Friday, October 01, 2004

Go North, Young Man!

AdAsia Magazine, Singapore, October 2004 issue

Anyone who’s spent some serious time in China lately can echo that this is a place where things are happening. Buildings sprout from building pits like mushrooms in Autumn; luxury brand retail outlets pop up along busy shopping streets like there’s no tomorrow; brand advertising spreads like wildfire, engulfing TV stations with commercials, print media with ads and cities with billboards. There seems to be no limit to the amount of marketing effort that China can absorb.

Or does it? A couple of things point in the opposite direction.

A first clue would be a quick look around at Formula One’s grand debut in China. Here’s a real Grand Prix F1 race, held at a brand new, state-of-the-art circuit, called one of the best on the F1 calendar by insiders like Bernie Ecclestone and Eddie Jordan. It has no less than 160,000 seats and it was sold out for the occasion. Apart from that, the usual 1 billion-plus global TV audience was watching from a somewhat greater distance. That’s a hot advertising seller, right?

Wrong, at least as far as the local market was concerned. For virtually none of the trackside advertising was sold, judging by the empty boards all around the circuit during the race. I still remember the colour of the unused space: dark green. That’s generally a bad sign. The only billboards in use were those of the main worldwide sponsors of F1, brought in by Bernie’s boys.

Another clue was a recent, much-published survey from AC Nielsen, who surveyed brand awareness among Chinese consumers with respect to car brands in the light of the half a billion US Dollars annually spent on car advertising in China. Mass advertising is still growing sharply, in shrill contrast with car sales which are levelling off. This spells ‘CHANGE STRATEGY PLEASE’ in capital letters. China marketing ahoy! Anybody behind the steering wheel over there?

I have a theory about this. For years marketing in China has amounted to prize-shooting at increasing numbers of brand new consumers, hundreds of millions of people who suddenly find themselves in possession of some discretionary spending money. They want to buy brands, any brands. And these starters are not much bothered with, and much less educated in, the finesses of brand personalities.

But as markets start to mature, this changes. Now China badly needs people with expertise in the more scientific bits, people who can connect a brand’s heritage to local culture; people who can make clear to their potential consumers what their brand stands for; who can work on establishing relationships with their target groups; and who can build trust and loyalty with those who already bought theirr products.

Wake up people! There’s a giant market out there that needs Mandarin speakers who have spent enough time trying to move around on a square millimetre, producing whole commercials based on two words (think ‘Fashion Squad!’, or even worse: Nokia’s more recent TVC that tries to explain ‘Mobile Entertainment’ by having a bunch of evil-looking clowns chasing you around – doesn’t anybody read Stephen King anymore?).

I’m talking about experienced people; advertising people, but also direct marketers. Don’t worry about Singapore; a new generation is already waiting to take over, and Singapore is an excellent training ground. If you doubt about the training ground part, take a look at the average budget and you’ll agree.

‘Go West, Young Man!’ was the famous motto with which NY Times founder Howard Greeley set off the great exploration of the uncharted American West. Today it’s ‘Go North, Young Man!’ for those whose minds have matured but whose advertising hearts are still young. You can always come back afterwards. See you in Shanghai!