Unilever brought its Rexona deodorant to China a decade ago, dreaming of a market with 2.6 billion armpits.
结合利华十年前就把舒耐香体露带進了中國，空想着一个有26亿腋窝的市场。
Wages were rising, consumers were spending and the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics was making Chinese people feel more cosmopolitan. More of them, it stood to reason, would be open to a Western hygiene product.
工资在增加，消费者在费钱，彼时行将举辦的2008年北京奥运會也使中國人更有國际化的感受。按理说，會有更多人愿意接管这个西方的卫生用品。
“We had an extremely ambitious plan at the time,” Mr. Braeken said.
（结合利华大中华区前总裁）薄睿凯说：“咱们那时有一个很是有野心的规划。”
But cultural differences and simple biology — scientists have shown that many East Asian people don’t have Westerners’ body odor issues — scotched those plans. Sales totaled only a fraction of the Chinese marketing budget for Rexona, Mr. Braeken said. Today, by some estimates, less than 10 percent of China’s population uses deodorant, and it can be hard to find outside major cities.
但文化差别和简略的心理问题——科學家已证实很多东亚人并无西方人的体會问题——阻止了这些规划。薄睿凯说，舒耐在中國的贩賣总量只到达市场营销预算的一小部門，据估量，今朝中國只有不到10%的生齿利用香体露，在大都會以外加倍难找。
China’s growing consumer class has fueled global growth and lifted the fortunes of Starbucks, KFC and a host of other Western brands. Many Chinese people now drink coffee instead of tea, eat cheese and ice cream despite potential tu妹妹y tremors, and guzzle ice-cold sodas in a country where grandmothers express a mortal fear at any liquid below room temperature.
中國不竭增加的消费阶级鞭策着全世界经济增加，為星巴克、肯德基等一大堆西方品牌增加了财產。很多中國人如今會喝咖啡而不是品茗，即便可能會呈现肠胃不适也要吃奶酪和冰激凌，而在这个老奶奶见到低于室温的饮料城市表示出极端惧怕的國度，人们也起头狂饮冰凉的汽水。
But the drive to win China’s consumers has had its notable failures. Like tampons and Weetabix.
但一些商品博得中國消费者的尽力曾有太重大失败，好比卫生棉条和谷物饼干維多麦。
Companies like Apple and Starbucks have prospered in part by selling aspirational products to Chinese consumers who want to show the world that they have made it. That task is tougher for products that nobody sees.
苹果和星巴克等公司可以或许乐成，部門缘由在于向中國消费者出售了能向世界彰显他们的乐成的產物，而这个使命对付人们看不到的產物来讲加倍坚苦。
“It has to be something visible or something you can smell,” said Ye Tan, an independent economist in Shanghai. “Deodorant fails partly because it is invisible.”
“它必需是能看得见，或能闻获得的工具，”上海自力经济學家叶檀说，“香体露的失败部門是由于人们看不见它。”
The products have their Chinese adherents. Cai Qianyi, a 38-year-old media professional in Beijing, started using deodorant in 2006, when he was studying in France. He doesn’t think he has body odor but sees a problem with sweat stains.
这些產物也有中國的跟随者。北京38岁的媒体人蔡谦一（音）从2006年起头利用香体露，当时他正在法國粹习，他感觉本身没有体會，但认為汗渍是个问题。
“Sweat leaving wet spots on your T-shirt in the su妹妹er is extremely ugly, especially around the armpits, which could be really socially embarrassing,” Mr. Cai said.
他说：“炎天的时辰出汗會在T恤上留下汗渍，如许很是丢脸，特别是在腋下四周。从社交的角度来讲，这很為难。”
But most of his family and friends have no idea what deodorant is, he said. Once, a cousin mistook his deodorant stick for perfume and asked him why it was solid.
但他说，大大都的家人和朋侪其实不晓得甚麼是香体露，有一次，一个亲戚误把它当做香水，还问他為甚麼这是固体的。
When global deodorant makers began their foray into China, they highlighted the social embarrassment caused by perspiration. Their central message was a proven winner in the West: Sweating will get you shunned socially and ruin your chances for romance.
当全世界香体露厂商進军中國市场时，他们夸大的是流汗给社會来往带来的為难，这个焦点信息在西方证明是有用的：出汗會让你在社會来往中被人荒凉，也會粉碎情场上的機遇。
That pitch fell on deaf ears in China, said Lucia Liu, a skin care assistant manager at Unilever who was involved in Rexona’s marketing between 2011 and 2016.
介入了2011年至2016年舒耐市场推行的结合利华护肤產物助理司理露西亚•刘说，这个鼓吹方法在中國没有發生结果。
“The traditional thinking here is that sweating is good because it helps people detox,” said Ms. Liu. “There is a marketing barrier that is really hard to overco陽萎治療,me.”
她说：“在中國的传统观念里，出汗是件功德，由于它會帮忙排毒，这个市场营销上的停滞很难降服。”
Indeed, Chinese health websites have long promoted the benefits of sweating, ranging from a boost in i妹妹unity to memory enhancement to skin rejuvenation. To many Chinese, perspiration is a natural part of metabolism that should not be blocked.
