Growing market looks promising, despite challenges for French online marketing firm

As China transforms into a consumption-driven economic model with a growing population of affluent middle-class consumers, the Chinese market is increasingly promising for French brands, but how to target and reach the right customers remain challenging, Olivier Boisnard, general manager with Splio China, told the Global Times.

Splio is a wholly owned French online marketing company, which was established in China in 2009, with a focus on retail and branding developers.

"You have to understand why the Chinese want to buy," Boisnard said. What Splio does is to build a brand strategy to help customers choose a certain brand.

About 50 percent of Splio's customers are French brands including luxury cosmetic brands, and the rest are Chinese brands.

Given China's huge consumption, "retail brands are everywhere and compete like crazy," he said.

It's important to have local partners, he noted. Splio has partnerships with major B2C websites including Tmall, social media service providers including Tencent QQ, major portals sohu.com and sina.com, as well as China's three telecom operators.