I recently stumbled upon this post by blogger Dan Harris which talks about the lack of Chinese brands internationally. As a Chinese Canadian, this immediately piqued my interest. In his post, Dan explains that Chinese firms generally do not value marketing, but rather treat it as an “expendable expense”. In this post, marketing was once again shown to be a key factor in the success of a company- especially when competing internationally.  I think that this lack of marketing may be due to the lack of emphasis on creativity and expression in the Chinese society, which generally advocates for stability and quantitative skills. Unfortunately for Chinese companies, marketing is an essential tool for companies to grow and expand, as it can promote the brand’s image and let the public know of the company’s product. With the proper advertisements and promotions, companies can make their product unique and differentiated, which we learned in class. Well planned and well executed marketing can actually add value to products, and if Chinese companies do not begin to recognise the significance of an innovative marketing campaign, I fear that they will forever fall short of becoming globally prominent brand names.

Dan’s Blog: http://www.chinalawblog.com/2014/11/china-brands-what-china-brands.html

Image:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/img/attachement/jpg/site1/20120807/d4bed9d6d020118b119911.jpg

In Jennifer Mavor’s post about going “above and beyond” in Customer Services, she talks about the importance of customer services for a business. I certainly agree that customer services are very important aspect to a business’ success, and especially now with the tools that consumers have to share information over the internet, such as Yelp. In this digital age, maintaining a positive image in the customer’s minds is huge for a company.

Jennifer mentions the fact that for a company to have every member of the company dedicated to providing the best possible service, it is vital for the employees to fully buy into the company’s “core values”. While I agree, I think that achieving such a lofty goal would be incredibly difficult for many companies- especially those that expanded without emphasis on customer service. I think that a better way to motivate employees, rather than hope that they comply with the company’s values, is to provide incentives for them to do a certain behavior. The company should provide rewards for behavior that is aligned with the company’s expectations for customer service. This would make it a lot more straightforward for not only the employees to follow, but also for the management to track progress made.

Jennifer’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/jennifermavor/2014/10/30/businesses-that-go-above-and-beyond-in-customer-service/

Image: http://blog.sweetiq.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/customer-service2.jpg