Keywords

1 Introduction

Due to the gradual increase of national power, the strengthening of national self-confidence, the public’s interest in their traditional culture as well as other factors, the cultivation of aesthetic taste is changing from a western style to one which more authentically Chinese. Popular mobile terminal marketing in the last two years (which mainly refers to smart phones and tablet PCs) and consumer preferences directly reflect in the forefront of the new media. How can the integration of traditional elements in mobile marketing helps businesses spread better? What can we learn from the marketing paradigm? What kind of cross-border innovative ideas can we employ in there? These are worthy of our considerations.

2 The Composition of a Typical Chinese Style Advertisement

Case:

The image of a Chinese CCTV publicity film Ink.

Brief introduction:

In 2009, China Central Television which dominates the Chinese traditional social media launched a new image of the Ink in order to tie in with an earlier proposed strategy which was Enhancing Professional Levels and Implementation of brand advertising business and fit with the image of the slogan which is Believe in the Power of the Brand. As shown by its name, the promo uses Chinese ink painting as the core carrier, and combines Chinese ink painting with advanced CG technology together with the effect of changing and expansions of the form by putting ink into water to show famous landscapes and other elements of Chinese culture. It also presents the developmental history of CCTV and China as well as reflecting that Chinese culture has a long history, it is profound and all-encompassing and has the ability to change in accordance with the changing situation.

Composition:

The Ink propaganda film constitutes three main parts which are the style of Chinese painting, traditional Chinese culture symbols and a text of traditional Chinese philosophy.

2.1 The Style of Chinese Paintings

Chinese paintings originated during the Han Dynasty (202 BC–AD 220). The main tools used are brushes, inks, painting colors and papers.

The artist dips a brush into water, ink and different colors, which together with the use of a number of strong or light-colored pens will give rise to vivid images of figurative and freehand figures, landscapes, flowers and birds among other things that are painted on the paper. These images are reflective of the ancient Chinese people’s understanding of the cosmos, nature, society and other associated political, philosophical and religious ideas. The CCTV advertisement lays out esthetic and fantasy conceptions with the help of Chinese paintings’ agile and smooth ink textures, simple but long lasting appeal of grey black and white colors, and ethereal and transparent composition. Also, the ink and water for black implies the ancient Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang. The effect of ink diffusion is memorable to audiences and gives them multiple and implicit impressions.

2.2 Selection of Traditional Chinese Cultural Symbols

There are various images in the film that are characteristic of Chinese features. Such as landscape paintings, China carp, crane, dragon, the Great Wall, Tai Chi, etc. In the eyes of the Chinese people, each of them are associated with profound implications. For instance, Chinese landscape symbolizes elegance and tranquility, carp denotes continual upward progress, cranes represent longevity, the dragon often symbolizes noble auspicious prospects and Tai Chi means Yin and Yang and so on. When these cultural symbol which imply best wishes and good will are combined with modern CG technology, traditional Chinese culture shows its new vitality in a new way. As a result, the audience can truly feel the profound connotations of the CCTV brand.

2.3 Analysis of the Text of Traditional Chinese Philosophy

The text of the promotional film begins with the idea of from the invisible to the visible and from the bounded to no border. It ends with the idea of believing the power of the brand. These ideas are all presented in the form of Chinese calligraphy which has the typical features of Chinese philosophy. In my opinion, the text aims to show how the brand established itself and became popular from scratch. Once a brand is formed, commodity is no longer a specific concept but is endowed with intangible values and possesses enormous energy. When the brand has the power to influence other brands, it is able to bring huge benefits to them. Moreover, Wuji is Taiji in the ancient Chinese philosophy. Taiji bears the masculine essence in motion and rests in still at its utmost, whereas it bears the Yin in stillness and comes back to motion at its utmost again. As Yang and Yin illustrated, motion and stillness bear one another and are both roots to each other.

3 What Are the Traditional Chinese Elements

3.1 Definition by Baidu Baike (Baidu Encyclopedia)

The elements of traditional Chinese culture are generally referred to most of the Chinese people (including the identity of overseas Chinese) and the condensation of the traditional culture of the Chinese national spirit. These elements are reflective of national dignity and ethnic interests, symbols or customary habits.

