Mini Programs Archives - China Marketing Insights https://chinamktginsights.com/category/content-trends/mini-programs/ Sharing the top news, reports, and trends in China’s marketing industry. Sun, 27 Jun 2021 18:16:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.2 https://i0.wp.com/chinamktginsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/wechat-OA-logo.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Mini Programs Archives - China Marketing Insights https://chinamktginsights.com/category/content-trends/mini-programs/ 32 32 Geely’s New EV Brand Zeekr is So Popular it Had to Shut Down Pre-Orders After 2 Months https://chinamktginsights.com/geelys-new-ev-brand-zeekr-is-so-popular-it-had-to-shut-down-pre-orders-after-2-months/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=geelys-new-ev-brand-zeekr-is-so-popular-it-had-to-shut-down-pre-orders-after-2-months Sun, 27 Jun 2021 17:46:39 +0000 https://chinamktginsights.com/?p=3527 Chinese automaker Geely's newest brand Zeekr recently launched its first model, the Zeekr 001.

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Earlier this year, Volvo parent company Geely launched a new fully electric car brand Zeekr (in Chinese Ji Ke 极氪). Zeekr will join its siblings Volvo, Lynk & co and Polestar under the leadership of Geely chairman Eric Li. The brand will focus on producing electric cars only, and has announced that it will reveal one new car per year for the next five years. The first one is the Zeekr 001. 

Following the 001’s popularity at the Shanghai Auto Show, the brand opened up pre-sale through the brand’s WeChat mini program store and other channels. Last week Zeekr sent out an official account article, saying that demand for the vehicle has surpassed their expectations. In just 60 days, the brand reached its quota, and as of June 15 it has temporarily shut down pre-orders. 

About the Zeekr 001

The 001 and its close cousin Lynk & co shares a familiar front fascia. However, the similarity ends from there. The 001 is based on the Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture platform that was specifically designed for the Zeekr brand.

It is good to see Geely choose a wagon version as its flagship model instead of the SUV or sedan form. I have always felt that wagons are the best of both worlds. They provide SUV-like interior space yet retain the fun-to-drive factor of sedans. 

The design of the Lynk & co vehicles has proven its popularity among Gen Z buyers in China. With increased performance in comparison to Lynk & co, it’s not hard to predict the Zeekr 001 will be a hot seller among buyers that are looking for performance out of their family hauler. 

The top dollar version will be equipped with dual motor which makes it All-wheel Drive and run dry around 435 miles (700km). The combined output of the front and rear axle is 536hp and 517 ft-lbs (700Nm) of torque and can propel the 001 from 0-100kph in 3.8 seconds. 

The 001 also incorporated cool features such as “COVID-19” doors that open and close themselves for people who are afraid of touching things. Look ma no germs! 

Leveraging D2C Model to Appeal to Younger Consumers

Jokes aside, the Zeekr 001 is a very well packaged electric vehicle, and the company has invested heavily in promoting the brand. The Lynk & co brand is very focused on young consumers, and we’re guessing Zeekr is too. Perhaps the “Z” in Zeekr stands for Generation Z? 

To appeal to young consumers, the brand is taking a D2C approach instead of focusing on dealerships. 

Geely plans to open two large ‘Zeekr Experience Centers’ and 60 ‘Zeekr Spaces’ in high-traffic and shopping centers across China. There will also be 36 delivery centers and 60 service centers. By 2023 Geely wants to build 20,000 charging stations across China.

As a side note, the brand has already announced it plans to take on the European market as early as next year.

Strong Social Presence for Such a New Brand

Also part of the D2C approach, Zeekr allows consumers to place a down deposit for a vehicle through its WeChat mini program. According to the brand, 310K new accounts were created on the Zeekr WeChat mini program during the first 60 days that the vehicle was available for pre-order. 

Zeekr WeChat store
Zeekr WeChat mini program store and owner’s club.

