Understanding digital marketing strategies in Chinese long stay people by using multiple criteria decision-making methods

Abstract

Digital marketing tremendously impacts how organizations and customers interact as the digital economy grows. It gradually permeates the Internet ecosystem, emphasizing the significance of all forms of marketing operations. Related research estimates that in 2020, the Covid-19 outbreak made the modern trade industry face a historic drop of 10.0-12.0%, and department store sales would contract by 13-15%, compared to a 3.5% growth in 2019. The epidemic has increased the deep integration of social media and the home economy, and corporate marketing strategies have shifted from traditional to digital. As a result, this research applies the Central Festival catering business in Chiang Mai as a case study. It implements a knowledge management approach to develop a multiple-criteria decision-making model based on the 4C (Customer, Cost, Convenience, Communication) theory. In the face of the Covid-19 outbreak, select digital marketing strategies for the Central Festival catering business in Chiang Mai to acquire and keep long-stay Chinese customers. Based on a knowledge management process, this study conducts online surveys in-depth interviews, collects individual and collective data. First, based on the 4C theory, this study used the Delphi method to conduct interviews and questionnaires on five experts, two of whom are from the academic field and the other three from the business field, and finally determine the fifteen sub-factors based on four main criteria (4C). Secondly, in the AHP section, by constructing a pairwise comparison matrix and interviewing experts in the field of digital marketing, the weight of each influencing factor and six alternatives were finally determined. In the TOPSIS part, combined with the weight vector of fifteen sub-factors and the evaluation indicators of experts on the six alternatives, the importance of the six alternatives. According to the findings, the main criteria "communication" ranks first with a weight value of 0.6011, and the sub-criteria "Product content visualization, social media, and Visual content description" rank top three with global weights of 0.3336, 0.1513, and 0.1406, respectively. Social media marketing comes top among the six main alternatives, with a Ci* of 0.3405, making it the best digital marketing strategy for the central festival. Social media marketing will assist CF Catering in better understanding the value proposition of Chinese consumers' long stay in Chiang Mai, allowing it to develop a more robust decision-making model.