Winning data-driven marketing for Chinese sei-katsu-sha 1
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The Hakuhodo DY Group introduced Sei-katsu-sha Data-Driven Marketing in 2014 and has been supporting companies’ marketing since by building databases and a rich lineup of solutions. In China, too, we have a system that enables us to provide full support in the data-driven marketing domain. In Part 1 of this article Surui Yang, a Planner in the Global Data Marketing Department of Hakuhodo’s Data-Driven Marketing Division, gives an overview of our data-driven marketing endeavors in China, and in Part 2, she gives an example of our Sei-katsu-sha Data-Driven Marketing in China in action.
Features of the Hakuhodo DY Group’s data-driven marketing for Chinese sei-katsu-sha
Turning customers into fans with integrated brand experiences from purchase to use
Until now, the emphasis of data-driven marketing was maximization of the impact of sales promotion efforts by using data to efficiently deliver messages to potential customers, thereby acquiring users.
The Hakuhodo DY Group’s data-driven marketing, on the other hand, emphasizes not just the purchase experience, but the use experience as well. For instance, in what situations do people use the product? What are the characteristics of the ways in which they use it? What are they thinking/feeling when they use it?
The reason we focus on the use experience is that for sei-katsu-sha*, buying the product is not the end goal; their goal is to actually use the product. By simultaneously designing the purchasing experience and use experience, we can create a consistent, high-quality brand experience. By creating a quality brand experience, we can turn sei-katsu-sha not only into purchasers, but also develop them into brand fans.
*Sei-katsu-sha are more than simply consumers, just as people’s lives and lifestyles include more than just shopping. Hakuhodo introduced this term in the 1980s to emphasize its commitment to a comprehensive, 360-degree perspective on consumers’ lives.
The immediate benefit of turning sei-katsu-sha into fans of the brand is retaining existing customers. By turning potential customers into purchasers and purchasers into repeat purchasers, you increase sales. But there are other more important advantages. In China, user group and social media activity by those who have become fans is lively, meaning that they can influence new prospective customers from a fan’s perspective. This creates a virtuous cycle, where fans acquire new customers and the new customers become fans.
The key to turning Chinese into brand fans is to gain a 360-degree understanding of them using data
By conducting 360-degree analysis of sei-katsu-sha, it possible to grasp the strong essential needs that create fans, rather than a vague, average user image. Creating a brand experience that satisfies these strong essential needs leads to the creation of a high-quality brand experience, promoting the creation of fans.
To conduct 360-degree analysis of Chinese people, we use consumer behavior big data and sei-katsu-sha insight data concurrently.
Consumer behavior big data is data on actual individuals’ online and offline behavior. For example, behavioral data such as visited a website, bought a product. Sei-katsu-sha insight data, on the other hand, can be used to capture the thoughts and perceptions behind people’s behavior. For instance, their hobbies, personalities and life dreams.
Each of these types of data has strengths and weaknesses and they complement each other.
The strength of consumer behavior big data is its large volume. However, because much of the information is fragmented, its weakness is that it makes analyzing and understanding people in their entirety difficult. Conversely, while sei-katsu-sha insight data lacks certainty due to the small volume of data, it does enable deep analysis and understanding of people’s perceptions.
By combining these two types of data, we can leverage the advantages of both and get a higher-resolution understanding of sei-katsu-sha.
For big data on consumer behavior, we often use e-commerce behavior data, purchasing data, online behavior data, offline behavior data and other similar data.
In sei-katsu-sha insight data, we use fixed-point survey data, TV viewing preference data, word-of-mouth data, search word data, etc.
In sum, we use both consumer behavior big data and sei-katsu-sha insight data to identify the strong essential needs of sei-katsu-sha and then undertake pinpointed approaches on just those who have those needs. Everything is to design a quality brand experience and increase the number of fans of the brand.
Continue reading Part 2, for an example of Sei-katsu-sha Data-Driven Marketing in action in China.
Hakuhodo Inc.
