Shen Jiahao,Jin Xiuling

(School of Humanities and Management,Zhejiang Chinese Medical University,Hangzhou,Zhejiang 310053)

Abstract:Under the background of the Internet,artificial intelligence is becoming more and more mature.After Amazon launched the first set of artificial intelligence speaker,intelligent speakers in China began to appear gradually.With more and more similar products appear,the competition of intelligent speaker industry in the domestic is becoming increasingly fierce,and major brands are looking for opportunities to seize the market in the competition.The author will carry on the related marketing strategy research from the angle of DuSmart Speaker.

Key words:artificial intelligence speaker;marketing;Internet

In 2014,Amazon launched a new intelligent speaker with new functions,and after that,the speakers in the domestic market also underwent a major reform.Baidu,Xiaomi,Jingdong and other enterprises have launched their own smart speaker products,and each speaker has its own characteristics and focus.For example,Jingdong focuses on business ecological layout,Xiaomi focuses on intelligent furniture ecological chain,and Himalaya focuses on the problem of sound quality[1].In the shopping festival of Singles' Day in 2017,different enterprises have adopted different marketing methods in order to better seize market share,and the price of many products has been reduced to less than 100 RMB.For example,Tmall Spirit,originally 499,reduced to 99 RMB after using the coupon of shopping section on singles' day,DuSmart Speaker entered the market with a super low price of 89 RMB and quickly seized market share,and Jingdong's smart speaker reduced directly to 49 RMB to attract consumers' eyes,these measures gave us a sense of the determination of major Internet companies to seize the market share of smart speakers.Therefore,for DuSmart Speaker,the challenge in the future is very difficult,and we should constantly improve our products and develop corresponding marketing strategies to adapt to the changes in the market.Therefore,in the competitive environment,it is of practical significance to study the marketing strategy of small intelligent speakers.

I.Marketing Status of DuSmart Speaker

With the development of artificial intelligence,more and more enterprises are involved in this field.With Baidu's intelligent search engine and ultra-low price,DuSmart Speaker entered the market with a price of 89 RMB in June 2018,making a good breakthrough.In addition,through the online distribution channel of limited quantity,the hunger marketing strategy is well used,and the shortage of supply arouses the attention of consumers and stimulates their purchasing desire.DuSmart Speakers are mainly sold online,which saves a lot of costs.Besides,Cai Yongkang,an artist with high visibility,is found in celebrity endorsement.Through effective promotion and introduction of stars,consumers can better accept such products and accurately find market positioning.Moreover,through the implantation of program advertisements,such as the popular variety show"The Yearning Life",the functions of DuSmart Speaker are well demonstrated,and the effect that speakers can be integrated into our daily life is demonstrated through the program."The Yearning Life" shows some household lifestyle,and DuSmart Speaker can better show its functions for consumers with the help of this program and stimulate consumers' purchasing desire.Although DuSmart Speaker quickly opened the domestic intelligent speaker market through these strategies,with the increasingly mature of artificial intelligence technology,more and more enterprises joined the competition,under the impact of various brands of speakers,DuSmart Speaker’s market share will be greatly affected[2].

II.Difficulties of DuSmart Speaker Marketing Development

(i)Unicity on Marketing Channel

DuSmart Speaker was launched on the online official website,which can reduce the cost of distribution and has a good publicity effect.However,it also has some disadvantages,that is,users can't feel the effect of the real product only through the screen,and lack the perception of the product.It is difficult to meet the needs of customers to issue DuSmart Speaker through online channels.Moreover,intelligent speakers are sold online,once problems occur,they can only be repaired by returning them by mail,which is very inconvenient to repair,and this will lead to the decline of DuSmart Speaker after-sales service quality,reduced consumers' loyalty to DuSmart Speaker,and affected the development of DuSmart Speaker.

(ii)Limitation on Application Scenarios

The DuSmart Speaker application scenarios orient on the intelligent home control,however,DuSmart Speaker lacks its own products in the control chain,which makes the application scene very limited and has certain limitations.Moreover,the application of intelligent speakers often involves only music playback.For users,DuSmart Speaker is just a device for listening to music,which is only limited to indoor and lacks certain competitiveness.

(iii)Tradition on Product Design and Technology

In terms of design,DuSmart Speaker,like other intelligent speakers,adopts a cylindrical shape without any significant features.Besides,the color and type are relatively single,which is too few for users to choose.DuSmart Speaker paid much attention to the technology and quality of its products,but ignored the visual experience of users.As a result,there was no great breakthrough in word of mouth.Intelligent voice function is based on the development of artificial intelligence,so the technology is not very mature in China,with many defects,such as the range of speech recognition is small,the ability of speech recognition is weak,and the users’words cannot be understood well.All these are technical problems that lead to difficulties in product sales.Moreover,the technology of intelligent speakers is too traditional to be combined with other technologies and lacks innovation.

(iv)Lack of Practical Application Value

According to the survey,most users mainly listen to music entertainment by DuSmart Speaker,which has no great practical application value.In addition,DuSmart Speaker has adopted a price war strategy in order to sell its own products,which greatly reduces the profit of intelligent speakers.In the development of products,software applications cannot be developed on the basis of consumer needs,as a result,most users use intelligent speakers because they are curious about novelty and regard them as a modern toy rather than a voice assistant to facilitate their life.Consumers' cognition makes it difficult for products to realize practical application value[3].

