论文总字数：36369字

摘 要

本文以经典的4P营销理论为基础，从卖方角度分析电商平台天猫在“双十一”购物狂狂欢节营销中存在的不足。随着网络信息技术的飞速发展，网络营销在人们生活中越来越广泛，为经济增长带来了巨大变革。本文从“双十一”这一节日的背景及网络营销的概念特征入手，分析了2018年天猫商城“双十一”购物狂欢节的营销策略。通过分析营销策略，本文总结了天猫商城在这一营销过程中存在的问题并提出了一些可行的对策。

关键词：天猫“双十一”购物狂欢节；4Ps营销策略; 营销问题

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 The definition and development of 4Ps theory 2

2.2 Studies on “Double 11” online shopping carnival in China 2

3. Marketing Strategies applied in 2018 Tmall “Double 11” Online Shopping Carnival 3

3.1 Product strategy 3

3.2 Price strategy 4

3.3 Place strategy 6

3.4 Promotion strategy 6

4. Marketing Problems in Tmall “Double 11” Shopping Carnival 8

4.1 Product quality problems and waste of resource 8

4.2 Malicious competition and consumption credit 8

4.3 Channel management and logistics integration deficiency 9

4.4 Internet fraud and ethical issues 10

5. Suggestions on Tmall “Double 11” Marketing Problems 11

6. Conclusion 14

Works Cited 15

1. Introduction

“Double 11” refers to the day on November 11. Before 2009, it is just a day called Single’s Day, which started out as a cheeky anti-Valentine’s Day celebration in China. While after 2009, it has evolved into a grand sales event attracting global retailers and consumers. At the beginning, Alibaba organized large-scale promotional activities on November 11 to increase sales volume. They chose Single’s Day to hold sales promotion just for the reason that Taobao had experienced rough times for ten years, and it began to earn benefits and exhibited its special value for people during the following years. To commemorate the initial success of Alibaba, they wanted to set up a festival belonging to Taobao.

Actually, it is an adventure to choose November 11 as a shopping festival. The day is between National Day and Christmas, which are important festivals in China and most western countries. On these two festivals, many products are at a discount both in entities shops and online stores, which means Alibaba will face great market competition. However, in China, people tend to spend money on clothes to prepare for the winter during this period, thus it is still a good idea to create a shopping festival for people. Unexpectedly, “Double 11” online shopping carnival got unprecedented success (Zouamp;Cui). On November 11, 2018, the trading volume increased from the initial 57.1 billion yuan in 2014 to 213.5 billion yuan (from Tmall official website), which marked a new record for online market.

The online spending spree triggered by “Double 11” online shopping carnival has cast a new light on the promotion of domestic consumption. As the biggest trading platform in Taobao, Tmall makes up a large proportion of profit. Thus, it is very meaningful for the sellers to do some research on how to make Tmall more appealing to cater to more consumers’ taste and how to avoid fatal mistakes. This paper will first analyze some marketing strategies applied on “Double 11” shopping carnival based on the classical marketing theory 4Ps, and then propose some problems that comes from this process and finally give some suggestions to improve or prevent them.

2. Literature Review

2.1 The definition and development of 4Ps theory

4Ps, first proposed by E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960s, has become a foundation model of marketing mix, defined as the “set of marketing tools that the firm use to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market”. It concludes four broad levels: product, price, place and promotion (Czinkota amp; Kotabe 1) Marketing practice has been occurring for thousand years, but marketing theory just emerged in the early twentieth century. The 4Ps theory has become the first systematic framework for marketing management decisions, and it made great contributions to modern marketing. Many scholars applied his theory to their own research. With the development of marketing theory, the 4Ps marketing mix has been extended to more aspects. In 1981, Booms and Bitner proposed a model of 7Ps and Lauterborn’s proposed 4Cs in 1990. Until today, the marketing theory still has continuous modification and update such as 5Ps, 8Ps and 11Ps. However, these theories are still based on the classical theory--4Ps.

