Before moving to Taiwan, I had spent several years with each organization I worked for and considered myself a loyal employee. In Taiwan, however, I left my first job after only a few days and my second after a few months. Both times, I was part of the marketing team in tech companies, yet I could not see how I was adding value to the organization and thus decided to leave.

Thinking about it today, I see a disconnect caused by cultural differences, especially in the perception of marketing and the role of marketing leaders. I understand marketing as a way to build a pipeline and feed a lead funnel. In a nutshell, it is generally just a few simple steps: Identify a target audience (your potential buyers), get their awareness and create demand, turn them into prospects and bring them closer to your products or services, and make sure that sales can convert them into customers. As a bonus, marketing also means ensuring customer loyalty and strengthening brand ties.

In Taiwan, however, I found that these tasks often fall under sales. Marketing is not considered a mission-critical function. Sounds a bit odd, but, just for example, no marketing team I worked with had any real KPIs – no page visits, no MQLs/SQLs, no TIER media lists or coverage targets, and no conversion rates – most even did not create a single lead. The best I saw was people counting LinkedIn followers. Forget about discussing a revenue pipeline or anything similar.

The Boss Is Always Right, Even When He/She Is Not

I am not sure how C-level executives recruit their marketing directors, but it definitely does not seem to prioritize marketing experience or performance. Plenty of the marketing leaders I met (including during job interviews) lack substantial (digital) marketing know-how, which can lead to some awkward moments.

For instance, I was hired to write SEO content, but when I asked about the lack of meta descriptions, alt texts, and meta titles on all webpages of the company website, I was told there was ‘no time for that.’ When I pointed out that these are essential for SEO, I quickly learned that such suggestions were not welcome. In Taiwan, the boss is always right – even when they are not. If they say a car does not need to have wheels, you drive the car without wheels – end of story.

Similarly, even if your target audience is in the EU or North America, do not attempt to suggest privacy or cookie policies. You will have to accept that the website did not need a cookie policy 15 years ago when it was built, so it does need one (or any other changes) now. The fact that your supervisor is unfamiliar with GDPR or cookies should not be your concern. Simply follow instructions and ensure you are not the nail that sticks out.

Trying to Learn My Lessons While Working in Taiwan

I hope you catch the irony, but working in marketing is where Taiwan gets ugly. Unfortunately, those two examples are not just the tip of the iceberg. I found situations like this at least once a week where essential tools and best practices were dismissed, preventing me from contributing any productive work. 

While there is a consensus on the importance of budgeting for marketing, it seems Taiwanese companies are less critical in evaluating how that money is spent. Many of the initiatives I saw are unlikely to generate significant ROI – which was a hard lesson to learn.

I know I do sound like I am a bullhead who insists things have to go my way, but if your actions do not and will never have the chance to make an impact at all, then it is time to find a new challenge. Ultimately, I walked out of companies (and interviews) faster than ever before. As I mentioned at the start, finding new job offers was not a challenge, but I had to be more selective during interviews.