What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit)
122 years in business: Coca Cola still easily tops annual BRAND ranking with its $70 billion brand value. 24 years in business: Jianlibao, once the most popular Chinese beverage brand, comes to an end. 2 years: the average lifespan of a native Chinese brand published by World Brand Lab.
Twenty years ago, few Chinese ever heard the term ‗marketing‘. In contrast, today thousands of Chinese brands utilize diversified marketing tools. However, they make the mistake of blindly equating marketing with heavy advertising and promotion, and neglect rational brand building. As a result they cannot afford sustainable development, though their sales may boom in the short term. The rise and fall of Jianlibao, among other companies, illustrates that maintaining a Chinese brand name is even harder than creating it.
One of my long-term goals in marketing is to establish a boutique consulting firm that will provide branding and marketing services to local companies, aiming to better build and develop Chinese native brands in the consumer goods industry. First, though, I plan to join a top consulting firm to enhance marketing expertise and accumulate knowledge of different business categories.
Over the two years I spent at SC. Johnson, my understanding of marketing deepened through practical experience. I have been in charge of brands in different stages of their lifespan — I not only drove the famous multi-national brand, Raid, to continue its ten-year reign in China, but I also transformed OFF from an unknown brand to the most popular repellent brand in the country. I also became an expert in utilizing multiple marketing tools to drive challenging business objectives. To launch Raid Electric Liquid, I led strategic sampling to increase its penetration, driving its share over 50% as the growing engine for brand business. To deliver Raid Trigger news to targeted consumers, I adopted the innovative ‗Provincial Panel‘ media strategy to effectively reach the target with 50% less spending. Finally, I applied my growing understanding of Chinese consumers and sales channels to create business opportunity and grow sales. On one hand, I combined Chinese unique herbal medicine with Raid‘s advanced insect killing technology to create the innovative Herbal Insecticide, which has become ‗Star product‘ for rural consumers. On the other hand, I also set up a clear strategy for the existing Multiple Insecticide business. With my unprecedented ‗Focused‘ strategy, it recovered from over three years of stagnation and grew by 42% — the highest sales growth rate in history — and achieved the number one share in China for the first time by outperforming our largest local competitor, Gunner, even though they invested much more than us. I also learned from this case that Chinese local brands must reform to win their foreign counterparts.
As a step to approach my career goal, I formed a four-member part-time consulting team in 2007 to gain first-hand experience. We arduously won our first case to offer marketing consultancy to a New Zealand nutrition brand that was being introduced in Shanghai. My responsibilities ranged from recruiting partners, assigning tasks and communicating with clients to research, analysis and the final proposal. My experience as a business operator responsible for team members, clients, and myself was bittersweet but educational.
However, to found a brand consulting firm in the future, I still lack a holistic view of global business. I also need to strengthen my analytical ability to come up with sound marketing solutions as a qualified consultant. An MBA will be crucial for me to gain these skills.
Columbia‘s MBA program attracts me not only because of its well-rounded top ranking, but also because of its rigorous marketing course. John Howard‘s customer behavior theory, which was tested and developed at Columbia, was a milestone in the evolution of marketing. I hope to share and discuss my perception of Chinese consumers‘ buying decisions with peers to further probe this theory. And I also hope to apply Columbia‘s unique logical and quantitative analysis to my future work to redress the current ‗fanatic‘ advertising and promotion of Chinese brands, and guide them back to benign circle of brand building. Moreover, I want to participate in Columbia‘s Master Class to work with peers to solve companies‘ ongoing problems. Such immersion in the real business perfectly matches my desire to grow from a marketer to a consultant. I am looking forward to working with famous consumer goods companies such as Nestle that are in the Master Class‘s partner list, as well as helping to foster media strategy in the ‗Advertising, Branding and Creativity‘ workshop. Finally, New York City is a world brand library with the headquarters of famous brands such as Pepsi and Coach for me to explore.
With the global expertise I will cultivate at Columbia, and also with my local marketing experience, I hope to help increase the average lifespan of Chinese brands by joining a top consulting firm in the near future, and eventually establishing my own firm.