Marketing 101 & China Wine: a lesson in what NOT to do

I am sure some of you would have read the ST article on Sun Ho's China Wine, thanks to her and her godawful music, I have received so much traffic to my blog. In the ongoing trial, the defence has been trying to justify their case by making China Wine seem as if it was some kind of great success just because Sun Ho paid a lot of money to work with Wyclef Jean. Allow me to respond to these five points in the ST article as I feel they were didn't do the topic justice.

Point 1: In 2006, Wyclef Jean, a Haitian hip-hop recording artiste, was roped in to help Ms Ho. He suggested doing away with the songs that had already been recorded for her debut English album. The reason? They sounded "too white, Caucasian", and she would not stand out from other singers also trying to make a mark in the United States.

With all due respect to Wyclef Jean, I don't think that sounding too white or Caucasian would have been a major problem for an Asian artiste like Sun Ho in America. You see, all you have to do is look at the Asian-Americans who have made it big in the American music scene such as apl.de.ap of the Black Eye Peas (half Filipino), Bruno Mars (half Filipino), Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park (half Japanese) and James Iha of Smashing Pumpkins (2nd generation Japanese-American) - none of them allow their Asian roots to influence their music, if anything, they sound totally American and they are succeeding in America with a very white sound, catering for the mainstream white American audience rather than trying to use their music to highlight their Asian heritage.

I want to use Far East Movement (an Asian-American group with Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Chinese members) as an example - now Far East Movement made history by getting to number 1 with their song "Like A G6" which made history when it went to number one in the Billboard hot 100 charts in 2010, making them the first Asian-American/Asian act to ever achieve that feat. Remember this was a good 2 years before anyone had heard of Psy's Gangnam Style (which was a novelty hit that got into the charts based on its quirky music video rather than the music style per se). Anyway, if you haven't already seen it, Here is the famous music video for Far East Movement's huge hit, "Like A G6".

There is absolutely nothing Asian about the style of this hip-hop dance track that has any reference whatsoever to the members' Asian roots - in the music video, there's this brief scene of a group of people dining in a Korean restaurant, drinking, having a good time but the rest of the video is made of their imaginary world in LA where a mix of beautiful white, black and Asian people party together. In short, Far East Movement did not really use their Asian cultural roots at all to get this song to the top of the charts in America (not to mention achieve worldwide success with this song). Wyclef could have heard this song and criticized it for being too white/too black/too American and simply not Asian enough - but is that a problem? Do all Asian singers have to be painfully Asian or can we just accept that any singer can simply pick and choose any kind of musical style they are happy with and as long as it sounds good, I say, I wish them the best of luck. So with all due respect to Wyclef Jean, I disagree with him about Sun Ho possibly sounding too white or Caucasian - I don't have a problem with that and more to the point, that American market doesn't have a problem with that either. It's marketing 101: know your market. Duh.

Thus I wish to draw your attention to Sun Ho's third and last US single Fancy Free (released September 2009 - didn't go anywhere near the Billboard top 100 charts) - it has been criticized for being somewhat bland and this single marked her departure from Wyclef Jean and heralded a far more mainstream style. Many have said that she was blatantly trying to copy Lady Gaga who had chalked up big hits like Poker Pace, Bad Romance and Just Dance with a similar style in that same period. Even if you don't like Sun Ho for the way she has funded her music career, I have to say, Fancy Free itself isn't bad and the music video is actually pretty well put together, but then again, having spent that much money on it, it would be a complete disaster have come up with yet another big pile of stinking poo like China Wine and Kill Bill. Had Fancy Free been her first US single rather than the godawful China Wine, perhaps she may have had a much better chance at commercial success in the US market - it would have still been a big challenge to break into the US market, but at least it wouldn't have been doomed to complete and utter failure from the very start.

Point 2: Jean recommended that Ms Ho go for a new Asian-Reggae fusion sound. This eventually led to the making of China Wine. The noted music producer had earlier created a similar Latino-Reggae sound with pop star Shakira. The explosive hit Hips Don't Lie was the result of the collaboration.

That's bullshit. China Wine was not some new Asian-Reggae fusion sound, where the hell was the Asian influence in China Wine? It had some painfully cliche lyrics about China and Kill Bill, Sun Ho's follow up single was just as dire. But it was not a proper musical collaboration between Ho and Jean - rather, this was Wyclef Jean trying to infuse his usual music with a few token references to Sun Ho's cultural heritage but failing miserably. It's like trying to call Gilbert & Sullivan's the Mikado as a Japanese-European fusion opera when it was nothing more than a blatantly, painfully dated and racist piece of opera which represented nothing more than ignorant white people's racist and limited view of what they perceived Japan to be, with no contribution whatsoever from a real Japanese person and more to the point, did not present an authentic Japanese point of view. It is painful to watch the Mikado as it is so un-PC and racist.

Note that Shakira had achieved far more commercial success than Wyclef Jean when they collaborated, Shakira had already been a huge star in Latin America before chalking up three big English hits: Obsession, Whenever Wherever, Underneath Your Clothes. She already had a huge fan base in America at the time she collaborated with Wyclef Jean so she already had an existing fan base to draw upon for Hips Don't Lie, her collaboration with Wyclef Jean. However, Sun Ho was and still is virtually unknown in America and she was hoping for Wyclef Jean's fame to drive her hits into the charts and get her the fame she so desperately craved. It didn't work because the music was crap. Without a half decent product, she couldn't rely on Wyclef Jean's most hardcore fans to drive China Wine into the charts.

