By staff reporter Verena Menzel
Driven by precisely executed stroke technique, a small celluloid ball clatters over the table tennis table at the booth of the German robot manufacturer KUKA.
However, the ball is not hit by a robot arm, but by a human precision machine - the German table tennis professional Timo Boll, reigning European Champion and current number 3 in the ITTF world rankings (as of August 2018).
European table tennis champion Timo Boll tests the table tennis skills of visitors at the expo.
Boll is no stranger to table tennis enthusiasts and normal fair visitors in China. Thus, it's no wonder that the global company originating from Germany has not only engaged him as a permanent advertising partner and brand ambassador, but also as a prominent promoter of the companies soft power push at China's first International Import Expo (CIIE), being held in Shanghai till the 10th of November.
KUKA is one of around 170 German enterprises from a wide variety of industries that joined the large contingent of companies and businesses from all over the world at the world's first state import trade fair.
KUKA AG is one of the world's leading robotics manufacturers. The traditional German company, whose roots date back to 1898, has a particularly close connection to China, also due to the Chinese Midea Group acquiring a total of 95 percent of the Group's shares in 2016.
Wilfried Eberhardt, Chief Marketing Officer of KUKA
"The Chinese market is enormously important for us, because China now accounts for around one third of the world market for robots, and the trend is climbing upwards," says Wilfried Eberhardt, Chief Marketing Officer of the company. "China had the highest growth rates in the robotics business in recent years and the forecasts for the future also look good," says the high-ranking company representative.
The company's appearance at the Shanghai Import Expo is correspondingly extravagant. For the one-week event, KUKA has set up an elaborate "Smart Factory" on the site, an intelligent production line in miniature format, which can be seen for the first time in China and demonstrates the company's capabilities and expertise. Several robot arms, meticulously synchronized with one another, are working with speed and precision to entertain the trade fair audience.
KUKA’s Expo presentation in Shanghai: China is the most important sales market for the German robot manufacturer.
KUKA, which is based in the German city of Augsburg, did not want to miss the opportunity to be represented at China's first International Import Expo. Eberhard explains why:
"The approach of the CIIE, to specialize explicitly on import is certainly interesting for us as a company," he says, "although we are not necessarily dependent on such a platform, since we have been active in China for many years and also produce locally here".
Although the company is already well networked in China and has various branches in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou as well as in Jiangsu Province, it nevertheless came to Shanghai to highlight its presence and gain further experience and exposure.
"After all, the Chinese market differs significantly from other markets worldwide in which we are active," emphasizes Eberhardt. On the one hand, this is due to the great dynamism and high development speed of the Chinese market, he says.
At the CIIE in Shanghai, KUKA set up an elaborate "Smart Factory".
"In addition, here in China we often have to deal with customers who do not necessarily need super high-tech, but who want to have some slimmed-down versions of our devices instead," explains the German. "Chinese customers often demand other machine types and versions than those normally offered by our company,” he says.
"In order to meet this demand, we are currently developing machine types and products as part of our joint venture that are specifically tailored to the Chinese market."
As far as marketing is concerned, the German company is already attuned to the mindset of the Chinese target audience. Not only are the company's nimble robotic arms an eye-catcher on the exhibition grounds, but the deft hands of table tennis icon "Bo-er", as the Chinese call the exceptional athlete, also cause a stir.
A visitor or two even dares to play a little table tennis match with the exceptional German talent on the spot. Of course, nobody had a real chance against the European Champion. At best, the robots at the booth might have had the potential to beat him, if correspondingly configured by the German engineers, of course.
