SinoTech Group Inks Strategic Partnership with Illuminant Partners

Posted in Illuminant Partners, Public Relations, Technology on June 16th, 2009 by A source of light

BEIJING, CHINA 15th June 2009 SinoTech Group (www.sinotechgroup.com.cn), the leading Chinese full service digital marketing company, announced today that has entered into a strategic partnership with Illuminant Partners, a Beijing-based multidisciplinary public relations and strategic communications agency. Under this agreement, SinoTech Group will provide Illuminant Partners with digital marketing products and services for their clients in China and the Asian Pacific region.

“I am excited about this partnership with Illuminant Partners. They are an independent PR firm of a similar age to that of SinoTech Group and have a very professional approach to their clients. I am pleased that SinoTech Group can provide Illuminant Partners with digital solutions such as Online Reputation Management, Search and Social Media Marketing as well as Online Analytics and Measurement tools,” said Dr. Mathew McDougall, Chief Executive Officer of SinoTech Group.

“With a trend towards more digital integration within PR, especially social media, we are one of a movement of new-style PR agencies offering highly-digitally integrated campaigns to our clients. Staying ahead of the digital curve is the differentiating factor in our ability to achieve superior communications outcomes for our clients, so it is important for Illuminant Partners to work with likeminded strategic partners” said Simon Cousins, Chief Executive of Illuminant Partners, “SinoTech Group has an outstanding history of innovation and creative approaches within the digital media market, and we expect their approach to add tremendous value in achieving and exceeding the communications objectives of our clients.”, continued Mr. Cousins.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Chen ZHU at Illuminant Partners, +86 10 5879-4050 or chen.zhu-at-illuminantpartners.com

Ends.

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Green Office Alliance appoints Illuminant Partners

Posted in Illuminant Partners, Property, Public Relations on June 1st, 2009 by A source of light

Green Office Alliance bilingual logo

Beijing, 1st June 2009 - The Green Office Alliance has appointed Beijing-based Illuminant Partners as its PR and strategic communications agency. The Green Office Alliance is the world’s first multi-company green building and furnishing products alliance.

Following a competitive pitch, Illuminant Partners’ appointment - for PR, corporate identity development, digital marketing and experiential marketing - was made in order to support the GOA’s market introduction, strategically position its brand and publicize the initiative to key opinion leaders and decision makers in China’s architecture, building construction, interior design and real estate industries.

The GOA consists of four global leaders in sustainable commercial interiors: Haworth, InterfaceFLOR, Owens-Corning and Philips. It is has been formed as a collective of like-minded companies promoting sustainability and green practices in the workplace. The GOA’s primary objective is to elevate the levels of sustainability in commercial offices and buildings.

The official launch of the GOA will be made at Beijing’s Eco Expo on June 17th, 2009.

The GOA offers designers, owners and users of commercial interiors a continuum of a high-quality, cost efficient and environmentally sustainable furniture, fittings and building products. Used together, a commercial interior which utilizes products from the GOA helps to reduce negative impacts on the environment as well as achieving excellent occupant satisfaction.

Illuminant’s Amy Meng, an expert in innovative and environmental-friendly construction sector marketing services in China will head the account from Illuminant’s Beijing office.

About the Green Office Alliance’s member companies

Haworth, Inc.

Haworth partners with local suppliers, environmental experts, customers and the community across Asia Pacific, The Middle East and Latin America to innovate world-class practices in product design and sustainability.

As a leader in office furniture and architectural interiors with a worldwide presence, Haworth products are informed by a lifetime of global learning. We have nurtured a corporate culture committed to superior customer service, environmental responsibility, and engineering innovation.

Haworth has been a pioneer in the China market as the first multinational office furniture company to establish its own manufacturing facility eleven years ago in Shanghai. Haworth made another first when we moved our Regional Headquarters from the Puxi zone of Shanghai to the fast growing Pudong zone. The Haworth Organic Workspace is now in the tallest building in Asia, The Shanghai World Financial Centre. Haworth Ideation Group is Haworth’s research unit that aligns organizations with their goals and visions.

www.haworth-asia.com

InterfaceFLOR

InterfaceFLOR is the largest modular carpet manufacturer in the world. With over 30 years of global experience, our goal is to provide you with innovation, beauty, performance, service, value and environmentally responsible products and processes in every 50cm*50cm tile.

At InterfaceFLOR, we’ve made it our mission to go way beyond green product
attributes. Every creative, manufacturing and building decision we make is intended to help us achieve zero environmental footprint by 2020 and give you the most fashionable, high performing and environmentally well-rounded products in the industry. And we call it Mission Zero.

www.interfaceflor.com

Owens Corning

Owens Corning, the inventor of fiberglass, is a world leader in building materials systems and composite solutions, delivering a broad range of high-quality products and services.

We define sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the world that we leave to the future. This approach to business energizes our people, creates growth opportunities for our customers and drives value for our shareholders.