In addition, traditional Chinese elements that are formed during the process of national integration, evolution and development were created by the Chinese people who inherited and reflected Chinese humanistic spirits and folk psychology. They are cultural achievements with Chinese characteristics. Moreover, those elements include tangible material symbols and invisible spiritual contents. In other words, they are material and cultural elements and cultural and spiritual elements.

3.2 Classification of Chinese Traditional Elements

Examples of Chinese Classical Literatures and Thoughts.

Myths: PanGu created heaven and earth, NvWa made man, kingYu combating the flood, The Goddess Chang’E flew to the moon, the cowherd and the weaving maid.

Few historic stories: Taking Oath in the Peach Garden, Return the jade intact to the State of Zhao, Stand in the snow to wait upon Master Cheng respectfully, Every bush and tree looks like an enemy.

Prose poetry: The book of songs, On the Goddess of Luo River, Orchid Pavilion, spring and Autumn, Peach Blossom Spring.

Philosophy: the book of changes, Analects of Confucius, Sutra, Moral classics, Neo Confucianism.

Unique Artistic Expressions of Chinese Characteristics.

Traditional art: painting, calligraphy, Chinese rubbing, fan carving.

Traditional music: musical instruments such as Guqin, guzheng and erhu, music high mountain and flowing water, house of Flying Daggers, plum blossom, spring snow and others.

Traditional opera dance: Beijing opera, Shaoxing opera, Henan opera, Peach Blossom Fan, Mu Guiying, Snow command.

Folk and folk paper-cut patterns: folk such as antithetical couplet, lanterns, patterns such as the knot, dragon beast, Chinese auspicious clouds, etc.

Religion, Medicine, Food, Agriculture, Traditional Festivals and Other Fields Closely Related to Our Lives.

We do not realize that they nourish us and play essential roles in our lives.

4 Popular Mobile Marketing Methods in China - Mainland at the Present Stage

According to CNNIC 37th China Internet report, December 2015, the number of Chinese Internet users reached 688 million and the number of Chinese mobile phones users reached 620 million. The use of mobile Internet users among the population accounted for 90.1 % in 2015, up from 85.8 % in 2014. For desktop computers, laptops and tablet PCs the user rate declined, the phone constantly diverting other personal Internet uses.

During the marketing process, 35.5 % of the enterprises carry out marketing promotions through the mobile Internet. 21.9 % of the companies used to pay for promotions. Due to the user’s behavioral move to mobile terminals, as such, mobile marketing will be taken by enterprises as an important channel for promotion. At the current time, China is generally using the following types of mobile marketing.

4.1 App Advertising

App advertising, also known as In-App advertising, refers to smart phones and tablet PCs or this type of mobile devices in the third party applications built-in advertising, belonging to the sub category of mobile advertising.

Thanks to the popularity of carrier Applications, the rising of App advertising and the widespread use of tablet computers and large screen touch mobile phones and other hardware, Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G that liberate the restrictions of cellular data flow, and Apple App Store ecosystem brought by the new interactive experience, prompted the significant increase of app audiences and app developers. For App developers, there is a need for the cellular data flow to be cashed. For the brand business, advertising needs to be changed in accordance with consumer attentions. As a result, App built-in advertising came into being. If we classify App advertising according to the advertising performances, APP advertising can be categorized into text ads, image ads, Animation advertising, advertising video, audio advertising; in column can be divided into banner ads, start screen advertising and plaque advertising, recommended wall, integral wall and video advertising.

4.2 H5 Advertising

H5 advertising is the use of HTML5 coding techniques to achieve digital advertising. It not only refers to the generation using HTML5 technology to produce Web advertising pages, but also covers for HTML5 and other related social media that utilizes the HTML5 technology of interactive advertising. Currently, mobile phones and tablet are the main routes of transmission. And in theory, computer or digital TV and all of the mobile platforms can be the entrances.

Compared with traditional advertising media, H5 advertising has the following advantages:

  • Demonstrate quickly, can be infinitely modified

  • Feedback in a timely manner, with accurate results

  • Not limited by the time of delivery and the number of delivering times

  • It has greater influence and greater potential of influence

  • The rich dynamic effect can be interactive, and the mode of sound and picture transmission is more mature.

