Research on Optimization of New Media Marketing Strategy for Specialty Agricultural Products in the Background of Rural Revitalization ()
1. Introduction
On February 23, 2025, the “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Further Deepening Rural Reform and Solidly Promoting the Comprehensive Revitalization of Rural Areas” was officially released, as the 13th No. 1 Central Document to guide the “Three Rural Issues” work since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The opinions propose to focus on strengthening the county-level industries that enrich the people. Develop rural characteristic industries. Adhere to the principle of doing things according to market laws, vigorously develop green and characteristic agricultural product breeding, promote the transformation and upgrading of agricultural product processing industry, implement the agricultural brand quality cultivation plan, build characteristic agricultural industrial clusters, and improve the level of agricultural industrialization (The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, The State Council, 2025). In combination with the contemporary background of the continuous advancement of the national rural revitalization strategy, the specialty agricultural product industry has become a core driver of rural economic growth and farmers’ income increase.
2. Analysis of the Current Situation of New Media Marketing
of Specialty Agricultural Products
The development of the Internet has further spawned the rise of new media platforms, and new media has become an emerging marketing method with its fast communication speed and precise push. Through new media, consumers can directly understand the growth and characteristics of characteristic agricultural products, narrow the distance between specialty agricultural products and consumers, and promote the transformation of consumption from offline to online. Especially with the rise of live broadcast platforms such as TikTok, Kuaishou, and Rednote, coupled with the development of new media platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and community group buying, this “short video + live broadcast” model has made new media a new channel for the sales of specialty agricultural products.
According to the “Statistical Report on the Development of China’s Internet” released by the 55th China Internet Information Center, by the end of December 2024, there were 1.108 billion netizens in my country. In 2024, the number of users in China’s fresh food e-commerce industry reached 577 million. Sales of specialty agricultural products through new media platforms are also increasing year by year: from September 2023 to September 2024, Douyin recorded 7.1 billion orders for specialty agricultural products (Douyin E-Commerce, 2024); Taobao sold 40 billion agricultural products in the first eight months of 2024 (Research Center of Taobao Group, China Academy for Rural Development, & Zhejiang University, 2024). It is precisely the change in consumption habits that my country’s online retail sales of characteristic agricultural products increased by 15.8% year-on-year in 2024 (Department of Circulation Development, Ministry of Commerce, 2025).
Major platforms also provide exclusive plans for special agricultural products, such as: Taobao sets up a special agricultural product recommendation section every week to place popular and distinctive special agricultural products in the homepage carousel, JD APP’s homepage has a special agricultural product area, Pinduoduo has set up a 10 billion subsidy section agricultural product area, Douyin launches at least 5 agricultural product-related topics and challenges every month, and Kuaishou will invest 10 billion in exclusive traffic and 100 million yuan in cash to support agricultural product merchants in 2025 (Chen, 2024). These data reflect to a certain extent that using new media marketing to sell specialty agricultural products on the Internet can further improve the marketing level of enterprises.
3. Characteristics of New Media Marketing of Specialty
Agricultural Products
With the rapid development of Internet technology, the new media marketing and traditional marketing models have changed from traditional one-way indoctrination to two-way interaction. Especially in the new media environment, consumers have changed from passive buyers to active participants. This transformation of purchasing forms makes the sense of accomplishment in consumer interaction an important dimension of demand satisfaction, making consumers more willing to pay for their own emotions.
3.1. Characteristic Agricultural Product Marketing Emphasizes
Brand Building
The top priority of marketing of specialty agricultural products is to grasp its geographical characteristics and nature, transform this “natural characteristics” and “regional culture” into the core competitive advantages of marketing, establish a deep impression of green original ecology in consumers’ minds, and make consumers willing to pay for green and healthy. In the new media environment, new media marketing for specialty agricultural products can leverage new media’s strengths, such as fast dissemination, wide reach, and strong interactivity. Relying on regional characteristics, it will shift from “selling products” to “selling stories”, so that consumers can truly feel the local culture behind the specialty agricultural products.
