Just watched Tmall’s launch video for Double Eleven AKA Singles Day (view below).  I liked it, not just because it was a nice piece of Brand communication, but also because it reinforces something I have been wanting to make sure clients and SBW friends are aware of – Tmall is just a platform, it is a brand.

This very fact is essential to how Brands think about collaboration with Tmall – it is not just a platform choice, but a co-brand relationship that you are entering into.

Both parties have “skin in the game”, that is the brands who are wanting to increase their position in China, and Tmall who is wanting to ensure their market leading platform can establish its own brand, to shore off pesky competitors who are starting to offer strong propositions.

Watch Tmall’ s Double Eleven here

So what is the moral for brands in China

As you can see from video, this is Tmall’s impressive expression of itself as a brand – it is less about the Day, and more about Tmall itself.  The slogans of Tmall’s clients form Tmall’s own voice, all collapsing into a Tmall experience – “the whole world is here”.

The slogans that form the Tmall ad – 

I Will – Under Armour
Change Your Destiny – SKII
You Can Be Anything – Barbie
Always In Beta – New Balance
Capture Different – GoPro
Delighting You Always – Canon
Live In – Levis
The Best a Man Can Get – Gillette
你值得拥有 – L’oreal
怕什么 – Rayban
Life is Good – LG
不设线 – Beats by Dre
未来无所不能 – DJI
We Break the Rule – Videl Sassoon
Keep Walking – Johnnie Walker
Ready for More – Converse
Forward Thinking – Smart
Never Stop Exploring – North Face
Just Do It – Nike

The moral

This is all well and good, but my feeling is brands still see Tmall simply as a platform, in the way that they see WeChat or Weibo, or alternatively Tmall vs. JD.com – but now it is a straight-out CO- BRAND.

This is not to say Tmall is not a fantastic way to create sales and awareness with Chinese consumers, but brands must think strategically about the how Tmall forms part of a social and digital ecosystems.

Ensuring that Single’s Day and Tmall does not flood other investment and activities, and that the brand does not become ‘commoditised’ as a result, simply part of the Tmall closet of goodies.  Shudder the thought.

See below, of what being Tmalled looks like –