Promoting Greek Olive Oil in China's Growing Market
1. Promoting Olive Oil
in China
An Integrated Marketing Communication Plan
By Sofia Tsempera
2. Part 1
Formative Research
Study of China’s Internal and External
Environment
• Geography
• Culture
• economy
• GDP
• consuming habits
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3. General Information
about People’s
Republic of China
Geography
• Counting 1,393,783,836
residences.
• 9.596.961 square kilometers.
• The largest country in East
Asia and the 4th largest in the
world after Russia, Canada, and
the U.S.
China is administrative divided and controls more
than 22 provinces. Moreover, China owns 5
autonomous regions, each one of which has a
special minority group that defines it. Also, it is
administratively divided in 4 municipal areas and
two regions with a special administrative status.
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4. Economy
In 2014 US economy was
$17.4tr and the size of China’s
economy was $17.6tr, placing
China on the 1st place of
world’s strongest economies.
• China is now
considered as a
market leader as far
imports, exports and
industry is
concerned.
Source: Giles, C. (2014). Retrieved from www.ftalphaville.ft.com
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5. GDP
China has the highest GDP growth rate worldwide and it shows to keep this rate for the years to come. The
national economy remained stable for the year 2014. Studying preliminary accounting GDP of 2014 was 63,646.3 billion
Yuan, 7, 4% over 2103. The value added of the primary industry accounted for 9, 2% of the GDP (China's Economic
Growth Rates, 2010-2014: Charts, 2015).
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7. Urban / Rural
Population
Almost half of China’s population live in urban areas and it is
expected that this number will keep rising the next decades.
• Near to 70% of Chinese will
live in urban cities until 2035.
• Most of them are gathered to
the east coastal part of the
country.
• There more than 90 cities in
China with population of over
1,000,000 residences
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8. Income
¥There is a general tendency coastal
cities either urban or rural to rank
higher in terms of income compared
to the cities inland.
¥Urbanized cities on the east coast of
China are the wealthiest and their
residences are those with the highest
income.
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9. The Rising
Upper-Middle &
Middle Class
• Urbanization of China is the main reason
of the rising of middle class.
• In 2012 the number of middle class
households reached the percentage of 68%.
• Today, urban, upper-middle and middle
class households represent 52% of the total
population of China.
• It is likely that until 2022 their share will be
raised to 63% and 170 million residences of
urban areas.
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10. Household Consumption Growth Rate
Middle class is growing; incomes are getting higher so eventually the percentage for household
consumption is growing as well.
• Upper middle class is willing to buy
foreign branded food and beverage
compared to other city residents.
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11. Qualitative Characteristics
of Chinese Consumers
• New generation in China (ages 18 to
38), are more educated than
previous generations.
• 34% of upper middle class have one
academic degree or more and 26%
can speak and understand English
(Orr, 2014).
• Chinese consumers, are willing
to pay more for “healthy” quality
products.
• Health awareness in China
has become viral.
• Health-driven trend will continue
to be a key highlight in the Chinese
food market for 2015.
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12. Business Ethics
Codes of Professional Behavior According to Chinese Culture
When doing business in China stick to these guidelines:
• Be always on time and never delay.
• Respect hierarchy and titles. Use them properly.
• Avoid hyper, exaggeration and intense eye contact.
• Be humble and polite.
• Control over emotional reactions.
• Do not criticize (not even yourself).
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13. Chinese Market
Approach
• Trend of health awareness.
• Attracted by what we call “the
wrapping paper”.
• Consider a high price of a
product as an indicator of quality.
• Pollution challenge.
• Prefer imported goods especially
when it comes to food and
beverage.
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15. “
”
Those six years of recession has been a wakeup call for
Greek businesses and now they are looking overseas
especially to China, sending big delegations to Beijing and
welcoming major Chinese investments.
