说时容易做时难

UNILEVER’S Concept Centre in midtown Shanghai attracts hundreds of human guinea-pigs every day, ranging from housewives with time on their hands to migrant labourers looking for easy work. The centre is a consumer’s paradise. There are salons where people can get their hair done. There is a living room and a bedroom—called “the chatting room”—where they can make themselves at home. There is a shop where they can browse the company’s latest products. Researchers discreetly monitor consumers’ reactions from behind one-way mirrors.

上海市中心的联合利华概念中心好比一个实验室，每天吸引着成百上千个实验者：从时间充裕的家庭主妇到寻找舒适工作的外来劳务。这里是顾客的天堂：有美发沙龙帮您打扮头发；有“闲聊居”（一个客厅和卧室）让您宛如置身家中；有商店供您浏览公司的最新产品。研究人员则从单向的镜子后面仔细的观察顾客的反应。更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

The Concept Centre is just a small part of Unilever’s growing R&D effort in China, where it has struggled in the past and where it is now determined to catch up with its perennial rival, Procter & Gamble. Half an hour’s drive away, in one of the city’s sprawling office parks, the company has a huge new R&D centre where it does everything from conducting basic research to producing three-dimensional mock-ups of new packaging.

联合利华在中国的研发成果蓬勃发展，“概念中心”是其中的一小部分。过去的时间里，联合利华在中国一直努力打拼。现在，联合利华要决心追赶它的长期对手---宝洁公司。一个新的大型研发中心坐落在上海某个大型办公园区内，只需半个小时的车程。研发中心囊括众多业务，从基础研发到新包装三维实体模型制作。

Emerging markets are far more varied and volatile than mature ones. There is little money around: the average income per person in China is around $3,500 and in India $1,000. Cultural complexities are confounding and tastes are extraordinarily fluid. People who are not used to brands flit easily from one to another.

新兴市场较之传统市场形式多变。同钱之间有点关系，中国的人均收入在3500美元左右，印度是1000美元。错综复杂的文化，截然不同的口味更让公司迷茫。买东西不注重牌子的人会轻易的从一个牌子瞄到另一个牌子。

This has turned great metropolises such as Shanghai into vast laboratories of consumer research. Companies are always coming up with new products, or tweaking old ones, to suit local tastes and meet idiosyncratic preferences. Unilever makes its soaps and shampoos foamier than their Western equivalents. P&G produces toothpaste in herbal and green-tea flavours. PepsiCo adds spice to its potato chips. Adidas has created two kinds of shops—“local” ones that specialise in sportswear designed for Asian bodies and “global” ones that sell the same products as in the West. The shopping mall beneath the company’s regional headquarters in Shanghai has one of each kind.

新兴市场把上海之类的重大城市转为研究顾客的大型实验室。为了迎合当地民众的口味和独特的需求，公司产品一直推陈出新。联合利华产出的肥皂和洗发露溅起的泡沫就要比西方的同类产品多。宝洁公司把草本植物和绿茶芳香融入牙膏。百事可乐在马铃薯条中加入香料。阿迪达斯开辟出两类商店---一是专门研发亚洲人群运动装的“本地”店；一是销售西方同类产品的“国际”店。这两类物品在上海分区总部下的大型购物中心都有出售。

Innovation extends to changing entire business models. Yum! Brands, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, has repositioned itself as an upmarket company in China, offering comfortable dining for middle-class families rather than fast food for the masses. It has also launched a new chain of restaurants, East Dawning, serving Chinese dishes. Levi Strauss has introduced a pay-as-you-wear model for its most fashionable jeans in India to preserve their upmarket status while broadening its customer base. Dell sells its PCs in China through shops as well as to order.

创新发展引起了整个商业模式的改变。旗下用有肯德基和必胜客的百胜集团，把自己定位为在中国向中阶层家庭提供可口餐饮的高档公司，而不是向大众提供快餐。它打造出“东方既白”这条提供中式饭菜的新型餐饮链。里维斯集团在印度为其多数的时髦牛仔裤引入"我的裤子我做主"模式，以此保证公司在印度的高档地位，扩大消费基础。戴尔集团在中国通过店铺和订购这两种方式销售电脑。

Because of the lack of brand loyalty, companies have to put even more thought into marketing than they do in the West. Shanghai is plastered with advertisements on everything from airport trolleys to lavatory walls. Companies project giant logos onto the sides of skyscrapers. Many lifts and cabs have televisions that pour out a constant stream of commercials. Mobile phones are bombarded with texts advertising holidays, massages and much more.

