Post image for Confessions of a China Entrepreneur.

Today I’m going to give you a quick overview of my short experience as a China entrepreneur for reasons you’ll soon discover. So lets start with the end, and then we’ll work our way to the beginning.

Recently, I was honored to be invited and take part in UC Berkeley’s Asia Business Conference; I was a panelist for the consumer panel; moderated by Paul Tiffany, Senior Lecturer of the Haas School of Business. There I was sitting with Dave Sessions, VP Global ecommerce at Walmart International; Jose Davila, VP Field Human Resources GAP North America, and Dan Harris, founder and partner of Harris & Moure and writer of the famous China Law Blog.

I had a lot of fun at the talk, and it reminded me of a typical client meeting, except I was presenting to 100+ people vs. 5. The nature of the panel spanned the gamut of the subject, and I was told by Professor Tiffany that attendees were very happy with the result; I’ve requested a video of the panel; I’ll post if on LRB if I can get it.

After the talk I was pleasantly surprised to be surrounded by students asking me questions on what it’s like to be a China entrepreneur. I’m sure I babbled out appropriate answers to the questions asked, but it eventually brought me back to pondering my own true situation as an on-the-ground, in-the-trenches entrepreneur in China.

[click to continue…]

{ 17 comments }

Post image for Blackmailing your family… Confucian style.

There is a reason that every girl wish to have a big brother – even they could be too protective sometimes, it’s still an enjoyable relation.

On the contrary, having a younger brother wouldn’t be such a lovely journey in China. Especially when you think of how old generation/rural residents favor sons much more than daughters. And if you put a bit of thought on Confucian’s filial piety code of always taking care of the old and the poor, family or not? Oops! It seems however the parents are assured with this blind loyalty,  the succeeding generation would like to stick to their own interpretation of the old theory.

A poor sister exposed her story of parents’ “blackmailing” 200,000 RMB from her younger brother. And WE are not happy.

[click to continue…]

{ 1 comment }

Post image for Top 10 reasons to use Chinese Social Media.

Hey all, as checking my Google buzz this morning, and found a cool link from Thomas Morffew for a site created by Ren Media. The article lists ten top reasons to use China social media, vs. Western media for a Chinese audience, I suspect.

Key elements refer to the same stuff you may have heard before, but apply them to China’s unique charecterisitcs; such as 400 million online users, of which an astounding 92% use social media, of these netizens, each has 2+ social media accounts.

Further reasons allude to what’s NOT available in China; Facebook and Twitter being blocked, as well as a host of other websites, blog creators (like Blogger.com). It’s an interesting succinct article that skates on the surface of what one can accomplish with China’s social media space. If you have a few minutes, give it a read.

[click to continue…]

{ 5 comments }

Hello Tiger Baby.

by Rand on 2010/02/14

in News

Post image for Hello Tiger Baby.

Wishing you a happy year of the tiger; hope this year brings you happiness, success, or wealth; and if you’re lucky maybe you’ll get all three.

I’m out in California now, which partly explains the laziness in updating LRB recently. It’ll be a busy week for me; first I’m getting married on Valentines day, then next week, I’ll be heading over to UC Berkeley to serve as panelist for the Berkeley Asia Business Conference; and then in early March will fly down to Singapore to judge the first round of the Effie Awards.

It’s nice to be so busy, but as my ever growing eyebags will attest, it’s taking its toll; methinks my energy regimen of caffeine + caffeine may need to be replaced with actual exercise at some point.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Post image for Forcing Chinese College Students to Think. Period.

Hey all, yet another post from the prolific Veronica; this one focuses on China’s “college student problem”; the system continues to churn out clones that are above average (when taken in context) but not up to par to the standards set by their global counterparts.

Whereas it was a sellers market years previous (exemplified by the high turnover rate of students who “jump” from job to job in an effort to increase their salaries) we now see a reverse of the trend, with companies infused with students with low skill; with nary a competent manager in sight.

That’s a problem. Here’s one Chinese college’s attempt to reverse the trend, and comments from Chinese netizens on the effort. Enjoy; -Rand.

