Although education of the English language is widely available nowadays, Chinese is obviously still the main language used in daily communication in China. Chinese people can be sensitive to the words chosen and the language itself is tricky, which can become misleading and affect the brand image. 

尽管英文教育在中国现已十分普及，但中文仍是日常交流时所使用的语言。中国消费者对于语言文字的使用有时会比较敏感，加上中文本身不是一门容易参透的语言，误用词句有可能会误导消费者，给品牌形象带来负面影响。

For instance, back in 2016, NIKE released their annual collection with a design that put Chinese characters on the heel of both shoes. The left shoe read “wealth” (发) and the right read “Fortune” (福), both are blessing words individually, but when these two characters are placed together it means “getting fatter”. Coupled with Internet and social media coverage adding fuel to the fire, the design immediately became viral on WeChat, Weibo and Baidu. In an age when shoppers review products online first, such missteps can have an impact on brands.

举个例子，耐克2016年发布的中国新年贺岁款在左右两只鞋的鞋后跟上分别写着“发”和“福”。两个字乍一看没什么问题，都是祝福语，但放在一起就成了“发福”。加上互联网和社交媒体的推波助澜，这款设计立马成为微信、微博和百度上的热点消息，网友直吐槽“谁要把‘发福‘穿在脚上“。在购物都先看评论的年代，这样的失误对品牌带来了不小的影响。

AdMaster reported that for 2020, 71% of advertisers planned to increase their budgets for digital marketing. The same data shows that 75% of these advertisers will also be focusing on increasing ad spend on mobile platforms. The mobile phone is the preferred device to browse the internet, and consequently, to shop online. Needless to say, brands that are able to build better customer journeys on mobile channels benefit more from digital marketing.

据AdMaster的统计，2020年，71%的广告商计划增加数字营销预算。同一份调查据显示，75%的广告客户也将增加手机平台的广告支出。手机是人们上网和网上购物的首选设备。不用说，那些能够在手机渠道上构建优享客户体验的品牌能通过电子营销获利更多。

An important factor to keep in mind is that there isn’t much Google and Facebook can do in the Chinese marketplace, as access to these “western” sites is prohibited by the government. However, there are plenty of, if not equivalent, better and more widely-used alternatives: popular platforms such as WeChat, Weibo and Douyin/Tik Tok are equipped with integrated and interactive features to attract a general audience; other platforms such as Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, and Toutiao can be of practical use when trying to reach a niche market audience.

值得注意的一点是，由于很多“西方”网站被政府屏蔽，谷歌和脸书等网页在中国能发挥的作用并不大。但是，这里有很多其他同等甚至更好、使用更广泛的平台可供代替选择：主流平台如微信、微博、抖音等都具备综合且互动的功能，以吸引普通受众;其他平台，如知乎、小红书和头条，可以在试图接触小众市场受众时发挥作用。

Brands can’t avoid video content when marketing through digital channels in China. For one thing, the aforementioned Apps are all incorporated with a video sharing feature. The advantage of short-form videos lies in their flexibility and fast production. In addition, in order to further amplify the effectiveness of short videos, brands may collaborate with celebrities and KOLs/influencers, who happen to be producers of the most popular short-video contents. Of course, brands will have the responsibility to identify on which platforms their target audience are present. 

在中国通过电子平台进行营销时，品牌很难绕过视频这一选项。首先，上述提到的手机App都包含短视频分享功能。短视频的优点在于制作灵活、快速。此外，为了进一步增强短视频的效果，品牌可与拥有较高热度的名流、网红、意见领袖等合作。当然，品牌有责任确定他们的目标受众在哪些平台上。

Marketers are using the platform for many promotional materials such as promoting brand culture, product launch announcements, product reviews, and many more. Aside from promotion, short videos are also popularly used in China for PR crisis management, improving customer relationships, and market research, to name a few.

营销人可以使用这些平台进行多样宣传，如推广品牌文化、产品发布公告、产品评论等等。在中国，除了推广外，短视频还被广泛用于公关危机管理、改善客户关系、市场调研等。