CEOs in China: 3 Recommendations that Deliver Value, Drive Business, and Create Speed

Introduction

As a CEO in China, keeping up with the latest consumer trends has a great impact on the profitability of your businesses. With a degree of Master in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University, I have been chasing after the latest consumer insights that can be super powerful for your businesses in China.

Two Articles

In the report China Consumer Market February 2019 published by Virginia Economic Development Partnership, great insights are provided to better understand, gain confidence, and ultimately penetrate the Chinese consumer market, which includes a great number of interesting trends of consumers and markets, some key consumer product sectors, and general trade regulations of China.

(Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26087974@N05/11423157513)

In the article A Big Shift In China: Consumers Are Trading Down, Author Says written by Russell Flannery, a senior editor at Forbes magazine, the author has shared about what his take on China's economy is and what this means for the CEOs in China.

Action Recommendations

1. Consumers seek value – Chinese consumers currently look for value in products more than ever before.

2. Millennials drive business - Millennials will contribute 20% of the total consumption growth of China until 2030, more than any other generation.

3. Apps create speed - Mobile phone apps have become a major channel to reach consumers. Apps permit quicker transactions than in traditional channels.

Ending

Although Chinese consumers' confidence is increasing, CEOs must keep up with the latest trends in the markets. CEOs in China need to clearly know who their high-value customers are, what these customers want, and how to reach these customers.

About the Author

David Chen is an experienced Co-Founder with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing industry. 0 customer to over 800 customers in 4 years. A strong business development professional with a Master's degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University specialized in Insights and Analytics. Come and follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter!

News Outlets: 3 Ways to Increase Millennial Interaction with Online Content

For news outlets, creating and sharing content online is more important now than ever. Given our increasingly digital world, appealing to millennial readers by focusing on making web content more accessible isn’t an option—it’s a requirement of the industry. As a Northwestern student specializing in journalism and integrated marketing communications, I’ve found two articles that I think you will find interesting as you consider how to best reach millennial news consumers.

In her article for Business Insider, Audrey Schomer notes that millennials (age 21-37) consume a mere 8,766 minutes of news a year on average compared to their older counterparts, who consume closer to 30,103 minutes a day. Yet she also highlights the fact that when millenials do consume news, its digital reach is greater than it is to that same older age group—digital news reaches 88% of millennials. A last important note from Schomer’s article—many people in this demographic highlight convenience as their favorite aspect of social media; further, about half (48%) of social media news consumers ages 18-29 felt that accessing news on social made them better informed. Thus, it stands to reason that streamlining web content would increase millennial consumption of news.

A graphic from a 2018 Nielsen study on digital media use.

(Source: https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2018/time-flies-us-adults-now-spend-nearly-half-a-day-interacting-with-media.html)

As per the graph above, Nielsen conducted a study in July of 2018 that resulted in a shocking outcome—American adults spend over 11 hours a day listening to, watching, reading, and interacting with digital media. Notably, smartphones are the tool that enables a great deal of this usage. Over 72% of the 18-34 demographic view video content on social networking sites at least once a day, if not more; various digital platforms allow consumers to stay connected to the digital world to a greater extent than they ever have before. Younger generations tend to devote the majority of their time to smartphones and computers instead of TV; the portability of new devices allows adults older than 18 to spend an average of 45 minutes a day on social media—in large part on smartphones.

Given these insights, I’ve developed three action items that will help news outlets make their content more accessible to millennial consumers:

·             Turn to social.

o   Digital news reaches 88% of millennials while national TV news reaches 61% of them; thus, providers would do better to produce news for social to hit a wider target demographic.

·             Convenience is key.

o   Since digital consumers see so much media every day, they will not take the extra time to investigate materials that aren’t convenient to access, meaning that news agencies / marketing firms need to make sure their digital material is right at consumers’ fingers.

·             Hook consumers early.

o   Digital consumers spend, on average, 11 hours interacting with digital media a day—they see a lot of news, so make content interesting/interactive to get clicks.

Effective use of digital content can make or break a news outlet, and the industry must implement it to grow.

Marketing Managers: 3 Ways to Leverage Big Data into Big Success

For marketing managers, it is becoming increasingly imperative to combine big data with an integrated marketing communications strategy in order to increase brand awareness, relevance, and growth. As an undergraduate student in the Integrated Marketing Communications program at Northwestern University, I have found two articles that highlight two brands that have executed highly successful marketing campaigns through the creative use of data. 

