What Is Marketing Analytics?

Marketing analysis refers to the summary, analysis, review, and evaluation of sales activities in various marketing areas by the company at a specified time, and proposes amendments to the next stage of marketing work, and makes partial adjustments to the marketing strategies in certain areas , And even reformulated sales target plans in some regions. Therefore, marketing analysis is an extremely important subject in corporate marketing management. Marketing function management begins with a general analysis of the company's environment. Companies must analyze their marketing and marketing environments to look for attractive opportunities and avoid environmental threats; they must analyze the company's strengths and weaknesses, as well as current marketing actions that may be taken to ensure that the best opportunities are seized. Marketing analysis passes information to other marketing management functions. The relevant marketing analysis will be explained in detail in Chapter 4. ^[1]

Marketing analysis

Marketing analysis must focus on the following aspects: ^[2]

Case study 1: Starbucks marketing analysis

Starbucks marketing analysis case ^[3]

In just a few years, Starbucks has become synonymous with fashion in China. What it marks is not just a cup of coffee, but a brand and a culture. In April 1971, the Starbucks founding store in Seattle, USA opened.

In March 1987, Starbucks owners Baldwin and Polk decided to sell Starbucks coffee stores and roasters in Seattle. Howard Shutz decided to buy Starbucks and merge with the daily coffee company that he founded in 1985. "Starbucks Enterprise."

Currently, Starbucks has opened more than 6,000 stores in North America, Europe, and the South Pacific. The growth rate in recent years has exceeded 500 each year, with an average of more than 10 million people spending in-store every week. Starbucks is expected to have 10,000 stores worldwide in 2005. Currently, Starbucks is the only global coffee brand with stores on four continents.

Starbucks entered Taiwan in March 1998, Beijing in January 1999, and Shanghai in May 2000. Starbucks has now become the number one brand in the domestic coffee industry.

In July 2003, Starbucks, a well-known coffee chain in the United States, announced that the group had significantly increased its stake in the Taiwan-Shanghai joint venture, with its shareholding increased from 5% to 50%. As a result, Starbucks Group's subsidiary "Starbucks International" and Taiwan's Unity (Starbucks) Group will change from an authorized relationship to a business partner. Xu Guangyu, general manager of Shanghai United Starbucks Coffee Co., Ltd., said that the main reason for the United States to increase its tenfold stake is that it is optimistic about the market prospects of Taiwan and Shanghai and is willing to invest further in the future.

The changes in the shareholdings of Starbucks in Taiwan and Shanghai made the "Starbucks Kingdom" once again attract people's attention. As a market follower, entering a fully mature market full of competition, why did Starbucks develop from a small coffee shop to the world's most famous coffee chain brand? Please see this issue of "Starbucks Marketing Analysis Cases".

mode

Adopt flexible investment and cooperation models according to different market conditions around the world

Like McDonald's global expansion, Starbucks has begun transnational operations very early, and three types of business organization structures are generally implemented around the world: joint ventures, licensing agreements, and sole proprietorships. Starbucks' strategy is relatively flexible, and it will adopt corresponding cooperation models according to market conditions in various countries. Based on the proportion of shares held by Starbucks headquarters in Starbucks companies around the world, there are four main modes of cooperation between Starbucks and the rest of the world:

1. Starbucks holds 100% equity, such as in the United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia;

2. Starbucks holds 50% equity, such as in Japan and South Korea;

3. Starbucks has less equity, generally around 5%, such as in China's Taiwan, Hong Kong, Hawaii and Shanghai before the capital increase;

4. Starbucks does not own shares, but is purely authorized to operate, such as in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Beijing;

Starbucks has different partners around the world, but the brands they operate are the same. Xu Guangyu, general manager of Shanghai Unified Starbucks Co., Ltd., said that the advantage of doing so is that "it can use others' power to help it do many things, and it does it at the same time."

Generally speaking, the larger the proportion of equity held by Starbucks in the United States, it means that the market in that place is more important to it. In addition, Starbucks has established strict criteria for selecting partners: such as the reputation of partners, quality control capabilities, and whether employees are trained to Starbucks standards.

At present, Starbucks has three partners in mainland China: Beijing Meida Coffee Co., Ltd. exercises its agency rights in northern China, Taiwan Uni-President Group exercises its agency rights in Jiangnan regions such as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou, and southern regions (Hong Kong, Shenzhen, etc.) was delegated to a Hong Kong company.

Early in 1999, Starbucks authorized Beijing Meida Coffee Co., Ltd. to open the first branch in the Beijing market. So far, it has rapidly grown to 36 in Beijing and Tianjin. And "Unified Starbucks" opened its first store in Taiwan in March 1998. At that time, unified Starbucks Coffee Co., Ltd. was held by "Unified Superstore", "Unified Enterprise" and "American Starbucks" respectively with 50%, 45 % And 5%. In May 2000, the two major groups adopted the same joint venture model to obtain the operating rights in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions in the Mainland, and established the "Shanghai Unified Starbucks" to open the first store in Shanghai. Currently, 26 stores have been opened in Shanghai. It plans to reach 30 stores by the end of the year.

