Alibaba’s Jack Ma Set to Rock Singles’ Day this 11.11 in China with a Breakthrough Combination of Entertainment and Retail!
What’s is this Single’s Day? If you remember, Singles’ Day broke multiple shopping records last year eclipsing most big-scale retail and online shopping sales by a long mile. It left them far behind and wanting. What’s the big deal about Singles’ Day? It is one of the most successful sales campaigns of our generation. And it all comes down to one genius, Jack Ma!
Just to put context to this Singles’ Day, David Beckham has jumped in at the last minute to fill in for Jack’s friend Katy Perry who won’t be available. Celebrities, new and past, are jumping at the idea of being a part of the greatest shopping extravaganza of the decade, i.e. until next year’s Singles’ Day.
It all began in the early 90s when some college students wanted to celebrate the anti-valentine’s day for singles. They chose November 11th because it looked like for single people standing together. That is one of the most random festival origin stories, but it’s not much different from some others. However, none of the others combined have the potential to hit 1 billion units bought and shipped in a day to mark an unimaginable $20 billion in sales.
Jack Ma patented the idea of Singles’ Day when he read the potential in it. That’s what he did, he saw an idea in something absolutely random and made it his masterpiece. And why? This is where we come in.
Singles’ Day is the Perfect Mixture of Retail, E-commerce, and Entertainment!
Jack Ma calls it’s the ‘Five New’ strategy. The ‘Five New’ concept ties in Retail, Finance, Manufacturing, Technology, and Energy. This is brilliance in the making.
The First Step of Five New is ‘New Retail’
Jack Ma wants to merge Retail and E-commerce into a common consumption platform. This platform engages people to consume to their heart’s desire. Here, the merging factor is more profound. Entertainment is used as the bonding agent of the merge. When does a consumer, consume? When they are thrilled and motivated about something, or when they want to fulfill a desire or need. The idea is that buying something or consuming something is an emotional experience. The act of shopping and consumption fills in a need far deeper than the actual product bought.
This strategy dictates that a consumer’s decision is related to their emotion. Now, according to Jack Ma, if you can influence the emotion, you can, in principle, influence the decision. This ‘principle’ stands validated after last year’s breakthrough sales numbers. Single’s Day rocked the world so much, that now other countries are trying to cash-in by having their own Single’s Day event.
But Why Single’s Day? There’s More to it Than a Gut Feeling
China has had the controversial ‘One Couple, One Child’ rule for some time now. Couples, in their misguided and dimwitted desires, preferred male children. The connotations of this statement are horrifying, to say the least, but that’s not the point of the current topic. The Male to Female ratio began heavily askew. Now there are a lot more men as compared to women in China, most of them unmarried and frustrated. Suddenly, the Singles’ Day makes more and more sense.
Influence the Emotion – Influence the Decision!
Watch out for more blogs right here about the other four parts of Jack Ma’s ‘Five New’ strategy.