Wendy Qi

Always be Crowdsourcing: Lessons Learned from Crowdfunding

Wendy Qi — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 02:25:02 +0000

Earlier this week, our team launched our first Kickstarter campaign with Sentri, a smart home security solution designed to give you full visibility and control of your home, providing intelligence on everything from humidity, temperature, and air quality to traditional features like an HD video camera and motion detector â€“ no matter where you are.Â Â In the first 48 hours, we were able to hit our $200,000 goal with nearly 600 backers globally â€¦ as any crowdfunder will tell you, itâ€s a thrilling experience, but itâ€s a journey that starts long before you hit launch on your campaign.

What this experience has taught us more than anything was the importance of always crowdsourcing, and constantly incorporating it as part of the productâ€s development. To a lot of people, a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign may seem like the beginning â€“ the beginning of market validating, of testing out the right fit, the right value proposition . .. and it is. But as any campaign creator will tell you, there’s a ton of work that goes on behind it, but how can you constantly learn from that work and iterate on it?

The answer weâ€ve found â€“ always be crowdsourcing. Listening to our users, both in what they said and how they acted, has guided the development of our product from day one, and something we both firmly believe in and have seen tangible results from. When we first came up with the idea of Sentri, one of the big questions we needed to address was landing on a name. Sentri and Kronosight were two of the top contenders, and we decided to put the vote out to actual potential customers. Â Using just $40 — a small price to pay for a naming exercise — we put this to the test on Facebook, combining copy around smart homes with different names. Ads that had the name ‘Sentri’ had a 4x higher clickthrough rate than any other name — leading us to where we are today.

Second, and arguably one of the most important factors of any marketing campaign â€“ crowdfunded or not, was the value proposition. We took full advantage of Kickstarter’s preview function and asked well over 200 people for their input in making sure the value proposition resonated to different audience groups. It wasnâ€t just about asking people blindly either â€“ we carefully made sure to characterize each individual depending on certain traits such as basic demographics (age and where they lived) in addition to their general affinity for tech and home improvement, so that we were capturing different perspectives.

We quickly realized that while people were drawn to the idea of a smart home, what sold them was the ability to use that intelligence to make their homes safer â€“ so it wasnâ€t just about smart homes, but a smarter home security solution that created safer homes. Our story of bringing intelligence to homes and consumers remained unchanged, but the value proposition was one that enabled us to speak to a much broader audience.

Now that we have launched our campaign, weâ€ve seen higher than average traffic from two areas: emerging markets like India and Russia, and also the high conversion rate of those who watch our Kickstarter video. Weâ€re actually now in the middle of taking this information launch a global search campaign that will specifically target these areas â€“ markets which we had very little visibility into before â€“ and making sure that some reference to our video is a part of every campaign we run.

â€˜Always be crowdsourcingâ€ is a principle weâ€ve always taken seriously, and Iâ€m sure that youâ€ll see more instances of it coming from not just our Kickstarter campaign, but the development of Sentri itself. After all, designing for humans first is all about listening to the voice of the user, and one thatâ€s particularly true for the crowdfunded product.

Sentri, an all-in-one smart home security solution and smart device hub, is currently live on Kickstarter at http://bit.ly/sentri

Finding India in the Heart of Rio

Wendy Qi — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 00:52:46 +0000

Sun setting over Complexo do Alemao(Photo credit: dhani borges)

With the World Cup fast approaching (only three short days away!), Brazil is increasingly being pushed onto the global stage, and the country is scrambling to prepare for its biggest global show yet. (In)famously known as the eternally emerging market, Brazil is a country of vast dichotomies — a country that is as full of life and resources as it is stricken with poverty, a country as diverse as it is segregated, and as forward-looking as it is rooted in its traditions. And (un)surprisingly, it would be once upon a Southern summer day in Rio that I would find the spirit of Mumbai, India.

Over New Year’s, I decided to trade the white sand beaches of Ipanema for the more humble walls of Complexo de Alemao, one of the most (in)famous favelas — or shantytowns — in Rio, the ‘City of God.’ Situated in the heart of Rio, some 30 km away from Copacabana in the neighborhood of Nova Brasilia, Complexo de Alemao is a sprawling complex of 18,000+ homes connected by a network of 152 gondolas, affectionately known by locals asÂ “Bondinho do Alemao” (the same name given to the tramways at Sugarloaf Mountain and Santa Teresa).

To any passerby who happens to find themselves in the neighborhood (a neighborhood that will even give the most veteran cab drivers in Rio pause), it’ll remind you of the sort of place that you wouldn’t want to find yourself lost in late at night. Â But as with so many things, truly stepping inside can be a different experience. Like Brazil itself, life in a favela, not to mention one as grand in scale as Complexo de Alemao, is one that holds its own set of contradictions — armed soldiers against a backdrop of kids playing in the street, unparalleled warmth, curiosity, and hospitality against an attitude of complacency and greed, and education and progress against

As I spent a good part of a week within the walls of the complexo with the ever-good natured and warmhearted Dona Rita, I spent a good many of those hours reading Shantaram, Gregory Roberts’ novel about an escaped Australian convict who finds his way to Mumbai and the web of slums and gangs that are at the core of the city. Â In many ways, the favelas of Rio weren’t all that different from the shantytowns / slums of Mumbai that Roberts painted in his book, and I found myself transported to India on more than one occasion, where the relationships being described in Shantaram about Mumbai’s slumsÂ could just as easily have been describing the favelas of Complexo de Alemao — a society with community and family at its core, a fragile trust between authority and residents that stood to shatter at any given moment, and a system that operated more in grey than anything else.

