Businesses are still reluctant to advertise on the Internet although its impact in Malaysia has considerably surpassed that of developed countries such as Japan, Hungary and the United States, an international study revealed today.
The Internet accounted for 4.1 percent or US$9.75 billion out of US$238 billion (World Bank estimates) of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, said the ‘Online and upcoming: The Internet’s impact on aspiring countries’, a joint study carried out by Google and McKinsey & Company and released today.
Despite its significant contribution, only one percent of the country's total business budget is allocated for online advertising, stated the report, comparing the number of businesses that sell products and services online with many other countries with similar wealth.
The report is the first of its kind to measure to the contribution of the Internet to economies.
Approach China not as one market, but as several very different ones.
Cultivate relationships on a province by province, city-by-city basis. Having said that, when dealing with local authorities you must ensure that they are indeed empowered to authorize the relevant agreements and contracts. In their enthusiasm to attract foreign capital, lower level government officials have been known to overstep the bounds of their jurisdiction.
Find the right Chinese partner with the right connections, or work through a Hong Kong company with good contacts and track record in China.
Don't wait for everything to become crystal clear. It may never happen. Take a calculated risk - plant "seeds" you can nurture and develop in line with the changing business scenario in China.
Consider carefully the level of resources you are prepared to commit to China. Decide whether you want to treat it purely as an export market, or establish a manufacturing facility. Decide whether you want to appoint a buying agent or set up your own on-the-ground presence.
On 20th January 2012 Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) a consumer watchdog has taken legal action against AirAsia the same day its executives were launching fares as low as A$99 (RM319) for one-way flights on its new route from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur.
ACCC in its press statement said that fares sold on AirAsia’s website disclosed only part of the total price for flights from Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Perth to destinations in Asia, Europe and India because they excluded taxes, fees and other charges.
The ACCC alleged that the website did not display some airfare prices inclusive of all taxes, duties, fees and other mandatory charges. Businesses that choose to advertise a part of the price of a particular product or service must also prominently specify a single total price.
AirAsia responded by stating that this is an IT glitch or a technical issue. My question is how come only after an Australian consumer watchdog has taken legal action against you that you realized the so-called technical glitch. You mean what AirAsia was trying to say is that the problem will go unnoticed if nobody is suing them?
A typical response when a public listed company claimed innocent by stating a technical glitch. Well sorry to say Mr Tony Fernandes, your excuse is not good enough for me and I'm sure it's not good enough for a lot of other Malaysians. And in the case of the Austalian consumer watchdog, AirAsia has finally learned the hard way.
HOW TO SELL A PRODUCT
via advertising. There is a lot of hard work and research involved, and above all, it requires the use of the mind to come up with some creative idea.
An unknown product, no matter how good it is, will not sell if consumers are unaware of its existence. However, with an aggressive advertising campaign a product can be transformed into "brand equity", an advertising industry's parlance for a brand which has been implanted in the consumers' minds as being good and prestigious.
Many a product has achieved that status, the company producing it will obviously reap in the profits.
But is it all that easy to convince consumers to buy a product? Is it that simple to create a concept to capture the "soul and mind" of consumers? The answer is, it is not all that easy!
In fact, there is a lot of hard work and research involved, and above all, it requires the use of the mind to come up with some creative idea.
The responsibility the advertising industry had to shoulder was heavy. Any advertisement to be produced would have to take the welfare of the client into consideration. Apart from that it has to be aware that the ads will be scrutinised by the authorities which monitor advertisements; and the public, especially, the young. Advertising therefore, is more than just spending your client's money. Any good and responsible advertising agency would not spend money unnecessarily and come up with shoddy advertisements or commercials.
Shoddy advertisements, such as to be shown on television, will have negative effects on viewers. A good and responsible advertising agency will have to sit down with the client and study the course of positive action to be taken to promote the product.
The targeted market has to be discussed whether any possible adverse effect resulting from the advertisement will have to be made via marketing research.
Students in advertising had to learn how man perceive things and how these things could be interpreted. This is just one of the topics the students must understand beside learning others such as cost and effect, before they can embark on a project.
When an advertising agency acts to the contrary, the product advertised may be portrayed negatively to the public, or the concept may be too unclear for the public to grasp. So in the final analysis the client will lose out and the product will die at infancy.
A good example is how a local soft drink company which has been associated with only a particular ethnic group made it big, nationally and internationally, due to positive advertisement. An advertising company was approached by this company many years ago to promote its drink. Today, the product is not only good, it has been portrayed as the drink that consumers would like to buy or to be associated with, without having an stigma attached to it. After a long and intense campaign, the soft drink has been considered "chic" and consumers are no longer ashamed to be seen drinking the product.
So from an initial $30,000 budget that the advertising company had to work on to promote the drink, it now had a $3 million or more account. And the same advertising agency has been retained by the soft drink company to promote the product.
