Proud to be British

One of the disadvantages of living in China is missing some of the truly great TV that the UK produces. Whilst dodgy DVD’s let some of this through (eg: I loved Downton Abbey, although was Series 2 dumbed down a bit?), there is often a long time lag to us seeing this in China.

A current UK TV series that I was completely unaware of until this week is Twenty Twelve – a brilliantly insightful piece of satirical comedy that follows the imaginary trials and tribulations of the event “Deliverance” team behind the London 2012 Olympic Games. (Hugh Bonneville, the actor who played the Lord of Downton Abbey, coincidentally heads the cast of this series too)

Having organized my share of events in the past, some of the situations and scenarios that Twenty Twelve dramatises are totally believable, and the dead pan delivery of the script by the superb ensemble cast make it laugh-out-loud funny (which is OK at home, but less appropriate on a British Airways plane when everyone else is asleep!).

I do not think there is ANY other country in the world that would allow/accept/tolerate a publically-funded organization (the BBC) making a comedy about how many mistakes and cock-ups a country could possibly make in the lead up to the most prestigious sporting event on the planet. What makes this even more astounding is that Seb Coe, the head of the actual London Olympic Organising Committee, even agreed to play a cameo role in one of the episodes, and the antics/opinions/idiosyncrasies of the colourful London mayor, Boris Johnson, is a consistent humorous theme running throughout every episode.

This really is TV at its best - and something that makes me proud that I come from a country as creative and self-confident as the UK.

Thank you BBC for making this, and thank you BA for sharing it - as one of the official sponsors of the games, I would have understood if BA had chosen not to.

TWENTY TWELVE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yw1t9

CRM finally comes of age in China

20th March 2012 may be an important milestone in the development of China's CRM industry. In the ten years that I have been involved in trying to get companies in China to do CRM right, I have been continually undermined by the prevalence and low cost of illegally obtained and resold customer data.

As a result, only the most ethical and visionary companies have taken the time and trouble to build databases of their own customers through traditional means to cultivate powerful long term relationships. Everyone else has used mass spam email and SMS communications in a random, shotgun approach. It was only because of the sheer scale of data freely available in China that this approach had any effect - if you throw enough mud, some of it will stick.

But today, it has emerged all over the news wires that one of Chinas largest and most well known data companies (owned by Dun and Bradstreet, no less) was raided by the police and shut down for allegedly using and selling illegally obtained data (see separate article here: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-03/20/content_14867153.htm )

Whilst bad news for New York-listed Dun & Bradstreet, this is great news for those of us who believe that CRM is a strategic play, not a tactical one - even in China.

How to understand the purchase behaviour of Chinese consumers in just three characters: 性价比

I have always found it interesting that no matter how wealthy a Chinese consumer may be, they are insistent on trying to get a better deal on most of their transactions. Whilst I knew this was cultural, I never truly understood it until I learned the three characters 性价比 (xìng jià bǐ). Literally this translates as:

性 quality

价 price

比 compare

The Chinese apply this quality-price ratio assessment to every purchase decision, no matter how cheap or how expensive the item is.

If a Chinese consumer (for example, my wife) believes that a silk scarf is over priced in a market at 50 RMB she may argue/negotiate relentlessly for what seems like hours until she achieves a price that provides her with sufficient xìng jià bǐ. And yet if a Chinese consumer (for example, my wife again) spots something in a London antique shop that she believes offers xìng jià bǐ, she will buy it in a flash, even if the cost is 100 times that of the silk scarf.

It is essential that brand owners and marketers truly understand this when making pricing decisions in China. It is rarely relevant what it costs to make, it is simply about what value the Chinese consumer places on that item, and if that value exceeds the selling price. If it does, it will sell.

Consequently, the importance of the back story and brand heritage of international brands cannot be understated - if a consumer feels they are buying into a tradition or intangible benefit that cannot be found in any other product, then the more usual price comparison becomes an irrelevance in the purchase decision.

xìng jià bǐ is all you need.
(And you thought marketing in China was complicated?) :-)