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China-focused leadership and business analysis

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When Branding Meets Politics: Interview with Shaun Rein

March 19, 2018 By Dominic Morgan

One of the world’s most high-profile China experts, Shaun Rein made his name by highlighting new trends in the Chinese economy years before the Western media caught on. In 2012, his first book, The End of Cheap China, highlighted that China’s low-cost manufacturing miracle was coming to an end. Two years later, he correctly predicted the rise of a new generation of innovation-led Chinese companies in The End of Copycat China. In his third book, The War for China’s Wallet, he tells us that it has never been more critical for brands to understand the Chinese market.

Filed Under: All Articles, Branding, Conversations, Know China, Strategy Tagged With: Localization, Marketing

Big Blue Dances in the Digital Era: An interview with IBM China’s CMO

November 13, 2017 By Liu Sha

Companies are dying fast these days. In the 1950s, the average age of a company on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index was 60 years, now it is less than 20. But International Business Machines (IBM), known as “Big Blue”, seems to be an exception. Over the past few decades, it has managed to keep up as others were dying and has successfully transformed itself. Now it has become a provider of cognitive solutions and cloud services. How has such a giant company managed to transform? Gill Zhou, chief marketing officer of IBM China, offers an answer in this interview with CKGSB Knowledge.

Filed Under: All Articles, C-Suite Interview, Consumers, Conversations, Management, Marketing, Multinationals in China, Technology Tagged With: Branding, IBM, Marketing

Can China Move Beyond Its Cheap Reputation?

June 5, 2017 By Yuanyuan Deng

If you think ‘Made in China’ is always associated with cheap and low quality goods, think again. DJI—the first choice for any drone fan—is headquartered in Shenzhen and dominates 70% of the consumer drone market globally; Huawei, the telecommunication company that developed its first branded smartphone only five years ago, has already become the third largest player in the sector with a 9.4% market share worldwide, behind Samsung and Apple. In this interview, Doreen Wang, author of the BrandZ Top 30 Chinese Global Brand Builders report, makes sense of China’s “glocalized” brands and the bumpy roads they may face in the future.

Filed Under: All Articles, Best Practice, Branding, Conversations, Marketing Tagged With: Branding, DJI, Huawei, Marketing

VANCL: China’s Clothing Giant Stumbles Back From the Brink

September 12, 2016 By Yuanyuan Deng

VANCL China: The IPO is over. Can the company make a comeback?

China’s apparel market is now one of the fastest growing markets in the world. Euromonitor statistics show many foreign brands doing well: Uniqlo currently holds 1.6% of the market for specialist apparel; and Danish company Bestseller Fashion Group China, which operates brands like Only, Jack & Jones and Vero Moda, is holding 2.3% of the market share. Where are the local apparel brands? VANCL, a Chinese ecommerce clothes retailer, is almost a forgotten name. It used to have a 4.5% market share in 2011, but its dream of IPO lie in ashes—how did the once mighty retailer become China’s diaosi (loser) brand?

Filed Under: All Articles, Branding, Consumers, eCommerce, Marketing Tagged With: Apparel, Chinese Consumers, Marketing, Online retail

How to Create Your Product Differentiation Strategy

August 24, 2016 By Bennett Voyles

Between rapid technological change and global competition, it’s becoming harder for anyone selling a product or service to maintain a competitive edge–especially when that product is more or less the same as everyone else’s. But companies with products caught in this trap have more options than they realize. Even if you can’t win by being the cheapest or the best, you don’t need to simply resign yourself to commodity status. Creating a consumer brand for the industrial commodity, branding the product in a way that makes it familiar to the users, and sometime even raising price can be a positive differentiator.

Filed Under: All Articles, Best Practice, Branding, Marketing Tagged With: Branding, Marketing, Shine and Rise series

Xiaomi’s Mission Impossible?

April 28, 2015 By Chris Russell

Having conquered China’s smartphone market, Xiaomi now wants to take over your living room—and the world

Filed Under: All Articles, Best Practice, Digital Economy, Innovation, Strategy, Technology Tagged With: Apple, Business Model Innovation, Internet of Things, Lenovo, Marketing, Patents, Slider, Smartphone, Xiaomi

Can the LeTV Smartphone Succeed in China’s Uber Competitive Market?

April 14, 2015 By Major Tian

Online video platform LeTV believes its new smartphone can demolish competition. Is that too wild an ambition?

Filed Under: All Articles, Best Practice, Connections, Digital Economy, Globalization, Marketing, Strategy, Technology Tagged With: Apple, Fire Phone, Lenovo, LeTV, Marketing, Slider, Smartphone, Xiaomi

Coke’s Secret Formula: Cultural Equity

November 24, 2014 By Neelima Mahajan

University of Minnesota’s Carlos Torelli on how Coca-Cola and Elvis leveraged cultural equity to create brand loyalty.

Filed Under: All Articles, Best Practice, Branding, Conversations, Culture, Know China, Marketing, Q&A, Videos Tagged With: Cadillac, Coca-cola, Consumer Behavior, Globalization, Marketing, Slider

Learning from Market Entry: Keep Your Entrants Imaginary

October 28, 2014 By Brian Viard

What industry incumbents can learn from the forces that guide market entry.

Filed Under: All Articles, Best Practice, China, Consumers, Digital Economy, ExpertSpeak, Finance, Internet Finance, Invisible Hand Revealed, Marketing Tagged With: Alibaba, Alipay, Android, Brian Viard, eCommerce, Foxconn, Google, Invisible Hand Revealed, JD.com, Marketing, Pricing, Slider, WeChat

Sheena Iyengar: Choice Liberates. Or Does It?

October 1, 2014 By Neelima Mahajan

Sheena Iyengar, author of The Art of Choosing, on the limitations of choice—and how to choose wisely.

Filed Under: All Articles, Best Practice, Consumers, Conversations, ExpertSpeak, Management, Strategy, The Thinker Interview Tagged With: Choice, Marketing, Mindset, Slider, The Art of Choosing

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Information, analysis, and interviews about the Chinese economy and doing business in China, from the people who know it best. Presented by the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, China's leading business school.


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