4.3 The Promotion of Wechat Public Accounts

The Wechat public account is applied and used by developers or merchants on the Wechat public platform. Through public accounts, businesses can communicate and interact with particular groups of individuals by text, images, audio, video in the micro channel, which are now mainstream online and offline micro interactive marketing methods.

According to Tencent official data, as of January 2015, the number of Wechat public accounts has reached 7,500,000 with growth of 15 thousand accounts per day.

4.4 Viral Video

Viral video can be regarded as the latest form of virus transmission, with the latest media channels, making video clips on the Internet to get a large area of communications. According to the style of production, viral video is usually very humorous and funny, some of which are natural and grassroots. Accidentally, viral video will obtain lots of attention and reproduce with the formation of the spread of the virus. There are some commercial short videos that resonate with audiences emotionally and achieve viral propagation by creating creative commercial packaging.

4.5 Digital Picture Marketing

In some of the private or public platforms, individuals or businesses strategically publish pictures and convey obscure or explicit and visual information to audiences in order to reap economic benefits.

4.6 Others

5 Concrete Case Analysis

5.1 Local Brand

Baidu.

A large scale of high traffic pressure is happening in China every year before and after the lunar New Year. The Spring Festival transport time lasts from the last month of the lunar year to next January 25th.

The Spring Festival is in the middle of the period and lasts for around 40 days. Spring Festival transportation problem is always an important issue for the Chinese people; it has even been called the largest periodic migration in the history of mankind. In the last 30 years, the size of the population taking rate in this migration grow from 37 million to 100 million passengers in 2015. It is equal to the combined population of Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. Due to the reasons of a huge migrating population, relatively short migration time and the time of year, this transportation period often causes sea, land and air transportation peaks. Therefore, it becomes a common phenomenon that train ticket becomes “hard to get”.

From queuing in the train station to buying tickets online nowadays, grabbing tickets has become a tricky tactic. There are many different online ticket purchasing systems. Mobile Baidu, an application launched by Baidu, is a convenience tool for mobile phone users to use Baidu search service at anytime, anywhere. Let’s look at how mobile Baidu showcase their highlighted features:

Mobile Baidu combines the myth story which the Chinese people are familiar with the train tickets online purchasing systems to convey to audiences that the Mobile Baidu has functions to help them enhance the purchase success rate and to reserve tickets quickly.

The mobile communication project uses the plane of Chinese style picture (mythological figures, Xiangyun pattern, carving fonts, plain rice paper background color) as well as the patterns of the dynamic effects (immortals display their skills) in order to create a kind of antiquity and modern humorous coexisting situation. For example, Erlangshen is an immortal figure from the Taoist legend, FengShenYanYi. He is infinite and unpredictable and has seventy-two metamorphoses, a third eye on his forehead is said to be able to see what happened thousands of miles away, and can turn all illusions into truth. Here he can see many train tickets through the Internet which greatly enhances the success rate of the purchaser. His ears are able to catch sounds sent by winds. He is a God in ancient Chinese mythology, with a pair of long ears, and can hear sounds a hundred miles away. In the picture, he is seriously asking about the news of the train ticket. This tells the users that after they use the Mobile Baidu cloud to buy tickets they can immediately receive a message notification and pay for it as soon as possible to secure tickets. Another example is Guan Yu. He is a famous fellow in the Eastern Han dynasty. In the masterpiece Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Guan Yu is portrayed as a loyalty general figure. His legendary story has been eulogized widely for thousands of years. He was honored as Guan Gong in folk tales. In the picture, Guan Yu is riding his beloved red horse and highlights that Mobile Baidu has the advantage of securing tickets three days in advance. Nezha, Zhuge Liang, Avalokitesvara also show the fast and intelligent performance of products by their speed, wit and “Buddhism” respectively.

By using the myths characters who carry auspicious meaning to promote product features, it is easy for the customers to feel the “blessing” meaning of the products and realize that Mobile Baidu pays attention to people’s livelihood and sincerely helps them solve the difficulties encountered in their daily life. The form is full of warmth, wisdom and without losing fun.

5.2 Localized Promotion of Overseas Brands for the Chinese Market

McDonald’s.

This year is the twenty-fifth year of McDonald’s in China. Over these twenty-five years, western style fast food as represented by McDonald’s is becoming more and more adaptable to Chinese tastes. This can be show by McDonald’s new products in recent years.

