Ma Jiajia, who owns a sex shop named Powerful, caught the eye of the media in 2013. As a post-90 girl, she was quite successful in building a brand and marketing. Her creative marketing ideas were highly appraised by entrepreneurs. Many companies invited her to give them advice and suggestions on marketing.
As a post-90 college graduate, Ma Jiajia knows how to market with a maverick language style. Ms. Ma is trying to make herself a leader of post-90, like what Han Han (a Chinese best-
Although someone depreciated Ms. Ma, saying what she did was speculation rather than marketing. But she actually have the ability to build a successful brand and win a lot of fans. How did Ms. Ma achieve all this in a short period of time?
Break with Convention to Draw Attention
A female who chose to set up a sex shop near her university rather than to work in media after graduating from Communication University of China is not something you see everyday. Sex is still a sensitive topic in China, which could only be mentioned by man most of the time. In such a conventional culture, Ms. Ma dared to implement the unconventional ideas of female, by utilizing her professional knowledge in media. To promote an event of anti-tradition and create an internet meme is not a difficult thing nowadays. It not only drew public attention but also brought a good topic for media. This was the successful first step of Ms. Ma.
Hype Herself Continuously
“Your chatter distracts me from my business!” Ms. Ma complained to investors. Then why she spent time interacting with media and companies if she really wanted to focus on business? It can be viewed as personal influence improving and relationship building by hyping herself, in the progress of personal brand building.
In this phase, the strategy is product-centered marketing with the assist of personal image. For many Chinese, the name”Ma Jiajia” will remind them of the girl running a sex shop. Now Ms. Ma are cementing the relationship between personal brand and sex toy brand. This is a relative long progress which required regular exposure to public. If an influencing person try to criticize her, it would be a good chance for Powerful to take a leap.
In China, sex toy industry is still in the shadow. Ms. Ma and her brand, Powerful, can not break the barriers at present, but they can destabilize it. Just make Powerful an excellent, distinctive sex toy brand, and people who need it will purchase it, even not in a public way. Ms. Ma will have some achievement as their team keep running the shop despite gossip.
There is a consensus that Ms. Ma is a mature marketer who knows marketing and branding very well. The complete procedure of marketing and branding that Powerful has shown are worth learning from.
However, Powerful is mainly driven by personal brand of Ms. Ma, and lacks for the ability to run independently. How to breakthrough when Powerful reaches a bottleneck will be a question that Ms. Ma must consider.
Small is beautiful. Powerful can be a successful, boutique sex shop, but it seems difficult to become a large influencing company. But Ms. Ma is still young, her future will be limitless. The relationships Powerful brought Ms. Ma may help her become a legend of post-90 entrepreneurs.