2.2 Studies on “Double 11” online shopping carnival in China

When it comes to the research on “Double 11” online shopping carnival, most scholars focus on e-commerce and online marketing management. In the research field of e-commerce, most writers and economists just pay attention to the effective strategies for medium and small-sized business to survive in the online market (Bones amp; James 121). For example, Robbert Ravensbergen offers many solutions to helping an online store make the most of Woo Commerce, an online market, to run their online transactions better. Some focus on the long and tough process that Alibaba has experienced, and give suggestions for those online enterprises that want to be better. Some focus on the advertisements in big data era. For example, Content Marketing Strategies, written by Stephanie Diamond, introduces content marketing for online sales. In Business Week, the economist gives a detailed review of the growing process of Taobao, and makes a comparison between Amazon and Taobao, which promotes our further understanding of e-commerce development.

However, those researches on e-commerce are too general to give detailed instructions for people who want to run an online store on Taobao. They emphasize on much theory that cannot be applied in practical environment in China. Besides, e-commerce has been developing quickly during the past ten years, especially Taobao, but few studies on e-commerce and Taobao’s marketing strategies are covered from 2009-2018. What’s more, the research on Tmall “Double 11” online shopping carnival has no substantive progress, let alone combine the online shopping festival with marketing strategies. A foreigner, E. Jerome McCarthy, laid a basis for marketing, and this theory has been studied by many westerners. But few Chinese do research on marketing strategies of Taobao. So, it is very necessary to do some research on this field which fits China’s e-commerce environment. By giving a general study on marketing strategies of Tmall “Double 11” online shopping carnival in 2018, we can set new understanding of marketing models in this new era.

The most valuable book that this paper refers is Marketing Management, written by Czinkota and Kotabe, this book gives a systematic analysis of the marketing management in the 21 century, and it also proposes new requirements for online stores. The cases study and opinions in this book have instructive significance for the study of marketing strategies.

3. Marketing Strategies applied in 2018 Tmall “Double 11” Online Shopping Carnival

3.1 Product strategy

All great products starts with a clear strategy that is customer and market-driven. Product strategy defines the direction of the products and what the customers want to get. It contains several aspects including physical product, service, information, experience, ideas or mixes of these entities. The purpose of a product strategy is to successfully achieve an overall vision and particular business goals and to keep everyone involved in developing the product (Chen 74). A famous product strategist and author of Strategize, Roman Pichler puts it in this way: “It is a high-level plan that helps you to realize your vision or overarching goal (Pichler 5). More specially, the product strategy should describe whom the product is for and why people would want to buy and use it; what the product is and why it stands out; and what the business goals are and why it is worthwhile for your company to invest in it.”

Take the sale of Vivo, a brand of mobile phone, in Tmall as an example. It creates a perfect product vision in shaping its distinctive brand image. As is known to all, Vivo keeps innovating and pushing out new products that have high-technology level. Such as curved screen, high fidelity audio player and fingerprint lock. On the coming day of Tmall “Double 11” online shopping festival, Vivo launched a new product—VivoZ3i, which focused on Internet sales. Z3i has a much more advanced processor and a big and water drop screen that can provide the customers with better visual aesthetic. Besides, Vivo supplier makes a guarantee that the products sold with lifetime warranty.

As we can see from Vivo, the seller targets on the customers’ expected experience and taste, and then makes the most of its technical advantages to give people a different image compared to OPPO and Huawei. It took Vivo about ten years to shape its’ brand, and nowadays when it comes to music mobile phone, Vivo jumps into our mind. However, the Vivo seller is not satisfied with that, and more attention has been paid to technology, which caters to people’s need and psychology for novelty.

In a word, whether on the shopping festival or not, promoting the users’ experience and increasing the products’ adding value are essential methods of marketing products, which is widely used in Tmall “Double 11” shopping carnival.

3.2 Price strategy

A business can use a variety of pricing strategies when selling a product or service. The price can be set to maximize profitability for each unit sold or from the market overall. It is used to defend an existing market from new entrants, to increase market share within a market or to enter a new market. It helps consumers to have an image of the standards the firm has to offer through their products, creating firms to have an exceptional reputation in the market (Simon 57). The firm’s decision on the price of the product affects the consumer’s decision on whether or not to purchase the product (Czinkotaamp;Kotabe 306).

