"In the past, media was one-way, monopolistic, high-cost, and required massive advertising spend; today’s media is interactive, open, low-cost, and highly precise. In the past, channels were physical and one-way, where product placement determined sales; today’s channels are virtual, interactive, and can even enable pre-sales without inventory. In the past, consumers were isolated, powerless, and had little influence; today’s consumers are part of communities, empowered, and mutually influential."
New Retail Digital Consultant Huajiao / QiThai
Since 2000, he has been part of Microsoft China’s Solutions Consulting Services division. Over the past 17 years, he has focused on integrating community membership with commerce, founding the iBrand system for community-based new retail, concentrating on the community-driven new retail industry for healthy and active lifestyles, and providing consulting services and solutions in new retail digitization and community-based retail for over 10 consumer brands.
Against this backdrop, to explore the latest ideas in branding and marketing for the outdoor industry, we are honored to invite Mr. Huajiao, New Retail Digital Consultant at Shanghai Aiyou Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (iYOYO), to share insights on digital brand marketing and discuss how to fully empower brand marketing.
Building “Traffic Stars” through Digital Marketing
With the arrival of the mobile internet era, information explosion, excessive content, and shifting consumer demands have diluted the effectiveness of traditional brand communication. In this context, how can brands use media to capture consumer attention and enhance their marketing impact? Mr. Huajiao outlined the following: Digital marketing falls into three methods: media buy (paid media)—brands can promote via paid advertisements, native content, SEM (search engine marketing), etc., similar to a fishing net approach; earned media (word-of-mouth media)—brands can also improve search visibility through self-optimization, such as developing social platforms, leveraging community promotion, and using SEO (search engine optimization), akin to raising fish in a pond, which helps cultivate a brand’s own user base; exchange media (resource exchange)—brands or cross-industry partners collaborate based on complementary strengths to offer benefits to each other’s customer bases, thereby achieving brand promotion.
As market data becomes increasingly fragmented, brand marketing no longer means simply placing ads. Allocating more budget to digital marketing channels such as mobile terminals, social networks, and search tools will bring more precise brand exposure and product conversion compared to traditional marketing.
Capturing Valuable Data through Omnichannel Commerce
Mr. Huajiao pointed out: One key reason for the low efficiency of offline retail is the extremely limited understanding of consumer data—brands simply don’t know enough about their consumers. If consumer behavior tracking is fragmented, it’s difficult to build stickiness between the brand and its customers. Meanwhile, store digitization, while delivering value-added services to consumers, also subtly collects customer data. By tracking interactions between users and the brand, businesses can uncover potential audiences, guide content marketing, detect market trends, and ultimately drive sales conversion.
In the era of store digitization, brands can choose “centralized” traffic platforms—platforms that attract large consumer groups and redirect them to other stores or brands, such as Tmall and JD.com. The advantage is strong stickiness between the platform and consumers, but the downside is higher consumer churn for brand owners. Alternatively, brands can opt for “decentralized” traffic platforms, such as WeChat’s official channels—these allow full control over C-end social traffic and repeat customer flows, maximizing brand protection.
Another key aspect of store digitization is the concept of “New Retail.” Relying on mobile internet, social media, and modern logistics, brands use technologies like big data and AI to digitally upgrade product promotion, distribution, and sales processes—enabling online products, online services, and online shopping guides. In simple terms, it means achieving sales with more freedom, better experiences, and higher efficiency.
“New Retail” takes on different forms in various scenarios. For example, in the cosmetics industry, AI is used to instantly capture a user’s face for virtual makeup try-ons, paired with vending machines to reduce space and labor costs; in the fresh produce sector, internet data collection informs personalized promotions based on purchase history and address data, improving efficiency—all of which represent new retail models integrating online, offline, and modern logistics.
Enhancing Brand Loyalty through Membership Services
In today’s environment of homogenized products and an overload of brand information, experience-driven demands—especially those centered on content and service—make up a large portion of new consumer expectations. Member retention has become an essential factor in increasing consumer loyalty to a brand. As social environments and infrastructure evolve, so do membership management strategies. In the pre-internet era, brands primarily connected with customers through traditional channels like call centers and SMS—mostly one-way communication. In the PC internet era, BBS forums and brand communities were the main tools for customer engagement, offering lower operational costs and two-way interaction. Nowadays, thanks to mobile internet, brands can interact with customers in real time through online communities (e.g., WeChat groups, QQ groups).
It’s important to note that community management isn’t just about adding people to a group—it involves continuously energizing the community through rules, culture-building, consistent value output, and shared discussions, all of which help maintain the group and increase its stickiness.
In today’s marketing environment, outdoor brands face numerous challenges, including changes in channels, evolving consumer demands, and shifting data landscapes. Digital transformation is undoubtedly the way forward. On the foundation of providing high-quality products and services, exploring digital branding and upgrading content quality are new challenges brands must actively tackle and learn from.
Scan the QR code for Uncle Huajiao’s WeChat—we welcome your inquiries!
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