To accomplish that, we focus on three strategic initiatives:

1 Greening our operations- achieving specific environmental footprint reductions
2 Greening our products - continuously improving the life-cycle impact of our products
3 Accelerating energy efficiency improvements in the built environment

Sustainability at Owens Coring is a journey of continuous improvement. We believe that the world is a better place thanks to our many products and services that help conserve energy and other precious resources. Owens Corning makes the world more energy efficient.

www.owenscorning.com
www.owenscorning.com.cn

Philips

Philips is no. 1 in the global lighting market, and part of Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI). As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”.

Sustainability is one of the focal points of our strategy, and we use our expertise to help combat global challenges - i.e. climate change - by offering business solutions in all markets that reduce our ecological footprint and enhance social equity.

Philips was the first to introduce the energy-saving light bulb back in 1980. Our latest EcoVision program, which is our fifth multi-year plan, seeks to make our product portfolio ever more efficient, and sets targets to expand our investments in Green Innovations, increase revenues from green products, and improve the energy efficiency of our facilities.

www.lighting.philips.com

Ends.

Story at Marketing online here

Story at Media online here

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The Curious Case of Baidu’s Search Engine for China’s Senior Citizens

Posted in China Life, Public Relations, Technology on April 10th, 2009 by kane

Or, Baidu done it in the datacentre with the walking frame.

Yesterday the Chinese internet search giant announced its brand new product, 百度老年搜索 (literally “Baidu Senior Citizen Search”).  An exciting day for increasing numbers of Chinese silver surfers!

According to Baidu, China has around 14 million silver surfers. They’ve been dubbed silver surfers, of course, due to hair which is often rendered silver-white by the flowing years, however they still like to keep up with current technology.  A great many of China’s silver surfers have been enriched by new China’s economic miracle and the part their kids’ have played in it, so to marketers, they’re actually a pretty interesting consumer segment.

At the launch of “Baidu Senior Citizen Search” Li Yanhong, the company’s CEO said “Despite their age, our parents, just like us, need to absorb information from the web. As the search engine provider which owns 90% of Chinese market, we must offer more convenience to silver surfers. So [Baidu] decided to make a new search engine, specially designed for them. Aside from information, the new engine is utterly easy to use, enabling our fathers and mothers to surf the web without relying on a mouse. Meanwhile, considering there are 14 million silver surfers in China, it’s quite a remarkable market.”

[Illuminant's summarized translation - read the original Chinese here]

Okay. Great idea, Baidu.  China now has a search engine to specicially serve retired netizens.  Lets now leap into this modern-as-tomorrow future and see how the service works!

Hmm. The new search engine is a little bit hard to find. It seems to us that it can only be visited from a small text link on the front page of Baidu.com. A single click took me to a yellow-page with very, very, very huge fonts. The big font is a good idea (well, a no-brainer, actually.  What else does the specialist search engine provide?  Somewhat disappointingly, we couldn’t find anything innovative, or even new.

Firstly, a yellow web-page is nothing new to Baidu. Years ago the company acquired a catalogue (name: hao123) of the most frequently visited websites to help web starters who are not yet familiar with a real search engine (this, of course, was originally a Yahoo! innovation back in the 20th century). The new Baidu “search engine” for silver surfers looks pretty much the same as hao123, only with a ton of stuff for youngsters removed. The catalogue includes weather, tourism, hospitals, traditional arts, senior citizen communities, web portals, and so on. But… despite the convenience of a heirarchichal link aggregation, is this by any standard a “search engine”?

At the top, beside the Baidu logo, there is a textbox emphasizing the facility of a search engine. The textbox, like everything else, is also extra large, of course.

According to Mr. Li’s speech, one might be led to believe that there is a great deal of new code behind the page to generate optimized and carefully selected entries to silver surfers. So, we tried the new engine with something tricky: a Mandarin-Chinese slang term in current use amongst China’s young netizens. This slang term is definitely not something silver surfers would be interested in. We expected that the search results would feature an explanation of the term, and several news stories addressing the rise of netizen slang. OK, type the term, click the button, and see what we’ve got here.

If my computer works all right, what I’m look at now is a very long list of the term being put into normal daily usage. Say, if I’m born long before the information era of China and only got to use computer in my old age, this list will confuse the hell out of me. Out of curiosity, I tried the term in the regular Baidu search engine. And… what the… I’ve got a completely identical list here.

Our inexpert conclusion is: except for super large fonts, the “new” search engine is nothing but a magnified version of old stuff. We’re scratching our heads.  Why would a good company bother spending money on creating buzz for an advanced new technology solution which could be easily replaced by buying my Mom a pair of glasses?

Interestingly, we’ve found that the new silver surfer’s “search engine” is (at the time of writing) totally advertisement-free. To be fair to Baidu, this is actually a pretty good thing: presumably China’s silver surfers possess minimal internet security understanding as well as high trust in new technology.  Silver surfers would be easy targets of the Chinese web’s ubiquitous phishing-attacks, Trojan horses, and virus-bearing malware.

