Key trends on how brands are building trust in China

As we have just updated our China Digital Marketing Strategy Guide, Lei Chien, the author of the guide, has produced the article below on how brands are building trust in China and outlines the key marketing trends to be aware of.

1. The Latest Trends in China

With 2018 Lunar New Year around the corner, many marketers in China can finally take a deep breath and enjoy a break from a very busy year. To the world, the growth of China's digital economy is no longer a mystery. To say it's a force to be reckoned with can arguably be an understatement. China's continued progress in the digital space is contributed by innovations, fearless attitude towards failure, tech-friendly regulations, and of course its massive consumer market. As of February 2018, some of the latest trends in China include: Cryptocurrency: China mines more Bitcoins…

Whether you’re hastily booking a last-minute meal for two, or boycotting the societal conventions and watching Netflix at home, in your PJs, it’s that time of the year again!

Boyfriends are panic buying 100 roses for £25 at Aldi and the card racks at Clinton’s are only getting larger. According to research from a retail and shopper marketing agency Savvy, 39% of shoppers said they expect to spend more on Valentine’s Day 2018 than they did last year, rising to 52% among 18-34 year-olds. In addition, 56% of respondents said that they don’t mind spending more to make the day special. The research also highlights that Valentine’s Day spending is expected to hit £726m. Yes, that’s right! Wondering how your business can benefit from this revenue? To captivate the love-ridden audiences on Valentine’s Day, marketers need to…

What is the price of love - £2.00 or £2.50?

'Roses at Triple the Price’ day is approaching. But this year, particularly for heterosexual couples, Valentine’s Day will be exceptional. 2018 marks the platinum anniversary (100 years) of women receiving the right to vote in the UK. Well, at least 8.5 million women - at the time, forty percent of the total UK adult population. The Representation of the People Act 1918 gave men aged 21 the vote. Great Britain was still at war so as a concession, men aged 19 on active service could also vote. Women had to be aged over 30, own a property or married to a man who was a homeowner. Alternatively, they had to be at university or previously studied at one. If true equality would have been applied, with all women aged over 21 getting the vote, women would have become a larger [proportion] of the electorate…

Digital branding visuals to help measure and deliver purpose

What’s the point of it all? Since the dawn of humankind, people have agonized over that highly emotive question. As we steadily slip and slide towards the second decade of the 21st Century, more than ever that question is pivotal. In the sandstorm of why…how…what… when…who… and where… Rather than instinctively turning to people for answers, we increasingly gaze through windows on wrists, laps, and desks for digital to deliver neatly packaged solutions wrapped up in brand messages with emotional ribbons and bows. Consider Turkish owned McVitie’s (United Biscuits) which combined digital (via social media) and emotions to help sell biscuits.  Emotional marketing is nothing new. However given today’s consumers wariness of algorithms, many marketers bank on emotions to help soften qualms. Such fears could be credited to many factors including the veracity of social messages (Think Russia/Trump and Twitter/Facebook)… …

How to achieve brand management and change that drives ROI

My passion is to approach brand as the most valuable asset of an organization. In working with board members around the world, I’ve learned what’s of interest to them. It’s not merely the creative aspect of brand, but much more the business administration side of branding that resonates at C-level. Boring? Yes! Getting a mandate to implement brand change. Challenging? Yes! Let me describe the relevance and ways to go about it – for change and for ongoing brand performance.

The most valuable intangible asset

Brands are an organization’s most important intangible asset, and their management is absolutely critical. According to Brand Finance, brands account for 18% of the top 500 global brands’ market-value (2017). Traditionally, brands have been created by agencies, and brand management has been undervalued. Fortunately, that mindset is now shifting, and I’m pleased to have been part of the…

Chart of the day: Youtube remains the main distributor channel to enhance engagement rates

Looking into the future, it is important that companies have a clear digital plan entering 2018. With a multitude of different platforms at every marketer's disposal, it can be challenging to know which ones need the most attention to connect with potential customers. However, there are some channels and media that cause the biggest disruption for marketers and their efforts to get their brand noticed. When we asked respondents about future disruptors to their busi- ness, people across the globe cited the current political landscape as a source of disruption in their jobs. For the rst time, we received a multitude of references to current events: Brexit, the current U.S. administration, economic crises, world politics, and even a call-out on currency uctuations in South Africa. For business leaders, uncertainty and fear in the political and…

Chart of the Day: Millennials  (18-34 year olds) utilize a greater range of channels before purchasing products online than Gen-X and Baby Boomers

As consumers, we are more savvy with our purchases that ever before. By the time we have finally decided to buy a particular product we will have spent a good chunk of time researching our options to try and find the best deal we can for the product that suits our needs. In research conducted by Salesforce surveying 4,000 consumers across the UK, USA and Canada, it was found that while the respondents spent most of their time researching on the internet before purchasing online they also spent a significant amount of time using multiple channels including email, in person, on mobile apps and more. Interestingly, there are significant differences between the behavior of millennials, Gen-X and Baby Bloomers. Millennials seems to not favor a particular channel after using websites with…

How to meet today's marketing compliance challenges with an online BrandHub

Marketing departments are bursting at the seams with opportunity. Upstream they are in overdrive producing content for niche targets, using multiple agency partners and designers. Downstream, content needs to be seamlessly distributed across a range of social, web, print and broadcast media. The challenges today are not only getting great work out the door, on time and on budget, but ensuring the work is compliant from a brand and legal perspective as well. As such, having a system in place that can cater for the full lifecycle of content from creation and collaboration, to creative approvals and the centralization of final artwork, is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but rather a must-have to streamline marketing operations. Especially, when working with tight marketing deadlines and multiple stakeholders. According to Tessa Court, the CEO of IntelligenceBank DAM, “most companies are undergoing a wave…

These easy steps will make you reconsider your brand strategy

a brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that last, taken together, account for a consumer's decison to chose your product over another - Seth Godin Seth Godin's definition – listed above – summarizes exactly the true meaning of a branding performance. If consumers choose your brand over the competition’s, you win the game of business. Branding is complex. However, for your company to experience success, the branding strategy that you adopt must be carefully planned, tested, and ultimately optimized. But, if you have never done it before, it can be harsh in the beginning. We have collected several key factors that many big-level brands actively seek through their branding strategies. Success leaves clues – if we’re smart, we’ll pay close attention and adapt. If we’re not, we’re ought to spend some more time failing at what others have already failed before,…

White labeling your surveys will build trust when collecting data and help increase response rates

Protecting your brand identity in today’s digital world is of paramount importance, especially if you are engaging with customers and asking for their feedback. Consumers are savvy and something as simple as a bona fide branded domain can build trust and increase response rates to your online surveys. Does it really make a difference when so much data is collected every day? Consumers today can be reached in a multitude of different ways but respondents are wary of handing over personal data unless they know it is a legitimate request and the data will be handled and stored securely. Therefore, it’s helpful to all concerned when sending a survey invitation to be able to identify immediately who has sent the request. A simple way to ensure this is with secure domain branding. Something that can only be done with…