Twitter is a tool, not a strategy - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Branding needs more than social media tools like Twitter or Wechat, says Shanghai-based author Tom Doctoroff of Twitter is Not a Strategy: Rediscovering the Art of Brand Marketing on his book tour. Virals on social media do not build a brand, nor sell burgers, he says.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

 Are you interested in more branding experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check our latest list.

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Building brands with social media - Tom Doctoroff

+Tom Doctoroff 

Author Tom Doctoroff, Asia Pacific CEO of JWT, tries to close the abyss between social media and traditional branding in his latest book Twitter is Not a Strategy: Rediscovering the Art of Brand Marketing. In Thoughtful China he explains why branding on social media need the more traditional insights.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you interested in more branding experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out our recently updated list.

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Catching Chinese consumers illusive for many brands - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

China's consumers might be high on the agenda of many global brands, getting them is a tough challenge, explains China's consumer guru Tom Doctoroff in the Business Times. "The difference is the depth of their ambition." 

The Business Times:

Foreign brands wanting to enter China's retail market to take a slice of the country's growing consumer dollar must understand the complex cultural make-up of its shoppers or risk packing their bags sooner than expected. 

In particular, international players have to realise that consumption in China is very much an outward show of status and for professional advancement, said Tom Doctoroff, the Asia-Pacific head of advertising giant J Walter Thomson (JWT) and an expert on Chinese consumerism. 

"The difference between Chinese consumers and others is the depth of their ambition - the desire to be emperor of their own corner. There is a dragon in the heart of every Chinese," said the Shanghai-based chief executive of JWT Asia-Pacific at a dialogue on China's retail sector organised by HSBC in Singapore last month.

E-commerce might be booming in China, but it also offers specific challenges, tells Tom Doctoroff;

"The key word is reassurance. It has become increasingly safe to buy from a broader range of categories online. Money is not handed over until customers can squeeze the product," said Tom Doctoroff, the Asia-Pacific CEO of advertising giant J Walter Thomson at the HSBC dialogue session last month.

More in the Business Times, and here. 

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form. 

China Weekly Hangout 

Sara Hsu

Shadow banking is on the agenda of the +China Weekly Hangout for Friday 30 August, featuring shadow-banking expert assistant professor Sara Hsu . You can read or announcement here, ask questions, or register for live participation at our event page.

Are foreign firms having a hard time in China, asked the +China Weekly Hangout  earlier in August? Western journalists focus on Western firms in China, that might be fair, but they ignore China's real challenges, argue China veteran-at-large Janet Carmosky and sustainability expert +Richard Brubaker, moderated by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.  

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Consumers are willing to pay a premium - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

Sales of luxury goods to Chinese consumers is booming, not only to the very rich. More average consumers with lower incomes are willing to pay a high premium for the products they really want to have, says author Tom Doctoroff of "What Chinese Want" in the New York Times.

For example, paying high prices for 3-D or IMAX movies does not deter Chinese consumers:

The New York Times:

But those price points don’t faze Chinese consumers, according to Tom Doctoroff, the chief executive of the advertising firm JWT Greater China. They willingly pay premium prices for luxury goods — whether it’s for a 3-D movie ticket, the latest Chanel handbag or a Communist-red Ferrari — as long as there’s high visibility to their purchase. Conspicuous consumption is the whole idea. 

“In order to charge a price premium, public consumption must be dramatized,” said Mr. Doctoroff, the author of “What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism, and China’s Modern Consumer.” 

“That’s why certain categories — for example, cars and luxury goods — are growing so quickly, despite extremely high out-of-pocket costs.” 

A typical first-time car buyer in China will spend a year’s salary on a car, Mr. Doctoroff said. Proportionally, that’s about three times what a European or an American pays. 

“Haagen Dazs wins with fancy ice cream parlors, not in-home consumption,” he said, noting that in China “no one pays $5 to enjoy a half pint of ice cream while watching (illegal) DVDs in the living room.”

More in the New York Times.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Consumers continue to spend on home decoration - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

China's consumers continue to spend, despite a small dip in growth, also for decorating their homes, argues business analyst Shaun Rein, and goes against JWT executive Tom Doctoroff, who says Chinese consumers go for cheaper products. Shaun Rein dismantles three consumers myths in Business Week.

Shaun Rein:

Tom Doctoroff, chief executive officer of J. Walter Thompson Shanghai, argues that Chinese consumers are not willing to spend more than the minimum on items inside their homes. Concerned with the projection of outward status, Doctoroff believes Chinese won’t spring for foreign appliance brands if they can’t show them off to others and will instead opt for cheaper, good-enough domestic brands such as Haier or Gree. 

Doctoroff’s conclusions, however, don’t match the results of 500 interviews China Market Research Group conducted with people whose net worths are over $500,000. We found that 90 percent of well-off respondents preferred big-ticket item household appliances from foreign brands such as Samsung andSiemens (SI). In fact, most of them bought only foreign-brand appliances, explaining they felt the non-Chinese names had better functions and underlying technology. 

What’s more, as we broke down home spending room by room, one of the key areas female consumers focused on—and where spending was growing fastest—was the bedroom. They particularly were interested in high-quality sheets and mattresses. These are items that have nothing to do with showing off to friends, most of whom would likely never see the inside of their bedrooms. These purchases are all about consumers pampering themselves. One 28-year-old Shanghai woman told me why she spends so much on linens: “I work hard and want to feel like a princess at home.” 

While it is true that “showing you’ve arrived” is often an important driver in spending patterns, companies should not be so fixated on this concept that they ignore an important shift that is going on: Consumers are increasingly willing to spend extra to indulge themselves.

More in Business Week.

Shaun Rein and Tom Doctoroff are both speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need one of them (or both) at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.