On a cold, blustery day at 1 p.m., your supply chain and operations managers call a meeting to discuss outsourcing the manufacturing of a best-selling item to China. While facts and figures for cost savings and lead-time reductions are bandied about the room, you notice something crucial missing…
Continue reading "Home Sweet Home: Businesses Bringing Production Back to the U.S.A."Posts Tagged ‘China’
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Win the World Over: Use Comparative Advantage
Marketers are often focused with gaining competitive advantage—combining resources to beat the competition. However, the concept of comparative advantage—or “producing something at the lowest cost of anyone else”—shouldn’t be overlooked as a way to win in the marketplace. And one…
Continue reading "Win the World Over: Use Comparative Advantage"Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Know Your Audience When Telling Stories
Marketers inherently know it’s easier to tell a story than sell someone on the key features and benefits of a product or service. As Seth Godin points out in All Marketers Are Liars, good stories “engage the consumer” and “appeal to our senses.” Yet the best story in the world may fall on…
Continue reading "Know Your Audience When Telling Stories"Thursday, January 7, 2010
New Markets: Too Late For Green Technology?
In a quest to grow revenues, marketers are often charged with discovering and branching into new markets. And while the “green economy” sure looks promising, Western companies are discovering that state and privately owned Chinese enterprises are establishing strong footholds. In a race to develop…
Continue reading "New Markets: Too Late For Green Technology?"Thursday, November 12, 2009
Going For Growth–In China
Charged with finding new markets for growth, many Western marketers are eyeing China’s rising middle class and terrific GDP numbers. And while getting Western products and services into the Chinese market is hard enough, the ability to compete and thrive in China takes mastery of specific skills and…
Continue reading "Going For Growth–In China"Going For Growth?In China
Charged with finding new markets for growth, many Western marketers are eyeing China’s rising middle class and terrific GDP numbers. And while getting Western products and services into the Chinese market is hard enough, the ability to compete and thrive in China takes mastery of specific skills and…
Continue reading "Going For Growth?In China"Going For Growth?In China
Charged with finding new markets for growth, many Western marketers are eyeing China’s rising middle class and terrific GDP numbers. And while getting Western products and services into the Chinese market is hard enough, the ability to compete and thrive in China takes mastery of specific skills and…
Continue reading "Going For Growth?In China"Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Chinese Brands Are Coming
Chinese brands have come a long way since the days of Mao where coats and boots came in two colors and consisted of dubious quality. Rising in complexity and caliber, brands such as Haier and Chery are not content to rule the middle kingdom and instead seek to invade new markets. Forget bringing…
Continue reading "Chinese Brands Are Coming"Wednesday, May 6, 2009
China: Implications of an Emerging Middle Class
As China slowly transforms its economy from dependence on exports to one driven by consumers, the emphasis will shift to retail sales. Indeed, with nearly $9 trillion lost in Western stock and housing markets since 2008, the world urgently needs a new consumer. Marketers–will the Chinese…
Continue reading "China: Implications of an Emerging Middle Class"Thursday, August 28, 2008
Why Do We Trust Photography?
The expression, “a picture is worth 1,000 words,” is often attributed to either Napoleon Bonaparte, or Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. This saying is meant to convey the power and impact of a single image in replacing pages of text.
However recent fake photographs from the 2008 Olympics, or the …
Continue reading "Why Do We Trust Photography?"