Marketing and advertising in Taiwan can both be a challenge and a feat. With more than a million enterprises, Taiwan proves to be a valuable ground for international consumers. At the same time, this country is riddled with various businesses that can be your potential competitors. This makes marketing and advertising in Taiwan far from easy. But, if done correctly, it can lead to a successful business expansion.
There are various marketing and advertising trends emerging in Taiwan. These trends result in successful campaigns, further leading to increase in conversions and business exposure. Of course, these successful campaigns are not created overnight. They are products of in-depth research on the Taiwanese consumer behavior.
For example, findings say that Taiwanese consumers now spend less time in-store due to COVID restrictions. In turn, there was an increase in e-commerce platforms usage and social media business accounts. A whopping 60.3% of the total internet users in Taiwan purchase products online on a weekly basis. They also often buy groceries online, and use product comparison services.
This consumer behavior led to marketing transformation where businesses are also taking over digital platforms to market their products. When creating a campaign, it is important to conduct serious market research. Consumer knowledge and adapting to marketing trends can ensure a successful campaign.
In this article, you’ll see how brands have tailor-fitted their marketing strategies in order to fit their target market. We have curated a list of marketing campaign success stories in Taiwan that you may take a few lessons from. These successful brands implemented various marketing strategies such as social media marketing, influencer marketing, TV commercials, and interactive offline marketing. Let’s take a look!
5 Taiwan Marketing Success Stories ⬇️
1. TC Bank
TC Bank, or Taiwan Cooperative Bank, may not sound like the most exciting company, but it completely surprised Taiwan when it released its heartwarming commercial "Dream Rangers".
This commercial brought tears to the eyes of the entire nation. It tells the true story of five elderly men, with an average age of 81, who went on a 13-day motorcycle ride across Taiwan. Despite their age-related health conditions, such as heart disease and arthritis, these five men were determined to fulfill their extraordinary dream. TC Bank's message was clear - they can help people achieve their dreams, and you don't have to wait until you're 80 to do it.
This commercial captured the hearts of millions of Taiwanese. It was broadcasted on national TV and uploaded to social media platforms like YouTube, where it garnered almost 7 million views, thousands of likes, and comments.
So what made this commercial so successful? It was relatable because it reflected the lives of everyday Taiwanese. This consumer group prefers soft-sell strategies over aggressive ones, and TC Bank knew exactly what their audience wanted. The execution of the commercial was also flawless. By airing it on national TV, they were able to tell this inspiring story in just a matter of seconds. The main takeaway from this campaign is that the Taiwanese market values high-quality content and authenticity.
2. Taiwan Beer
Taiwan is no stranger to smart gadgets, from smartphones to smartwatches, but have you ever heard of a mega-smart refrigerator? Taiwan Beer has taken marketing to the next level with its hilarious campaign featuring a "smart freezer" that talks to its customers.
In this campaign, the Taiwan Beer smart freezer doesn't let people open the fridge door by themselves. It talks to customers, making them do all sorts of funny things before it finally gives them the beer they want. For example, an old man was asked to write his order "in the air" instead of on the screen of the freezer, while some guys were asked to point to their heads while thinking of their order. A lady was even asked to point her phone at the beer she wanted! The smart freezer's witty personality had customers laughing out loud.
This campaign was launched in one convenience store location, but the video was posted on social media. Recognizing that the Taiwanese market is full of tech-savvy consumers, Taiwan Beer increased their online marketing budget to more than NT$50 million that year.
The commercial gained almost 2.88 million views on YouTube, and most of the comments were about how the ad made them laugh and how they wanted to buy the beer, even if they didn't drink themselves. Overall, this marketing campaign by Taiwan Beer was a huge success in terms of increasing exposure and creating a brand persona.
3. Audi Taiwan
Audi is a world-renowned car company known for producing sporty vehicles with high build quality and progressive designs. When Audi expanded its business in Taiwan, they knew they had to reach out to the Taiwanese market through their preferred platforms. And boy, did they succeed!