3.2. The Marketing of Specialty Agricultural Products Attaches Importance to Channel Construction
In the new media environment, the marketing of specialty agricultural products is no longer a traditional single offline channel, but is committed to building a “short video + live broadcast” marketing model. This marketing model allows specialty agricultural products to be presented to consumers in a more convenient way. At the same time, this flat channel of “live broadcast from origin consumer” allows consumers to fully understand the growth environment, nutritional value, added value, etc. of specialty agricultural products. Specifically, on the one hand, we can leverage the influence of top livestreamers, whose marketing expertise can be converted into fan purchases; on the other hand, we use the work needs of local governments to fight poverty to transform local governments’ political concepts into opening up the driving force for marketing of special agricultural products and promoting the construction and development of new rural areas.
3.3. Characteristic Agricultural Product Marketing Focuses on
Industrial Integration
New media marketing emphasizes a model that combines online sales and offline experience, so as to further promote the “integration of the three industries” of characteristic agricultural products. By promoting the deep processing of characteristic agricultural products, the integration of the three industries can be opened up so that the products are no longer a single sales model, and consumers can also have more choices for purchasing methods; at the same time, the characteristic agricultural product industry can better meet the needs of rural revitalization by covering planting, processing, sales, offline experience, sightseeing and tourism. Consumers adopt special agricultural products online and experience picking offline, while driving the sales of processed products, thereby achieving the integration of the first, second and third industries.
4. Analysis of Problems in New Media Marketing of Specialty
Agricultural Products
This article summarizes the following four types of problems in the current new media marketing of specialty agricultural products through literature analysis, comprehensive analysis of public data on e-commerce platforms and typical cases, combined with consumer feedback:
4.1. The Marketing Content of Specialty Agricultural Products
Lacks Innovation
In the process of marketing specialty agricultural products, there is a general lack of innovation in marketing strategies and a phenomenon of homogeneity of content, which seriously hinders the development of the characteristic agricultural product industry. Due to inadequate market-oriented research, a lack of targeted and diversified marketing strategies, and underdeveloped rural industrial aggregation and supply chain integration, marketing strategies of specialty agricultural product enterprises are highly homogeneous. In the current market environment, consumers are more willing to choose personalized and diverse specialty agricultural products, but this homogeneity phenomenon is difficult to meet consumers’ personalized needs. If a company cannot innovate marketing strategies and cannot conduct personalized marketing based on consumer needs, it will lose the consumer market and make it impossible for a specialty agricultural product company to improve its marketing efficiency.
4.2. The Brand Building of Specialty Agricultural Product
Marketing Is Insufficient
A brand includes multiple dimensions such as product attributes, emotional value and cultural connotation, and is a comprehensive concept. In the marketing of special agricultural products on major platforms, most of the brand building is mainly based on rural geographical indications and green characteristics of characteristic agricultural products, and there is no in-depth exploration of local characteristics and cultural connotations in terms of marketing content. On the one hand, it is because the company lacks professional research and analysis, the brand positioning is vague and blindly following the trend, resulting in the brand positioning being untargeted and self-styled; on the other hand, the marketing methods represented by live streaming focus more on the individual attractiveness of the anchor, and consumers often buy because they recognize the anchor’s individual, rather than recognize the brand. Inadequate brand building will at least cause a lack of emotional connection between consumers and brands, and at worst, it will affect brand loyalty and identity and reduce customer stickiness.
4.3. The Quality Control Standards for Marketing Specialty
Agricultural Products Lack Uniformity
The top priority of marketing of specialty agricultural products in the new media environment lies in controlling product quality, while quality control of specialty agricultural products often depends on cold chain logistics and consumer trust. Cold chain logistics is a key link to ensure the quality of specialty agricultural products. If the cold chain breaks, the transportation temperature will be too high, which will cause the specialty agricultural products to corrode, thereby reducing the consumer’s repurchase rate; and consumer trust is the cornerstone of repurchase. If the lack of unified quality control standards leads to different quality of each batch of specialty agricultural products, thus making consumers lack trust in the product. Since most characteristic agricultural products are perishable, and the cultivation of characteristic agricultural products is mainly produced by small farmers, quality standards for specialty agricultural products vary, making it challenging to establish unified industry standards.. Often, the taste, appearance and other differences of the same variety of characteristic agricultural products in the same region are different; at the same time, due to the rapid development of the industry, there is a lag in the formulation of quality control standards. Moreover, under the new media marketing channels, on the one hand, consumers cannot truly feel the quality of specialty agricultural products in the online environment, and platforms and anchors cannot accurately quantify product quality in marketing and publicity, resulting in a decrease in consumer willingness to consume; on the other hand, the anchors and platforms use new media platforms to falsely publicize and exaggerate the quality of specialty agricultural products, damaging consumers’ trust in specialty agricultural products.
