Strategy of the top 5 brands in the sector as for their online strategy

KOHLER

One of the most famous foreign brand of bath and kitchen fixtures

Arrived in Hong Kong in 1995, Kohler set up its office to kick off its development in Chinese market. 4 years later, Kohler chose Shanghai as its China’s headquarter and established its office in Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Shenzhen. As for now, Kohler owns 10 factories, more than 500 show rooms and 10 flagship stores in China.

Marketing strategy

• Position: Middle or high-end
• Supplier for high-grade residence, office building, 5 stars hotel, Shanghai F1 International Circuit, VIP Box of National Stadium, the Water Tube, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, etc.

Online Marketing

• The amount of press release contains the key word “Kohler” is about 361,000.
  • Media monitor – publishing trend in the past one year
  • Sina Microblog:
    • Establish different verified accounts for different business segments of Kohler in order to divide functions into various channels to deliver to the public. Benefits:
      • Due to its complex business structures, it is a good way to distinguish its business segment to educate customer that Kohler is not only the brand for shower head, or only for tap, or only for bathtub.
      • The account for sales & discount is one of the most attractive accounts with 80 thousand followers and whose weibo are the most-frequently retweeted.
      • In order to attract followers, Kohler organized several activities such as “@ 3 of your friends to ask them to follow Kohler” to win a lucky draw.
    • Online Video:
      • To some extents, the success of Kohler should be attributed to its TV commercials broadcasted several years ago (following two famous videos were published on Chinese TV channel).
      • Even they are not the ads merely produced for China’s market; they gathered a lot of attention from the public.
      • As for now, the amount of video about Kohler’s commercials is about 296, covering 9 influential Chinese video websites. Some of the videos are tagged with key words such as funny, creative ads.
      • The most viewed video of Kohler are shared by netizens for 80 times to SNS websites.
• Tmall flagship store: Kohler opened an online flagship store on Tmall, a famous Chinese-language website for business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail.

Christofle

• Baidu Baike

  • The presentation of Christofel on Baidu Baike is comprehensive and detail-oriented. The structure of this reference consists of basic information, brand profile, introduction of founder, celebrity’s choice, worldwide popularity, unique techniques, Christofle and desigers, tailor-made product, Haute couture skill, Chronicle of events, store in China.
  • In order to present its luxury and high-end image, Christofle puts lots of effort on storyline that Christofle is the choice of royal family, such as King Louis-Philippe and Mexican King Maximilian, famous celebrity, such as Bill Gates and Tom Cruise, and luxury hotels, such as Luxury cruise ship and Hotel Ritz in Paris, Lisbon, and London.
  • Personal feeling: the whole writing style of this reference and various stories of users are very readable, pleased, and romantic.
  • Publishing platform: Christofle classifies itself into fashion category so that it tends to choose fashion column or fashion magazine to publish articles. Such as:
    • Vogue: through the form of slide show, Christofle tells its storyline from the founder to a certain type of product.

  
  

  News report or online article

Sina Microblog

• As for now, Christofle gathers 9792 followers which are not a lot but has become a popular topic among relevant professions through indirect occasions and opportunities of mention on other influencers who gather massive amount of followers.
  • Columnist talked about Christofle: an Associate Editor from Wine Press mentioned Christofle during a dinner in Shangri-La Hotel.
  • Editor from Elle furniture column:

• Weibo of Christofle is displaying following information:
  • Store information in detail
  • Adequate daily post
  • Video

• No Chinese name & Baidu Baike
• Related news report: 227 articles
• Sina Microblog: merely 551 posts are related to topic of “Artemide” from March of 2010 till now. (Compare to Kohler which was talked about 1000 times from 9^th May in 2013 till now, 551 posts are very few)
• The only stunning online marketing spot is a list of pictures displayed on Renren Xiaozhan (人人小站) which is a function generated by Renren with simple background design style to display pictures and few words of description.

• There are about 553 posts about Baccarat on Weibo since April of 2012 till now.

Articles and storyline

• There are about 1,390 articles mentioned Baccarat on Baidu searching engine.

The show room in Beijing Sanlitun Village

• Next to Armani, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Alexander McQueen, and other international top brand. Baccarat chose Sanlitun village as the place of show room. The total area is about 300㎡ with selection of furnishings, wine set, stationary, lamps and lanterns, and ect.
• Baccarat is in the gift list of Sarkozy for Obama. News about cosmetics (perfume & lip-stick), hotel, crystal show, wine.

Alessi

Store in China

• The agent of Alessi is in Shanghai. The stores of Alessi cover Shanghai, Beijing (Xin Guang Palace & Guomao Mall), Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Qingdao, Changchun, and Harbin.
• Alessi AGENT opens two accounts on Weibo;
• There are about 669 posts mentioned Alessi from May of 2012 till now.

Sine Microblog

Renren Xiaozhan (人人小站)

• There is a Xiaozhan exclusively displays different designs of Alessi’s product with pictures.

Baidu

• The order of result after searching “Alessi” on the first page of Baidu is Baike, official website (en), official website (tw), official website (it), profile on Haibao, Map of Alessi store in Beijing, official website (uk), Baidu Wenku of Alessi’s classic design, profile on Rayli, profile on 51hejia.

Articles and storyline

• There are 1,110 articles mentioned Alessi.

Online Store on 360buy (JD.com)

• Official online store on JD.com. But it is not found on Tmall.

Faiences de Gien

• No information

Roche Bobois

• Brick-and-mortar store is located in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen.

Sina Mircoblog

• There are two official accounts of Roche Bobois on Weibo; one is company’s official website, another is the CEO of China.
• There are about 177 post mentioned and talked about Roche Bobois on Weibo since January of 2010 till now.

To know more: click on: Research on bathroom – kitchen decoration in China

Article for Daxue China Market Research