Why WeChat (still) is important for Marketing in China?

Why is WeChat Marketing is still important?

First, in the first quarter of 2018, WeChat reached the threshold of one billion active users per month on its platform and nearly 900 million users per day. This represents a huge opportunity for any brand wishing to become known in the most competitive market in the world. Even if WeChat started with a very basic messaging service, their range of services has grown so much that it has become need in China. people's life. Here are some examples of what you can do with WeChat: send messages and call your friends (obviously), scroll through the news about your friends (feed containing text, videos, photos, a link displayed under the name "Moments"), use your app to pay in stores (online or offline), buy train / plane tickets, order food, and much more! According to WeChat Impact Report 2018, Wechat represents only 34% of total data traffic in China! WeChat manages people's lives, it's not a simple "addictive" application.

What WeChat Business Can do for you?

You will need to register your trademark as an official account. You basically have 2 options: You can sign up for a subscription account or a service account. They both have advantages and disadvantages as to your goals (beware, you will need a commercial license "执照" as well as a WeChat Pay account). If you do not have it, we can help you.
Source : http://seoagencychina.com/how-small-brands-can-leverage-wechat-and-make-money/

Subscription account: With a subscription account, your business is more focused on its content. Your content is accessible in the SERP of the search engine integrated into the WeChat ecosystem. You have the option to send a push notification to engage your audience daily. However, this notification is "hidden" in the folder where all notifications from the subscription account are sent. Service account: the company focuses on the user. Your maximum number of push notifications is 4 per month, but the notification is more visible than the subscription account because they appear as a personal conversation in the user's message flow. With this account, you can create a closer relationship with the user via chats, loyalty programs, and more.
WE RECOMMEND A SERVICE ACCOUNT
WeChat Shops Once you're done, to choose and establish your business account, you need to know how you will sell your products:
You can create your own website with built-in HTML5 pages to access the Wechat features of your website. But that means you have to manage everything (coding the website, designing, while performing administrative tasks related to your launch in the Chinese market).
You can create a WeChat mini-program, which is a great opportunity for many reasons. First, it is much less expensive than investing in a real website / application. Secondly, it is user-friendly, which means that users do not have to force themselves to download a native application. In particular, when the brand is new to them, it is convenient to discover a brand already integrated into the WeChat ecosystem.


Use an already established e-commerce platform: your shop can be integrated with these platforms, they allow you to start on a solid foundation and for a reasonable amount. However, this also limits your freedom in terms of design and restricts your control over your actions on the platform.

Automation of WeChat marketing

WeChat provides a very useful tool, which can make your first exchange with users very informative and useful for you.

Automatic Tool: This tool allows you to create a special auto-reply message based on the situation. When you subscribe to your Wechat account, you only have 5 messages to get to know it better. So you can start by creating a welcome message, and then establish an automatic response based on the keyword found in the message sent by the user. Finally, you have automatic replies to messages that correspond to a message sent to the user to indicate that it will be re-contacted soon (because no keyword has been recognized by the automatic response keyword tool. .
This is a tool included in the WeChat platform, but you can also call third parties to give you some really smart tools that will help you improve your customer service and operate the WeChat platform.

Wechat Marketing strategy: increase brand awareness!

Publish content regularly! The Best Factors of Your Factor. Evaluate articles about your company to show your expertise. You can also view and talk about your products and services - take the angle that best suits your business. If your company is in technology, you can talk about it, and so on. If your business is traditional food, you can talk about other recipes. Finally, if you are in fashion or perfumes, why not tell your story? WeChat in has an ecosystem in fine and has a self-challenge in a problems and an intern to buy your account. That's why they tell you they have to make a perfect first impression! Be creative, do not limit yourself to text, you can add images, videos and so on. Launch marketing campaigns: brands can launch marketing campaigns to engage customers. It can be an article whose limits have been published to win a prize. Or organizer of a special contest that involves customers.

WECHAT KOL 

KOL Promotion: Key Opinion Leaders are a very useful player for any business. They are influential personalities who have been mainly on social networks and who have been easily converted. You can do a marketing campaign using your content, your online content, your campaign or your online marketing campaign. create a contest engaging their community, etc.). They are effective, they are interwoven with close relationships with the community. That's why they have so much influence and are considered essential.

KOL can be very expensive, if you opt for this type of promotion, choose wisely the KOL you want to work with, make sure he / she is targeting the right consumers for you. Plus, you want a cheaper personality, they are always, as they always are, they are always authentic. Small brands, run!