In addition to a WeChat Official Account and mini program, it also has opened accounts on Weibo, Bilibili, and Douyin. The brand claims to now have over 1 million followers across all social platforms.

Zeekr’s Douyin account and KOL reviews on Douyin.

Besides official branded content, there are also numerous car review videos from influencers on Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

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A Slow Marketing Strategy: Fragrance Brand To Summer https://chinamktginsights.com/a-slow-marketing-strategy-fragrance-brand-to-summer-leverages-scarcity-marketing-authentically/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-slow-marketing-strategy-fragrance-brand-to-summer-leverages-scarcity-marketing-authentically Tue, 15 Dec 2020 13:53:26 +0000 http://chinamktginsights.com/?p=1931 Chinese fragrance To Summer brand is in high demand, yet it chooses to focus on slow growth.

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Being fast is the most iconic feature of the current China market. You may notice that brands are squeezing into the market and promoting wildly on Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Taobao, frequently launching new products and campaigns, doing whatever they can to reach more consumers. Brands that are slow or not on enough platforms are often accused of not doing enough to cater to the demands of the digitally savvy, always on Chinese consumer. 

While this is true in many situations, in this fast-paced world, there is a case to be made for a deliberately “slow” approach. For example, there is a Chinese fragrance brand that is finding success by doing just that: To Summer or Guan Xia 观夏.

To Summer was founded in 2018, and it wasn’t until January 2019 that it launched its first product. The brand only promotes itself through its WeChat Official Account and occasionally  works with bloggers that match with its culture and tone. It only sells products through its WeChat mini program, and it only updates product inventory once a week, on Thursday night. If you are slow, then you might miss some of the viral products, for example, its mood crystal aroma diffuser priced at 389 RMB ($60 USD).

The mood crystal aroma diffuser from To Summer. Source: To Summer mini program store.

In addition to its various scents of beautifully packaged diffusers, To Summer also produces candles, body lotion and shampoo, perfume, and scented wax tablets.

Soap, diffuser and shampoo from To Summer. Source: To Summer mini program

To Summer is hitting the market at the perfect time, as a result of spending so much time indoors during COVID 19, Chinese consumers have started paying attention to improving their quality of living at home, whether that is through home decor, better appliances, or home fragrances. 

The brand is delivering a slow pace of living to its consumers. They want to shape every product as a sophisticatedly-designed magazine, to tell readers how to improve their life quality.

What makes To Summer’s products different?

The length of matchsticks

Matchsticks are usually short. When consumers are using them to light a candle, they get burned. So To Summer extended its matchsticks four times the length of other’s, aiming to let consumers light the candle elegantly.

Packaging

The packaging style is what To Summer called “new eastern modern”. They follow the rule of less is more and add eastern elements to the bottle, such as putting the characters “桂” “竹” “莲” (which means osmanthus, bamboo and lotus) boldly on the packaging.

Packaging of To Summer. Source: To Summer mini program.
Customization

Not many brands are customizing products for consumers. This is because it requires brands to customize labels and workers to manually label those stickers on bottles, and it costs extra manpower and material resources.

Because of the customizing service, many consumers buy it as a gift for someone else. 

Products that are giftable are excellent drivers of organic word of mouth marketing. After receiving this customized gift, people tend to share it on WeChat Moments, which attached warmth to To Summer’s products and lower the brand’s promotion budget.

Customizing service provided by To Summer. Source: Xiaohongshu @ 是晃晃呀

Why does the brand only sell on Thursday night?

One of the reasons we just mention is the customization, which requires extra time and materials, but the core reason is the production circle.

Skincare or cosmetic products can be quickly produced once you confirm the package and ingredients, they will be manufactured in bulk with a mature supply chain and production chain in China. But China doesn’t have such a production line for high-end fragrance products.

For example, the stones found in To Summer’s mood crystal aroma are shipped from many countries including England, South Africa and U.S. After arriving, they will be processed in To Summer’s own studios, because in China, there is no factory that can handle such production line at the moment.