Jane Lanhee Lee, 2014, Reuters Business for New York Times
Many great Greek olive oil producers who cooperate with China, mention to the reporter that a very big
percentage of the Greek olive oil production has been sold, for decades, to Spanish and Italians
as raw material and know they realize they can export the final, standardized product on
their own, as Greek olive oil is high quality.
Situation Analysis
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16. Greek Olive Oil
Market
• Third biggest olive oil producer country worldwide.
• Production of 0,3 t., contributing the 0,4% (€740
million) of Greece’s GDP annually.
• Only 27% of the produced olive oil gets to be
standardized.
• The rest of the production is sold in bulk form
mainly to Italy for re-export.
• Comparative advantages traditional olive varieties,
low input, and quality production.
Situation Analysis
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Source: Sectoral Report of the National Bank of
Greece, 2015.
17. Olive Oil
Imports in China
• Chinese look for natural, quality
products and olive oil is one them because
it is believed to be the healthiest of all
cooking oils, so imports of olive oil grow
year by year.
• Chinese consumers seem to be thrilled
by Greek olive oil.
• Greek virgin olive oil is the first choice
of gourmet lovers.
• Greek olive oil stands out between other
olive oils because of its quality.
Situation Analysis
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“In 2013, the Chinese spent $184 million on imported
olive oil, 9.3 percent more than in 2012, and a huge
leap from just $1 million a decade earlier”
Sophie Song, 2014, International Business Times
19. “MAdis Olio”
The Company
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MADis Olio is a startup, wholesale and
exporting olive oil company.
Founded on the 28th of February in 2014 by
Penelope Kolokotronis Madis the CEO of
the company.
It is headquartered at Filiatra, a province of
Messinia region of Greece.
“MAdis Olio”
20. Company’s
Statement
New, visionary and inspired wholesale and
exporting company of extra virgin olive oil of
excellent quality.
After strained research, the appropriate and most
capable partners to implement company’s
objectives, were found.
The company attaches great importance to excellent
quality of the raw material that standardizes in order to
meet its high standards and the final product goes a
step further. Quality, origin, and premium design are
the key factors that make MADis Olio extra virgin olive
oil an excellent example of Greece’s high standard
products. MADis Olio is more than a cooking oil. It is
the very best piece of every Mediterranean table and an
excellent gift of Greece’s magnitude.
The Company
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“MAdis Olio”
21. All products, except the 750ml bottle, come in a
premium packaging parted of a rectangular black case,
a booklet of useful information about the product and
its history and origins and finally a black velvet
pouches with red silk rope that the bottles will be
placed in.
The Brand
Signature Product
The standard bottle of extra virgin olive oil of
200ml, bottle is clean-cut designed, square bottle
covered by screen printed label of a silver – green
color that leaves uncovered the 1/3 of the bottle
so it shows the pure gold color of the olive oil.
New Launched Brand
The Company “MAdis Olio”
• Two new products that will target
international markets by brand name
“Penelope’s”.
• The premium square bottle of 150ml extra
virgin olive oil, suitable for gift or
souvenir.
• The tall ceramic white bottle of 750ml
virgin olive oil, suitable for household use,
hoteliers and restaurants.
Madis Olio
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24. Greek Brands Competition
The brands that have
entered the Chinese
market are:
• Ousia by Terra Creta
• IONIA by Cretland
• Anthos
• Liostama
• Apokoronas
• Cretan Prince
• Sitia
• Altis
• Argolis
• Iliada
• Minerva
Foreign Brands Competition
• 88 pc of China’s imports in 2013/14 came
from EU countries.
• Spain was the lead exporter (61 pc of
total), with Italy (23 pc) and Greece (4 pc)
coming up behind.
• The remaining 12 pc was imported from
Tunisia (4 pc), Turkey (3 pc), Morocco
(2 pc) and Australia (2 pc), leaving 1 pc
for all the other countries
Benchmarking
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26. Goal &
Objectives
Objective
• Establish brand awareness in China.
• Generate awareness about the superiority of the
product and its characteristics.
