China Speakers Bureau

Getting your brand right in China is tough - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff by Fantake via Flickr

Foreign brands in China have seen huge successes and massive failures. Tom Doctoroff gives in Gulf News his take on the difficulties of building a brand in this booming economy. Gulf News:

After setbacks for brands such as Home Depot, Best Buy and Barbie, which have closed stores or withdrawn after failing to win over Chinese consumers, the lessons of Huai Hai Road are germane.
"Anybody who comes into this market and thinks they can just plant their brand and let it grow will be sadly mistaken," Tom Doctoroff, north Asia chief executive of JWT, the advertising agency, said.
"Any [foreign] business model needs to be brought into alignment with Chinese cultural and consumer imperatives."
He points to Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Haagen-Dazs as the gold standard for foreign brand success in China. They took products alien to Chinese tastes and made them popular.
Pizza Hut and KFC, both owned by Yum Brands, localised their menu.
But adjusting to local tastes is not just about food, Doctoroff says. Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Haagen-Dazs all focused on eat-in, rather than carry-out, in China. "Barbie just got plonked down in China."
Even luxury goods companies have had to adapt their model, he says. The Chinese market for luxury goods is "broad and shallow".

More in Gulf News.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

Labels: BestBuy, branding, China, China Speakers Bureau, Home Depot, Tom Doctoroff

Second wives key for luxury consumption - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff by Fantake via Flickr

China's second wives account officially for one third of the country's luxury consumption, says Tom Doctoroff in the Huffington Post, and elaborates on the distinction between marriage and sex in China.

Because China has never had a humanist revolution, sex and marriage have always been relatively divorced. That is why many Asian cultures have an immensely commercialised and categorised [sex industry]. The way they separate the two is quite stunning - the choices are up on neon boards like a McDonald's menu...

Second Wives [like flashy brands] because they have to display that their man is dedicated to them. They lead very insecure lives. They are not independent and need to advertise the fact they have a sponsor.

Much more in the Huffington Post

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

Labels: China, China Speakers Bureau, luxury, sex, Tom Doctoroff

Most-sought speakers for October 2010

Hurun by Fantake via Flickr

It's October and it might not come as a surprise that Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun has appeared as the largest mover in our most-sought speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. This years' Hurun rich list attracted much attention, as it showed how Chinese women are conquering top positions, how retail is becoming more important and real estate tycoons are losing their financial leverage - although still important.
Rupert Hoogewerf replaced Kaiser Kuo on the third place, as Kuo is now working more behind the scenes of China's largest search engine, Baidu.com.
Not quiet have been our numbers one and two. Shaun Rein was already our most-quoted speaker, but is now appearing in mainstream media at least twice a week. This month he blamed Apple's Steve Jobs for being too US-centric and was caught predicting two, three decades of solid growth for China. Paul French is not that much quoted, but very busy on this book tour, promoting his latest book Fat China. Obvious, with good results.
Worth mentioning is also the staying power of two relative newcomers, Helen Wang and Wendell Minnick. Often, new speakers on our roster are in danger of slipping away into the dark corners of our databases, but both are able to attract enough attention to say in our top ten.
Now, the official top-10 of most-sought speakers for October (September between brackets

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Labels: China, China Speakers Bureau, Helen Wang, Paul French, Rupert Hoogewerf, Shaun Rein, Tom Doctoroff, Wen Jiabao

'Fat China' scores in most-sought speakers for September 2010

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

Some remarkable changes in our monthly top-10 of most-sought speakers. While most of the listed speakers hold on to their position in the list, Paul French has entered the triumvirate of top-3 speakers at number 2, clearly a success related to his latest book Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation, where he identifies obesity as a new key problem China has to face in the decades to come. For China's health care yet another Gargantuan dilemma, caused by the advertisement industry, claims French.
Many other thought-leaders on China seem to prefer to stick other - undeniable giant - challenges has to face, but setting the agenda by re-framing China's challenges in such a way certainly seems to appeal to clients.
Shaun Rein, as usual, has been extremely active in the mainstream media in debating China-related issues, so he still remains very much at the top.
Good news is also the appearance of a new speaker, Helen Wang, who entered the first ranking right away at the 8th position. Her book, The Chinese Dream, on China's middle class is not yet available, so we have good expectations she might hang on to a top position in the months to come. All too often, when new speakers do not trigger off enough response among mainstream media., clients or otherwise, they often leave this top-10 as fast as they came in.
Wendell Minnick, with his special focus on China's military might, did not face that fate. As the military tensions increase in Asia, the Bureau Chief of Defense News in Taiwan solidly hangs on to the 9th position.
Without further delay, let's turn to the full top-10 of most-sought speakers of September 2010. (August 2010 in brackets).

