James Chen | Marketing Notes

Hello, everyone. I would like to share some of my insights in the study of digital marketing courses during this period. This is just the first part, and I will share it in many parts. In the process of learning, I realised more and more that digital marketing is actually a whole set of value creation and communication systems around consumers. He is essentially answering the same question: how can brands understand consumers more accurately and pass on their value to them in an appropriate way.

 Marketing includes the creation, design, promotion and distribution of products or services. The ultimate goal is to let the target audience truly feel the value provided by the brand. Marketing has begun since the brand thinks about what consumers need. In many cases, enterprises will first think about what products I have and what I want to sell from their own perspective. But the really effective marketing logic should be reversed, first to understand who consumers are and what they need. Consumers are not the last link of the marketing process, but the centre of the whole marketing system. From product functions to price strategies, from sales channels to brand communication, all decisions should be carried out around consumers.

This can be understood through the classic 4P theory, that is, products, prices, channels and promotions. Although 4P is a relatively traditional framework, I think it is still very valuable in the era of digital marketing. However, the connotation of these four dimensions has become richer today. The product is no longer just a physical commodity itself, but also includes user experience, service process, interface design and even brand content; the price is no longer just a fixed number, but may include membership mechanism, discount strategy, subscription mode and dynamic pricing; the channel is no longer limited to offline stores, but extends to the official website, electronic Business platforms, social media stores and mobile applications; promotion has evolved from simple advertising in the past to a combination of content marketing, search marketing, KOL cooperation, community operation and email automation. In addition to 4P, I think the understanding of the level of consumer demand is also very important for brand analysis. Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs divides these needs into five levels, and different brands tend to correspond to different levels of consumer needs. In terms of the most basic physiological needs, brands such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s mainly meet the basic needs of consumers for diet. At the level of safety needs, Volvo is a typical example. It has long taken safety as the core of the brand, so that consumers can get a stronger sense of security when buying. On top, Starbucks meets consumers’ needs for a sense of belonging and social space through store atmosphere and brand culture, while Apple and Nike are more at the level of respect for needs, allowing consumers to express their taste, identity and lifestyle through the brand. Brands like Patagonia are even further connected to the self-realisation level, because consumers buy it not only for the product itself, but also for the values of environmental protection and sustainable development. Especially in the fiercely competitive market, whether a brand can enter a higher level of consumers’ psychological cognition often determines whether it can establish long-term loyalty and premium ability.

Taking Apple as a specific example, it sells mobile phones, computers and electronic devices on the surface, but it really conveys much more than product functions. Apple has created an efficient, modern and aesthetic brand image through minimalist design, stable experience and unified ecology. Many consumers buy Apple not simply because it can accomplish a certain function, but because it represents a lifestyle they are willing to recognise. This value has gone beyond the practical level and is closer to consumers’ needs for respect, self-expression and even self-realisation. The role of a brand here is no longer a commodity provider, but an identity symbol and cultural expression tool.

In the digital marketing environment, I think search is a part of particular attention. Traditionally, brands will improve visibility through SEM and SEO. SEM is a paid search advertisement, which emphasises quick traffic acquisition; SEO strives to get a higher ranking in natural search results by optimising the content and structure of the website. What these two methods have in common is that they both revolve around the behaviour of consumers who actively seek information. At present, with the development of generative AI and intelligent search, brands also need to start thinking about whether their content can be understood, extracted and quoted by AI, and whether it can continue to be discovered by consumers in the new information distribution environment. That is to say, although the digital marketing environment is constantly changing, the core logic has never changed, that is, wherever consumers find information, brands must go to establish a sense of existence. I also think of Glossier as a case. It knows that young consumers want to see a more real, more everyday and more intimate brand expression, so it uses a content style that is very close to users’ lives on social media, and encourages users to actively share experiences to form UGC communication. At the same time, it also undertakes traffic through the official website and e-commerce system to complete the purchase conversion.

In general, I think the underlying logic of digital marketing can be summarised into several keywords: consumer-centred, creating value through systematic marketing combinations, understanding the needs of consumers at different levels, and establishing continuous communication through multiple digital channels. As the digital environment continues to change, the challenges faced by brands will become more and more complex, but what really determines the effectiveness of marketing is still the insight into consumers and the ability to turn this insight into brand actions.

James Chen

03/03/2026