Even if some of the brand’s ingredients are native to China, to extract, the brand has to send those ingredients to France. The whole process involves many foreign companies and that’s why To Summer is not able to produce products on mass scale and they choose to sell them on Thursday night only.

This appears to be working to the brand’s advantage. In the brands WeChat mini program store, consumers can pay 0.01 RMB to be notified as soon as new inventory is uploaded.

Consumers pay 0.01 RMB to get new inventory notification.

A Deliberate Choice to Stay Slow

Co-founder of the brand Sheng Li (沈黎) believes that customers are very smart to know what a team is like behind a brand. While they have enough demand to grow the brand more quickly, the team wants to stay at this slow pace for now, and in 3-5 years, maybe they will consider expanding their business scale. 

To Summer will open their first offline store in Beijing in December. The store will cover 170 square meters but the team will only allocate 20 square meters for shopping and the rest they want to leave it for customers to drink, read and charge their phones. They want to make it feel like a friend’s house and a space for customers to relax.

Read more: 独家|拒绝一年增长10亿的快生意,观夏的慢品牌哲学

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Niche Luxury Brand By Far Chooses Controversial Brand Ambassador in China https://chinamktginsights.com/niche-luxury-brand-by-far-chooses-controversial-brand-ambassador-in-china/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=niche-luxury-brand-by-far-chooses-controversial-brand-ambassador-in-china Sun, 18 Oct 2020 15:57:01 +0000 http://chinamktginsights.com/?p=1657 By appointing a big KOL as its ambassador, will By Far lose its niche brand image?

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On August 14, Bulgarian designer brand By Far announced its collaboration with Chinese internet celebrity Grace Chow (Zhou Yangqing 周扬青). This surprised many people for two reasons: 

  1. Grace is a somewhat controversial figure in China
  2. Signing a Chinese brand ambassador is a big move for a niche luxury brand such as By Far
The announcement video

Was it the right choice? Let’s take a look: 

Who is Grace Chow? 

Grace is a Chinese internet celebrity/influencer with 10 million Weibo followers and owner of eponymous apparel brand Grace Chow.

If you follow our content, then Grace’s name may be familiar to you – we wrote about her earlier this year when she revealed on Weibo that her ex-boyfriend Chinese celebrity Show Lo (罗志祥) had been cheating on her for many years. The scandal was such a big topic in China that it stayed on Weibo’s hot topic list for over a week. 

With the scandal still fresh on people’s minds, By Far is definitely making a bold choice appointing Grace, however, its less risky than you think as Grace was on the positive side of the scandal and many people sympathized with her and applauded her for standing up for herself and revealing what Show Lo had done.

But there’s no denying that Grace Chow is still very controversial. But it is this contradiction that draws so much traffic for her on social media. After the scandal, Grace’s career took off. She was photographed for BAZAAR, launched her apparel store open in Tokyo and suddenly attracted many sponsorships.

Grace Chow was featured in BAZAAR after the scandal

It is highly unlikely that By Far would not be aware of the scandal, so we must assume that the brand’s founders feel that Chow’s public persona aligns with the personality of the brand and they are willing to take the risk. 

The Brand Ambassador Announcement and WeChat Store Launch 

To announce the brand ambassador relationship, two of By Far’s co-founders and Grace shared a video call with each other on social media. The video had over 2.4M views within the first 4 days. 

On the same day as the announcement, By Far launched its WeChat mini program store with special launch promotional discounts and free shipping for 72 hours. Several of the most popular bags sold out immediately. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Earlier in April, By Far launched its JD flagship store. Its Mini collection went out of stock in 20 minutes, and the classic Miranda bags sold out in 2 hours.

