1to1 Magazine
Newsletters
Web Exclusives
Webinars & White Papers
Events
Resources
The World Is Not China
Our Inside 1to1 story this week shows how successful CRM providers have been in emerging markets. That's all well and good because customer management and customer insight is being enabled by technology. Without customer insight any global initiative is bound to fail. But I think that too many companies have been lulled into thinking a global initiative and a Chinese initiative are the same thing. The complete saturation of the academic business press by thought leaders who say China is the future of any growth might lead a company to believe it's the only global opportunity. It's not. China is the fastest growing market in the world and represents a huge business opportunity for many companies. Let's not forget however, that India, Pakistan, Serbia, Russia, Korea and many former Soviet republics are teeming with potentially high-growth customer groups. A global initiative requires a mindset, culture and strategy that is expansive and knowledge-based. It cannot afford to guess. So before you think that opening China is all the emerging market expansion you need, check your facts.
Sometimes, however, citizens in a specific market don't want a level of customer centricity that another country might. I just posted a new blog topic about Wal-Mart's failure in the German market. Germans just didn't want employees smiling at them or bagging their groceries. The key is to know the needs of a specific market, then expand customer initiatives slowly as the brand takes hold in a new geography.
I'd like to share another angle: companies with good CRM practices, when going global, have an opportunity to 'export' their customer centricity along with their product and brand.
So far multinationals penetrating new markets seem to have given low priority to this aspect of business. Quite understandably, some emerging markets provide a challenge in respect of basics like operational efficiency and sector-specific 'tricks of the trade'. But we were surprised to see Tesco (widely praised for customer orientation and use of customer insight) to launch into East European countries (and, more recently, Turkey) with the full might of their retail, merchandising and supply chain competence - but without the famous ClubCard, their most powerful differentiator in the UK and perhaps their key success factor overall. An indispensable source of customer insight and relationship management tool.
Similarly, T-Mobile is going further into Eastern Europe (e.g. former Yugoslav republics) with all the technical competence and marketing flare, but without the CRM programs that made them market leaders in Hungary, the Czech republic and certainly gave them competitive edge in the West.
IMHO such international players should not overlook the customer focus, despite a need to 'teach' their new operations to be professional and efficient. Being customer-centric is also a form of professionalism, after all :)
One advertising executive I spoke with today mentioned that you can't just talk about going into China (or other new countries). Many companies have been there for years, and may have thousands of employees working there. The key is to understand the unique challenges of those markets. Use the expertise you have in-house from those countries to develop a truly global brand message that makes a local impact.