• Underline product’s identity (the fact that it is a
genuine Greek product, hundred percent
natural and top quality).
• Have an intense presence on every online media
tool (social media, web etc.) in a daily bases.
• Interfere to a tourist market.
• Succeed the specific number of sales that
is set as the minimum (First six months the
target is to sale 1 palette of the 150ml bottle and
another one of the 750ml bottle palette).
Goal
Enter the Chinese market, introduce its
product to Chinese consumers and take
a share of olive oil market in China,
overshadowing competitive brands,
either Greek or not.
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33. Target
Market
Target market will be the
northeast coastal provinces and
urban cities (because of their
qualitative characteristics).
Including the capital of China
and Chongqing, all provinces that
have shipping ports and are
economically evolving.
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Beijing
Shanghai
Guangzhou
Shenzhen
Tianjin
Guangxi
Liaoning
Shandong
Hong Kong
Chongqing
35. Target audience of both categories is the
use of e-commerce platforms, social
media and the web in general. Our
target audience is very keen in using
smartphones, tablets, notebooks and
any other form of technology and is
very acquainted to electronic purchases.
Target Audience
Target audience is divided into two
categories. The first category is wholesale
meaning agents, restaurants, hotels, gift
shops, delicatessen shops, shop in shop and
a small number of food malls.
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36. The second category of the target
audience are the end-consumers,
direct or indirect. The term “end-
consumer” refers to those who either
buy a product themselves (direct end
consumers) or those who use, try,
taste a product as customers of a
business, for example as guests of
hotel or customers of a restaurant
(indirect consumers).
Target
Audience
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38. Strategic Intent
An Integrated Marketing
Communication Strategic Plan, based
upon marketing and
communication tools which include
participation in exhibitions and events,
emails, phone calls, face-to-face meetings as
well as online and printed media.
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The two main pillars of the plan will be:
I. Interpersonal Relationships
II. Online Media
40. Message
Emotional Appeal
• Emotional appeal approach will be
used in terms of cultural and
historical factors of the product.
• Chinese respect and admire cultures
as important and old as theirs. This
can be the advantage of our brand
when it comes to competition.
Rational Appeal
• Ration appeal approach will be
used to underline the superiority of
the brand in terms of its quality,
origin, uniqueness and the fact that
is a natural product with high
nutrition value.
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Message
41. Storytelling & Slogan
Message
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Slogan:
Penelope’s Liquid Gold…
Drops of Divinity!
Storytelling:
“Penelope…
She is the queen of Ithaca, beautiful, shy,
loyal… she remained kept inside for a long
time but now she’s out, travelling all around
the world… She carries along all the beauty,
the flavors, the sense, the divine touch of
Gods… And everyone wants a taste of her…!
Taste the myth!”
43. Preparation
• A set of communication and marketing tactics will be used in order to meet
company’s objectives.
• Before implementing our tactics, marketing communication tools must
be prepared.
• Company profile, Sales letters, Product catalogue, Social media
accounts are those tools we need to take care of before starting the
implementation of the plan.
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Tactics
44. Communication Tactics
Website
A common corporate website may not be
suitable for our target market.
Rich in content and color but at the same
time very specific and easy on the eye.
Include all information about the company
identity and the product’s quality and
superiority.
Chinese version apart from the Greek and
the English one.
Emails
Emails will be used as the medium to
present and introduce the company as well
as the brand.
Emails will be also the tool to keep our
partners update and the medium to
exchange information throughout the
whole period of our cooperation.
In times, emails may be followed by phone
calls or newsletters.
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45. Communication Tactics
Participating in
Exhibitions
To establish the first contact with new
customers, agents and distributors and to
maintain brand awareness in the market, it
is essential to participate in exhibitions
regularly but strategically.
Phone calls
Ensure that the email has been delivered
and read.
Second, in order to locate the correct
person to negotiate or close a deal.
