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Figure 1.2. Multi-screen interactions of consumers.
Source: Google, The New Multi-Screen World, 8/2012).
The New Multi-Screen World published on Google in 2012 shows that interactions happening on new digital media including cell phones, personal computers, tablets and TVs take up the majority of daily media interactions among consumers. Compared with traditional radio, newspapers and magazines, interactions on new media account for 90% of all media interactions. On average, people spend 4.4 hours on different types screens off work. A large part of the consumers’ time is occupied by the bit world. Recently, Nike has claimed that “Now each and everything is digital.” The best enterprises and institutions no longer just talk about digitalization alone but discuss it together with marketing for discussion. In the recent years of the “Internet+” wave, many enterprises’ chief information officers (CIO) claim to want to realize Internet-based and digital transition and change, attempting to complete the transition from information technology (IT) to digital technology (DT), while some start with revolutionizing the business model or the organizational structure. Among all of these means, the most efficient and operative one is “digital marketing strategy”, which is possible to be “value visualized” in real-time age. As Drucker proposed, marketing and innovation were the only sources of generating profit in enterprises. Without doubt, the digital marketing strategy will be discussed and is also the solution proposed by KMG (Figure 1.3).
Figure 1.3. Digital-first consumers.
Source: KMG Research.
In the age of revolution, it has always been consumers and markets that are one step ahead of enterprises. Great changes in the market propel the upgrading of competitions and “supply-side reform of enterprises”. At present, consumers have seen their lives being dominated by digital technologies, which penetrated consumption in purchasing and decisionmaking process. Such consumers include a new consumption group growing up with digital devices (such as people born in the 1990s and in the 2000s) and consumers who did not use digital media in the past but now do. An increasing number of consumers have found a “sweet spot” in waves of emerging technologies and have started to change the traditional consumption behavioral chain: 90% of people buy online. A total of 90% of people use multiple screens like personal computers, tablet computers, cell phones and TVs and jump from one node of the Internet to another. Around 65% of people shop online, which has led to the tremendous sales of Ali and JD, both being legends of IPO. About 61% of the people use social media on their cell phones and digital media like WeChat, Microblog, etc., which play a vital role in people’s social life. A total of 59% of the people attempted to manage wealth on smartphones: since Yu’E Bao in Alipay is bounded with Tianhong Asset Management, it instantly turns Tianhong from a small fund management into one of the largest players in China in asset management. Around 58% of the people use search engines when making personal wealth management decisions. As digital technologies have intruded and integrated into different industries and levels of consumers, tech and Internet have become as critical as “water and power” to business rather than a commercial tool or channel. Not to talk about them will take you away from consumers and away from the future.
Under the current digital age, new technologies emerge one after the other. Many upgraded technologies are seen in information exchange, client information and data storage, which have caused a new impact on traditional business environment. We conclude this as three key trends: digitalization of information exchange, digitalization of client interaction and digitalization of data storage (Figure 1.4).
Figure 1.4. Digital environment.
Source: KMG Research.
1.1.1 Digitalization of information exchange
1.1.1.1 Searching
Searching is the most basic information tool in the Internet. By taking new search engine technologies, digital information can be accessed with ease. Using a search engine to explore can help enterprises and consumers locate target information within seconds, largely improving business efficiency. Keyword searches are one of the most elementary applications of online searching. With the better performing computing power, storage capacity and network speed currently available to us, we have access to advanced methods in searching. For example, users can search information by voice or visual search. Customized searching results can be offered by combining personal searching history and positioning information, etc.
From the perspective of enterprises, for many years, people from digital marketing have been continuously optimizing search engines. In fact, search engine optimization (SEO) has always been one of the important tools to increase online views for enterprises. However, with higher processing speed and upgraded machine-learning technologies as well as searching technologies, search engine service providers (Google, Baidu, etc.) have gradually enhanced the ratio of advanced searching technologies like semantic search. For users, they have access to more accurate information in line with their own needs. However, effects of traditional means like optimizing the webpage and buying keywords may be waning.
Semantic search technologies originated from May 2012. Launched by Google, “Knowledge Graph” service is a semantic search engine with some artificial intelligence technologies. Compared with traditional searching technology, Knowledge Graph’s search target is real “things” rather than a “character string”, and it can gather valuable information from the searching behaviors of users. Knowing the connection between over 570 million entities and over 18 billion facts, it continues to improve the searching experience. It is noticeable that semantic technologies are not only limited to external search engines like Google or Bing but also applied in social media. Image search is a search engine system of Facebook similar to Google’s “Knowledge Graph”, which further blurs the boundary between searching and social activities. If search engines can identify and understand a personal problem, it can offer personalized results. In conclusion, a search engine is starting to think and act like human beings.
The development of cloud computing, semantic searching technologies and data collection enable the learning capacities of computers to grow by leaps and bounds. Computers understand users’ intentions better, deeper and faster. In some cases, computers can even estimate the searching requirements of users without further user information.
Mobile technologies, voice recognition and big data can help computers retrieve a mass of the Internet, social media and geo-location data. Based on the filtration and categorization of the data, computers can more accurately predict the future requirements and behaviors of users.
1.1.1.2 Brand website
Brand website (official website of a company) is a critical battlefield of brands on the Internet. Visits, such as search engines, introduced by channels are most likely targeted at brand websites which are the main source of information for digital consumers and possess some real business functions including attracting clients, performing marketing services and offering client services as well. As a digital flagship store, information demonstration center and online distribution system of a commercial organization, brand websites must play multiple roles, cultivate new sales clues and maintain the existing clients.
1.1.1.3 E-commerce
As an extension and supplement to the brand’s website (official website
