WeChat Marketing Mix (4Ps) & Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy of WeChat through marketing mix framework which covers the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion).
WeChat Product Strategy:
WeChat is one of the leading social media chat apps in China. WeChat has revolutionized the interpersonal and person-vendor/services system especially in China. Its product offering in its marketing mix is that of a social messaging application; however, lot of businesses have adopted it as a communication channel. Enterprise WeChat is a specialized application developed to cater to the needs of larger organizations. This was in keeping with the inclination of Chinese people to use app rather than e-mails. WePay is another successful product by WeChat with many benefits and ease of operation over similar contemporary apps. WeChat has official accounts for brands for social media outreach and sale of the service/product. WeChat offers group video calling having up to 9 people. Apart from this, other features include games, Moments, WeChat Run, Reading and variety of stickers. The reading articles can be accessed through account or the Moments feature. It was found that on an average user read seven articles per day and content varies as per age.
Image: flickr.com/photos/linsinchen/
This concludes the product strategy in WeChat marketing mix & strategy.
WeChat Price/Pricing Strategy:
Below is the pricing strategy in WeChat marketing mix strategy:
WeChat is free application and can be downloaded and core features can be used. Some additional items like in game items and additional stickers are chargeable.
The number of messages sent in 2017 has increased by 25% as compared to 2016 and reached 38 billion. The group video calling is free of additional charge. The WeChat Wallet allows use of up to three chip and pin credit or debit cards. The wallet has facility to store the transactions and these transactions are verified as in the routine by Visa and Master Card security system. The Digital Wallet is supported by Standard Bank. The registration fee or monthly maintenance fee is not charged for Waller service. The pricing strategy is keeping in mind the pricing of competitor prices. not charged The amount in the Wallet is parallel to the physical currency and can be utilized for payment of airtime, data, food etc. It allows transfer of cash without bank account. The pricing details for different WeChat services are described on the website.
Read more about WeChat
WeChat Place & Distribution Strategy:
Following is the distribution strategy in the WeChat marketing mix:
WeChat is Chinese social media application and is termed as ‘App for everything’ as it consolidates all the possible required functions by the user. WeChat had 889 million followers as of April 1017 with average time spent of 50 minutes. Most of the long-distance calls to overseas destinations through WeChat are to USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Tiawan. (2015). WeChat run helps in fitness goals of the WeChat users. The findings showed that users are most active in weekdays and rest on weekends. In US, WeChat has collaborated with Western Union Money transfer enabling WeChat users the money transfer option in over 200 countries via WU Platform. In South Africa, WeChat Wallet is introduced for digital wallet service. Through, this, cards can be stored, and cash payments can be initiated. China CITIC Bank International is the first bank in Hong Kong to integrate WeChat Pay in its service basket.
It has also designed offers for payment through We Pay.
WeChat Promotion & Advertising Strategy:
The promotional and advertising strategy in the WeChat marketing mix is as follows:
In 2011, WeChat was launched with the concept of ‘WeChat is a Lifestyle’ since then the organization is perusing this vision through different platforms, designs and services. WeChat has large digital presence with lot of Blogs, Technical discussions, news and review articles. It has also opened the communication through their product designers. WeChat successfully translated the Chinese tradition of 'hong Bao' in the digital medium. During Chinese New Year, the people gift the 'Red Packets' containing money to each other. They introduced the feature of 'Red Packet' delivery under which user could send the red packets to the receivers with specified amount and personalized message. Over 14.2 million Red Packets were sent in 2014. Parent company of WeChat, Tencent participates in many conferences to promote and inform about its subsidiaries. The popularity of WeChat among seniors is due to special efforts taken by company some of which involves education of seniors by children for use of service. WeChat has promotion through events like Comin Con Hyderabad, 2015 where World Sticker Day was celebrated, and winner of the Sticker Challenge were announced. Over 10,000 people visited the event.
Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of WeChat.
People:
The use of mobile payment system in China is expected to surge to 20% of its population (approximately 250 million) in 2017, overtaking US. WeChat has deep understanding of its major customer base, China. I Western culture, the business and personal are kept separate; however, WeChat, a social network service is used for business communication and links it with LiknedIn, thus personal and professional insights into person are obtained. WeChat has major customer base of senior citizens in the age range of 55-70 with over 50,000,000 monthly active senior members with increasing usage of calling feature. The usage by logging in has increased by 17% in 2017 as compared to previous year and has crossed 902 million. WeChat has feature for tracking the steps of user every day and thereby monitoring fitness. It also allows for creation of Fitness Friend list and comparison with them. As per the data revealed in 2015, 60% of users are in the age group of 15-29 with average 128 friends.
Process:
WeChat is compatible with windows, man and android platforms. WePay does not need the linking of app with debit or credit card. This is important as cash transactions are prevalent in Chinese economy and may people do not have credit or debit cards. The user can accept or deposit money in WePay and start paying. It has the facility for connecting to the bank account and transfer of payment like SnapCash, Venmo and Messenger payment. Due to this the problem of low bank credit score is avoided. WeChat wallet has integrated its services with other third-party companies enhancing its success. These services include taxi service Didi, advance movie ticket booking service. It is also integrated with Chinese e-commerce website JD.com. Thus, it is an all in one app for many different services. The official WeChat accounts facilitate the communication between company and customer and provide valuable insights. This in turn adds to database of WeChat. Through the help center on the website, WeChat offers the solutions to the possible problems user might face.
Physical Evidence:
WeChat offers many features like in built scanner for scanning of documents, street view which helps in locating nearest hotel, cinema. The scan for translation enables translation of things like packaging or signs into Chinese. For making product more senior user friendly, company is working on adding features like voice character and voice input. 15% of WeChat users indulge in gaming with playing time of 10 minutes for more than 75% users. Board games are most popular types of games played. The app can also be used for shopping through Weixin. Phone charger, winter clothes and selfie sticks are most purchased products through this. WeChat has feature of stickers wherein the user gets pleasant and fun experience. WeChat has the service of WeChat Store on offer wherein the website can be linked to WeChat menu of official account so that the users can have direct access to shopping and payment. Hence this gives an insight on the marketing mix of WeChat.
About WeChat:
WeChat is a messaging, commerce and payment application from the Tencent, a Chinese Technology giant. It has more than a billion active users.
It provides text messaging, video conferencing, video games, photo & location sharing etc. It is often described as the super-app for China.
Browse marketing strategy and 4Ps analysis of more brands similar to WeChat. The Marketing Mix & Strategy section covers 4Ps and 7Ps of more than 800 brands in 2 categories.
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