|
November 26, 2001—China's
Market without Marketing
Tattered and Tatty: With the economy sinking and
Taliban mist hanging in the background, our flight across America and into
the Orient was disjointed and mildly sad. Something is broken on every
American Airlines craft these days, from toilets that won't flush to seat
belts cinched too short to composites with fatal cracks, bespeaking a sudden
lameness in what was America's proudest carrier. Security measures are
double-checking the wrong people, with the security-data crunchers, to wit,
not tapping into the formidable marketing databases maintained by the
airlines, which would lead ground personnel to focus on high risk
passengers.
We worked our way across the Pacific on Cathay Pacific, which enjoys a high,
if undeserved, reputation amongst travellers. It is bumbling, and its planes
are slightly down at the heels. The food does not make the grade; the Airbus
movie equipment crashes frequently; checking into business class takes even
longer than into economy. As an aside, the new lounge in the Hong Kong
airport is absolutely first class, and we can recommend the steam buns. That
said, with volumes down 17% in the most recent quarter, Cathay mirrors the
recession in Hong Kong and, likewise, shouts at us that its management, like
that of Hong Kong, is over the hill.
Riding the Dragon. Another Hong Kong carrier, DragonAir, is
crackerjack: modern, presentable equipment; the best meal we had since
leaving America, including our repast at Hong Kong's top hotel; fast,
try-harder service; a crew with an unworried, attentive demeanor. As we get
aboard, the pall lifts that has gripped each passenger in transit through
America and Hong Kong. DragonAir is as ebullient as the People's Republic
itself, where things are shakin'. The PRC cranks out 6 to 8% growth every
year, its New York (Shanghai) and Washington (Beijing) both aflame with
confidence, energy, and plans that will be achieved. We deplane in Beijing
and are out on the open highway before you can say "Jack Robinson" or
"Chairman Mao."
Producer Economy. Wherever you visit -- a ministry, the science
spin-offs near Beijing University, or the thriving new Pudong area of
Shanghai -- you discover that everybody would rather crank out products and
services than learn about the market, the customer slightly be damned.
Lacking a sales and customer marketing mentality, the China businessman
hopes, but does not know, he is filling somebody's need. China may be the
future sometime in the future, but it's not there yet. It has not yet given
birth to its own particular version of a market economy, and it lacks the
consumer brands that would give it presence in the West..
Branding. Everybody is mouthing the right words. Even administrators
at science parks are hiring high-priced, unknowledgable local branding
experts who are largely selling lots of smoke but not much marketing. As a
leader of one of the world's largest advertising agencies put it to me in
August, "this global branding thing is quite overdone." That China is taking
it up, however, does tell us that China's entrepreneurs have the right goal
in mind, and will eventually get into a marketing frame of mind.
Jingle Bells. The truth is that China will never have a marketing
imagination until its media -- TV, newspapers, etc. -- is commercialized.
When the jingles start coming out of the radio, and more media content gets
a commercial flavor, then and only then will China's leaders know for sure
that the message is meeting the masses. This was true in Great Britain and
in several other countries where the states, however benevolent, have
over-controlled the buzz. The lack of market flavor still holds back
Canada's economy, for instance.
Really New Media. Forget about the Internet. That is still developing
commercially in China and, frankly, everywhere else in the world. But
China's media package will be new and different from ours. Sure, it does
have TV, newspapers, and radio. But a fourth leg, the cell phone, is China's
dominant media channel. China's wireless population has now surged past that
of the U.S., and everybody, to the point of rudeness, uses that phone 30
times a day. Media companies in China will have to weave together print, and
broadcast, and cellular. To do this, they will have to look at Finland,
where the cell phone has become a religious objet d'art. This is
convergence, big time. The emerging cellular technology -- where you get the
news and do your computing -- are just what the doctor ordered for the
ancient kingdom. It will integrate the huge domestic Chinese market, which
is fragmented today but promises to become unified with the entrance of
China into the World Trade Organization and with the prospective reformation
of the media (see Two Rivers entry this week).
We Need Each Other. A bright, hyperactive official in Beijing told
me, "America and China need each other." He is right in several senses, not
the least of which is the fact that we can help China go to market, while
the thousands of engineers China is graduating each year can instruct us how
to make things that work again. We used to be a nation of salesmen and
engineers; now China has the engineers.
Back to Top of
Page
Return to the Index of
Letters from the Global Province |