The McKinsey Quarterly

2011

• June 2011 

  Japan’s globalization imperative

  Why are General Motors and Volkswagen more successful in China than Honda and Toyota?

• April 2011 

  Segmenting China’s digital consumers

  Marketing successfully to China’s soaring population of Internet users will require specific knowledge about how they employ applications and devices.

• April 2011 

  Tapping China’s luxury-goods market

  By 2015, Chinese consumers will account for more than 20 percent of the global luxury market. How is their behavior evolving?

2010

• December 2010 

  The commodity crunch in consumer packaged goods

  Packaged-goods companies have been socked by rising commodity prices. Executives in other industries can learn from their experience.

• October 2010 

  China’s new pragmatic consumers

  They spend more in categories they highly value, and they generally trade down in less compelling ones.

• August 2010 

  Growing up fast: Vietnam discovers the consumer society

  Retailers cannot afford to skip Asia’s youngest market. Here’s why.

  Includes:

• June 2010 

  A seismic shift in South Africa’s consumer landscape

  McKinsey research underlines both the distinctiveness of black shoppers’ needs and the distance retailers must still go to serve them.

• June 2010 

  Picking products for Africa’s growing consumer markets

  The rapid expansion of Africa’s consumer class should convince companies to consider entering a region that many have avoided in the past.

• March 2010 

  The new Japanese consumer

  The attitudes and behavior of Japanese consumers are shifting dramatically, presenting opportunities and challenges for companies in the world’s second-largest retail market.

  Includes:

2009

• December 2009 

  Water as a scarce resource: An interview with Nestlé’s chairman

  The chairman of Nestlé explains why water is “by far the most valuable resource on this planet” and what we must do to conserve it.

• October 2009 

  China’s retail revolution: An interview with Wal-Mart’s Ed Chan

  Wal-Mart China’s CEO outlines the strategy of the world’s largest retailer in the world’s most populous nation.

  Includes:

• September 2009 

  Think regionally, act locally: Four steps to reaching the Asian consumer

  The most successful global consumer enterprises are radically reshaping their organizations and business models to suit the region’s rapidly evolving high-growth markets.

• August 2009 

  Japan’s luxury shoppers move on

  The Japanese consumer’s seemingly insatiable appetite for luxury goods has declined, so companies in this sector must rethink the way they compete.

2007

• November 2007 

  How half the world shops: Apparel in Brazil, China, and India

  Multinational retailers face new challenges to capture the increased spending power in each of these distinctive markets.

• August 2007 

  Tracking the growth of India’s middle class

  Over the next two decades, the country’s middle class will grow from about 5 percent of the population to more than 40 percent and create the world’s fifth-largest consumer market.

  Includes:

• May 2007 

  Developing a new rural payments system in China

  China could provide itself with a rural payments system cheaply and quickly by taking advantage of an existing technology and infrastructure.

• May 2007 

  How consumer goods companies are coping with complexity

  A recent survey suggests that the rapid pace of change in the industry is leaving some marketers behind.

• April 2007 

  Price promotions in Latin American retailing

  They don't seem to work.

• April 2007 

  Using technology to improve in-store marketing

  Consumer goods manufacturers are using simulation technology to test in-store marketing ideas more quickly.

• March 2007 

  Financing Latin America's low-income consumers

  Lower-income groups in Latin America represent a huge opportunity, but banks must change dramatically to serve them.

• March 2007 

  How big retailers can serve Brazil’s mass-market shoppers

  Large food retailers in Brazil can grow only by reaching out to its 130 million mass-market consumers.

• March 2007 

  Selling to 'mom-and-pop' stores in emerging markets

  Traditional shops and the companies that serve them are finding life harder and harder. For the suppliers, segmented execution is the answer.

• January 2007 

  Better logistics in European consumer goods

  Performance-based logistics allowances can unlock potential savings for manufacturers and retailers alike.

2006

• November 2006 

  Escaping the middle-market trap: An interview with the CEO of Electrolux

  Hans Stråberg discusses the challenges of serving both the high and low ends of the market successfully.

• October 2006 

  Driving growth in consumer goods

  Fast-growing consumer goods categories hold clues for ways to spur growth in this mature industry.

• June 2006 

  Building brands in China

  Chinese shoppers love brands but don't purchase them consistently. Market research shows the way forward.

• June 2006 

  China's booming dairy market

  Rising affluence should help China's dairy industry grow, but fully half of domestic companies may go out of business.

• June 2006 

  Lessons from a global retailer: An interview with the president of Carrefour China

  Jean-Luc Chéreau discusses the French company's experiences as its hypermarkets spread out from China’s biggest cities to the vast hinterland.

