China Sales Dog Blog

READ FIRST before positioning YOUR consumer product in China

Here is another excellent article by Tom Doctoroff greater China CEO of J. Walter Thompson regarding the deep seated emotional drivers behind Chinese consumer buying behaviors. A good reference for planning how to position your consumer product or service in China. Even provides insights that may be of use to B2B marketers as well. See Wall Street Journal article "What the Chinese Want".

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so." Mark Twain

Enjoy and learn,

Chris

Makings of a great "soft power" - does China have what it takes?

Here is an interesting and I believe accurate perspective on the Chinese government's campaign to increase its global "soft power" with the apparent hope of supporting its increasing superpower status. The very idea that China has a campaign to do so is a bit of an oxymoron given that most free-thinkers believe "soft power" arises out of ones very nature and is not acquired through effective "advertising".

Read Joseph Nye's (professor at Harvard and author of "The Future of Power", PublicAffairs, 2011) take as published in the Wall Street Journal. Remember, the more you understand China and the Chinese, the more effectively will you be able to conduct business here.

Enjoy,

Chris

China and U.S. face choices in Chen case, none perfect - latimes.com

There is not rest for China watchers. Just when you thought there couldn't be another major US-China issue (i.e. think China and the Philippines disputing a South China sea rock while the US awaits on the Philippines' flank) enter blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, his escape from Chinese house arrest and apparent asylum in the U.S. Beijing emabassy. It sure will be interesting to see how this one plays out. See the LA times article for the whole story and a few cultural insights therein.

Have a good day,

Chris

From the LA Times - "No resolution of the diplomatic challenges facing the United States and China over what happens to blind dissident Chen Guangcheng is likely to both ease Chinese embarrassment and cast the Obama administration as a staunch defender of human rights, experts say.via latimesblogs.latimes.com"

Just can't find the right person to fill that position in China

You've been pushing your China team for over a year now to hire that new salesperson (or production manager, or purchasing employee, or ...) to help grow your China operation but they just keep coming up empty. The reasons they provide run the gamut from "too good", "too expensive" and "not good enough" to "nobody is interested". Not only is it beginning to drive you crazy but it's holding back your business in China. What gives?

Remember, China is not America or the country you might happen to be reading this in. China - and the Chinese will tell you this every time - is different. So to understand what's happening, you need to both understand and think like the Chinese. Yeah, it's not so easy to do if you haven't been hanging out in China, let's say for ... years! Fortunately, we have been and herein provide you a few possible reasons for your lack of recruiting success, reasons you should keep in mind as you continue your personnel search in China.

Labor, your other competition in China

Assume you manufacture and sell "cherry picker" and other types of lifts used for maintenance work on buildings and structures. You've done well in the US but it's a mature market and you need to grow. There's a lot of buzz about China so why not try there. Not a bad idea but before you jump in, you'd better put on your Chinese thinking hat and size up the situation, from a Chinese persepective that is. Specifically, you must decide whether you can compete effectively with the local "competitors".

China’s Xi Should Take a Lesson in U.S. Creativity: Junheng Li - Bloomberg

An executive in the Shanghai office of an American private-equity firm decided to conduct an experiment with two groups of MBA interns. He gave the same project to a team from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and to a team from a leading business school in China (CNGDPYOY).

via www.bloomberg.com

Interesting, something to think about, useful perspective in moving forward as a nation.

Chris

Is China somehow limited by its culture and design?

Explaining the many nuances of China to an uninformed friend is always difficult. There are so many angles on everything China that the "uninformed" cannot begin to comprehend the "expert's" divergent seemingly disconnected explanations. You know that old concept of yin-yang, the one represnting "dark-light", "good-evil", "hard-soft" and a whole slew of other opposing yet intertwined forces in the universe? Originating in China, there is no other place it describes better than China. Even today, China is pulled by many "contradictory" forces, the majority being internal.

 

Read the below referenced article

Analysis of why passers-by ignored 2-year Chinese girl dying in street

Based on her many years of absorption in China, the author's analysis and commentary on how passers-by could allow a 2-year hit-and-run victim to lie in the road dying is right-on. Her article provides a deep and accurate insight into the present day Chinese psyche. Though many exceptions to "the rule" exist in China, regrettably too many Chinese do fit the profile, maybe upwards of 40% based on my own experienced based gut feel. To be fair, maybe up to 10 or 15% of Americans share similar attributes ... also, far too many. Anyway, reading the article about this poor little girl is worthwhile and and lends insight into Chinese thinking.

God help us ... please,

Chris

How can I be proud of my China if we are a nation of 1.4bn cold hearts? | Lijia Zhang | Comment is free | The Observer

Shame on us Chinese! Last Thursday a two-year-old girl was run over twice, about 100 metres from her home in a hardware market district of Foshan, a prosperous city in southern China. As she lay on the ground, writhing in pain, before being hit by the second vehicle, 18 people, on their bicycles, in cars or on foot, passed by but chose to ignore her. Among them a young woman with her own child.via

www.guardian.co.uk

www.ChinaSageConsultants.com

China’s denials about cyberattacks undermined by video clip

From the Washington Post Online

By Ellen Nakashima and William Wan, Published: August 25

Viewers of China Central Television got an unusual glimpse last month of that nation’s cyber-weaponry: A video clip showed a military computer program on which an unseen user selects a “target” — in this case, a Falun Gong Web site based in Alabama — and hits a button labeled “attack.”

The video amounted to just six seconds in a state media documentary called “The Cyber Storm Has Arrived!” But it offered an uncommonly candid depiction of offensive cyber-capabilities developed by a country that is routinely accused of mounting attacks and just as routinely issues denials.

View full article.

That tricky sales process in China ...

Forgetting Chinese are very different from ourselves, Americans attempt selling to Chinese as they do with other Americans. When they fail to succeed, they can only return home befuddled by what may have gone wrong. Here is a story about a real-life sales situation in China, one that I hope will give you more insights to add to your quiver.