CE China Daily 2018 - Preview Edition

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
Jens Heithecker
IFA Executive Director
& Messe Berlin Vice-President
Setting Course for Success
IFA Executive Director and Messe Berlin Vice-President Jens Heithecker
– on this year’s CE China event
How is CE China progressing and what will be new this year?
We put the question to “the man at the helm”.
Two years ago, we established CE
China and we knew right from
the start that we had a completely
different focus to any other show,
and that it would be a long way.
At the same time, we told you CE
China is not a copy of IFA. It’s not
a copy in terms of size, it’s not a
copy by name, nor by other points.
It is however a prolongation of
IFA for the Chinese market. This
year, we will have the same size
as last year – one large hall at the
Shenzhen exhibition centre. And
we are proud that we have been
able to fill it with more western
brands than before, but even
more Chinese brands. It means
we focus on quality, because CE
China for us means being different
to any other show – being a highquality
show with a high efficiency
rate. Talking about efficiency,
that’s where there is the biggest
difference to last year, we are
introducing a new format, called
CE China Retail University. It has
a clear intention. We learned that
Chinese retail is not so familiar on
the one hand with the real brand
stories, with the real product
backgrounds of the brand industry.
And on the other, we learned that
the contact the brand industry
has with the individual retailers is
not the closest because it’s such a
huge country. So, we introduced
a format like the briefings we
already developed for other events
at IFA. We introduced this in China
with a focus of the largest retailer,
Suning, bringing in more than 500
retailers from stores around China,
and on the other side, the brands
will have the opportunity, in a
short presentation, to say what
they stand for, and how the retail
can be successful with them. That’s
what we mean with efficiency,
bringing into contact, in the best
way, the Chinese retail with the
western industry.
What else differentiates this
show?
Compared to big shows in China,
it’s the clear focus and smaller size.
You have some huge shows. But
these are in part political shows.
We are a commercial show only.
We are organised by western
organisers with no political
influence, but we come in with
our experience from Berlin, how
to organise a successful business
case for our exhibitors and for the
retailers, even if the size is small.
It’s about being relevant for the
main actors in the market, and not
having the biggest size.
Just a few years ago, you were
only operating a show in Europe,
but now you work in China, and
also this year in the USA. What’s
the philosophy of Messe Berlin
with regard to entering other
markets such as this?
We changed our strategy a
few years ago from being the
European IFA to being the Global
IFA. That means not only we are in
close contact with the industry and
headquarters around the world; it
means also that we are in close
contact with retailers and that we
understand the most important
global markets. That’s why we
went to China – the largest single
market in the world, and we
built-up a network we never had
before – getting networked with
retailers, getting networked with
top management of the retailer,
with the top management of the
industry, and not to underestimate
it, getting to understand the
differences of the market in China
compared to Europe and the rest
of the world. If you want to be a
global show, you must understand
the most important global markets.
[AT THE POWER
BRIEFINGS] THE
BRANDS WILL HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITY,
IN A SHORT
PRESENTATION, TO
SAY WHAT THEY
STAND FOR, AND HOW
THE RETAIL CAN BE
SUCCESSFUL WITH
THEM.
This understanding helps us quite
a lot for IFA in Berlin. We can help
out the industry and retail in China
with our knowledge, and start to
transfer this knowledge to China,
we have a successful business case
in the future
CE China Daily • Thursday 26 th April 2018
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