By Far mini program store

It is interesting to note that By Far took off and became popular throughout the world due to Instagram, a social media platform that most Chinese consumers don’t have access to. Brands should be aware that Chinese people living abroad, or those back in China with VPNs, will often scout Instagram for the latest international fashion trends and purchase products not yet available in China, and then other people who follow these trendsetters will find ways to get these products such as purchasing through daigou. In this way, a product that is popular on Instagram can become extremely popular in the China market.

Consumers Are Concerned By Far is Becoming Too Mainstream

So far, consumers’ criticisms have turned out to be less about Grace Chow and more about their fear that By Far is becoming too mainstream, with some people commenting that By Far is going a little overboard when marketing in China and is losing its niche character. 

This is a delicate dance for many niche foreign luxury brands who become very popular among young Chinese trendsetters. They experience massive demand from the China market and want to cater to the Chinese consumer, but if they do so too fast, they risk becoming mainstream and losing the interest of the fashionistas driving the demand for the brand.

Our Take: 

At the moment, when it comes to sales figures and brand awareness, By Far seems to be benefitting from appointing Grace Chow as its ambassador. But selecting a top tier KOL as the brand ambassador may hurt the brand reputation in the long run as a main reason why Chinese people were obsessed with this brand is that it was a niche one and wearing its bags or shoes shows good taste.

For niche luxury brands, there is no right and wrong having big KOLs speak for them. It depends on what owners are pursuing. If you want nice sales numbers, mega KOLs is always the choice, though you are risking losing some loyal consumers. If you want to keep it low-key, then just focus on the quality and provide what you think is the best for consumers.

Brands can also approach mid-tier or small KOLs. In some way, these KOLs have closer relationships with followers so their recommendations may come out more effective than big KOLs. And at the same time, the brand can maintain its niche image.

Read more: 深度|请周扬青做品牌挚友的By Far能在中国走得更远吗?

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Product Review: Top Chinese Fashion KOL Becky Li’s Apparel Brand Becky’s Fantasy https://chinamktginsights.com/product-review-top-chinese-fashion-kol-becky-lis-apparel-brand-beckys-fantasy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=product-review-top-chinese-fashion-kol-becky-lis-apparel-brand-beckys-fantasy Tue, 04 Aug 2020 20:45:58 +0000 http://chinamktginsights.com/?p=1555 Are influencer brands any good? Check out our review of Becky's Fantasy!

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Becky Li (黎贝卡) is a top China fashion KOL with over 10 million followers.

In 2018, she created her apparel brand Becky’s Fantasy (黎贝卡的异想世界). The day it launched, it took only 7 minutes to reach 100 million RMB in sales. And on the second product launch, it only took 59 seconds. Becky is the first KOL that Rebecca Minkoff chose to work with in China, and she once sold 100 Mini Cooper’s on WeChat within 4 minutes. She was also listed in Forbes as one of China’s TOP 50 KOLs.

Watch the video to find out more about her brand and see our review of her products!

Want to learn more about Becky Li and Becky’s Fantasy? Listen to our podcast interview with Becky’s Fantasy COO Tristan Cui.

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Perfect Dairy Virtual Pet Game: Earn Loyalty Points & Collect Prizes! https://chinamktginsights.com/perfect-dairy-virtual-pet-game-earn-loyalty-points-collect-prizes/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=perfect-dairy-virtual-pet-game-earn-loyalty-points-collect-prizes Mon, 22 Jun 2020 17:29:00 +0000 http://chinamktginsights.com/?p=1345 Perfect Diary uses gamification to engage consumers and drive repeat traffic to its store.

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Chinese cosmetics brand Perfect Diary has created a virtual pet raising WeChat mini program game. Here’s the twist – its only accessible to customers!

Customers and loyalty program members can play the game, and the better the player takes care of their pet, the more loyalty points they can earn. Points can then be exchanged for Perfect Diary products.

It is a fun way to encourage more people to purchase products, join the loyalty program, and regularly visit and engage with Perfect Diary’s mini program store.

Watch the video to learn more!