Perhaps fault lies with us, for expecting too much of a leading Chinese web business.  After all, CEO Li did promise “a new search engine, specially designed for them“, and no court or judge would penalize Baidu for its “over-promise under-deliver” approach to this “new product” launch.

As a marketing agency working in China, we really shouldn’t be surprised at any part of yesterday’s buzz-creating activity, except at the lack of advertising on the “new search engine”.

Baidu, we’ll gladly be proven wrong.

Article by Illuminant’s head of research, Kane Gao

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SARFT again visiting harshness on China’s video sharing sites

Posted in China's government, Entertainment, Intellectual Property, Technology on April 3rd, 2009 by kane

SARFT HQ

SARFT.Headquarters, via Flickr

Last year China’s State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) caused a great deal of panic among the mainland’s video sharing websites by threatening to kick any operator without an online broadcasting license off the intertubes. Eventually, every video sharing website had a license granted, and the initial climate of panic tapered off and quietly died.

Yesterday, SARFT again unleashed its power, announcing a new set of regulations to further govern China’s online video sharing sector. Under the new rules, all films, TV series, cartoons and documentaries must obtain offline broadcasting licenses before being transmitted via internet media (and yes, mobile networks are included), even if the broadcaster has already licensed necessary copyrights from distributors. For the full story please refer to this helpful overview from Pacific Epoch, who we beleive scooped the story.

The new regulations instantly caused another panic amongst China’s netizens. Unlike YouTube, which relies on short video clips and user-generated content, its many Chinese clone-sites mainly live on (pirated) films and TV series. Obtaining an offline license for every single film would take more time than is left until the heat-death of the universe. Needless to say, offline licenses are based on the correct licensing of copyrights, which in many parts of the Chinese web do not outweigh the low cost/huge profit charms of piracy. If SARFT is really serious about this, then the whole business seems to be pretty much terminated.

But from my perception, we don’t have to be too serious about SARFT’s latest moves. Parallel with the new regulations, there is something called the “haven principle” in the whole Chinese internet sector (including video sharing). The principle works like this: an online broadcaster does not have any responsibility if any user-uploaded content causes trouble (such as violation of intellectual property rights). So long as the offending content is simply removed from the website, on notification, every problem is solved in a civilized and harmonious way.

This “uploaded-protested-notified-removed” principle has saved many Chinese video sharing websites from lawsuits they absolutely could not afford to defend.

From our perspective, it seems pretty obvious that in pursuit of almighty page-view, a large number of “helpful users” who upload tons of  stuff on daily basis are actually website editors in disguise, taking advantage of the haven principle to dodge ethical, legal and moral responsibilities. Personally I’ve formerly worked for a market-leading WAP site whose main business is was to “share” pirated (dumped, cracked, regged) mobile phone games totally free of charge, much like video sharing websites. An eye-catching disclaimer was placed on every download page saying “all content is uploaded by users, thus the provider has no responsibility for violation of intellectual property”. But guess what? They didn’t even have a user upload interface. All editors worked on a 8 hours/6 days schedule to collect, upload, and organize pirated games. The WAP site even established different servers and purchased different domain names for file storage to enhance the impression that all those games were located by its fictional “super advanced game search engine”. Gaming, indeed.

Sorry for spinning off topic.

Back to China’s haven principle. Under the user-upload umbrella, China’s video sharing websites do not have to pay anything for violating SARFT’s new regulations. On the other hand, SARFT has to manually monitor every single video on each website to check if there’s any illegal broadcasting activity. In a country of 243 million broadband users, this is a monstrous job. And considering the normal slow speed for takedown notices to be generated, there will be enough time for users to have their fun and for websites to gain almighty page-view between the video’s upload and a demanded removal (if it ever gets found and put on notice).  Of course, even if an offending video upload is terminated, another “helpful user” will upload the video again under a different URL.

Some observers believe that SARFT should be extra-careful in the implementation of its new regulations. Practically all YouTube clones in China are launched, nurtured and generate page-view via pirated content. An overdose of administration may easily snuff the whole business out, and we don’t beleive that China would want to deliver this unto the nascent sector (which employs thousands) given the current condition of the world economy.

Disbelieving?  If you’re feeling in an IPR-violating mood, you might enjoy the 213th episode of popular Japanese cartoon Bleach, uploaded on April 1st 2009, which does absolutely not have an offline broadcasting license. Thanks, Tudou.com, for sharing!

NB: Imagethief’s view, well worth reading, is here.

Kane Gao, Head of Research, Illuminant Partners

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Illuminant wins the Australia-China Business Entrepreneurial Award 2008

Posted in Illuminant Partners, Public Relations on November 11th, 2008 by A source of light

Illuminant’s chief executive, director of operations, and Australia’s ambassador to China

Illuminant Partners wins 2008 Australia-China Business Entrepreneurial Award

November 10th, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hong Kong — Illuminant Partners, a Beijing based multi-disciplinary public relations and strategic communications agency has won 2008’s AustCham Australia-China Business Entrepreneurial Award.

