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Archive for the ‘Mark Hedley’ Category« Previous EntriesMarketing Training Courses In ShanghaiFriday, August 19th, 2011  B2B International is pleased to announce the dates of its upcoming training courses in Shanghai: On Thursday, 22 September 2011, we will be running a Market With Intelligence course, and on Friday, 23 September 2011, we will host a course on Value-Based Marketing. As with all our courses, these full-day, hands-on training workshops will enable attendees to not only learn the theory of marketing, but – crucially – to apply the learnings to their own businesses. A brief summary of the course schedules is shown below, but more information can be found here “Shanghai Marketing Training Courses”. To book your place online, please click here.. If you have any questions, please call your nearest B2B International office or email shanghai@b2binternational.com Market with Intelligence – Thursday, September 22, 2011 This course introduces you to the key principles of market research and how research tools can be used to grow your business. Topics covered include: • Introduction to market research Value-Based Marketing – Friday, September 23, 2011 Our value-based marketing workshop explores the key marketing principles and how you can make them work for you, including: • Market intelligence and value-based marketing Getting The Most Out Of Product Development ResearchWednesday, August 17th, 2011  Mark Hedley this week considers the subject of how to approach product development research I read a recent interview with Nielsen’s American chief of product development Vicki Gardner, in which she talks about Nielsen’s approach to product development research. The interview reveals that Nielsen has recently announced its new strategy for product development research, which breaks down the factors that influence a product’s success into twelve points. These twelve points cover issues such as how distinct the proposition is, how persuasively the message is conveyed, how well the product performs and the cost-benefit trade-off for the buyer. Nielsen believes that, with its new approach, it can dramatically reduce the likelihood of a flop, with a success rate of about three in four. That’s compared to less than one in four for all new products, and just under half for products tested using the old approach. Explaining the reasons for this new approach to product development research in July’s issue of research-live.com, Vicki Gardner said:
Although Nielsen’s approach has largely been developed for consumer product development, its basic principles are also applicable to many business-to-business markets, where obtaining accurate and usable data for new product development initiatives presents a challenge. Although buyers in b2b markets often possess technical knowledge that allows them to visualize new product concepts, it is also necessary to present potential buyers with distinct new product concepts to test the attractiveness of a new product. It is then possible to assess reactions to the product concept in terms of its perceived benefits, cost-benefit trade-off, the ability of the product to meet a need, its benefits over alternative products, and so on. The more nuanced the dissection of these factors, the more likely that a company will succeed in developing or adapting new products to meet the real needs and unmet needs of the market place. However, it worth noting that product development research in b2b markets should not just focus on the product itself, which is often just a small aspect of the requirements of buyers. For example, in manufacturing industries, the availability and speedy delivery of a key ingredients can often be as, if not more, important than minor product innovations that may not significantly alter the product’s performance (especially where a large number of substitute products exist). As such, the best product development research will not be carried out in isolation, but will also take account of other issues surrounding the product, such as packaging, services (i.e. technical support), delivery and marketing. The benefits accrued through the significant investment that may be required for new R&D activity can then be appropriately measured against investments in alternative areas of the business. Bring Me SunshineFriday, February 25th, 2011  Ever the researcher, Mark Hedley this week ponders how easy and practical it is to measure happiness As we move out of the long British winter and into the first days of spring I can feel my mood lighten a little every day as the long dark winter nights turn into bright spring days. Having lived abroad for the last couple of years, this was my first winter in the UK for quite some time, and I have to admit to being more than a little influenced by a distinct lack of sunshine and what I suppose would be referred to as ‘seasonal affected disorder’ (SAD) or the winter blues. It’s a strange phenomenon, but I do find that my happiness levels are generally much lower between the months of November and February, which seems to bear out the scientific theory that human happiness is directly linked to the cycle of the seasons. Perhaps it’s not just the seasons that have been affecting my mood – it does seem that all the doom and gloom going on in recent months, with news of economic recession, huge public sector cuts, rising unemployment and inflation have further exaggerated the bleak feeling of the winter months this year. Without wanting to get too morose and philosophical here, it does make you wonder what happiness is exactly and how it can adequately be defined (or controlled)? Does happiness vary between different people within different cultures, and if so, are there any universal measures of happiness common to all people? How important is money to happiness for example? How important are financial factors compared to health, relationships with other people, or job satisfaction? Finally, what role does weather and the environment play in affecting our levels of happiness and personal satisfaction? It was announced recently that the British government has decided to start measuring people’s psychological and environmental wellbeing. Apparently, the Office of National Statistics has been asked to produce a ‘happiness’ index that can be used alongside the normal GDP figures to indicate national prosperity and wellbeing. Yesterday it was revealed that the ONS will soon be asking 200,000 British people in its regular household survey just how satisfied they are with their lives. The survey will use a 10 point scale to pose a range of questions relating to levels of happiness and satisfaction. The survey will include some of the following questions:
