Last summer in 2021, we launched a fieldwork of market research using random off-line questionnaires in the three different supermarkets for a start-up food supplement brand that had been looking forward to enter China market.

2021年夏季，我们开展了一项实地工作，在三处不同的超市卖场开展线下实地问卷市场调研活动。活动主体为一家准备进入中国市场的海外的膳食补充剂品牌。

 

The client came with a business plan, a detailed timeline to coordinate with staff over different time zones due to pandemic restriction on travelling. According to that plan, the role of RS was mainly translation, purchase and ordering materials, site visit and other pragmatic tasks most agents can do properly.

客户自然带着商业计划前来，有着详细的时间节点安排，因为疫情限制出行，项目核心成员均在不同时区办公。根据计划，灵达商务原本的主要工作是执行翻译，采购，订购物料，访问活动举办地点等大部分中介机构都能做好的简单工作。

 

However, in practice, RS did way more:

但是，在实际操作过程中，灵达商务做的远不止计划中的：

 

● Logical flaws in app design highlight

● Mistakes in materials correction

● Visiting and calling various potential sites when planned one cannot be used

●Rental price of the field work project negotiation

● Sorting out legal issue of the plan

● Payment and outsourcing solution

● Recruitment and training temporary staff with short-term labour contract

● Feedback systematically on project daily report

● Support field staff with uniforms, equipment that were not planned by client

...

● 指出应用设计中的逻辑缺陷

● 改正选材材料中的错误

● 在客户偏好的站点无法使用时访问或致电其他可行的站点

● 与站点协商租赁时间和价格

● 整理项目法务相关问题

● 解决支付和代理问题

● 招聘并培训短期聘用的员工并与之签订劳动合同● 每日按模板有计划的汇报项目进展

● 支持场地工作人员提供制服，设备，补给等海外客户没计划到的

 

Not to bore readers with all details. There are some point worth sharing that you might find useful. 

细节不再赘述，但是有些值得分享且可借鉴的要点。

 

Legal Issue 法务问题

The original plan was to introduce this overseas mail-ordered food supplement directly through the field work as orders can be made directly online through the pad used by the staff. However, this activity is not considered as market research in business scope but sales, which would require completely different business licence to practice. Especially there is food related, licence for trading food should be applied.

最初的计划是通过实地工作直接推出这种海外邮购食品补充剂，可以通过工作人员使用的pad直接在网上订购。然而，这项活动不被视为业务范围内的市场调查，而是销售，这需要完全不同的营业执照才能进行。尤其是与食品有关的，还应申请食品经营许可证。

 

Payment Issue支付问题

Overseas client should figure out the payment method if the project were to be carried out as order online and deliver by cross boarder direct mail. To collect payment from customers, only viable way in China is to via registration as an legal entity to fully comply the market regulation administration.

如果项目是以在线订单的形式进行，并通过跨境直邮交付，海外客户应确定付款方式。在中国，向客户收取款项的唯一可行方式是注册为法人实体，以完全遵守市场监管。

 

However, for marketing event such as interview and questionnaire, RS can make the contract as a service company appear as the legal entity to rent the site and make the payment while overseas client directly pay us through PI. It is unlikely to have site management company to have international bank account to receive overseas transfer.

但是，对于采访和问卷调查等营销活动，灵达商务以一家服务公司的身份签订租赁合同，作为租赁场地和付款的法律实体，而海外客户直接通过PI向我们付款。场地管理公司一般不太可能有国际银行账户来接收海外转账。

 

Business Model Flaw 商业模式漏洞

More than pointing out the sales activity at current stage of the project to be unrealistic, RS point out directly after review the draft of the online questionnaire as using email address as user name to log in while the target customers were elderly people. As a well known fact that we Chinese do not use emails that much in daily life, especially older people who are usually not savvy enough to even own an email address.

RS不仅指出项目当前阶段的销售活动不现实，还直接在审查了在线问卷草案后指出，当目标客户是老年人时，使用电子邮件地址作为用户名登录。众所周知，我们中国人在日常生活中很少使用电子邮件，尤其是老年人，他们通常连电子邮件地址都不知道。

 

Payment issues not solved, if using mainland bank for this business, then registration and business license is a must. As service company, RS can solve part of the money issues such as paying rent to the site and paying salary to the staff, but only strictly limited to those listed on our business scope.

支付问题未解决，如果使用大陆银行进行此项业务，则必须进行注册和营业执照。作为服务公司，RS可以解决部分资金问题，如向现场支付租金和向员工支付工资，但仅限于我们业务范围内列出的人员。

 

Comprehensive Report and Development Plan with Budget

详尽综合的项目报告以及带预算的发展计划

After the site work was finally done, our project manager lay out a detail report providing road map of future development with solutions on legal, marketing, sales channels with a preliminary budget if it were to launch officially in Ningbo. The client was happy to collected thousands of valid data of actual potential customers at reasonable cost while the whole teams were working simultaneously in different continents yet without misunderstanding or wasting of resources.

在现场工作最终完成后，我们的项目经理制定了一份详细的报告，提供了未来发展的路线图，以及法律、营销和销售渠道方面的解决方案，并给出了在宁波正式启动的初步预算。客户很高兴以合理的成本收集了数千个实际潜在客户的有效数据，而整个团队在不同的大洲同时工作，但完全没有彼此误解或浪费资源。

 

When the pandemic or your budget stops you from developing your business in China, come to us for consultation, all at great value.

在疫情管控或是有限预算阻止你再中国发展你的生意的时候，咨询我们，一切皆物超所值。