The dissertation aims to identify and investigate factors involved in direct sale in relation to Chinese culture. Direct sale is one form of direct marketing, which can include door-to-door, office-to-office, home party selling, etc. For a salesperson to be able to do business with people from various cultures, he/she needs to understand the differences in their values and in their consumer needs. Cultural values have implications for marketing communication and direct selling activities.

After a literature review of the two areas, direct sale and Chinese culture a theoretical model was developed. This model will be helpful for companies when entering the Chinese market through direct sale. The model consists of twelve factors involved in direct sale; communication, commitment, trust, collective, friendship, empathy, respect, conflict avoidance, loyalty, functionality, behaviour, and home party. The aim is to show how important each of the factors is for direct selling in China. From the interpretations of the research review we came to the conclusion that all factors are considered to be of importance in relation to Chinese culture.

In order to test the model we conducted a survey. Our population consisted of Chinese exchange students at Kristianstad University in Sweden. The result of the survey became the base of a new model. The new model showed that all factors were of importance but with different degrees. In order to see if our model might be useful in real life we chose to include a case study of Oriflame. All the factors in our model supported Oriflame’s strategy.