Wechat Conclusion 

We are going through the strategy of your market for the Chinese market, without any part of your budget and your time at WeChat. As mentioned above, you have different ways to take advantage of this platform, for all types of budget. And the Fear and New Year to Profitable Strategy!

For example, the grouping and tagging feature, provided by third parties, allows you to automatically categorize your subscribers into groups of specific criteria (gender, city, age, etc.). What is practical

The new Luxury Market in China

the way of life : Luxury Style 

There is a curiosity about the way of life of wealth, they are really those who have remained the keys of paradise. It's amazing their influence on us is always wondering how good their lives are. What is it to satisfy all the whims of consumption? It turned out that the Chinese elite is different from its favorite brands: Patek Philippe watches, Mercedes E class cars, Gulfstream jets, Armani suits, Azimut yachts and Louis XIII brandy. They also like to spend money on diamonds, wine, traveling and educating their children. More than 50% of rich parents send their children to schools in the United States and Great Britain. Canada is ranked third, followed by Switzerland. Chinese elites love luxury goods, Italian sports cars and more, they love to show off their talent. More than 50% of the Chinese elite, each with assets of more than 10 million yuan ($ 1.57 million), one million yuan ($ 157,000) and three million yuan a year, source

China luxury Popular Goods 

owns more than three cars. These cars are the white BMW 7 Series, the black Audi A6 long-wheelbase models and the Porsche Cayenne SUV by the new fabulous highway network of China. Luxury concierge clubs that handle the extravagant demands of their guests, such as the location of a private island in the Maldives and the bid for a $ 2 million sports car at an auction in London ,
quickly become indispensable for the Chinese elite.
The British Luxury Club was almost founded in 2000 and served 250,000 customers worldwide, enabling us to create the world's largest and most important luxury lifestyle management services. However, 10 years ago, there were no customers on the Chinese mainland. However, their different consumer behavior vis-à-vis digital applications is certainly a new group of marketing strategies in Chinese industry.

Digital Marketing 

Every detail of the plan must be Digital. Among the Chinese luxury buyers of the Millennium, 71% of all women, and more than half of the respondents living outside China are among the 15 major cities. source
An average of 87 minutes on social media to chat and an average of 75 minutes to browse news feeds, videos or listen to music on average. The journey of the Chinese elite is becoming more fragmented and complicated, to do the delicate online and offline service and to buy directly, the millennial journey of consumers is much more diverse. They will first absorb a lot of information about online products and brands via multiple channels, and thus trigger research incentives. In addition, the approach was not purchased offline, but social media, personal shopper, e-commerce, the brand's official website

Cloth & Apparel Market in China

Cloth & Apparel is a huge booming market in China. every Brands know that but ... how to enter, how to sell and how to increase your awarness ?

Apparel Market in China

For years, they made household cotton products - from pot holders and oven mitts to dish towels - to napkins - and exported them to the United States and Europe. More recently, they have been trying to modernize their product lines in the 40,000-square-meter factory in the southern Guangxi region, adding recycled cotton shopping bags and emoji-shaped pillows to help keep their business fresh. attract more customers. However, rising labor costs and weak growth in international demand left Pan with no choice but to sell the company to a larger national textile manufacturer in the hope that new capital would allow it to stay afloat.


"I do not see any future to continue selling these low value products," said Pan, who has been attending the Guangzhou show for more than a decade. The show, which runs until May 5, is the oldest and most important event in the country focused on exporting.

Chinese textile and clothing manufacturers are currently suffering a painful industrial restructuring. Although the country remains the largest exporter of clothing in the world, with huge production capacity, excess supply at home, high labor costs and increasing protectionism, all these factors have eroded its competitiveness.

Pan's corporate brochures for the show over the years reflect the changes in the industry. Six years ago, the slogan was "Be proud of Made in China", while last year was "Environmentally friendly and low carbon cyclical development". This year, a pamphlet was created to announce the liquidation of stocks.

How to Sell Clothes & Fashion into China: 

China's market share in value in the global textile and apparel industry fell from 38.6% in 2015 to 35.8% in 2016, with a downward trend in major apparel importing regions such as as the United States, the European Union and Japan. Since 2014, exports of Chinese textiles and clothing have declined sharply, from around USD 236 billion in 2014 to USD 206 billion in 2016, according to the World Trade Organization. Chinese customs data showed that exports of clothing and accessories fell 0.4% from 2016, while textile exports grew at an annual rate of 4.5%. At the same time, labor costs in China have steadily increased. The minimum wage in the south of the capital, Shenzhen, is about 336 USD per month, more than double the rate of some Southeast Asian countries. Struck by the restructuring of the sector, some of the biggest clothing brands have struggled to make profits and obtain financing. Revenues have been falling since 2015 at Fuguiniao, a Hong Kong-based manufacturer of footwear and men's clothing. The company recorded a net loss of 10 million yuan (1.57 million US dollars) in the first half of last year. this year, and he accumulated debts of at least 3 billion yuan.