It is out of this flexible investment strategy and cooperation model that when the US Starbucks Group is optimistic about the Chinese market, it is optimistic about its partners in this market, increases investment and increases its shareholding ratio to 50%. This shows that the United States attaches more importance to this region and will invest more in the future. Before, the relationship between "Unification" and "Starbucks" was an authorization relationship. In the future, the two major groups will change from an authorization relationship to partners to jointly develop the coffee market across the Taiwan Straits. Xu Guangyu said that the change of equity is deeper cooperation rather than confrontation, which is a good opportunity for United Group and Starbucks.

Directly operated

Mostly direct management

For more than 30 years, Starbucks has announced that its entire policy is: Adhere to the company-operated stores, and do not join stores in the world.

However, there are also questioned views that, among Starbucks's several types of cooperation models with companies around the world, Starbucks does not own shares but is a purely authorized business model, which is essentially a franchise business model. In this regard, Xu Guangyu said that Starbucks is in a certain country or region, such as Singapore and Beijing (authorized to operate the Starbucks market in North China), etc., looking for a relatively large and powerful company for authorization cooperation. The two parties are cooperative Relationship, this way does not belong to the commonly-known franchise chain.

In fact, Starbucks direct management is more reflected in another level: When a Starbucks joint venture or authorized company develops a Starbucks coffee shop locally, it stubbornly refuses to join the individual, and all local Starbucks coffee shops must be Starbucks A joint venture or authorized local company's direct store.

Industry insiders have said that if Starbucks uses the "sale of franchise rights" franchise to expand like most domestic leaders, its development will definitely be much faster than it is now. Of course, it is not necessarily better than it is now.

The reason given by Starbucks for its direct management is that people are operating behind the brand. Starbucks strictly requires its operators to agree with the company's philosophy, identify with the brand, and emphasize the consistency of action, discipline and quality; Investors, they only consider joining the brand as a way to make money. It can be said that their sole purpose is to make money instead of operating the brand.

The difference between direct management and franchise stores is that all the power of the direct management stores is controlled by the parent company; the owner of the franchise stores has some rights, and the parent company only provides technology or related resources. The reason why Starbucks is not open to join is because Starbucks wants to do the best in quality control. For example, Starbucks will never report waste materials, but only to provide customers with the best coffee. However, if the franchise right is opened, it is difficult to say that the owner of each franchise store will be willing to increase costs and scrap, just to provide guests with a good cup of coffee. At the same time, companies that implement franchise chains must have strong legal affairs processing capabilities to deal with various legal issues with franchisees. Therefore, in order to protect the brand from unnecessary interference, Starbucks decided not to open the franchise.

ad

Don't spend a penny on advertising

The impact of Starbucks on the traditional concept of brand marketing is as striking as the rapid expansion of Starbucks. At a time when various products and services are flourishing, Starbucks has developed one of the world's oldest products into a distinctive, durable, high value-added brand. However, Starbucks did not use the traditional methods of other brand marketing strategies, such as overwhelming advertising and huge promotional budgets.

"Our shop is the best advertisement," Starbucks operators told reporters. It is understood that Starbucks has never spent a penny of advertising expenses in the mass media. However, they are still very good at marketing.

Xu Guangyu said that Starbucks almost never advertises except to use some strategic alliances to help promote new products. Because according to the experience in the United States and Taiwan, after the flood of mass media, its advertising has gradually lost credibility. In order to avoid waste of resources, Starbucks intentionally does not advertise. This inspiration is also the promotion strategy of famous stores in Europe. They do not rely on advertising on the mass media, and every good store is the best advertisement.

Starbucks believes that in the service industry, the most important marketing channel is the branch itself, not advertising. If the products and services in the store are not good enough, do more advertisements to attract customers, just to let them see a negative image. Xu Guangyu said that Starbucks is unwilling to spend huge funds on advertising and promotion, but insists that every employee has the most professional knowledge and enthusiasm for service. "Our employees are like coffee enthusiasts, who can explain the characteristics of each coffee product to customers in detail. Only through one-on-one way, we can win trust and reputation. This is an economical and affordable approach, and it is also unique to Starbucks Somewhere! "

In addition, Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks, realized the importance of employees in brand communication. He opened a new path and created his own brand management method, using the expenditures that were originally used for advertising for employee benefits and training, so that Staff turnover is minimal. This has played an important role in Starbucks' word-of-mouth brand management.

style

Make the most of the "experience"

Starbucks believes that their products are not just coffee, but the coffee shop experience. Research shows that the primary goal of two-thirds of successful companies is to meet customer needs and maintain long-lasting customer relationships. In contrast, those companies with poor performance have not done enough in this regard, and they have focused more on reducing costs and divesting non-performing assets.

One of Starbucks' main competitive strategies is to communicate with customers in coffee shops, with special emphasis on communication with customers. Every waiter has to undergo a series of trainings, such as basic sales skills, basic coffee knowledge, coffee making skills, etc. Require every waiter to be able to anticipate the needs of customers.

In addition, Starbucks is better at "experience" other than coffee: such as atmosphere management, personalized store design, warm lighting, soft music, etc. Just as McDonald's has always advocated the joy of selling, Starbucks has gradually broken down American culture into something that can be experienced.

"Customer-oriented": "Take every customer seriously and only cook the customer's cup of coffee at a time." This phrase is based on the corporate philosophy of the old Italian cafe's craftsmanship and runs through the secret of Starbucks' rapid rise. Pay attention to the concept of "oneatatime" (current experience), and emphasize the management of "the present" life experience in daily work, life and leisure.