Even though Complexo de Alemao – like several of Rio’s other major favelas like Rocihna and Vidigal – are considered ‘pacified’, the definition of what that actually means can vary. Â ForÂ the Complexo,Â pacification went only bullet-deep, meaning that the traded gunshots in the night that had once been so commonplace now happened only once a blue moon. Â It still means that the favelas continue to be a steady destination and origin for the flow of drugs throughout Brazil and Latin America (Brazil is one of the largest consumers of cocaine, attributed in part to its growing prosperity and its proximity with some of the largest cocaine producers in the world in its neighboring states. Â A good chunk of Brazil’s military efforts in the Amazons continue to focus on reducing drug import from neighboring Colombia). Â It means that anyone who actually speaks with the ‘BOPE’ (a special unit of the Brazilian armed forces dedicated to maintaining peace within favelas) are at risk of raising the ire of the favela’s drug lords who still hold a tight rein on the comings and goings of day to day life.

And like India’s urban slums, Brazil’s favelas have left the government at a loss of what to do to actually make deep, systemic change. On one hand, there’s changes in basic infrastructure and improving basic living conditions such as health and sanitation (the place I stayed at with Dona Rita was actually very well equipped with running water, a water heater, and even an AC to battle the 100-degree F Rio sun). Â On the other hand, and arguably much moreÂ arduousÂ and prolonged a path, is the one of building trust and community between those within and outside of the favela’s walls. Â In Vidigal, one of the most prominent favelas in Rio tucked between Leblon and Ipanema (two of the most desirable and most visited beaches in all of South America), hotels like the Grand Shertaon, which sits right at the foot of the favela, pays annual dues to the druglords of Vidigal to guarantee that no harm shall befall any of their guests (any resident who dares to break this trust will soon enough find themselves looking down the gunÂ barrelÂ of a druglord’s pistol)Â — not unlike the arrangements that are made in faraway Mumbai that Roberts describes as part of his experience.

In truth, the lives of Mumbai’s slums and Rio’s favelas aren’t that far apart, and stepping inside, even for a week, reveals a world that turns up so many more shades of grey than the black and white we normally read and see. Â And for Brazil, as the opening games kick off in Sao Paulo this Thursday, the World Cup will be a rare opportunity to show how communities in transition can be bridged, both within and outside its borders.

If I were 22: Think Hard, Work Hard, Play Hard

Wendy Qi — Sat, 24 May 2014 07:51:42 +0000

I’m generally a sucker for graduation speeches, and especially with May being the height of graduation season, I always find myself watching / reading a few this time of year whether in gratitude or an inspired heart. Â Aside from the favorites like Steve Jobs’ now fabled speech that he delivered at Stanford in 2005 on ‘staying hungry, staying foolish’ or George Saunder’s simply insightful reminder of erring on the side of kindness,Â what caught my eye this year wasn’t another hit graduation speech, but the simply posed promptÂ from LinkedIn to its network of influencers on “If I were 22”, where business and social influencersÂ like Sir Richard BransonÂ Â and Deepak Chopra (one of my personal favorites from the collection) share advice they would impart on their younger selves.

And what would you tell your 22 year old self? Â For me, 22 seems both like a blink of an eye away and galaxies away. Â Your 20s are as much, if not more, about coming into your ownÂ as it is about building fundamentals (skills, habits, mindsets) that will carry you through the rest of your life. Â For many of us, particularly in the US, it’s the first time you really have a chance to break away from ‘convention’ — if you’re lucky, you’ll likely have just graduated from college within the last year. Â Instead of following a more or less standard set of classes to fill your day with, you’re given the choice to figure out what you want to do to fill your day with, whether it’s dedicated to a craft, an idea, further education, or settling in at home — the path and choice are yours to make and own.

Which only makes it natural, if you think about it, that 22 should be aboutÂ thinking hard.Â Not necessarily about where you want to be in 20 years (although your thoughts may very well lead you there), but about what makes you thrive. What gives you meaning in the every day, what you can learn and continue to apply — even if you may no longer find yourself within the walls of a formal classroom. Â Think about the habits in daily life you want to cultivate, and just as you explore hobbies, explore and experiment with habits that will bring out the most productive and fulfilled you. Â As I’ve grown older, I’m increasingly hesitant to dole out advice along the lines of ‘follow your passion, and the rest will follow’, but I do believe that beingÂ thoughtfulÂ about your passions and how it lends itself in a meaningful (and practical) way. Â Embrace change and think about building a better future, even — and especially — if it’s different than the one you’ve always been told. Â Don’t let your 20s become a lost decade of whizzing through without taking the time to stop, smell the roses, andÂ think.

Growing up, I’ve always been taught and seen the power and importance of working hard. Â Hard work lies at the heart of the American Dream. Â And in our 20s, it’s something we should seek to embrace rather than shirk away from. Â It doesn’t always mean choosing to slave away at the 100+ hour a week corporate job — but it does mean working hard in building things that are meaningful to you. Â Realize that working hard isn’t just about the job you’ve chosen to takeÂ that puts a roof over your head and food on the table, but it’s also about working hard on projects and ideas that challenge you to grow in other ways as well. Â Work hard to never stop learning, never stop questioning, and enough to recognize that failure is part of the process of working.