When firms are deciding to consider applying some type of pricing strategy, they must be aware of the competition within the market. For example, compared to iPhone, Vivo products have lower price that is intended for teenagers and middle class. Therefore, Vivo gets the comparative advantages and occupies a huge market foothold in online marketing. On the 2018 “Double 11” shopping festival, Vivo got the about 200 million yuan sales volume within 30 minutes according to the official statistics reported by Tmall. The customers think it satisfactory that they can buy such a high-quality mobile phone with comparative low cost.

One month before 2018 “Double 11” Online Shopping Festival, Tmall began to launch coupons for all customers, the total value of which reached 1 billion yuan. When the purchase value reaches 400 yuan, the customer can get 50 yuan reduction, which promotes many people try to buy more products in order to meet this preferential measure. Take Lola Rose—a watch brand from Britain for example, Lola Rose is famous for its niche design. On 2018 Tmall “Double 11” Shopping Festival, many Lola Rose watches with assorted styles participated in the promotional activities. Firstly, many watches decreased their prices by more than 100 yuan; if the purchase amount reaches to 800 yuan, the customers can get 100 yuan reduction; if the customer pays for the watch within a certain time period, Lola Rose will give him a bracelet to match the watch he bought. Regarding those promotional strategies, Lola Rose sold considerable watches on 2018 Tmall “Double 11” Shopping Carnival.

From the two cases, we can conclude that the actual price of goods and services may vary in response to different conditions, and an appropriate market positioning and pricing plays an indispensable role in Tmall online marketing. Finally yet importantly, some sellers raise the product price secretly before “Double 11” online shopping carnival, and then they reduce the price on that day to make the customers think that kind of product is given a big discount, which is also an effectual price strategy.

3.3 Place strategy

Place strategy refers to the traditional flowing planning, that is, in a proper time, to present appropriate amount of products to the target consumers with an appropriate manner. It is also called distribution strategy, which outlines how and where a company will place its products and services in an attempt to gain market share and consumer purchases. The choice of enterprise marketing channels will directly affect other marketing decisions, such as product pricing. In 21^th century, place channel has changed a lot. Compared to traditional supply chain, marketing channel on the Internet seems more simplified (Cao 195). For Tmall sellers, logistics with high efficiency becomes the guarantee for an online company to build a competitive advantage. Just imagine, on 2018 “Double 11” Shopping Carnival, about 37 million customers will do online shopping. It takes a long process for the logistic companies to deliver the goods to the buyers. While some people buy products that night and then they receive their package the next day, which is extremely surprising. From here, we can see that Tmall did a good job on distribution channel. They delivered goods quickly and gave a safe guarantee for those who bought freight insurance.

Actually, convenient payment is also an essential factor during the process of online shopping. Cash flow control is also considered as a part of place strategy. There is no doubt that Tmall succeeded in this field. People tend to use Alipay as the payment tool, which offers the customers more capital reservation for buying products in advance, and repaying them in the future. On 2018 “Double 11” shopping festival, many people used Ant Credit Pay to buy products, which also increases the sales volume of Tmall.

3.4 Promotion strategy

In marketing, promotion refers to any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or issue. The aim of promotion is to increase awareness, create interest, generate sales or create brand loyalty. It is one of the basic elements of these four marketing strategies. It concludes personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, and direct marketing publicity etc. No one is going to buy a product or service they have never heard of, nor will he buy it from the shop if they do not familiar with the products that the shop offers, which is why a great promotion strategy is vital (Yang 43). In Tmall, whether the stores are big or not, they will always choose various promotional strategies to position their brand in a favorable light.

If we describe the three strategies mentioned above as listening to consumers. In promotion strategy, what we need to do is talking to consumers (Czinkotaamp;Kotabe 375). The ideal form of promotion is the conversation that takes place between the seller and the buyer. Nowadays, in big data era, advertising has become a main method of promoting a new product. Different from the traditional model of the communication process, online advertising focuses on establishing a communication platform where people get to know the products by communicating with each other. Take Xiao Hong Shu, a consumption-sharing platform, as an example, many companies employ online celebrities to share the goods that are worth recommending to others. On 2018 “Double 11” shopping carnival, Tmall invited Jackson (Yi Yang Qianxi) to shoot the first TVC advertisement, which drew great public concern. Besides, Tmall launched large amount coupons during that period and they were spread on different social media, such as Wechat, Webo, and other websites, which increase large quantities of consumption for Tmall.

