Going Global!

China's Auto Aftermarket is Booming!

China has the fastest growing car parc in the World. U.S. aftermarket companies are looking to international markets for future growth. China certainly should not be overlooked. AfterMarket Business World asked us to report on this amazing opportunity in their February issue.

Please click on the link below to read the full article.

http://aftermarketbusiness.search-autoparts.com/aftermarketbusiness/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=703081&sk=20821d980dd7190c415ad7fd24f04a3f   

The Article answers vexing questions such as:

*Which trade-shows are the best investment in China?

*What are the growth segments in China's aftermarket?

*How many distributors is enough in China? 

 

Door To China Could Be Closing For Late Comers

Over 18 years I have visited hundreds of factories in China. These factories were making items for famous brands like Timberline, Mattel,Nike, Apple,HP, and retailers like Wal*Mart,Sears, and Target. 

This week I visited several factories making automotive aftermarket products for famous US aftermarket companies. These factories were eager to make products for export to Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia, except China.  When I asked about selling their products in China (because we have a Chinese company with a full business license), they said we would have to work with their ‘domestic sales department’. When we toured the production lines, we saw thousands of beautifully packaged products being produced for Citroen, Toyota , and Lexus to sold in China. What is happening in China is the car manufacturers and ‘4S’ (car dealer) groups are developing their own products and aftermarket supply chain for accessory items.  This will make it much more difficult for latecomers to get their business established in the booming Chinese auto aftermarket.

This also signals the dramatic change that occurred during the recent economic crisis when export orders fell and the Chinese government stimulated the economy, hundreds of Chinese factories hired sales teams and worked hard to develop their domestic business. We saw the fruits of their hard work and success as we watched thousands of aftermarket products destined for domestic Chinese consumption roll off the production lines. In fact on that particular day I do not think we saw any products destined for the US or Europe, what a change!

Posh Social Marketing!

The HKTDC wrote about Posh Pile in the October 27 edition of HK Trader. click here to see  Facebook, You Tube, and our website have really turbocharged this amazing car mat business we have built!

 

If you told me 10 years ago that the web would advance so quickly that we would we be six months and nine months respectively into the business before we created a print ad or printed a catalog, I would not have believed it!

And the online activity in China is even hotter! We have learned in the last two businesses that the views you get for videos on Youku and TuDou in China equal or surpass the views you get on You Tube from the entire rest of the world! 

Posh Pile Shows Up on The HKTDC's Radar!

Our young brand Posh Pile was just launched late December at the Bangkok Motor Show. Sales of Posh Pile have been so hot in some key Asian cities that we caught the eye of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC). They just created a 5 minute feature on Posh Pile.

 

Starting a new brand requires a strong plan. When we created Posh Pile, we built Web 2.0 strategies firmly into our plan.

To date Posh Pile has achieved over 80 million PR impressions between Google Search and Facebook ads. This strategy has allowed us to link brick and mortar retailers stocking Posh Pile with car enthusiasts looking for a better car mat. Click on the image above to see the HKTDC's report!

Our activities both on line and with car clubs have spread news of the Posh Pile virally through the most powerful marketing tool today : the power of referral.

We are actively looking for aggressive international distributors for this hot new brand!

Thank you HKTDC for recognizing Posh Pile! 

HKTDC a Valuable Business Partner

 

<:OBJECT width="500" height="306">

Are you trying to develop your China entry strategy?

Are you a Hong Kong based company or regional office trying to expand globally?

The HKTDC is a valuable free business resource. Its sole purpose is to suppose trade with and through Hong Kong.

In our company we have used the HKTDC to:

*find out the process to get our CEPA certificate (Our company now has a full China subsidiary in Zhuhai with a business license to trade as a local company in China). The HKTDC pointed us in the right direction in terms of outlining the process, helping us find a China attested lawyer etc.

*find thousands of prospective international distributor prospects for our products. The HKTDC has many proprietary databases that you can search for free on their terminals in their Wanchai HQ (pictured above in the Convention Center).

*The HKTDC puts together publications and now videos (they has a first class production team - with talent exceeding many of the HK TV stations, in my opinion). The HKTDC saw an upcoming article for the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong on how our company is leveraging Web 2.0 to take our brand of luxury car mats Posh Pile global. Joe Kainz of the HKTDC asked if we would help them do an educational piece for HK SMEs on leveraging technology to connect with end users. Check out our 'behind the scenes' video of us filming the HKTDC (link on the video link above)   For more info on the Hong Trade Development Council visit:  www.hktdc.com 

Related articles by Zemanta

• China key to booming Hong Kong biz (variety.com)

Selling in New Zealand

After spending years selling in markets where English is not the first language, I flew down to New Zealand this past weekend to work the Speed Show (great event BTW). I thought: this will be easy, everyone speaks English, Kiwis are very nice people, there should be no language or cultural barrier. Well I could not have been more wrong.

I stood in my booth next to our new car mats, arguably the best available in the New Zealand market. As people walked by, I said “Good Morning!” or “Have you seen Posh Pile, our mats just arrived in New Zealand?”  People politely said ‘hi’ then accelerated! I experienced a reaction completely different than the reaction to ‘hi’ and the presentation of something new in the US or China.  The lady from the booth across from me commented: Kiwis are different, you cannot approach them so directly. While she explained this and I left my booth, end users wandered up to the booth and started touching our mats. If I approached them to introduce the mats once they touched them, nine times out of ten, I got the sale.

We learn new things everyday. Go to New Zealand, beautiful country, great environment and wonderful people. 

POSH PILE is on Facebook

Please click the link in the right  corner below to check out Posh Pile on Face book. The sales of our new line at retail our excellent! Now we are looking to expand beyond our existing markets of Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Two new markets will be announced next month. We are looking for strong distributors and retailers in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. We are going global!

