Creative marketing partnership for China market entry

In my previous articles, I mentioned about doing in-depth marketing research to create right marketing messages targeting the right audiences. Truth be told, having the right marketing message is just a first step to achieve your China marketing success. In a hyper-competitive market like China, message delivery channels, timing and frequency are also key, because target audiences’ attention span are short, and many are overwhelmed by advertisement already. Moreover, when choosing a channel to deliver the marketing message, you need to take a close look at the return of investment (marketing ROI). The cost of many marketing channels is not cheap in China, it needs to be carefully managed for a cost-effective running of your marketing initiatives.

In this article, I recommend thinking creatively to build partnerships for your China marketing. A well-built marketing partnership brings the following benefits:

• It reduces the overall marketing expenditure through co-investment.
• It makes a deeper impression among potential customers, especially when a complimentary partnership leads to an overall higher value delivered to customers.
• Partnership with an established player in the market can promote the credibility of new products and services.

I list three examples below as my thinking on developing creative Chinese marketing partnerships for Australian businesses.

Example 1. Australian Beef

At present, beef contributes to a small portion of total meat consumption in China, yet it grows very fast. It is estimated to increase by 24% from 2017 to 2027 (Source: GIRA). For an Australian beef exporter thinks of selling via Chinese retail channels, it is natural to believe that marketing needs to be done at the places like supermarket through running advertisement. However, there is one caveat. You need to spend a lot to put your products on the shelf and even more to secure a good advertisement placement competing with many similar products that are trying to emphasise the same values such as being healthy, natural/organic, free of hormones and attention to animal welfare.

So how to improve your credibility among retail customers? Beyond some nice pictures on advertisement or well-made marketing brochures, how about having marketing partnerships with Chinese schools (maybe even some schools that Australians also invested in), providing subsided beef dishes designed by nutritionist and exclusively made of your products?

Unlike Australian schools, majority of Chinese schools including public, private and international schools provide lunch meals for students. The marketing expenditure for such sponsorship, if focusing on limited number of schools in a targeted tier 1 or tier 2 city should be controllable and not subject to as many variations that can happen when marketing through a supermarket chain. The sponsorship by itself is a good story to tell, not to mention the recent canteen food scandal went viral in China is associated with schools. The marketing story can be printed on the product packaging materials and shared through digital channels thus further enhancing the marketing coverage.

(Inspired by the real-world case: Starbucks employee first philosophy enhanced by providing the health insurance to employees’ parents http://brandautopsy.com/2007/01/the_starbucks_e.html)

Example 2. Kids’ products

I recently bought a leapfrog iPhone camera case as a gift for my little one. To start a fun game, we downloaded an app developed by leapfrog to the mobile and then slot the mobile into this case. The case is equipped with a mimic shutter button, once clicked, triggers the iPhone button on the side to take a photo though a camera hole.

We had great fun using the app, making different emojis based on different pre-designed template background. And of course, we can do it unlimited times! If only we could choose one of our favourites and print it out! Sadly, no such function in this game.

Thinking loudly in a similar situation. Australia products that targeting kids as a key segment can partner with a Chinese kids’ app developer if the app happens to target the similar age groups. Similar to the above, art design or photo apps can be leveraged to market Australian made printing products. Adding function to the app to easily allow users to customise and upload the art work will enable the selling of customised printing products.

Some app developers should be willing to connect software with physical products to make the experience more fun and to differentiate themselves among competitors. On the other hand, businesses that produces kids’ products can leverage the app as a digital channel to provide added value to potential customers.

 (Inspired by the real-world case: Microsoft marketing Windows 10, a software product, through partners’ hardware advertisement)

Example 3. Professional service

This idea comes from our previous consulting project in the safety and risk management with a Chinese partner. This partner is very open-minded and is keen to introduce best practices from Australia. After a successful pilot project, they proposed a software co-development program by incorporating Australian methodology, tools, process, KPIs with Chinese regulation/policy requirements and industry practices. It will be a win-win deal given the differences in expertise from both parties.

In a B2B business, we do not use much social media campaign or commercial ads to promote our brand. Instead, we choose established Chinese players to partner with and promote the products/services by co-marketing or co-branding with them. We benefit from this model because of the same segment we are targeting gains more comprehensive values from the partnerships.

Such co-marketing model is applicable to many other Australian professional service firms. When initially entering China, firms can consider investing design / project management services and knowledge into Chinese software development partners with an aim to bring the products back to Australian market in the short term and to license its knowledge for the customer base in China in the long run.

(Inspired by the real-world case: Google invest into JD. then partner with it to compete with Amazon in US. Its advertisement services can be used by JD at overseas market and one day in China even)

The essence of a creative marketing partnership lies in a clear marketing partnership strategy for China, a deep understanding of short-term vs. long-term needs of both parties, a sensible marketing partnership execution plan, and finally being brave, thinking out of the box and connecting with different kinds of people. You never know, sometimes it could take more guts than brains.