• June 2006 

  Shaping China’s home-improvement market: An interview with B&Q’s CEO for Asia

  Steve Gilman says that because Chinese consumers are changing so quickly, retailers must change quickly to keep up with them.

• June 2006 

  The value of China’s emerging middle class

  Demographic shifts and a burgeoning economy will unleash a huge wave of consumer spending in urban China.

• June 2006 

  Understanding China’s teen consumers

  Teenagers in China fall into several distinct segments, so companies must identify the right group and tailor their marketing approach accordingly.

• February 2006 

  Building a top consumer goods sales force

  Although most of these companies have recently revamped their sales organizations, only a few managed to achieve higher sales and lower costs.

• February 2006 

  The Chinese consumer: To spend or to save?

  Chinese consumers are saving for an insecure future—but also shopping for big-ticket items.

2005

• September 2005 

  Winning the Indian consumer

  Multinationals that successfully adapt their products to India's largely untapped market will have the advantage.

2004

• December 2004 

  Marketing to China's consumers

  Chinese companies have learned a great deal from multinational ones operating in China. Now the foreigners could learn from them.

• December 2004 

  New strategies for consumer goods

  The industry has already extracted much of the benefit to be had from improving productivity and concentrating on core brands. Meanwhile, its dynamics are changing. What comes next?

• November 2004 

  Europeans warm to bargain groceries

  Hard-discount grocery retailers are making inroads in markets throughout Europe, but traditional grocers can still fight back.

• July 2004 

  Understanding the Chinese consumer

  Laurent Philippe, the head of Procter & Gamble in China, explores how to beat the competition in the country’s huge and complex market.

2003

• November 2003 

  Smart tags for your supply chain

  A new tracking technology is being touted by retailing and consumer product companies as the next big thing, but it isn’t ready for prime time.

• May 2003 

  Hypergrowth for China's hypermarkets

  To capture a slice of this huge, lucrative market, foreign retailers must understand that China is different.

• February 2003 

  A wholesale shift in European groceries

  European grocers could satisfy their appetite for growth—if they knew where to look.

2002

• November 2002 

  Revenge of the multiplex

  Consolidation among movie theater chains has raised their bargaining power. If the film studios aren’t scared by this new kind of owner, they should be.

• August 2002 

  Taking Tesco global

  David Reid, deputy chairman of Tesco, the United Kingdom’s largest grocer (2002), explains his international strategy.

• May 2002 

  Shanghai shopping

  Nanjing Road, China’s most famous shopping street, aims to rival its counterparts in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

2000

• December 2000 

  India's retailing comes of age

  The "licensing raj" has long kept the doors of India’s retail market closed to large domestic operators and to outsiders. But the doors are now opening.

• June 2000 

  Bagging Europe’s groceries

  Takeovers in Europe’s grocery-retailing sector work best on the national level. But pressure to grow and the “Wal-Mart factor” are forcing big supermarket chains to look abroad.

1998

• November 1998 

  Have hypermarkets had their day?

  For many customers, they have lost their appeal. But structural advantages still exist. Here’s a plan for revival, then growth.

• May 1998 

  Format renewal in banks—it’s not easy

  For retailers, format renewal is fast becoming a recognized means of revitalizing a flagging business by attracting new customers. But, however much banks try, they will be hard pressed to convince droves of consumers to switch to them.

1997

• November 1997 

  Hypermarkets may be losing their appeal for European consumers

  Declining growth in consumption, changing demographics, and government regulation are all starting to harm hypermarkets, according to this survey of their development. But the root cause of their deteriorating fortunes, the authors suggests, lies in the growing appeal of other modern retail formats.

• May 1997 

  China’s retail markets are evolving more quickly than companies anticipate

  China is already Asia’s largest retail market after Japan, but investors are put off by restrictive regulations, chaotic distribution, and fragmented retail channels, and anyway believe that demand exists only for basic goods. This article argues that they are wrong, and that they should act now to reap the richest rewards.

1996

• November 1996 

  Satisfying America’s changing appetite

  Virtually all of the $100 billion increase in annual food sales expected in the United States in the next decade is likely to come from food service. To take advantage of this dramatic shift in eating habits, restaurant operators, packaged-food manufacturers, and the entire US food distribution system will have to make significant changes.

• November 1996 

  Supermarket banks

  Their seductive economics hide many failures. What premiums? Savings can amount to 40 percent of an acquisition’s costs. In-store bankers need to walk the aisles. What role in the retail strategy?

1994

• May 1994 

  Asian Management: The emperor’s new stores

  The wrenching transition through which Japanese retailing must now pass opens many windows of opportunity for foreign as well as domestic companies.