Analysts say Chinese textile and apparel manufacturers are at low risk of the trade war between the two countries. Because they export so little to the United States compared to other sectors, US brands are starting to diversify their supply sources. A survey conducted last year by 34 executives of major US fashion companies revealed that for the first time, fewer US brands are turning to China to buy products, even though the country remains the primary destination of supply sector in the world.

Branding is the Key 

WeChat is super popular in China, and the top priority Marketing Channels for Brands in China 

"US fashion companies do not" put all their eggs in one basket "and the most common pattern of supply shifts from" China Plus "to" China plus Vietnam Plus ", according to the US Fashion Industry Association . the poll. The survey reveals that for many American brands, one third of their products come from China, one third from Vietnam and the rest comes from other countries. But Sheng Lu, an assistant professor of fashion and clothing studies at the University of Delaware, said that "made in China" products did not lose their price competitiveness because of the overall efficiency of the chain of supply.



"It is also important to recognize that China is playing an increasingly important role as a textile supplier for garment-exporting countries in Asia," said Sheng. According to Sheng's research, Bangladeshi textile imports from China, expressed in value, increased from 39% in 2005 to 47% in 2015, and similar trends have been observed.

Source CNBC

In fact, when I lived in China, I rarely used cash or cards, my cell phone was the substitute (using my Wechat or Alipay wallet). If you are thinking of selling clothes to China, online platforms are the perfect place. So what are the most popular online platforms in China?

Although there are companies of comparable size that will grow in the next few years, the two largest online platforms are:

Tmall Global & Ecommerce Plateforms

• JD (Jingdong) Tmall (formerly Taobao Mall) accounts for over 50% of market share in China and is the subject of much discussion among foreign online retailers.
• One of the most sought after products on the website is actually the garment. If you plan to export to China, you should definitely check this site.
• JD, on the other hand, is more focused on kitchen appliances and other electronic products (Tmall is probably the best choice for you).
• JD and Tmall are worth mentioning: it is not necessary to use a local agency in China to start selling your products.

Vertical Ecommerce plateform 

Farfetch, Secoo, Ya MaTou and Suning are other websites that are on the rise and you should not neglect. What to consider when selling clothes on Tmall Global If you plan to sell on Tmall Global, you need to understand how to set up a store and what the costs are.
Read everything on ecommerceChinaagency

Investment to integrate this plateform 

Prepare to deposit $ 25000 and pay an annual fee of about $ 10000. In addition to this, you must add a commission of 0.5 to 5% (based on the sales value). For more information on your product, I advise you to search for the latest updated information on the Tmall official office ).
Requirements when selling clothes on Tmall Global If you have decided to sell clothes on Tmall Global, you must meet different requirements depending on the type of store you choose.
Below, I listed the types of stores you can choose and the requirements:

• Flagship store: a. You are the owner of the trademark or have obtained permission from the owner to sell his clothes on Tmall Global
• . Your Tmall sells and represents a single brand
•  Your Tmall store sells and represents several brands (must be approved separately by Tmall)
•  Your Tmall sells and represents a multibrand market (must be approved separately by Tmall)

Authorized store:

• You are the owner of the trademark or have obtained permission from the owner to sell his clothes on Tmall Global
• You have permission to sell clothes of a brand. Or, you sell clothing of several brands, under the same entity (requires separate approval from Tmall)

Distribution is changing with EBusiness plateforms 

You can also now start to sell via Distribution Ebusiness plateforms to connect Brands with Distributors
End of the Traditional Distribution channels. Read this Article 

It is never too late to enter to the Chinese Market 

Market Study : WeChat 1.1 Billion Users

The Chinese popular email application WeChat now has 1.1 billion monthly active users (MAU) in May 2018 worldwide, up 12% from the 889 million MAU in Q4 2016, according to Tencent CEO Pony Ma.
Source BUsinessinsider

Ma said that the platform reached record numbers during last month's lunar new year festival. However, it is important to note that Tencent refers to MAU as user accounts, rather than individuals.

