Daxue Talks

In this episode, we spoke to Chloe Goncalves, ex - International Business Development Manager of Tmall Global (Alibaba, Tmall Greater Paris Metropolitan Region), about everything companies should know if they want to enter the Chinese market, including test periods, budget requirements, marketing strategy, warehousing issues, and much more.

Listen and explore:

00:00 Intro

02:40 What are the 2 main types of Tmall Partners (TPs)? TP-service provider and TP-distributor

03:05 What is the ‘three-parted relationships’? A pattern and steps for a brand to sell goods through Tmall

04:10 How much does it cost to get on Tmall Global? one-time deposit, annual fee, and commission fee

06:34 How much of my budget should I invest into Marketing on Tmall Global?

08:58 What warehousing issue should I be aware of with Tmall Global? 4 types of logistics, location, and prices

12:53 Why selling on Tmall Global is a perfect way to test the Chinese market

14:40 What kind of brands are Tmall Global willing to work with?

16:10 On Tmall Global, which segments are already saturated and vice versa which segments are just starting to blossom?

18:09 Surprising case studies of young and relatively small brands in their domestic markets that blew up Tmall Global

20:45 ‘360 strategy’: 种草

22:25 What are the Limitations of Tmall Global vs Tmall?

26:25 What kind of packaging solutions does Tmall Global offer?

28:00 How to transition from Tmall Global to Tmall? Create more touchpoints with your consumers in China

30:15 What is Kaola platform today?

34:10 Can I get access to Tmall Global’s customer data? Using Tmall dashboard35:33 Go further and access request to a data bank

39:13 Should I focus on Chinese spending holidays? Build your consumer base first with smaller festivals and retarget them during the biggest festival, Double 11

44:23 What is the perception of European brands among Chinese consumers

47:27 TMIC initiative

#InsiderTalks #TmallGlobal #Crossborder

China’s fitness industry is going through a transformational phase. For one, traditional gyms are closing their doors, and in replace, we see a rise of digital, new retail, and social options. Some of these new Chinese “gyms” are KEEP (a completely digital workout platform), Supermonkey (a member-ship free offline gym with a WeChat mini-program platform), and simple workout videos uploaded on platforms like Bilibili.

▶ Find daxue consulting’s 2019 article on the fall of Chinese gyms: https://daxueconsulting.com/hosa-fitness-closed-doors/

▶ KEEP case study: https://daxueconsulting.com/keep-fitness-app/

▶ Supermonkey case study: https://daxueconsulting.com/supermonkey-gym-market-strategy/

▶ More on Billibilli: https://daxueconsulting.com/commercialization-bilibili-platform/

00:00 Intro

1:16 Reasons traditional, offline, membership-based gyms are failing in China

2:13 How Bilibili’s fitness videos rose during COVID-19 and Steffi’s insights on video workouts in China

5:15 How Chinese fitness marketing messages have changed from shaming to empowerment

7:17 KEEP – the business model of the Chinese fitness app

8:30 Supermonkey – the business model of the Chinese new-retail gym

10:40 Why the membership model doesn’t work anymore and how fitness apps now monetize

12:50 General China fitness trends and stats

Cover image source: Supermonkey

#MarketTidbits #FitnessChina #FitnessIndustry

In this episode, we spoke to Ada Yang, Head of Social Community & International Corporate Affairs of Pinduoduo, about the team purchasing marketplace which helps deliver authentic SKUs from different countries to China and has a social mission helping its merchants to live better.

Listen and explore:

00:00 Intro

04:01 Pinduoduo as a group purchasing marketplace from a perspective of Head of Social Community & International Corporate Affairs

08:11 PDD is more than a group buying platform

11:16 Team purchasing model that focuses on SKUs

16:15 PDD shopping journey which starts from social apps: how to organize a group of friends to make a purchase

20:24 Pinduoduo vs Kickstarter

25:06 C2M model

28:28 Examples of tailor-made products

28:33 Collaboration with 六神花露水 (the mosquito water)

29:27 Creation of a new flavor for younger consumers together with 瓜子company

30:46 PDD’s partnership policy and creation of customized products

36:20 How big should I be as a merchant to get PDD’s attention?

38:03 PDD offers livestreaming – a tour to your farmland

40:49 Duoduo international: cross-border offering

42:29 Economics of selling on PDD platform, how much is the deposit

45:09 The PDD’s policy & contract terms: warehousing, unsold products, penalties, and more

52:01 Advertisement service on PDD platform: how the audience is targeted

58:40 Price and discount ranges

01:00:39 Collaboration with Amazon and other authentic brands case studies

01:01:35 What’s next for Pinduoduo?