Start building interpersonal relationships
that as we have mentioned earlier it is
essential if you want to do business in
China.
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46. Communication Tactics
Face-to-Face Meetings
Move the relationship forward and
probably the key to close a deal.
Exceptional role to Chinese’s culture and
habits and they can take place either at the
workplace but even by having launch or
diner.
Sponsoring Governmental
Programs about the
Bilateral Relationship of
Greece and China
Sponsor online and offline seminars about
Greek tourism and Greek products that
the Tourism Organization of China is
about to run in 2015.
Aware of the brand, because as a sponsor
it will have physical or virtual presence and
be notified.
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47. Promotional Marketing Tactics
Printed Media
One-page listing in a set of magazines which will be
carefully selected so that they meet our objectives.
Health & Wellness.
Chinese cooking magazines that include
Mediterranean cooking and products.
Men’s Health, Women’s Health China, Health No1
which is a genuine Chinese magazine, Chinese
edition of Food &Wine, Chinese edition of the
Lonely Planet Traveller.
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48. Promotional Marketing Tactics
Online Media
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The penetration of the Internet in China
has reached extreme numbers making China
rank first in terms of active internet users.
China has 642 million internet users,
outnumbering the entire U.S. population
two to one.
From who, 80% (557 million) use
smartphones and tablets to connect.
“The online shopping headcount is expected to go to
380 million from 145 million today. Even China’s
smaller cities are leaving flip top phones and buying
smart phones”. K. Rapoza reports for Forbes.
49. Promotional Marketing Tactics
Online Media
Penetrating Social Media
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Social media as integral part of their
lives, the use of social media.
Because of strict Chinese
government rules, world’s biggest
online services like Google Inc.,
Facebook Inc. and Tweeter Inc. have
been severely disrupted or simply
blocked.
Nevertheless, social media must be
used for our marketing tactics, so
consequently we have to “use” those
that Chinese do.
50. Promotional Marketing Tactics
Online Media
Penetrating Social Media
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Social Media Platforms to be used:
1. WeChat.com, one of the most popular social media
platform in China.
2. Qyer.com, this site’s turf is e-tourism, suggestions
and information gathering for Chinese tourists to be
more accurate.
3. QQ.com, online Messaging Platform – adopted by
829 million users, involving features such as text
messages, video, voice chat and files sending Stuffs.
51. Promotional Marketing Tactics
Online Media
Purchasing via E-commerce Platforms
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• E-commerce platforms at first were used
mostly among wholesalers, but the last 2 years
have been the main purchasing channel also
for retail consumers (end-consumers).
• Chinese use them more than regularly.
52. Promotional Marketing Tactics
Online Media
Purchasing via E-commerce Platforms
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E-commerce Platforms to be used:
1. Alibaba.com, king of E-commerce in
China Alibaba Group has grown into a
global leader in online and mobile
commerce.
2. Taobao.com, the invite-only platform
features more than 70,000 international and
domestic brands from more than 50,000
merchants.
3. VipShop.com, one of the most popular in
China and also “women friendly”!!
57. Evaluation
1. Conduct several meetings with our Chinese
associates and discuss the plan’s progress as long as
identify new needs.
2. Be in touch with our target audience and ask for
their opinion about the brand. by posting brief
questionnaires, about the brand and its identity, on
social media and other online networks that we use.
3. Collect and analyze the quantitative data from
our online tools. We can count followers, friend
requests (accepted or requested), likes, shares,
website quests and received questions.
4. Number of contacts that we will make after
participating to the exhibitions.
5. Analyzing product sales data can reveal if the
communication plan was successful or not.
Evaluating the communication plan
is essential, both during the
implementation and after is
conducted. Evaluating the plan
during the implementation helps us
to identify possible flows and make
any necessary changes and
adjustments as well as keeping truck
and adopting new information and
market needs.
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58. An Integrated Marketing Communication Plan
By Sofia Tsempera for Madis Olio
“Promoting Olive Oil
in China”