The above illustrates how a responsible advertising agency with a firm belief in a product can help plot the course of action for a properly researched advertisement for the product. If the advertising company had decided to take the $30,000 produce a lousy campaign, the client would not be the only one losing out. The advertising agency will also lose in view of the potential that this soft drink company had.
Rule of the thumb for companies who intend to advertise their products? Do your homework. If such companies know next to nothing about how to advertise, a list of reputable agencies are available on the internet for them to consult with. But if you are a big company, you can be rest assured that many advertisers will hover around for a piece of the action.
How do you feel about this ad promoting a soft drink?
Many companies are trying to implement CRM programmes in an international context. They have to consider a range of external and internal factors when deciding whether to standardise or adapt their programmes across borders.
INTERNAL FACTORS
The company : Is it operating from the home country, in different countries but treating each market discretely, or trans-nationally?
Resources available : A smaller company with limited resources and budgets will have to rely more on external resources than a larger firm that may be able to afford local key account managers in each country.
Priority of market : If the market is a low priority, the company is likely to allocate it lower rsource levels, which may preclude certain aspects of CRM.
EXTERNAL FACTORS
Political and legal environment : Countries have different data protection legislation and controls on promotion. For example, some European countries control promotion of alcohol and tobacco; Denmark has controls on loyalty programmes. Language and accent : In many markets, call centres have to speak the local language. In some cases, even local accents or dialects are important. Some call centre companies train their operators to use regional accents. Exchange between suppler and customer : As we have seen, customers expect CRM where a high degree of trust is needed. Lower levels of trust mean that the company can afford to operate more at arms' length. Expectations of the customer : Customers may have slightly different expectations of relationships with companies. For example, different countries may have slightly differing perceptions of what is time rich and time poor.
Attitudes will be affected by the prevailing culture in the country.
To find out if you are a true leader, see if you possess these qualities:
Leaders start projects by asking "What has to be done?" instead of "What do I need?"
Leaders next ask: "What do I have to do to make a real contribution?" The answer best suits the leader's strengths and the needs of the project.
Leaders continually ask: "What are my organisation's purposes and objectives?" and "What qualifies as acceptable performance and adds to the bottom line?"
Leaders don't want clones of themselves as employees. They never ask: "Do I like or dislike this employee?" But they won't tolerate poor performance.
Leaders are not threatened by others who have strengths they lack.
As we enter into the 21st century, here is a message for sellers: the fast sell is out. There is no longer any place for this kind of message: "Here are your goods. Thanks and goodbye. Next!" To succeed in selling today, you have to develop relationship with your customers. It does not matter if they come in knowing exactly what they want and are out again in 10 minutes - as a seller, you should be interested in the total picture. If you expect to succeed in today's highly competitive environment, you'd better be interested.
What you should be asking is: "Are my customer satisfied once they get the product home? Is it doing what they'd hoped are? Are they having any problems?"
If you are sitting there saying: "But I don't really have to worry about all that stuff. My job is just to sell the thing. It's the manufacturer's job to make sure it does what it's supposed to do," you're right, to a certain degree. You can't be held responsible for every little thing that goes wrong. But you can do a lot to make things easier for your customers, and that's the way you'll get people coming back.
Relationship selling says: "I'm concerned about your needs. I'm also concerned about the product you've bought. Even more importantly, I want to follow up to see you're happy with it." Do this and customers will keep coming back. They will realise you're not into this for the quick sell. They will understand that you and your company feel some responsibility for their well-being, and they will appreciate it.
There are three distinct stages to relationship selling.
1. Listen more. When the customer first approaches you, take the time to really listen. Ask questions. Try to read between the lines. Ascertain the amount of experience they have with the product or similar products, and try to sell them something that's just right for them, rather than whatever happens to be on sale or whatever you want to get rid of.
2. The Sale. When the customer is ready to make a decision, tell him as much as possible about the product its uses. Make sure your own product knowledge is second to none, so you know short-cuts and helpful advice. Give that little bit extra that will make the customer glad he's come to you. And finally, make him feel good about buying this particular product. Confirm that he has made a good choice.
3. After Sales Service . This should be more than just providing a service for listening to complaints or sending the product back for repairs. Let's take the common video recorder as an example. Countless customers dread taking it out of the box, because they know they are in for a frustrating couple of hours programming the thing. In this case, what could you do to help your customer? Depending on your circumstances, you could (a) offer to set it up; (b) offer to set it up on site; (c) offer phone-in help when they get home if they have problem; (d) phone them a week, two weeks or a month after the purchase to see if they have any problem.
Adopt the three-part strategy to selling, and your customer base will slowly but surely increase as the word gets around.
Businesses are still reluctant to advertise on the Internet although its impact in Malaysia has considerably surpassed that of developed countries such as Japan, Hungary and the United States, an international study revealed today.
