Get out the Ginseng and Maotai: giving gifts during Chinese New Year
Ginseng. Vitamin supplements. Top-shelf liquor. Fancy snack foods. These might be a few of the things gracing my shopping list as gifts for Chinese New Year. Ginseng a gift? You bet. Ginseng, one of many treasured remedies in Chinese medicine, is a welcome gift for more senior folks. As are any number of nutritional and […]
Will you be my “zui aide” sweetheart…on Christmas: why Christmas is a romantic holiday in China and what it means for marketing and communications
Love is in the air…the lighted streets are decked with couples unabashedly linking arms and eyes…ah, romance… [Insert sound of record scratching] Wait a minute! Aren’t we getting ahead of our holidays here? Valentine’s Day isn’t for another two months. Au contrair, zui aide. This isn’t Valentine’s Day I’m talking about…it’s Christmas…in China. Here’s what […]
Interview with Chip Coakley, chairman and CEO of PGL Global: the challenges involved with marketing in China and doing business in China
Jocelyn: Good morning, this is the Wu Way Update for December the first, and we’re having a conversation with Chip Coakley, who is the chairman and CEO of PGL Global, which is a firm that helps mid-size companies with their outsourcing as well as offshoring. And we’re talking this morning about the challenges involved with […]
Why Avon sells whitening cleansers in China: culture matters
You’ll find live frogs and turtles at Wal-Mart. “refreshing tea” toothpaste from Crest, and a whole line of whitening products from Avon…in China. Frogs and turtles may not be on your menu; heck, tea might not be the first thing that comes to mind as “refreshing”. But it’s another story for the Chinese — and […]
Like brother, like coworker: why you should encourage the hiring of friends and relatives in China
Here in my home country the US, nepotism is unanimously scorned upon. A workplace romance has almost as much notoreity among coworkers — if not more — than the local celeb gossip. Employers caught hiring their relatives risk expulsion from their jobs — or worse. Instead, we bow to the American ideal of workers garnering […]
China + automotive industry marketing…think brand competition
When it comes to China’s automotive industry marketing, one thing is for certain — it’s a branding nightmare out there. The Shanghai Daily doesn’t mince words about it, titling a recent article Car War Sparks Battle of Brands: “China’s car market continues to be driven by novelty, with a majority of potential buyers attracted to […]
AC Nielsen President/CEO claims Chinese are “brand sluts”
In an interview with the People’s Daily, Steve M. Schmidt, the President and CEO of AC Nielsen, claims that Chinese tend to be a little more fickle when it comes to their brands — or as Marian Salzman of the Economic Times might say, they are brand sluts. Schmidt states: Chinese consumers are very brand […]
Pay attention to your tech-savvy audience in China — or perish
Microsoft is getting sued…so is a search engine…in China. That’s right — China. These are not a couple of blips on the corporate radar in the litigious-happy Western World, but a show of discontent from a country that more than 25 years ago couldn’t have given a bowl of rice about what consumers thought. In […]