Ryan Steinmetz
Independent Study
Marketing in
the new 21st century China is a unique process, mixing global
branding techniques with Sino-specific approaches. China is well known for the large amounts of
brands that flow in and out of it making Advertising essential for this type of
environment. The popular brands stand
out based on how “bright they are”, and smaller companies start by thriving in
the darkness and build up to a bright light.
My goal in life is just to be seen from the distance.
All
of these thoughts on lights and darkness in advertising relates to something I
read in the book China Road. “The louder, the brighter, the better as far
as Chinese businesses are concerned”.
This quote was referencing the neon lights in the city, but I decided to
take this as literal as possible. “The
brighter the better”, this is describes how I want my life to be. I would like my lights to shine as far as
possible to get the most amount of attention.
After reading this, I was much more enthusiastic about my line of
work. I was able to put a description on
my purpose.
The way I
see things, there is no difference in a person or a brand. Essentially they are the same. A brand is an extension to your name and in
the end is only as good as your name.
The perfect example is Steve Jobs.
His name is just as popular as the brand Apple. Not only is Steve Jobs known for what he
creates, but the way he presents it to his audience as well. Another example is creator of Facebook Mark
Zuckerberg. Both of these men have
successfully extended their names to be “Steve Jobs of Apple” and “Mark
Zuckerberg of Facebook”. But how far can
one person represent.
China being
as different of a country as it is, strives to brand themselves. The need for
social power is an end goal whether that is either a quiet life of not needing
full attention or craving the maximum amount of social power possible in order
to be seen from the stars. The need for
China is to complete these lifelong goals whatever they may be all while using
assets belonging to their own country.
In America
we use more than one social network. For
example, Facebook may be our main networking site, but sites like Twitter,
Tumblr, Blogger, and LinkedIn are used for all very specific reasons. For example, it is known that LinkedIn is mainly
used for professional workplace communication, and Twitter is used for Micro-blogging. China does the same thing using only their
products. The list for China’s social
Networks is as follows:
“The aforementioned QQ/QZone (owned
by Tencent), with 700 million+ monthly active users, is the largest social
gaming platform, and is the company’s main revenue source.
The Twitter-like Sina Weibo
(literally, “Sina microblog”) with some 400 million users, is largely a
mobile-focused social network and mass communication platform often leveraged
by celebrities, brands and industry experts through a Twitter-esque usage
model.
Tencent Weibo is very similar to Sina
Weibo in terms of functionality and demographics, and has about 200-250 million
users.
WeiXin, a voicemail-based social
networking service akin to WhatsApp, reported 100 million registered users this
April.
Douban is sort of a Chinese MySpace,
popular with special interest groups and communities, and for networking around
specific topics and has over 100 million users.
Renren, formerly Xiaonei (literally,
“schoolyard”), was born as a network for re-connecting friends from school
years, and reported 100 million active users this June. RenRen pretty much
looks, feels and does exactly what Facebook does. Like Facebook, RenRen is trying to stay
relevant in the fast-growing mobile space.”
As seen
China has its fair share of social networking.
At first I was concerned with thinking that China was not on board with
Facebook because they want to be censored.
But I have found that the truth is they do not wish to use a networking
site that is run and overseen by someone that is not china. After being put this way, if Facebook did not
exist, I do not think I would want to use a social network that is run by a
different country. This conflicts with
wanting to seen and heard as a main goal.
The idea behind it is to grow your light, not jump the gun and skip how
you got there.
The reason people
like Steve Jobs are heard around the world are because how fast the media can
spread. Facebook has allowed news from
all over to be sent to another Facebook viewer in a blink of the eye. With social media being as simple and easy as
it is today and it’s only going to get easier, making it easier to get a name
out into the open. And it will only be
as bright as it is made out to be. The
faster news can be spread, the more powerful a light can actually be.
In China
Facebook is not allowed. This is because
Xinjiang independence activists were using Facebook as part of their
communications network. In a way on Facebook, this is bad publicity to China
itself. If Facebook was in China
everyone in the world that has a Facebook would be able to see and possibly
join the possible debates happening in the country. No country wants other countries to know how
bad they are doing.
With
Facebook not being allowed in China, I do not think I would want to move my
profession there. Not because I wouldn't be able to live without Facebook, but because China is so focused of making the
brand “China” the best it can be. Being
that I am not from China, the brand would not be based around me. Therefore I would always be lost in a brand
as large as a country trying to shine my light.
I was very excited to travel to China
this Thanksgiving break. I would like to
witness these lights first hand as opposed to reading about it in books. I have yet to hear the noise. I have only seen it, but it’s a dim light for
me. In a way seeing lights is just as
important as being bright, because lights combine. That bright light is your connections and
also spreads your name.