4.4. The Supply of Professional Talents in Specialty Agricultural
Product Marketing Is Insufficient
The solution to the “three rural issues” is a key link for China to achieve common prosperity and comprehensively build a modern socialist country. The core of the “three rural issues” is to solve the problem of farmers. In the context of narrowing urban-rural gap, more and more middle-aged and young farmers are entering cities, resulting in serious imbalance in the rural population structure and the serious problem of one elderly and one young staying behind. These groups generally have low education levels and insufficient acceptance of new media, and are unable to fully implement new media marketing methods. These problems limit the development of new media marketing for specialty agricultural products. In the new media marketing environment, professional marketing talents are the key to promoting the development of characteristic agricultural products marketing, but rural areas often cannot attract professional talents due to environmental and salary and benefits. According to analysis, consumers generally respond in shopping: middle-aged and elderly anchors cannot master new media operations, insufficient online interaction, and inability to guarantee after-sales service. Such dilemma also leads to the dilemma of “the smell of wine is afraid of deep alleys” in specialty agricultural products.
5. Suggestions on Optimization of New Media Marketing
Strategy for Specialty Agricultural Products
S-O-R theory believes that consumer behavior is a process in which external stimulus triggers internal cognitive and emotional responses (Organism) in the body, and ultimately forms behavioral responses (Response) such as purchasing decisions. Based on the S-O-R theoretical framework, new media marketing of specialty agricultural products requires stimulating design, activating body perception, and promoting reaction transformation to build a marketing system. The specific suggestions are as follows:
5.1. Increase Innovation Efforts and Enhance the Vitality of
Marketing Content
In the new media environment, only by focusing on innovation in the marketing of specialty agricultural products can we break through homogeneous competition and activate the attractiveness of specialty agricultural products content. Only by reconstructing marketing content through diverse innovative approaches can the differentiated value of specialty agricultural products be maximized, and can these products meet the emotional and functional needs of different consumer groups. First of all, in the process of new media marketing, the traditional single marketing model of “anchor’s hawking + product display” can be broken, and through scene-based, interactive, and cross-border content design, consumers can change from recipients to participants. Secondly, move the live broadcast scene from the anchor room to the fields, display the growth environment of specialty agricultural products on the live broadcast, and at the same time explain and answer the growth knowledge and nutritional value of specialty agricultural products in real time, so that consumers can fully feel the green ecology. Again, explore the story attributes of characteristic agricultural products, anthropomorphize characteristic agricultural products, use new media to write their own stories of characteristic agricultural products, and use virtual technology to popularize the growth knowledge and nutritional value of characteristic agricultural products to increase consumption interactivity; expand the “online + offline” model, and through the claim of characteristic agricultural products, VR farm roaming, characteristic agricultural product towns, etc., consumers can get close to special agricultural products, deepen their understanding of products, and improve purchase rate. Finally, break the boundaries of the industry to create a sense of fresh consumption, create a special agricultural product + cultural IP model, bind regional culture or popular IP, design theme marketing content, draw inspiration from Henan Iron Stick Yam’s collaboration with the film “Chang’an: A Million Miles” to launch the “Shili Yam” gift box, supporting cross-border linkage, and keep consumers fresh at all times. Innovation in marketing content of specialty agricultural products comes from insight into consumers’ “unmet needs”. Innovation is not blindly following the trend of technology or form, but returning to consumers’ real needs.