Starbucks also strongly emphasizes the American-style consumer culture. Customers can talk and laugh at will, and even move tables and chairs to combine at will. This experience is also part of Starbucks' marketing style.

Promote consumer education

In a country that is used to drinking tea, to promote and popularize coffee drinking, the first thing we encounter is consumer emotional resistance. Starbucks first focused on promoting "education consumption." Starbucks set up a coffee club through its own storefront, as well as going to some companies to open "coffee classrooms" and through its own network.

When a customer spends at Starbucks, in addition to the product name and price, the cashier must enter the customer's gender and age at the cash register, otherwise the cash register will not open. So the company can quickly know when to spend, what was consumed, how much, the gender and age of the customer. In addition, the company invites professional companies to do market research every year.

Starbucks' "Customer Club", in addition to sending news letters via email, can also send text messages through mobile phones, or download games on the Internet. Once the customs clearance is obtained, many consumers will forward such messages To other friends, the effect of one pass ten, one pass ten.

design

Similarities and Differences in VI and Store Design

The design of every Starbucks store in Shanghai is done by the American side. It is understood that at the US headquarters of Starbucks, there is a special design room with a group of professional designers and artists who specialize in designing Starbucks stores opened worldwide. When designing each store, they will follow the characteristics of the local business district and then think about how to integrate Starbucks into it. Therefore, each Starbucks store, on the basis of a unified brand, has tried its best to give play to its individual characteristics. This is in stark contrast to McDonald's and other chain brands that emphasize a high degree of uniformity in VI across all stores.

In design, Starbucks emphasizes that each building has its own style, and let Starbucks integrate into the original building without destroying the original design of the building. Every time they add a new store, they use a digital camera to take the interior of the store and the surrounding environment. The photos are transmitted to the US headquarters, asking them to help design, and then send them back to the construction team. In this way, Starbucks can be authentic.

For example, Starbucks Shanghai is set to focus on young consumers, so when expanding new stores, they went to great lengths to find distinctive stores and design them in conjunction with local landscapes. For example, Starbucks located in Chenghuang Temple shopping mall looks like a modern temple, while the riverside branch near the Huangpu River expresses the garden glass curtain and palace-like magnificence. At night, you can sit leisurely by the river and admire the Bund. Night view while savouring aromatic coffee.

problem

Potential risks after rapid expansion

Investment pressure to open new stores is huge. According to reports, every new Starbucks store in Shanghai has an investment of around RMB 3 million. These investments mainly include the import of equipment from the United States, customs declaration costs, venue rent, personnel recruitment, training costs, etc. Since Starbucks entered Shanghai in May 2000, it has now opened 26 stores and will reach 30 by the end of the year, with a speed of opening a new store almost every month. Based on this calculation, the investment of Starbucks in Shanghai for opening a store in one year is more than RMB 30 million.

At the same time, as Starbucks does not allow franchise, the operator can not only rely on franchise to take advantage of fishermen like other coffee shops. In order to attract customers and build boutique brands, almost every Starbucks store is opened in an expensive location with extremely high rents. Rental pressure is also a major risk in operation. For example, Starbucks is mainly distributed in Beijing International Trade Center, COFCO Plaza, Oriental Plaza, Kerry Center, Fenglian Plaza, Parkson Shopping Center, Sete Building, Guiyou Building, Friendship Store, Contemporary Shopping Center, Xindongan Shopping Center, Jianwei Building, etc In Shanghai, it is mainly located in Shanghai's most prosperous business districts such as People's Square, Huaihai Road, Nanjing Road, Xujiahui, Xintiandi.

Starbucks chooses to open a store in a prime location, which is considered by some to be "enclosure." Starbucks has four stores in a short distance of 1000 meters from the "Oriental Mesa" on Shanghai Huaihai Middle Road to "Central Plaza". People in the industry estimate that the daily rent per square meter in this area should be around US $ 2, plus the fixed decoration cost of US $ 300,000 per store, Starbucks is simply "burning money". This approach was deliberately implemented by Starbucks, and it also continued the unified approach of the Starbucks Corps. It also became a potential risk for Starbucks.

There are many actual and potential competitors. Starbucks has been regarded as its biggest competitor in Taiwan's Shangdao Coffee, Japanese Real Pot Coffee, and Canadian Barley Coffee, which have already entered the Mainland China market. The "Coffee War" is unavoidable. Comprehensive analysis believes that Starbucks faces more than these competitors, which can be roughly divided into four categories:

1. Coffee industry competition: chain or franchise stores such as Seattle Coffee, Yishi Coffee, Rodolen Coffee, coffee shops that have entered the market one after another, and independent coffee shops.

2. Convenience Store Competition: Iron cans, aluminum cans, and convenient convenience bags for brewing coffee at convenience stores.

3. Fast food restaurants sell coffee: McDonald's fast food restaurants, Texas Burgers, KFC fast food restaurants and other convenience-based coffee machines brew coffee.

4. Fixed-point coffee machine: stationed at the airport, rest station is mainly for convenience, a cup of coffee brewed by the coffee machine, or iron pot coffee, aluminum platinum packaging coffee.