There always seem to be  problems with China’s college education area. Sometimes people criticize on the general system; sometimes colleges disgust their students; parents blame universities for being too nice or too mean on their babies; when school authorities decide to do something for change, it’s just not good enough.

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

Post image for Chinese Netizens Rage at Google’s “Purposefully Anti-China” Search Results.

Hey All, as you’ve no doubt heard, Google is refusing to comply with China’s censorship policies. This has become a pretty heated political issue; today, Veronica has compiled commentary from Chinese netizens responding to perceived attacks from Google at China. Enjoy -Rand.

Google’s pulling out of China set off China netizens’ concern in a fairly large scale. As many might have been complaining about the strict censorship and the intentional hidden of past political misery, Chinese’s deep rooted nationalism breaks out in front of Google’s – or so called American – scheme to incite anti-China sentiments.

The following post translation comes from one major forum, www.tiexue.net, which is fond of especially by mid-aged men. From this post, you might be able to come to understand Chinese’s views various with sexes or generations.

[click to continue…]

{ 10 comments }

“Does Zhang Ziyi Represent Chinese Women?”

01.28.2010 China Modern Culture
Thumbnail image for “Does Zhang Ziyi Represent Chinese Women?”

Hey All, the below is from Veronica who is writing about Zhang ZiYi, a famous Chinese movie star and whether she represents Chinese women. It’s an interesting culture article and a good way to get quick insight into the heart of the Chinese woman. Enjoy; -Rand
As the proudest international star from China, the spotlight brings Ziyi [...]

Read the full article →

Ask Rand; “Is a bilingual website necessary?”

01.21.2010 Ask Rand
Thumbnail image for Ask Rand; “Is a bilingual website necessary?”

Here’s another question I received via LRB’s contact form. If you’re interested in asking me a question; go ahead and shoot it over; I’ll post it up on LRB and we can discuss online to your benefit, and the benefit of other readers. Feel free to ask me anything; I’m pretty open with my advice; and while [...]

Read the full article →

Wildaid; Shooting Glass with Money.

01.18.2010 Outdoor
Thumbnail image for Wildaid; Shooting Glass with Money.

This recent campaign by Wildaid is pretty interesting; I’d venture to say most wildlife protection advertising is great; as their primary focus is to shock the crap out of you to get you to change your point of view. In this particular campaign seen in China’s subways; Wildaid shoots endangered animal posters with money, through [...]

Read the full article →

Ask Rand; “How to match UK agencies to China marketing directors?”

01.18.2010 Ask Rand
Thumbnail image for Ask Rand; “How to match UK agencies to China marketing directors?”

I get a lot of inquires through LRB, many of which ask for quick bits of advice. I’ll normally answer these things one-to-one, but since there’s some overlap there, I figured I’d start posting some of my answers.
Why? Well this gives you a glimpse into China and marketing strategic thinking; and plus, perhaps some of [...]

Read the full article →

Breaking the rules without breaking the rules.

01.13.2010 China Modern Culture
Thumbnail image for Breaking the rules without breaking the rules.

Perhaps the best recipe for fun is a mix of being smart, being cheap, and being bored. Posted today is a few pictures from Pizza Hut China; wherein customers have turned taking advantage of Pizza Hut’s “one trip to the salad bar” policy into a science. I’m not exaggerating, I’ll actually show you the mathematical formulas used to [...]

Read the full article →

IBM; Geeky Love via China Viral.

01.12.2010 IBM
Thumbnail image for IBM; Geeky Love via China Viral.

I found this one on LRB’s forums. It’s a pretty simple video with a surprise ending; surprising enough to get 3.5 million views, and close to 1,000 comments. Created for the IBM Rational Software Conference this geeky romantic viral hit the mark.
It’s interesting what goes viral in China vs. the West. There’s a sweet innocence to the Chinese psyche, [...]

Read the full article →

Selling China to the Chinese.

01.12.2010 JiaDing
Thumbnail image for Selling China to the Chinese.

Or rather, selling Shanghai to the Shanghainese. I picked this one up from LRB forums; JiaDing district in Shanghai is known as rural, “end of the line” district… generally speaking its the kind of place you don’t want to live or really even want to visit. With Shanghai’s breakneck development pace, even the fringes are getting a [...]

