APAC Represents a Pack of Differences
With the more mature markets of North American and EMEA experiencing slowing growth, all technology companies have begun to put an increased focus on the faster growing Asia Pacific or APAC region. Some have even opened up a second headquarters to prove this commitment. This region represents significant opportunity, but technology marketers quickly realize that a one-size-fits-all approach is doomed to fail.
APAC is made up of countries with very distinctive cultures. This goes far beyond demographics, as the psychographics can be dramatically different in each country or even sub-regions within countries. Therefore your messaging needs to take this into account or you are sure to find competitors doing a much better job of winning their hearts and minds…..and wallets.
Depending on a number of factors, such as the technology category, competitive set and audience mix (business vs technology buyer), each and every situation is different. But for the purposes of this blog, I thought I would provide some of the consistent big picture themes we've seen across the region in our global technology marketing efforts for the likes of Agilent, EMC, NCR, SunGard, Bentley Systems and Tele Atlas, among others.
China: By far, the fastest growing country in the region, we have a false perception in this country of the Chinese as being hugely value-based. Yet in many cases the complete opposite is true. As consumers, they are very brand conscious and loyal and take great pride in using the best technology offered in the West.
However that hasn't quite translated yet to B2B purchases. For B2B, they still want the best technology but are unwilling to pay the "brand tax". Therefore you need to make sure that your solution, which was developed to solve a problem in North America or EMEA, is relevant to the challenges they face, in order to justify any price premium. As an alternative, to improve market entry, many technology companies have developed unique low-end offering specifically for the Chinese market.
Japan: Japan is the country that technology marketers have the most experience targeting, yet decades later, it is still a mystery to many. As it’s a more mature market, its growth is staler compared to the other countries in Asia Pacific. Yet because it has been a challenge for so long, for most companies it still represents a great growth opportunity through increased market share.
In Japan, having the best solution is probably less important than having the best partner. Japanese are very loyal to local companies, making it incredibly difficult to crack into this market. So having a channel strategy is key. And be sure to focus on the quality of the channel, as opposed to just quantity. Channel conflict is greatly frowned upon.
India: Enormous growth, emerging middle-class, English-speaking - what should be so hard about targeting India? In India, because of the strong engineering culture and talent pool, they are big believers in building their own. Combining this with their value-consciousness, it is especially important that the benefits of your solutions, versus what they can easily build, are crystal clear. You need to have enough differential to overcome the 80% of the power, 20% of the price proposition.
So, if you treat APAC as a pack of similarities, the only similarity you'll find will be in your lack of success. Do a little research on each region to develop focused solutions and targeting strategies and provide your company with a pack of success.