Announced by CNN Hong Kong anchor Andrew Stevens at the Awards gala dinner on Thursday November 6th, Illuminant Partners was one of more than sixty entrants to the awards, now in their 16th year. The ACBA Business Entrepreneurial Award is given annually in recognition of an Australian-originated business which has demonstrated entrepreneurial excellence in greater China.

Australia’s ambassador to China H.E. Dr Geoff Raby described the award as “the most sought-after award of its kind outside of Australia”. Illuminant’s chief executive Simon Cousins said “Our ACBA award recognises entrepreneurial excellence in China, and to that end, we are honoured to have been elected this year’s winner by our peers. The award belongs to our entire team and also to our fantastic clients, without whom Illuminant would not have been able to develop and implement such interesting and effective campaigns over 2008.”

Roger Wolfe, Chairman of the Australian Chamber of Commerce Beijing said “AustCham Beijing extends sincere congratulations to Illuminant Partners on winning at the 2008 AustCham Australia-China Business Awards. Illuminant’s innovative team proved they have the passion, vision and commitment needed to overcome stiff competition and come up trumps.”

Illuminant is based in Beijing with operations throughout China’s mainland and Hong Kong. The agency’s core team first began working together in 2004 and began life as Illuminant Partners in June 2007. Illuminant supports the public relations and strategic communications needs of many of the region’s best brands, including the world’s largest insurance broker Aon, 151-year-old global design and engineering consultant Hyder, China’s largest foreign gold miner Sino Gold and dozens of foreign government agencies and SMEs. Illuminant employs a staff of 25 across its Beijing and Hong Kong operations.

The 2008 Australia-China Business Awards were announced at a gala dinner at Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt Hotel on November 6th in the presence of Australia’s ambassador, all of Australia’s consuls-general, Austrade’s senior trade commissioner and more than 150 guests from across China.

About the AustCham Australia-China Business Awards (ACBA):

Since its inception in 1993 the AustCham Australia-China Business Awards is a means of recognising companies that have worked to deliver Australian products or services to the greater China region. The awards have grown in stature over the years and are now recognised as a high profile celebration of business success among Australian business communities in the region.

The organizers of the ACBA include the Australian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong & Macau, AustCham Beijing, AustCham Shanghai, AustCham South China, the Australian & New Zealand Chamber of Commerce Taipei, the Australia-China Business Council and the Hong Kong Australian Business Association. The ABCA is fully recognized and supported by the Australian Government and the Australian Trade Commission.

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CEO of Austrian National Tourism Office visits Beijing

Posted in Illuminant Partners, Public Relations, Tourism on November 7th, 2008 by A source of light

Dr. Petra Stolba, CEO of the Austrian National Tourism Office, visited Beijing as one of her major stops on her tour throughout Asia. In cooperation with our friend and Head of the Austrian National Tourist Office Beijing, Josef Stockinger (who amazed journalists and travel agents with his witty speech in fluent Mandarin), Illuminant Partners had the pleasure to arrange an interview with Travel Channel China and Dr. Stolba during a tourism workshop at the Landmark Hotel today.

Austria, which ranks among the top ten tourist destinations in the world, welcomes more than 170,000 Chinese tourists every year, making China the third largest overseas tourist market for the beautiful country in the heart of Europe.

In 2009, Austria will focus on marketing the 200th anniversary of the death of the outstanding composer Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), who started his career as a member of the oldest boys choir in the world, the Vienna Boys’ Choir. The Austrian city of Linz will also be the European Capital of Culture in 2009.

In her interview Dr. Stolba was confident that an ever increasing number of Chinese tourists will discover the beauty and cultural heritage of Austria and invited the audience of Travel Channel China to come and see the home of “Sisi gongzhu” and “Sound of Music” themselves and to discover how Austria has changed in its more than 1,000 years of history.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

Blog posting by Illuminant’s Director of Account Services, Anja Knass.

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Secure data logging will help China

Posted in Food & Beverage, Illuminant Partners, Public Relations, Technology on October 23rd, 2008 by A source of light

DAN_Logo, originally uploaded by Illuminant Partners.

Illuminant Partners is excited to be working with our new client, Data Acquisitions Networks (DAN). DAN is a fast growing Australian company with a revolutionary technology that holds exceptionally strong promise for the Chinese market: a comprehensive, secure data logging system that protects the integrity of local data while allowing it to be monitored remotely from anywhere in the world.

We recently assisted DAN in its first China market visit to Beijing and Shanghai, and we were thrilled with the enthusiastic response its technology received from food industry and environmental protection officials, two sectors in which DAN’s technology has particular applicability.

DAN’s technology is two-fold: on-site hardware and web-based software hosted by DAN. The on-site hardware is comprised of a compact black box which can be configured to communicate wirelessly with up to six industrial probes. There are literally thousands of industrial probes commercially available, measuring variables from temperature to pollution levels and much more. Probes send their data back to the blackbox, which utilizes GPRS communication to transmit the data back to DAN’s server.