There is still a long way to go before Chinese people who are accustomed to drinking tea can drink coffee in general. Some statistics show that the current annual per capita consumption of domestic coffee is only 0.01 kg, and the coffee market is growing at an annual rate of 30%. In theory, China's coffee market still has huge value-added space. Starbucks' initial success in countries where green tea is the main beverage also shows that its concept can be accepted by different cultural backgrounds.

However, integrating non-native coffee culture into the lives of Chinese people is not easy. Whether it's Starbucks or Real Pot, everyone's product is very simple, that is, coffee, and the production process is nothing more than turning coffee beans into coffee. There is no so-called core technical problem. Everything is completely determined by the market. Customers like it and frequent it. , The enterprise will survive, otherwise it will die. After all, the domestic coffee market has just started, so no matter how much competition Starbucks has with other coffee shops, they still do one thing in common, which is to cultivate the market.

Reviews

Adapt to the market and "Yapi" experience ---- Zhang Hui

What is the real reason for Starbucks to be profitable and expand quickly? From a product perspective, it is not a product winner, alternative products and competitive products abound; from a service perspective, it is not a service winner. At most, self-service services make consumers feel "equal" at best. Personalized services are fundamental. Not to mention; in addition, many people who specialize in VI have questioned its clutter. In addition to the unification of Starbucks signboards, many other things violate the theory of VI. In terms of franchising, Starbucks is also a" freak " Many people in Beijing think it is a "Mandarin" business. Many people in Shanghai think it is a "unified" enterprise. It says, "Our main business model is still direct sales."

In fact, Starbucks' success is mainly because it is "the egg laid in the market", and everything is done in sculpture in the "invisible hand" of the market. If it rises to a theoretical level to judge Starbucks, it can be said that Starbucks makes full use of the most popular "experience" as its "marketing tool" to win. With the clever use of the "experience economy", other problems are solved.

At Starbucks, the product is not exactly a product, it is more an "experience a feeling". Imagine looking at the crowded street through the huge glass window and sipting a sip of fragrant coffee, which is very consistent with the "Yapi" feeling experience. As a result, the premium profits of the product are naturally realized.

Messy can be understood as "natural comfort" and it is said to be part of American culture. Many mainstream consumer groups of Starbucks are now accustomed to the overlapping sense of multiculturalism, and the viewpoint of insisting on visual unification seems to be somewhat "old-fashioned".

The debate on whether it is a direct or cooperative venture is actually of little significance. If you can make money and maintain "core competitiveness", Starbucks naturally considers joining you. Today, the franchise market is too chaotic. Like KFC and McDonald's, Starbucks does not dare to open the franchise market easily.

Case 2: Marketing analysis of China Mobile

Marketing analysis of China Mobile ^[4]

After continuous division and reorganization of China's telecommunications industry in recent years, China Mobile Communications Group has become the most powerful operator with the largest market share in mobile communications revenue. With the rapid growth of global mobile communication demand and the rapid development of mobile communication technology, China Mobile has also accelerated its own development pace. On the one hand, it constantly launches new services and creates new brands; on the other hand, it spares no effort to attract and retain users and accumulate customers. Capital to build core marketing capabilities, so marketing activities targeting the mobile communications market are becoming increasingly important.

The Boston Consulting Group stated in a report that today's telecommunications industry has unprecedented opportunities to create value, but many companies that are trying to take advantage of these opportunities are facing great challenges. As companies look for new opportunities, they try to get the most value from their existing market positions and business portfolios. Other companies have achieved initial success in consolidating strengths to create strong growth, which has translated into long-term competitive advantages. Both types of companies have found that in order to succeed in a turbulent environment, they must be both offensive and defensive. In fact, the marketing strategy of today's mobile communications market is in line with this judgment. The design and implementation of future marketing strategies should also be carried out in this direction.

I. Analysis of the current market situation of the mobile communications industry

(I) Overview and Trend of Mobile Communication Industry Development

In 2002, China's mobile communications market grew rapidly. As of November, the total number of mobile phone users has reached 198 million, an annual increase of more than 60 million. In May 2002, China Mobile's GPRS was officially put into commercial use, and MMS service was launched in October. China's 3G spectrum is demarcated, and the country's third and fourth mobile licenses will be issued soon. The TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance will be announced, and new value-added services such as mobile payment will develop rapidly. China s mobile communications market has huge room for development. According to statistics from mobile companies, so far, China s mobile user scale and network scale have leapt to the second place in the world, second only to the United States.

1. The data business is exposed with "sharp corners"

Although the voice business is still the main business in China's mobile communication business, the development of mobile data services represented by short messages and WAP services has entered the initial stage.

From the current point of view, the mobile data infrastructure network is under construction, the business model for mobile data business operations has not yet been introduced, the bottlenecks that limit the rate of mobile data applications have not yet been broken, and the wireless Internet applications are still not abundant. All this means that the mobile data market Not yet mature. However, the efforts of mobile operators to fully expand their data services and move into mobile IP are accelerating the launch of this market. In the first half of this year, China Mobile Communications Group and China Unicom launched WAP services. On September 11, this year, the signing ceremony of the "China Mobile Internet" (CMNet) backbone networka project that will cover 31 provinces and cities across the country and provide IP services in all directionswas held in Beijing. At the same time, the WAP platform is also being stepped up, and the SMS platform has become increasingly mature. Not long ago, China Mobile Communications Group and China Unicom started trial operation of GPRS services in some provinces and cities. It is expected that by the end of this year and at the beginning of next year, GPRS will be commercially available nationwide, which means that the rate bottlenecks that limit data applications will be broken by then. .

