from "made in china" to "learnt in china"

Richard Kelly represented IDEO in " When China shows to the world its design-driven innovation instead of technology-based R&D driven innovation" suggested a new design thinking to suit Chinese customer- the human centered innovation approach. To find out what these new ways are, designers need to get close to the consumer and observe how they truly behave and what they ideally want. They observed that many female customers, in a subconscious act of saving money, so they encouraging money-saving behavior.

Just as the 2008 Games marked the possibility of transforming ‘Made in China’ into ‘Created in China’, so in the future when we will witness a World Expo encapsulates the progress of ‘Created in China’ to its next evolution: ‘Learnt in China’.

Chinese consumers have a big appetite for new experiences and ability for accelerated learning. So, consumers constantly re-learn and unlearn what's good and what's not, what works and what doesn't. They change their minds, and often very quickly about purchase decisions they make. They also adopt new behaviours much faster than those in the developed markets in general.

Consumers should be a source of inspiration for innovation and design, and not just technology excellence. Chinese consumers are as discerning about quality and as equally demanding about value. They also observed an increasing desire and demand for products, services and experiences that express their socio-cultural value rather than simply pursuing foreign brand names.

Chinese culture celebrates thriftiness. As as part of “created in china”, we’ll need to evolve from “how to make it cheaper” to a philosophy of “how to make it better”.