Analyzing Marketing Functions and Values of online Social Media Platform—red

BNU-HKBU UNITED INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE

DIVISION OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

Group Assignment for Analyzing Marketing Functions and Values of Online Social Media Platform—RED

Major: Marketing Management

Course: Internet and Socially Responsible Marketing

Lecturer: Dr. Charles CHOW

Group Name: Still Thinking

Submission Date: March 23, 2017

1430020001   Ivy

   1430020013   Crystal

   1430020014   Journey

1430020028   Jim

  1430020035   Alexis

1430020046   Augustine

CONTENT

1. Introduction        1

2. Major Functions and Value        1

2.1 Searching        1

2.2 Interactions between Users        1

2.3 Notifications        2

2.4 Online Purchase        2

3. Conclusion        3

References        4

1. Introduction

RED (Xiao Hong Shu) is a leading sharing platform of lifestyle as well as the largest global shopping community in China. (Xiaohongshu, 2013) Searching, interactive communicating, notifications, and online-shopping consist of RED’s major functions, which is strong competitive edge among competitors. Convenient searching engine, targeted promotions, public praise and community are the core competency of RED. It was founded as an online community of user-generated content model in 2013. At the end of 2014, RED developed a shopping platform, which allows purchases through the approach of cross-border e-commerce and sell products based on B2C model. Since the shopping platform was built up, RED has achieved sales of three hundred million within six months and owned more than ten million loyal users. (Chen & Shai)

2. Major Functions and Value

2.1 Searching

As an E-commerce platform, one of the major functions of RED is searching. RED is considered to be a pure play platform, with great level of commitment to e-business. Its strategies are highly integrated with information technology. (About Xiaohongshu, 2016) Users can look for products by keywords. Searching results for posts, goods and users are shown, covering various categories like cosmetics, lifestyle, sport, food, etc. Moreover, if the users search for a specific brand name, not only related post of this brand’s products will be shown, there will also be an official homepage for the specific brand for users to perceive latest and reliable information about this brand and get a basic brand image directly. Moreover, after searching for the specific brand/product, users can get the links to the companies that sell the product.

2.2 Interactions between Users

When potential buyers want to buy cosmetics, they always have no idea which product is suitable for them, because various skin tone and conditions have different demands for cosmetics. To know about whether the product fits them, it is essential for them to get some feedbacks from users instead of directly purchasing it without enough knowledge (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). Therefore, as a social media, RED creates an on-line platform for users to post their own using experience, respond to comments and even talking with other users. There will be more credibility by applying users’ own experience rather than the brands’ own advertisements. For example, a user published an article to introduce lipsticks of YSL and she made a thorough assessment in this post based on different color codes and which skin tone each of them matches so that potential buyers who have seen this post may make their decisions based on this post with more confidence. Furthermore, RED can know which product is popular right now and what people want to buy through articles or uses’ comments so that they can target to the audience more accurately. (Goh, 2012)

2.3 Notifications

There are a remarkable number of active users using RED and notifications play a crucial role in promotion. When a user creates an account, he/she selects hashtags indicating his fondness, which will be recorded and used as references to search for posts that the user may like by RED. Subsequently, these posts will be edited and put into a notification. Banners carrying notifications will appear at the top of the screen and immediately attract attentions when users are using their phones, while alerts appear on the screen when users’ phones are locked. Users decide to click in or ignore them by glancing at the short titles. Besides, notifications also appear in the section of “Explore” within the application while users are using it. Generally, notifications not only attract user’s attention but also remind users to spend time on the application. Moreover, notifications with users-oriented titles raise users’ interests, which stimulate users’ intention to consume.