And like Sir Richard Branson said, have a blast.Â Playing hardÂ is always important, and cliche as it may be, when you do what you love, it’ll always feel like you’re playing hard (which is why thinking hard about the life you want on a day to day basis is so important, even — and especially — when we’re 22). I’ve always found that some of the most impactful decisions and epiphanies (not to mention some of the best memories) have come while I was playing hard, with people who inspire me and whom I’ve been lucky enough to call friends. Â Playing hard is also about finding your tribe, connecting with your community, and exploring everything the world has to offer.

To be 22 again, I think these are principles that we’ve always known to be true, but may not have always had the words or thoughts to articulate them. Â Age is but a number, and while we have milestones like graduations to mark the march of time and progress, we can create our milestones at any age — to thinking hard, working hard, and playing hard.

Mark Penn on Microtrends, Technology, and Politics

Wendy Qi — Mon, 03 Mar 2014 20:35:09 +0000

At first glance, Mark Penn â€“ one time pollster for the Clinton administration and the â€œmost powerful man in Washington youâ€ve never heard ofâ€ â€“ may seem an odd choice to steer the brand and strategic direction for tech behemoth, Microsoft.Â Â After all, established tech, marketing, and politics are not terms you often see go hand in hand as far as personal resumes go.Â But make just a tiny scratch at the surface of Pennâ€s pollster chops and youâ€ll uncover all the makings of a great marketer â€“ an appreciation for data, an eye for the dots yet to be connected, and most importantly â€“ the art of communicating the complex as simple and actionable terms.

Penn calls todayâ€s world as akin to â€œliving in an impressionist paintingâ€ â€“ with lots of individual dots coming together to form a larger picture.Â Because rather than focusing on larger trends, Penn argues that more attention should be paid to the â€œ1%â€ and the micro-currents that contribute to â€˜micro-trendsâ€ â€“ changes in behavior that are bubbling just under the surface but can have much bigger implications for the way we work, live, and the way decisions are made.Â Even as Penn starts to reveal just some of these microtrends heâ€s uncovered (and likely those he finds most counterintuitive and provocative), you can see them reflected in the strategies the organizations/teams heâ€s worked with:

â€˜Foot loose and fancy freeâ€:Â People are choosing to stay single longer.Â In the last couple decades, the time period between college graduation and marriage has extended from an average of 5 years to 10 years, translating into more time spent dining out, more time spent with media, and more discretionary income spent on entertainment.
LAS-ers (long attention spanners):Â Instead of targeting the ADDers of the world (and trying to reach them through 15 second and 30 second spots, or even six-second Vine spots), what happens when you focus on the LASers, those individuals who become fascinated and delve deeply into a topic? The Internet is fueled by these individuals and we see a substantial subset of people who want to learn more, just as there are individuals who are issues-driven voters that are more interested in the details of a plan versus overarching strategy in a political campaign.Â How does this manifest?
- If you think about Bill Clinton, he paid a lot of attention to helping draw out the grittiness and details of his plans â€“ speaking directly to these LASers
- For Microsoft, itâ€s about explaining the technicalities and inner workings of the technology and products that theyâ€re developing â€“ and in general, you see this reflected in the rise of content marketing.Â For marketers (just as it is for political strategists), itâ€s about reaching that most effective swath and cross-section of potential consumers and constituents
Impressionable elites: Â Especially in politics, you find that the more highly educated and affluent an individual is, the more impressionable theyâ€ll often be.Â Â This is the group that will more likely be found saying: â€œI wish Hilary was more likableâ€.Â They are typically not the ones actually living the challenges at hand, and as a result, are much more personality driven and to an extent, easier to sway.Â By contrast, youâ€ll actually find the middle class to be your harshest and most detailed critics, and the biggest advocates for issues-driven decision making.

Especially in his role at Microsoft, you can see Pennâ€s political roots take shape in one of his opening campaigns that debuted in the 2012 holiday season (and continues today) â€“ â€˜Donâ€t Get Scroogledâ€ â€“ firing direct hits at competitor Google.Â In addition to changing the perception of what Microsoft stands for in the techosphere, here are the three main challenges â€“ and opportunities â€“ Penn sees for tech in the near future:

Technology and privacy: in a 10 country poll that MSFT led (and presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year), most people overwhelmingly saw technology as a net positive â€“ except in privacy.Â Privacy was the biggest concern and you really see a countryâ€s cultural roots reflected how much they worried about it. For example, France and Germany were two markets which were most concerned about privacy â€“ why? Perhaps it can be traced back to Hitler having lists back in the days of Nazi Germany.Â Online privacy in particular treads in uncharted waters that can leave even the most optimistic tech user weary (and are areas that you see Microsoft unabashedly taking shots at in their Scroogled campaigns)
Technology as a beacon of hope:Â more than anything, the biggest US trend you see today is pessimism, where the country has been on the longest stretch of pessimism since the 1930s (reflected in approval ratings on the hill, outlooks on future).Â The only exception? Technology â€“ which has been a glimmer of light in sparking the imagination and changing the way people live and make decisions. Â Â While good news for the general tech industry, the challenge for MSFT is to reclaim its seat the table in the consumer mind â€“ as a company, itâ€s been more or less disintermediated from the consumer experience, even if thereâ€s a lot of MSFT that people use on a daily basis that they may not even realize (e.g., Microsoft Office).
Communicating the value of technology: beyond the grander visions that technology can conjure, the most pervasive ongoing challenge for marketers and tech lies in communicating the way technologists understand products theyâ€re building with the ways consumers perceive and understand them.Â Just as in politics, there is the beltway opinion versus what your average citizen sees â€“ and especially in technology, there is a long ways to go in bridging the gap between an ever-changing suite of technology products and how we inspire and educate consumers.