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Perfect Diary’s Latest Cross-Collab is with Austin Li’s Dog?! https://chinamktginsights.com/perfect-diarys-latest-cross-collab-is-with-top-live-streamer-austin-lis-dog-other-china-marketing-news/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=perfect-diarys-latest-cross-collab-is-with-top-live-streamer-austin-lis-dog-other-china-marketing-news Wed, 13 May 2020 16:48:03 +0000 http://box5798.temp.domains/~chinamkt/?p=426 Not only has top live streamer Austin Li reached celebrity status, so has his dog Never.

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Not only has top live streamer Austin Li reached celebrity status, so has his dog Never. On February 23rd, 2020 Austin announced Never’s first endorsement with top domestic beauty brand Perfect Diary. 

Never’s image is featured on one of the eyeshadow palettes in the Discovery Collection. The shades in the palette are created by Austin and inspired by Never’s personality. Profits from the palette will be donated to an animal protection fund in Beijing. The product is going fast – during the live streamed launch Austin already sold out 180k palettes. 

Read more: 美人计|连李佳琦的狗都开始联名带货了


Key Takeaways From Questmobile Report on Young Consumers in Lower Tier Cities

As of November 2019 there are over 200 million post-90s consumers located in 3rd-tier and lower cities in China. This is 10.1% growth YOY. In Chinese these consumers are referred to as 小镇青年 (Xiaozhen Qingnian) or “small town youth”. Here are some key takeaways from the report: 

  • Their average monthly screen time is 127.9 hours, slightly higher than young people in 1st and 2nd tier cities (127.3 hours).
  • Students and white-collar workers make up 60% of Xiaozhen Qingnian. Their income is lower than 6,000 RMB. The average amount per month is around 4,000 RMB.
  • Yet since living costs in lower tier cities are much lower, they have more disposable income. 
  • Xiaozhen Qingnian’s favorite topics to search online are: food, travel, fashion, ecommerce shopping, auto, and wealth management. 
  • Xiaozhen Qingnian spend on average 7.1 hours/month on ecommerce platforms. 
  • The top 3 e-commerce platforms they use are Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Xianyu. 
  • The group places more value on recommendations from friends and acquaintances, and often group buy together. 
  • They are sensitive to price and are willing to spend more time browsing other platforms to compare prices. They love searching for coupons and discount information as well. But when it comes down to it they care even more about quality and brand name.  
  • They show great interest in second-hand products. 
  • When it comes to planning travel, Xiaozhen Qingnian’s interest in vacation rentals like Airbnb has increased significantly since 2018. 

Read more: QuestMobile2019小镇青年洞察报告:2亿青年每月128小时都在干嘛?


Art & Aroma Essential Oil Skincare

Art & Aroma (Chinese name 芳研社) is a small Chinese essential oils skincare brand founded in 2014 by two friends, a chemist and a biologist. While still small at only 10 SKUs, the brand has been featured by one of China’s top business writers Wu Xiaobo Channel (吴晓波频道) and has a very loyal customer base, with a repurchase rate of 80%. Here are some of the things they have done to grow such a loyal customer base: 

Emphasis on Private Traffic: 
Art & Aroma focuses heavily on private traffic. They operate 4 personal WeChat accounts with a total of 4,000 connections across all accounts. All of their private traffic users are customers of their Tmall store. After each and every person purchases a product, the team will actively encourage the person to add the company’s WeChat. After adding the accounts, the users are segmented into different categories and WeChat groups, such as skincare, hair care, new products launching and discounts.

These four accounts regularly post content on Moments with 25% of content about skincare, 25% about event and live streaming notifications, and the rest is about the daily lives of the three founders and other lifestyle content. They also actively participate in customers’ lives by liking and commenting on customers’ Moments posts.

Passion for Proving Product Quality Helps Gain Visibility:
Once team members shaved part of their hair just to test whether their shampoo product could increase hair growth rate. The story was later featured by the popular WeChat Commerce platform Youzan(有赞). On that night Youzan posted the article, Art & Aroma did over 200k RMB in sales, and sold out 3,000 hair care sets within 4 hours.

