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SKYLINE EXHIBITS
Objectives: To sell their product, portable/modular exhibit systems, in the Chinese market.
Tactics: Realizing that their customer base did not understand the benefits or how to fully utilize their product, Skyline Exhibits conducted education on their product. Realizing that some of the benefits American customers enjoyed did not translate in the Chinese market, Skyline had to tailor its product to their new users. They also encountered problems with pricing their product; when Skyline first entered the Chinese market, their prices were not competitive. They used their education to distinguish their brand, emphasizing the superior quality of their products.
SHARPE MIXERS
Objectives: To fill a gap in the Chinese market. Most of China's power comes from coal-fired power plants. In an effort to improve China’s air quality, Sharpe Mixers began providing fluid-gas desulfurization absorber mixers to scrub the sulfur from the smokestacks of power plants. The purpose is to minimize the amount of sulfur-dioxide released into the air. The improvement of air quality is important to the increasingly environmentally-conscious country. China builds a power plant a week, creating a demand that is difficult to keep up with. Instead of laying off employees and down-sizing as other mixing manufacturers have, Sharpe Mixers has had to hire more employees and start a second production shift while expanding its facilities and manufacturing capabilities.
Tactics: On a government sponsored trip (Washington State Governor’s trip), the company used connections made there to jumpstart their China operations.
Results: The Seattle based company specializing in absorber mixers has seen sales double since exporting to China, expecting $10 million in revenues for 2006.