While many companies are now looking at Chinese investors as potential investors; they can also be the most difficult investors to reach because of the language and cultural barriers; here are some little tricks that could assist you in reaching them.

We have been developing programs and strategies for companies to reach Asian investors (especially Chinese) investors more easily; here are 6 tricks we use.

1) Getting Around Web Censorship Trick: As we know, Chinese Government has been blocking western websites for many years now; this has caused a lot of inconvenience, meaning that Chinese investors are able to see your websites. You may wish to host your website in China, but that may even open up more problems. One way to solve this is to have your website in Hong Kong, as it is considered as a “neutral” web ground. Censorship are usually imposed on major news websites from western countries (USA, Australia, UK and Canada). The quickest way to find out is asking your colleague or friend in China and see if they can access your website from China.

2) Second Website: This leads to our 2nd strategy, if your website is blocked, it is best to separate the “Chinese website” from your main site, and hosts it somewhere else. This ensures your “Chinese” language website is accessible to potential Chinese investors and business partners.

3) Prepare Newsletters in Chinese: We have assisted quite a number of mining and real estate companies this year by preparing their newsletters into Chinese; this is a good way to reach investors. Asian investors like to “take-away” something from meetings; another possibility is to prepare your documents and compress them into 1 CD for them to take-away after meetings.

4) Presentation Matters: Chinese investors need to feel comfortable about who they are dealing with; they prefer to have meetings in your office, so that they can check out if your office is a modern looking building (symbolic of your success). We all know this is impossible and unnecessary for many small start-up companies; so, my suggestion is; use virtual offices for meetings; as these offices are often located in prestigious locations.

5) Regular Press Releases in Chinese: This is nothing new, people need to know about you, both in English and Chinese. For Chinese investors, this is especially important as they do not live in Western countries; they will rely on Internet much more for research during the initial assessment.

6) Are you on Chinese Search Engines: It’s pointless to have your website and press releases just on Google as Chinese net users do not even use Google; so make sure your news can be picked up major Chinese search engines and news websites as well.

The above 6 points are some effective tricks you can use to improve your visibility to prospective Chinese investors; these are web oriented strategies. The concept is not different from English investor relations programs; just make sure they are converted into Chinese language (accurately).

Translation is another trap which can turn Chinese investors away; and worse, they won’t tell you why, you have to find it out yourself! Make sure your translations are accurate; as majority of translators lack of basic financial understandings; and can make a lot of financial mistakes on terms like “Due Diligence” “Bankable Feasibility Study” and almost all currencies are translated into USD as that’s their most familiar currency.

BUPA has discussed with Quarter Media about its objectives and requirements and wish to use Quarter Media’s expertise and experiences in reaching out to international students in Australia.

The initial project will comprise development of a multilingual website introducing BUPA’s insurance products to students, as well as specific articles about BUPA and its products; as well as promoting the corporate identity to the fast growing Chinese communities in Australia.

Quarter Media will also arrange other activities such as mailout and Chinese language flyer design as part of this campaign.

The actual number of mainland Chinese living in Australia is unknown - but it is estimated that 45,000 Chinese immigrants arrived into Australia each year, majority of them are from mainland China.

In terms of the cities - 3 cities still dominate the population: Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

Shanghai - one of the world’s largest cosmopolitan, those from Shanghai tend to be commercial acumen, many have successful businesses back in China, and many have businesses involved in real estate or other investment businesses.

Shanghainese is the common language used between Shanghaineses, and is one of the most widely used dialects in China.

Beijing - capital of China and is also the cultural center for China. A large number of overseas students have arrived from Beijing, as well as diplomats.

They speak the “official Mandarin”, Beijing accent is commonly known as the best accent for Mandarin, it is clear and articulate.

Guangdong - The Guangdong Province (used to be called Canton in English) is closely associated with Hong Kong because of their common language - Cantonese.

As such, you will find that those from Guangdong province tend to associate themselves closer to Hong Kong than the rest of China, both in terms of the language they use, culture and also ways of life.

There are also many other Chinese communities living in Australia - in the recent years, we have seen many new migrants arriving from Sichuan Province, which is in the South West of China as well as Shangdong Province, which is located on the North East of China and has many similar cultural similarities as the Koreans and Far East Russians - many of them actually speak Russian as their second language.

Always keep these little details in mind when you are meeting with Chinese clients, as their ways of thinking can be very different depending on where they came from.

It is often a big surprise when we tell our clients that there are more than 100 dialects accounted for in China, the actual number can be much more than that, with some linguistic experts predict more than 300 dialects are used in China, some villages have hardly changed over the past centuries, and they still retain the very original language they have used for many centuries.