On November 11, Tmall “Double11” shopping carnival bombarded our screen and become a trending topic. Various novel advertisements attracted people’s attention—Durex, Lao Ganma and Musk Hemorrhoids Ointment Cream teamed up together to build a hot buzz. Overall, advertising marketing gave full play in 2018 “Double 11” online shopping carnival.

4. Marketing Problems in Tmall “Double 11” Shopping Carnival

4.1 Product quality problems and waste of resource

For product strategy, many companies rack their brains on packaging. In the past, packaging was just used to deliver a product to the consumer in sound conditions, while now it becomes a major element of the product itself. It is often the suppliers’ only opportunity to present the enticements of the product to the potential consumer. So, packaging considerations therefore must be broadened beyond the container aspects. On 2018 “Double 11” online shopping carnival, many packages people bought from Tmall are designed to make their contents look like more than they really are. However, what is the truth? Many consumers returned what they bought several days later after they received the products. On November 19^th , 2018, a think tank, E-commerce Commerce Research Centre, issued a report on consumers’ complaints and consumption experience on “Double 11” Shopping Carnival, showing that the cases of rights protection increased by 27.81% compared with that of the last shopping festival, in which quality problems accounted 6.16%. Why did the consumers returned their products? Most people opened the package which were delicately packed with expectant look, but finally got a totally different product whose quality were not up to standard, and then they gave a negative comment on Taobao.

Delicate packages also lead to waste of resources. Nowadays, people focus much on work, living, study and entertainment, and the standard they set on package design is becoming higher and higher. To satisfy the consumers’ requirements on commodity integrity, the sellers use distinctive packages according to the size, shape and delivery distance. Most packages are cartons filled with foams. After “Double 11” shopping carnival, when the consumers receive their packages, how will they deal with the cartons? Most of them will throw them away or just leave them in a corner, dusty and unused. This puts the cart before the horse: most cartons are not recycled properly , which runs in the opposite direction of green consumption.

4.2 Malicious competition and consumption credit

The Internet not only permits the consumer easy price comparison but also allows the seller free-market pricing. As the internal requirements of market principles, economic freedom, fair competition, and good faith should be observed by all sellers. However, some sellers transgress theses principles. On the “Double 11” online shopping carnival, many stores reduced the price of all products to almost the half of the original price. As is known to all, pricing can influence consumer perceptions about the product, and a whole new world of buying and selling via the Internet is taking shape. It is not only the buyers who are taking advantages of price comparison shopping. The sellers are exploiting vast amounts of information, now readily available on the Internet, about who is buying what at how much, when, and under what conditions. On Tmall, the sellers are clear that Chinese people tend to buy the cheaper among the two same products, so they begin to reduce the price of the product. On the shopping festival , the difference price of the same skin care products can fluctuated from 5-100 yuan.

Under the condition of market economy, all the online companies want to put themselves in a strong position. To solicit more consumers, they cut prices to preserve volumes one after another. However, they do not consider the cost and profit and the adding value of the product, and finally, no profits are gain. They have no choice but to go bankrupt. Last but not least, from the angle of consumers, if they find that what they want to buy is very cheap, they tend to buy more. Some consumers pay the products by Ant Credit Pay, which lays a burden on their repayment. If they cannot repay the debt on time, a consumption credit crisis will visit them.

4.3 Channel management and logistics integration deficiency

In the ideal sales situation, the supplier and the customer meet face to face for a complete buying and selling process. However, for many goods and services the value of the individual sale does not justify such and approach. With intermediaries, marketing activities can be consolidated and costs spread across a range of products. However, as e-commerce grows rapidly, businesses are trying to push overseas vendors into electronic communication. It is obvious that on Tmall, the supply chain is becoming shorter and shorter, and the role channel plays is becoming less and less important. Contrary to the traditional channel distribution, in most cases, Tmall sellers can get in touch with consumers directly, such as direct selling in official online stores and flagship stores, and the customer service seems more likely to be a intermediary.

