From Door-to-Door Sales to Global Orders: How Printing & Packaging Firms Win the Online Marketing Battle

[News from the E-commerce Committee of the China Packaging Federation] In the internet era, information travels far faster and far more easily than ever before, and the web has grown into a major platform for economic development. With internet access now widespread, marketing no longer depends solely on knocking on doors in the “four thousand” spirit — a method that could only ever reach a very small pool of customers. Tapping the power of the web for online marketing, by contrast, delivers results that traditional marketing simply cannot match: a company can do business across the globe without ever leaving its office, and through the internet it can grow into a well-known enterprise with best-selling products. That is precisely why online marketing has become a channel favored by so many businesses.

Doing online marketing well begins with clearing out outdated concepts and outdated models of thinking. Ours is an era of change and innovation, with science and technology advancing by leaps and bounds. To survive and to grow, enterprises must actively pursue change — shifting from traditional product thinking to modern online marketing thinking and genuinely embracing internet thinking. The reason is simple: the environment has changed, so past success does not equal success now or in the future, and running the present and the future on yesterday's ideas and proven experience will only lead to a dead end. The global printing and packaging industry is moving toward “network digitization,” and e-commerce is the trend. The mindset of printing enterprises must keep pace with this era of change.

Online marketing breaks the limits of geography and time, opening enterprises up to more customers and a larger market — an advantage that carries risk as well. When a printing enterprise enters online marketing, it must pay attention to choosing a market segment and a profit model that suit it. For instance: is the company mainly producing paper-based print or plastic film print; does it make handbag-type products, packaging box products or other items; does it make processing-type products or stationery commodity products; does it target the domestic market or the international market? Each business must, based on its own characteristics, consider suitable products and a suitable online marketing model. Domestic e-commerce models currently include B2B, B2C, B2B2C and O2O;

International trade offers different models such as front TT and back TT; some enterprises also use internet cloud technology to open printing and packaging creative supermarkets, while others innovatively carry out WeChat marketing, and so on. As science and technology develop, online marketing models keep evolving. Every enterprise must choose the right entry point, build a product line with its own distinctive character and creativity, highlight its individuality, grasp the market, lay out its plans sensibly and avoid risks. If a company fails to do this, it cannot gain a firm grasp of the printing market, nor can it fight the online marketing battle well.

To fight that online marketing battle well, the key still lies in talent. “Running a company is running talent.” An enterprise needs not only outstanding creative design talent, but also a group of outward-looking professionals who are proficient in business, know foreign languages, can operate, are good at management and are familiar with online marketing. Enterprises must make a point of gathering a large pool of excellent talent online and building an advanced business operations team. Some say that an entrepreneur's success lies not in how much you can do yourself, but in how many people's strength you can leverage to get things done. Our entrepreneurs should learn to leverage strength — the strength of talent and the strength of online platforms — to win the online marketing battle and let their enterprises advance triumphantly in this era of great change.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-377357.html