The article, “Big Data as a Marketing Strategy – Spotify’s 2016 Campaign,” by Lior Schneider at Overdrive Interactive analyzes the huge success of Spotify’s data-driven campaign, “Thanks, 2016. It’s been weird.” In this campaign, Spotify shared funny, interesting, and culturally relevant insights from user data. For example, a billboard in London read, “Dear 3,749 people who streamed ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It’ the day of the Brexit vote, hang in there.” The brand took an integrated marketing communications approach by presenting these insights across different forms of media, from billboards to sponsored advertising on social media. All in all, this campaign strengthened and raised awareness of the Spotify brand, as it generated high levels of engagement and conversation from Spotify’s users and target audience. 

Source: http://crossing-technologies.com/big-data-analytics/

Further, the article, “Dove’s New Billboards Criticize the Way the Media Discusses Female Athletes’ Looks,” by Adweek's Kristina Monlios explains how Dove created a machine-learning algorithm to detect sexist quotes about female athletes in real-time in order to increase Dove’s brand relevance and to re-establish Dove as a thought leader in conversations about beauty and body. Similar to Spotify, Dove took an integrated marketing communications approach by not only sharing insights on its social media channels, but also by live streaming negative commentary regarding female athletes’ appearances on digital billboards. The campaign encouraged people to join the conversation, challenge sexist rhetoric, tweet at media outlets, and use the #MyBeautyMySay hashtag. The campaign was widely successful, as it turned #MyBeautyMySay into a globally trending movement that reached and engaged millions of people. 

Based on my review of these two articles, as well as my relevant studies in the Integrated Marketing Communications program, here are three action items to consider when creating your next marketing campaign: 

1. Become Data-Driven –  Do not restrict big data to just behind the scenes; instead, create data-driven campaigns to share valuable insights with consumers. 

2. Be Relevant – Create campaigns with insights that are culturally relevant and interesting to your target audience.  

3. Always Engage – Create a campaign that does more than just market your brand or product; create a campaign that engages, surprises, or inspires your audience, whether that be through humor, social change, or really any method of your own choosing. 

As you prepare your next marketing campaign, think about how these three action items can leverage engagement and growth for your brand. 

  

Justine Ivanov is an undergraduate student currently pursuing a Communication Studies major, an Economics minor, and an Integrated Marketing Communications certificate at Northwestern University. 

She hopes to work in marketing upon graduating in June 2019. 

To contact Justine, you can find her on LinkedIn or Twitter. 

Newspaper Publishers: 3 Ways to Improve Your Digital Revenue

As a newspaper publisher, you know that growing your digital revenue will be key to a viable future. In my graduate-level studies in Northwestern University's online Integrated Marketing Communications program, I have found two articles on how publishers are ramping up their digital subscriptions that will help inform your decisions.

Esther Kezia Harding provides a deep dive into the successful trail the Financial Times has blazed online in her article “Truth, trust, transparency: the FT’s approach to a sustainable future” in The Media Briefing. The Financial Times' approach is built on having a direct relationship with their audience, which informs their approach to both breaking news events and long-term brand messaging. Chief Commercial Officer Jon Slade tells Harding that the Financial Times was well-positioned to benefit from such major news events as Brexit and Donald Trump's election because of their focus on quick, deep news analysis. Moreover, they have teams working around the clock to change subscription offers in response to real-time web traffic.

Image source: conceitos.com

A newer media outlet, the digital publisher Quartz, turned a profit from online advertising after four years, as Matthew Flamm writes for Advertising Age in "Mobile-Focused Startup Quartz Manages toActually Turn a Profit on Digital Journalism." The key to their success? Pursuing an elite readership. With a clean design free from pop-ups, banner ads and other visual junk, Quartz has positioned itself well for advertising from prestige brands who want to reach the "right" audience. Their rates are at the top end of the market, according to the article, because they offer a distinctive news product.

From my graduate studies in the Northwestern Medill IMC program and my review of these two publications, I have developed three key lessons to help you ramp up digital revenue.  They are:  

• Seek quality readers - Pursue the highest-value audience for your publication to earn more from subscribers and advertisers.

• Push real-time marketing - Be prepared to adjust offers when traffic spikes happen.

• Value your content - Your main selling point is the quality of your journalism, and what makes it special to your readers.

