Over the past few years, consumer spending has significantly decreased within the markets of the U.S., U.K. and Western Europe, yet has significantly increased within China and other Asian countries. This is due to the current popularity of Asia as an outsourcing destination, which has resulted in positive economic benefits for the various economies in the region, particularly China, Taiwan, South Korea, India, and the Philippines. Not only that, there is a significant degree of market saturation within the U.S. and UK with numerous well established brands that would make it difficult for a company to establish a sufficient foothold to gain market dominance. That is why international expansion into Asia simply makes good business sense from the perspective of various western companies. However, Growglobal stated that one of the main concerns that companies have when it comes to expansion is staying in touch with what is going in with their offshore location. One potential solution to this problem is to utilize the best video streaming service possible through providers like Blue Jeans.
Why Video Streaming?
With low consumer spending and an atmosphere of economic uncertainty which pervades various markets, both locally and internationally, any attempt to expand into such areas could result in wasteful operational costs and no guarantee that a company that attempts continued expansion would be able to obtain a significant portion of the local consumer market share. Pwc.com explained that companies want to be able to keep an eye on their investment since they do not want it to go to waste. One way of ding so is to establish video streaming services which observe the daily operations of the company. Whether it will be used during conference calls or simply be used to create a constant video stream at all meetings whether or not someone from the other branch is there or not, this type of service will go a long way towards providing some means of oversight to assure the parent company that everything is going as planned. The fact is that the U.S., U.K. and European consumer markets at the present are not conducive towards expansive sales attempts; rather, they are more conducive towards maintaining or even reducing the current marketing initiatives of companies in such countries. This has made companies very nervous regarding new and potentially risky investments—which makes the use of video streaming a way in which their worries can partially assuaged.
Differences in Language
From 1990 to the present, China’s economy has grown to such an extent that it is now ranked as the second largest economy in the world in terms of manufacturing capability and local consumer demand. The outsourcing industry in particular has contributed to this rise with hundreds of international brands and retailers relocating their factories to China in order to take advantage of the cheaper corporate tax rates and low cost of labor. Not only that, China’s success has resulted in the creation of a prevalent upper and middle class whose spending habits have been increasing as of late and is increasingly oriented towards consuming various types of western goods and resources. This has convinced many international companies to expand into China in order to take advantage of this increase in local spending power. The one problem they immediately encounter though is a language barrier when it comes to local interactions. Communications over email are erroneous at best and simply unreadable at worst. This has led to a considerable level of confusion when it comes to implementing particular instructions. That is why video streaming would be an ideal tool to put in place in such a situation. By having the current activities within an office in China streamed, managers from the main company could potentially spot issues as they occur. Not only that, this helps immensely when it comes to communicating instructions due to the limited amounts of bi-lingual staff that they would have. Sessions could be turned into lessons where specific instructions are given by the main branch and translated by the local bi-lingual staff. This helps to streamline the process of communication and make it that much easier for the company to properly penetrate its desired consumer segments in China.
Understanding Consumer Behavior
An average consumer is influenced by a myriad of different factors that affect the way in which they choose to patronize a particular product or service. Businessnewsdaily.com states that this can range from various psychological reactions such as the way in which they think and feel about different products (i.e. brand perception) to the way in which the market environment they are currently present in affects the way in which they perceive a particular product or service (i.e. local culture, their family, local media influences etc.). This why utilizing video streaming is so important since it allows managers from the main branch to better understand the behavior of people in China through constant interactions with their colleagues.