Apart from having creative and analytical minds, marketers have to always be up-to-date with constantly changing marketing landscape. If you run a business, you have a hard nut to crack as well. The world is drastically changing, technology, socio-economics, the environment, climate, or the pandemia we’re currently in, influence consumer habits and, consequently, marketing. Getting across to today’s consumer is a complex process that requires adjusting your efforts to emerging trends.
Emerging trends in Chinese marketing- Forget 4Ps, welcome 4Es
It’s not something you want to hear if you spent years on learning all marketing theories which used to help you build value proposition. They are not valid anymore. Famous Product, Price, Place, Promotion from Marketing Mix are not effective anymore.
OK, so what do we have instead 4Ps now? Welcome 4Es – the new approach to customer value proposition, which embodies Engagement, Experience, Exclusivity and Emotion.
People don’t buy only products.
They buy experiences and emotions instead. You should change thinking “what should I sell” or “how should I sell” to “WHY should I sell it?”. Emotional branding is what makes a business stand out.
The most successful brands don’t offer just physical products or services, but great experiences, emotions, and a story that resonates. Disneyland or Coca-cola sell happiness, Adidas or Nike give you a courage to follow your dreams, L’Oréal sells beauty, and Apple sells a challenge to the status quo.
Emerging trends in Chinese marketing- Artificial intelligence
AI has already been here for while. Marketers deal with it on a daily basis in various tools they use, be it for email marketing, content, or analytics. AI is an inherent part of engines that run these tools, decide, filter, and suggest solutions.
At the same time, consumers are more and more presented with proactive, AI-driven solutions in conversational interfaces which help, guide, remind, and present them with personalized solutions, or products. It’s common knowledge these days.
Then, the arms race will get down to whose AI solutions will bond best with the consumer.
The thing about AI in marketing is that its development is a natural course of action. It’s not only because consumers expect more personalized and convenient experiences, but also because AI is the only and the most effective tool to gather information about customers.
If you want to stay up to date with AI in marketing, you should familiarize yourself with a term called martech. Martech refers to the connection between marketing and technology. In the face of technological development, the role of marketers, apart from the creative one, will require the knowledge and command of tools, most likely, AI-fueled tools.
Most consumers wouldn’t care if 73% of brands disappeared for good
I know it might be a hard to acknowledge, but that’s what research shows: most of consumers won’t bother if a brand stops existing tomorrow and it concerns nearly three quarters of all brands.
If unhappy at some point, consumers easily turn to another brand. After all, there’s a full panoply of distinct manufacturers, brands, and services that coexist, and can fill the gaps others miss out on.
Why are consumers so apt to change their choices?
Consumers these days expect brands to respond do their emotional needs, contribute to local and international communities, stand for a cause, and support great ideas.
Brands should not only reach us on a deeper, emotional level, but also ensure that every step of consumer experience is alike unique, including the most important part of it – the product.
The concepts of brand, its stories and values are important and matter during the acquisition and consideration phase.
At the end of the day, its the product that matters most. Great stories, causes, and values won’t buy someone into a poor product. When a product falls short of expectations, consumers choose a better option without a blink of an eye.
Digital media monitoring and analytics the goldmine of insights
Cloud computing revolutionized marketing communication. Nowadays, data lets us collect detailed information about consumer behavior, their preferences and interests. You can leverage it to create personalized marketing messages to individuals.
However, if you want to distinguish your brand among others and make clients loyal you should take a step further.
Today’s consumers need individual service and personal approach in every aspect. They can appreciate when a brand goes the extra mile in customer service. Showing your clients that you care will help you build firm relations with them and then keep them with you and your brand. The most important, though, is to make those relations personal.
Emerging trends in Chinese Marketing- Don’t be superficial
Do you know why most brands do not resonate with the target groups they try to reach?
Because they fail at building deep and firm relations with them. They reach them only on the superficial level on which you cannot really engage a person. Consumers are emotional and love experiences. If you want to convey your message and win your audience you need to touch their hearts.
The real engagement will not come from a Little Red Book contest in which users get prizes for likes. It’s an investment not worth the effort. It will bring you only short-term effects. Your follower base might increase, but the people will leave if you don’t engage them on emotional level.
John Lewis releases Christmas commercial each year and it’s one of the most longed-for elements of the holiday season. Each year the advert tells a different touching story that puts us into a holiday mood.
Influencer marketing is a key to Millennials’ world
Influencers have the power of shaping consumer opinions. Internet users are more willing to trust recommendation from a favorite TikTok creator rather than from a brand. Influencers are genuine and trustworthy, so people put more confidence in what they have to say.
More brands have started to appreciate the power of cooperation with influencers and more often engage opinion leaders in their campaigns and general marketing communication. They see the potential of such actions as they do bring measurable results.
There are plenty of ways to involve popular people in your marketing communication. You can simply find influencers who are potentially interested in your company or its value proposition with Internet monitoring.
Young consumers don’t trust brands
We live in the times when one thing is being said on traditional media and another thing people see through different channels. This inconsistent image evokes big confusion among consumers, especially the young. Information broadcast on traditional media is often perceived as lies. It comes as no surprise, that people don’t trust neither media nor brands that are irrelevant to consumers.
For the past decades we’ve been flooded with untruthful ads, so don’t act confounded when your audience doesn’t believe a message you try to convey.
Consumers are more skeptical and suspicious about what they hear and see on the Internet and other channels. If you want to convince them to your brand you, most of all, have to be honest and genuine. On top of that, to gain consumers’ trust you need to give something first. You have to offer a value that is relevant to your audience.
Emerging trends in Chinese Marketing- Final words
This is how the marketing landscape looks like right now and probably in the next few months. However, don’t get attached to it and take all these trends for granted. The marketing of tomorrow might be totally different than we can imagine.
Want to take advantage of the future trends in Chinese marketing? Contact Deep Digital China and let’s make you a solid plan!