Click to read the original text for details As the global partner and president of China at Kotler Marketing Group (KMG), Tiger Cao not only has a solid academic foundation in marketing but also extensive practical experience in international business. His professional background covers biochemistry, an MBA, and consumer behavior, and he studied under Professor Philip Kotler, the father of marketing. He leads KMG China in providing market strategy and brand strategy consulting services, having served over 120 companies. His clients include numerous Fortune 500 companies and city governments: P&W, General Motors, Emerson, China Resources Group, AVIC Group, Ping An Insurance, Dun'an Group, Guangdong Mobile, Guangdong Telecom, Jiangsu Telecom, TCL Group, Skyworth Group, Tsinghua Yuanxing Biopharmaceutical, Tianjin Municipal Government, Shenzhen Municipal Government, Nanjing Municipal Government, Suzhou Municipal Government, Zhengzhou Municipal Government, Harbin Municipal Government, and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, among others. As such a marketing consulting expert, regarding the marketing direction after the dramatic industry changes triggered by the pandemic, he stated that the environment is changing, consumers are changing, so marketing should also change, and he proposed four marketing trends.
Influence Marketing
In the past, building brands and shaping consumer preferences often relied on one-way advertising. Today, "influence" marketing is more accepted by consumers. Let those with credibility and influence over consumers speak out, whether they are opinion leaders, core experts, or other customers trusted by consumers, namely KOLs and KOCs. Let trusted people recommend and endorse, rather than relying on overwhelming, inefficient advertising to influence consumers.
Agile Marketing
With the advancement of the times, everything about us as consumers is being digitized; life, work, clothing, food, housing, and transportation can all be recorded as data. Consumers, through data platforms, have achieved a high degree of rapid connection with enterprises. The speed of marketing has been greatly enhanced, and the distance between enterprises and consumers is becoming shorter and shorter. Therefore, today's marketing can be based on consumers' rapid reactions and data from various social platforms, continuously experimenting, innovating, and iterating our marketing methods. Enterprises should build digital marketing assets, apply data, and quickly adjust marketing mixes based on customer needs and feedback.
Brand Activism
In the past, brands were often positioned based on the emotional and functional value they created for consumers. Now, consumers need brands that are not just about making money; they prefer brands that can take responsibility, output positive energy, and convey values. So brands not only need to make money but also need to have strong emotional value and become positive social values. Brand activism is about turning the economic value of the brand and the power to create value for shareholders into a commitment to create value for stakeholders. Such brands will inspire more customers and make them more loyal, thereby enabling these socially responsible brands that create and drive social value to achieve better returns.
Never-Ending Marketing Innovation
From using products to meet customer needs in the past, today we proactively create needs that customers haven't thought of yet, and values that customers don't yet realize they need. Today's marketing has more data to deeply analyze, understand, and predict consumer needs. In other words, marketing in the past was market-driven and customer-driven; today it becomes predicting customer needs, driving customers, driving the market, and proactively creating entirely new products and services. Continuously providing customers with valuable innovation is the true core of marketing. In an era of global upheaval, continuous technological iteration, and ever-evolving, updating, and differentiating consumer needs, only by constantly centering on customer needs and customer value, integrating technology, digital technology, new material technology, and other technologies to create customer value, does technology become truly meaningful when connected with customer value. So marketing is a commitment to customer value that needs to be continuously practiced and jointly fulfilled.