingly easy – and equally dangerous – to make assumptions about how your information will be received by others. Let me give you a simple example. During one of the group interviews our team did in order to test the photos in the exhibition, we showed, what we considered, a very typical Swedish summer landscape. Picture the meadows, birch trees and grassing cows we all dream of having outside our little red summer cottage. Then try to picture the look on our faces when we hear our focus group members saying:

“That’s Inner Mongolia, New Zeeland or maybe Xinjiang!”

Sweden is, according to them, a crispy and fresh winter landscape.

If we had not involved our audiences in the development of the form we might have ended up with an Inner Mongolian exhibition. Luckily we didn’t (no offence Inner Mongolia). We are instead looking forward to opening an exhibition that is all Sweden, a Sweden that has gone through the filter of our most important Chinese friends. And if you are one of these friends, the answer is: Yes, we are talking to you!

If not, you are of course still warmly welcome to the Swedish exhibition.

Hoping to see you all there!

Marie Wennberg

Springtime is a PR- and communications firm with over ten years experience of brand building in China. Springtime is also the lead agency in charge of designing the Swedish exhibition at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The theme of the Swedish exhibition is “Spirit of innovation” and, together with our partners Futurniture, Tengbom Architects and Eastwei Relations, we have developed the concept and given form to the exhibition.