由于中国人缺乏品牌忠诚度，所以较之西方而言，公司在中国市场上必须投入更多的精力。在上海，从飞机场的手推车到洗手间的墙面都无一幸免地被贴上各种广告。摩天大楼的外围被打上公司的巨幅商标。电梯和出租车内的电视播放着连绵不断的商业广告。手机遭到为度假、按摩还有很多别的名堂做广告的短信的狂轰滥炸。
Emerging-market companies are particularly adept at adding the human touch. Most consumer-goods firms, and a growing number of electronics ones, use sales representatives to demonstrate their products to customers. Unilever employs an army of “Pond Girls” who show department-store customers how to use the eponymous face cream.

新兴市场下的公司尤其擅长添加人情剂。大部分的生活消费品公司和越来越多的电子公司都雇用销售代表宣传公司产品。联合利华就雇用了一群“邦德女郎”向前来百货公司购物的顾客讲解如何敷用联合利华公司的面霜。

Bottom-fishing

从基层做起

As companies work their way down the income pyramid, the problems proliferate. Distribution is tricky: modern retail chains account for only a third of consumer goods sold in China and a fifth in India. Branding can have pitfalls: the locals may be suspicious of foreign products. Companies may find themselves up against feisty rivals that they have never heard of, not to mention unscrupulous pirates. And China’s rural areas account for 54% of its population but produce a much lower share of its GDP.

当公司沿着收入金字塔往下行，面向基层低收入广大人群时， 问题接踵而至。 分配渠道很棘手：现代的零售行业链只占据中国消费品市场的三分之一，在印度更是五分之一。名牌会遭遇困境：当地民众不放心外国产品。公司会发现自己遭遇从未听过的活跃对手，更不用说不道德的剽窃了。中国54%的人口居住在农村，而农村地区的GDP却相当低。

Companies in search of the much-vaunted fortune at the bottom of the pyramid have to start not with consumers but with non-consumers. They need to get inside poor people’s heads to develop new markets, shaping people’s tastes and establishing habits. The techniques they use include “embedding” employees with local families in order to study their day-to-day behaviour. P&G sends young marketing people to live with Chinese peasants for months on end. They hand out their products free (sometimes through local NGOs) to see what people make of them. GE donates medical equipment to rural health-care centres and keeps a careful watch on how they are used.

在金字塔的底层苦苦寻找曾被大肆吹嘘存在宝藏的公司， 一开始见不到消费者， 只有非消费者。他们应站在穷人的立场上开发新市场，塑造穷人的消费口味，建立穷人的消费习性。他们使用的众多技巧包括在当地“安插”员工，意在研究穷人的日常行为。宝洁公司下放年轻的经销人员同中国农民一起生活，一住就是好几个月公司免费发放产品（有时通过当地的非政府组织发放）以此观测人们如何使用。比如通用公司就曾向医疗保健中心捐赠医疗设备，并密切注视人们的使用方法。

Some companies even employ corporate anthropologists. Jan Chipchase, who until recently worked for Nokia, uses ethnographic techniques to study the way people use mobile phones, particularly in emerging markets, where the devices make a much bigger difference to people’s everyday lives than in the rich world. Mr Chipchase’s discovery that poor people often share their phones prompted the company to make handsets with multiple address books.

部分公司甚至雇用企业人类学家。近来在诺基亚工作的Jan Chichase就是使用人种志学中的技巧研究人们使用手机的方式。新兴市场同富裕国家市场相比，手机对前者人们日常生活的影响远远大于后者。Chiapchase 研究发现穷人之间经常共用手机。这一发现促使公司制造出拥有多个地址薄的手机。

Heavy investment in education is also essential. Unilever has teamed up with various NGOs to teach people about the importance of washing their hands and other aspects of personal hygiene. So far more than 130m people have undergone such instruction, which makes it perhaps the biggest educational exercise in human history. This has helped not only to create a market for the company’s soaps and detergents but also to forge a bond of trust with potential consumers. Metro Cash and Carry, a German wholesaler that sells to hotels and restaurants, trains farmers in looking after their crops, encouraging them to store their vegetables in boxes rather than leaving them to spoil on the ground.