#InsiderTalks #Pinduoduo #TeamPurchasing

Nostalgia marketing in China is making brands of all industries go viral. In this market tidbit podcast, we discuss the reasons why nostalgia marketing is so effective among young Chinese and deliberate over daxue consulting’s research on nostalgia triggers in China.

Our research results can be downloaded here: https://daxueconsulting.com/nostalgia-in-china/

Show notes:

00:00 Intro

1:05 How nostalgia marketing works

2:35 Why nostalgia marketing is so effective among young Chinese adults

4:00 How to do nostalgia marketing in a modern context

5:20 The methodology for daxue consulting’s nostalgia research

8:00 Discussing the results of the research – nostalgia triggers of home

10:10 Nostalgia scent triggers for each region of China

11:15 Nostalgia for school and tests

18:50 What makes Chinese think of their first crush

22:00 Nostalgic IP starting with cartoons and movies

27:50 Nostalgic snacks and White Rabbits revitalization through nostalgic co-branding

30:00 Our favorite case study – a completely immersive nostalgic restaurant in Shanghai

34:00 McDonald’s and KFC case studies

37:35 The importance of social currency in nostalgia marketing in China

38:40 Tips for brands doing nostalgia marketing in China

#MarketTidbits #chinabusinesspodcast #nostalgiamarketing

In this issue, we spoke to Yi He, founder and CEO of WUYI Brand, a Branding and Design Strategy cabinet based in Shanghai and Paris.

Listen and explore:

00:00 Intro

02:22 Yi He background and WUYI brand service and focus

03:47 Packaging design and brand thinking design

05:22 Post growth era and Pre growth era

07:16 DTC in China: ‘Direct to consumers’ or ‘Douyin Tmall consumer’?

10:33 ‘Platform-native’ brands

13:34 ‘爆品 phenomenon’: consumers perceive a brand as one product

16:01 A sustainable brand formula: multi-SKU, multi-channel, multi-dimensional content

17:34 Perfect Diary case: how to grow continually in China

21:32 The trend of premiumization of local brands

26:13 Rational & emotional side of the brand

32:45 Magic of persuasion for brands

36:36 Gen Z as new consumers in China

43:51 Values that resonate in China now

47:26 The brand strategy depends on brand size

50:42 Hey Tea study: a modern inspirational brand

52:11 Co-branding with institutions and cultural-driven IPs

56:35 Massive vs Niche

#InsiderTalks #BrandingChina #StrategicBranding

In this issue, we spoke to Renata Thiébaut, award-winning e-commerce & Innovation executive and researcher & head of business intelligence at Web2Asia, about China's e-commerce game-changing concepts. Web2Asia is a Shanghai-based full-service digital marketing agency and award-winning Alibaba recommended E-Commerce Operation Tmall Partner ("TP") aka Trade Partner for Tmall, Tmall Global, JD, JD worldwide, Kaola & others providing digital strategy, online performance marketing and e-commerce setup and operations.

Listen and explore:

00:00​ Intro

01:26​ Discount coupons are not all mechanisms during Double 11

03:38​ Co-branding is a normal way of doing business in China but what to watch out for

05:00​ The most interesting Double 11 campaign in 2019 - livestreaming together with Kim Kardashian and Viya (薇娅)

06:02​ Co-branding with big designers

09:02​ Marketing calendar for e-commerce in China

12:10​ 2 things to keep in mind to succeed on Tmall

14:02​ Tips for cosmetic brands in particular

16:33​ ‘Pyramid of affiliation’ - 2 models to work with KOLs & KOCs

23:06​ Pros of informal type of live streaming

24:57​ Create a community and debate via live streaming

26:28​ Private Traffic: The future of personalized branding in China

30:26​ New competition created by Chinese brands

34:28​ Keywords in e-commerce for 2020 and 2021

Daxue consulting' YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyI6-PBWcHpugJrF67y4eRQ

Industry expert Jason Shen from Mobile Now Group, talks about what solution is suitable for your brand based on the data needs of your company, how WeChat mini-programs have almost no data restrictions for brands while other platforms do, and how some native apps are currently outperforming WeChat mini-programs in certain areas.

Takeaways:

- WeChat mini-program data on users are very accessible to the brand’s owners. However, the massive volume of data is too big to analyze for smaller brands. For brands whose revenue is in the tens of millions per year, an off—the – shelf solution would be fine. The ROI on accessing all the data and crunching it only becomes worth it when companies are doing hundreds of millions in sales each year.

- Some functionalities of WeChat mini-programs lag behind native apps in terms of virtual try-on software for fashion brands. However, it is likely that these features will become available soon.

- Jason categorizes the data into four general groups which are useful to bands.