All these signs show that the development of China's mobile data business has opened a new page. According to relevant people's predictions, by the end of this year, there will be 800,000 mobile data users nationwide and about 43 million in 2004, of which mobile phone users will account for 30% of mobile phone users.

2. Rapid development of prepaid services

With the initial formation of the competition pattern in China's mobile market this year, competition among China's mobile operators has become increasingly fierce. In the fierce competition, new technologies have become the driving force for the development of mobile communications. Under this driving force, the business level of the mobile communications market this year has shown a scene of prosperity. In particular, the rapid development of prepaid services based on intelligent network technology has become a new bright spot.

Since the beginning of this year, the intelligent network-based prepaid service has shown strong development momentum, which not only makes this service for low-end users a new bright spot in the mobile market, but also makes new services a strong driving force for mobile user growth. In the first five months of 2000, China Mobile Group's "Shenzhouxing" subscribers reached 2.7 million. In particular, since March 2000, the number of "Shenzhouxing" users has increased by leaps and bounds, with more than 2.6 million new users in just three months, with an average monthly growth of nearly one million. China Unicom's "Ruyitong" prepaid business also shows good development momentum.

3. The "dynamic zone" leads the trend of youth fashion

"M-ZONE" is a new brand launched by China Mobile for the young people's living characteristics and consumption habits. It is the first domestic mobile communication customer brand specifically designed for young people. In the M-ZONE zone, young people can find pictures and ringtones that are cool and cool, massive information that is new and strange, and they can choose more free tariff combinations on their own. Create innovative cultural concepts in the form of innovative SMS packages, build new ways of communicating in life, and open up new channels for obtaining information. The reason why M-ZONE can successfully implement branded management is as follows:

(1) "M-ZONE" is positioned in novelty!

(2) "M-ZONE" has a brand new slogan-"My site listens to me".

(3) "M-ZONE" is mainly to provide personalized information to mobile phone customers, which covers all aspects of clothing, food, accommodation, and entertainment.

(4) The "M-ZONE" brand has specially designed "student packages", "entertainment packages", and "fashion packages" specially designed for consumers who adore personality, pursue fashion, and keep abreast of trends. There are more, more dazzling, more valuable texting packages and communication plans for consumers to choose from. "Motion Zone" not only provides consumers with high-quality voice call services, but also rich data services, premium text messages, personalized ringtone picture downloads, mobile QQ, ***, mobile FLAS and other stylish, novel and fun colors Dongdong has everything, consumers only need to choose one of the "student, fashion, entertainment packages" to be allowed to enter the dynamic zone, enjoy a variety of SMS packages and value-added communication plans, and easily enjoy the information world!

(2) Overview of the international market

In recent years, the global mobile communications phone market has achieved rapid development. From 1992 to 1997, the average growth rate of global mobile communications phones was 55%. In 1998, the number of mobile phone users worldwide reached 281 million. According to statistics published by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), by the end of October 1999, the number of mobile phone users worldwide had reached 400 million.

(3) Overview of the domestic market

The development of China's mobile communication market has made rapid progress. Since 1987, China's mobile communications operation industry has developed rapidly at an average annual growth rate of 80%-100%. In 1987, there were only 3,200 users of mobile communication mobile phones in China, reaching 43.24 million in 1999. As of the end of 2000, the number of mobile phone users nationwide reached 85.26 million, and 41.97 million new users were added that year. The national user penetration rate was 6.7% (The specific data is shown in the table below).

Analysis of China Mobile's current marketing strategy

The author has conducted a detailed investigation and analysis of China Mobile's marketing strategy through various channels. In summary, the marketing strategy implemented has good aspects, but also has some obvious shortcomings. Its advantages and disadvantages are as follows:

(1) The advantages of China Mobile's current marketing strategy are:

1. The systemicity of the marketing strategy is strong, manifested in the strong initiative, continuity of the marketing policy, and the good balance of marketing policies for different users;

2. Pay more attention to the management of social public relations, and use a lot of opportunities to enhance the influence of important party and government institutions, and try to form "demonstration effect" and "word of mouth effect";

3. The new business is gradually becoming a climate, such as SMS, dynamic zone, wireless Internet, etc., which has a high awareness and its revenue share also occupies a comparative advantage;

4. Rely heavily on "external brain" and rely on social consulting agencies and advertisers to improve marketing planning and management;

5. Pay more attention to the collection of market intelligence and accurate grasp of opponents' conditions, increase investment in internal operation support systems, and provide strong technical support for scientific decision-making;

6. Strive to build a strategic defense system for mid-to-high-end customers, and strive to increase the loyalty of mid-to-high-end customers through service differentiation.