WeChat users can create multiple accounts, and it is common for a user to create both a personal account and a business account. For WeChat users, the app acts as a central hub of the digital world - consumers use it to perform tasks ranging from texting and calling friends, paying bills for goods and services, booking appointments you go to the doctor. Source 5chat

WeChat users

The recent growth of WeChat users is probably due to international users. According to ChinaChannel founder Matthew Brennan, founder of WeChat, most of the recent user growth is likely from Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.



With the virtual saturation of WeChat in its domestic market, the company Tencent holds relies on international expansion to boost its growth. About 83% of all smartphone users in China use WeChat. WeChat penetration of smartphone users climbs up to 93% in Tier 1 cities in China. As of August 2017, there were approximately 100 million international users of WeChat.

WeChat in the world

However, WeChat can hit a retarder as it seeks to expand further internationally. Although chat applications are rapidly spreading globally, many countries and regions already have one application or another that dominates. For example, WhatsApp and Facebook are the favorite chat apps for the majority of smartphone users around the world, especially Android users, with a few exceptions, including China, Japan and South Korea. WeChat will face some difficulties in convincing users already registered to these applications

https://marketstudychina.blogspot.com

Chinese Studying in USA have problems to Find jobs, Study says

US receives more Indian students than Chinese Students the USA, according to TNN of New York. US ranks among the top 10 countries to send the largest number of students to Chinese universities, according to the report, adding that China has now become another most favored country of international students after the UK.

Education can be effective channel to bring China ! 

Although the relationship between Beijing and New Delhi has been bogged down after the impasse in Doklam and the intrusion of the Indian drone into Chinese airspace, the two countries have had close educational and cultural exchanges in recent years.

Indian Students VS Chinese

China has become an increasingly popular destination for Indians leaving their shores for higher education, especially with the advent of the Belt and Road initiative. While the Indian government is reluctant to join the initiative, China's preferential policies to countries along the way are undoubtedly attractive, attracting Indian students to study and work here. In addition, Chinese universities are progressing in the world rankings and thus enjoying greater credibility with international students than before.

The number of students studying in China has increased by more than 20%, according to a survey co-commissioned by the Center for China and Globalization, the Southwest University of Finance and Economy and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2017.
source : http://www.boomeon.com/posts/language-teaching-trends-in-british-schools

As a vital channel for improving mutual understanding, education is of particular importance for improving Sino-Indian ties. In addition, many Indian students are looking to pursue a career in medicine and engineering, and may choose to work in China, a country with advanced medical and engineering industries, after graduation. Intense educational communications can play an important role in helping Indians learn more about China, an effective way to reduce tensions in relations between Beijing and New Delhi. source http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1083748.shtml

Chinese Education Economy 

As emerging powers, the two countries should learn from each other and cooperate for joint development. Last year, India's largest computer education company, the National Institute of Information Technology, opened a training center in China's Guizhou Province for big data professionals. Cooperation projects such as this one should be encouraged and supported in order to deepen mutual understanding and improve interpersonal exchanges.
In contrast, Chinese educational institutions should encourage and send more students to India. Some Indians complain that the number of Chinese students in India trails far behind their students in Chinese universities. More preferential policies should be introduced to stimulate two-way educational communications. Meanwhile, a safer environment in India can help it attract more international students, in which the country should invest more effort.

In general, both countries see increasing educational and cultural exchanges in recent years, the effects of which on the Sino-Indian relationship are invaluable.

Read also : https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/12/opinion/chinese-students-mental-health.html