Their series posters have a lot of Chinese daily supper symbols, like steamed bread and a steamer. These elements are very familiar to the Chinese people. And this picture combination shows that the products are combined with Chinese and Western characteristics. In another group of marketing pictures which are filled with Chinese folk characteristics, you can see McDonald’s grasp of folk culture such as a Steamer, dustpan, tea tray, basket, small-sized artworks (it is also living articles) exudes a strong flavor of life. With exquisite bamboo, it can easily evoke memories for the native people. Looking at the green MACARON and attractive COFFE, audience appetites will be aroused quickly.

For traditional festivals and solar terms, lots of brands will launch the corresponding marketing behaviors during the ins and outs of the festival. The next example is McDonald’s micro-blog photo released on the day of the Chushu: The pronunciation of the first word Chinese “potato chips” (Shu Tiao) and “Summer heat”(Shu Qi) is the same. In the day of Chushu, McDonald’s using homophone to sell potato chips, and making the copy akin to a calendar appearance, it’s very creative.

6 Marketing Effect

6.1 Brand Social Impact

Putting the elements of traditional Chinese culture into brand marketing activities, and mingling with enterprise images, enables the integration of business philosophy and corporate cultures so as to create a unique style of enterprise marketing. Behind this kind of marketing phenomenon, traditional culture is changed into a spirit and a blessing, because the Chinese people respect cultures and pursue the embodiment of beauty. It is also about overseas business contacts that understand and accept the Chinese culture in a good way. This is an important way for Chinese culture to spread outwardly.

To integrate the traditional elements into the brand’s mobile marketing, various kind of media can be compared with this approach in diffusion, influence and penetration. It makes the brand fresh and more vital. People can feel the meaning and significance of the brand through the marketing activities. This self-sustaining native culture significantly helps to promote consumers from passive understanding of Chinese culture to taking the initiative of understanding it. It also enhances people’s sense of national identity and makes the whole society advocate traditional Chinese good habits.

6.2 Public Perception of the Brand (Public Praise)

In the process of shaping the brand image, traditional culture plays a catalytic role. It makes the brand carry more classical charm, advocates a noble way of life and a life attitude and a consumption concept that are full of humanistic feelings. It also allows consumers to remember the brand in their minds. Compared to contemporary marketing that often directly copies western aesthetics, it makes the brand become more unique and improve the awareness, visibility, reputation and market share of the brand. Via the use of elements in traditional Chinese culture, it conveys to the audience that the brand is of good local cultural heritage, and bring people spiritual enjoyment and spiritual comfort. As such, the brand narrows the distance with the audience and create a good reputation among the consumers.

6.3 Promotion of Sales

The use of traditional Chinese elements to shape the brand with deep cultural atmosphere, is to convey an important message to the consumers: “I’m native, I have rich cultural connotations, you and I are the root homology. I am able to touch the Chinese feelings that are lying deep down inside you.” Its audiences is very obvious, those who are curious about Chinese culture and have a strong interest in and strong recognitions of traditional Chinese culture.

The current local mobile marketing linked online and offline, across music, animation, video, interactive and other media. With the mixture of traditional Chinese elements, it burst into new diverse forms of creativity, attracted to the majority of young people in the local audience. Today’s young people are addicted to smart devices and the Internet, they have their own social circles and love to share, and they have strong demands to the novelty of the games. In recent years, the spending of younger consumers is growing rapidly and the attention of young consumers will be able to maximize the realization of economic income has been noticed by the business sectors.

This way mobile marketing can spread through the complex information chain. No matter which modern city or remote country, and regardless of local or foreign, people can quickly get and spread those brand messages through a smart device. With the use of the existing convenient online payment systems and efficient logistics systems that can respond to consumer behavior, brand owners will be able to benefit from the effect of communication. Additionally, Data can be checked, which will result in greater economic benefits than traditional sales channels.

7 Conclusions

The combination of Chinese traditional elements and the social marketing of mobile terminals have enriched the consumer culture. In recent years, it has become even more competitive in the promotion of the brand. It is also a marketing method that has potential capacity. Brands and consumers generally recognize this form of marketing style, which is a product of the development of the rapid consumption era.