Doctoroff, Tom

Senior partner at Prophet, senior adviser to the president of the Asia Society

Travels from: New York and Hong Kong

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Tom Doctoroff is the leading authority on marketing in China. His successful book Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer has founds its way to the shelves of almost every company working in China. Mr. Doctoroff switches in his speeches easily from a hand-on approach to a higher level, and prevents any confusion by telling again many real life stories from the dynamic marketing scene in China.

In a very visual style, loaded with telling examples Mr. Doctoroff tells the compelling story of China’s emerging consuming middle class. His humor and dynamics makes his subjects attractive for highly diverse audiences.

Tom, born and bred in America’s Detroit and educated in Chicago, somehow took a detour to Hong Kong in 1994 and never quite made it back to the States. In the meantime, he has become one of Asia’s most respected advertising minds. His unique combination of pan-Asian work, plus nine years based in China, has made him a leading expert in the cross-border management of brand architecture and brand building. Furthermore, he is a passionate advocate of the iron link between brand equity and long-term profitability.

Having started his advertising career at Leo Burnett (Chicago) in 1989, Tom jumped ship and joined JWT Chicago in 1992. In 1994, Tom moved to Hong Kong as Regional Business Director, managing several of JWT’s largest multinational clients across Asia Pacific (including Pepsi, Philip Morris/Kraft and Citibank).

In 1998, he landed in China as the Managing Director of JWT Shanghai, an agency that is now recognized by the marketing and communications industry as one of the finest on the Mainland. In 2002, he was appointed Northeast Asia Area Director (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea) and Greater China CEO. Under his stewardship, JWT Northeast Asia has emerged as one of the region’s most synergistically integrated, creatively dynamic and strategically insightful networks. In 2003, Tom was named Regional Agency Head of the Year by the region’s leading marketing and advertising publication, Media Magazine. In recognition of his contribution to Shanghai’s economic development, Tom was also a recipient of the prestigious “2004 Magnolia Government Award (白玉兰政府纪念奖).” He is also the author of “Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer,” a book published by Palgrave MacMillan in January, 2006

Some of JWT China’s key clients include: Unilever, the Diamond Trading Company (formerly DeBeers), HSBC, Inbev, Ford, B&Q, Unicharm and Nestle as well as several local enterprises such as Lenovo computers, Konka mobile phones and televisions, China Unicom and Anta.

Tom completed his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in 1985 and his MBA at the University of Chicago in 1989.

Some of his topics include:
The Chinese middle class
Chinese Men, Women and Youth (separate talks)
The Chinese Mass Market
What works in advertising
Chinese luxury products
Local brands

The Golden Rules for Marketing in China: Tom Doctoroff in 2017