No scary math for a change. Just a fireside chat of observation from Jijo George et al from the Department of Management Studies of Pondicherry University in Puducherry India on the never ending story of what it takes to shift product in the world’s second largest consumer market.
Although the paper was posted at the Social Science Research Network’s site in November this year it was actually written in 2012. This makes it especially interesting as it highlights how quickly things can change by fingering KFC and Belle as examples of marketing excellence. The former is now (still) trying to wrangle a confidence collapse to the ground and the latter is a case study of how the interweb takes down successful brick and mortar based operations.
Whatever your business though the formula is fairly straightforward. Don’t be cocky, localize, engage, provide a real value proposition, fear the locals and stick at it. As easy as buy low, sell high to achieve though in the real world.
Investors in former high flyers like Parkson, Tingyi and Want Want need little reminding that in China past retailing prowess is no guide to future performance. Investors in today’s darlings like JD.COM, Alibaba and Hengan take note.
Happy Sunday
[You can access the paper in full at Branding in China]