Dong Mingzhu, head of Gree Electric Appliances Inc, is one of a growing number of bosses who are stepping into the media spotlight to promote their companies. It can be an effective technique, but some have warned against overdoing it.

Photo: IC

Dong Mingzhu, president and chairwoman of Gree Electric Appliances Inc, has been in the limelight recently, after she lifted the lid on a new phone that might be produced by the Zhuhai-based firm, which is known mainly for making air conditioners.

During a lecture on March 18 at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province, Dong unexpectedly took out a phone with a "GREE" logo on its back. "I've already been using the phone," she said.

Stories about the Gree phone soon started appearing in a variety of Chinese media outlets, many of which referred to a widely publicized 1 billion yuan ($161 million) bet at the end of 2013 between Dong and Lei Jun, founder and CEO of Beijing-based smartphone firm Xiaomi Inc.

Lei said his company would be able to outdo the air conditioning behemoth in terms of business revenue in five years.

The two executives later canceled their bet, but it generated a lot of interest in both firms, and the media have paid close attention to Dong ever since.

Dong's interest in marketing for Gree might be linked to her previous experience as a salesperson when she joined the company in 1990.

She has made noted media appearances before, including her role in a commercial promoting Gree's central air conditioning equipment that aired on China Central Television in March 2014.

Although Dong's public profile may be growing, some have expressed doubts about the actual commercial benefits yielded by her public image.

"I have seen no value added from Dong's direct involvement in promotion of her company's products," a senior account manager surnamed Yang at a foreign-backed public relations firm in Beijing told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Gree already has an established brand, and it doesn't need its boss to endorse new products, a measure normally associated with little-known start-ups, Yang remarked.

Gree could not be reached for comment by press time.

Spokes-boss

There might be skepticism about bosses acting as salespeople for their companies, at least in the case of an established firm like Gree, but the use of the same ploy by domestic start-ups, especially in the tech sector, has won some applause.
Lei founded Xiaomi in 2010 and has already seen the company become one of the world's top smartphone makers, partly because of his success in communicating with consumers.

Lei has even been nicknamed the Steve Jobs of China, with his own celebrity tied up with that of his company.

Another notable instance of a company boss stepping into the media spotlight is Jumei International Holding, an online cosmetics retailer that was founded in 2010 and floated on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2014.

In 2011, its founder Chen Ou started appearing in a series of commercials with the slogan "I speak for myself."

The commercials featuring the young entrepreneur, who was born in 1983, struck a chord with the company's target consumers, said Yang at the public relations firm.

Rather than gradually pulling back from his role as company spokesman after the IPO, Chen may extend his role to be a spokesperson for other cosmetics and fashion brands, Jumei said in a statement e-mailed to the Global Times on Wednesday.

The company's marketing department is considering whether Chen should appear in a new series of adverts, according to the statement.

Still, it should not necessarily be an industry-wide strategy, Yang said.

Lower profile

Other famous company founders like to take a different approach.

For instance, James Dyson, the eponymous founder of Dyson Ltd  - the British manufacturer of bagless vacuum cleaners and bladeless fans - has said that he would rather be unseen.

"I spend most of my time down in the research and development labs watching the clever Dyson engineers experiment and come up with new ideas," he told the Global Times on Tuesday via e-mail.

"Dyson is a family business and I am the owner of it. As an owner I have many responsibilities, like choosing CEOs, senior executives and directors," he said.

When asked about the increasing phenomenon in China of bosses making headlines to promote their businesses, Dyson did not respond directly but said he was "not interested in publicity stunts or gimmicks. It's engineering and technology that excites me. If we develop a solution to a problem then we'll talk about it, but I don't just open my mouth for the sake of it."

There are also Chinese tech company bosses who prefer to keep a low profile, despite the growing popularity of social media, such as Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of Huawei Technologies Co.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, the BBC had a rare opportunity to talk with Ren in "his first broadcast interview," the British broadcaster reported in January.

During the interview, Ren shared "some of his family background that motivated him to found Huawei and how he managed to instil a culture that has generated innovation," according to the report. "That's fairly unusual for perhaps one of the most mysterious CEOs."

"If it is not the case that bosses prove to be necessary in pitching their businesses, they should avoid getting involved too much in being directly associated with their brands," Yang of the public relations company said.