Point 3: China Wine was not the only song Jean recorded with Ms Ho. It was just one in a series of 12 to 13 songs.

If China Wine and Kill Bill are anything to go by, all these other 12 to 13 songs would have been equally terrible.

Point 4: According to Kong, both he and Ms Ho were both "uncomfortable" with China Wine, even though it was deemed a success and the brainchild of Wyclef Jean, as it did not fit the image Ms Ho wanted as a pop artiste. Jean left the project in 2008 after negotiations over his asking price broke down.

Wake up and smell the coffee Sun Ho, you should have been uncomfortable because China Wine was shit, it was a piece of trash: you looked awful in it and you sounded terrible. There was no way in hell that song was ever going to chart, even if it did have Wyclef Jean on it. Who deemed it a success? Who in the right mind would deem an expensive piece of trash like that a success? Are you freaking mad or what? Perhaps Jean left the project in 2008 after he realized just how shit China Wine was and he was just wasting his time with Sun Ho, that it would have been impossible to have turned her into a commercial success. He needed to work with more successful people, like Shakira again.

Point 5: The album which featured China Wine was supposed to have been publicised on popular TV shows such as Gossip Girl, CSI and Dancing With The Stars if its big launch had taken place as originally planned.

Duh. This is not how it works people. Good grief, this is marketing & PR 101 and even Limpeh knows far more about this than Sun Ho's pathetic PR team who wasted S$24 million and 7 years with zero results. Popular TV shows such as Gossip Girl, CSI and Dancing With The Stars do use songs which have been in the charts because it strikes a chord with the viewers when they hear a song they are familiar with and like. However, you are putting the horse before the cart - the song needs to be a reasonably big hit before any of that can happen. Once you have achieved a certain measure of mainstream commercial success, then these shows will be knocking on your door, "can we use your recent chart topping hit on our show please?" It doesn't work the other way around, you can beg and plead all you want with the producers of these shows to use your song, but if it has been a commercial flop, there is no way they will use your song on their show! Again, this is such basic marketing 101.

Let me give you an example of a pop song which has achieved this kind of commercial success: Mundian To Bach Ke is probably the world's biggest Bhangra hit but it was a slow burner when it came to its chart performance: it was first released in 1998 in the UK but only achieved huge mainstream commercial success worldwide in 2002, reaching number 1 in the Belgian and Italian charts and top 5 in 9 countries including the UK. It is a catchy number sung entirely in Punjabi with an amazing music video shot in one of my favourite cities: Kuala Lumpur. Here's the music video:

There must be millions and millions of Bhangra hits around today - think about how big the music scene is in India today, but this is the one Indian-style Bhangra hit that has gone mainstream and international. Mundian To Bach Ke was used in the following after it a achieved huge international chart success (note that this list is not by any means exhaustive but just showing the highlights in the American market) : 

1. It was used in the popular American TV programmes like ER, Entourage, Outsourced and Queer As Folk (American version). 
2. It was used in the following American Dance themed competition programmes: America's Best Dance Crew (season 2 episode 9) and Dancing With The Stars (All-Stars Season). 
3. It has been featured in the soundtracks of the following films: The Dictator (2012), Stick It (2006) and Boom (2003). 
4. It has been featured in dance games Dance Central 3 and Just Dance 4.

Now this is the kind of publicity that a big hit like Mundian To Bach Ke received after it became a huge hit in 2002. Note that this commercial success came first in 2002, then all this publicity followed. Let's get the chronological order right here - the publicity didn't come between 1998 and 2002 when this song was at best an underground hit, it came only after 2002 when Mundian To Bach Ke had achieved considerable mainstream commercial success in many countries. Hence the kind of publicity that Kong Hee's defence team is talking about, with Sun Ho's album being promoted on CSI, Dancing With The Stars and Gossip Girl - that is based on the assumption that songs like China Wine and Kill Bill would have been a huge commercial success internationally and would propel Sun Ho into international stardom. 

Guess what? China Wine flopped. Big time. 

Thus none of this publicity would have been possible, in the absence of any commercial success. So it is completely pointless talking about what kind of publicity China Wine would have received if it had been a big hit - the fact is, it flopped. Big time. So enough with the hypothetical projections of publicity if Sun Ho had achieved some commercial success - didn't you get the memo? She was a total failure in America and the fact that her music was never ever used on any of these mainstream American TV programmes ought to tell Kong Hee and his defence team that she flopped big time in America. So it beggars belief that they have the nerve to raise this point as a line of defence in court. 

After wasting over S$24 million, Sun Ho achieved little but notoriety in Singapore and America over the abject failure of her English-language pop career. If she had been just a spoilt brat who was indulged by her rich, loving husband, then by all means, waste your money - but the fact is, it wasn't their money to spend and there was a huge amount of financial fraud involved to divert CHC's church funds to fund her ill-fated career. What puzzles me is how the court process is taking so long, it has been more than 2 years, surely you would have had enough time to analyze the case and reach a conclusion already. Really, what is the hold up? How much more time do you need for this case? 

Oh and if you're not convinced after all that, have a watch of the notorious China Wine music video below if you've not seen it already. Do feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Thank you for reading.

Update: Follow the argument as we continue discussing China Wine in part 2 here.