It is vital for a business that intents to be successful to be clear about their targeted consumers. It is possible to please very consumer, but identifying the personas of the most important people to the business is going to shape business model and its strategies.

By viewing analytics and sales reporters, we can get an insight into our consumer base and thus create personas. Pick a handful that can represent the majority of our consumer. Look at personal information about customer base e.g. single no kids, Parents, Retired. Also look at  product and service base and interaction levels with the business e.g. casual user, frequent buyer, enthusiast. Then name each personas based on their traits.

The central point after creating personas is to keep them being logged and tracked. This can be done by observing how consumer assigned into one persona react and respond to the changes in the good and services. Test and review communications to these personas.  E.g. direct mail, mobile text, email etc. Look at the response rates/sales and be conscious of the timings to avoid individual customers suffering communication fatigue. Also use personas in any usability testing to ensure that the business is not alienating the majority of customer base through changes.

Incorporating Buyer Personas Into Marketing Strategy （video)

Reference:

http://www.smartercommerceblog.com/articles/2013/10/03/have-you-identified-your-customer-personas/

The launch of  Shanghai free-trade zone is major step for financial reforms and economic experimentation. It has been seen as the most important attempt after Deng Xiaopin designated Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong a special economic zone in 1980. The zone is expected to be s a testing area for such financial experiments before they are introduced elsewhere in China.

The detailed outline of how the zone will operate will be published until later this year. But the main features of the zone has been reported. The restriction for foreign investment will be eased, including shipping, law and engineering. Foreign-owned performing arts agencies and medical institutions will be allowed. The control of interest rate will be loosened, and more by the market forces, thus to encourage the investment. And heavily-regulated currency, the yuan, will be swapped freely for other currencies.

By opening the new test zone in Shanghai, a city of 20 million and one of the country’s major financial centers, Chinese government is planing to open up its financial system and internationalize its currency. Intense foreign investment will flow into free-trade zone next few years without restricted control, and therefore potential profits will be huge to obtain.  And this experiment transformation shows that China is moving to conform to new trends in the global economy and trade.

BBC NEWS VIDEO: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24326880

References:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/29/china-shanghai-free-trade-zone

Teso is the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, and the second-largest retailer in the world measured by profits (after Wal-Mart). Recently, Tesco said profits fell 67% in Europe to £55m, while Asian profits, excluding China, dropped 7.4% to £314m.  

From a overall viewing, the main reasons for this drop come from two aspects: rival competitors and consumers. Although right now Tesco is holds a lagger market share than its rivals in Asia, the total market share has fell from 30.9% to 20.2%, where as rivals like Sainsbury increased its market share from 0.2% to 16,6%. The battle becomes tougher with discount discount supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl, besides existing competitor. Also, due to  little improvement in consumers’ spending power in UK, there is less pessimism around. As the UK is still recovering from the economic recession, people’s real disposable income hasn’t increased much.

Under this situation, The UK firm decided to combine its Tesco China business, with the 2,986 stores held by CRE’s (China Resources Enterprise Vanguard) business. It is the third-largest supermarket chain in Hong Kong. It operates approximately 450 stores in Hong Kong and the Chinese municipalities.This strategy hopefully would help to pull up Tesco’s overall market share by utilizing Chinese people’s improving purchasing power, and the net profits might cover the continuous loss in tough European market to some extent.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKrZBW2RRXA

Reference:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24361465

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24374863

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco