Why region is a significant issue for marketers？

When we talk about issues that marketers should consider in marketing strategy planing, factors such as target audience, costumer insight and objective of the campaign always come out of mind. However, region is a basic issue that marketers ignore sometimes. Some global brands want to copy their marketing strategy and apply it on Chinese marketing, but it is always ineffective.

Last month, New Balance launch a new video campaign in Great China Region, which called ‘Heart and Hands’ achieve a general success and receive positive review.

We can watch this video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiOqdluh7Ew

Famous song writer Jonathan Lee write a long emotional copy about life, in brief it means: ‘take your time, do things by your heart, and that is life.’ and read it by himself in the video. The screen transition from Lee to a craftsman from New Balance factory. These two people are focusing on their own work alternately: Lee is madding a polished wood guitar, at the same time the craftsman is making New Balance shoes. The video clearly show how ‘craftsmen’ do their daily work.The whole video never mentioned how good and high-quality New Balance shoes are. However, everyone who watched the video can feel the fact that the shoes is a masterpiece.

Unique perspective, emotional language bought a very good dissemination of results. Although the official did not announce the specific number of how many times the video has been played, but the viral spread of it on social media such as Weibo and WeChat prove the success of the campaign.

When we review this campaign, we will notice that the insight of the whole campaign is about life and humanity. It is totally different from the strategy New Balance used in USA marketing, where the brands original from. Before the campaign come out, New Balance tried to use the ‘Jogging Lifestyle’ concept in China, but the it not accepted by Chinese costumers. One of the reason for this is the lifestyle is different from Chinese and American. Chinese costumer are more likely to consider New Balance as a pair of shoes wearing in daily life instead of a running shoes. Another reason is the competitors Nike has already running the Chinese ruining shoes market for years. Therefore, New Balance has to change their strategy after they finally understand the insight of Chinese costumer.

This time, they make a success.