Shanghai Jungle Leads Woom Bikes’ Expansion Into China
SHANGHAI – Shanghai based marketing and distribution company Shanghai Jungle has led the successful expansion of woom Bikes into the Chinese market.
The Austrian based bike company, founded in 2013, produces bicycles designed for children. The company had decided to expand into China, where it had no prior presence, with the help of Shanghai Jungle. The Chinese market is a world of uncertainties, which prompted the bike company to contact Shanghai Jungle, experts on the market, to guide their venture into China. This decision led to their projected bike sales increasing from 0 to 2.000 bikes a year and Shanghai Jungle was nominated the official distributor of woom Bikes in China.
Woom Bikes placed the responsibility of distribution to Shanghai Jungle. As the distributor, Shanghai Jungle was in charge of handling all aspects woom Bikes presence in China. The overall responsibility includes import, declaration of taxes, storage, logistics, customer service, returns, warranty and marketing. Shanghai Jungle also provided a service to customers that were worried about assembling a bike purchased online because it would be too complicated. For a little extra, the company would send someone to assemble the bike for the customer at their home, anywhere in China. Through different online and offline distribution channels and promotions, Shanghai Jungle was able to grow woom Bikes inexperienced brand in the Chinese market.
The Shanghai marketing company initially started by conducting market research on the Chinese market. They looked at the overall bike market, children bikes, then online sales and then their competitors. Shanghai Jungle looked at how they present themselves, what platforms they use, and their sales numbers. This research demonstrated great potential for woom Bikes.
“Once the decision was made, we started working on the branding and strategy: How to present the brand in China, what are the USPs, what platforms we use. Immediately we started creating high quality written and original video content.”
In addition to the original video content, woom already had over 40 well-made videos, so Shanghai Jungle localized them into Chinese with added subtitles and voice overs in Chinese. These additions were added to accommodate Chinese customers and show woom Bikes value towards them.
Official accounts were registered on all major Chinese social media platforms (WeChat, Weibo, RED) and other news and PR platforms. Once all official accounts were registered, content was updated regularly on all platforms.
Online store is something that is needed for a brand, new or old, in China. Shanghai Jungle first created an official Taobao store and later a flagship Tmall store. Tmall/Taobao, similar to Amazon, is the #1 e-commerce platform in China and boasts millions of daily users. Compared to western sites like Amazon, Chinese e-commerce sites require more attention to detail and effort. This was no different for woom Bikes, and the needed attributes were applied.
The official page was created with a visually striking product page, carefully designed in Photoshop, and included many pictures to assist the visual display and all features of the product are described in great detail, illustrated with pictures. Lastly, an efficient and trusted customer service team was appointed to accommodate its Chinese customers. Customer service is vital for a new or unknown brand in China, with most Chinese customers asking a lot of questions while expecting a quick response and buying based on the experience they had before, during, and after asking.
Shanghai Jungle grew the brand though online influencers from all different social media platforms. Promoting a brand through online influencers is one of the best ways to expand a brand to Chinese customers, but only if it is done right, which is no easy task. Many influencers purchase fake comments and engagement. Being able to differentiate an authentic and fake influencer can be made easy with the right research. Many fake influencers have rapid follower growth with rapid inflated engagement growth that includes likes, reposts and comments. Reposts are small and in a tight circle, short comments are left from close friends of the influencer that encourage people to buy the product with no story or reason behind their comment.
After extensive research, select influencers were identified as suitable through their target audience of adults with children and contacted directly to avoid an agent fee. The influencers were encouraged to post written and video content, reviews, and other types of content featuring the product. Having an influencer increased brand awareness, sales, and gave Shanghai Jungle a lot of content to work with.
To further aid the sales and advertising of the bike company, Shanghai Jungle launched banner and search advertising on Tmall, Baidu and other platforms. Marketing strategies and ongoing campaigns were created and used on Tmall to expand woom Bikes brand in China. Campaigns were executed in regular intervals to create a constant stream of new customers and continuous growth. Promotional and sales channels, such as sales through bike shops, participation in bike events, cooperation with schools and local distributors. These channels were incorporated into Shanghai Jungles strategy to further expand the brand and present woom Bikes in the Chinese market as a unique western bike brand that understands its Chinese customers and their values.
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