let's go online

Many traditional firms in China now step into the online market such as Skyworth and TCL. Both brands are famous for producing television. TCL occupies over 18.9% of market share in China. The participation of traditional firms will bring more vitality and diversity to the industry. It sounds like TCL and Skyworth should have strong competitive power since they all have strong back up force. However, there are many issues that need to be overcome.




The organisational culture may hinder the development of online business. The internet culture is open, creative and passionate. Whereas the traditional firms are more likely to follow rigorous and professional. The manager and marketer need to consider the conflict between organisational culture and online industry culture.



The consumption pattern is another challenge for traditional firms. In traditional perception, the operation of business starts with the manufacturer- they produce product and take the product into the marketplace, then consumers come to the mall and buy what they need. However, in online market, consumers are the centre of the business. Hence the firms need to establish professional teams to conduct consumer research which in order to find out what consumer demand for. Unfortunately, most managers of traditional firms are unlikely to change the perception.



So what do the traditional firms need if they are entering into the online market? Firstly the technical talents. Just copy from others and build an online platform is not going to succeed. There is a common phenomenon in China, that once a website or company has succeeded, there will be hundreds followers in overnight. Those followers lack of innovation, they don’t do the market research and analysis and the resources are not well-integrated. Therefore, the company needs technicians to creative novel model that could make it stands out from competitors. Secondly the online marketing professionals. Online marketing can go wild. Social media marketing, community marketing, virus marketing etc…. there are so many tools that can be used in e-marketing, which the marketers of traditional firms may not be aware of. Therefore, online marketing professionals could help the firms to achieve incredible brand equity.