The Thought Leadership Imperative for Ad Agencies

Wendy Qi — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 00:57:16 +0000

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about what “thought leadership” means at agencies, especially in an age where the boundaries of what constitutes “media” become both murkier and more complex. Â For creative agencies, does it mean a continuation of delivering a portfolio of works that are meant to inspire, humor, and persuade? And for media agencies, is it the really just the continuation of pursuing overall optimization and achieving maximum ROI?

As 2014 kicks off with the ever-growing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the theme of the “Internet of Things” resonates stronger than ever. Â While the notion of the connected home (where your living room, heating system, kitchen appliances and home entertainment section are all connected) is not groundbreaking and has been a presence at this show for years, we are reaching a tipping point where 1) the technology is affordable enough to be widely accessible and 2) the design and user experience have caught on in a way where many of the products we come across can be designed for this new age (think Nest) and Â everything we touch is somehow impacted by data, information, and in short, media (check out this Kickstarter-funded smart cutting board that sends nutritional info straight from your cutting board to your phone). Â Intentional or not, the media industry has been flung into the midst of this changing technology wave, and where “digital” used to be a differentiating factor, it is now an expected capability. Â And with that change, there is a growing thirst and imperative to understand the implications of what it means for brands to more deeply engage and keep up with the evolving digital habits of their consumers.

And yet, in spite of this demand,Â thought leadership and what all this change and opportunity means still lies primarily outside of the purview of agencies, who Â still hold the purse strings of the billions of dollars spent on advertising each year. Â While there are one-off pieces and independent publishers and ad networks who publish their views (most often on relatively niche topics like RTB, Display networks, and attribution analysis), this space still remains largely dominated Â by consulting giants and to some extent, tech publications (more oft than not, these are more geared towards the consumer than a business) .

Of course, having a working definition of ‘thought leadership’ is a challenge for any organization to define (just as it is a challenge for any publication to define its ‘voice’ in the initial stages), but demonstrating an active commitment to it should be a step that all agencies should consider taking. Â Advertising is an industry that has always had a particular fondness for the glitz and glamour of the here and now, but perhaps now is the time to take a step back and think about the mid and long-term stories we want to tell about the changing face of media, technology, and its impact on brands and consumers. Â Â Rather than being mere communicators of current trends, let’s help interpret what a future that is flooded by media means,

Here are some stories I would like to see told in the new year:

– Native advertising in the non-digital world — on our computer and mobile screens, native advertising has been the flavor du jour as we see the growing emergence and implementation of ad formats that mimic the environments they appear in (tiles for mobile apps, sponsored ‘likes’ appearing in social contexts on Facebook, etc.). The same can be said for the physical world, and pushing the boundaries of OOH advertising in a way that’s meaningful to their respective environments.

Examples:Â IBM’s ‘smarter cities’ campaign, billboard that transforms humidity into drinking water (campaign to encourage students in Peru to consider going into engineering)

– The Connected Retail Experience. Despite the rise of eCommerce, retail remains a fairly siloed experience (what you shop for in a store may not necessarily be reflective of your cCommerce behavior, and vice-versa). Â Media (part. digital) can be that bridge (proof:Â Burberry) — how can we shape a better customer and brand experience by simplifying the retail experience? And with Burberry’s CEO Angela Ahrendts (largely credited for leading the charge in the fashion house’s digital revolution) recently announcing her departure to join Apple to lead the tech giant’s retail practice (physical and digital), this will be an area that is poised for change, if not disruption.

– Media & the connected home — a budding area still in its infancy, connected homes represent both a sea of opportunity and an ocean of murky complexity for media. Â What screens will actually be useful? What feeds and content on those screens would actually make sense? How can we move the privacy conversation forward as think about letting data/technology into the most intimate confines of our lives?

What I’m Reading: On China, Typography, and The Power of Connected Networks

Wendy Qi — Sun, 29 Sep 2013 05:00:20 +0000

We live in a marvelous age of content discovery and learning. Â Between platforms like the Khan Academy, traditional publications like the Financial Times, New Yorker, and the Atlantic, and an ever-growing presence (both digitally and in-person) of gatherings like TED, Davos, Zeitgeist and the like, as long as you have an Internet connection — and the curiosity to look for it — it has never been easier to access information. Â But as I’ve touched on before, this ease of access has created a conundrum in and of itself in finding — and thinking through — what all these different pieces mean.Â

Below are some things that caught my eye so far this week — what noteworthy events, talks, or reads have you come across? Â Share your own in the comments below.Â

Jon Huntsman on China and the US
Zeitgeist Americas 2013 (“Here’s to the Curious”)

Whatever your political leanings may be, it’s hard to refute that Jon Huntsman is one of the most well-versed politicians on China today in Washington. Â In this 22-minute talk at Zeitgeist Americas, Huntsman leads off the discussion on China and the US, and how two distinctly different approaches to leading shape the directions of the two countries. Â For Â China, who is decidedly driven by long-term strategies, and the US, who excels at executing short-term tactical decisions, it’s more important than ever for both to understand the perspectives that the other is coming from.