Giving Consumers Ownership:
Similar to a domestic beauty brand Chioture(稚优泉), Art & Aroma invites its customers to participate in the decision making process. This includes choosing scents, ingredients, packaging styles and product names. Co-founder Qing Fen(清芬) said involving customers in this process makes customers happy while simultaneously promoting new products. 

Offline Aromatherapy Certification Courses:
In the past the brand has held offline aromatherapy certification courses. This is a great way to interact with customers in real life and for the co-founders to demonstrate their professional expertise and inspire trust. Right now a growing number of Chinese beauty and skincare consumers are known as 成份党 or consumers that pay great attention to the ingredients. Classes like this would appeal to that consumer base. 

Livestreaming:
Art & Aroma’s livestreaming is very different from most brands. One of the co-founders Xiao Ke(小珂) live streams three times a week. Unlike other brands, she doesn’t actively try to sell products. She typically sits in her kitchen or dining room drinking a cup of tea and chatting with viewers. Usually, she shares a book, a movie or her hand-made crafts. Sometimes she shares her thoughts on essential oils and skincare. 

Read more: 仅靠4000好友做到复购率80%,被吴晓波频道看中的“她”如何打造强信任关系?


China Marketing Podcast Ep. 64: An Overview of China’s Burgeoning Fragrance Market 

Today’s conversation is with Dao Nguyen, founder of ESSENZIA, a boutique marketing creative strategy agency helping fragrance and cosmetics brands reach young Chinese consumers. We dive deep into China’s rapidly growing fragrance market which has changed dramatically over the past 5 years.

Dao gave an overview of the market, answering questions such as:

  • Who are the main consumers?
  • What types of fragrances tend to appeal to a Chinese audience?
  • Which brands are doing well in the China market and why?
  • Are there any mistakes brands tend to make?

Later in the episode we also discussed China’s beauty industry and I ask Dao to share her thoughts on the rise of China’s domestic beauty brands.

Listen on Spotify, iTunes, or XimalayaFM


Women In China Marketing

This is a new online directory dedicated to women who specialize in helping brands market to Chinese consumers.

It was created by the wonderful Olivia Plotnick after a report on China marketing trends for 2020 in which only 1 of the 22 report contributors was a woman.

Check it out here
And if you’d like to add someone to the list, feel free to submit a profile!

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Chinese Consumers Obsessed With “Age Freezing” Celebrities https://chinamktginsights.com/chinese-consumers-obsessed-with-age-freezing-celebrities/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chinese-consumers-obsessed-with-age-freezing-celebrities Mon, 11 May 2020 21:59:00 +0000 http://box5798.temp.domains/~chinamkt/?p=350 Chinese consumers are fascinated by older celebrities who are able to maintain a youthful appearance.

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In recent years, the Chinese public seems to be fascinated by older celebrities who are able to maintain a youthful appearance, giving them the nickname “冻龄女神” and “冻龄男神” or “age freezing gods and goddesses”. Everyone wants to know their secrets, prying into their eating habits, skincare routines, and positive mindset practices. 

Many skincare brands are capitalizing on this trend and promoting their products by appointing these age-freezing celebrities as their spokespeople, including Zhong Liti (钟丽缇), Lin Zhiying (林志颖) and Bao Wenjing (包文婧). Most recently, domestic facial mask brand MECMOR (名膜壹号) named Yuan Yongyi (袁咏仪) as its ambassador. Yuan (pictured above) is 47 years old and is famous for her skincare and “age-freezing” abilities. Working with her has proven to be a wise choice as the brand has gained a lot of attention – and new customers. 

On top of this, MECMOR also appears to have a good PR team. The company was recently featured on a national news program on CCTV, where they reported that the brand’s products are safe to use, and are free of additives. The CEO of MECMOR even drank 75ml facial mask serum in front of the camera. The stunt garnered a lot of attention from consumers, and seems to have been an effective method to convince people of the products’ safety. 