教育的大量投入同样必不可少。联合利华已经同多个非政府组织合作,告知人们洗手的重要性以及其他方面的个人卫生。到目前为止，已有130多万人接受过类似的教育，这也许是人类史上最大的教育工作。不仅为公司的肥皂和洗涤剂开辟了市场，同未来的顾客还建立起一种信任关系。德国批发商Metro Cash and Carry同宾馆和餐馆做生意，培训农民照看庄家，鼓励农民将蔬菜储存在箱子中，而不是将它们放在地上任其腐烂。

Yet it is no use educating consumers unless they can get hold of the products. Even the most sophisticated companies have to fall back on established distribution systems. That might mean working with local “mom and pop” shops. P&G puts products into packages small enough to fit on crowded shelves and uses a network of local representatives to keep the shops stocked. Or it might mean using local women to sell things to their friends and neighbours. In India Unilever employs an army of shakti entrepreneurs who sell goods from their homes and educate their friends in health and hygiene. In Brazil Nestlé sends its comestibles to local entrepreneurs who sell them to their neighbours. Some companies provide locals with bicycles so they can cover a wider geographical range.

不过，除非顾客能够接触公司产品，否则对消费者做教育毫无用处。就算是最老谋深算的公司们也不得不退依靠现有的分配系统。这或许意味着它们将和当地的“夫妻店”一起工作。宝洁公司就把产品放入小小的包装盒内，以便在拥挤的货架上占有一席之地，利用当地的经销代表网确保商店货物满满。那或许意味着通过当地女性把产品卖给她们的朋友和邻居。在印度，联合利华雇佣了一批沙克提企业家。这些企业家在本土销售公司物品，在卫生和保健上教育朋友。在巴西，雀巢把食品运送到当地的企业家手中。企业家再把食品卖给邻居。许多公司还为当地居民提供自行车，方便他们出行到更远的地方。

East African Breweries, a division of Diageo, launched a cut-price beer, Senator Keg, to help reduce demand for illicit alcohol, which is cheap but is frequently contaminated with methanol, fertilisers and battery acid. The company reduced the cost of the beer by negotiating a tax waiver with the government and by distributing it in kegs rather than bottles. The company made use of the shadow economy to get the beer delivered to the outlets. It also trained bar staff to understand the importance of rotating kegs to make sure the beer was fresh, and of washing glasses. Senator Keg is now ubiquitous in Kenya, sold in every makeshift roadside bar, and is affectionately known as “Obama”.

东非啤酒厂，迪阿吉奥公司的一个部门，研发出一款名叫“Senator Keg”廉价啤酒，以此降低对非法酒精的需求量。非法酒精价格虽然便宜但常常被甲醇、肥料和电池酸污染。经过与政府协商减免税和以桶代瓶这两种方式，公司成功降低了啤酒的价格。并利用原先分配非法酒精的非法渠道把啤酒运送到各个经销店。不仅如此，公司还培训酒吧工作人员使其懂得“转其酒桶、保其酒鲜”与洗涤玻璃杯的重要性。现如今Senator Keg已遍布整个肯尼亚，在每个路边临时吧台上都有出售，还被亲切的唤作啤酒“奥巴马”。

Dealing with distribution problems can lead to some surprising innovations and even generate entirely new businesses. The Future Group, India’s largest retailer, has introduced “organised chaos” into its shops to make consumers feel at home, breaking up long aisles with untidy-looking displays. Grupo Elektra, a Mexican retailer, started offering credit to consumers who did not have a bank account, and ended up holding so much financial information on its customers that it decided to take the next step and go into banking. The company now has one of the country’s biggest network of bank branches as well as one of its most popular retail chains.

物品分配问题能够引发许多出人意外的创新，甚至产生全新的业务。印度零售巨头未来集团将“有序的紊乱”引入商店，长长的过道被凌乱的陈设打乱，让消费者觉得身在家中。墨西哥零售商Elektra集团，起初时，为没有银行账户的顾客提供贷款业务。到后来，公司掌握了顾客的许多财政信息促使公司决定下一步进军银行业。现如今，该公司不仅仅拥有墨西哥最大的银行网络，更是最受欢迎的零售店之一。

New technology can also work wonders for distribution. The India Tobacco Company, one of the country’s biggest conglomerates, has created a network of more than 5,000 internet kiosks known as e-choupals to help farmers communicate with both the supply and the distribution chains. Farmers can bring their goods for sale and ITC will display their products.