In particular, as Huntsman notes, the next few months will be especially interesting to watch as China moves into its third plenum this November, where the new leadership team that assumed power last year will lay out in more detail plans around some the most pressing issues for China today: urbanization, moving from an export driven economy that is more focused on consumption, and the overarching theme of China’s social transition against a backdrop of widening inequalities. Â China’s transition today is one that warrants much more than just any one post, book, or talk, but Huntsman’s talk here presents a good overview of some of the present issues at hand.

Jon Huntsman was a former ambassador to China (2009 – 2011) and governor of Utah (2005 – 2009). As a private citizen, Huntsman was the CEO of Huntsman Corporation, a global chemical company started by his father, Jon Huntsman Sr.Â

Typography and Culture: Why the Devil is in the Details
Erik Spiekermann in conversation with the Type Directors Club (TDC)Â

How does typography influence and reveal culture? However subtle (or un-subtle), typography plays a key role in shaping the feel and identity of brands and societies. Â In this 10-minute talk with world-renowned typographer and designerÂ Erik Spiekrmann, he provides a fascinating lens into the history of the craft and how it’s evolved with the introduction of new content formats and mediums, and how typeface can reveal the sentiment of a society.

How Successful Networks Nurture Good Ideas
WIRED Magazine, October 2013

When the Internet first reached mass audiences, it was a marvelous framework to start storing all our information — to create nodes of reference that anyone could access. Â As this information began to grow (exponentially so), it quickly became about finding ways to organize and find that information — giving birth to search engines like Altavista, Yahoo, and ultimately, Google. Â Today, we find ourselves in another age of the Web, one that is as much about creating as it is about documenting. Â On one hand, it’s about the rise of the shareable economy, with the growth of services like TaskRabbit, Airbnb, Lyft, Postmates, and the like.

And on the other hand, it’s helped drive and enable a culture of collaboration and collective innovation. Â In this piece from the current WIRED issue, contributing editor Clive Thompson discusses the merits of thinking out loud and the network effects the Internet has in giving way to serendipity. Â In particular, Thompson cites the birth ofÂ Ushahidi, an open-source project that started as a way for users to automatically pins texts/e-mails from areas under distress directly onto Google Maps), as a prime example of this.

Ushahidi, which isÂ Swahili for “witness”, was an idea that came to Ory Okolloh, a blogger that started writing about corruption in Kenya in the early 2000s, during the heart of the Kenyan elections of 2007, when she received floods of tips of violent outbreaks throughout the country. Â While she posted as many as she could on her blog, there were so many others she couldn’t always get to, and she wondered — out loud — whether it was technically possible to get these messages posted automatically to Google Maps. Â A reader saw her post and connected her with a programmer he knew who was also deeply interested in connecting Kenyans to talk about the state of the country. Â The two connected and within a few days, they had a functional Google Maps-based tool to automatically pin posts via text/e-mail/web form up and running.

In the corporate world (where I’ve been thinking about this topic quite a bit), connected networks can help drive similar effects — when done right. Â Across the board, there is a push to break down silos and to connect the dots (Yammer, an enterprise social network, uses the tagline “it’s a tool for rewriting your company’s culture” as a key premise of their business). Â But just as it is with the public Internet, organizations need to create environments that allow for these “perfect storms” to occur. Employees should be allowed — and actively encouraged — to contribute, to become writers and commentators as much as they are consumers of content and media, and given multiple forums and occasions to express their ideas, think out loud, and connect, regardless of team or geography. Â As with almost all topics, this one warrants a post (or a few) in and of itself, but I think the case that Thompson makes here is one that business executives should take heed of in growing their operations.

Pop Culture:Â Lip Sync Battle with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Stephen Merchant and Jimmy Fallon

And to end the note on a truly “epic” performance (according to this Gawker article, Â “epic” is actually the most used term on the interwebs today), check out this battle of the ages lip-sync performance from Stephen Merchant, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jimmy Fallon (10 minute video). If you’re short on time, skip ahead to the 8:15 mark to watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s epic performance of Nicki Manoj’s “Super Bass”.

Building Global Products

Wendy Qi — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 07:41:57 +0000

I’ve always been a firm believer in user-centric products that are inspired and designed with the user in mind from the very beginning — and in the age of building globally, this becomes more important than ever. If you ever read letters and blogs from some of the leading product strategists and developers in the world, there is a consistent — and genuine — emphasis on building for the user (read Larry Page’s latest CEO letter for Google here); after all, the best technology products are those that truly make users’ lives simpler, more integrated, and simply, more elegant.

However, in an increasingly digitized world with many use cases amplified by both geographic and cultural divides, building global products can be particularly tricky. How do things as basic as names transfer over? How are actions that may seem intuitive in one culture be mis-interpreted in another? Â And in some cases, like what we’ve seen with communications products like Twitter, how much content can a message pack depending on the language used (Twitter, which limits users to 140 characters, allows for far more information to be shared in character-based languages like Chinese and Japanese)?

Recently, I’ve started to notice the growth of product internalization teams within tech companies — beyond just simply building on all APIs, there is a growing emphasis on developing truly global products that focus on understanding local behavior and trends, and incorporating this as a core part of how a product grows. For example, WeiXin (WeChat), the Chinese-developed mobile communicator recently announced passing 40 million users outside of China (although more than 85% of its user base still comes from within China), carefully created two distinctly branded apps for its core communicator. Â WeiXin (Micro-Mail) in Chinese, the app highlights integrations with popular Chinese (and Tencent-built) sites like QQ and WeiBo. However, with the app’s English version, you have access to Facebook and Twitter — both of which are (infamously) banned in China.

And the thing is, WeChat/Weixin didn’t evolve to become global — it was born global — designed from the very beginning to cater towards a global audience with localized versions (and names) released in different markets. Â Especially as technology companies (and startups) like Tencent have increasingly global ambitions, Â tech companies everywhere will need to closely examine what product internalization (or localization) means in what promises to be only the beginning of products with “global” at their core.

The Rise of the Global Chinese Luxury Consumer

Wendy Qi — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:03:32 +0000

Photo credit: Chen Man

A few months ago, I spent several weeks in Shanghai observing and studying the development of luxury in China. Below are some of the results from my study, and why I think the true opportunity for brands to reach Chinese luxury consumers lies in creating truly global strategies that aligns with a consumerâ€s mindset and decision making journey.

In the past decade, China has witnessed unprecedented economic growth, resulting in a country that now boasts more than two million millionaires and which is predicted to overtake the spotlight as the largest luxury market in the world by 2015 with 180 billion RMB in sales ($27 billion USD at todayâ€s rates). Louis Vuitton, which opened its flagship China store in 1992, now has a presence in nearly 30 cities with 42 storefronts open and counting, and its China sales have been a key contributor to the companyâ€s growth in recent years. , Others, like Michael Kors, have doubled their storefront presence in China in 2012 alone. Coach, which expects increased China sales of approximately 177% between 2010 and the end of 2012, is planning to open 30 stores a year for the next few years to add to its 65 plus store locations throughout Greater China that already exist.

Despite efforts by luxury brands to continue to add to rapidly expanding retail footprints â€“ and the successes they have had â€“ many consumers prefer to go abroad to shop for luxury products, driven in part by taxes on imported luxury goods. In some cases, taxes on luxury items can be as high as 30%, and prices for the same product can be as much as 40% cheaper in Europe when compared with those in China.

In the last couple years, surveys independently conducted by global strategy firms Roland Berger and Bain Consulting indicated that over 50% Surveys of Chinese luxury consumers purchase luxury products outside of China. Hong Kong was the number one destination, given its proximity and ease of access of most Chinese consumers. In 2011, the city of seven million residents welcomed 28 million mainland Chinese visitors, up from 22.7 million visitors in 2010. Domestically, consumers preferred shopping in Shanghai, long regarded as Chinaâ€s fashion-forward capital.

And when looking at Chinaâ€s millionaires, the number of consumers who purchase luxury goods domestically fell to less than 30%, driven in part by price, but influenced primarily by the purchasing environment itself.

Many consumers said they preferred the in-store experience that stores abroad offer, indicating knowledge of craftsmanship, professionalism, and the ability to balance the right level of attentiveness while giving consumers the opportunity to personally enjoy the space as key factors. â€œChinese consumers, when they come to a boutique in Paris, they ask and they want to know how the product was made, how artisan created it, the whole story behind the product and the brand,â€ said Natacha Dzikowski, managing director of TBWA\Luxury Arts.

Today, Chinese consumers account for 50% of all luxury purchased in Paris and Milan. In Paris, Louis Vuitton faced the challenge of keeping up with demand from Chinese consumers; in 2010, when the RMB was strongest against the euro, Louis Vuitton went through three months of inventory in one month. In order to manage demand, they had to close several locations an hour early, and also limit the number of accessories that could be purchased at one time.

In addition to the pressures Chinese consumers have placed on supplies of luxury products, stores have also struggled to keep pace with the number of Chinese consumers who come through the door. Since most Chinese shoppers come by tour busses, staff at Louis Vuitton have found it difficult to provide the premium service that is usually attached with the brand.

However, despite these tendencies to shop globally, almost all consumers will do some research in China beforehand. More than 20% actually make their purchasing decisions before they even leave China, according to a study conducted by Roland Berger.

What This Means for Brands

In knowing that the affluent Chinese luxury consumer is often a global one, luxury brands should develop strategies that may not necessarily target specific geographic locations in China (the most common marketing plans today focus on regional targeting based on Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3), but rather focus on creating global strategies that cater towards a global Chinese traveler/consumer.Â Since Chinese consumers will still be most at home in China, efforts should focus on educating the consumer about the brand and product availability.

In addition to actually selling product, in-country stores can act as a â€œshowroomâ€ for what consumers may expect to buy when theyâ€re abroad.Â They can consider having catalogues available that also show what is available in other brand locations, particularly in regions that are native to a brandâ€s heritage.Â For elite customers, brands can consider developing VIP programs that integrates systems which allow a customer to â€œreserveâ€ a product that they can pick up during an upcoming trip.

Additionally, brands can consider developing applications and environments which allow users to learn more about the global network of physical stores, and identify local stores which have on-the-ground language support.Â These efforts can be coupled with media strategies in areas like search to target the global luxury consumer, and arm them with tools needed to shop abroad.Â For example, brands can use geo-targeted search strategies on Baidu to help direct consumers to the nearest stores when traveling.

