Digital growth of brands in the limelight of study
More efforts should be made to study brands and their ecosystem in e-commerce to reinforce brand building and stimulate the vitality of brands, industry participants including academics, officials and college researchers said during a recent forum.
Zhou Lan, deputy director of the Shanghai Commerce Commission, said brand development is an important symbol of driving high-quality development for the city and the commission encourages e-commerce platforms to further support brand building efforts and diversify the retail market.
The Brand Thriving Ecosystem forum, held at the Fudan University's School of Management earlier this week, has brought together representatives of local and overseas brands, along with management school professors, for topics such as brand building and how e-commerce platforms contribute to the overall brand and retail ecosystem.
Guest speakers, researchers and industry commentators joined a discussion at a recent forum focusing on the e-commerce ecosystem and brand building.
Associate dean Sun Yimin from the school said booming local marketing activities provide rich resources for brand-related research which is dedicated and has the responsibility to guide future brand building activities.
Two more overseas brands were included in the case study pool to provide more guidance and theoretical background.
Researchers called for further integration of digital capabilities and the real economy to inject momentum into economic recovery, according to a recent white paper jointly released by the Renmin Business School, the Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management, and the Fudan University's School of Management.
Based on case studies of eight leading brands and service providers on Tmall, the white paper shed light on how the platform ecosystem enhanced brand interaction with shoppers.
The diversified and tailor-made service by e-commerce platforms contributed to a flourishing ecosystem, and researchers said it was crucial to understand how e-commerce players helped brands interact with consumers and to guide them in terms of new business models and concepts.
China needs to grasp opportunities during a major paradigm shift and accelerate the development of the platform economy, and strengthen its dominant position in the field of digital economy, researchers stated.
