International Marketing News: Subscriptions Gaining Appeal Across Industries

International Digital Marketing Executive, Andrea Diaz, takes us through all of the recent news in international marketing, from subscriptions gaining industry-wide appeal, to how to learn from the past 18 months. Read more.

International Marketing News: Subscriptions Gaining Appeal Across Industries

Across this week's International Marketing News Round-Up, there's a look into subscription services gaining popularity, the unpredictability of UK trade data, luxury brands localising in China and how to learn from the pandemic.

Do Subscriptions Work For Every Industry?

From fashion and FMCG to streaming on-demand, fitness, and cosmetics, subscription-based business models are gaining appeal in a variety of industries.

Subscription models sit at the crossroads of customer loyalty and income, ensuring that consumers will return for as long as they are subscribers. The benefits of the concept are obvious: a subscribing client has a far higher customer lifetime value (CLV) and a naturally closer, continuous relationship with the brand to which they subscribe.

The concept of travel subscriptions has grown in popularity in recent years. Skift recognises it as one of its Travel Megatrends for 2020, describing it as the "next frontier of loyalty."

Lorraine Sileo, Senior Analyst and Founder of Phocuswright Research hosted a panel at the virtual travel conference Phocuswright Europe Online 2021 to debate whether and how subscription models could work for travel. Kanika Soni, Tripadvisor's Chief Commercial Officer, and Lennert De Jong, CitizenM Hotels' Chief Commercial Officer, discussed the subscription packages released by their respective brands, as well as why now is the appropriate time to launch subscriptions in travel.

Subscription models, according to Soni, have the potential to flourish in the travel industry because "consumers have already modified their purchasing patterns and behaviours – they've adopted subscriptions as a business model that works for them, and this is especially true for Gen Zs and Millennials."

UK Trade Data is Expected To Remain Unpredictable

After a big drop at the start of the year, UK exports to the EU recovered to pre-Brexit levels in April.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), EU exports were only slightly down in April than in the same month last year, according to City AM. In the first month of this year, the UK exported £130 billion to the EU, compared to £132 billion two years earlier.

Exports to the EU and the rest of the globe were down 14% in the first four months of 2021 compared to the same period last year.

However, thanks to a 21% drop in imports, the UK's trade deficit shrank from £63 billion to £43 billion over the same time period. Several distinct reasons hindered trade in the first half of the year, including pre-Christmas stockpiling and businesses' "teething troubles" with new customs procedures and IT systems.

As components of the country's commercial agreements with the EU and non-EU markets continue to be negotiated and susceptible to shifting legislation, volatility in UK trade is expected to persist for the foreseeable future. Firms, for example, will now have to adapt to new EU VAT laws that take effect today, as highlighted in yesterday's IOE&IT Daily Update.

The Most Effective Methods For Luxury Brands to Localise in China

On the Mainland, most luxury brands now recognise the value of customisation and personalisation. Brands must use adaptable localisation techniques in a vast and geographically diversified market like Greater China.

• Tailoring content

• Localising design

• Building a localized marketing strategy

• Using big data analytics to have a better understanding of local customers

How To Take The Past 18 Months Learnings and Drive Business Growth 

Life has changed dramatically after COVID-19 was proclaimed a pandemic. We've witnessed significant changes in how people interact with businesses around the world. Customers went online to investigate, research, and plan more of their purchases, which changed their buying habits dramatically. During the epidemic, the new reality required many firms to drastically alter their marketing strategy; others hastened plans that were already in the works.
Four marketing leaders from different industries who implemented customer-centric reforms to ensure their companies are ready for the future.

• William White, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer at Walmart U.S.

• Julia Vander Ploeg, SVP and Global Head of Digital and Technology at Hyatt Hotels

• Fara Howard, Chief Marketing Officer at GoDaddy

• Suzy Deering, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Ford Motor Company