But this also leads to some problems. Firstly, new modes of place strategy save troublesome paperwork, but also add trade dispute. If every consumer contacts with the seller directly for convenience, many procedure would be shortened without much written documents. Once the customer is not satisfied with the product or he wants to engage in a lawsuit against the online seller, it will be very difficult for him to collect evidence. Secondly, with more and more stores are registered on Taobao, consumers are at a loss as to what to do. A dazzling array of beautiful exhibits, they do not know which to choose from. The consumers have no time to visit the stores one by one, and they only like to visit those which are on the top line. For some small stores, they have no opportunity to solicit customers, which leads online marketing to a failure. Besides, logistics is still a issue remaining to be discussed. Although in China, the logistics is developing so quickly, and the total scale is rapidly expanding, the safety of this process still deserves attention. During 2018 “Double 11” online shopping carnival, many packages were delivered to the customers within three days. However, it is reported that some packages were destroyed in the event of fire during distribution process, which shows that security management is also a problem in the place strategy.

4.4 Internet fraud and ethical issues

When it comes to promotion strategy, online advertising is the most common method. Nowadays, public relations(PR) is a particularly valuable promotional device for products and services, because the authority offered by independent recommendations on social media can add vital credibility to a tangible product and an intangible service. On 2018 “Double 11” online shopping carnival, many sellers directly broadcast on Taobao and weibo. They took advantages of their large quantities of followers to earning profits. Many online celebrities broadcast their living and shopping experiences. Some companies take a fancy at their influence among their fans, they establish business cooperation each other. There is a loophole that can be used by some fake brands. Many celebrities do not familiar with the products they advertise, they just want to earn money from advertising for them. Ultimately, kept inside a drum, consumers bid a good price for a counterfeit.

On the other hand, over and above the government regulations, advertisers should be aware of social norms for advertising. Is it ethical to promote high-alcohol-content beers in poor neighborhoods? How about an automaker showing its car model cruising at a high speed in excess of 80 miles an hours on a road, when in fact driving at that speed is obviously illegal (Czinkotaamp;Kotabe 395)? On 2018 shopping festival, Jue Wei Duck Neck launched an advertisement involving massive sex intimation and discrimination, which even outstripped that of Durex. Another case is Damp;G, an Italy luxury brand. Damp;G launched an advertisement in which an Asian model is eating a pizza with chopsticks, but she does not use chopsticks correctly. On the contrary, her ridiculous act shows no respect for Chinese chopstick culture. Finally, Damp;G was blacklisted for doing business in China. From here, we can see that while our society tolerate a certain degree of sex and immoral behavior in entertainment and advertising, advertisers’ ethical consideration is necessary even if their ads do not violate government laws.

5. Suggestions on Tmall “Double 11” Marketing Problems

Through a comprehensive understanding of marketing strategies of 2018 Tmall “Double 11” Shopping Carnival, we know that many innovative principles lead Tmall to a success. Nothing is perfect, nor is Tmall. After analyzing some problems that exist in the online shopping process, measures should be taken to improve and optimize them.

Firstly, corporate executives and consumers have in recent years adopted divergent views of product quality. Some effective tactics have been widely applied in western countries, which have not be taken seriously yet. For Tmall, if companies want to conduct product strategy more successfully, they should take time to improve the quality of products more than considering exquisite package. What attracts consumers is quality and innovation not dashing packages. The sellers should consider more on what consumers need, what the brand is offering and what innovation can this brand create. If the consumer return the product and give a negative comment, the seller should provide the after-sale service thoroughly, and improve their quality problems. On packages, the sellers should apply some green ideas to product packages to guide the consumers to consciously recycle the cartons. the government should strengthen quality supervision and inspection of online products, online sellers should be required to use returnable and degradable materials (Czinkotaamp;Kotabe 228). Some small businesses are reluctant to use degradable materials because they are unable to afford the package cost. Therefore, the government should finance those small businesses to realize the green purpose. Besides, online sellers should cooperate with the logistics companies, consumers, and the government to build a recycling system to improve the environmental protection issue.

