Alibaba is a group which domains most of the economy in China. A better way to understand Alibaba is as a mix of eBay, amazon.com, paypal and Google. Alibaba officially lunched its first platform in Hangzhou, China, which is providing the “promotion plus web design” for the middle and small-sized enterprises. Thinking about how Alibaba can be so successful now, its marketing strategy plays an influential role. On the one hand, at the initial stage of Alibaba business, it provides enterprise a free opportunity to register as a Alibaba membership. This low threshold attracts considerable enterprises to be the members of Alibaba and then when the members reach a high number, Alibaba begins to charge memberships fees away. Notably, on the other hand, Alibaba plays as a middleman, who directly gets in touch with the sellers and buyers thus facilitates the transaction. In the design profit model, it just imitates the charge booth fees model of Canton Fair, which means it does not need to hook and trade effect, approaching first charging model. Compared with the Canton Fair, which needs the high threshold and booth fees, Alibaba’s advantages and values are reflected.

Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29077495
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2489054/e-commerce/alibaba-s-business-model-and-the-chinese-market-make-its-ipo-hot.html

H&M is one the world’s largest fashion retailers and we can say almost every H&M shop is trendy in the world. But why is H&M able to own such a good business, the most essential key for the success is their business concept. H&M focuses on offering fashion and quality at the best price.

How H&M achieve its business concept? On the one hand, as the fast clothing manufacturers, the most prominent trait for H&M is the high work efficiency. There is the very short time from the clothing design to be goods in the H&M shops, which is available for consumers to get in touch with the latest and fashion products as fast as possible. On the other hand, H&M pays more attention on saving costs; it chooses the low cost transportation, which makes the price of H&M, is cheaper than the Spanish brand ZARA and Japanese brand UNIQLO. What’s more,

“H&M does not own factories, but instead buys products from independent suppliers that are close long-term partners of H&M”.

It is also the key point for H&M can sustainably offer considerable products and reduce costs, since H&M advocates contacting with suppliers directly and cut down the middlemen. All in all, fast supply, low cost and stable partnerships contribute the ability for H&M offer the substantial goods at such a short in a low price for customers.

Sources:
http://sustainability.hm.com/en/sustainability/commitments/be-ethical/responsible-marketing.html
http://www.businessoffashion.com/2013/04/are-hms-high-end-marketing-tactics-paying-off.html
http://about.hm.com/en/About/facts-about-hm/about-hm/business-concept.html
http://about.hm.com/en/About/facts-about-hm/people-and-history/working-at-hm/values.html

Haidilao is the Chinese hot pot chain restaurants, which becomes so popular in recently years. Now Haidilao owns lots of branch restaurants in not only China but also in Singapore and the U.S. The reason why it becomes so sought-after is its humanized service, which is the essential point I adore most, and also the key point for its success. Combined with Porter’s Generic Strategies to think what the strategy Haidilao uses, it must be the focus strategy (differentiation) in the narrow market segment. It focuses on the customized and personalized service, which makes Haidilao stands out form, other hot pot restaurants.

Haidilao can meet various customers’ needs. For instance, for the female customers, Haidilao offers the beauty nail salon while the clients are lining up. Moreover, it is so circumspective that offer the hair ties for the clients with long hair and “eyeglass wipes to clean off steamy lenses”. For the male clients, it provides shoeshine service and for the children, recreational area is available, parents even can monitor their kids via the screen, which is sited before the table while they are having the hot pot. Importantly, all the services are free for any clients. Since Haidilao is always concentrated on doing the best service, it usually receives higher degree loyalty from its consumers than other restaurants according to the focus strategy.

Sources:
http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml
http://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-gold-20140531-story.html
http://la.eater.com/2013/5/22/6431143/hai-di-lao-unusual-chinese-hot-pot-chain-to-arcadia