Especially as travel abroad is increasingly seen as a favorite pastime among affluent Chinese, brands should look to establish themselves as a key part of that experience (examples of how this can be achieved: sponsoring custom content, developing on-the-ground apps that allow users to explore brands in other markets (e.g., Burberry in London can design a tour that takes a user through the historic city while interweaving the iconic brandâ€s own story as part of it).

When it comes to an increasingly global and outwardly looking Â Chinese consumer, the focus for brands should be about building a running — and cross-border — narrative that brings together a brand’s rich heritage and craftsmanship through an investment in opportunities that allow them to be a connected part of consumer’s decision making process, regardless of where they are or what medium they’re interacting with.

A Tale of Three Cities: The Role of Work

Wendy Qi — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:06:02 +0000

What is work? And to be more exact, the philosophy behind work?

Lately, I’ve found myself asking this question with increasing frequency in thinking about what it is that motivates and propels us to simply …Â do. Â The simplest answer is that of pure survival; in a society that, for the most part, is now largely structured around work and reward, work represents the primary means to shelter, food, and basic livelihood.

However, as I’ve spent the past four months split between Shanghai, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo, very distinct philosophies around work have emerged as well. Shanghai, the city of work in pursuit of wealth, San Francisco, the city of working to innovate and change, and Sao Paulo, the city that works to live. Â All giants in their own right, each city has that combination of numbers and general allure/folklore that solidify their places as major global metropolises. Â All attract the curious, adventurous, and ambitious from all corners of the world, and are melting pots for ideas, culture, and movements. Â And yet, each are reflections of the history and nation-states they are a part of, and provide fascinating lenses into the spirit and underlying pulse of how these elements are shaping the way each work.

Shanghai — The Pursuit of Wealth

Population: 23 million

For anyone who has visited Shanghai on multiple occasions in the last ten years, you cannot help but marvel at its change — and the pace at which it has done so. Â While the Bund’s iconic waterfront still retains the old facades that hearken the Shanghai of the 1920s, you only need look across the riverbank to see the story of China’s present and future. Pudong now plays home to a host of buildings that now represent Shanghai’s modern skyline from Jingmao to the Oriental Pearl TV station.

A walk down any main street brings you face to face with Cartier, LVMH, and Hermes storefronts as Ferraris, Audis, and BMWs (China overtook the US last year as the German automaker’s largest market) line the streets … at the end of the day, all of it screams wealth and after three decades of economic reform, consumers are unabashedly demonstrating their economic prowess. Â All economic forecasts point to China’s role as the largest luxury market in the world within the next three years, the result of the country’s simple mantra famously uttered by Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s: “To get rich is glorious.”

And yet in many ways, this singular pursuit of economic wealth has left Shanghai — and China at large — socially lost and hollow. Â Luxury used to mean buying brands popularized and idolized by Hollywood, and buying things that your friends and acquaintances bought, but increasingly, it is about carving out identity and growing numbers of discerning Chinese consumers now see consumer decisions they make as a reflection of their own personal tastes/values.

Socially, the impact of this shift in mentality in emphasizing economic wealth can be profoundly felt in the way average citizens view issues such as co-habitation. What would have been publicly unthinkable just ten years ago is now widely accepted, in large part justified by resulting savings Â in the midst of the city’s skyrocket rent prices.

While I think this pursuit of wealth will continue to define the Chinese work philosophy for this generation, I wonder how true it will hold come time for the 19th National Congress to meet in 2022. Â During the next decade, headlines from China will no longer be only dominated by its steady and impressive economic growth — it will (and has already started to) show signs of a society struggling to balance the economic progress it has made with environmental, social, and cultural trade-offs. Â And for Chinese leadership, it will be a true test in how politics can influence culture, and how the legacy of nation state’s cultural identity can shape its future.

San Francisco — The Pursuit of Innovation

Population: 813,000Â

Ever since the days of the Gold Rush, San Francisco has been the land of pioneers, and while the meaning behind that word has changed through the decades, the spirit that runs through the city has remained largely unchanged. Today, San Francisco’s 7×7 territory is home to some of the most recognized (and youngest) companies in technology like Salesforce, Twitter, and Airbnb. Walk into any bar / cafe (especially those within the SoMa / Potrero Hill / Mission radius) and you’ll likely overhear someone sharing their latest idea or battle stories in the war for talent and/or funding.

Last year, I had the opportunity to be help create a program called “OpenCoSF” — a city-wide open house that opened the doors to 86 companies in San Francisco to give the general public an opportunity to learn more about what made these organizations tick, and what innovation meant to them. Â And each organization had their own culture and purpose of doing things, and along the way, even if it started as a product, developed their own philosophy that drove the way they evolved and grew.

And that’s what I love most about San Francisco — while everyone is looking for the next exit and/or “next big thing”, it’s a search that’s fueled by a love for innovation and grounded in the belief that some times the best way to change something is to create something new altogether.

Outside the traditional walls of industry, we are also seeing a city that is actively trying to infuse the same thirst for innovation that defines its booming tech sector into the public sphere as well. Â Mayor Ed Lee’s recent election was built in large part on the platform of working with the tech community to foster an environment that actively encouraged entrepreneurship, resulting in programs such as sf.citi.

