During the launch of Chile Week China 2017, Imagen de Chile presented the study "Image of Chile in China", a quantitative and qualitative investigation, which delved into the vision of public opinion in the Asian giant and those who make decisions about Chile and their products.

"The idea of ​​this type of studies is to have an updated picture of the image of Chile in China, and what are the spontaneous and natural perceptions that our country has, both the general population and key leaders, in order to detect opportunities, spaces for improvement , and to amend roads, in such a way to improve our work in a market as distant as China, but at the same time important“, specified Myriam Gómez, Executive Director of Image of Chile.

The study, said Gómez, focused on identifying opportunities and challenges in the tourism, investment, food and wine sectors, being defined as strategic cities, together with the private sector; Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.

Given that the objective was to provide a diagnosis that would allow us to detect how the Chinese population and its leaders perceive us, in order to strengthen Chile's promotion strategies in that world power, the study was presented within the framework of the official launch of Chile Week China 2017, for being a fundamental platform for the promotion of the export offer of our country, where the results of the study can improve the actions.

"We wanted to have a multi-faceted approach, therefore, more than 40 senior opinion leaders and stakeholders, who had an interest in Latin America, were interviewed. We also conducted more than 300 surveys of executives and operators in the tourism area. We also did 30 interviews with Chilean managers in China, and finally we conducted more than 1000 public opinion polls, through the Nature by Index study“, pointed out the professional.

Among the main results, it is counted that 85% of Chinese investors declare interest in investing in our nation, as well as an increase of 6 points between 2015 and 2016 in the knowledge levels of our country, so now it is familiar to 21% of eastern citizenship.

Furthermore, the main spontaneous associations with Chile are wine, cherries, blueberries, and mineral resources. These products stand out qualitatively for being attractive, diverse and traceable, since many are consumed by an audience that seeks the Premium.

For Myriam Gómez, Executive Director of Image of Chile, “the leadership of the country and the image achieved, constitute an opportunity to position ourselves as a platform for entry to Latin America“. In this sense, he stated that "we must develop a long-term strategy based on a comprehensive understanding of Chinese culture, also strengthening the sectors that already have earned capital, such as wine and food, delivering a clear and unique message of who we are. That is why the public-private cooperation that we promote is so key".

Chile Actions: Promotion

In conversation with SimFRUIT, Charif Christian Carvajal, pointed out that the promotional actions in China carried out jointly with ProChile, have been key to the positioning, knowledge and preference of consumers for Chilean fruits, among which cherries, blueberries, and table grapes.

"The promotional campaign in China, Cherries From Chile, is an unprecedented campaign. We have been implementing this campaign for the last 4 years, with the support of ProChile, going from 200 thousand dollars to 5 million dollars, which makes it the most important campaign that our country has carried out in a food and beverage, and a market specific. Therefore, it is not a surprise that one of its achievements is a greater awareness of this Chilean fruit by consumers.“, Carvajal specified.

The professional added that in 2016 with this campaign, “Knowledge of Chile as a country of origin of cherries was increased by more than 40%, reaching an impact on more than 379 million consumers, and generating sales of around 51,8 million dollars".

He added: “The study of Image of Chile gives concrete samples of which the efforts that the sector of the fruit, represented by the exporters, ASOEX, as well as the Committees of Cherries and Arádanos, besides ProChile, are giving positive results, that we are going by the way Right. All of which helps us to continue growing and consolidating our position as the first fruit supplier in China“, closed the Marketing Director of ASOEX.

Source: Simfruit