Standardized or value-based products for different cultures?

Author: Monika Sidler Standardized brands could benefit from large-volume production and transfer of expertise. But globalization has not produced globally uniform consumers. Coca-Cola changed its strategy from “think global, act local” to “think local, act local”. “The fashion industry tends to present the ideal woman’s figure as slim (standard). Black teens connect a full figure with health and fertility (cultural value).” What we purchase, and why we do so, is influenced by our cultural values. These vary across nations. Even …

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Guanxi – all business is personal

Author: Thomas Perez China has a history of around 4,000 years with many different dynasties. The last one, the Qing, ended in 1911, the birth year of PRC. Exactly 100 years later, in 2011, China became the world’s factory and released its 12th Five-Year Plan. Almost every aspect of the economy will change except of one – guanxi. “All business is personal”! The right network makes the difference between wealth and poverty, success and failure. There are two different levels …

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International campaigning and advertising within a Swiss tourism organization

Author: Esther Grob Zürich Tourism is a non-profit marketing organization which promotes tourism for leisure and business travellers for the city and region of Zürich in the local Swiss and 19 other international target markets. In their marketing strategy, the brand Zürich shall be strengthened with common focused messages and advertising in the local and the international markets. The integrated brand management is a part of all marketing activities. The destination is positioned under one claim as an authentic Swiss …

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Global campaigns: the ability to create brand promises that can travel

Author: Isabelle Gargiulo One of the most challenging tasks in international advertising is the deep understanding of culture differences. For instance, North Americans see in product promoted benefits to be gained by buying a specific label. Chinese consumers are interested in ads with prevention-focused messages. Why are misleading claims repeatedly created? In case of ad adaptions in other countries, it‘s pivotal to use the right translation of meanings and ideas. Translating claims from English to another language is often a …

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Surprise! Making online communication personal

 Author: Philipp Bircher Online communications is the perfect way to get in touch with your customers – it’s fast, it’s easy and supposedly the best method to reach a broad client base. Meanwhile, some would say that it is also very anonymous and lacks the personal touch which is such a crucial factor in doing business. Really? That communicating online can be quite a different story becomes obvious when watching the example of the Royal Dutch Airline KLM. In fact, …

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Chinese Art of Cunning – The 36 Strategeme

Author: Kimberley Jeker The 36 stratageme are a set of powerful Chinese aphorisms embodying the essence of the ancient Chinese Art of Cunning. “Swiss negotiate inefficiently – Chinese effectively and purposely make usage of their traditional thousand year old art of cunning”. First mentioned about 1,500 years ago, the 36 Stratagems were committed to paper around 500 years ago, and have gained in popularity in Chinese business circles since the 1990s, I have read. The books were a long time …

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The challenges of location promotion

Authors: Michael Domeisen, Doris Kündig, Colette Richter Worldwide there are approximately 4000 location promotion agencies and offices trying to attract international operating businesses and organizations to open up branches in their specific areas. According to OSEC Switzerland is The international Management Gateway to Europe. More than 800 North American companies with a presence in Switzerland are located in the main business regions between German, French and Italian speaking Switzerland. The biggest challenge of location promotion for a region is attracting …

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Strategic Selling in Asia

Authors: Philipp Bircher, Daniela Jenni, Michael Domeisen Henry Reust, Senior Vice President at Schindler Management Ltd. brings years of experience in the Asian market. He shares his knowledge of strategic selling and sheds light on some crucial questions such as the way to confront rising customer expectations or general trends in strategic selling. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-w6idk_HmU&w=530&h=297]

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How to become an extremely successful chemical company?

Author: Manuel Blunier Photo: Chemische Fabrik Schärer & Schläpfer AG Nowadays small chemical producers face immense challenges. The chemical industry is in continuous upheaval due to the growing competition from Far East. In addition, raw material prices are tremendously volatile. Especially small Swiss companies have many more problems to tackle. High fixed costs, a strong currency and large dependence to raw material suppliers lower the profit or limit the ability to act. But why are still some of these small chemical companies …

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Social Media guidelines versus recommended procedures

Author: Colette Richter You can call it Web 2.0, the social Web or any other neologism, more and more companies and organizations do have internal social media policies to protect themselves and their brand reputation. If not, it is absolutely overdue. If your business is involved with any social media channel, it’s important that you have a set of guidelines to steer your interactions with customers, and more importantly, prevent anyone on your team from ruining your reputation. In fact …

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