Listen & Subscribe to the Podcast:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDka8-Z2Jr0&list=PLcVM3NJYsLF1Z2LLcVGbBVlwVQOOsuuJh

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-177979339/tracks

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daxue-talks/id1492896072

Website: https://daxueconsulting.com/

What is Daxue Talks?

Daxue Talks, a China business vlog powered by daxue consulting, a china-based strategic market research company founded in 2010! With Daxue Talks, you will stay up to date with all the latest business updates in China. Every day, you will learn from china-based experts who share their knowledge about the Chinese market in 2-5 minutes.

#DaxueTalks #WeChat #miniprogram

China Paradigms podcast: https://www.youtube.com/c/chinaparadigmbydaxue/videos

WeChat mini-program designer Jason Shen tells Daxue Talks about how a WeChat mini-program can be used for e-commerce sales as well as marketing and what are the resulting costs and jobs that the brand must take on. Also, he talks about trends in WeChat mini-program sales & marketing.

Takeaways:

- If brands want to use their WeChat mini-program as an e-commerce platform the cost is not necessarily much higher than a WeChat mini-program without an e-commerce platform and the cost can be a flat fee or done on a SaaS basis.

- However, brands will have to manage the logistics by either keeping it in-house or outsourcing it.

Listen & Subscribe to the Podcast:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDka8-Z2Jr0&list=PLcVM3NJYsLF1Z2LLcVGbBVlwVQOOsuuJh

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-177979339/tracks

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daxue-talks/id1492896072

Website: https://daxueconsulting.com/

What is Daxue Talks?

Daxue Talks, a China business vlog powered by daxue consulting, a china-based strategic market research company founded in 2010! With Daxue Talks, you will stay up to date with all the latest business updates in China. Every day, you will learn from china-based experts who share their knowledge about the Chinese market in 2-5 minutes.

#DaxueTalks #WeChat #eCommerce

Creative director at Mobile Now Group and WeChat mini-program designer Jason Shen, shares case studies of famous international brands they have worked for to create WeChat mini-programs.

00:00 Intro

00:25 Let’s see some mini-program case studies!

Takeaways:

- WeChat mini-programs can be easily tailored to the strategies and goals of the brands operating them.

- Some brands use WeChat mini-programs to sell, some use them purely for fan engagement with the brand.

Listen & Subscribe to the Podcast:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDka8-Z2Jr0&list=PLcVM3NJYsLF1Z2LLcVGbBVlwVQOOsuuJh

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-177979339/tracks

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daxue-talks/id1492896072

Website: https://daxueconsulting.com/

What is Daxue Talks?

Daxue Talks, a China business vlog powered by daxue consulting, a china-based strategic market research company founded in 2010! With Daxue Talks, you will stay up to date with all the latest business updates in China. Every day, you will learn from china-based experts who share their knowledge about the Chinese market in 2-5 minutes.

#DaxueTalks #WeChat #Casestudy

Daxue's Newsletter: https://daxueconsulting.com/newsletter-2/

WeChat mini-program designer talks about what to do and what not to do when creating a WeChat mini-program for your brand. Also, what entry points are most successful for bringing potential customers to your WeChat mini-program and can you integrate you’re your CRM systems with your WeChat mini-program.

00:00 Intro

00:27 Mini-programs have a ton of entry points; from sharing to QR codes, ads, the list goes on. Which entry points are the most important for brands to focus on, where does most the traffic come from?

02:20 What role does a Mini-program play in consumer retention and CRM? What data can you collect? Is it possible to integrate data from sources like Tmall? Are phone numbers still used as a unique identifier for consumers?

05:55 What are some mini-program design tips that generate traffic, or tips to avoid?

Takeaways:

- Scanning QR codes is a very common entry point for WeChat mini-programs.

- A brand’s already existing CRM system such as Salesforce can be integrated easily with their WeChat mini-program.

- It is recommended to keep your brand’s WeChat mini-program easy to use, make it aesthetically pleasing, and importantly, start slow and iterate when creating a mini-program.

Listen & Subscribe to the Podcast:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDka8-Z2Jr0&list=PLcVM3NJYsLF1Z2LLcVGbBVlwVQOOsuuJh

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-177979339/tracks

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daxue-talks/id1492896072

Website: https://daxueconsulting.com/

What is Daxue Talks?

Daxue Talks, a China business vlog powered by daxue consulting, a china-based strategic market research company founded in 2010! With Daxue Talks, you will stay up to date with all the latest business updates in China. Every day, you will learn from china-based experts who share their knowledge about the Chinese market in 2-5 minutes.

#DaxueTalks #WeChat #miniprogram