7companiesGP Batteries and Jebsen & Co are two great examples of how two different companies in Greater China and are using social media to their biggest benefits.

Hong Kong’s battery giant, GP Batteries, made a move into e-commerce by launching its online store in July 2012. Within three months since its launch, GP has already broken even by effectively making use of social media.

GP initially targeted major local forums to engage with consumers on its product offering. Then, GP invited technology bloggers to review their products. The results from this strategic approach are phenomenal, since discussions on forums and blog reviews helped to increase website traffic by 330%. GP found out that the top ten sources of traffic for the online store are from forums and blogs.

It is undeniable that social media is the place to go for product reviews and developments. To learn about feedback from these discussions, GP is using the social media monitoring services provided by Meltwater. “We are curious to learn about direct feedback on our products so we can improve. In the past, we had no idea what they think of us. We can now analyze feedback on a global scale, and be notified on a daily basis.”

Through Meltwater’s social media intelligence, GP learned that a battery explosion incident that happened a couple of months ago still draws public concern on product safety. To address this issue, GP provided a question and answer session where the public could direct specific questions at GP engineers. This gave GP a direct communication channel with the public, giving them a distinct advantage over competitors.

Jebsen & Co, is a distributor that represents over 200 foreign brands such as Porsche, Champagne Bollringer, Dyson and Pentax in Greater China. They have been distributing these products in China for over 20 years. Clearly, Jebsen has been crucial to the success for these foreign brands in China. Although Jebsen has adopted a traditional marketing approach by hiring a PR agency for pushing out press releases and organizing events, the rise of social media in the last few years has encouraged Jebsen to think outside of the box.

DarrenJebsen has invested into Facebook and Weibo to reach out to their clients over the last few years. One successful example is the short video campaign that Jebsen launched last November to promote its own corporate brand on both Facebook and Sina Weibo. The video shows a thief breaking into a house, caught red handed by the owner. Jebsen asks its audience to come up with a creative ending to the story on social media. “The success is phenomenal, and within a week of the campaign launch, we have increase our fan base by five fold”, according to Darren How, Branding and Communications Manager for Jebsen.

Video: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/1Gd6K0fzByc/

At the moment, Jebsen has over 24,000 fans on Sina Weibo.

How also describes social media as an extension to their corporate newsletter, where Jebsen focuses on delivering lifestyle oriented content rather than corporate updates on its newsletter. Moreover, they have set up a Careers section on the Facebook page for recruitment and is using this platform to help with recruitment marketing. Lastly, Jebsen uses social media for establishing thought leadership by giving out industry insights from its senior management.

Jebsen is now adopting a mix marketing strategy practice to maximize their results. When asked about their success over the few years, How says “The key to Jebsen’s success over the years is to make sure all marketing activities and efforts are aligned with the growth of the brands”. For example, Porsche is growing in popularity in China and there has been increased media coverage from all parts of the country. It is important for Jebsen to identify when and where the media coverage is coming from so they can listen closer to the ground to understand how the market may react.

“What we really need is a tool that keeps us informed given the dynamic landscape. Also, with a massive portfolio like Jebsen, we need a tool that helps us stay on top of any potential crisis. After testing out a few different options, Meltwater best fits with our needs”, said How.

By Janet Yu, Marketing & Communications Manager APAC at Meltwater