With the rapid development of the internet and rising living standards, demand for products and services keeps growing, and commercial activity is more vibrant than ever. In this competitive environment, merchants place increasing importance on advertising and marketing. Some stand out, as clearly reflected in their sales figures, but many more are full of confusion: why does my business keep declining even though I spend a lot on advertising and marketing? Below I offer a brief analysis of the advertising chaos I have recently seen online, along with advice on how to avoid these mistakes.
A good brand is not built on discounts! I put this first because it is so important. In brand marketing, discounting is like drinking poison to quench thirst - it brings only a temporary rise in sales, but the downsides are many: it intensifies price competition among peers and creates a vicious cycle in which profits never rise. Frequent discounting also erodes the brand image built up over time.
Discounting too often gradually lowers product quality or service standards, and erodes customer loyalty. A few examples: in recent years a number of Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms have quickly grabbed market share in North America - Wish, AliExpress, Shein, TEMU and others. These platforms often grow explosively in their first two years, but most then begin to decline. Why? They share common traits: very low prices and astonishingly large discounts. But after curious customers place a few orders, complaints about shipping and product quality grow until they dominate the online reviews. These customers ultimately return to the reasonably priced Amazon. Does Amazon run such astonishing discount campaigns? Clearly not - yet Amazon outlives them and does far better.
Some third-rate advertising agencies help their clients create false advertising. This is a cardinal sin in advertising and something we have always refused to do. False advertising may bring in customers, but those customers later become free attackers of the brand. The product inquiries it generates also tie up the merchant's customer-service resources and raise operating costs.
From my own experience living in Canada, I often browse posts on Xiaohongshu, and I have found the China-to-Canada consolidated-shipping industry full of false advertising. Many merchants run shipping businesses there, and most use the same slogan, such as: "Ship from China to Canada, 10kg = 38 RMB, regardless of sensitivity, delivered in 3 days." The first time I saw this, common sense told me it was impossible, but I happened to have something to ship to Canada, so I took a chance and asked their customer service. As expected, they did not offer the advertised service - they had mixed several services together. There was a 10kg-for-38 option, but only for ordinary goods or by sea, and three-day delivery cost far more than 38. It was a complete waste of my time; I did not order, I blocked them, and I will never look at such ads again. A vivid example: false advertising raised inquiries but could not convert to orders, while the merchant's customer service had to handle many such inquiries indirectly raising operating costs.
The purpose of advertising is to tell as many people who need your product as possible about its features and benefits in a clever, smart way - not to deceive them.
Good marketing is like being a physics teacher who can explain physics to a bar dancer so that she understands. Frequently using newly invented words, even if they look sophisticated, is a failure if they confuse consumers, because in the end it does nothing to increase consumer trust in the brand.
Recently, because of a certain online influencer, people have started paying more attention to food safety, and one product name quickly went viral: "lamb-flavored meat rolls." Why? Before this, most consumers did not know what this newly coined term really meant and mistakenly thought it was lamb rolls. But adding the word "flavored" completely changes the ingredients - it is actually chicken rolls with added lamb fat, with very little to do with lamb. After this incident, consumers began reading ingredient lists more carefully and looking up coined terms online. Such terms can indeed mislead consumers at first and make products seem upscale, but when more and more merchants use this method to hide their true quality, it will eventually backfire on the brand.
There are many more pitfalls in advertising, all of which merchants and agencies must carefully observe and reflect on in order to discover and avoid them. But most responsible agencies charge very high fees, and smaller merchants often cannot afford them, so they turn to third-rate, irresponsible agencies that care nothing about whether harmful advertising hurts customers, as long as they see short-term results and earn their fee. This makes the merchant's brand worse, makes them even less able to afford good advertising, and may even create distrust of the entire industry - while larger companies keep investing in advertising and pull further ahead. Thus the merchant's advertising dilemma is formed.
SASLAB is also a newly established company, but as a company that takes responsibility for its advertising and thinks for itself, we know that most businesses face sales confusion. We cannot change the entire industry, but through our professional integrity we can sincerely serve every client. We do not chase how many clients we have; we pursue how grateful our clients will be in the future. Because we consider most merchants' budgets, we have innovated on pricing, with the goal of providing the best advertising service to every merchant within their available budget. Please trust SASLAB - we will give every client the best advertising experience!