(2) The shortcomings of China Mobile's marketing strategy are:

1. Business promotion is limited by network technical conditions;

2. The measures to retain mid- to high-end users deviate more from the communications industry, which is not conducive to the consolidation and development of core competitiveness;

3. The desire to maintain high profit margins and a good sense of market superiority may lead to insufficient preparation of strategic defense measures for other competitors (such as China Unicom);

4. The marketing concept needs to be deepened: the existing marketing concept still has a strong "sale" color, and the characteristics of transaction marketing rather than relationship marketing are still outstanding;

5. Marketing targets need to be refined, mobile operators still lack clear user positioning or regional positioning; marketing management, especially strategic market planning, consumer behavior research, channel integration, and improvement of information and information systems are still weak. Post-event analysis and evaluation of promotional activities also pays insufficient attention;

6. The integration of marketing organizations needs to be strengthened, especially the standardization and management of image stores in social agency channels needs to be enhanced;

3. China Mobile implements new marketing strategies to enhance core marketing capabilities based on customer capital

(I) Definition of customer capital and core marketing capabilities

The communications market competition seems to be intricate and infuriating. In fact, the basic goal is to compete for the user market and get more customers. It can be said that implementing the "customer-centric" philosophy, winning customers, and establishing and maintaining customer relationships are the core issues of enterprise development.

"Customer" means an individual or organization that purchases a product or service. "Customer capital" can be understood as the value of customer relationships, including operating assets such as customer loyalty, goodwill, and marketing channels outside the organization. When a company obtains high-quality customer capital compared to competitors through long-term operation and accumulation, and can use customer capital to create value autonomously and effectively, the company has already possessed core marketing capabilities based on customer capital to a certain extent . However, not all customer capital of an enterprise is an effective part of its core marketing capabilities. According to the relevant theoretical perspectives of core capabilities, it must be tested in four aspects of core capability characteristic parameters, that is, it has value creativity, scalability, and is difficult to imitate The self-learning customer capital and its integration are the core marketing capabilities of an enterprise. When an enterprise has a created market and its loyal customers, perfect and materialized channels, and shared market resources, then it has a core marketing capability based on customer capital.

(II) Analysis of China Mobile's core marketing capabilities based on customer capital

China Mobile Communications Corporation was formally established in April 2000, and has now expanded into mobile phones, Mobile Monternet information value-added services, and 17950/17951 IP phones. Specific analysis of its core marketing capabilities based on customer capital are as follows:

(1) Value creation: service and business leadership

There are two commonly used methods for companies to create markets and gain customer capital increase, namely the "leading user approach" and the "customer approach". "Leading user" refers to a manufacturer or user who assumes that a product or service will be popular in the future market, has strong demand for it, and can benefit from the solution. The "customer-oriented approach" is to go beyond customer demand orientation. Enterprises in a market economy generally advocate production oriented to customer needs, but in many cases, the public does not know which new products are feasible. Therefore, the really good modern enterprises are not asking what products they need, but guiding them to accept new products that conform to the laws of the market. Through analysis of consumer behavior and psychology, China Mobile continues to promote the practice of creating market value based on the characteristics of mobile communication technology and business development.

(2) Scalable: Construction of marketing network

Marketing network is an important resource for enterprises. To gradually transform resources into capabilities, enterprises must strengthen management of marketing channels and networks. Through marketing channel and network selection, incentive, control, evaluation, dynamic optimization and maintenance, etc., to ensure the effective operation and continuous extension of the marketing network.

(3) Difficult to imitate: win customer loyalty

Through various measures and measures, China Mobile actively transforms potential customers into real customers from different perspectives, and then establishes a long-term good relationship with customers, turning satisfied customers into loyal customers.

a. Build an excellent corporate culture and lay the foundation for customer loyalty. The foundation of customer loyalty is excellent customer service, which in the final analysis must be achieved by the majority of corporate employees. Therefore, it is possible to achieve customer loyalty by integrating excellent services for customers into the company's culture and values, and then transforming them into values recognized by employees, and reflecting and disseminating them in customer service relationships.

b. Strengthen soft and hard service quality. China Mobile attaches great importance to the interests and needs of customers. By increasing the value of additional services and reducing the customer's time, money, and energy, customers can feel happy and value for money when using China Mobile's services.

c. Carefully analyze and evaluate each of the relative market segments, and adopt marketing strategies for competitors based on time and place, so that users can feel superiority in the process of comparison with other service providers.

d. In recent years, China Mobile has focused on improving the company's brand image, strengthening its positioning as a "mobile communication expert", and making more and more users become loyal supporters of the China Mobile brand.

(4) Self-learning: Sharing brands

China Mobile existed as a business unit of China Telecom before the telecommunications split. In the competition with China Unicom, the only competitor, it has always appeared in the background of leading telecommunications operator China Telecom, and is known for its high network coverage, strong financial strength, and many marketing outlets. After the telecommunications reorganization, China Mobile has inherited most of the original China Telecom's customer resources and mobile communication equipment. Based on the original brand advantages, it has continued to introduce new ones. According to customer needs, it has launched "Global Link", "China Mobile", "Mobile Monternet", Business brands such as Dynamic Zone, these new and old service brands rely on each other to promote each other, which has given birth to the status of mobile communication operators and brands, and created China Mobile s core marketing capabilities based on customer capital.

(3) Implement new marketing strategies to enhance core marketing capabilities based on customer capital

Having long-term loyal customers and the customer capital integrated from them is an important foundation for the survival and development of an enterprise, especially a service enterprise. In any business decision of an enterprise, meeting the needs of users and cultivating customer loyalty are important. China Mobile is no longer in the simple stage of expanding reproduction, but has entered the period of intensive development. Only by implementing appropriate new marketing strategies can we truly enhance core capabilities. Therefore, the formulation of new marketing strategies has become an important issue that is urgent.

