The Value of Building Your Brand in China

3. China's economy, while changing rapidly, is inherently local. The supplier that will be the best partner in Beijing is unlikely to be the one most successful in Chengdu, and vice versa. Because relationships are everything, the concept of a strong national firm is, at most, an emerging one. Thus finding partners is a task that must be implemented on a local basis, many times over, in order to reach all of China’s markets. This doesn't mean that each prospective partner won’t argue for a national, exclusive relationship. They'll want that. But they're unlikely to be able to deliver successes beyond the local markets in which they're strongly positioned in terms of relationships.