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

Are you looking for these or other speakers on China-related issues? Do get in touch.

Labels: Arthur Kroeber, health care, Helen Wang, Jasper BeckerKaiser Kuo, military, Paul French, Shaun Rein, Tom Doctoroff, Wendell Minnick, William Bao Bean, William Overholt

Chinese women, the new spending force

Changing families values

Chinese women are becoming a new force in domestic consumption as they command half of the household budget, writes Newsweek, who tapped into the brains of Tom Doctoroff, Shaun Rein and Paul French, all speakers for the China Speakers Bureau.
Shaun Rein on the figures:

For Western companies, the rise of the female consumer in China is a welcome change. For years, multinationals ignored Chinese women because their contribution to household income was so small—a fact “that’s changed dramatically,” says Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group. In the 1950s women contributed just 20 percent of household income. That rose to about 40 percent in the 1990s and then reached 50 percent last year, according to Rein....
Rein’s firm recently found that women younger than 35 are the most optimistic segment in China, with a whopping 80 percent of the 3,500 women surveyed saying they’ll spend more in the second half of 2010 than they did in the first half. With trends like these, Chinese women may bring new meaning to the term “the power of the purse.”

But those women might have other ambitions than the women in the US or Europe today, says Paul French:

At the same time, advertisers are finding that Chinese women crave security, and that portraying women in advertising as fully independent may not work. Paul French, founder of Shanghai market research firm Access Asia, says women want job success, a husband, and 1.0 children with a villa in the suburbs, so advertisements are “similar to cupcake ads in America in 1953,” he says. “Let’s create the perfect family.”

And warns Tom Doctoroff:

“Chinese women are not indulgent consumers,” says Tom Doctoroff, greater China CEO at the advertising agency JWT.

More in Newsweek.
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Tom Doctoroff, Shaun Rein and Paul French all belong to the Chinese Speakers Bureau. Do you need one of them - or all together - at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

Labels: China, China Speakers Bureau, economy, Paul French, Public Speaking, Shaun Rein, Tom Doctoroff

Most-sought speakers for August 2010

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

The summer holidays and the summer heat forced many to lay low - we noticed from the traffic to our websites - with one exception: Shaun Rein. Almost no day passed without Shaun sharing his views on mainstream TV-stations or on Forbes and Business Week. No wonder he rose to the first place again in our top-10 of most-sought speakers for August 2010. (You can see our listing for July here.)
Shaun Rein covered a wide range of subjects: sex and porn, the stress test for banks, the China blame game of Western media, the lack of savings, and many more subjects. (See also our speakers' corner).
Kaiser Kuo has his first full month as director at China's leading search engine Baidu. And although we miss his opinion leadership in the mainstream media, he still maintained a firm second place. Otherwise, for those who are following our speakers, not that many surprises in this month's top-10 (July 2010 in brackets).

Labels: China, China Speakers Bureau, Paul French, Public Speaking, Rupert Hoogewerf, Shaun Rein, Tom Doctoroff, Victor Shih, Wendell Minnick

The dramatic fall of Tang Jun - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff Fantake via Flickr

“Losers cheat some people and get caught. Winners cheat the whole world all the time.” Tom Doctoroff quotes Tang Jun, a former corporate celebrity in China who recently fall from his pedestal. Has the Warren Buffet of China become its Bernie Madoff?

In the Huffington Post

Is Tang Jun without moral scruples? To westerners, the answer is, of course, yes. He built his reputation on, at best, half truths and, at worse, outright deceit. Further, former colleagues at Microsoft and Shanda describe Mr. Tang as a pseudo-leader, perpetually detached, more interested in managing his image amongst foreign bosses and investors than generating lasting shareholder value.

Interestingly, however, the post-scandal reaction of many ordinary Chinese was far more ambiguous, sometimes sympathetic. Although this case unleashed a tidal wave ofschadenfreude, the masses were more titillated than up in arms. According to one 35-year-old professional, “He was only doing what anyone in his position would do.” And another: “Tang Jun got caught. He pushed it too far. But, today, it’s so competitive. We have no choice but to play the damn game. Face is everything.”

More about Tang Jun's moral dilemma's here.

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Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Labels: Bernie Madoff, China, China Speakers Bureau, Tom Doctoroff, Warren Buffet

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Getting your brand right in China is tough - Tom Doctoroff

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Second wives key for luxury consumption - Tom Doctoroff