Marketing Dude

From Drew

When my friend told me that Oceanwing, a Chinese company that designs and markets tech gadgetry, was looking for a marketing dude, I wasn’t really interested at first.  I still have another year of scholarship and need to research and produce a thesis to complete this MBA I’m working on.  But at my first interview with Oceanwing, the ideal aspects of this job started to catch my attention. 

• Chinese-language office environment but still applying my English skills to the US market
• Work and personal life reasonably balanced (not a workaholic work-is-life company)
• Management style more interested in improving than saving face (low power distance)

With the encouragement of my academic advisor, I decided to go for it.

A typical workday starts as Titus and I mount our bikes around 8 in the morning.  After I drop him off at preschool, I continue 7 miles through urban Chinese traffic to the office.  With temperatures already hitting 95 in May, a cold shower and change of clothes finish off my morning commute.

The job itself is creating / proofing / editing the text for customers in North America and Great Britain. This includes product descriptions, selling points, packaging materials and user manuals.  Besides writing, I spend a good deal of time hashing out content with others on the team.  It can be interesting, because some things just don’t translate.  Working “happy” into a product description of an external battery charger without sounding childish pushes the envelope a bit.  Negotiation and background explanations are really important, and even in just two weeks I have come to enjoy this aspect (wasn’t arguing always fun?)  I got to lead a couple meetings for the first time this week. 

Around 6pm I jump back on my bike for the ride home, beating the public bus by 20 minutes, and after another cold shower I am ready for family dinner. Altogether I'm away from home 8am - 6:30/7pm. 

Let me show you some of my work!

One of my roles is writing copy, aka catchy product descriptions.  There's actually tons of research and statistics determining how we market our gadgets.  I've got plenty of room for improvement -- see the rough drafts that I created in my first week on the job.  The main content is my work.  Graphic design and the slogan ("control just got laid back"?) is another guy. By the way, our brand is called Anker.

this is our brand and the English website: http://www.ianker.com/

the company website in Chinese: http://www.oceanwing.com/

Rachel and I are thankful for a good job right here in Changsha.  Our desire was to settle down sustainably in this city long-term and I think we can now.

Fire off any questions you got below in the comments.