Digital Touchpoints, Going Direct, and Mini-Programs
Over the past few months, we have engaged in a number of great discussions on China’s digital marketing trends with leading experts.
Here we talked with vice president of ITC, Aurelien Rigart.
How are brands in China scaling their digital touch points?
Tech is more affordable, more scalable, so its now feasible to create a much wider set of brand apps and touchpoints. Brands are going beyond simply having Mini-Programs on WeChat and are scaling to Alipay, Douyin and Baidu - linking everything back to a centralized data/CRM system.
And, with brands building this infrastructure across more channels, the concept of “private traffic” is growing, as brands realize they are able to manage multi-point CRM.
How prepared to “go direct to consumer” are brands in China?
Companies historically have not build their own assets (touchpoints). There has been an over-reliance on big platforms like Tmall. And now, while the top-line continues to grow, the bottom line for brands is often shrinking.
Brands are turning to Mini-Programs and CRM systems now and going more direct. Mini-programs allow brands to segment audiences - manage omni-channel customer interactions and ultimately grow sales.
Coupled with this investment in more Mini-Programs, across more platforms, there is a move by brands now to look again at how to tighten the connections between online and offline. Brands with strong offline customer connections (especially) are looking at how to migrate customer engagements from shops to social CRM.
How are brands looking at investments into Mini-Programs now?
Over the past few years, flash sales were probably the most popular use-case for Mini-Programs but these efforts were mostly disposable efforts which lasted 2-3 months.
Brands should now take a longer-term view and create more sustainable presence with Mini-Programs - to fulfill key brand goals from sales to customer service - and keep audiences more engaged. There is the further goal of linking all these touch points to CRM.
Will Alipay and Douyin Mini-Programs be successful for brands?
Alipay, Douyin and Baidu Mini-Programs have much smaller user numbers than WeChat but they do have purpose for brands, depending on the use-cases.
From a technical point of view, the barriers to scaling Mini-Programs across channels are relatively low. With this in mind, brands should look at this Mini-Programs as new store-fronts and test them together with WeChat.
What is your interpretation for the move by brands toward “private traffic” and KOCs?
With costs rising and bottom lines suffering on larger platforms, we saw a growing trend in China toward what is call “Private Traffic” in 2019. In addition to building out an array of new touchpoints such as Mini-Programs, brands are also looking at other CRM and social selling opportunities.
