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B2B Marketing In China

Xiaofeng Wang, Senior Analyst

August 21, 2019

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China is eclipsing the US and the EU-7 in digital

*Source: Forrester Data: Mobile, Smartphone, And Tablet Forecast, 2017 To 2022 (Global)

†Source: Forrester Data: Online Retail Forecasts, 2017 To 2022 (Asia Pacific, US, and Western Europe)

‡Source: Forrester Data: Online Retail Forecast, 2017 To 2022 (Asia Pacific); Forrester Data: Mobile And Tablet Commerce Forecast, 2017 To 2022 (EU-7), Q3 2017

Update; and Forrester Data: Mobile And Tablet Commerce Forecast, 2017 To 2022 (US)

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Source: The Forrester Wave™: Data Management Platforms In Asia Pacific, Q3 2019 Forrester report

The Forrester Wave™: Data Management Platforms In Asia Pacific, Q3 2019

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Key DMP (data management platform) players

Austral ia China

Vendors evaluated in Wave

with strong in-market

presence*

• Adobe

• Lotame

• Oracle

• Salesforce

• iPinYou

• nEqual

• TalkingData

Vendors evaluated in Wave

with limited in-market

presence**

Cxense • Adobe

• Oracle

• Salesforce

Additional vendors included

in Now Tech

• Amobee

• Neustar

• Nielsen

• Tealium

• Gridsum

• Hypers

• iFLYTEK

*Strong in-market presence means that a vendor gets 10% or more of revenue in Asia Pacific from a specific market.

**Limited in-market presence means that a vendor gets less than 10% revenue in Asia Pacific from a specific market.

Source: Upcoming “Applying The Forrester Wave™: Data Management Platforms In Asia Pacific, Q3 2019” Forrester report

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Domestic brands are now outperforming foreign ones in China

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The 10 most relevant brands in China

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Foreign brands are facing marketing challenges in China

› Foreign brands are failing to keep pace with savvy customers

• Lack deep customer understanding to localize products

• Charge premium prices without delivering equivalent value

• Fail to adapt promotions to a fast-changing digital ecosystem

• Are slow to adapt their place strategy to local channel partners

› Domestic brands' products and marketing are maturing strongly.

› Customer preferences shift due to cultural affinity and other restrictions.

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Understand the unique digital ecosystems and business culture

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Leverage local digital tools

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Alibaba Cloud Summit live streamed 167 sessions

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Intel AI gives Chinese singer Li Yuchun 'new faces' in her music video

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Recommendations

› China-specific marketing strategies.

› Local decision-making power.

› Deep engagement with local partners.

› Be nimble and adaptable.

B2B Marketing in Hong Kong and ChinaDirecting marketing at Hong Kong’s oldest and largest law firm

Jayson Williams, Head of Business Development, Deacons

Social Media

▪ Bringing social media and WeChat to the forefront

Deacons’ WeChat journey

Posting of a variety of articles each week including legal

alerts and firm-wide news such as our CSR activities,

awards, event summaries, and media coverage

Ensure content is relevant to a China audience or

Chinese companies wishing to do business abroad

Encourage departments within our business to contribute

and approve content (establishment of an editorial board)

Promote WeChat account to gain followers (website,

email campaigns, LinkedIn, business cards,

brochures)

Educate, engage and training of staff

Reviewing the China market & respecting its

culture and traditions

** Check! Don’t make the same mistakes as the companies

on the next slides!!

Launched in June 2019

Use accurate translations in your marketing campaigns

• In the 1960s Pepsi was finding it

difficult to connect with younger

generations and was mostly viewed as

a cheaper alternative to Coca-Cola.

Naturally Pepsi wanted to change this

perception, and succeeded with its

campaign “Come Alive! You’re in the

Pepsi Generation.”

• Pepsi achieved success in Western

markets and believed the campaign

would translate to other markets. This

may well have been the case - if they

had gotten the translation right!

Source: Dragon Social

• In 2018, Dolce & Gabbana launched three short videos on Weibo to promote its upcoming Shanghai runway extravaganza dubbed "The Great Show”.

• The videos featured an Asian woman in a lavish Dolce & Gabbana dress attempting to eat pizza, spaghetti and cannoli with chopsticks. The videos purposefully mocked Chinese speech and culture.

• The videos went viral on social media and within two hours, hundreds of Chinese actors and models who were due to walk the runway that evening had withdrawn. D&G's Chinese brand ambassador, boy band star Wang Junkai terminated his deal with D&G.

• D&G removed the viral videos from Chinese social media within 24 hours of posting them. The drama was not over yet, though. Just hours before the show, a fashion blogger shared a screenshot of an alleged chat between designer Stefano Gabbana and an Instagram user in which designer Gabbana appeared to call China a "country of [five poop emojis]" and "ignorant dirty smelling mafia.“

Source: National Public Radio

Beware the power of social media backlash

Comments included:

• "That's explicit racism. D&G is stereotyping China. [The videos] only show the brand's outdated view about China.“

Avoid stereotyping

• Nike’s 2016 CNY series encompassed the traditional Chinese New

Year blessing words “發” (get rich) and “福” (fortune). However,

when the two words are combined this translates to “getting fat”.

• Many Chinese marketing strategies and campaigns implemented

by foreign brands fixate on a stereotypical and often inaccurate

and out dated image of the classic tradition of old China.

• Chinese consumers expect brands to recognise its current

modernity, instead of simply using superficial cultural clichés.

Source: Dragon Social

China Market localisation

▪ Localisation for the China market

Overcoming challenges

CulturalLanguage

Legal

challenges

A Hong Kong perspective on high performing teams

Diversity - Diverse team brings expertise and experience from different markets and

professional backgrounds (Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Australia, UK, Canada)

Language - Strong language capabilities

Motivation - Regular team socials help the team to communicate

effectively with one another

Creativity – BD innovation labs

Culture – Proactivity

Support – Showing the business supports the BD function fully

Client focus – clarifying who our clients are! Our clients are our clients…

Thank you and contact

▪ Thank you for attending today. If you would like more information, please

contact us direct.

Xioafeng Wang

Senior Analyst

Forrester

Email: xwang@forrester.com

Jayson Williams

Head of Business Development

Deacons

Email: Jayson.Williams@deacons.com