Competitive Strategy In The Age Of The Customer: China

Manufacturing strength, distribution power, and information mastery are no longer competitive advantages in the age of the customer, where the only sustainable competitive advantage is customer knowledge and engagement. Successful companies are now customer-obsessed — in China, these companies include standouts like Alibaba.com and Tencent. Executives leading customer-obsessed enterprises must pull budget from areas that traditionally created dominance — such as brand advertising, distribution, mergers, and supplier relationships — and instead invest in four priority areas: 1) real-time actionable data sharing; 2) contextualized customer experiences across touchpoints; 3) sales tied to buyers' processes; and 4) content-led marketing and customer interactions. Those who master the flow of relevant data and improve frontline customer staff will have the edge. This report takes the lessons of the Forrester report "Competitive Strategy In The Age Of The Customer" and applies them to the Chinese market.