I wrote about the recent strategy of Warner Bros. to enter into the China toy market with the goal of opening 200 stores in the years ahead. There is a great story that goes along with this that can assist an online or any marketing campaign.
It has been encouraged for a number of years to give away something free in your marketing so that you can get much more back. For example there have been a number of people that have written books in digital form and given them away as free downloads, then with its great popularity, offer to sell it as a regular book, marketing it as a "classic" edition. The strategy has worked really well for those who do it right.
The story of Warner Bros. carries with it a similar lesson. What has actually created the market for the real thing, has been the fakes and knock-offs that have been circulating around China for years. These knock-offs have made the Chinese familiar with the characters, and have actually created a market for the real thing.
Of course, in the beginning there will be a transition period as the Chinese consumers are socialized into accepting the real product and paying a higher price for it versus the lower priced fakes.
Warner Bros. is starting to get it, as they move to increase the licensing of their products, and the resulting demand will make big inroads into the existing unlicensed market.
Jeffrey Whalen, senior vice president with Warner Bros. said "The best testimony we can have to the popularity of our characters is that manufacturers desire to put those characters onto merchandise."
That's a great strategy. Instead of only trying to deal with the legal side of things, which could take years, they're riding on the coattails of those that have created the Chinese market through illegal copying, and are now using it to penetrate that same market with the equivalent of the same strategy used by ebook writers the flood the market with free offerings, and then use that popularity to offer other products for sale.
Think of ways that you can do this with your business and you'll experience some great success.
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