In this episode of The Negotiation I speak with Stephen Drummond, Owner/Operator of Campaign Coach China, about working and living in China’s heavily monitored internet ecosystem, market complexities driving brands to reboot tried, true and timeless brand creative strategies, and why foreign brands must work harder now that the cache of being foreign is quickly evaporating.
Show Notes
We started off our show with Stephen with an interesting discussion about working in China and adapting to the internet environment there which, as many of you know, can be difficult and slow at times. As Stephen points out, however, the number of digital platforms and services to make your life easier typically far outweigh and disadvantages from a more monitored and thus slow internet environment.
Stephen then talks about his work at Campaign Coach China where he trains CEOs and CMOs on how to build brand and creative strategies. He points to the complexity in the market these days that is driving a need for a reboot of the timeless strategic planning tools and concepts in order to move past using the “borrowed interest” of celebrities and other influencers.
We then discuss the tremendous ‘closing of the cache gap’ between foreign and local Chinese brands (except at the very top). Foreign brands shouldn’t rely on a lift by being foreign because in most product verticals the playing field has leveled.
We end the show talking about what the next 5 years might hold for brands and Stephen’s take is that the struggle ahead will be brand building in the eCommerce age. It’s crowded, and the opportunities to show customers the ‘face’ of the brand are few and far between. That was one of the luxuries of offline and retail; you were able to really show off your personality and give an experience, but that is rapidly fading away.
What is The Negotiation?
Despite being the world’s most potent economic area, Asia can be one of the most challenging regions to navigate and manage well for foreign brands. However, plenty of positive stories exist and more are emerging every day as brands start to see success in engaging and deploying appropriate market growth strategies – with the help of specialists.
The Negotiation is an interview show that showcases those hard-to-find success stories and chats with the incredible leaders behind them, teasing out the nuances and digging into the details that can make market growth in APAC a winning proposition.