Communicating in Asia: One Size Does Not Fit All
By Simon Erskine Locke, Founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatchAsia Pacific should not be thought of as a country, as Bob Grove, CEO of Edelman, North Asia, reminds us in a short interview about communications best practices in Asia. Watch the video.
It’s a huge region. When I was Deutsche Bank’s head of Asia Pacific Communications (more years ago than I’d like to think about), a flight from Singapore, my home base, to Mumbai took more than five hours. From Singapore to Tokyo was a seven-hour flight, and going to Australia took eight hours. Let me put it another way – you can fly for almost 17 hours and still be within the region.Depending upon how you count, the Asia Pacific region comprises more than 30 countries, with 4.5 billion people. There are 28 main languages.No surprise, India is as different to China as is Australia to Japan. Cultures, governments, media and business culture are unique to each country.Multinational businesses tend to divide up the world into geographical regions, so we get the Americas, Europe & the Middle East (and Africa) and the Asia Pacific Region. From an organizational standpoint, having communications centrally coordinated across the region fits business models.But when it comes to Asia Pacific, it would be a mistake to believe that a one-size-fits all approach to communications will work. If you want a story to be covered in the national press – as highlighted in my recent post about communicating in Japan – you need to communicate in local languages, have a local presence and a story that is relevant to each market.While there are global and regional media that reach an international audience, English-language skills outside Australia and Singapore are limited. So, if you want to build a profile in each market you either need to be Donald Trump or have on-the-ground experts with media relationships and language skills. Edelman is one of a select group of global agencies with an extensive presence across the region for this reason.International corporate communications leaders also need to get to grips with differences in communications practices across the region.Pay-to-play for coverage has been common practice in many developing countries where the salaries of a journalists are barely enough to get by on. When it comes to paying for coverage –the answer is very clear. Don’t. As Bob Grove points out, a number of firms have been caught out. International companies cannot afford to take the risk.There’s a challenge here. Given language and cultural differences, if you are at head office coordinating an international communications campaign, can you really know what the folks on the ground are doing?Since you most likely cannot read the Chinese news release and will not be able to engage directly, you have to: “Trust but Verify.” That means you need to find firms or partners you can trust to execute your campaign in a way that is consistent with your goals and corporate culture. And, you need to allow them to do their job. Trust me, you cannot and do not want to try to control everything from the other side of the world. Nothing will get done.
As Deborah Hayden, Head of Capital Markets & M&A for Edelman for the Asia Pacific and EMEA region, shared with me: “You verify by asking questions before you engage a firm about their practices. It’s valuable to work with your in-country business leaders to review local language materials. They will understand local nuances and, frankly, whether something is in good Korean or not.As a former U.S.-based head of International Communications for Prudential Financial, I know that finding the balance between what headquarters may want and what agencies or Corp Comm teams know will work in specific markets is not easy. Success takes a deft touch and the ability to listen.And here’s the final point. Time difference matters. When making a major announcement in the U.S. or out of Hong Kong, in a borderless digital media world, getting the timing right is critical.Coordinating communications with a global mindset is key. There’s nothing worse for head office to wake up and be surprised by a Bloomberg translation of a significant story that ran in the local paper. And likewise, there’s nothing worse for communicators in the region to wake up and see significant corporate news in the papers and not be able to respond to their internal clients’ questions.Time difference is also important on an organizational level. If you are in the U.S., don’t ask people in the region to join conference calls in the middle of the night by setting up a call at 11 a.m. or noon. Find ways to accommodate colleagues in other parts of the world. It’s a basic courtesy. One that will go a long way to demonstrating the respect for your colleagues that is so critical in the region and a basic requirement for successful international communications strategies. [author]About the Author: Simon Erskine Locke is Founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatchTM a communications-industry focused search tool that makes the process of finding PR and communications-related agencies more efficient. Search is free as is listing for qualified agencies. Watch our introductory video. With more than 4,600 U.S. and International agencies and professionals listed, CommunicationsMatch is a powerful resource for businesses seeking communications services providers with expertise in areas including: public relations, internal communications, government affairs, investor relations, content marketing, social media, SEO, website development, photography and video. Prior to founding CommunicationsMatch, Locke held senior Corporate Communications roles at Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank and founded communications consultancies. He has lived and worked in seven countries. [/author]
