New silk road
Honey’s sweet deal
In China, these consumers who live in the virtual world, they do what they are told by their idols. Peter Botting, Three Peaks
Pure Manuka Honey has done a deal to use the influence of a major Chinese celebrity to break into the World’s largest economy.
Once, the traditional way to break into China for a Kiwi company was to set up a bricks and mortar store in a major Chinese city, and use traditional advertising to build its brand profile.
But the strategy for Pure Manuka Honey, which markets under the Three Peaks manuka honey brand, is use the ‘‘Internet Silk Road’’.
It’s done a deal with the social media business Gossip Makers, whose celebrity co-owner Ma Rui has a massive influence on the buying habits of his 12 million followers.
Gossip Makers (Guanba) is a rapidly-growing company, currently valued between $80-$100 million, and operates a completely virtual business model.
Ma Rui, who made his name as a TV presenter, interacts with his followers, feeding them a daily diet of entertainment news and commentary, while using his influence to market others’ products.
Last week saw Ma Rui in New Zealand, creating live-stream video content for Gossip Makers in a bid to establish Three Peaks manuka honey as authentic and desirable, and to sell as much of it as possible.
Pure Manuka Honey’s Peter Botting said the company, which is part of the Perry group of companies, hoped to be able to tap into the massive gifting tradition in China.
It had designed its honey packaging to appeal to people who want to give impressive, status-building presents.
Most manuka honey was sold in plastic pottles, Botting said, which was at odds with its high value.
Three Peaks’ flat-topped, mountain-inspired glass pots, designed in New Zealand but made in Taiwan, were created to appeal to Chinese people wishing to give gifts to their parents, coworkers, bosses or business partners, Botting said.
There is a definite hierarchy in gift-giving, with the best quality Three Peaks honey likely to go to the boss, and the lower grade honey, which comes in the old-plastic pottles, for juniors.
Alvin Lee, Three Peaks’ China sales and marketing director, said gifting to family members at festival times was growing as people kept the ties of family strong despite often living thousands of kilometres apart.
Gossip Makers’ co-owner Yang Yuan, said the company’s focus was on young ’’netizens’’ who spend five or so hours a day on their mobile phones.
Netizens were very influenced by the celebrities they follow, he said.
It was not only the 12m Gossip Makers’ followers who were the target. The business estimated that those 12m in turn had social networks of around 200m people.
Yang Yuan described the route to market being taken by Three Peaks manuka honey as travelling the ‘‘Internet Silk Road’’, a reference to great trading route stretching from the Korean peninsula to the Mediterranean Sea.
The power of it was immense compared to the old bricks and mortar model. Through Gossip Makers a product can be seen by as many as 3m people in a window of just 24 hours.
And very quickly, it becomes clear if the marketing message was working, or needed to be refined, he said.
That can bring opportunities to light too. Three Peaks made small sample packs of manuka honey, and consumers took to them so they could get their manuka honey health hits on the move.