The Negotiation

In this episode of The Negotiation we talk with Bruno Schiavi, and Australian fashion designer who has worked with the likes of the Kardashian’s on their Kardashian Kollection and is now launching a new hemp and CBD company called Uncle Bud’s and has the likes of Magic Johnson and Jane Fonda on the team as well. The really interesting part is that he’s bringing some of his product lines to China, and without a trace of THC in any of Uncle Bud’s products, he’s having a rather easy time doing it. We ask Bruno why he decided to expand his business into China, and how he plans to make a good first impression on Chinese consumers. We talk to Bruno about why he chose to partner with Tmall as his platform of choice, and how he plans to go about marketing CBD in a country that is deeply rooted in traditional Chinese medicines and herbs. We also ask how Bruno has been able to build his team in China, while based overseas, and finding talent interested to work in a new field like Hemp & CBD. Enjoy.

Show Notes

Today on The Negotiation, we speak with fashion designer and entrepreneur Bruno Schiavi. With a background in the retail industry spanning 25 years, he has launched many brands internationally with some of the biggest companies and names in the world. His latest brand is Uncle Bud’s Hemp and CBD, which focuses on topicals that cover everything from pain relief to anti-aging to bath and body. Uncle Bud’s products are exclusively manufactured in the U.S. and are sold in over 15,000 stories locally. As of today, Uncle Bud’s is available in Australia and is about to launch in China in partnership with Tmall and Alibaba.
Bruno decided to expand into China knowing that the Chinese love exploring new brands and are always curious when it comes to new ingredients. Hemp and CBD are, in fact, still novelty ingredients in the Chinese market and the industry itself is seen as the fastest-growing category in the world today (projected to be at $25 billion globally by the end of 2025). For these reasons and more, Bruno believes that the various challenges in doing business in China are worth overcoming.
Listen in as Bruno shares the key differences between Chinese consumers and their American and European counterparts, how to find the right brand ambassadors for your product, and tips for building a local team in China when you are based overseas.

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.