Member Article

Clinics will help Yorkshire businesses understand China potential

Sales and export directors are being given a chance to sit next to a business specialist as he investigates their company’s export potential in China by negotiating the complex Chinese Internet.

The clinics, to be held at customer’s premises, will be held by Chamber International’s China-affairs associate, Matthew Grandage, a fluent Mandarin speaker who spent 15 years living and working in China, and now advises British businesses on a daily basis.

Although China’s economic growth has slowed, the country still achieved 6.7 per cent expansion in 2016 and is targeting 6.5 per cent growth in 2017 as it continues to transfer from a manufacturing to a services nation.

One key to success in China – as with many other countries – is obtaining good market information.

Matthew Grandage says: “A key challenge for many companies is understanding how good, or bad, a job their distributors are doing, and whether they are up to the job. Without understanding how a company’s product or advertising is perceived by potential customers in China, a great business opportunity may be missed or become an expensive failure.”

Chamber International says that a valuable way for UK companies to research the Chinese market is for Matthew Grandage to work alongside them at their offices, mining the complex Chinese internet for information relevant to their company, products, services and competitors.

He adds: “This approach combines the company’s product and marketing knowledge with our specialist regional and research expertise to establish how they and their competitors are positioned within the Chinese market.

“Such information is hard for most people to access because of the language barrier, and because China’s online environment is so different to ours. It is written in Chinese; web searches must be conducted in Chinese and there is no Google, different social media platforms and an alien ecommerce culture.

“Using this method I’ve seen companies make significant breakthroughs in just a couple of hours, and change their long-term strategy for the Chinese market as a result.”

Three such China successes supported by Chamber International have been: finding out that a manufacturer’s sole distributor was virtually invisible online; investigating and reducing a book publisher’s concerns about online piracy and helping an engineering company identify suitable distribution partners.

Slots for the Yorkshire clinics are available on March 27-28 when Matthew Grandage will visit Yorkshire businesses. A well as being able to conduct real-time searches in Chinese, he advises British businesses about China strategy. To book a visit, call Chamber International on Tel 0845-034-7200.

Chamber International assists chambers of commerce with a wide range of specialist international trade services and is and is exclusively partnered with London headquartered global testing organisation, Intertek, to assist with a wide range of issues including product conformity.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mike Clarke Communications .