Short videos on Douyin: An intermediary approach to connect Australian food producers with Chinese consumers

Abstract

In their quest to access China's lucrative consumer market, Western businesses are often entranced by the sheer scale of the country's social media landscape. However, reducing Chinese consumers to mere statistics veiled in orientalism underestimates the continued importance of understanding their local cultural context. As part of an extensive Australia-China supply chain research program, the current study used community engagement and human-centered digital narrative approaches to co-design communication and marketing strategies between Australian beef producer communities and Chinese consumers. Using field work notes, interviews and content examples we discuss the co-design intervention that focussed on short video content sharing on Douyin. Qualitative insights highlights a divergence between the visual language used by Australian producers to engage with Chinese consumers and the dynamic, vibrant visual discourse among local Australian prosumers of beef. We argue this is why the Australian export industry's promotions often fail to resonate with Chinese consumers. Our study also suggests how best to bridge these cultural gaps through a combination of communication strategies and design intermediaries, recognizing the crucial role that short video platforms play.

Keywords

• Social media platforms
• China
• Australia
• Douyin
• TikTok
• Intermediaries