由 davidlee0222 » 2007-10-15 16:39
這學期初訪問了前Intel的亞太區Senior Marketing Director
訪問題目應該很符合這個topic
Brand Consistency是最難的
給Liwuu兄參考
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Interview with Michael, Senior Marketing Director of APAC
Mr. Michael is now the senior marketing director of High-Tech company in Greater China, leading marketing programs throughput the Asia Pacific region.
Before joining the company in November 2005, Michael held a variety of senior management positions in Intel China, including corporate communications director leading Intel’s PR and public affairs in China since 2005; Greater China Market Director leading the company’s advertising, promotion, PR, channel, strategic co-marketing, and Intel Inside program in PRC and Hong Kong from 2000 to 2004; technical advisor to president of Intel China since 1998; and marketing communications manager since 1993. During his career at Intel, Michael made great contributions to the company’s market expansion and product promotion in the market and won a good many of premier prizes. Before 1993, Michael had worked at Hill & Knowlton, a worldly renowned PR and consulting firm.
Michael holds a BA degree from the People University of China and had learned in a graduate program at Columbia University. He also graduated from Thunderbird EMBA program. He was ever acclaimed by the China media as “IT Esquire of the Year 2003”.
The company has around 4,500 employees worldwide, approximate annual sales is $3.6 billion globally. The market is mostly focusing on high technology.
Michael manages 5 to 10 brands currently, regional annual sales is confidential. He has worked for this position for 2 years, and had had 16 years marketing experience in Intel prior to joining the company. The total brand management experience is 18 years.
He is currently responsible for marketing plan development, advertising, consumer sales promotion, trade promotion, public relations, market research, and indirectly support sales forecasting. He’s also responsible for the delivery of the annual performance targets in terms of brand awareness, market share, ROI, brand-related issues and activities, and indirectly for contribution and profit.
The strategic thinking skills are the most important as a senior marketing executive. Although analytical skills and communications skills are in slightly lower priority, the communication skills are almost the same important as strategic thinking. Also the brand management knowledge and skills are critical both from real-world experience and academy. How to evaluate the efficiency of branding, and how to execute brand management and convey brand message…etc., these are important skill sets to a brand manager. Just like Coca Cola, the brand has the core branding proposition, but when localizing to each domestic market, the execution is totally different in each market; the positioning, benefit, and the experience are all different. In MBA program, case study is a good source to have a quick view of real-world situation, and it’s a complementary approach to equip brand managers with essential knowledge.
The CEO is directly and heavily involved in brand positioning and brand-related issues. If rated from 1 to 10, he probably involves 13. He can’t be involved more.
Michael is responsible for developing, managing, enhancing, and articulating the brand essence and identity. He is directing marketing department, and also MarCom department as a subordinate function under marketing. The brand management is not only his responsibility, and not only for marketing department, either. It’s everyone’s responsibility in the whole company. The marketing department develops brand positioning and strategy with brand managers, product managers, consultants, and then MarCom department executes details ranging from corporate documents, brand identity, corporate identity system (CIS), point-of-sales (POS) promotion, retail and trade promotion, advertisement, collateral, online message, and even public relations (PR) messages and events.
For internal “brand selling,” the company has regular meeting and training programs company-wide. From all executives, managers, and employees, no matter which functionality, internal brand communication meetings are hold very frequently, conveying how brand is positioned, what are the brand strategies and disciplines, how to present and execute the brand messages and formats, what are brand’s strengths, Dos and Don’ts, and how to protect brand…etc. For retailers and partners, the company holds these sorts of brand communication meetings quarterly, to make sure the whole “ecosystem” of brand is consistent and thoroughly executed.
Brand is not safe, you need to protect it. Brand managers always want to make their brand become a category term. But when your brand really becomes a category term, it becomes a threat more than a success. Just like when I worked for Intel, we had a very successful brand called “386,” but later on when consumers hear 386, they thought about Compaq, and we lost “386” as our powerful brand eventually. We need to be very careful about making the brand easily recognized by consumers, but not let it be mis-related to our competitor. It’s a threat more than a success.
The greatest brand issue is the global brand consistency. It’s very hard to communicate a brand consistently in every regional market, especially executing with localization. Branding is a process of “emotional connection,” and how to make consumers always have the same emotional connection in different part of the world is an ultimate challenge. Just like Starbucks, even though it seldom uses advertisement, every time when you see Starbucks, you have the same feeling. And when you order a Grande or Latte, you have exactly the same feeling and expectation. Starbuck did an excellent job called “location marketing” before opening a new branch, Starbucks marketing managers will conduct extensive researches about customer flow, atmosphere, brand image…etc., to make sure every time when customers go to Starbucks, they will have very consistent brand perception.
“Brand Personality” is the most interesting question for Michael when sharing his experience to other brand managers. The brand image is supposed to be the same. But every time when he asked executives, managers, and employees, most of time he got different answers to the same brand. The brand is like a person. This person has age, personality and characteristics, behavior patterns, taste…etc. The company is a young guy, 25 years-old, smart, strongly capable but cocky, less disciplined, but know how good he is. How to convey this personality to consumers consistently, make them like this person, and prefer to make friend with him is a big task.
Simplicity and feeding customers’ demands are the ways the company maintains and strengthens its brand in global marketplace. How to make your brand so simple that no matter which market or segment of customers, what circumstance your customers expose to your brand, or every time you communicate with your employees, all stockholders can have exact same perception about the brand. For instance, the company is a “GPU company.” It’s just that simple. We make graphic processor unit, and we make superior graphic processor unit.
We used to produce very high-end GPU for high-end gamers, those who are willing to spend thousands of dollars on graphic cards just for better experience. But we learned a lesson several years ago. Our products were too superior that we can only sell to the “top of the pyramid” gamers, and we lost focus on critical majority market and made us almost went bankrupt. So we refocused not only on gamers but on the mass market, and reposition our brand as a better visual experience, not only for games, but also for photos, DVDs, movies, music, or even pace radio more smoothly. We make our product more related to life, and set the right product lines and price points. And we successfully strived again.
For key “takeaway” advice and guidance, Michael would like to give T-bird MBA students several advices:
“Enjoy life.” School time is wonderful with lots of possibility, so enjoy it!
“Network” is also important.
Education is a training process to make people think independently, and grow from a kid to an adult. Also learn how to organize, experience, and extend knowledge. It’s an important part for success.
Brand management is everyone’s job. Brand is a great asset to a company. Management is not to control people, but to “inspire” people. When I ask my people to do things, I normally don’t tell them all the details. I just tell them what I want, give them the directions, and then sit back, wait for their results. Executives set the strategy and right direction for the company, then support their needs, give them the necessary training, set up the measurement, give them enough budget and other necessary support. For all my daily time, I spend around 80% of my time on communication.
One time, my colleague, the interview coordinator, and I discussed about what consists of a successful corporate manager. Jeff mentioned 3 elements and I totally agreed: skills, style, and characteristics. Skills can be trained. And style is about one’s leadership. About characteristics, whenever I interviewed people, I would like to ask more about who they are, but not only what skills or experience they have. Is this person a real “fit-in?” Can this person be a team player and have a positive impact to the company? These questions are more important to a company and a brand.
I have the passion for this job. I have the ball, and it’s pretty rewarding to me that when my people come to me and thank me from the bottom of their heart that my decisions really help them in a positive way. Even though sometimes after I made some stupid decisions, I might scratch my head and talk to myself “how can I make such a stupid decision?” But no one is perfect, people make mistakes. So learn from the lesson, and move on.