新技术能够唤起物品分配的奇迹。印度烟草公司是印度最大联合企业之一。该公司已经建立了拥有5000多个网上摊售的网络。比如e-choupals，搭起农民与供应链、分配链之间的沟通桥梁。农民可以将货物交到公司，再由公司出售他们的产品。

Tata Consultancy Services has installed sensors in some rural areas to gather information about local soil and weather conditions. Farmers can call helplines on their mobile phones and receive advice about the best products to use in those conditions, which in effect creates a market. And recall the Indian entrepreneur who distilled an ATM into a smart-phone and a fingerprint scanner: local bank clerks now bicycle out to villages and set up shop under a tree, using the scanner to identify savers and taking in or handing out money. The transactions are recorded over the mobile phone and the banker-on-wheels returns to the local bank branch with the money.

塔塔咨询服务公司在许多农村地区安装传感器，用以收集当地土壤和天气状况等信息。农民可以用手机拨打公司的服务电话，获得在某种条件下种植何种作物为宜的信息，借此开辟市场。回想下把自动柜员机简化为智能手机加指纹扫描器的那些印度企业家：当地银行职员骑着自行车前往乡村，就在树下开营业店，利用扫描器辨认存款人的身份， 进行存款提款作业。这些交易都记录在手机里，过后，流动银行带着钱又回到当地分行。

Learning to play the price piano

弹好价格钢琴

The most difficult trick of all is what some call “straddling the pyramid” or “playing the piano”: serving both the people at the bottom of the pyramid and those at the top. The acknowledged masters of this are consumer-goods giants such as P&G and Unilever. These companies not only rigorously segment their markets by income level, they also lead consumers up the value chain as they become richer. A couple of decades ago Unilever noted that rural Indians were in the habit of washing their clothes with bars of soap, so it first offered detergents in a bar and then began to introduce its customers to washing powder. The company is now trying to pull off a similar trick with tea in the Middle East. Most people in the region prepare their tea from leaves, but Unilever has introduced tea bags that appeal to local tastes and has started selling them in trendy cafés.

新兴市场中，最难的技艺是人们所说的“稳坐金字塔”或是“弹钢琴”：同时为金字塔底层和顶层的人群服务。生活消费品巨头宝洁公司和联合利华在这方面的工作深得大众人心。在严格地依据收入水平划分市场的同时，引导顾客消费高档产品。几十年前，联合利华注意到印度农民习惯用肥皂块洗衣服，便最先在商店出售洗涤剂，还把洗衣粉介绍给它的顾客。现在，该公司又想在中东的茶叶市场上故伎重演。中东地区的大部分人都用茶叶泡茶。联合利华就在当地引入符合口味的茶包，并开始在时尚的咖啡馆中出售。

China’s Haier has proved particularly good at market segmentation. It produces a line of extremely robust washing machines for rural users, having discovered that older models frequently got clogged with mud because farmers were using them to clean vegetables as well as clothes. It also makes small washing machines that are just right for young urban professionals, many of whom live in tiny apartments.

实践证明，中国的海尔集团擅长于市场分割。当海尔发现旧机型常常被烂泥堵住的原因是农民用洗衣机清洗蔬菜和衣服时，公司专为农村家庭生产出一系列特别耐用的洗衣机。公司还为大多住在小型公寓里的年经城市专业人士量身定做了小型洗衣机。

But the masters of pyramid-straddling are mobile-handset makers. Nokia produces phones for every market, from rural models designed to cope with monsoons to fashion accessories that will look cool in a Shanghai nightclub. The cheap phones are sold through a vast network of local outlets, such as mom-and-pop stores and rural markets, and the upmarket models through shops in fashionable city centres. The aim is to create a brand that is at once universal and aspirational.

手机制造商才是真正的“稳坐金字塔”。从农村机型的遮风挡雨到上海夜总会中耍酷的流行配饰，诺基亚为每个市场生产不同类型的手机。廉价手机在当地巨大的经销连锁店中出售，比如“夫妻店”、“农村市场”等等。高档手机则在时尚的城市中心的店铺中出售。意在创建一个世界级的、有前景的品牌。