Read the full article →

Letting kids play with fire.

01.11.2010 News
Thumbnail image for Letting kids play with fire.

A belated happy new years to you my fellow propaganda professionals. I’ve been off for a while as you may (or may not) have noticed; this was due to holidaying in Thailand, a place that lends itself to, well… forgetting about writing on blogs for one. What made me forget about it all? I’m going [...]

Read the full article →

Guinness; Tapping the androgynous market?

12.22.2009 Guinness
Thumbnail image for Guinness; Tapping the androgynous market?

When I think of the brand Guinness, I think of dark, heavy frothy beer; perfect for a late night drink, perhaps in a semi-modern, upscale bar; usually during a causal business meeting; “business drunk” (which I’m told is similar to “rich drunk” but have yet to verify personally). Now I know that I’m not like you, [...]

Read the full article →

Jinkela; Purposefully idiotic China ad creates massive viral success.

12.18.2009 JinKeLa
Thumbnail image for Jinkela; Purposefully idiotic China ad creates massive viral success.

I found this on LRB’s forum; it’s an ad for Jinkela, some sort of fertilizer. What’s crazy is the clownish way they went to advertise it; and the surprising reaction from millions of Chinese viewers.
Here’s an interesting question; let’s say you are an unrecognized brand, and you want to go “viral” to spread the word as quickly as [...]

Read the full article →

Domesticated Ancient Chinese Warriors.

12.16.2009 Print
Thumbnail image for Domesticated Ancient Chinese Warriors.

I picked this one up from LRB forums. It’s  campaign for YangHe, a famous alcoholic spirit in China.
What’s interesting? Looking online many non-Chinese think this campaign is great; but to a local Chinese it looks totally ridiculous. The campaign depicts several ancient heroes including Zhang Fei, a warrior general of the Three Kingdoms period (around 200 A.D.) in [...]

Read the full article →

Associating “Volkswagen” with “Pee”.

12.14.2009 Print
Thumbnail image for Associating “Volkswagen” with “Pee”.

Ah yes; the holy grail of advertising is to somehow link your brand to urine. Wait; that doesn’t sound right…
I’m not sure what the thinking behind this one was; I guess they were able to check the “catch attention” box; but whether they got the “memorable brand message” is something else altogether; cause in this [...]

Read the full article →

One billion invisible Chinese.

12.11.2009 Insights
Thumbnail image for One billion invisible Chinese.

This one isn’t about advertising; rather its a forwarded email I got from Andrew (my biz partner), which he got from his sister in Australia (now you know my content sources). In it is a Chinese man named Liu Bo Lin that literally paints himself into the background. It’s pretty cool in a weird sort [...]

Read the full article →

Hello ZeroDegrees.

12.11.2009 News
Thumbnail image for Hello ZeroDegrees.

After a week of heavy pitches, mixed with management of current projects and re-branding ZeroDegrees site; I’m happy to say I’ve made it through the gauntlet and finally got ZeroDegrees new website up online.
Now bear in mind, I’m not trying to wow you with my adolescent design skills; rather, I’m shooting for ease of communication [...]

Read the full article →

Breaking Down Viral Advertising.

11.27.2009 Insights
Thumbnail image for Breaking Down Viral Advertising.

Hey all; I’m still in process of rebuilding ZeroDegree’s site; here’s something I wrote yesterday for ZD; it’s a general theory of viral advertising.
Key points are breaking it down to a level wherein we can predict results. This is always limited to content; but having said that there are other ways to build some [...]

Read the full article →

LRB; One year old and hot as hell.

11.16.2009 News
Thumbnail image for LRB; One year old and hot as hell.

Hello all; I’m proud to report today that LRB is one year old.
It’s been an interesting year, beginning with the thought “why don’t I try to build a blog”, followed by “is anyone actually reading this blog”, then “you know what I don’t think anyone is reading this, so I’m just going to shoot my [...]

Read the full article →