Generally speaking, the marketing strategy refers to the specific modes and characteristics exhibited by various marketing methods. According to Philip.kolter's marketing theory, the core content of the marketing strategy is the so-called 4Ps (product, price, sales channel place, promotion). According to marketing experts, any strategy of a company must be achieved through a combination of marketing strategies. ( ^[2] , [US] Philip Kotler: Marketing-Asian Edition)

Product / Service Strategy

The overall product theory holds that a complete product should include three levels: core product, tangible product, and additional product. Among them, core products refer to the interests pursued by consumers when purchasing a certain product, that is, the core needs of customers. Tangible products refer to the form in which core products are realized, that is, the image of entities and services provided to the market. Add-on products refer to all the additional services and benefits obtained by customers when they purchase tangible products, including the provision of credit, free delivery, warranty, installation and after-sales service.

Generally speaking, products compete on three levels at the same time, but the focus will be different at different stages or in different market environments. For new products in the market, competition is mainly focused on core products, and then as product life cycles change, the focus of competition will gradually shift to tangible products and add-on products. For most consumer products and in the current market environment where products are generally oversupplied, product competition is basically concentrated on the level of additional products. China Mobile is no exception.

At this time, China Mobile's product / service strategy should focus on SIM cards provided to users and various value-added services it can provide, while continuously accumulating brand assets and creating strong brands.

In terms of services, it is necessary to consider that consumers in our country are easily affected by groups and individuals when they consume. Specifically, more attention is paid to each marketing campaign; emphasis on savings, that is, value for money; emphasis on commonality, that is, crowd preference; emphasis on status, such as the influence of high-income preferences; emphasis on face, such as appearance or packaging; society

In urban markets, crowds are concentrated, businesses are concentrated, service awareness is relatively strong, and consumption levels are relatively high. For contracted users, product marketing strategies for social marketing can be considered, that is, mobile communication companies not only provide users with basic mobile communication services, It is also necessary to attract other industries and departments in the society to care about consumers' lives, bring them the greatest convenience and benefits, and reflect "value for money." In addition, considering that China has joined the WTO, the telecommunications market will become more intense with the entry of foreign telecommunications companies. Mobile communication companies must now consider taking effective measures, implementing effective social marketing strategies, and stabilizing existing users. Specifically, it can be done from the following three aspects:

(1) Adopt marketing strategy alliances to connect stores in the society that are closely related to the lives of mobile users, such as Carrefour, Ginza, Sanlian, Guihe and other high-end customers. They will join forces to carry out alliance interactive activities. As long as it is a mobile user, you can enjoy the convenience of high quality and low price (discount) in the affiliate store. At the same time, it can also use the bills sent monthly to provide users with affiliate service information once a month.

(2) Establish and develop user club activities, and regularly carry out various beneficial activities among users. For creditworthy users, the title of honorable employee of the mobile company can be awarded and organized to visit the mobile communication company to enhance their sense of identity with the company. Carry out activities such as "Short Message Sending Contest", "MMS Sending Contest", "Treasure Box Design Contest", "M-ZONE Application Contest", etc., to attract young users to participate and guide the fashion trend. At the same time, actively cooperate with the activities to carry out various forms of publicity in order to establish a good corporate image of "value for money and care for life" among the public.

(3) Adopt one-to-one marketing services for individual large customers and key group customers with average monthly phone bills exceeding 200 yuan, regularly return visits, recommend new services, and provide new tariff preferential policies, etc., and set up mobile service over Worth enjoying it.

Brand is the banner of the enterprise. Where the brand banner is inserted, it is your territory.

In terms of brand, China Mobile has made a better plan. At present, it has formed three nationally unified leading product brands: Global Connect, Divine China Travel and Motion Zone, covering high-end users, mobile users and revenue. Potential mid- to high-end users with great potential; in addition, there are a large number of temporary brands launched for regional markets.

Brand management is a powerful weapon to avoid low-level price competition. It is a strategic investment for telecommunications operators in the future and is where the company's sustainable competitive advantage lies. Choosing a brand management will definitely win the opportunity for Chinese mobile communications operators to win competition in the communications market. This is because: "Products are produced in factories, and brands are purchased by consumers. Products can be imitated by competitors, and brands are unique. Products will quickly become obsolete, and successful brands, if properly managed, There will always be. "The choice of brand management, the connotation is to achieve a harmonious unity between the brand itself (the expected consumer perception of the enterprise) and the brand image (the actual consumer perception). The brand ontology comes from the company's commitment to the brand, and the brand image comes from the consumer experience of the brand. Brand management is to make consumers have a good brand experience through the excellent brand promise of the enterprise, thereby making the enterprise and its products a brand in the minds of consumers.

Based on the above, I believe that China Mobile should continue to take the road of brand management, strive to reduce corporate marketing costs, win user loyalty, and make it easy for companies to respond to market competition. For China Mobile's newly launched "dynamic zone", it is necessary to continue to establish a clear brand positioning, conduct strong marketing communications, and expand the reputation among young people.

2. Price strategy

Enterprise goals are the logical starting point of an enterprise's price strategy. When setting prices, an enterprise must first know what goals it wants to achieve from a particular product. The clearer the goals of the enterprise, the easier it will be to set prices. The company's basic goals are survival, maximizing current profits, maximizing current income, maximizing sales growth, maximizing market share, maximizing market profits, and creating a high-quality reputation.

