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One of my favorite things to read about and experience is how quintessential American brands have localized themselves around the world. It’s odd, for instance, to think of American mainstays like McDonald’s and 7-11 offering radically different products and services in their outlets abroad, but they do: McDonald’s, for instance, serves porridge in Singapore and Malaysia, and 7-11 sells video games and consoles in Japan.

And as China’s economy and level of personal wealth has exploded, so too have the number of Western companies doing business there. Unsurprisingly, Chinese consumers have made their imprint on companies like Starbucks, Wal-Mart, and, believe it or not, Pabst Blue Ribbon. Here are some funny, insightful, and just-plain-weird examples of stuff they sell in China:

5) Pig faces at Wal-Mart

Picture me, sitting at my desk in MLC World Headquarters, perusing an off-topic link sent to me by a colleague. “16 Items They Only Sell At Chinese Wal-Marts“. Imagine my horror as I scroll down to find pictures of pig faces – not the heads, just the faces – stacked in a bin.

Apparently pig face isn’t just a delicacy in China – in Spain, it’s called careta – and, in any case, I’m not one to criticize. I’ve eaten even more disgusting things on a dare.

4) Pabst Blue Ribbon – for $44 a bottle

Catering to the growing Chinese business class is proving to be quite a boon for some American manufacturers, including Pabst. Long known as a blue-collar (and later, a hipster) beer in the United States, Pabst Blue Ribbon has a special edition in China called “Pabst Blue Ribbon 1844″, is sold in a bottle that’s reminiscent of a high-end vodka, and advertisements suggest that the beer be served in – what else – a champagne flute. Retailing for an astonishing US$44 a bottle, the beer is marketed to the Chinese public as similar to scotch, brandy, and Bordeaux because all four are aged in wooden casks.

In a country where per-capita income remains just over $3,500/year, Pabst probably doesn’t move many units of this premium brew yet. But it’s an interesting anecdote illustrating an empirical truth – Chinese consumers are gaining purchasing power, and quickly. Read More »

By Martha Gimbel

Running a commercial organization is hard – no one denies that. How do we come up with a unique value proposition that will resonate with customers? How do we coach our reps to become commercial teachers? How do we keep our employees focused on their jobs now that the fourth season of Mad Men is on?

But you would think that one of the easier parts of running a commercial organization would be knowing who owns what tasks. You put Employee #1 in charge of voice of the customer, Employee #2 in charge of sales support, Employee #3 in charge of customer portfolio management, and you take care of commercial strategy. Sounds simple enough, right?

Actually, no. The results from MLC’s Commercial Integration Diagnostic show that:

• 67% of companies don’t know who is in charge of Voice of the Customer
• 63% don’t know who is in charge of Commercial Strategy
• 64% don’t know who is in charge of Customer Portfolio Management
• 54% don’t know who is in charge of Customer Segmentation
• 50% don’t know who is in charge of Customer Experience Management. Read More »

Here in Washington, the community is abuzz with news that Wikileaks, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing whistleblowers a safe place to publish sensitive information, has released a gargantuan store of documents related to the war in Afghanistan. The documents paint a picture that is decidedly at odds with more official portrayals of the war.

The same day, the Library of Congress’ Copyright Office determined that “jailbreaking” the iPhone – a process that allows users to access apps not available in Apple’s App Store – does not violate copyright laws. Apple contends that jailbreaking can harm the phone’s user experience, and leave it vulnerable to viruses; the company voids warranties of jailbroken phones. The Copyright Office, however, said in its ruling that jailbreaking is “innocuous at worst and beneficial at best.”

Regardless of your opinion on the war in Afghanistan, the ethics of leaking sensitive information to the public, or the use of products in ways that weren’t intended, these examples serve to illustrate one principle of the changing information economy: You are not in control. Read More »

It’s that time again – we’re spotlighting the top 5 case studies, event replays, and MLC studies as accessed by our members in the travel and leisure industries! Read More »

By Whitney Satin

American Idol has dominated the airwaves for a number of years now.  While Simon Cowell’s outrageous lambasting of singing hopefuls is a draw for some, sales reps and marketers should pay attention for another (somewhat surprising) reason: Idol’s crowdsourcing of talent through multi-round competition is a powerful way to improve the delivery of your sales pitch. Sound far-fetched?  Stay tuned…

Read More »

Big brands are often the last to catch on to changing consumer behavior.  There are few industries where this is more visible than airline travel, where frazzled consumers have long begged the major players to deliver an experience that exceeds the “punishment for a crime you did not commit” bar.

Iconoculture recently reported on an unsettling trend in consumer travel—as airline innovation fails to keep pace with consumer demands, consumers are either rewarding smaller players like Suite Arrival (who delivers TSA-friendly personal items from popular brands directly to travelers’ hotel room) or inventing their own “DIY” approaches to make travel less frustrating. Read More »

We just held our inaugural business-to-business meeting looking at our content engagement strategies and what it really means to be a thought leader (and whether that’s even the right goal).

Not surprisingly, when talking about current challenges, we had lots of conversation around the consensus-based sale – these days, you need to convince more people with different interests to agree on any purchase.  But how do you get everyone to agree to a purchase, especially if it’s the slightest bit disruptive?  Clearly, we have a stronger need for advocates inside an organization than ever before.

For Marketing to support that, one thing we need to do is engineer our content to make people want to share it.  But how? Read More »

Surely you’ve seen the TV ads. Ex-football player Isaiah Mustafa, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like,” taking his audience from a bathroom, to a sailboat, to a beach scene on horseback, all the while spouting an absurd, deadpan hyper-masculine monologue. It’s great advertising, a campaign that I think has helped shift Old Spice’s image away from “little white bottle in my grandfather’s medicine cabinet” to “cool, masculine scent that [young] women love.”

Now they’ve gone and outdone themselves, with a social media campaign that might be better than the TV spots. Last week, our Old Spice hero began making personalized videos for bloggers, Web celebrities, and a few average web users. Notable examples include a get-well message to Digg founder Kevin Rose, political punditry in response to George Stephanopolous, and a hilarious response to the Yahoo! Answers question “How many teeth do sharks have?”. Read More »

By Erin Lynch-Klarup

It’s no surprise to marketers – especially those who frequent Wide Angle – that the power of relationship-based selling strategies is waning.  To build consensus across customer decision makers, Marketing needs to shift resources into producing valuable content rather than building relationships with advocates.

A necessary function of content that can convert the buying center is establishing the supplier’s credibility.  This is key since decision influencers must feel comfortable sharing content with their peers.  Previously a close supplier-customer relationship might have built the needed credibility – now, marketers achieve it through content.

One approach is using social proof.  This concept in organizational theory suggests that when we are uncertain about a decision, we are strongly influenced by choices we see peers make.  A supplier can tap into social proof by showing prospective customers peers who are in similar situations and choosing the supplier’s services.  This could be done with tactics like online communities, case studies or word-of-mouth initiatives. Read More »

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for nominations for MLC’s 2010 B2B Marcomm Campaign Awards is fast approaching. July 30 is the deadline to recognize the work of your peers (or maybe even your own!). If you know of a standout B2B marcomm campaign from the last year, please consider nominating it. Details, including entry guidelines and other fine print, are below the fold: Read More »