Luckily for multicultural marketing advertisers in Australia, you do not need to worry that much, as the Chinese communities in Australia tend to be more refined to certain communities.

But each community is very different from one another, and never generalize them into the same group.

Hong Kong Chinese - Hong Kong migrants arrived in Australia back in early 1980s, and was once the single largest Chinese community in Australia.

They use mainly Cantonese with some using Hakka as well - Cantonese was very popular in Australia until around 10 years ago when Mandarin speakers arrived from China eventually outgrown Cantonese speakers in Australia.

These days, many Hong Kong migrants also speak Mandarin, but if you can find someone to communicate with them in Cantonese, it is often a big plus.

Taiwanese Migrants - Taiwanese migrants arrived in Australia around 6 to 8 years later than Hong Kong migrants - they started arriving in big numbers in the late 1980s and early 1990s, after the economic miracle in Taiwan.

A large number of Taiwanese reside in Queensland, one reason being majority of Taiwanese migrants have arrived from Southern Taiwan, with a similar climate as in Queensland.

Taiwanese migrants uses Mandarin and Hokkien (they call it Taiwanese), which is also a very common dialect used in South East Asia.

Both Hong Kong and Taiwanese migrants uses traditional Chinese for written communications, it is important to produce marketing materials in Traditional Chinese if you intend to reach these target markets.

We often get asked by our clients the difference between Simplified and Traditional Chinese - in fact, many advertisers are confused and call them the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese.

This is a common misconception and is a common “Multicultural Marketing Mistake” as we often call it.

First of all - Mandarin and Cantonese refers to the spoken dialect / language - Mandarin is used in China, Taiwan and Singapore, while people in Hong Kong uses Cantonese as their main language.

When comes to the written forms - there are Simplified and Traditional Chinese used. Simplified Chinese is used in China and Singapore, while Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and by many Chinese communities in SE Asia and overseas Chinese.

While both written forms are compatible - many terms used are very different - especially when comes to translation for cities or countries - the translation for Sydney, Perth and Brisbane are all different as a good example.

As a good multicultural marketing strategy - it is advised to have your website or marketing materials available both in Simplified and Traditional Chinese - this will ensure you can capture audiences from all the different Chinese communities.

Australia’s population and demographics has changed completely in the past 20 years, and we are now truly one of the world’s most diversified multicultural society.

This change presents both as an opportunity but also a challenge for many companies wishing to reach this fast growing multicultural society.

Multicultural Marketing is more than just advertising - that is a common mistake made by many advertisers.

To achieve your objectives in a multicultural marketing campaign - you need to understand the cultural aspects as well as the wording you choose in advertising campaigns.

Quarter Media is here to assist you in terms reaching to your target segments and markets, we will create specific marketing campaigns for your needs, our principals also come from diverse cultural backgrounds, and therefore, we understand the differences between the cultures - our knowledge ensure that your campaigns can be well received by your target audiences.

Requirements: Hallmark Business has identified Asian migrants as an important market for business transactions – especially the business migrants who are required to establish or invest in an established business. Additionally, promoting Australian businesses to potential business investors in Asia.

Our Services: We have provided Hallmark with a range of niche marketing activities:

As a starting point, we have assisted them in creating a large number of business databases, which are used by Hallmark Business for the leads generation purpose.

As the business relationship improves on, we have also assisted Hallmark Business translating a number of Information Memorandum and Prospectus promoting business opportunities for Hallmark Business.

In addition, we have also created Chinese version Investment Summary for upcoming business opportunities and have been sending them to our members for consideration, many of our members are newly arrived migrants seeking businesses to purchase.

We have also created a new marketing platform whereby we can market new business opportunities directly to prospective migrants as well as across migration agents in Australia and Asia. This is an effective program to promote business opportunities to migrants before they arrive in Australia.

Hallmark Business is one of our first business customers in the business broking sector, this particular sector has attracted a lot of attention from Asian migrants because of the requirement in buying an established businesses.

Many franchises are also using our services helping existing franchisees to sell their franchises to new migrants.

In Australia, especially for franchises in the food & beverage sector, we have seen very large representation of Chinese migrants taking up the franchises.

As Hallmark Business continues its growth path into Asia, we are seeing more business opportunities that we can work together in promoting their clients to migrants and assisting the company in its international expansion plan.

Requirements: The principals of Axis Forex are experienced FX investment professionals and wish to expand their client base further to include more Asian investors, they are interested in promoting their services to Asian investors in Australia and in Asia.

Our Services:

During our discussion with the client, we have identified a number of opportunities – Axis Forex provides FX investment/trading as well as foreign exchange transfer service, a particular service in demand for many migrants such as transferring funds to their children or transferring funds between the businesses.