The web-based software gives users complete control over their data, allowing them to remotely change parameters, set alarm points, and monitor data collection. Using a secure login, users can see their data displayed in a simple format requiring no interpretation. Customized alarm points can be set, meaning that if data points fall outside of chosen parameters, SMS and e-mail alerts will be automatically sent immediately to as many as five designated recipients.

In Australia, DAN’s technology is used to measure everything from salinity in aquaculture – where it has substantially increased harvests – to monitoring chlorine levels in municipal swimming pools, ensuring safety. The advantage of DAN’s technology is not only the flexibility it offers, but also the security: data cannot be manipulated or changed, meaning central authorities can exercise remote oversight without fear of local tampering.

In China, the applicability of DAN’s technology is wide-ranging and exciting. Regulatory authorities constantly struggle with the challenge of centrally monitoring industry round-the-clock to ensure compliance with standards designed to protect safety, environmental quality, and efficiency. Data integrity is frequently suspect thanks to corruption, inappropriate monitoring techniques and tampering. DAN’s system takes the guesswork out of data collection and monitoring, meaning authorities can be independently assured of the integrity and reliability of data.

The disastrous results of faulty central oversight of industry have hit China particularly hard in the last year – from tainted food causing tragic infant deaths to faulty and dangerous products being exported around the world, never has the need for more reliable data logging and monitoring been so apparent. DAN’s comprehensive solutions would give authorities and regulators the oversight they need to ensure food safety, product integrity, and environmental protection. Illuminant is extremely excited to be working with this very promising new client!

Blog posting by Illuminant senior account manager Matt Doran.
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Illuminant supports a leading gold miner

Posted in Illuminant Partners, Public Relations, Resources on October 22nd, 2008 by A source of light

mine, originally uploaded by Illuminant Partners.

It’s a kind of destiny for Illuminant and a leading gold mining company to come together (due to non-disclosure arrangements, we can’t yet state the name of our client).

Two days before the Chinese national day holiday, Mr. Wang called the Illuminant Beijing office for a broad range of PR and communications needs. Senior Account Manager Amy Meng answered the call and took Mr. Wang’s brief and within 24 hours, a full strategic communications plan was delivered to our prospect. On the first working day after the holiday, Mr. Wang called us back, very happy with our professional proposal, and two days after that Illuminant and the leading gold mining company signed their services contract.

Thanks to all the efficient Illuminant team members, the team started work from the next day. Our Beijing-based video taping team was sent out to two remote areas of China while our Sydney-based team was despatched to get corporate images. Simultaneously, our media team, our studio team and our copywriting team got to work on the very interesting brief. We’re really pleased that our client is very happy for our flexible and fast response.

More on this terrific gold mining company soon…

Blog posting by Illuminant Senior Account Manager Amy Meng.
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The Chinese “milk insider” story

Posted in China Life, China's government, Food & Beverage, The Chinese Media on October 21st, 2008 by A source of light

A particular story (in Chinese) has been posted on thousands of blogs in China over the last few weeks.  Preportedly written by a Chinese dairy industry “insider”, it is a breathless exposition of the many failures of China’s dairy food safety chain.

On behalf of one of our key clients, we take an active interest in Chinese food safety matters, so we briefed our research department to try to find the identity of the original poster of this story.  In the end, we were unsuccessful, but we did gain several insights during the research project.

But first, to set the scene, we should add one more blog to this chilling story.  It is reproduced, verbatium, below.  Our analysis follows.

———–

个奶业工人的实心话(转帖)
我不想再忍了,我所知道的奶业内幕!

I am the truth

我所学的专业是乳品工艺,刚毕业曾在某国内老大级乳业集团工作。职位——收奶员。

I am a milk collector in one of the big players in the Chinese milk industry.

这几天的三鹿事件,沸沸扬扬。其实在我看来,没什么奇怪的,事情总是要被揭穿的,只不过是时间问题,以及是哪一家企业成为那个撞上枪口的倒霉蛋。三聚氰胺————冰山的一角。也许这个事件就要告下一个段落,也许仅仅是个序幕的开始……

[The scandal] is nothing new. It was just a matter of time before the dairy safety problems would be be revealed. This is just the start of the scandal!

离职的员工到处去说原来公司的“坏话”,这个员工一定个没有道德的人。曾经我也是这么认为的,可最近我的想法变了,一个知道内情而不去告诉别人,眼看着别人吃亏上当的人,那才是个彻底道德败坏的人。

Some may said it is immoral for a former employee to say bad things about their former company. However, it is immoral if I don’t tell the truth.

离职后,我没喝过一滴奶!

After leaving my former job, I never drank a single drop of milk!

我先讲一下,收奶的过程。奶农的牛奶由当地附近村镇的奶站化验收集,按品质高低,分等级付给奶农钱。品质的指标不外乎PH值,蛋白质,干物质这几项。然后由奶站(当然了奶站是私人老板的)用罐装车混装后运到工厂,然后由工厂取样化验,测算指标同样按品质高低,分等级付给奶站钱。不知道大家看没看出来,想没想到这种操作模式会出现什么问题?有人说了,不是“天然牧场”“工业化收集吗”?有,的确有。但是我只能说:兄弟,你很傻,很天真!

