Marketing Transportation in China

Here is a question asked of our expert panel of interim marketing executives. If you have a question about marketing or sales, you can submit it here.

Question: I have a US-based company that is launching a product into china into the city transportation space. How would this marketing effort differ from a similar marketing effort in the US?

The fundamentals of defining & finding customers and marketing won’t differ significantly from a US approach. The most important differences in doing business in China will stem from culture, patterns of consumption, & channels.

For example, in promoting Intel Inside into China in the ’90’s media and channel outlets we’re accustomed to in the US at the time didn’t exist or were pretty fragmented or cluegy. In that period one of the most reliable & significant channel’s of mass communications was millions of bicycles and riders that commute each day. So millions of the familiar Intel Inside logo were handed out as stickers,reflectors and decals to put on the bikes. Lots of media impressions during ‘ride time’ morning, noon, and night!!!

-Peter Klinge, Interim Management Executive

Marketing is much less defined and fragmented than in US. If marketing into governmental channels culture will become a dominant factor. Commercial channels are much more multi-layered and fractured than in US. Most essential ingredients for success are trusted partners with management talent who understand and operate comfortably and effectively in the Chinese market. Although the quantity and quality of the human capital in china is very strong the country still lacks good middle and upper – level managerial expertise thus necessitating expensive expats to support operations. Think long term and cultivate relationships for the long haul. Skimming strategies may work in the very short term, but the Chinese learn quickly. Consequently, penetration strategies will reap optimum benefits. In the US companies are accustomed to competitors who are focused on profit. In china, there is a mix of private companies, state-owned companies and hybrid businesses. Government businesses exist to provide jobs, rather than to create profits.

-Joe Heaney, Interim Management Executive

Is it a product that will be sold to the city or sold through advertising on transportation?

One of the most significant differences compared to US is the amount of government involvement that will be required. Here we think about he government only when it gets in our way. There, you have to have a deliberate plan to deal with the government and officials that are involved. At the worst case the Company will have to anticipate requests for direct payoff and should be very knowledgeable of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This applies to how they deal with people and how their contractors or employees deal with people that ask for payment for influence.

Another consideration is who they work with in China. A common mistake is picking a contact based on relationship, e.g. a brother of someone they know in the US. This person may not know the market or vertical. It’s important that you recruit for industry and market knowledge and do the background checks.

-Dave Parker, Interim Management Executive

Like peeling an onion, Developing personal long-term relationships has to be one of the primary objectives to develop a lasting market presence in the Far East. Although placed at a arms-length at the beginning, once the trust and personal connection is established will the benefits of the launch will be achieved.

-Rich Hennessey, Interim Management Executive

Most Important Factors in CMO Success

The article Six Questions That Can Improve CMO Job Security from BusinessWeek discusses the most important factors that determine success of an executive in a CMO role.

Here are Pete Krainik’s top 6 factors from the article:

1. The CMO and board must be in sync.
2. The CMO needs the authority to lead change.
3. The degree of customer centricity at the company.
4. How well the CEO and board understand marketing.
5. The level of influence the CMO has in the company.
6. The marketing budget and how it is determined.

The author described factors that the CMO doesn’t have much control over. Are there certain factors that the CMO can control to be successful in the CMO role at a company? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Tom Asacker Rants On Social Changes Taking Place (Video)

Tom Asacker is a marketing thought leader and author. Here’s a video of his presentation on marketing trends driven by the social changes that are taking place.

Help Your Brand Rank Higher In Google with SEOBook

Learn. Rank. Dominate. These are the three words presented first in the homepage introduction on SEObook.com. Highly appropriate words considering SEObook.com’s purpose, to help anyone dive past the basics of search engine optimization and into a broad mix of advanced tips and tricks sure to drive higher search engine rankings.

The homepage of SEObook.com contains a mixture of material. A large portion of the copy is dedicated to selling a sign-up to their training program. The training program carries a $150 per month price tag. It comes with a large variety of initial material, as well as access to SEO book’s subscriber only community of search engine optimization professionals. A member tour explains the features of this course in greater depth for the unsure customer.