Audi launched a successful online marketing campaign by identifying the most popular social media platform in Taiwan - Line. Line is a messaging app where users can exchange texts, images, videos, and audio. It also features business profiles and chatbots that brands can use to connect with their customers. Audi was quick to jump on this opportunity to reach out to the Taiwanese market.
Audi teamed up with BotBonnie to develop a customized "questionnaire" function that updates user data to the database, creating a smart and systematic registration process. They also used carousel images to promote each of their car models. Through these interactive carousels, their consumers were able to understand the differences in the models' functionalities. Finally, they used a chatbot to promote upcoming events and new model releases.
This campaign was a huge success, attracting a large number of people to the 2018 Meet Taipei event participated by Audi Taiwan. More than 1,500 people used the chatbot function within three days, demonstrating the effectiveness of Audi's targeted approach.
Taiwan is a digital nation, and marketers need to leverage this fact to reach out to their target audience. Audi's successful online marketing campaign in Taiwan is a testament to the importance of knowing your audience and using the right platform to connect with them.
4. IKEA
Audi may have used social media to reach out to the Taiwanese market, but IKEA did the exact opposite. They used an activity that is popular in Southeast Asian cultures - eating hotpot!
Hotpot is a cooking method that originated in China, where a simmering pot of soup stock is placed on the dining table, containing a variety of Chinese foodstuffs and ingredients. In this campaign, IKEA created an unforgettable customer experience by installing a hotpot that only turns on when enough phones are placed under the table. This encourages people to interact with each other instead of being glued to their screens.
This campaign shows that sufficient research on people's culture can lead to positive results. IKEA localized its campaign to appeal to the Taiwanese population, resulting in hundreds of thousands of positive impressions. On YouTube, it gained more than 360,000 views, and the comments section was full of people applauding the idea and praising IKEA for its innovative design.
This campaign not only brought more subscribers to IKEA Taiwan's YouTube page, but it also projected IKEA as an innovative company that prioritizes valuable connections with its customers. It's a great example of how a company can use cultural insights to create a unique and memorable customer experience.
5. Aquair Taiwan
Aquair Taiwan is a shampoo and hair mask brand that's specifically designed for people with damaged hair in Taiwan. And when it came to launching the brand, they knew exactly where to turn - Instagram!
Aquair Taiwan teamed up with a range of beauty, fashion, and health influencers on Instagram to promote their products. These influencers posted about their experiences with Aquair Taiwan's shampoo and hair mask, and the results were amazing.
Chiao Chiao Tzeng was one of the influencers chosen by Aquair. Chiao has 1.5 million followers who adore her fashion sense and stunning looks. These followers trust Chiao’s recommendations when it comes to beauty and self-care products. On her Instagram post, her followers also shared their personal experiences with Aquair. Some commented how easy it was to wash off, while some said they fell in love with the product because it made their hair smoother. Aside from Chiao, Aquair also worked with influencers Yu Chian, Chin Qinrou, Nina, and many others.
This campaign was a total success because Aquair’s products were exposed to millions of the influencers’ followers combined. It even encouraged user-generated content from the influencers’ followers. The hashtag #aquair now has more than 1,500 entries from Taiwanese women Instagram users.
Aquair was aware that Taiwanese consumers tend to make purchase decisions based on word-of-mouth, personal recommendations, and posts by experts. Thus, Aquair chose to work with beauty influencers who are considered experts in maintaining beautiful, healthy, and shiny hair. These influencers are considered as KOLs by their followers. There already were pre-existing genuine relationships between them, and Aquair was wise to use this as leverage.
Conclusion
Taiwan houses more than a million enterprises. This serves as proof that Taiwan is a good avenue for business expansion, because of its continued economic growth and valuable international consumers. However, this also poses a challenge for businesses newly-entering Taiwan. Before even starting your marketing and advertising campaign, you already have a million competitors.
The good news is that Taiwan has certain marketing trends that have been proven to be successful. In this article, we have listed 5 of the best marketing campaigns in Taiwan from which you can draw lessons and inspiration from. These campaigns prove that knowing the Taiwanese market from skin to bones will help you in devising your advertisements.
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