 While the purpose of this exercise is to enable the British government to use something other than hard economic data to formulate public policy in the future, it will also be interesting to see what the results of the survey are. What is the mean average happiness score for British people? Will this vary between locations, different age groups or between men and women? Are British people, on average, happier than the French, Greeks or Italians? I suppose that the real value of the study will lie in whether it is able to provide accurate and reliable data on what are the main drivers of happiness for the majority of British people, and what steps should be taken to help improve the happiness of a nation in the future. The professional market researcher in me remains sceptical at the ability of this type of questionnaire to deal effectively with as subjective and ethereal concept as human happiness. Although a point scale questionnaire such as this offers useful general quantitative indicators on trends in happiness, it is questionable as to how far such a survey can really get to the bottom of the drivers that shape happiness and wellbeing for people in the UK. In b2b research, as with sociological research, the principle job of the research is to get to the heart of the issue and understand the complex array of factors that drive behaviour (whether it be an individual or an organization). Nowadays it is generally recognized that while quantitative measures and scales provide some insight into market behaviour, this often only tells one side of the story. Examining the drivers behind the numbers more often than not requires a questionnaire format that includes open qualitative questioning to allow the respondent to give free reign to his or her thought and to tease out the hidden motivations that may shape behaviour. As when trying to understand the reasons why an individual may or may not be happy, in business to business research it is important to recognize that a myriad of factors can affect the views of an organization, including everything from product quality, price levels and level of service through to brand reputation and word-of-mouth recommendation. Entering Chinese Business To Business MarketsMonday, November 29th, 2010  The opportunities presented by the Chinese market are becoming increasingly difficult for Western businesses to ignore. Despite the global economic crisis, China’s economy still managed to achieve a GDP growth rate of 8.3% in 2009, and some industries (such as the automotive and pharmaceutical sectors) continued to see double-digit growth throughout the economic downturn. With economic analysts predicting China to become the engine for global economic growth over the next decade, many Western enterprises are actively realigning their global strategies to give a greater precedence to China and other Asian markets. Within China, rapidly changing demographics, rising incomes, increased consumer spending and an increasingly open business environment have all helped to make the Chinese market increasingly attractive to Western businesses across a variety of industries. Similarly, declining sales in their home markets has forced many US and European companies to relocate China firmly to the centre of their long-term global growth strategies. Breaking into the China market successfully can seem like an almost impossible task to foreign companies with limited or no experience of doing business there. In the latest white paper for B2B International, Mark Hedley illustrates some of the fundamental considerations that any company must take when approaching the China market for the first time. Although these steps may lead to very different conclusions for different companies, they can help companies to properly determine an appropriate strategy for China. To read the full white paper click on the following link Entering Chinese Business-to-Business Markets: The Challenges & The Opportunities Anyone For A Bucksstar Coffee?Friday, November 12th, 2010
On his latest trip to China Mark Hedley discusses the impact of the brand names of the western world and how the growing market of copycat products is helping to reinforce these global brands. On one wet and rainy Sunday afternoon in Beijing last month, I decided to go and try to pick up a local Chinese gifts for friends and family back in Britain. Unfamiliar with the best shopping locations in the city, my hotel concierge recommended I take a stroll down to the pearl market, located just a few blocks away from my hotel. The market was overwhelming – a five storey building the size of a multi-storey car-park, packed full of small stalls selling all manner of traditional Chinese ornaments, memorabilia, clothing, jewellery and so on. This was the kind of place where you could buy everything from Chinese teacups, to aviator shades, knock-off golf clubs and a laser telescope. Anyone that has ever visited China will be familiar with the noisy and irritating cajoling from sales girls with a minimal grasp of English and pushy attitude. Feeling like I’d walked onto on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, I hastily beat a retreat towards the exit, until I was stopped in my tracks by what seemed to be an I-pad (that most coveted of modern gadgets) being sold for a draw-dropping $150 (about 5 times cheaper than those in the UK). Fumbling for my wallet in hasty excitement, I suddenly noticed that I was not looking at a genuine bona-fide I-pad, but was actually something called an ‘A-Pad’…  What is an A-pad? Well, to briefly explain, over recent years, China remarkable economic expansion has led to the gradual opening up of the consumer economy to a whole host of global consumer brands, from Apple, and Microsoft, to designer brands like Burberry and Louis Vitton. This booming appetite for branded consumer goods has also been accompanied by the rise of ‘Shanzhai’ phenomenon. A fairly recent phenomenon, ‘Shanzhai’ can roughly be translated as ‘Mountain Stronghold’ or ‘Mountain Village’ refers to near copies of famous brands or products, but where the brand name or design has been slightly altered or modified slightly from the original brand. The easiest place to spot this Shanzhai phenomenon is in China’s countryside, where many of the products are produced and sold at prices far below the original brands. Originally shanzhai was mainly used to refer to the cheap mobile phones and digital devices produced in and around the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen. However, over time the concept has developed to refer to anything that imitates or spoofs a famous brand, and often contains more than a dash of rebellious humour. Some of the more amusing examples of include a southern fried chicken chain store named ‘KFG’, the ‘Buckstars’ coffee chain, and a search engine with a vaguely familiar web address: ‘Goojje.com’. There have been Shanzhai versions of Hollywood movies, Shanzhai celebrities and a Shanzhai version of the 2008 Beijing Olympic opening ceremony.  Although the Shanzhai phenomenon no doubt terrifies the vast majority of Western corporations keen to protect their intellectual property rights in China, if nothing else it does serve as an ironic reminder of the power of the brand to penetrate even the most remote and insulated of markets without any real marketing. In actual fact, rather than diluting the power of the brand, the Shanzhai versions actually serve to help to reinforce these global brands by duplicating and popularizing them with a large group of potential future consumers. Over the next few years we will see rising incomes in developing markets like China, with more and more people lifted into the middle classes, and this should result in a growing number of companies shifting from Shanzhai consumption towards mainstream consumer culture. Although part an ironic rebellion at the high cost of luxury brands to the majority of Chinese people, more importantly the shanzhai phenomenon expresses the deep aspiration for material wealth among the Chinese peasantry that will one day reap huge rewards for Western brands that can learn to position themselves correctly. « Previous Entries |
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