To do a good job, one must first use the right tools

Abstract

As the world’s fifth largest wine consumer, China is predicted to become the world’s second largest wine consumer after the United States within the next three years. Despite the huge potential of the Chinese wine market, wine has not yet become an everyday consumption in China. The reason for this is that a large portion of the Chinese population still does not understand wine. In other words, in order for wine to become a daily consumption in China, we must first make Chinese people understand wine knowledge and culture. Therefore, as a solution to this problem, we should strongly promote e-learning platforms that can learn about wine in order to facilitate the Chinese people to understand the information they need. During this period, the younger and older age groups are very suitable audiences, and using social media platforms—Tik Tok, Kuaishou, Bilibili and WeChat, which are popular in China, is an excellent choice for promotion.

1.The need to publicize and promote wine related knowledge and culture

According to the data of National Bureau of Statistics 2021, the production of wine is much lower than that of Baijiu and beer. This means that wine accounts for a small percentage of the Chinese market. Chinese consumers are more likely to choose beer or Baijiu than wine. The reasons for this are twofold. On the one hand, wine consumption starts from the high-end market compared to Baijiu and beer. Chinese consumers usually associate wine consumption with Western food and high-end parties, which makes the wine consumption scenario limited. The problem of consumer orientation naturally distances consumers from wine. On the other hand, consumers do not “know” wine because of the lack of wine expertise in China. In most cases, Chinese consumers do not know how to select wines or taste wines, so they do not buy them. Therefore, in order to open up the Chinese wine market, it is essential to promote wine knowledge and culture. Just as those who love to play baseball must also be the ones who know the rules of the game.

Data source: National Bureau of Statistics

2.Target Audience Selection

I will use the young group as the main promotion target and the elderly as the secondary promotion target. At the same time, I will choose cities that are at least 3rd Tier Cities in China as the main promotion location. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, wine is not a physiological need or a safety need, but a higher level need, so people in more economically developed areas in cities are more likely to favor wine and are more willing to learn about wine.

According to the survey, from the 00s to the 60s, more than 65% of wine consumers are wine consumers, which shows that wine is loved by people of all ages. Among them, 88.6% of the 85s drink wine regularly, 84.2% of the 90s drink wine regularly and 84.5% of the 95s drink wine regularly. It can be seen that young people are gradually becoming the main consumer group of wine, bringing new hope for the development of the wine market.

Data source: Netease Wine Industry RuiXiangLife Report

In addition to the number of consumers, the 85s, 90s and 95s also represent the highest level of wine consumption.

With the rapid development of China’s economic level, people’s consumption level is getting higher and higher, and they are more and more willing to spend on wine. As more 90s and 95s enter the society and get higher pay in their work, their consumption potential in the future should not be underestimated.

According to the survey, the 85s, 90s and 95s are the top 3 wine consumers in each age group, with an average spending of ¥210.83, ¥195.05 and ¥194.63 per purchase respectively. The average amount spent by these three age groups is about ¥33.61 higher than the average amount spent by the 70s to 80s. It can be seen that the 85-95 generation contributes a lot to the wine market.

From the survey results, although the consumption level of seniors is lower than that of young people, they are an army of potential consumers. Unlike young people who are busy at work, most of the seniors are already retired. Retired seniors have a lot of free time and a stable pension, and are willing to have some fun in their leisurely life. Therefore, the right marketing approach can make seniors interested in wine and willing to learn about wine, thus successfully promoting the e-learning platform.

3.Promotion methods

The promotion methods are divided into online promotion and offline promotion for both groups, young people and old people.

The first is online promotion. In China, Tik Tok, Kuaishou, Bilibili and WeChat are the most popular and suitable APPs for promoting e-learning platforms. iiMedia Research data shows that Tik Tok ranks first with 45.2% of the most frequently used short-form video platforms, while Kuaishou and Bilibili rank second and third with 17.9% and 13.0% respectively. According to Tencent’s 2021 annual report, WeChat has 1,268.2 million monthly active accounts. WeChat is arguably the most popular and widely used social app in China. Therefore, these four platforms are ideal for online promotion. Among them, Bilibili has a user base of about 70% of people aged 19 to 35 years old(data source: https://index.iresearch.com.cn/new/#/pc/detail?id=6984&Tid=109&kid=12065), and it can target young people with interesting and informative science videos, for example (as shown in the video). Tik Tok, Kuaishou and WeChat are apps with high usage in all age groups, so they can target both younger and older groups. Catchy covers and headlines as well as interesting short videos are perfect for Tik Tok and Kuaishou, which can quickly attract attention, while WeChat offers users the convenience of sharing information among themselves or searching for information on their own, such as WeChat Official Accounts or WeChat applets. WeChat can meet that need.

This video was also released on Bilibili and has more than 200,000 plays.

The second is offline promotion, which is mainly targeted at the elderly group. Because retired seniors often hang out in their communities and are generally less guarded, this provides an opportunity for face-to-face marketing. In particular, older adults are relatively inept at using electronic devices, but most of them have WeChat accounts. Therefore, it is the best way to promote face-to-face with seniors offline and teach them how to use the e-learning platform via WeChat. In the mean time, it is a good choice to give the elderly some small gifts after they accept the e-learning platform.

4.Conclusion

People will be more willing to buy and try wine after they understand the knowledge and culture of wine, how to taste wine and how to distinguish between good and bad wine. To sum up, finding the right audience and using the right promotion plan is the only way to make the e-learning platform known and the wine popular in China.

REFERENCES:

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5.https://index.iresearch.com.cn/new/#/pc/detail?id=6984&Tid=109&kid=12065

Yating Liu (Leonie), ICO NIDA, Summer Camp, July 2022