EuroEyes boosts its visibility and credibility in China

EuroEyes Wins Honors For It’s Vision Correction Solutions With Stronger Commitment to China Shanghai, China - ‘Euro Eyes’; Germany’s largest ophthalmology clinic group have been recognized as a world leading institution after winning a number of awards including the ‘Clinic best performing for Trifocal Lens Implantations Worldwide’ and the ‘Global award for excellence in vision correction’. The honors reflect the companies experience as a world leading global refractive surgery. Euro Eyes have established the first Trifocal Lens Implantation Clinic in mainland China and are partnering with Chinese surgical specialists ‘Zeiss’ to strategically enhance their Chinese business operations and drive further surgical innovation in the eastern hemisphere. At a recent media event Mr Maximillian Foerst, the director of ‘Zeiss China’, presented EuroEyes with the awards and additionally named CEO Dr Jern Jorgesen as the most ‘Performed Trifocal Lens Surgeon Worldwide’. Dr. Jørn Slot Jørgensen is regarded one of the leading authorities in the field of refractive surgery. His prestige as a doctor has been instrumental in establishing confidence and trust in the expanding Chinese market. Over the past 25 years, he has successfully completed 100,000 eye surgeries and was declared the ‘leading German surgeon’ by focus magazine. EuroEyes are based in Hamburg, Germany, the company have 25 years of experience with a faultless safety record and continued high levels of professionalism. Thus far 400,000 eye procedures have been carried out worldwide by EuroEyes. The company expanded into China in 2013, initially opening a clinic in Shanghai. Recently Dr. Jørgensen performed China’s first trifocal lens implantation procedure, advancing treatment to new level for the opening of the new Beijing office. This procedure will now benefit patients of myopia, high myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, presbyopia and cataract in northern China. https://www.prbuzz.com/health-a-fitness/409807-euroeyes-wins-honors-for-its-vision-correction-solutions-with-stronger-commitment-to-china.html
http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/euroeyes-wins-honors-for-its-vision-correction-solutions-with-stronger-commitment-to-china-770923.htm
http://www.worldpressrelease.org/?p=34823
http://pressreleaseping.com/pressrelease/229098.html
http://digitaljournal.com/pr/3234520

Education in China , the most lucrative Business according to this Young Billionnaire

At first glance, Charles Chen Yidan resembles many Chinese entrepreneurs. He helped build a successful Internet platform called Tencent Inc., which manages China's largest instant messenger, WeChat, and he became a billionaire at the age of 40.

US $ 320 million for an endowment. 

 But Mr. Yidan, now 45, is still doing something relatively rare among Chinese companies People: He gives much of his wealth. It created the most lucrative annual award for the development of education in the world and donated US $ 320 million for an endowment.


 Each year, an independent board of the Yidan Prize Foundation will award two awards for research and development in education. Each recipient will receive approximately $ 5 million, or $ 2 million in cash and an investment in the winner's project. The first prizes will be awarded next September.

Mr. Yidan

Mr. Yidan and representatives of the Foundation met with universities and organizations from around the world, including the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, to encourage appointments. Mr. Yidan said his hope is to fund the best ideas from anywhere on how to improve education.

"We are undoubtedly looking for the best cases among Canadian universities because Canada is a great country in terms of education. You have a tremendous experience, "Mr. Yidan told an interpreter at a recent stop in London where he met with representatives from University College London, Oxford and Cambridge. Canada's education model is quite successful, its educational model is well known and attracts many Chinese students and also students from Asian countries.Second, Canada is a multicultural country and has shown particular characteristics in education, In English and French.

Mr. Yidan is among a growing number of Chinese business people who have embraced philanthropy, something he recognized is still rare in China. He is already deeply involved in the causes of education in China, supporting a private non-profit university, Wuhan University, on a variety of educational reforms and working with a public school in southern China To develop new ways of teaching children. "For me, education is extremely important," he said. "It propels humanity, but also it will be a tool to solve the problems society is facing ... Despite the fact that different countries have different systems, if you talk to educators, they talk about some problems Common.
As for philanthropy, Yidan said China does not have the same tradition for corporate donations or large individual financial donations as North America or Europe, but helping others is part of his culture. "No matter if you look at Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, they all advocate being nice to people, doing good things for others. We have a saying that if you do good things to others , You will accumulate virtue for yourself, which will ultimately be rewarded.This means not only monetary contributions, but also your behavior, your attitudes toward others. "
He added that business people are increasingly involved in philanthropy. "Over the last three decades, due to openness and reforms, economic growth, I think it has come back and the whole level of society is high, consciousness and behavior of the military contractor is back.
Her interest in education stems in part from her grandmother, who, although illiterate, assessed learning and pushed her grandchildren out the door every day to go to school near Shenzhen, Where Mr. Yidan grew up. He went to a local university and got a civil servant job at the inspection and quarantine office out of Shenzhen entrance.
It lasted only a few years before a group of friends from the university invited him to join their startup company, Tencent. WeChat now has more than 840 million users, who not only chat, but also use the service for banking, purchases and donations to charities. It has become so large and dominant that it has attracted the attention of Chinese officials who, according to experts, have developed a sophisticated management system to censor messages.
Mr. Yidan said he believes that countries can learn from each other when it comes to education. He noted that while the Chinese system emphasizes literacy and mathematics, "a coin has two sides."

further reading :
http://marketingtochina.com/chinese-education-market-projected-double-450-billion-2020/