简直，中國的康健網站持久以来一向在鼓吹出汗的好处，从加强免疫力、提高影象力到肌肤恢新生力。对付不少中國人而言，排汗是新陈代谢的天然构成部門，不该该被阻碍。
There’s another reason few Chinese consumers buy deodorant: basic biology.
别的，采辦香体露的中國消费者很少还由于：根基的心理特征。
Scientists in recent years have shown that many East Asians, a group that includes China’s ethnic Han majority, have a gene that lowers the likelihood of a strong “human axillary odor” — scientist-speak for body stink.
科學家比年来已证实，不少东亚人携带的一种基因可以低落發生强烈“人体腋窝气息”（体臭的科學说法）的可能性，这个群体包含占中國大大都的汉族生齿。
That lowers the likelihood that they will use deodorant to begin with, according to a 2013 study by researchers at the University of Bristol and Brunel University in Britain, after a survey of nearly 6,500 women of various backgrounds.
是以这从底子上削减了他们利用香体露的可能性。这项2013年的钻研由英國布里斯托大學和布鲁内尔大學的钻研职员结合展开，钻研职员查询拜访了近6500名来自分歧布景的女性。
“It is likely that deodorant usage is not widely adopted because there is, for much of the East Asia population, no need for it,” it said.
钻研结论称：“香体露的利用可能不是很是广泛，这是由于对不少东亚人而言，他们不必要。”
Unilever was not deterred. It deployed a range of traditional marketing tools, including signing top celebrities to appear in TV ads, in-store product sampling and sweat tests, and concert sponsorships.
结合利华没有是以却步，它利用了一系传记统市场推行伎俩，包含礼聘最红的名流打电视告白、店内產物试用和排汗测试，和援助演唱會等。
Many of its efforts seem tone deaf in retrospect.
但该公司的很多尽力彷佛都没有见效。
A series of Rexona print ads portrayed a person’s armpits as potential threats to others. In one, a gunslinger — his armpit hovering over the scene in the foreground — appears to take down his opponent without touching his revolver. In a similar ad, a boxer appears to knock out his opponent with little more than his aroma.
一系列舒耐的平面告白刻划了一小我的腋窝成為别人的潜伏威逼。在一则告白中，一位持枪劫匪的腋窝在画眼前景摇摆，他彷佛没有利用手枪就礼服了敌手。在另外一个雷同告白中，一位拳击手只靠本身的体香就击倒了敌手。
Ng Tian It, a Singaporean creative director who oversaw the ad campaign, was proud of the look. But he said the ads appeared to be out of touch with many Chinese consumers unfamiliar with Old West shootouts, professional boxing and the prospect of offensive underarm smells.
主管这个告白系列的新加坡创意总监黄田一对视觉结果感触很得意。但他说，这些告白彷佛离开了很多不认识美國西部枪战、职業拳击和干犯性狐臭的中國消费者的糊口。
“The series of advertisements we designed relied on the Western sense of humor,” he said. “Not many Chinese would understand this.”
“咱们设计的这个系列的告白是基于西方的诙谐，”他说，“不少中國人其实不必定能大白。”
Deodorant sales in the United States reached $4.5 billion in 2016, according to Euromonitor, a market research firm. China’s total: $110 million. Deodorant also does not sell well in other East Asian markets: Japan’s sales that year were about one-tenth those of the United States.
据市场调研公司欧睿國际的数据，香体露2016年在美國的贩賣额為45亿美元（约合288亿元人民币），而在中國的贩賣额统共1.1亿美元（约合7亿元人民币），同时，香体露在其他东亚市场的贩賣也表示欠安。日本2016年香体露的贩賣总额约莫是美國的十分之一。
Companies hoping to sell deodorant in China have had to appeal to other senses. Nivea, a brand owned by Beiersdorf A.G. of Germany, has tried to lure female Chinese consumers by rolling out deodorants with whitening functions.
但愿在中國贩賣香体露的公司不能不从其他感官上想法子。德國拜尔斯道夫團体旗下品牌妮維雅试圖在香体露中参加美白成果来吸引中國女性消费者。
Simon Cao, Nivea’s China marketing director, said that the deodorant was popular but that “the room for growth is very limited.”
妮維雅中國区市场主管西蒙•曹说，香体露瘦蝴蝶袖,很受接待，但“增漫空间很是有限”。
“We will not spend too much energy on deodorant, because the investment is not proportional to the return,” he said.
他说：“咱们不會在香体露上花太多精神，由于投入和回报是不可比例的。”
The dearth of deodorants in China has forced some expatriates to hoard.
同时，香体露在中國的稀缺迫使一些外國人不能不囤货。
Alex Ste足部除臭噴霧,vens, a 26-year-old American former public relations professional who left Beijing last year after living there nearly a decade, said he loaded up on deodorant every time he was back in the United States.
26岁的美國人亚力克斯•史蒂芬斯是一位前公关从業者，在北京糊口了近十年，直到客岁分开，他说他每次回到美都城會大量购入香体露。
“It’s really become the only thing I stock up on when I go back home,” he said, “and I don’t give any away to friends, not even for a price.”
“它已酿成了我回家时独一會囤的工具，”他说，“并且我一个都不會送给朋侪，就算他们费钱来買也不可。”