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Beijing
Wins!
By Michael Alan Hamlin
July 16, 2001
There is some good news in Asia. Friday, the International
Olympic Committee awarded the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing. The
awarding is sweet victory for Beijing, which in the 1993 bidding
lost the 2000 Games to Sydney in a controversial decision. This
time around, Beijing enjoyed a clear victory, with 56 votes compared
to 22 for Toronto and 18 for Paris. Osaka, the only other Asian
city competing for the games, was eliminated in an earlier round
of voting with just six votes.
What accounts for Beijing's victory this time around?
One of my co-authors of Marketing Asian Places (Wiley, September
2001), Irving Rein, wrote cases for the book on both the Osaka and
Bejing bids. Irv is a professor of communications strategy at Northwestern
University, and the author of High Visibility, a groundbreaking
study on image making.
Here's his take on Beijing's success. Irv says that,
"The city had a brilliant strategic marketing plan that not
only featured its virtues and corrected its weaknesses, but effectively
countered an aggressive attack on its human rights policies. The
marketing plan, however, is just in phase one, as Beijing must deliver
on its promises. The energy and focus necessary to complete the
Olympic commitment illustrates how important implementation is to
a successful strategic marketing plan.
"There were three key elements to Beijing's successful
bid. The first was the massive efforts to match the criteria of
the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on seventeen themes including
environmental protection, transportation, and popular and governmental
support. The Beijing response was comprehensive and conclusive.
It will spend US $12.2 billion on environmental clean up alone.
Beijing is rebuilding the entire public lavatory structure and training
taxi cab drivers and subway workers in English language competence.
Over 90 percent of its citizens support the bid. The second component
was a large-scale government and corporate effort to demonstrate
the solidarity and resolve of China and Beijing to the Games. The
third component was the political reality of the Games being hosted
in a previously underrepresented sphere of the world. Beijing lost
the 2000 Games by two disputed votes to Sydney and there was a strong
feeling that this injustice should be corrected. All three elements
combined in relative perfect harmony to make that portion of the
plan work.
"Beijing now faces implementation issues on a
scale previously unprecedented in Olympic history. As in most strategic
marketing plans, there is the Monday morning question: "It
is nine a.m. and who is going to do what?" This question includes
what experts will be hired, at what cost, when it will be done,
and what will happen if deadlines are not met. For example, the
air in Beijing is often so toxic many people simply cannot tolerate
it. The image of Olympic marathon runners gasping for breath and
dropping like flies is not one that ennobles the reputation of a
city. A public relations campaign that promises a cooperative and
friendly city can be quickly shattered by human rights violations
such as executions of political prisoners. World opinion will also
be harsh if demonstrators are treated roughly or dissenters are
banished from the Olympic site. Beijing has the difficult task of
not only showcasing its new face, but also proving real reform before
the world's television cameras.
"Besides the enormous value of an improved image,
the entire Chinese economy will receive a tremendous boost. Gross
domestic product, according to Goldman and Sachs analyst Fred Hu,
could rise by '0.3 percent per year from 2002 to 2008'. There will
be a tremendous demand for services and construction that accompanies
such a large scale endeavor. China and Beijing are facing a great
challenge. They made all the right strategic marketing moves to
capture the bid. Now, the world will watch as they work to deliver
the rest of the plan."
In contrast, what was Osaka's problem? Irv attributes
Osaka's early loss in the competition to an ineffective communications
strategy. "The lesson here is that strategic marketing planning
is not only building attractions, but is often lost or won on mounting
strong internal and external support, anticipating objections, and
getting out the message," he concludes.
"Osaka could be faulted on a number of issues
that are clearly part of a strategic marketing plan. The IOC criticized
the city for possible congestion problems resulting from an ambitious
plan to transport athletes around the three island Olympic sites.
Moreover, the large amount of city investment was taken as evidence
of a lack of country support. Osaka should have anticipated these
objections and countered with effective arguments. The state of
the traffic infrastructure needed to be carefully outlined, and
the Osaka message required a consistent and clear strategy. Kimihide
Harada, director of international affairs for the Osaka bid, admitted,
'We have been very active promoting Osaka at home, but I'd like
to see more output from us towards the press abroad. That, too,
has been part of the learning process for us.'
"Stated succinctly, Osaka did not communicate
its story because it never really got it out. The city also needed
an effective theme to communicate. The competition was stiff, as
Paris marketed its unparalleled ambiance and charm, Toronto its
conveniently sited athletic facilities, and Beijing its economic
and political positioning. Osaka was inevitably paired against Beijing,
which mounted a massive effort to convince the marketplace of the
legitimacy of its bid. Osaka's lukewarm effort that only belatedly
included the government and failed to generate overwhelming enthusiasm
from its skeptical citizens was not going to win."
Irv believes that Osaka will learn from its failure
in this round, as Beijing did after 1993. But nations and cities
around Asia have a lesson to learn as well during these difficult
times, and it is that no strategy is complete unless it is communicated
effectively to the people that count.
(Mr. Hamlin is managing director of the consultancy
TeamAsia and the author of two books on Asian economies and managing
in Asia. His latest book is The New Asian Corporation: Managing
for the Future in Post-Crisis Asia. His e-mail address is mahamlin@teamasia.com.ph.)
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