Short Video Marketing or Live Streaming Marketing: Choice of Marketing Strategies for Retailers

This study investigates retailers’ strategic choices between short video marketing (SVM) and live streaming marketing (LSM) in the social media era, with a focus on the synergistic effects and decision-making mechanisms of these two digital marketing models. Using game theory, we construct a game analysis model to analyze retailers’ optimal selection among three marketing strategies: S (sole implementation of SVM), L (sole implementation of LSM), and H (integration of both SVM and LSM). The findings reveal that retailers should make different strategic choices based on the different stages of development. In the early market entry phase, characterized by both a low mixed commission rate and a low slotting fee, the H strategy emerges as the optimal choice. As the market enters its growth phase, retailers should shift to the L strategy, driven by “influencer LSM”. When the market enters a mature stage, retailers should be more inclined to adopt the S strategy or the L strategy dominated by “merchant self-LSM”. These findings provide new theoretical insights into the dynamic selection mechanisms of digital marketing strategies while offering practical decision-making guidance for retailers in allocating marketing resources across different development stages. The conclusions have direct implications for optimizing corporate marketing mix strategies.