For marketer’s looking to obtain a maximum amount of information with little or no upfront investment, the main page of SEObook.com also contains a free search engine optimization course titled “7 Days to SEO Success.” The course is listed as a $57 value and comes with a few free tools (a firefox add-on that provides search engine ranking information as well as a firefox toolbar and access to the SEO book Keyword Suggestion tool). The individual “lessons” in the course are delivered via e-mail. Signing up for this course generates a login and password to be used during future visits to the site.

Anyone who accesses SEObook.com, whether they have signed up or not, can read the SEObook.com blog. This blog is a very good resource for tips and tricks on testing the waters of search engine optimization and increasing rank. On various pages throughout the site, a browser will also find a host of embedded YouTube videos created by SEObook.com. Some of these videos highlight the tools available to subscribers while others discuss basic features available through search engines like Google. While SEObook.com is designed to steer marketing professionals into signing up for the SEO book training program, a host of useful search engine optimization information is available to any user. Taking advantage of what the site has to offer free of charge, including the “7 Days to SEO Success Course,” should help decide whether a monthly subscription would be beneficial.

If you are looking to learn the basics of search engine optimization, I recommend the book The Truth About Search Engine Optimization by Rebecca Lieb which is available at Amazon.com.

There is also an excellent free webinar recording titled  SEO Crash Course to Get Found by Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing University.

How the Seattle Sounders Built The Most Successful New Franchise in Sports

by Paul Travis, Interim Marketing Management Executive

Wow… I had sensed that the new Seattle Sounders soccer team was getting traction in its first season — but I had no clue just how well it’s really doing.

Listening to Gary Wright (Sr. VP Bus. Ops. for the organization) give the lunchtime keynote at the NW Growth Financing Conference today was inspiring. He said that 67,000 people watched the game with Barcelona last night, and another recent international team drew 66,000.

They’ve sold 22,000 season tickets, which was a first-year target unheard of in the sport.

Gary said it is being called the most successful new franchise, not in soccer but in major league sports!

To what did he attribute this success — a great logo, good funding, or another such secret?

He shared a completely different definition of “The Four P’s” (not those that form the foundation of marketing).

1. People
2. Process
3. Product
4. Profit

Interestingly, most of the business world is headed in exactly the opposite direction, valuing profit above everything else.

In closing, Gary was quite candid that he had always dismissed soccer until getting wrapped up in it, and convinced me I have to go see what it’s all about. No way will it displace my First Sport (hockey) but the Second is up for grabs.

Ad-Tech: Listen to Podcasts of Past Digital Marketing Conferences

Ad-tech.com advertises itself as “The Event for Digital Marketing.” An initial glance around the web-site will immediately confirm that Ad-Tech, in fact, the event. When the initial Ad-Tech.com page loads in a browser‘s window, they will be immediately be presented with a list of international cities where Ad-Tech has a presence. Sydney, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Chicago, Tokyo, London, New York, Shanghai, and Beijing all have clickable links in the left hand frame of the browser bar. Clicking on any of these cities will bring up a page detailing events scheduled for the near future in that particular location. For example, upon clicking on Chicago a reader will see a list detailing upcoming conference and exhibit hall hours with a list of keynote speakers, conference sessions, and regular speakers. Each speaker’s name is listed along with a headshot photograph. Keynote speaker’s names are clickable to provide the user with additional biographical information.

An extensive “Missed a Session” section of the site contains a series of podcasts. Each podcast contains a clear label, a very clear description of the topics discussed, and an easily accessible download button. The file size of the podcast is also presented to the right (measured in MB). Any person who did not want to download the actual podcasts can also listen to them in a background browser window. This section will prove particularly useful to business representatives who were unable to attend a particular conference.

Any company looking to actually be a sponsor or speaker, or to host an exhibit at an Ad-Tech conference, can find all of the pertinent contact details on the homepage. Clicking on any of these three opportunities will bring up specific contact information for Ad-Tech representatives the world over, as well as detail the advantages doing business with Ad-Tech provides. Any company looking to increase their digital marketing presence would benefit from Ad-Tech’s services, and at Ad-Tech.com a browser has access to all the information they need to attend a conference or exhibit on digital marketing in several major international cities.

