Growing without a stink

As the economic might of China grows, so too does the ambition of Chinese brands to expand internationally.   In fact, several Chinese brands have already started to gain traction in the West. Successful examples include Haier, a white goods manufacturer, and Lenova and Huawei, who offer computer and communication solutions.

A noticeable feature of first wave of successful Chinese brands abroad is a distinct lack of “Chinese-ness”.  There is nothing in the brands’ imagery that clearly marks them as “made in China” or culturally recognizable as Chinese. Read more…

You are what you drink.

As a way of understanding the culture of a country, the role that beer plays within it is not a bad place to start. Beer is unrivalled in the variety of needs it meets for drinkers;  the individual, the social, the wind up, the wind down. To be locally relevant Global breweries must understand the importance of and context in which these needs are satisfied in each market.

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Tesco* have felt the wrath of the UK press this week after its worst performance in many years. A raft of issues has been cited: from badly-designed stores, poor customer service, failure to meet shopper’s quality expectations, to, above all, price.

Behind these factors lies a deeper problem: shoppers have fallen out of love with Tesco. And the reasons are two-fold: the brand’s failure to emotionally connect with consumers and Tesco’s own blurred positioning. And the two go hand-in-hand. Read more…

People have been calling it “Sweet City” [Tian Cheng] for generations.  The name pays tribute to Neijiang’s erstwhile regional importance as a producer of candied fruit [guofu] and grower of sugar cane.  Guofu can still be found – if you are prepared to search for it that is.  But, as befits the way it is sold in the few surviving local street markets, what’s left of the industry is merely a quaint side-stall on the outer fringe of the fast-developing Neijiang economy.

But that’s not to say that things have turned sour for Neijiang’s 4.3 million people.  Read more…

There is no doubt that China is one of the world’s most fascinating markets.  And the normal rules of engagement for marketers don’t always apply.  For brands to succeed, brand owners need a deep understanding of the cultural complexity of the market and the estimated 1.3bn people it serves.

To answer some of the most pressing marketing questions facing marketers in the Middle Kingdom, we recently held events in Shanghai and Hong Kong that provided participants with compelling insights into this fast-changing marketplace. Read more…

Le jeudi 3 novembre lors du salon Paris 2.0, Added Value intervenait à une table ronde animée par Jean-Maxence Granier, Directeur Associé de Think Out, sur le thème de l’utilisation des communautés en ligne afin de collecter des insights et co-créer avec les consommateurs (cliquer ici pour lire l’intervention d’Yves Jaques, Project Director Added Value) . Après la table-ronde, nous avons demandé à Jean-Maxence les enseignements qu’il en avait tiré, les enjeux et les freins de ces communautés, ainsi que leur avenir.

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Added Value participe à la table-ronde organisée le 3 novembre au Salon Paris 2.0 sur le rôle des instituts d’études dans la collecte d’insights et la co-création en direct avec les consommateurs. RDV à 17h, pour assister au débat mené par Jean-Maxence Granier de Think Out et auquel participeront, Yves Jaques, Project Director de la plateforme communautaire d’Added Value, Christophe Rebours président d’InProcess, Eric Maillet, Directeur Associé chez Axance, François Petavy de Eyeka et Franck Pernez Business Development Director chez Survey Sampling. Vous apprendrez comment se recrute une communauté, sa gestion et son observation au quotidien par le community manager afin d’obtenir des insights exploitables.

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Time was, the path to success was fairly linear: Get good grades, go to college, and pursue a profession that offers a decent standard of living.
If you were good at maths and science, become a doctor. If you were better at english and history, become a lawyer. If your verbal skills needed work, become an accountant.

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When we saw Lucy Davison’s presentation on the importance of good communication at the 2011 Annual Esomar Congress, we understood the issue, as it is important to communicate well, both as a team and with our clients. So we invited Lucy to present her paper to our Parisian team and before the meeting we sat down with her to get her views on communications today.

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Does it make a difference to the consumer if a brand is premium or luxury? For the consumer perspective Added Value created an international online community called “Luxury Detectives” using AV-id™, our digital ideation platform, designed to engage consumers for insight and innovation purposes.

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