This article originally appeared in CMO (Chief Marketing Officer), an IDG magazine (which has since ceased publication). Jim Murphy learned about marketing to Chinese customers in bars. When he first came to China in December of 2004, he didn’t think that consumers here could afford or were interested in the relatively pricey Jack Daniel’s whiskey that his company, Brown-Forman, produced. But Murphy, Brown-Forman’s global marketing director, soon noticed that every bar he visited in the major cities of Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing were stocked with expensive imported liquor. “The whole trip was an epiphany for me—just to see how people are living,” says Murphy, who is now fighting to change minds within his own company. Three week-long sessions of observing Chinese patrons in bars and stores made him one of Brown-Forman’s biggest advocates for … Read more »