China Beige Book – or – The Researchers Who Can Research Anywhere

Here’s the story behind one of the award winning designs we created.  This is the story of  China Beige Book.

Ever wonder how to get reliable consumer research in notoriously difficult to research countries like China, Vietnam, India?  You have to know someone. One of the best to know is Craig Charney.  Craig is one of the few people who can field solid market research just about anywhere in the world including Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Talk of the Town, recent issue of The New Yorker:  Chinese Puzzle.

“…since there are many market-research firms in China now, polling doesn’t seem subversive, as long as the questions aren’t political. “People are used to answering questions,” Craig Charney, Miller’s colleague and chief pollster, said later.”

The New Yorker piece is about the China Beige Book, a quarterly study of the Chinese economy by an independent group, CBB International.  Craig Charney handles the market research end of the program.ChinaBeigeBook_NewYorker

http://events.fleishmanhillard.com/peeking-behind-the-curtain-at-chinas-2013-economy/

The CBB folks came to us with the kind of challenge we love — express their vision of providing openness and transparency into the Chinese economy.  Together the Verse team — Sylvia, Cristiano, Marina — and the CBB team came up with the design concept which conveys a translucent cover for a transparent book.

CBB. Now the Chinese economy is an open book.

So what does that other Beige Book look like?  And the html version of the Beige Book isn’t nearly as colorful as this.

So, to our friends at CBB International, congratulations on the award winning work.

And to our friends at the Federal Reserve, give us a call about the Beige Book. If you liked what we did redesigning FedWire, you’ll love what we can do for The Beige Book.