Category: Uncategorized

  • The ironic crux of marketing: differentiation and distinctiveness

    One of the hardest things to understand in marketing is the difference between differentiation (how different you are) and distinctiveness (how recognizable you are) — and which one is most important. It’s also where marketing’s biggest irony lies. There are plenty of guru’s like Simon Sinek who say people don’t buy what you sell, but…

  • Western brands in China: hits and misses

    Western companies looking to expand their business often underestimate the competitiveness of the Chinese market. Often, what stands in the way of success is a lack of understanding on what Chinese consumers value and how they shop. But then there are some that have done their research, made local partnerships, made necessary changes, and earned…

  • Teaching marketing and doing marketing

    To teach marketing, and at the same time work in marketing, is something I’ve struggled with. In my marketing classes at SIVA (上海视觉艺术学院), everything I tell is simple, structured, and proven: Step A, B, C — a tidy, bullet-point reality. But when I look at what I do at my full-time job at GoEast, I’m…

  • Marketing education needs less intuition, more evidence (Or, ‘What I wish I learned in Ad School’)

    A bit of context: I studied the major advertising from 2010 to 2014 at the Willem de Kooning Academy (WDKA) in Rotterdam, and since 2019 I teach Branding at the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art (SIVA). Despite the distance, both schools are actually very similar: The student’s age is the same and they have similar…

  • Is posting memes on Facebook marketing?

    Marketing theory comes down to how you think marketing works. Imagine 全家FamilyMart would open up a 5-star restaurant in downtown Shanghai. Candles on the table, waiters suited up, silver cutlery. And FamilyMart would serve their microwave meals, touting their high-quality taste. It’d be fun, they’d invite 网红wanghong to magazines, and they’d get some serious PR.…

  • GoEast Mandarin’s marketing and the impact of the corona virus in China

    (Original interview in Dutch with MarketingTribune.) In conversation with MarketingTribune about our marketing and the impact of the corona crisis in China. What exactly does GoEast Mandarin do? GoEast Mandarin offers Chinese language lessons to foreigners in many variants: daily and business Mandarin, private and group lessons, from beginner to advanced. This from two campuses…

  • Writing as part of marketing

    Today’s the first day of the new semester today at Shanghai Institute of Visual Art. I’m glad we’re back to offline teaching (despite overcoming challenges to teach online), because the quality is just higher and we — students and me — can handle more content together. We started Marketing Strategy with a class about writing,…