III.Marketing Strategy Recommendations of DuSmart Speaker

(i)Cultivating Diversified Sales Channels

DuSmart Speaker's rapidly capturing market share is not only due to its low price,but also through online sales channels such as Weibo push to conduct sell.However,with the increasing market competition,DuSmart Speaker should also consider offline sales channels to break the limitations of online sales and improve its own strength by combining online and offline channels.DuSmart Speaker can actively cooperate with some stores to expand sales channels offline,and can also actively set up some stores for sales.Moreover,online marketing can also actively seek third-party cooperation and increase publicity,such as WeChat,QQ,Weibo,etc.In addition,some programs can be implanted to increase consumers' favorable impression of DuSmart Speaker.Some price reduction activities and sweepstakes can also be used to attract customers' attention and improve the popularity of DuSmart Speaker.Finally,through the media packaging hype,make DuSmart Speaker become household products.Diversified sales channels can better improve the competitiveness of DuSmart Speaker and improve consumer satisfaction[4].

(ii)Establishing a Complete Ecological Chain

With the continuous progress of science and technology,more and more intelligent products come into our life.For example,Xiaomi has its own complete ecological chain,so DuSmart Speaker can also build corresponding ecological chain to improve its competitiveness.By cooperating with some brand companies to improve the application range of products,such as Midea's smart furniture,refrigerators and air conditioners,we can reach some cooperation on their basis,use the advantages of these products to expand the advantages of intelligent speakers,broaden the usage scenario.We can also improve our own products through the design of other similar products and timely launch better products to meet the needs of consumers.The complete ecological chain can better provide convenience for consumers'life and win their favor.By expanding the usage scenarios of DuSmart Speaker through the ecological chain,intelligent speakers can show their functions in more scenarios,and the market competitiveness of DuSmart Speaker will be improved by relying on the diversification of usage scenarios[5].

(iii)Optimizing Product Design and Upgrading Technology Development

DuSmart Speaker entered the market at a low price,so the quality of products is very important.If DuSmart Speaker has the characteristics of high quality and low price,it will be very attractive for consumers.Higher cost performance ratio can provide better choices for consumers,improve their psychological expectations and stimulate their purchasing desire.Of course,good quality also requires constant innovation of products.For enterprises,products are the foundation of their survival and technology is the core of the development of intelligent products.Therefore,only by constantly strengthening product innovation,can they adapt to various changes in the market,meet various needs of consumers and occupy more market shares.For example,Amazon launched a smart speaker product,which subverted the cylindrical design concept and adopted the circular design idea,greatly reducing the space occupancy of the speaker and making it easy to carry.Moreover,the appearance of the speaker was added with the design of a camera,which made a breakthrough in the product functions of software.Therefore,DuSmart Speaker can make a breakthrough in appearance.Different appearance designs can help DuSmart Speaker to occupy market share faster.Moreover,DuSmart Speaker can conduct market segmentation again and develop different types of smart speakers for different consumers to improve the market competitiveness.For teenagers,intelligent Speaker products are novel.Only continuous innovation can retain consumers,and how to retain these consumers is the goal that DuSmart Speaker innovative product to strive for[6].

(iv)Providing Quality After-Sales Service

Good after-sales service is very important for DuSmart Speaker.DuSmart Speaker can understand the actual needs of customers through after-sales service,improve its products and improve its practical application value,and after-sales service is also very important for consumers,which can improve consumers'sense of identity to the enterprise.Faster and more convenient after-sales service can improve the brand image of DuSmart Speaker,so better sales service can increase consumer satisfaction and increase buyback rate.Therefore,DuSmart Speaker can improve after-sales service in the following two ways.(1)Build offline stores.In this way,consumers can not only experience the high-end quality of DuSmart Speaker,but also improve the connection between consumers and DuSmart Speaker.In addition,when the speakers have problems,they can go to local stores for maintenance,saving a lot of time;(2)After-sales quality training.Improving the quality level of relevant personnel is conducive to leaving a good image in the mind of customers,and can also improve the satisfaction of consumers with DuSmart Speaker,thus increasing the stickiness of consumers.More professional service level can provide better services for consumers,from the perspective of consumers,and can better meet the needs of consumers.Therefore,high-quality after-sales service can increase consumers' favorable impression of DuSmart Speaker,improve the buyback rate and increase the popularity[7].

(v)Establishing Good Brand Culture

In the market competition,the establishment of brand culture is very important,and the establishment of brand is of great significance to the development of DuSmart Speaker.Although DuSmart Speaker is a product of Baidu and can be sold well depending on the brand effect of Baidu,every product should have its own brand culture,so DuSmart Speaker can be improved from the following three aspects.(1)Focus on product image.At present,the competition between smart speakers is increasing day by day,and the homogenization of smart speakers is serious.Therefore,if DuSmart Speaker has its own distinctive image,it will surely attract the attention of consumers and occupy certain advantages in the fierce market competition.(2)Cultural awareness of sales staff.A good product sales is inseparable from a good sales personnel,so the quality of sales personnel and cultural concept is very important.DuSmart Speaker needs to set common goals for sales staff and improve the cohesion among sales staff,so that DuSmart Speaker can be further developed.(3)Consumers' recognition on DuSmart Speaker.No matter how excellent the product is,if it cannot be recognized by consumers,all efforts will be wasted.Through some public welfare activities,the popularity of DuSmart Speaker can be improved,which can build a good image in consumers' mind.Therefore,focusing on the establishment of brand culture can help DuSmart Speaker gain advantages in market competition and occupy more market shares.