In this section:
› Getting your products into China
› Finding and managing agents and distributors
› Marketing
Getting your products into China
Do not fear Customs
"The China Customs bureau is not as complex as a lot of people portray it to be. It's pretty straightforward. The product arrives at the wharf or airport, you register it with the Customs bureau, the Customs bureau will raise a bill to you, you pay the bill and the goods are cleared. There are inspections, but as a company with a good track record over many years working with Customs, we don't get inspected all that frequently. I guess my key gripe with Customs and China Inspection and Quarantine is the length of time it takes to get clearance." - Brendan O'Toole, Managing Director, Summergate International
Turn labelling requirements into an opportunity
"Many people will talk about Chinese labelling as a negative - a hurdle and obstacle - and having to comply with some very detailed and onerous regulations that relate to that. The whole application and approvals process is not an easy one and can take a long time. But there are two sides to that coin and I think that while those application approval processes aren't easy, there is an under-utilised opportunity to communicate a lot more information to Chinese consumers that can really help them to understand and appreciate the products that much better. As well, most Chinese read Chinese, not English." - Brendan O'Toole, Managing Partner, Summergate International
Deliver to exacting standards
"When importing products into China, the business elements are the same as almost anywhere. It's about managing and keeping a close eye on inventory. Shipping frequency, product presentation, quality of product are all standard import issues and that's really no different in China than anywhere else. In fact today I would say some of the standards that we're being required to meet in China are as exacting as any of our more traditional markets. The needs that we've identified are ensuring that we deliver on time, that we deliver as intended and that we meet the customer's needs." - Doug Ducker, Managing Director, Pan Pac
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Finding and managing agents and distributors
Beware of overselling
"Many agents in China will promise much and deliver little." - Dr Anatole Bogatski, Director Student Services and Market Development, AIS St Helens
Watch for opportunists
"Identifying the appropriate distributor is particularly challenging. There are lots of opportunists clouding the view and taking advantage of newcomers." - Tim McIvor, Managing Director, Lanocorp Pacific
Know that good distributors are expensive
"If a distributor is very good, they will be very expensive and using a product from a multi-national. They will invariably run their own brand and will not be willing to deal with you exclusively. If a distributor is interested in selling only your products, you have to ask about their track record." - David Percy, CEO, Pertronic Industries
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Marketing
See China as a continent not a country
"A lot of people get confused with China and think it's a mysterious beast and you've got to approach it in a totally different way; that's not at all correct. China is a market place - it's a very open market place.
"I strongly suggest to anybody, especially if you are in a small or medium sized enterprise, that you don't look at China as a country; look at it as a continent, similar to if you went to South America or Europe. You've got to look at it that way in terms of what they want. You need to be very clear about which part of the market you want to attack.
"Identify which segments of the economy or which provinces really suit your product and start to build your network in that area." - Jade Grey, Beijing-based Kiwi entrepreneur
Chinese market niches are big
"Niche marketing is a numbers game. You just find the niche and that will be more than sufficient to get you going and up and running in China. I am probably the classic case of that. We focus purely on foreign students studying in China. You've got American kids, European kids, Australian and New Zealand kids studying in China and living in China. You wouldn't get much more of a niche market than foreign students studying in China. Yet this market is growing faster than we can handle it. So why would I want to attack something bigger when firstly I would have so much more competition and secondly your resources are not going to be able to handle what you have taken on." - Jade Grey
Understand your strengths
"We need to understand our own strengths and how coming out of New Zealand enhances the quality of what we can deliver. We have high spending on R&D and leverage off our attributes to try and keep ahead of other competitors." - David Ritchie, CEO, Provenco
Do the basics first
"Marketing at the point of sale is the most effective place. We've seen examples of companies spending a lot of money on advertising before they've even built distribution for their product.
"A lot of the marketing in the early stages is oriented towards what we call trade marketing, investments at the point of purchase, investments that support the building towards distribution. I think as the market matures and it goes through its evolutionary cycles the nature of the marketing will change, as it would in a mature market, and one will get sophisticated about segmenting and targeting segments. But at this stage in China it's still very early days - the basics are appropriate and one doesn't want to get ahead of oneself, patience is very important." - Brendan O'Toole, Managing Director,
Summergate International
Take steps to creating a new name
"With respect to choice of brand names for the China market, the way we do it is to have a team from across our offices, people who have shown they are good at this sort of thing, naming names. We will put a team together and they'll take an English brand name and work on coming up with a range of options. Some of those will be simply phonetic interpretations of the original English name, some of them may also reflect the brand attributes, the identity of the brand itself. Obviously we will discuss that with the brand owner.
"We'll go through all of those options with the brand owner and the best case scenario will be to come up with a name that phonetically reflects the brand well and that also reflects the identity and attributes, the essence of that brand, the personality of that brand, and one that really resonates with Chinese and
hey enjoy and like and it's easy to recognise and remember.
"That's the process we go through and I think it is an important exercise. I think there is real value in coming up with a really good name." - Brendan O'Toole
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