In today's era, the Internet has penetrated into all walks of life, and Internet marketing is very popular. Many industries are actively exploring cross-border integration with the Internet and using the Internet model to become bigger and stronger. And for our compatriots in the LED industry, isn’t it time to change our thinking?
Nowadays, the number of visitors to the lighting city is getting less and less, and many lighting stores have closed down. The reason for this situation is that consumers’ purchasing behavior has changed, and this change is almost irreversible. "If a company sticks to the old ways and doesn't know how to adapt at this time, to put it bluntly, you are waiting for death. Your company will definitely be eliminated by the industry one day in the future." Someone in the industry said.
Since changes are to be made and they must be treated from a strategic perspective, it is by no means simply opening a Tmall store, but a systematic project involving product communication, user experience and other aspects.
In addition to understanding the characteristics of this era, we need to understand what exactly the Internet can bring to our companies? Wu Mingming, research director of CSA Research, said that first, it can sell goods directly (this is a lower-level view); second, it can promote the company's brand marketing; third, it can collaborate with consumers and customers to participate in the re-creation of corporate marketing value.
Business philosophy and thinking
However, when talking about the impact of the Internet on LED companies, we must first talk about the business philosophy and thinking that entrepreneurs should have. A common saying in the e-commerce circle is, "The future belongs to traditional companies that understand the Internet." Some people in the industry said, "The future of the LED industry belongs to companies with the culture of the Internet era."
Haier's Zhang Ruimin once said, "The growth of a company depends on the company's strategy and organization The pursuit of disruptive structures. This change will inevitably involve people, so the roles of stakeholders must also be transformed. To ensure the sustainable development of this business model, the key is to establish a corporate culture in the Internet era. "
What should the LED marketing strategy in the Internet era be?
Some media suggested that we must first understand the characteristics of this era. In this era, "consumers" are reduced to "whole people" and "rich people" instead of the previous "target groups". "Exchange" and "transaction" are promoted to "interaction" and "resonance", and the value proposition of marketing changes from "functional and emotional differentiation" Deepened to the "correspondence of spirit and values", this is the marketing concept of the current era. At this time, companies should shift the focus of marketing to how to actively interact with consumers, respect consumers' values as "themes", identify and satisfy their deepest desires and concerns, and allow more consumers to participate in the creation of marketing value.
However, there are many opposite cases in the LED market. Take a company in Shenzhen as an example. When the corporate team promoted LED products on the Internet, they had little effect, so they planned not to use online sales channels for two years. The boss also had a lot of resentment. He felt that he had invested money in online marketing but had no returns.
An expert in Internet marketing analyzed that people younger than 30 years old may actively participate in the construction of online channels, while most people older than 40 years old will be resistant. The reason may be that most of them start from their own environment, rather than starting from the entire external environment and the development needs of the enterprise to carefully analyze the current market situation.
In the LED industry, we have also encountered hesitant bosses who are easily influenced by the outside world, and some are due to the lack of an online marketing operation team. However, there are many successful Internet marketing cases in the market. The bosses of some traditional enterprises have very strong execution capabilities. They believe that the marketing strategy in the Internet era must be reformed. They personally take charge of the battle and quickly try and make mistakes quickly. The company has established an operating mechanism of "running fast in small steps and making mistakes quickly" within the company. This company's Internet marketing project was quickly launched.
Electronic sales channels
As for the marketing of the LED industry by the Internet, it is currently mainly reflected in the electronic sales channels. Currently, many are opening online stores on Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com, and even doing B2C or 020.
On September 11 this year, Unilumin Technology announced that Unilumin Technology will increase capital in Hanyuan with 4.84 million yuan of its own cash. After the capital increase is completed, it will obtain 20.59% of Hanyuan's equity. At the same time, the two parties will conduct in-depth strategic cooperation in technology research and development, product production, marketing, brand promotion and other aspects to jointly expand the LED lighting market. In addition, the two parties also registered and established the "Zhou Ming Hanyuan" home lighting brand, and worked together to create a new channel in the LED e-commerce era. This has also become a cutting-edge brand in the "cloud business" model that combines both online and offline LED lighting industry.
Traditional lighting companies join hands with cutting-edge e-commerce companies to jointly expand new channels. This is the beginning of the exploration of new models in the industry. It will take time to test whether the effect is good or bad, but this will undoubtedly give LED companies a good start in creating new models.
The currently popular Internet marketing methods are B2C or O2O, but for most lighting manufacturers, such online marketing methods are not suitable. As we all know, B2C or O2O insist on targeting retail sales, but research shows that retail has too little influence on a factory. At the beginning, the contribution is less than 20%. 80% of sales are still contributed by OEM customers, channel dealers and other large customers.
Yang Guoqing, general manager of Shenzhen Ruisipu Technology Co., Ltd., suggested that the factory’s first strategy should be how to find its long-term customers through the Internet. OEM strategies and online investment strategies are the first choice, followed by B2C and retail.
Experiential Marketing
For large lighting companies with certain financial strength, the impact of the Internet is not simply reflected in opening several online stores on Taobao, JD.com and other electronic malls, but more importantly, integrating Internet thinking into every marketing link.
Consumption experience is the key to operation under the Internet thinking. Experience breaks the previous shouting and forced propaganda (clear brand appeal) of brand operation, but is the experience of consumers in the real consumption process. This is reflected in the instant understanding of specific products and brands by pre-sales consumers, and the instantaneous understanding of specific products and brands by consumers during the sale. The degree of communication with the seller, the consumer experience of the product or service after the sale, etc., each link cannot be ignored, and is reflected in the product evaluation system. Instead of the previous product being sold, everything will be fine, there is no after-sales and evaluation, and after-sales is also a quarrel between the merchant and the consumer.
Take Yiguang as an example. It collaborates with media forces to continuously post orders on Weibo and WeChat, show off its sweetness, and arouse the envy and jealousy of its peers. This marketing combination of offline conference marketing and online and offline media communication has achieved very good results in the channel investment strategy, guiding the voice of public opinion in the entire industry, and enhancing the company's visibility and voice in the industry.
Judging from the results, Everlight has also achieved very good results in its online marketing, transferring products from the factory side to the channel side, completing the investment strategy. It is understood that in the next stage, Everlight will adopt a two-line marketing model, radiating marketing communications to end customer groups, collaborating with channel partners to carry out professional division of labor, and extending the advantages based on the industrial chain and brand advantages to the competitiveness of the business model.
Let me mention the keyword "interactive user" here. What is an interactive user? For example, Xiaomi mobile phone can directly discuss Xiaomi's shortcomings and possible improvements with its users through forums and various social media, including user-to-user. Faced with the most senior "Mi Fans", Xiaomi has set up an "Honorary Engineer Group" for them. During the DEMO of new products, these users are first allowed to experience it and give feedback. It doesn't matter if these users are located across the country.
What Xiaomi mobile phones actually sell is a sense of participation. In fact, it uses the Internet to mobilize the masses to make mobile phones together, allowing users to participate as much as possible in the supply chain, especially in every aspect of product design. This is the performance of collaborative marketing in the Internet era, and these users are the interactive users of the enterprise. The number of interactive users can be used as the intangible assets of the enterprise, and the enterprise can use this to establish a sustainable value-added ecosystem.
LED companies basically do not have this concept. In fact, the LED industry can also create a "Xiaomi"-style online marketing company. Returning to the essence of Internet marketing is based on tribes and communities. At present, the advertising cost of search marketing is getting higher and higher, and the return on investment is getting lower and lower. With the emergence of new media, this kind of people-centered marketing model that focuses on tribes and communities will become more and more obvious.
ANNA