The 4th Marketing Wave

Author: Joe
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Now, more and more enterprises are becoming increasingly unclear about the sales trends for the next year and even the second half of the year, and are becoming increasingly unable to predict future profit situations. It seems like everything is a gamble. Why is this? The reason is simple: the marketing environment is becoming increasingly volatile, and most enterprises are becoming increasingly unable to grasp their own destiny. How should we face the challenges? At the crest of the fourth marketing wave, we reflect on all issues related to marketing in this book. It discusses the judgment and prediction of global marketing trends, the analytical critique of the relationship between global and Chinese marketing, the position and influence of Chinese marketing in the global marketing system, and the marketing strategies needed for Chinese enterprises to go global.
In the late 1990s, a phenomenon began to emerge and gradually evolved into a distinct commercial characteristic of the era: enterprises that focused on using structured product combination strategies and structured product pricing strategies to meet segmented market demands, emphasized terminal distribution and display effects, and continuously introduced innovative and cost-effective promotional activities in terms of form and content to attract consumers achieved good development. The mobile phone industry is a typical example. Before 1999, the Chinese mobile phone market was almost completely controlled by the three major international brands: Nokia, Motorola, and Ericsson. At that time, some domestic enterprises were preparing to produce mobile phones, but they were widely criticized by public opinion as being futile, overconfident, and heading for a dead end. According to conventional thinking, many people believed that in terms of capital, technology, brand, and market share, domestic mobile phones could never "compete with" the three major international brands. A few years later, the results came out. Domestic mobile phone brands such as Broadcomm, TCL, and Amoi quickly rose, with market share soaring year after year from 1999 to 2003, while, in contrast, the market share of the three major international brands declined year after year during this period. At this point, some people said, "That's because the international brands haven't really unleashed their full potential yet. Once the international brands do, domestic brands will ultimately be unable to compete with them." Whether the international brands can truly unleash their full potential remains to be seen. However, in the corresponding relationship between the rapid rise of domestic mobile phone brands in recent years and the relatively declining market share of internationally renowned mobile phone brands, we can see that the success of domestic mobile phone brands far beyond expectations was largely due to the four points achieved by domestic mobile phone manufacturers:
1. Product segmentation (mainly reflected in fashionable designs and additional functions, such as TCL embedding diamonds in mobile phones),
2. Structured product pricing methods (such as almost every domestic mobile phone manufacturer introducing low-cost products to compete with rivals, which had very little profit or even no direct profit),
3. Skillfully intercepting consumers at sales terminals (such as Broadcomm opening a large number of retail stores nationwide),
4. Using diverse and continuously innovative cost-effective promotional activities to attract consumers (such as some mobile phone manufacturers collaborating with China Mobile and China Unicom to hold buy-one-get-one-free promotions).
Product segmentation won over specific consumer groups (such as targeting young students who). Micro-profit or no-profit products drove the sales of profitable products. Emphasis on sales terminal construction gave the products a wider opportunity to reach consumers (such as setting up retail stores in third- and fourth-tier markets, allowing consumers in vast small and medium-sized towns to access the products). Cost-effective promotional activities further stimulated people's desire to purchase.
In contrast, the three major international mobile phone brands once appeared quite clumsy in these aspects. They still adopted series products and medium-margin policies ("high quality, high price" and "stick to the high-end" strategies). They still only focused on traditional regional distribution channels—large and medium-sized cities. Their promotional activities were few and lacked