Secondly, price is generally believed to have an impact on sales volumes. If the price is too high and the market is competitive, sales may be correspondingly reduced. For those online stores, the sellers should estimate the value of the products and price them after considering all factors that can influence the price. For example, one of the most basic dilemmas every marketing manager face is the fundamental choice between a price cut to stimulate sales or a price increase to improve margins. Although both choices are viable depending on the circumstances, too many managers today choose a price cut with little analysis. As a result, they are drawn into a price war. So, the sellers should take pricing seriously. When they want to launch a new product, they should set their starting prices based on market conditions, the competition, the supply and demand. Remember, do not lower the price too much, beyond the ability, to compare with other magnates, which would leave them in desperate financial straits. The intention is not just to obtain a profit over costs, but is to obtain a reasonable return on investment. In a word, the sellers need to develop an understanding of the various competitive positions more than decrease the price blindly. Once the customers see the value, they must be willing to accept the price.

Thirdly, speaking of place strategy, we cannot ignore its importance because many products of traditional industry, such as construction materials, medicines, and agricultural products, are still dependent on indirect channel. Many firms need to disseminate their products among offline markets, intermediaries are still necessary for them to enlarge their business scale. Then, once the scale is big enough to form an online market, they can do business online and change the mode from offline to online stores. Thus, direct channel and indirect channel can exist side by side and play a part together. In fact, the development of e-commerce makes the channel management more sophisticated. Compared to traditional stores, online sellers have to consider more about logistics management (Cao 203). It is a feasible way to cut down the logistics cost by efficient delivery, reduce the repetition rate of transportation, reasonably increase the transportation volumes, and choose the best means of transportation. What’s more, logistics companies should utilize the modern information management system to guarantee the precise of delivery process. If the supply chain can integrate the manufacturing firm, the third party logistics, the sellers and the consumers, then the profit would be maximized and the cost would be reduced. If this can be applied to online stores on Tmall effectively, social division of labor would be highly-developed.

At last, once interest is established, the messages of the products need to be spread to the audience. Nowadays, Weibo and Wechat are two essential tools for sellers to advertise their products. Social media promote the precision of target people, but at the same time, advertising marketing can cause a series of issues. How to solve those problems? Above all, the consumers should enhance their awareness of understanding the product that they want to buy. Do not believe in the account given by online celebrities only. Nowadays, too much information is given on social medias and online promotion platform, the customers should be cautious to accept it. To avoid Internet fraud, they should be familiar with the ingredients and functions of the products they want to buy, and choose what is trustworthy. Also, when online businesses want to advertise their products, they should always remember: cater to the customers’ needs, and avoid unnecessary indication. When a firm wants to launch an advertisement online, the manager should first assess it whether it is consistent to the social value and national culture. It is an adventure to issue advertisements that catch people’s eyes in an immoral way (Bones 195). Last but not least, the authorities concerned should enforce their rights to keep those advertisements which are against ethic under strict supervision. Only in this way can “Double 11” online shopping carnival stay dynamic and get better and better.

6. Conclusion

By looking back the development of Tmall “Double 11” Shopping Festival, and combining the marketing strategy analysis of 2018 “Double 11” Shopping Carnival, we can see that the future of online shopping festival is certainly bright. Although Tmall has made the most of the product strategy, price strategy, place strategy and promotion strategy, many problems are still remaining to be solved. In the modern world with fierce competition, Taobao must seize the opportunities and face the challenges bravely with the help of current competitive advantage position. Improving the mechanism of flexible market research, discovering the needs of customers, completing logistic system and boosting products exploitation are all important to Tmall to realize the sustainable development of profits and keep expanding competitive advantages.

It is clear that Tmall needs to make innovations to keep pace with the changeable online market. As an American actor says, “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” How will Tmall “Double 11” Shopping Festival develop in the future? Let’s wait and see.

Works Cited

Bones Christopher, and James Hammersley. Leading Digital Strategy: Driving Business Growth Through Effective E-commerce( English Edition). London: Kogan Page Limited, 2015.

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