The process is as follows: milk was collected based on quality in terms of pH, protein, and milk solids. Private collectors would collect milk from farmers and deliver the raw milk in tanks to the factory. The factory will collect a sample and pay the broker according to the various quality tests. So, where is the problem?

奶农想多赚钱怎么办呢?简单啊,掺水啊。那掺水指标降低就卖不上好价了怎么办?简单啊掺****啊。奶站想多赚钱怎么办呢?简单啊……。奶站的奶是从各个散户收来混装到罐车的,有一家的突然变质了,怎么办啊,全车都倒了吗? 几十吨一罐的奶,蛋白质低了怎么办?干物质低了怎么办?PH值低了怎么办?有的牛病了打过抗生素怎么办?有的牛催奶打激素怎么办?

To earn more, water is added to the milk. But when milk from one of the farmers spoilt the quality of the whole tank, the milk collector will not dispose of the the whole tank.
话说回来了,奶农那点小计量能瞒奶站吗?奶站那点小九九能瞒工厂吗?如果我说,奶站不知情,工厂不知情。都是“不法奶农”干的坏事,全国人民要把矛头指向他们批判。那我可就真的,很傻,很天真。 I

f I were said farmers are the root cause of the contamination, I would be too naïve. Milk collectors and factorys know all about it.

我们从来不拒收奶,因为我们知道,一件东西是要充分利用的,这样才能取得最大的价值,获得最大的利润。我们分罐储藏。最好的奶,供到车间做(发酵型酸奶或搅拌型酸奶),因为不是好奶做不出来。其次,做纯牛奶,高钙奶之类的。再差的奶做花色奶即花生奶,早餐奶等。还有那些发酸的奶怎么办呢,当然不能倒了,做酸性乳饮料,就是广告狂哄乱炸的,女人小孩都喝的***。这是本公司最大的利润所在,一盒奶的成本,还没有哪个包装盒值钱。还有那种臭的熏人的奶怎么办呢,简单,做冰激凌味道最好。还有那些又臭成粘稠状的怎么办呢,做奶粉。当然这叫工业粉,它有它的用途,不是装袋子就上市场的。

We never stop collecting milk. We know that we have to maximize the value/profit out of the milk. Milk is stored separately. Milk with best quality will be sent for yogurt making, followed by pure milk and high calcium milk. Low quality milk will be used for “peanut milk” and breakfast milk. As for the milk that turns sour, it will be used to make acidic milk drinks. This is how the company earns money. The cost of the milk is lower than the cost of the box. How about the milk which is very smelly? Simple, it was used to make ice-cream (as it will smell the best). How about the smelly and sticky milk? It is made into industrial  milk powder, which has its other purpose (milk powder without packing).

我们有全球最大最先进的立体式仓库,媒体都赞扬过,可是你就没想想这快速消费品,生产出来就要卖的,搞那么大仓库什么用?酸性乳饮料越存放味道越好。那有人问了,生产日期怎么办?简单啊,提前打一个月,你也许不信吧,因为在你心中那是小黑工厂做的事。那又有人问了,市场上卖的岂不是过期奶?我就这么告诉你吧,你手中那盒奶就是过期一周了,你喝也没问题。因为你所卖的奶是UHT超高温灭菌液态奶。关于UHT超高温灭乳到底有没有营养,我不想再说了,因为这个涉及到某人在某年为中国提出的一个口号,我们正向这个口号迈进,别管你喝的是什么奶,反正是牛奶。

We have the world largest and best developed volumetric storage system which was hailed by the media. However, have you ever thought that such product is meant to sell quickly rather than for storing? What is the use of having such a big warehouse? Acidic milk will taste better the longer it was stored. How about the expiry date? Simple! Put a date which is one month later. I am telling you, the milk in your hand is already 1 week expired. You drank it and have no problem. This is because the milk being sold is processed using UHT (ultra high temperature) to kill the germs. There is no nutrient value after such UHT process. This is the slogan by someone in China: Don’t bother what milk you drink, it is milk.

有个广告,中国某企业已经是这种超高温灭菌乳全球产销量第一,难道是那些乳业发达国家真的比不上我们了吗?其实是人家不生产这种乳品了。这笑话有点冷是吧。

There is an advertisement stating that a Chinese company is the world largest UHT producer. This is not because the technology is good and better than that of developed countries. The reason is that the developed countries no longer producing such milk product.

那有人说了,我们以后喝高端奶吧,广告都说想过有品位的生活就和那种奶。是啊,那奶是贵啊,贵的东西就好啊,那奶蛋白质高啊,高,实在是高,这一点澳大利亚人都服我们啊。

Some say lets drink the high-end milk. The advertisements say that people who enjoy a quality lifestyle should drink that kind of milk. That milk is expensive. Expensive is good. It is high in protein. Even Australians respect us!

我就不相信地球上的奶牛能挤出那么高蛋白质的奶……

However I don’t believe any cow can produce such milk with such a high level of quality.