Marketing Profs: Excellent Resource For Marketing Executives

Marketing Profs is an excellent business marketing resource. The site provides an abundance of material for businesses, from traditional brick and mortar companies hoping to solidify an online presence to entirely e-commerce operators who want to further their reach on the web. Much of the content on MarketingProfs.com is centered around marketing on the world wide web. There are numerous articles, resources, online seminars, and videos that revolve around the current buzz words “social media.” These MarketingProfs materials contain information to help any business establish a presence on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and company forums.

The marketing related content does not stop at social media though. Other topics addressed on the site include career management, graphic design, public relations, word-of-mouth, and writing. Articles under each topic contain relevant information and provide the business reader with enough knowledge to take the next step in their marketing journey, whether that be further research, discussions, or creation.

A good portion of the content on MarketingProfs.com is free to access, but some of it is not. The site offers three different member groups. Free members have the least access and can only browse the free articles and materials on the site and receive the weekly newsletter. The other two grades of membership are premium (149.95 per year) and premium plus ($249 per year). Both carry a price tag that is on target with the marketing materials and benefits received. For instance, in the store on MarketingProfs.com, marketing research material can be purchased, however many of the books contain a hefty price tag ($200 plus). Premium and premium plus members can access much of this material for free, so the membership would pay for itself instantaneously if a member were looking for in-depth publications from the store.

MarketingProfs.com is a dynamic resource for almost anyone looking for quality marketing information. The site is accessible and informative for businesses who are just beginning to research a variety of marketing platforms as well as businesses looking to increase the quality of their existing marketing plans.

How To Get Marketing Closer to Revenue: Free Webinar

by Interim Marketing Executive, Chuck Besondy

If you are a B2B marketer reading this your job could be in jeopardy and you don’t even know it. If you are a CEO or CSO you’ll see why you tend to be frustrated by the marketing function at your company.

Try this. Make a list of all the tactics your demand generation campaigns include. For each of the tactics make a note of what the objective is.

In most companies a majority of the list includes tactics devoted to “building name awareness”, “getting our name out there”, “positioning the brand against the competition,” etc. Good enough, but what about the tactics that move buyers into and through the funnel?

If Marketing’s primary focus is on branding, it isn’t doing enough to partner with Sales in driving revenue.

How should a company view the role of Marketing in its revenue generation process? I suggest you register for free 45-minute webinar on July 29 at 2:30 EDT. This webinar is being presented by MathMarketing, a thought-leader in the area of sales and marketing alignment. (I am associated with Math Marketing as a Funnel Coach in North America).

Here’s what will be covered:

1. The 4 most common reasons Marketing fails to deliver accountable results
2. 3 proven steps to get Marketing and Sales on the same, revenue-accountable track

If moving Marketing closer to revenue is important to you I suggest you register today.

This article has been republished with permission from The Sales Funnel Fanatic.

Differentiation: A Tale of Two Companies

I love having insightful weekends like this — what a comparison/contrast in brand experiences!

First, I encountered four pieces of disappointment with Hilton:

• Receiving double beds after requesting a king

• Being placed at the very farthest room (felt like walking half a mile) from the elevator

• $20 fee for parking when the dedicated lot immediately next door charges $13.95

• $14.95 internet (wi-fi or hardwire) when nearby coffee shops and restaurants provide it on a complimentary basis

My point about the latter two concerns service focus. The parking place has NO other offering. Hopefully Hilton would see that my main need for them is lodging, and they shouldn’t be charging ANY MORE than the next-door place. Between that and the internet access, my sense is that they feel they can “screw over” the captive customer.

Bad karma — anytime.
And especially in today’s competitive environment.

Then… I experienced the Virgin brand out of the UK, which I had heard of but had no particularly positive or negative expectations. I know you know what’s coming, but I have to mention it anyway… I’m no longer a virgin to Virgin American airlines).

At every point along the process, I was impressed with Richard Branson’s “human touch” — professional and anything but “me too”.

• Web site – bold red and clever “Brit-ish” sayings

• Customer service (called with a question about flight accommodations) – surprisingly friendly and welcoming to/acknowledging of “virgins”

• Boarding pass – bold red and non-standard size

• Cabin experience – entire plane has black lights emitting a purple glow instead of the traditional cold-white fluorescent lights (makes one feel “evening”, disco (first class even has news-announcer-like microphones emitting up and around the seats, what a feeling of control)

…and…
(the best for last) AC Adapters at every seat! (no more running out of laptop battery power in the air).

