Media Markt’s new China webshop gives consumers upper hand in a price war

The campaign seeks to connect with traditional price-driven consumers through four characters who represent them. Wearing oversized red boxing gloves, these characters invite consumers to participate in the campaign by generating online discounts for their favourite products via 'hits' or 'punches' at the webshop.

Actors playing these characters were sent onto the streets of Shanghai to spark a buzz in the city through "energetic sparring" in a series of promotional activities, according to a press release.

The 8,000 products offered by Media Markt change on a daily basis and with more people ‘hitting’ the daily offer, the bigger the discount given. Social-sharing applications on the webshop allow people to share their product choices with friends via Weibo to gain more 'hits'.

The campaign triggered over 10,000 posts in the first 24 hours of its launch, and is running across print, direct, in-store, OOH, and digital channels in November.

Jacob Johansen, general manager of Momentum Greater China, said communications campaigns for consumer electronics are traditionally either product or price driven.

“With the launch of Media Markt’s first online store, we set out to bridge the physical and digital worlds by subverting the traditional discount mode. The decision of which goods to be discounted is in the hands of consumers, based on popularity, instead of the retailer."

An intensely competitive market, the consumer electronics category in China was worth US$123 billion (767.7 billion yuan) in 2011 and is predicted to continue its strong growth through 2013, according to Euromonitor.