此言一出,某些专家就会来“辟谣”又得列出一套数据理论,来“引导”大家。

Once this was mentioned, specialists will provide a set of numbers to refute the statements and guide everyone to continue to consume.

是啊,我嘴没人家的大,钱更没人家拿的多……

Oh yes, my mouth is not as big and I am not collecting as much money as they did.

还有很多关键的还是不说为好,知道了对大家谁都不好。生活是美好的。

The key is that it will be better not to mention.

真实案例看三鹿奶粉背后的KB的行业潜规则
目前闹得沸沸扬扬的三鹿奶粉事件,作为一个可能的知情者和懂点化学的人,我也来谈谈我的观点:

On the current Sanlu milk powder case, as a person who knows the truth and and the chemistry, I would like to provide my view:

1、媒体也好,厂家也好,国*家质量监督也好,还是在忽悠大家,为什么我敢这么说,因为三聚氰氨根本不可能直接加入牛奶中,三聚氰氨的市场售价并不低,奶农不可能不计成本,比较麻烦;那为什么媒体,厂家,国*家质量监督要异口同声的说是不法之徒加入了三聚氰氨,其实就是为为了掩盖一个更可怕的问题,那就是加入的其他毒性更大的东西,说穿了就是尿素,尿素作为一种便宜的农家化肥,真是经济实惠的“好添加剂”。

1. Be it media, factory, national quality control, or to cheat everyone, adding melamine into the milk directly is not possible. The price of melamine is not low. Farmers will count its cost and avoid trouble. However, why they keep saying that someone add melamine? This is because they want to cover a greater problem, which is adding in an even more toxic material which is urea. Urea is a cheap fertilizer and a good value milk additive.

2、为什么要加尿素,因为各乳品公司收购鲜奶,测试的标准主要是奶的蛋白质含量,说穿了就是氮的含量,尿素作为一种最普遍的氮肥,由于它独特的分子结构,记得好象是两个氮分子配个什么我忘了,氮的含量当然高了,混入奶中,提高氮浓度,价格自然也卖得高了;

Why add urea? As a milk collector, testing of protein is based on nitrogen content. Urea is a common nitrogen-based fertilizer. It has a unique structure with around two nitrogen atoms and something else which I can’t remember. Adding in the urea will increase the nitrogen content and increase the price.

3、尿素怎么转化为三聚氰氨的,很简单,奶粉的生产过程就是将鲜奶放在封闭的环境高温环境下,然后采取喷雾的方式直接转化成粉状就成了奶粉,而尿素在高温下会产生变化,生成三聚氰氨,OK,有毒的奶粉就这样生成了。

How come urea will transform into melamine? It is simple. During the milk making process, fresh milk was kept in high temperature. It was then being sprayed to form milk powder. At high temperature, urea will form melamine. The toxic milk powder is formed.

最后,我在谈谈我怎么知道这些内幕的,前几年,是01年还是02年,我记不太清楚了,在办理一件带B社会性质的案件时,他们主要罪状之一就是把持我市某区的牛奶收购市场,长期以次冲好,我们在办案中就了解到,他们在牛奶中加入尿素、少量食用油,然后加大量水(良心好的加自来水,不好的就直接加池塘或者田里的水),最后用专用的搅拌机进行搅拌,一批蛋白质浓度高的鲜奶诞生了,但最后几个犯罪分子都翻供,说他们这种做法是普遍的,并不是他们发明的,后来我们专门去天友了解,确实如此,他们对牛奶收购中出现的这些问题根本没有比较有效的检测措施或者是因为收购站点太多,没有精力和金钱来负担这么大的检测开销,所以对广大奶农的行为基本采取的是默认,奶农收购牛奶,就普遍存在次类现象,所以三鹿事件的发生就是必然的,而且这次三鹿出了事,全国其他所有奶制品企业都保持沉默,没有一家跳出来指责,什么原因大家看了我说的牛奶,你们敢喝吗?

Lastly, how do I know the truth? A few years ago which I can’t remember it is 2001 or 2002, I investigated a case where sub-quality milk was used as high quality milk. During the investigation, I learnt that they added urea, oil and large amount of water (potable water or pond water), and used a mixer to mix. High protein milk was then produced. The criminal said that it was not their invention but it is a common practice. We went to “天友” to understand. Indeed, during the collection, they can’t afford the effort and money to conduct analysis due to the high number of collection points and effective testing system. On such a mixing by farmer, the collector choose to keep quiet. Thus, Sanlu case will definitely surface.

———–

There are obviously many inaccuracies in the article, above, and Illuminant certainly doesn’t endorse any of the above as being fact, however we think an analysis is of interest.  The following is written by Illuminant’s Kane Gao, from our research and language services department:

Preface

A statement has to be made here since technically it’s impossible to classify the “insider story” as true or false. The source of the story can not be traced thus we can’t be sure if it’s fundamentally reliable.

