Solve the Five Problems of Export Marketing

Liu Chunyan is the executive director of Shengli Auto Parts Manufacturing Co., Ltd., an export-oriented enterprise. Although she is also an "old exporter", she still found many "new problems" after attending the first "Export Marketing Management Course" (co-organized by China Europe International Business School and Global Sources) at the end of August:

"What do buyers really want? A representative of the German buyer Markant told us that it is the lowest possible price, the best possible quality, accurate and fast delivery, supplier reliability and efficient Communication. Many companies used to pay more attention to product price and quality, but the latter three, especially communication, did not do well.

"Everyone talks about customer-centricity and customer being God, But I still think about things from my own perspective. "

It's not just Liu Chunyan who feels this way. In the export field, in the face of increasingly fierce global competition and the market opportunities brought about by joining the WTO, how can Chinese companies manage to achieve "products from" A breakthrough from "sales" to "marketing"? 40 senior corporate managers from all over the country discovered and solved problems by participating in three days of intensive theoretical study, case analysis, panel discussions and guest speeches provided by the "Export Marketing Management Course" The idea of is gradually becoming clearer.

Understand buyers, analyze buyers

The primary problem is related to the needs of buyers. As we all know, the core of marketing philosophy is that everything is customer-centric , starting from customer needs, but how to implement it into export management is not an easy task.

Jinan Joyoung Electric Co., Ltd. Marketing Vice President Cui Jianhua analyzed the reasons: "Faced with There is a vast sea of information and buyer inquiries. Suppliers lack an effective buyer identification system and in-depth customer research. They often spend a lot of resources on following up ineffective inquiries. "

This means improving the existing ways and means of analyzing buyers' needs. Lin Hao, general manager of Shunde Weihe Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd., pointed out: "Now the way to understand buyers is very narrow. , generally understand the buyer's needs through interviews, customer visits, and the LC terms of the contract. But the most important point is that many companies have not done it now, that is, they have not really fully understood the current situation of buyers, for example, the needs of buyers in all aspects, whether they are importers, wholesalers, or retailers. Position in the industry, competitor situation, etc. "

He said: "It is not enough to make decisions based on one or two hours of negotiations and interviews with clients. There are other ways, such as industry websites, which can help us obtain more effective information, which is helpful for us to locate buyers and obtain more market opportunities. "

The positioning of buyers is to identify, analyze, and determine the identity and purchase type of buyers through complex information, and then screen out target buyers. Liu Chunyan feels that this course is in this regard. Great inspiration for myself: "Locating buyers is a very important job, and foreign experts have introduced many methods, such as how to identify buyers who are one-time purchases or long-term purchases. For different buyers, you will definitely adopt different quotation systems and reactions. For another example, some buyers send very little information for the first time, only one name or inquiry, but will it be a big potential customer for you? "

The case study is about Boots, a large British retailer, which asks the price of gauze, cotton wool and other products. After filtering through the information, you find that it is a company mainly engaged in cosmetics and health care products, cotton wool , gauze is not its main business variety, it is most likely a one-time purchase for it.

"Everyone sees that Boots is a big company, and often instinctively thinks that it is a great potential customer, but In the final analysis, it is not a very valuable list. So, learning to analyze and filter information is very useful. "

In fact, buyers have different identities and different concerns. In Lin Hao's view, retailers are just stores in cities, they want to sell everything, and they mainly care about what products suppliers can provide. The data it provides to suppliers must be relatively limited, and it does not care much about price. Wholesalers mainly earn the difference in commodity prices, so they focus on price. Importers focus on services. Importers are very worried about products because of the large amount of purchases There are quality and service problems, so I will not negotiate the price with the supplier at the beginning, but after understanding the service, quality and strength of the supplier, I will take out a large order to negotiate the price. If the supplier encounters a buyer's inquiry, he is particularly anxious , the bargaining is particularly hard, and the supply is particularly urgent, so such buyers are generally wholesalers. Because it wants to make more money quickly.

Low-price competition is not uncommon in the Chinese market. For many manufacturers, this is a helpless choice. Even more helpless, they also brought this habit to the export market.

"This is because most export enterprises have no unique selling point, or have not optimized their own unique selling point, or have not realized the benefits of their unique selling point, and enterprises inevitably fall into vicious price competition Among them," Cui Jianhua analyzed, "domestic enterprises generally lack a clear medium and long-term strategic plan. They often develop what others do by themselves, as everyone saw at the Canton Fair. Moreover, the domestic market economy operates for a relatively long time. Short, each enterprise survives first and then develops, lacking differentiated market positioning thinking and business model."

Lin Hao also felt the same way: "Many companies look at what others do well and sell well. In the end, the supply exceeded demand, and we had to resort to price wars, which ended in disastrous failure. This is indeed a big problem for Chinese companies."

Out of the price war cycle, marketing concepts Tell us the response method is the differentiation strategy on the basis of market segmentation. In other words, compete with the company's unique selling point. So, how do you create your unique selling point? "To develop a unique selling point, you first need to look inside your company to see which resources and capabilities, or combinations of resources and capabilities, you have that others don't, and then apply them to form equally unique products and Serve," advises Dr. Chris Styles.

Dr. Styles, who has conducted in-depth empirical research on the determinants of corporate export performance, was a former export marketing manager at Procter & Gamble and is now a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales' School of Marketing in Australia. He has recently been doing case studies on export management in Chinese companies.

"But remember," he continued, "customers are not buying your product, but the benefits it offers. Your unique selling point may not be about the product itself, but may be Fast delivery, custom design, or other ancillary benefits you can offer. The key to a unique selling point is that it sets you apart from your competitors and offers benefits that your customers value."