Poshpile.com has Gone Live!

Over 1700 people have visited this site in the past year mostly to find out about business outside the U.S.  Statistics and news about China’s economy and the other economies in Asia have been the biggest draw. The second topic that brings people to Going Global is entrepreneurial pursuits. 

Here is a great international entrepreneurial opportunity: today our Hong Kong based company is announcing our latest venture: www.poshpile.com   We spent 10 years building the Meguiar’s business outside the U.S. into a huge global automotive enthusiast brand (with the help of some great country partners). Our amazing new product: Posh Pile Ultimate Luxury car floors mats are designed to exceed OE mats to meet the needs of the most demanding ‘car guy’, but they also offer great value for money with retail prices of just $20-$60 per set of 4-5 mats!

We have coverage for over 70% of the cars on the road in both right hand drive, and left hand drive configurations. And we are building direct fit mats for BMW 3 and 5 series,the new Mercedes W221 S-Class, and Ford and Holden (for New Zealand and Australia).

We are looking for entrepreneurs who would like to launch the lucrative Posh Pile business in their countries. Please spread the word! Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand are already taken! We can even set you up with your own Posh Pile website in two languages and an on-line store! Interested? Please email me directly: tom@intlmarketaccess.com

Two Best Automotive Aftermarket Shows in China

   There are so many Automotive Aftermarket Shows in China! Often I am asked which shows in China are most effective. I have been selling products for U.S. Companies in China since 1992 and have done so many shows!

 

    My observation is that in the 1990's we were perhaps too early for the market, however our brand, Permatex is now famous due to the hard work of the Loctite China team I had the privilege to work with.

 

    Today however, the auto aftermarket in China is booming. China became the #1 new car market last year and new car sales are forecasted to grow 10% in 2010. There are still too many shows. We did over 7 shows in China last year and I can tell you from our own real world experience: two shows are the most effective in terms of adding new distribution and they are:  

 

    Beijing: The CIAACE Show www.ciaacexpo.com . This year's show was held from March 12-14. There was over 2,089 exhibitors and 66,571 buyers. This is a huge show! Over 126,000 people visited CIAACE 2010. The majority of the buyers come from Beijing and northern China. The number of exhibitors and buyers doubled this year. We invested $ 3000 for 6 x 6 meter booth. We launched:

 

Posh Pile floor mats

 

 

 

Gorilla Glue (Consumer Adhesives from the U.S.)

 

 
Vibra-Tite Aftermarket and Industrial Adhesives (also from the U.S.)

 

    CIAACE 2010 exceeded my wildest expectations. We sold 4 new Posh Pile distributors, 3 Gorilla serious prospects (and sold out of all our samples.) and one significant Vibra-Tite buyer.

 

    The CIAACE has a very professional international sales person, Ruby Yang. She can reached at ruby.yang@yasn.com.cn. Ruby is super helpful and speaks perfect English.

 

The other can't miss show is:

    Zhengzhou: The 7^th China Auto Accessories Trade Fair from June 30 to July 2. (Zhengzhou has a population of 7.35 million, and buyers from all over China attend this show.) This show has even more foot traffic than Beijing. We look forward to taking our 3 lines to Zhengzhou late June and adding distribution! The website is www.hdcy.com.cn. The English speaking sales person is Ms. Cong Wei Wei, email: hongdahuizhan07@163.com.

 

    If you are serious about building your China aftermarket business, check out these two shows!

 

Tom Muldowney is the Managing Director of International Market Access Ltd. He formed IMA in Hong Kong in 2000 to help take American brands global. Tom has sold more than $500 million of U.S.-made products to international markets. He has been based in Asia for 18 years working with global brands/organizations such as Loctite, Henkel, Permatex, Teroson, 3M, Meguiar's, ND Industries, and the Gorilla Glue Company. IMA just launched it's own brand of high end car mats called Posh Pile. He has set up subsidiaries in Korea and representative offices in China. Tom can be reached at: tom@intlmarketaccess.com. IMA's new Web site: www.intlmarketaccess.com.

China Vehicle Sales Forecast to grow 10% in 2010

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

The International Herald Tribune reported that SAIC, joint venture partner to General Motors and Volkswagen sees car sales in China growing 10% this year to over 15 million units. Please click the link for the article View this photo

Related articles by Zemanta

• GM's China Sales up 51 Percent in February(abcnews.go.com)
• GM aims to grow faster in China, GM china boss Kevin Wale 2010 expectation(ceoworld.biz)
• China 'overtakes US' in car sales (news.bbc.co.uk)
• GM plans new small car for India (news.bbc.co.uk)

Free Dollars Per Car Calculator

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Dollars per car is a metric used by after-market companies worldwide as a way to determine their market penetration in various countries. The data on the worldwide car population or car parc is not easy to find. Also it trails actual registrations by at least two years.

We have just updated our $ per car calculator with the latest data (2007), it's easy to use and it's free.

Check it out on www.intlmarketaccess.com or on this link http://www.intlmarketaccess.com/opportunities/market-penetration-calculators/per-car-calculator/16/18/

China Car Sales up 70.5% in July

An article in this Saturday's South China Morning Post reported that passenger car sales in China jumped 70.54% from the same month a year earlier. To quote the article: " A total of 832,600 cars were sold last month, up from 488,200 a year earlier, but shy of 872,900 units sold in June , the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said."

China is booming due to raising consumer confidence, government introduced stimulus on smaller , fuel efficient vehicles and ample financing.  GM sales jumped 77.7% to 144,593 vehicles last month.

In the first seven months of 2009, car sales in China rose 30.9% to 5.3 million units. Overall sales grew 23% to almost 7.2 million units.