Thanks to various portal websites’ fever for PV (page view) and common internet users’ fever for scandals, the story in question has been published everywhere over the Chinese part of internet. A search with Google returned 93,700 exact matches, leaving 329 items after omitting similar entries. 15,400 exact matches in Baidu, a search engine provider which is dedicated to Chinese material search.

The government’s attitude makes the problem even worse. It gives no response to the story. Professionals in the dairy industry are silent on the subject, too. Thus the following research is based on limited material I’ve managed to find, and some common sense.

Can we believe in the “Insider Story”?

Only partly, according to common sense. Every now and then an “insider story” surfaces on the web. Some of them are evaluated as “can’t be sure”, others are hypes or slanders for certain purpose. Some portal websites occasionally “create” a shocking insider story to attract attention (and, of course, PV). Sometimes companies would try slander their competitors with forged scandals.

However, the story in question seems more reliable, although there are some glaring technical inaccuracies. Because it hasn’t make any official appearance on most known scandal-holic websites such as Sina, Sohu, and QQ (not officially means that it’s not in their news and special feature sections. But you can find the article on their subordinate forums or blogs.) Neither does it stand on the behalf of any specific dairy company, which make it less like slander. So, let’s give it a try. Now that both government and professionals are keeping silence, we’re going to make an analysis to see if it makes sense.

Factories’ roles in tainted milk products

Factories can’t be innocent in the production of tainted milk. Yes, it’s totally possible that dairy farmers or milk collecting stations may have added melamine into liquid milk. But it would be a miracle that all tainted milk “happens” to be processed into baby formulas without any acknowledgement of the factory (Sanlu, to be exact).

The story also mentioned that quality administrations, media, and milk factories themselves admit the addition of melamine to cover that fact that what they actually put into milk is urea. Yes, urea is cheaper than melamine, and its solubility is way higher. But the point has been proved to be fake after I consulted a medical expert.

Urea isn’t that poisonous, and it takes a lot of effort to make it turn into melamine. Simple heating in a closed environment is definitely not enough. The reason why the author tells such a lie is dim, but we can safely assume that addition of urea is not a “standard process” in Chinese dairy industry.

Also, the statements on UHT are technically incorrect.

“Recycling” of spoiled milk

This seems to be true because there has been a similar story about big dairy brands “recycling” spoiled milk and give it a second life. It was back in year 2005, Henan Provincial Television broadcasted a disguised investigation program. In the program, Guangming (another dairy giant in China) was exposed to be taking spoiled milk back from distributors, and “process” it into brand new products. The journalist saw that countless packs of spoiled liquid milk are being poured into tanks by factory workers. “This is recycling”, they told the journalist when questioned. Most of the packs are putrefied, with flies buzzing and maggots crawling. Even the workers were complaining about the overwhelming stink. But let’s skip the disgusting stuff; they “recycled” them anyway. 32 tons of putrefied milk, all processed by the next day.

“You don’t believe what you see here, because it’s simply out of your common sense. But you should know that every factory commits in such deeds, you just don’t have the chance to see.” A certain worker told the journalist.

Curiously, the Guangming scandal didn’t make a huge impact to the market, at least nothing I know of. Anyway, we can trust a state owned television media. They only censor news that they believe could result in panic, but they don’t tend to lie.

Our summary?  Its a hoax.

*Chinese material reference: http://news.tjinfo.com/100001/100061/100001_100061_1545.htm

Blog posting by Illuminant’s Kane Gao of research and language services.

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Manage your China risk though judicious use of effective PR

Posted in Illuminant Partners, Public Relations on October 20th, 2008 by A source of light

brown and red, originally uploaded by Illuminant Partners.

Despite the Summer Olympics it seems that 2008 was, so far, a quite disastrous year for Chinese government. The snow chaos before Spring Festival, the international criticism during the Olympic torch relay, the Sichuan earthquake in May and the recent milk scandal are forcing the Chinese government to make their crisis management not only more efficient, but also more transparent.

But not only for the Chinese government has the year 2008 turned out to be a challenging year. The current unstable situation on the financial markets in combination with the post-Olympic slow down of the Chinese economy may lead to a dangerous combination for private companies on the Chinese market.

The better you know the risks you might face during your market entry, the better you can prepare and find ways to even profit from a seemingly disadvantageous situation. A good understanding of the market place your company is in and of all the internal and external factors that might affect your operations is the key to a successful business strategy. This is especially true, when you are new to the market and your competitors are already have an efficient crisis management and good market understanding.

We, at Illuminant Partners, are experts in strategic communications and can help your company to

  • understand the market you are operating in and the potential internal and external factors that might affect your business negatively from a PR and marketing perspective.
  • analyze the market position of your competitors and their strategic communication choices
  • create a crisis management plan based on clear and pro-active strategic communication actions

Please do not hesitate to contact us directly for more detailed information on how Illuminant Partners can help your company to successfully get through the current global crisis and establish yourself on the Chinese market effectively.

Blog posting by Anja Knass, Director of Client Services
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Illuminant wins the 2008 Australia-China Business Entrepreneurial Award