But regardless of what happens to these programs, what I think will always persist in this city is that same spirit of adventure and innovation, in re-defining what is and imagining what could be.

Sao Paulo — The Pursuit of LifeÂ

Population: 11 million

I’ll have to admit that Sao Paulo is the city which I had the most to learn about, having never visited Brazil and speaking no Portuguese. Friends had told me before visiting that I would hate Sao Paulo after going to beautiful Rio — a “concrete jail” to Rio’s picturesque beaches (and how can you not love Ipanema?), and they were right — compared to exquisite Rio, Sao Paulo looked industrial and sterile with endless traffic that at times rivaled even the worst times in Beijing.

But like most things, there is beauty in the madness and you quickly learned to appreciate the way that Sao Paulo’s maze of streets also gave way to hidden neighborhoods and rich histories. Â Despite the quick pace of the city’s life, Brazil’s two hour lunches are still a long-standing tradition, and relationship-building is a core part of the Brazilian work culture. Greetings, no matter in what environment, make up a huge part of any interaction, and when Brazilians talk about work, it’s more about the life that that work enables.

Compared to glitzy Shanghai, there was no sign of the economic boom the city itself was undergoing at the same time (in large part because of high inflation and high crime rates), but at the same time, it seemed to give Brazilians the ability to more deeply enjoy the things they’ve always been vested in — relationships, soccer, creating memories, and spending time with family.

With Brazil’s place in the global spotlight in the next couple years as it plays host to both the World Cup AND the summer Olympic games, it will be fascinating to see how the world influences Brazil — and how Brazil will impact the rest of the world.

What are your thoughts? And how do you think work is defined in your city? Share them in the comments to this entry.Â

Marketing Lessons in China from 15,000 Feet

Wendy Qi — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 09:19:43 +0000

Introducing credit cards on China’s Spring Airlines Â (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On an 8 p.m. Spring Airlines flight from Kunming to Shanghai, a crew member started broadcasting about the long night flight ahead of us. Of the travelers among us, he remarked that about 40% on the flight were riding a plane for the first time (how true this is, I have no idea).

He then proceeded to describe the plane we were sitting in — an Airbus 320 flying at an altitude of just over 10,000 meters and a speed of 700+ km per hour, twice the speed of the high speed railway (é«˜é“ –Â gaotie).

As the country’s first low-cost airline (their market position is similar to Southwest in the United States), the lowest fares were only available online, which required a credit card to purchase. “You can’t find these fares at any agent or at our counter,” he explained, saying this was how the company kept costs low.

“Perhaps you don’t have a credit card at this time, but now, you’re in luck. We understand that many of our customers may not have any credit cards yet, so Spring Airlines has partnered with China Construction Bank, the second largest bank in China to offer you an exclusive Spring Airlines credit card.”Â Additionally, he explained, you would be able to get 10% discounts at participating hotels and tour groups.Â And … the real kicker was … in understanding the (Chinese) consumer psyche … the first 25 individuals to apply today could apply fee-free, without requiring your shenfenzhen (the Chinese ID card).Â “Just push the service button overhead your seat and we’ll bring you an application”

AÂ series of dings went off at that point, as up and down the plane, travelers started expressing their interest.Â More than 25 dings out of a flight of about 180 passengers (an astonishing 15+% response rate) went off within the first two minutes, and passengers around me started diligently feeling out the holy grail for all credit card companies — the application.

Even in a short 10-minute session like this, one could see the potential and uniqueness of the Chinese market.Â A low-cost air carrier who attracted budget-conscious travelers, many of whom may be experiencing their first flights ever on this segment, and then introducing the concept of reward-tied credit cards on this flight.Â Add in the sense of urgency while being able to hear others express interest, and you have the perfect target audience — any marketer’s dream.

However, what I found most striking about this series of exchanges, was how it first started — instead of leading with the credit card offer at hand, the conversation started with a bit of educational information that would be of general interest to the majority of folks on the plane — where we were, our altitude, flight times, and some basics on the aircraft. It was an advertisement in the most Chinese form — building a relationship and general rapport before launching into an offer.

Earlier that day, while on a train from Lijiang to Kunming, I experienced something similar and this time around, a train attendant was selling microfiber bath towels. Â Similarly, before launching into his infomercial-like spiel, the attendant first started by giving some general information on the train and even quipping a few jokes.

Again, the same sense of urgency and “act now” offer tactics were used, as he offered the first five buyers of the towels a buy-one-get-one free offer. As I sat in the hard seater section of the train (the cheapest section of the train), many of my fellow travelers were farmers who all sat transfixed at the demonstration.Â The lady next to me, a 50-year-old farmer from Keqing who belonged to the Bai minority, mumbled “it just feels like a regular towel to me.”

Nonetheless, he ended up selling 20+ towels in our train car alone in the first five minutes.

While these two scenarios represent very unique situations, both in travel, it was a representation of two basic Chinese business principles:

1) Â The Chinese consumer market is a growing one. The demand for consumption within China is only starting to grow, and the next five years of China’s growth — as the 12th Economic Five Year Plan posited — will come from a consumer-led one.

2) Â Guanxi is everything. Even within short, direct-response, and lead-generation campaigns, establishing initial rapport is important. The relationship has to be mutually beneficial and especially in cases like this, need to start with information that consumers may find immediately helpful.