However, in the current telecommunications market, due to insufficient market maturity, unclear corporate goals, and chaotic price setting, China's telecommunications industry is entering a weird circle of "vicious competition and poor regulation." Vicious competition continues, as a lower-level price game has always been the main means for businesses to participate in market competition. The unlimited expansion of the mobile market VPN network, the continuous introduction of tariff packages, independent packages, and "diving" discounts on IP cards, all belong to this type of competition. The price strategies of major enterprises are around price reductions in various disguised forms. The biggest feature of this price war is that the market competition participants fight a bayonet. Hundreds "are extremely harmful to the country, enterprises and industries.

Experts point out that the nature of vicious competition, such as price wars, is actually caused by uncooperative competition between operators in zero-sum games. The zero-sum game relationship caused operators to attack each other until they both fell into the "prisoner" dilemma. Therefore, it can be said that cooperative competition is the only way for the telecommunications industry to get out of the vicious competition quagmire.

As the big brother of the telecommunications industry, China Mobile should bravely jump out of this vicious competition and fully realize that the purpose of competition is to promote common development, not life or death. Do not advocate vicious competition, do not advocate price competition to gain market share. To formulate an appropriate price strategy, pay attention to effective development. For the company's three major brands, a distinct "price discrimination" strategy can be adopted, that is, different tariff adjustment policies are formulated for customers with different phone bill expenditures. All price strategies must be developed with emphasis on effective development. The details can be as follows:

(1) For "Global Connect" users, mainly use the "Package" method to provide discounts, and in the "Global Connect" users, according to the contribution of the size of different rates;

(2) For "Shenzhouxing" users, mainly use the "family number" method to reduce the price moderately;

(3) For users in the "dynamic zone", implement new business bundling strategies to increase customer value;

(4) For regional users, implement a service restriction function to restrict the network transfer of high-end users.

3.Distribution channel strategy

In general, sales channel strategies address the following issues:

(1) Selection of distributors and channel levels. The choice of distributors is not only related to product characteristics and production strength, but also to consumer consumption characteristics and market environment. Manufacturers should consider the situation according to the situation.

(2) Service level and service content of channels. After selecting a reseller, the service content should be determined. The service content mainly includes the provision of pre-sale information, the selection of products by the consumers during the sale, and the assistance of consumers in completing transactions and after-sales service consulting contacts.

(3) Management and control of channels and manufacturers' support to distributors.

Among them, I think there are two main aspects, one is the choice of dealers; the other is the control and management of sales channels. In terms of the selection of distributors, China Mobile should rely extensively on the three modes of self-organized by the business hall, co-organized by social channels, and one-to-one by the account manager to develop new users and maintain old users. On the one hand, relying on the original channel left by the original post and telecommunications, and strive to play its sales function and demonstration function, while increasing investment in its own channel, reflecting its strategic pursuit of leading services; Extend product coverage and market control.

In the management of social channels, implement the "100 Stores" unified CI activity. China Mobile Communications Corporation implements a diversified distribution channel strategy with mobile business halls as its main sales outlets. The main outlets are various communication operation stores. It is suggested that the 100 Stores unified CI activity can be implemented in the future. It is necessary to unify the image and truly achieve "reasonable layout without leaving dead ends".

China Mobile should seize the characteristics of retailers focusing on circulation, stimulate the final market with differentiated regional products, and then start the channel enthusiasm. Gradually increase the quantity and quality of its own channels, in line with the current situation of "defensive". At the same time continue to build exclusive business halls. Can take the form of self-organization, co-organization and other forms to build exclusive business halls. When China Unicom's CDMA network was promoted in Guangdong, the mobile agent's agency defected on a large scale as a result of increasing the commission rate of the agent, causing huge losses to Guangdong Mobile. In order to avoid this situation from happening again, China Mobile Communications Corporation should also strengthen the construction of exclusive self-managed agencies to achieve effective control over sales channels.

4.Promotion strategy

The so-called promotion strategy is an activity that conveys and publicizes the existence, characteristics, and advantages of enterprises, brands, and products to consumers or sales channels in order to evoke demand and create and maintain its image. Specifically, it is a combination of public relations, advertising, promotion, and sales forcing.

As stated in the pricing situation, price leverage, which is usually used as a major promotional tool, is explicitly prohibited for China Mobile Communications. In order to attract customers and increase market share, China Mobile has secretly adopted various price reductions, discounts, concessions, Promotional means such as sending phone bills, free or preferential offers of other related services, especially in southern provinces such as Guangdong, where the market competition is fierce, are in full swing, and have a fairly obvious promotion effect. However, after all, these measures violated the relevant laws and regulations currently implemented, so they cannot be used for propaganda and advertising, and in some areas were punished by local industry authorities.

At present, the legal promotion methods of Chinese mobile communication companies are mainly advertising, and a large amount of funds have been invested in various newspapers, televisions, and other media to conduct large-scale advertising offensives, which have achieved good results. The company's advertisements are mainly corporate image advertisements, focusing on the good image in many aspects such as service quality and social welfare to win the recognition and support of the majority of users and the public. In addition, it is suggested that China Mobile should use many forms such as light box advertisements and street sign advertisements to strengthen the public's impression and recognition. At the same time, in various financial and IT professional magazines, mobile companies must further increase advertising investment in the layout.