International Meetings: Asia Rising By Michelle Russell
Take Away
The Lesson of the Cherry Blossom
A meeting in Japan illustrates the challenges of marketing meetings in Asian cultures.
When the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) chose to feature the cherry blossom as the graph- ic element for its 2008 annual meeting in Chiba, Japan, the Park Ridge, Ill.–based association of financial professionals understood the tree’s importance in the Japanese culture. An omen ofgood fortune, the cherry tree is richly symbolic — even more so thanMDRT real- ized.
But leading up to the
MDRT Experience 2008, which was held in April 2008,MDRT’smembers in Japan were objecting to the imageofasingle cherry blos- somused in the event’s mar- keting materials.“Onlythey wouldn’t saywhythe flower wasn’tagoodrepresentation for the meeting,” said Jody Egel, CAE, CMP, MDRT’s meetingsmanager.“Finally,a staff member from an MDRT chapter in Japan explainedthat in theJapaneseculture,theydon’tlook at the individual; it’smuchmore ofa group culture. Andlooking atoneflower is like lookingatoneper- son.” To make the meeting’s messaging culturally
acceptable, MDRT changed the single-flower image to clusters ofcherry blossoms. Luckily, the marketing was in its preliminary stages, soMDRT didn’t have to scrap the overall campaign or theme. That’s becauseMDRT’s previous experience in Asia—in additiontoChiba, it has met in Seoul, Singapore,Bangkok, andHongKong—taught the
PETAL TO THE METAL: MDRT’s revised, many- blossomed marketing piece.
organization to seek approval for any kind of graphic element fromsomeonewhoknowsthe cul- ture, Egel said, because “you don’t want to do something that would offend anyone.” Getting approval is a good idea when you’re working with cultures that don’t share Westerners’ directness as away ofdoing business. It can prove espe- cially difficult to find out why something might be offensive to a particular Asianculture—orcompany. MDRT’s2006annualmeet- ing inBangkokbrought that lesson home. “We had our partners’ logos printed on one side ofour registration tote bags, as promised in their agreement with us,” Egel said. MDRT sent the bags in advance to those sponsor companies with a large number ofemployees registered for the event. A platinum partner must not
have liked the way its logo looked, she said, because once on site in Bangkok, MDRT staff noticed that “all 1,000 to 2,000 attendees from that one companywere carrying the bag the opposite way”—with only their own logo facing out. “Instead oftalking to us about it,” Egel said,
“they just printed their logoonthe other side ofthe tote bag in a larger size.”MDRThas since gone out of its way to get local members involved before going to print—or picking food or entertainment —to ensure, she said, “that we’re doing what’s appropriate and not offensive.”
ON_THE_WEB: For tips on doing business in Asia from the Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands book series, click on the “Articles” tab at
www.getcustoms.com.
26 pcma convene February 2011 ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL OAKLEY
Ask and Ask Again “Asians are very accommodating and hospitality-oriented,” MDRT’s Jody Egel said. “They want to please, and do whatever they can to make your meeting successful. But you have to under- standthe way that they communicate. In Japan, they won’t tell you no. If they don’t like some- thing, they will say, ‘That would be diffi- cult,’ ‘That’s probably not a good idea,’ or ‘That’s not going to work.’ They won’t say, ‘You can’t do that because of [X, Y, or Z].’ You have to ask more questions to make sure that you’re getting the right information.” For North American–
basedorganizations that are not as fortu- nate as MDRT to have members throughout Asia, Egel offers this advice: “No matter what kind of meeting you have or who the attendees are, a PCO [professional congress organizer] and/or a contact with the local convention bureau can be very helpful in elimi- nating some of those challenges.”
Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.
International Meetings: Asia Rising is sponsored by the Japan National Tourism Organization,
www.jnto.go.jp.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108