In addition, their trading platform is available in Chinese, and we view this as an added on advantage for Asian investors.

A number of activities have been suggested and implemented:

First, we have created the Chinese version websites for Axis Forex, these websites are also being updated regularly incorporating the new contents and services offered by Axis Forex.

Second, we have assisted the company to release press release onto Chinese media, online and on newspapers, as well as providing ad works for their advertising campaign.

Third, as a follow up, we have also helped them to participate in investment seminars and meet with investors to educate and promote their services and products to investors.

We have also found regular commentaries are very useful and effective marketing tool – by sending out regular financial commentaries, in the form of newsletters is a very cost-effective strategy to promote your company as the Subject Expert for the area.

Additionally, regular monthly interviews which we provide the translations as well as the distribution is another effective way to promote the company as the expert in the field.

There is approximate 1 million Australian Chinese living in Australia which is defined as those has some kind of Chinese heritage, some of them, especially those in the State of Victoria are 3rd generation Chinese whom their grandparents had arrived in Australia during the Gold Rush era in the 19th century.

Many Chinese families have also entered into interracial marriages, with many Eurasian children, they are also considered as part of the Australian Chinese population.

But the real growth occurred in the past 10 years, there was on average 45,000 to 50,000 newly arrived “Chinese migrants” into Australia every year, primarily from mainland China. This includes a large proportion of overseas students, which many would eventually stayed in Australia and also applying for family reunion for their parents to settle in Australia.

How to Reach these fast growing communities?

There are several key strategies to reach Chinese communities in Australia, and these strategies can be very effective:

1. Websites - There are specific community websites that Australian Chinese visit frequently, but these also include many top Asian websites that are found in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

2. Build a Chinese website – we can not emphasize the importance in having a Chinese website, by having a Chinese website, even just a few pages will increase your visibility multiple times.

3. Search Engine Submissions – Always remember, Google is not the major search engine used in most parts of Asia or amongst Chinese users, it is important to submit your website to other popular search engines such as Baidu, Sohu, Yahoo, Sina and many more.

4. Print Media – There are more than 50 Chinese language newspapers accounted for in Australia, and growing each day, we often laugh that there are more Chinese language newspapers than English newspapers in Australia. In reality, there is only less than 10 Chinese newspapers in Australia that has sizeable circulation, so choosing the right medium is very important for your marketing campaign.

5. Direct E-mail – Direct E-mail is very effective if you produce your e-mails in Chinese – and there are a few specialists in Australia doing this, including ourselves.

6. Press Releases – Engage a Multicultural Marketing specialist to write Chinese language press releases and distribute them for you – it is important to distribute them both online and also on print, as online press releases can reach much more audiences in Asia, and remember, a lot of Australian Chinese audiences still use Asian websites more than Australian websites.

Depending on your products and services, multi-level marketing is also very popular for Asian consumers if you are marketing consumer products, or setting up e-stores on popular Asian online marketplaces can also increase visibility of your products and services.
Article 8: Multicultural Marketing Case Study: Sirtex Medical

About the Client: Sirtex Medical (http://sirtexmedical.com) is a major biotechnology company based in Australia but with global client base, its product specialized in providing liver cancer treatment, which is a major cause of death in Asia due to high proportion of hepatitis related patients in East and South Asia.

Requirements: During our briefing, Sirtex Medical mentioned that majority of its revenue are expected to be coming from Asia, especially China and Taiwan, therefore, it is essential to have a Chinese version website and corresponding marketing campaign in those markets.

Our Services:

Chinese Website - The very first step is to create a Chinese version website for Sirtex Medical – this was created both in simplified and traditional Chinese characters. We have also hosted the 2 websites in different locations to ensure they can be found more easily.

Chinese Search Engine - The second step is sending them to various Chinese language search engines (Search Engine Submission), including the entire major Chinese search engines in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Press Releases - The 3rd step is to create a number of press releases in Chinese, and this will become an ongoing marketing activity for us to promote Sirtex Medical continuously – this is regarded as a key strategy for Sirtex Medical to achieve high traffic and direct prospective medical professionals and prospective patients to their website.

Industry Groups Target Marketing - The 4th step is to continuously registering and promotes them onto medical or biotechnology specific websites, these are the specific industry websites and discussion forums which we have collected specifically to promote medical devices or biotechnology companies into Asian markets.

Effective Campaign

During our campaign, we have found press releases have been particularly effective to attract medical professionals, as well as specific industry links and participation in discussion forums as they can reach the target market very effectively. Other activities including participation in social networking media websites have also been very effective to reach the target market.