Programme Features

Agile Consumer Insights

The global economy has developed from the 18th century to the 21st century, with the iteration of the three major economic systems from Economy 1.0: Physical Economy (labor work), Economy 2.0: Thinking Economy (analytical work) to Economy 3.0: Emotional Economy (interpersonal work). It coincides with the development trend of Marketing Era from 1.0 to 5.0.

The commonality between the Emotional Economy and the Marketing Era 5.0 is that it emphasizes the importance of people. Consumers have experienced two stages of evolution in economic task requirement. The first stage was that mechanical Artificial Intelligence (AI) replaced most of the labor work, and consumers turned to analytical work. The second stage was when thinking AI replaced most analytical work, and consumers began to turn to emotional work.

In the future, consumers will pay more attention to soft skills, such as empathy, interpersonal relationships, experience, emotions, and other tasks. Both companies and consumers will begin to appreciate the value of emotions. As consumers pay more attention to emotional value, brands also need to keep up with the trend. They should identify agile consumer insights by staring from a theoretical level to deeply understand how consumer minds make buying decisions. Brands need to conduct in-depth consumer research through professional marketing surveys, gaining insights on the essence behind marketing phenomena.

The rise of the emotional economy has also contributed to the formation of a closed loop of emotional consumption: consumers who pay more attention to emotional gains have given birth to companies/brands with more emotional intelligence, which further enhances consumers' desire for higher emotional service levels. The emotional cycle repeats itself, forming a closed loop of brand preference and loyalty, therefore agile consumer insight is indispensable.

The "IMC Principles", "Consumer Psychology" and "Framework for Consumer Insights" in the IMC programme enhance marketers' agile consumer insights capabilities.
 

Precise Market Positioning

Technology has a revolutionary impact on economic and marketing development, from VR, AR, MR, NFT, Blockchain, DAO and other technologies before the epidemic; to the hot topic of Metaverse during the epidemic; to the recent wave of Artificial Intelligence (AI), OpenAI, ChatGPT, Sora and other new techno- buzzwords. Under the trend of Industry 4.0, brands must understand the principles and potential impact of these disruptive innovative technologies and tools and integrate them with classic theories such as "4P” to deliver effective marketing incorporating principles and skills.
The impact of AI on the “4Ps” is listed below:

1. Product (or Service): AI allows brands to personalize their deliverables in batches, formulate comprehensive digital marketing strategies based on target customers’ past shopping data, and project more accurate consumption predictions and suggestions to achieve personalized marketing effects for everyone, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
2. Price: AI helps brands combine macro-environmental data with micro-behavioral data of target customers, provide timely dynamic quotations to target customers, and improve MROI efficiency and profitability.
3. Place: AI can help brands integrate online and offline channels into a seamless and personalized consumer journey of experience design and demand management to improve customer experience and conversion rates.
4. Promotion: AI generates cross-media content, precise algorithm recommendations, KPI evaluation and other rapid iterations, so brands can build in-depth and meaningful dialogues with target customers to achieve corporate resilience and sustainable marketing.

Digital marketing in Mainland China is developing rapidly: new methods such as WeChat marketing, platform economy, ecosystem marketing, industry-specific short video e-commerce, live streaming sales promotion and other new initiatives are all diverse and flashy. The key role of technology is to help brands create precise market positioning. Although technology is developing rapidly, under the iteration of Emotional Economy and Marketing Era 5.0, brands using technology to empower marketing must be humane and moral to occupy a leading position in the minds of target customers.

The "Experience Design and Needs Management", "Marketing Strategies in the Digital Age" and "Corporate Resilience and Sustainability Marketing" in the IMC programme provide brands with strategies and practical methodologies for precise market positioning.

Unique Marketing Communication Strategy

Population is the third essential element that affects IMC. The aging of the global population, the negative growth of the population in Mainland China, and the rise of the Alpha generation, the main consumer group in the future. Brands need to consider the implications for marketing of the confluence of these three demographic trends. With what challenges and opportunities does it bring to brands? For example, is negative population growth a threat to the prospects of baby products? Does this represent its replacement by the pet industry? For example, what implications does the aging population have for the elderly care industry and the related aging economy? Brands will need to communicate closely with Generation Alpha starting from the next 3 to 5 years. What should we pay attention to when communicating with consumers of Generation Alpha?

The age of digital marketing has different implications for different demographic groups. For example, there are fundamental differences in the acceptance of marketing data privacy between the Alpha generation and the aging generation. Therefore, the data-driven marketing decisions of different generations are different. Content marketing corresponding to different demographic groups has different norms and requirements. The platforms, media, channels, and consumer behavior habits corresponding to different demographic groups are also quite different. Therefore, cross-platform content management will affect the precise communication effect of IMC. People divide into groups, and birds of a feather flock together. Social marketing is an important topic in brand communication because different communities represent different demographic variables and customer portrait descriptions, different purchasing preferences, and different brand expectations, all of which require strategic brand communication mindset. Finally, in brand communication, crises such as smear campaigns will inevitably occur. When faced with effective public relations management among various stakeholders, brands must not only prepare plan beforehand, but also know how to respond to crises.

Modules such as "Data-Driven Marketing Decision Making", "Cross-Platform Content Management", " Social Marketing and Brand Communication", and " Effective Public Relations and Crisis Management" in the IMC programme provide brands with suggestions for unique marketing communication strategies.

Learning Journey

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