A natural reflexive response would be to find similar,
nearby markets – Canada for instance – as a launching point for export sales. But that’s almost always ignored in favor of China.The superficial appeal of Chinese turkmenistan cell phone database market expansion is clear. Actually all 1.3 billion reasons. The population is enormous – and stories of growing wealth, middle class disposable income, increasing urbanization and hunger for western brands attract businesses seeking growth.
An Asian mirage – for most businesses
export market development mirageA small minority of companies that set out for China as their first export destination (or one early in their global sales growth process) eventually succeed. But they are outliers.
For most the market opportunity
remains a tantalizing mirage on the horizon; one that they continue to expend dwindling energy and resources in pursuing; one that always remains just a bit further away. Eventually they collapse, figuratively dehydrated, with several times their originally allocated business development resources exhausted.
Companies that have committed to success in China
nearly always citing 1.3B as the reason, then tend to cling to their sunk costs (more on that here and here) and persist in the naive hope that suddenly they’ll get traction. Most don’t.
Some “don’t lose”,
eventually reaching a break even point a decade into the project. Others “lose big”, withdrawing after three to five years of substantial investment, often without any notable sales success.