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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DiViT who wrote (35860)	9/11/1998 2:23:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Audio on DVD discs.......... dolby.com

To: DiViT who wrote (35860)	9/11/1998 2:45:00 PM
From: Don Dorsey	Respond to of 50808

China middle class is key to brand success LONDON (Reuters) - A new middle class is emerging in China that holds the key to future sales of branded goods by international manufacturers, according to a new survey published Wednesday. But the report by advertising and marketing company Ogilvy & Mather, part of the London-based WPP Group Plc, cautioned that the Chinese middle class was made up of four segments strikingly different in their attitude toward branded goods. ''The emergence of a new middle class, with the purchasing power to consume branded goods, is a major development,'' said T.B. Song, president of Ogilvy & Mather Greater China. ''Segmenting and learning the brand-buying behavior of the Chinese middle class is critical for brand marketers.'' Only 15 percent of families in 12 major cities have a monthly income of more than 2,500 yuan ($300), according to a survey carried out earlier this year in 12 Chinese cities. But marketing experts say international companies are clamoring for consumer information about China and regard its 1.2 billion population as one of the world's great untapped markets. O&M said its survey was the first research project to focus on the Chinese middle class and the first to study brand buying behavior with a study of values and lifestyles. ''Combining the two formats helped us develop distinct profiles of the four segments that constitute the new middle class; not only gaining insight into how they think but also how they buy brands,'' said Ogilvy Brand Consult Managing Director Robert Pollard. The survey broke down middle class Chinese into four categories - Seekers, Adapters, Tolerators and Resistors. It said Seekers often worked in foreign-invested companies, were enthusiastic supporters of the market economy and regularly bought foreign branded goods. Adapters were less entrepreneurial, equally familiar with foreign brands but less likely to buy them. Tolerators tended to work in state-owned enterprises who were less familiar with foreign brands. ''However they can be loyal to value brands, like McDonald's, which have come to represent a modern lifestyle,'' the survey said. Resistors had few aspirations to foreign brands or lifestyles. mediacentral.com