This has definitely ingrained positive associations in my gray matter for the brand. I’ll be intrigued to see what happens in my eval process next the next time I fly (better yet, what happens the next time I experience United, Northwest, et al).

A good place to begin is mapping all your touch points (email me if you’d like an example doc to work with) then look objectively (through the customer’s eyes) at how your actions at each either support or deflate your brand goals.

I shared with my young son Gabe how impressed I was with Virgin Air. No surprise that the son of The Columbo of Marketing would reply with, “What was so special about it?” After I described the photo in my last blog, he asked “Was there anything else?” Makes a dad proud.

Pictured is another example. Learning from the world of residential real estate: if the front door and surrounding area are shoddy, it affects the visitor’s view of the entire home. Conversely, checking in to the registration area at Virgin American emanates “pleasurable”. The hallmark red color is everywhere (without overkill) from the decor to the boarding passes. And I can’t tell you that I’ve EVER seen flowers when checking into United or Northwest!

That’s what prompted me to follow up with “more” — since this brand definitely deserves more than one post. There is a lot you can learn, regardless of what business you are in, and especially how other airlines better learn or have their lunch taken from the proverbial plate.

As I was drafting this post on Virgin Air, I sat next to Sera Cawanibuka from Tourism Fiji who said that after her first “Virgin” flight, she told all the people in her office about it. Now they all “fly Virgin” and haven’t used United, American, et al — in years!!

Paul Travis is an interim marketing executive and helps companies create a screaming value proposition and accelerate sales. He can be reached at paul.travis@oneaccordpartners.com. He also blogs at Marketing 2020.

The book, Leadership on Demand is available at http://leadership-on-demand.com/.

Photo by Binder Donedat

The Executive Marketing and Sales Podcast: Episode 1 Benefits of Interim Management

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Interview with Paul Travis.

How does interim management work?

Well you know your question is so simple yet it’s indicative of much larger things that are going on. There is so much change in today’s business world. It’s very different from how things used to be thirty years or forty years ago. For example, when someone was talking about getting a new car he/she was referring to purchase – where money might have been owed but the ownership was still under the person’s name. Now in the last couple of decades, the institution of car leasing came about and therefore now you have the flexibility. Well I used this as an example because of the mechanism of employment is starting to change. Interim management is a manner or is a means of bringing in talents to accomplish specific objectives and solve specific challenges within companies. But its more like a rental, more like a lease, than it is acquiring a new asset or bringing on somebody who is going to be a long term employee. Instead of spending 3 to 12 months searching for the perfect candidate and putting them through the recruiting process, a hiring company brings in an interim manager very quickly, usually weeks instead of months and that person’s assignment is limited by definition so the interim manager seeks to complete the mission. This is really in contrast to the dynamic where a W2 executive might come aboard and then start to look for things within the organization that naturally align with what they are doing and so they sort of justify their position. In fact those individuals typically expand their division and they want to make themselves important within the company. They hire staff and all the new responsibilities that they have created, then go about filling those positions. But it’s a different thing than interim management.

What would you say are the main benefits of a company using intern management?

Well as I was just alluding to, the speed of being able to bring on talent and to solve problems is a great one. There’s also the philosophical issue of executing real work rather than keeping a chair warm. And then there’s other benefits both tangible and intangible that are pointed out in the book Leadership on Demand. For example objectivity: bringing in somebody who who can assess challenges with a much broader scope in mind. There are times to market, bringing somebody in who can focus and get new products out, being responsive to competitive changes as opposed to the way things have always been done. There’s also the ability to change a corporate focus, by bringing somebody new in, for example an interim CMO marking officer might focus on how to get a product positioned. And then after 6 months they might bring in another CMO who really focuses on going to market. So it’s no longer about positioning. There are other great benefits, for example compliance with publicly held companies. Changing out a W2 vice president is considered by the SEC is a material event and has to be disclosed. Where as interim manager is not.

Great, what size companies would you say typically use interim management?