Liu Chunyan, Lin Hao and Cui Jianhua and other senior managers of the enterprises who participated in the seminar felt that Dr. Styles's summary and summary of the unique selling point would help to open up the thinking of enterprise management. Liu Chunyan said: "We usually think that low price, high quality and 'Made in China' are unique selling points. Through this seminar, everyone realized that this is not the case. Whether it is a unique selling point really needs to be compared with competitors. Now many domestic manufacturers are Passing ISO9000 and other quality certifications, these things that were considered competitive in the past are not your unique selling point now.

"The seminar also talked about an example of a car oil advertisement, which is very enlightening. One company advertises that their oil is the cheapest, while another says that with their oil, you can drive 14,000 miles without oil changes, emphasizing durability. This is a unique selling point for him. "

Liu Chunyan also began to analyze his own company. "Although everyone is 'Made in China', our company has built its own warehouse and other distribution systems in overseas markets such as the United States. In this way, our delivery time will be faster than our competitors, and we will be able to better meet the needs of overseas buyers, which may be our unique selling point," she said.

Jinan Jiu, served by Cui Jianhua Yang Electric Co., Ltd., focusing on the research and development and investment of soymilk products, owns more than 70% of the domestic market share, and has an average export growth rate of 53% in the past three years. He believes that it is a unique selling point that helps the company to achieve such a

If you ask Dr. Styles about the problems in export marketing management of Chinese enterprises, he will definitely say: "People!" "People" is one of the words he hears repeatedly in the process of conducting corporate case studies between Shanghai and discussing with senior managers of Chinese companies.

The biggest headache for business executives is that the export marketing team is relatively mobile, and those who leave often take away all resources such as customer information, either stand on their own or go to their competitors. The reason, according to Lin Hao, is that traditional enterprises lack salary incentives, while emerging enterprises do not give enough room for development. Therefore, as far as personnel are concerned, sufficient incentives should be given.

Dr. Styles suggests that when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, you can also tap into a company's unique selling point, not just to foreign buyers. "You want to use your unique selling point to tell them how your company is a good place to work," he says.

Lin Hao also believes that in terms of system, a computer system similar to ERP should be established, a set of relatively sound customer files should be established, classified according to the importance of customers, read by authority, and information confidentiality should be strengthened. . "Being able to leave one person locally doesn't have an overall impact," he said. That is to say, find ways to retain export business personnel, so as to retain customer resources; even if business personnel cannot be retained, the system and system can retain customer resources.

Another outstanding issue about people is that the concepts and abilities of export business personnel need to be improved. Cui Jianhua pointed out: "The sales force of many enterprises is generally task-oriented and experience-oriented, as long as they complete the export task, they can judge and manage customers based on experience. In addition, enterprises still lack clear management strategies such as training systems. Therefore, the top management of enterprises should Invest resources and energy, through training, introduce professional talents, and formulate a package of business plans for export marketing."

The time is not enough, do not create a brand

The business model of the company's export is Doing OEM or self-branding is actually a chicken-and-egg problem, which requires specific analysis of specific situations. At present, the OEM model adopted by most export enterprises mainly takes advantage of China's comparative cost advantage and the advantages of foreign brands. Lin Hao explained: "When manufacturers are OEMs, they can grow with foreign brand companies. Each company has its own strengths. If you are good at production, you can make the best production. In this way, the brand of the product is inferior. Yes. In reality, there have been examples of some companies being dragged over by their own brands." Moreover, if OEMs do well, manufacturers can also generate brand effects. Cui Jianhua believes that if a company that is dedicated to OEM itself has achieved remarkable results, it will also make a brand.

"The benefits of self-branding are self-evident, one is a competitive advantage, and the other is better profits. However, most companies at present are only local or national brands at best. , There are few domestic products of global brands, and brand building is at a very early stage. In addition to continuously investing huge budgets to build international brands, legal and cultural human resources are also problems. Whether it is OEM strategy or brand strategy, it must be based on the core of the enterprise. It depends on the competitive advantage and resource capacity, and in the long run, it is the road of specialization," he said. As a result, his company concentrated on building Joyoung's small home appliance brand in China, developing markets in developed countries by relying on unique selling points, and directly exporting Joyoung brand products to countries with economic levels similar to China's.

Service and production should be integrated

Starting from the marketing concept, no matter what business model is adopted, exporting is largely a service. Manufacturers establish a good service concept, and if there is a problem, first check them out. Doing a good job in the service will add a unique selling point. Some small and medium-sized manufacturers often use the professional services of intermediary traders to open up export business.

Dr. Styles' findings reveal a lesson: "Even if you're a factory, think of yourself as a service company!" It's becoming increasingly apparent that specialist trading firms and factories are merging together The phenomenon coincides with this experience.

There are two forces driving this fusion. First, in order to win orders, professional foreign trade companies lowered export prices, which made the factories feel unacceptable, so they wanted to extend their business chain to the trade field. Second, foreign trade companies think that the products of the factory often fail to meet the requirements of foreign buyers, so they want to open their own factories. It's a fusion.

There is another way of integration, that is, to establish a "fish-water relationship" between close factories and foreign trade companies. Lin Hao said: "Foreign trade companies should not resort to lowering prices or delaying payment as a means to deal with factories. Factories should also consider how to provide services that can meet the requirements of foreign trade companies and foreign buyers. Both parties should see each other's strengths and Help the other party to improve their weaknesses, so as to achieve a win-win situation in the end."

Globally, it took decades for the marketing concept to finally replace the sales concept. Although Chinese enterprises have a short start in the use of marketing concepts in export management, they will develop rapidly in today's open environment.