      By focusing on quality journalism, and selling that journalism to the right audience, as these two publications are, you will be able to chart a path for your publication into the future for years to come.

     

    Bridget Thoreson is a digital marketer, journalist and graduate student at Northwestern University. Contact me through Twitter or LinkedIn.

CMOs: 3 Tips on Improving Your Brand’s Social Media Strategy

As a CMO, you know that mastering your brand’s presence on social media is like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Despite your confusion, you’re still responsible for building and revising a social strategy daily. As an IMC grad student and marketing professional, I’m fascinated with how a brand is supposed to know their place within the constantly evolving world of social. I’ve come across two articles that provide basic yet important principles for guiding your brand to a strong social strategy. In the article Marketing Tips for Awkward Brands in a Social Media Era” by James Jorner, he gave the reader strong but simple suggestions such as "Infuse Humor” or “Be Interactive." Published in Adweek, the article took a macro-level approach in offering easy-to-remember tips to build or maintain a strategy around. Jorner also provided a relevant analogy on how a brand should view their place within the social media landscape: being at a party, and figuring out who to mingle with. You can approach the guests however you’d like, just make sure you don’t pass up the opportunity.

Source: AOK Marketing

In the article “See How These Brands Pranked Their Fans on April Fools’ Day” by Mary Sollosi, she allowed the social media content of 22 unique brands to speak for itself. After reviewing Entertainment Weekly's published pranks, two points became clear: each brand created their social content well before April Fools’ Day, and they followed the tips from the article posted above (i.e. Infuse Humor, Create Interesting Content). The concept of a brand injecting itself into the day’s news is called Newsjacking, and it can be an extremely relevant way to use social media. Each brand took a constructive approach to their holiday-themed content, and made sure their material was fun and inoffensive.

Based on the articles’ insight, and my own professional experiences, I’ve listed three action items to help your brand get started (or maintain) a social media strategy:

• Don’t Abandon Social - No matter what your brand does, maintaining a social presence within platform/s you feel comfortable with is key for long-term success.

• Be More Entertaining – Your brand’s content should preserve a balance between promotion and engaging followers with fun/interactive materials.

• Think Newsjacking – Producing social content directly related to real-time news can be a great way for your brand to stand out.

Remember CMOs: social media trends will evolve, and new platforms will emerge. But utilizing these three tips will always be helpful to begin your strategy.

Ryan McDonough is currently a Master of Science Candidate in Integrated Marketing Communications program at Medill-Northwestern University. He is also a Chicago marketing professional with 10 years’ experience in brand communication and marketing strategy. He is graduating in June 2017, and can be reached via email (rmcdonough32@gmail.com) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-mcdonough-60a10235/) 

CMOs: 3 Changes You Should Know about Reduced Attention Span

As a marketer, you are always trying to cut through the daily clutter as your high value markets become less patient and more forgetful. Being a graduate student in Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern, I have found two powerful articles around reduced human attention span and Google’s six-second solution. 

In a 2015 study from Microsoft, people on average lose their concentration after 8 seconds, even shorter than the goldfish. Researchers also found that heavy media users are easily distracted when multiple stimulus are presented. This is due to the emerging lifestyle of multitasking, especially among the younger generations. The good news is, consumers can also better memorize your messages during high attention bursts. With that being said, now your ads have to be more outrageous to get your brand memorized. 

Source: mobileday

To stay ahead of the trend, Google is promoting their new six-second ads. In the past three years, Google find it harder to engage their audience with 15, 30 and 60 second commercials on YouTube, so they turned to the six-second spot; it is too short to be annoying but long enough to trigger interest. Google also kicked off a competition between major ad agencies at Sundance 2017 to explore impactful story-telling within 6 seconds. They certainly have high hopes for this new format. Here is one of the entries:

Based on my understanding of the two articles, and relevant studies I have done in the IMC program, here is three action items you should put down now:

• Focus on video - Quality of your video ads are critical to your brand’s future success.

• Creativity is king - Your message should tell a story, rather than the repetition of logos.

• Make Them short - Stay creative on the 15-second spots and be prepared for the 6-second future. 

Remind yourself of these three action items every time you develop a new video ad.    

Jess Yang is a master of science candidate in Integrated Marketing Communications at Medill, Northwestern. She is graduating in December, 2017. Jess has four years of experience in social media marketing, and her major client @ShibaSommelier now has almost 20 thousand twitter followers.

find her on LinkedIn and Twitter @RocK_YanG.