5.2. Strengthen Brand Building and Establish Differentiated Marketing Brands
Each characteristic agricultural product is like a living body with a “character” - natural endowment such as soil and water quality in the origin, temperature difference between day and night, planting techniques handed down by ancestors, and even local special folk stories, all give it unique characteristics. These unique “personal passwords” are the most precious materials for brand positioning. First, brand builders can deeply explore the “personal password” of each specialty agricultural product, refine these into the core value of the brand, and then clarify the target customer group, so as to create a brand image that is remembered at a glance. Brand builders can design unique brand names, eye-catching logos, recognizable packaging, etc., and combine them with touching brand stories to allow consumers to have a deep emotional connection with the brand. Second, differentiation requires continuous innovation, continuous innovation and breaking barriers to prevent brands from being imitated. From a technical level, patents can be applied for unique varieties and processes. Provide differentiated after-sales experience to improve the consumer service experience, such as “promising bad results will be compensated” and “customized DIY gift boxes” and other value-added services, so that consumers can feel value beyond expectations. Third, the government should take the lead in integrating production area resources and developing a brand matrix with diverse varieties and distinct positioning to avoid internal competition and prevent wasting brand resources. Establishing a differentiated marketing brand is a systematic project, and it cannot be achieved overnight and requires perseverance to work hard. Only by finding the right positioning, keeping quality control, diversified publicity, and integrating resources can we create a special agricultural product brand with core competitiveness, so that we can have no one and we can have the best.
5.3. Strengthen Quality Control Management and Create Quality
Control Standards for Characteristic Agricultural Products
First, build a full-chain quality control management system. Establish a standardized production process, from cleaning, sorting, cutting to packaging, to meet hygiene standards and quality requirements, regularly maintain and disinfect processing equipment, and ensure safety and hygiene. The storage process should control the temperature, humidity and ventilation conditions according to the characteristics of the special agricultural products. Cold chain logistics technology is used in the transportation process to avoid mixing with other harmful substances. Second, the quality control standards are refined, covering multiple aspects such as the appearance, taste, nutritional composition, safety indicators of specialty agricultural products. Appearance standards can include shape, size, color, integrity and other categories; taste standards are determined based on professional tasting and consumer feedback, and the nutritional composition standards must clarify the content range of the main nutrients. Third, the government and industry associations have increased supervision and used diversified platforms to supervise the quality control and supervision of characteristic agricultural products. The platform establishes a green channel for complaints and rights protection, and deletes and bans anchors and merchants who infringe on consumer rights, so as to protect consumer rights.
5.4. Optimize Talent Construction and Build a Professional Talent
Echelon
First, formulate targeted talent introduction plans based on the actual needs of the characteristic agricultural product industry. By providing preferential policies such as generous salary, project funding support, housing security, and family relocation, we have introduced them from universities, research institutes, and large agricultural enterprises. In particular, we can rely on the advantages of Shaanxi universities and provinces to directly transport agricultural talents to rural areas, so that more farmers can understand advanced digital technologies and marketing experience in special agricultural products. Secondly, attract talents returning to their hometowns to start businesses. As people from my hometown, they understand the rural areas and their hometown’s characteristic agricultural products, and they have deep feelings for their hometown. By providing entrepreneurship subsidies, technical guidance, market docking, and entrepreneurship assistance, they are encouraged to return to their hometown to start a business and feed back to their hometown. Thirdly, carry out local talent training plans, and use the dual advantages of online and offline to carry out systematic training work in response to talent needs at different levels. Especially for some farmers’ anchors, new media marketing skills courses are offered, and well-known specialty agricultural product anchors are invited to teach live marketing experience, short video production, after-sales service and other content; agricultural experts and specialty agricultural product marketing benchmarks are invited to teach the core knowledge and skills of specialty agricultural products in new media marketing.
6. Conclusion
With the continuous advancement of the rural revitalization plan, special agricultural products as an important force to promote “agricultural efficiency, rural vitality, and farmers’ income” cannot be ignored. The emergence of new media has brought new opportunities to the marketing of specialty agricultural products, better helping specialty agricultural products to consumers, and building a bridge for specialty agricultural products to go “from the field to the tip of the tongue”. Therefore, under the framework of S-O-R, this paper uses new media marketing strategies to formulate unified quality control standards for characteristic agricultural products, establish differentiated marketing brands, innovate marketing content, and build a professional talent echelon, thereby driving the development of characteristic agricultural products and helping rural revitalization.