The book Marketing Dictatorship has a chapter based on China fighting
against propaganda wars. This is
basically China trying to extinguish the light from becoming too bright. A way to cut them off from the world while still
existing. Unfortunately for China as
long as there is word of mouth, that light will always exist. Word of mouth is the originator of the light
and can never be put out unless there is silence. And even still, silence can be the loudest
noise that there is.
Out of all of the books I have read
so far, the biggest point I was able to establish is that the amount of people
in China is increasing rapidly, and there are many more jobs there then there
are in America. This will continue until
somebody finds a new way to manufacture that is either faster, better, or more
practical.
In the movie “Last Train Home”, the
family being followed by cameras is trying to reach their grandparents home for
the holiday season. Unfortunately, so
were millions others. This movie clearly
illustrates the overpopulation. It does this by shoving thousands of Chinese
families into one cart of a train and forces them to live together for an
entire trip which was most likely longer than a day. With that many people alone going home and
causing the traumatic damage that it did, I can only Imagine what a full army
can do charging.
China in the U.S.A. is well known for
all of its cheap manufacturing. But why is
it so well known? The answer is
numbers. China simply outnumbers us
which means that they can quickly mass produce a single product and sell it at
a very cheap price. When people hear
that China manufactures for the cheapest, it’s a big game changer as far as
getting a brand to fly. In order to
advertise, you need a brand in bulk.
This is how China itself spreads its Brand Name.
The book Brand New China by Jiang Wang, chapter 3 relates advertising to branding
in a different sense. The buzz of a name
can always be heard, but what really matters is how loud that buzz actually
is. The book gives the example of a
theme park. A Theme park can be heard
from a rather far distance, and it is usually not hard to tell what the noise
is. Being able to be seen in the
distance is one thing, but to be heard as well can define what type of person
you are. I believe that again Steve Jobs
is a perfect example for this. He is
seen everywhere and his presentations are heard around the globe.
Manufacturing dimming brightness-
reveals cheapness which shows negativity.
For the most recent Olympics, U.S.A.’s uniforms were outsourced to be
made in China. It is well known that our
country went through with this deal because it was cheaper to make the uniforms
there. But something as proudly worn as
an Olympic uniform should not skimp out on how much money is spent. Sometimes the product has the potential to shroud
the negativity of outsourcing
Apple uses China to Manufacture. Normally it is looked down upon for something
this big of a name to outsource anything.
Especially something that cost so little to make and is priced so large
with the finished product. Steve Jobs stays ahead of the negativity by
making the products ideal and arousing to the eye. Being that he is a minimalist, he always
thought that even though it cost nothing to make, that his product was so slim
and sleek that it was impossible to fit the technology it had inside. Therefore everyone had to have it, and the
price was well worth it.
There is a quote from the book Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang, that
when thinking about the factory lifestyle of China, I can picture it
perfectly. It states “We start work at
seven in the morning and get off work at nine at night. Afterword we shower and wash our clothes. At around ten, those with money go out for a
midnight snack and those without money go to sleep. We sleep until 6:30 in the morning”. This is a typical day for so many people in
China. This allows for China to have
plenty of jobs to allow for cheaper labor.
Neon Lights in a city draw attention,
but are the lights working. Too much of
a particular lighting can blind a person.
Have to find the perfect amount of confidence to make lights bright and
visible rather than overpowering and annoying. The deeper meaning to this is
describing what type of manager I would want to be. As of now I am in Video Game Production, but
I have learned that everything around us needs a project manager.
Before I wrote this paper I had no
idea what kind of country China was going to be. After all of the research I still did not
understand what the big deal of not being on Facebook was. Visiting for the first time opened my
eyes. I saw why a country would not want
to be involved with another countries technology. China is a proud country and would stand for
what is theirs as opposed to what is cheapest.
This is why today they remain the number one “Brand” in the world.
Being a student of a recent major
switch, I had to do some soul searching in order to establish what I wish to do
with my life. Starting as a Video Game
Programmer, I realized that I did not want to sit at a desk and type my whole
life. I decided to switch to Management
of Creative Media with a specialization in Video Game Production. This decision has changed my life, and I am
looking forward to where it takes me.
In the film The Gate of Heavenly Peace, there is a group of students
that organize a revolution in Tienanmen Square.
These leader students were Project Managers. I would like to be a Great Project manager
someday maybe not for Video Games, but I know that whatever it is that I do, it
will be something I’m good at. My lights
will shine as far as they can, and as long as they shine I will be happy.
Last Train Home
The Gate of Heavenly Peace
The Gate of Heavenly Peace
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