Well since interim management is a mindset and paradigm change rather than a specific answer to a given problem. It’s useful by companies of all sizes. There are chapters in Leadership on Demand dedicated to the specific benefits in case studies for early stage companies. There’s another chapter which covers interim management in large establishment companies.

And what differentiates what you do for a company compared to a consulting company?

That’s a great question, in particular because one of my non-profit roles is as president of the Pacific Northwest chapter of the Institution of management consultants. I am very well versed in consulting as well as in interim management. In general, consultants operate externally to the organization as much as they’re customers are within the organization and they go in to understand what the challenges are. At the end of the day they have no real authority to see that their recommendations are implemented. They don’t have hiring and firing authority. I really can’t tell you how many CEO’s I’ve spoken with over the past decade who have brought in consultants whom write a great report on the solution to a problem. Then I’ve seen someone turn away from their desk and pull out a great leather binder with a report on it and they tell me they had consultants come in and assess their problems, but nobody actually spearheaded the implementation of that solution or it was given over to employees to implement from an internal mindset. Einstein said, it was hard to solve problems from the same manner of thinking that they were created. So interim executives go inside the organization and have a reporting authority, the change happens because they drive it. And to be honest, if they stay too long after three, six, nine, twelve sometimes eighteen months they end up facing the risk of becoming part of the problem. They lose their objectivity.

What would you say are the biggest challenges companies face when trying to grow revenues?

This is a great way for me to use the classic consultant response which is: it depends. For large companies their revenue challenges tend to be centered around their own success and all of their momentum they have gained. The process of becoming a large company has created systems, that processes, procedures, customer channels and product lines. So if they see the opportunity it’s really like changing the direction of a battle ship. They are very slow to take advantage of new revenue opportunities. My experience personally is more in smaller-mid markets companies where the challenges are at the other end of spectrum and tend to be scale. So they just don’t have the talent to pull off big ideas or sometimes they don’t have enough mind share with dealers to be able to launch new programs. Or maybe they are trying to do so many different things with limited resources that a better outcome could be obtained by focusing on one major initiative and hitting a home run.

And how does interim management help companies grow the revenues?

Well you know every situation is different but in a prescriptive manner I would say that the president or CEO should ask those direct questions to the interim management candidate. Does this person knows what they are doing and will the interim management executive execute? Because that is the whole point of this. On that topic there is something I would caution against because it has happened to me numerous times and that is, don’t ask for a references until you’re ready to make a buying decision. As I’m with clients day after day, I think about it from their perspective. After you have a problem solved would you want a call on a weekly basis to discuss how something has gone. No you want to read a reference letter or a case study and only check in with them if you’re ready to buy. And you just need somebody who can serve as a human validation point.

How can companies that are interested in interim management find you?

They find me on the web or though a recommendation from one of my clients. Almost everywhere these days there is a lot of information known whether you’re buying a car or if your looking up a new appliance or your looking at a new resource for your company. There is a lot you can find out, for example my direct URL is www.meetpaul.us and you can read my bio and I have a blog that is full of the way I think about marketing. It also highlights success stories and also failures and other things which could have been done differently. That blog is at www.marketing-2020.com. And then we can have a conversation about what their specifics are. If I’m the right person, then I’ll structure or suggest a structure that we can go with to the next value of evaluation and if I’m not the right person then iIll bring in a partner of a another company where it would be a better fit for them. So I’m always looking for a way to win.

Paul what blogs and books are you reading at the moment in the marketing field?

I have to say that I have a lot of books on my bookshelf and I’m much more successful when reading things online than carrying books around with me. As I’m focused on bringing social media into the mainstream. I like to watch sites like www.mashable.com and I also like Seth Godin’s work and a lot of forward thinkers on twitter, like Guy Kawasaki.

Great! Thank you Paul for joining us today, how can companies find you or get in touch with you?

If they haven’t remembered the websites that I mentioned before like www.meetpaul.us and www.marketing-2020.com. The great thing these days is that every search engine that I know of of will find me if you type in my name, Paul Travis and marketing. I would be happy to chat with them to see if I’m the right person or where there’s a service organization that I can point them to. You always have to chat with somebody.

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