Internet

Springtime for China blog consultants

VW3.jpg
VW ads and BBS responses to them, from Word of Mouth blog
Business Week has given a big boost to people who want to capitalize on their knowledge of China's blog and BBS scene, with an article titled Blogging Down in China by Shaun Rein, that makes it seem urgent that companies have a strategy to deal with the new realities of the Internet. Here is is the opening:
The mainland's 80 million bloggers wield an influence that can seem even bigger than their numbers—as some unfortunate companies have learned

What marketing executives would ignore a market with a customer base the size of Britain and Canada combined? Not many, if they wanted to keep their jobs. But that is exactly what many executives in China are doing when they ignore the power the mainland's 80 million active bloggers and online bulletin boards, or BBS, users can exert on their companies' bottom lines.

Even marketing heavyweights like Volkswagen and Häagen-Dazs and politically connected private-equity firms like the Carlyle Group have been no match for Chinese bloggers. These three outfits have all stumbled when faced with the fast-paced, unfettered growth of China's blogosphere, where discussion of product launches and marketing campaigns runs rampant...

The article tells the stories of online nightmares for Volkswagen, Häagen-Dazs and the Carlyle Group.

You can find more information about similar corporate nightmares at Sam Flemming's Word of Mouth blog. Two recent relevant posts:

- Planes, trains and automobiles: VW Polo GP too elitist for Chinese netizens
- Crisis 2.0: China vs. the West

Flemming owns CIC Data, a company that monitors BBS boards and blogs for corporate clients.


There are currently 2 Comments for Springtime for China blog consultants.

Comments on Springtime for China blog consultants

The well-kown condom in China must be Jissbon and Durex, but now a new brand was waiting for the authorites' approvation, its name is Central Channel 1, in Chinese, it is read zhong yang yi tao.

Zhongyangyitao , in China, is the name of the Channel 1 of Central TV Station. But in Chinese, the condom is often called An quan tao or Bi yun tao, and tao for short. The same pronunciation caused this funny thing.

But will it get the anthorites' approvation successfully? It is still unknown.

EDITOR'S NOTE: There is a link to that story on a previous Danwei post:

Netease reports that man named Li Chenyong from Changle in Fujian Province applied to register a trademark for a condom brand named zhongyang yi tao (中央一套), a slang way of referring to CCTV 1.

Link: http://news.163.com/06/0731/08/2NBIKLVN00011229.html

For the news of "中央一套", the results of investigation show that some related domains have been registered. Such as Zhongyangyitao.com and zhongyang1tao.com. and the zhongyang1tao.com has made up for a condom sales website now.

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