Read more: 49岁的“斩男鼻祖”重返银幕,霸占热搜,网友给跪了:哪里买的防腐剂?!


Let’s Not Forget Chinese Male Consumers

We hear A LOT about female consumers of all ages, but not nearly as much about the male consumer. In the past Chinese males didn’t pay as much attention to style and appearance because it was associated with being too feminine and not manly, but this perception is changing. From the massive sneakerhead economy, to the growth of the male skincare industry, this is a consumer segment companies should start paying more attention to. Fashion and style are becoming just as much of a status symbol as a house and car. 

According to the “China Luxury Online Consumption” whitepaper, male consumers on average spent 6% more than females, and the number of males who made three or more luxury purchases in a year was also found to be higher than females. 

Interesting takeaways about shifts in the male consumer market: 

  • As Chinese women’s salaries have gone up, and are the same, if not higher than the men they date, it’s not as easy for men to use their salaries or material items to attract women, and women have started to care much more about men’s appearance
  • Women control the media. 80% of writers and editors of WeChat OAs are women, meaning that womens’ higher requirements for their male counterparts gets amplified by the media. 
  • In the past a “good husband” would be spending all his money on taking care of the family and spending money on himself was looked down upon, but as the standard of living has gone up, this has changed.
  • Limited edition items from trendy brands have become social currency and status symbols for young men, from Supreme, to Air Jordans, to the recent Uniqlo x KAWS t-shirts, they are a means of self-expression, and a way to find belonging 
  • Peer pressure also plays a big role: compared with female consumers, males consumers are more likely to buy trending, must-have items, and are more likely to succumb to peer pressure if others in their social group purchase those items 

What it takes to make a product popular among male consumers: 

  • Must be social currency, a status symbol – make others look up to them
  • Whether price is high or low isn’t the determining factor. You must give them a greater reason to want the product
  • Limited edition and beautiful design are important 
  • Provide increasing purchasing levels so they can grow with your brand

Read More: 优衣库 x KAWS、毒APP、CHAO社区爆发,为什么男性消费开始崛起?


Kuaishou Wanghong Makes 13M RMB Off of His Wedding

A couple years back when Angelababy got married, everyone was discussing how commercialized her wedding was. Well now making money off your wedding day is something that internet celebrities are doing too. 

On June 12, Liu Yishou (刘一手), who has over 18M followers on Kuaishou and 3.58M followers on the live streaming platform YY, held a live stream on Kuaishou ahead of his wedding. During the stream, the host, Liu and other special guests sold over 30 products, including baijiu, French wine, and skincare products from the brand JLV. 

While people were shocked that he was trying to make money off his wedding, even more shocking was his explanation why. He said he had no choice because he still needed to pay debts to YY for 23m RMB (not sure how this happened), and he also mentioned that he was not sure whether he could continue live streaming after that night. He said it will depend on that night’s sales. Whether or not this was all true it appears to have really motivated his fans to “help” him out.

But that’s not all. There were multiple streamers attending the wedding and people streaming at the wedding and they got into a bit of trouble due to one of the attendees. You see Liu had invited former popular Kuaishou live streamer Tianyou (天佑) to his wedding. Tianyou had gotten kicked off of Kuaishou for talking about doing drugs, so when Liu and Tianyou hopped on Liu’s wife’s Kuaishou account to live stream, the stream was shut down within a minute. And the same thing happened with all of the streams in which Tianyou appeared. That’s some rigorous censorship right there! 

While selling out your wedding might seem tacky, it’s not a China thing. Check out this recent story that went viral in Western media: This viral “surprise” proposal shows the less glamorous side of influencing

Read more: “网红婚礼”生意经!快手千万粉丝结婚卖货,天佑露脸直播被封…


China Influencer Marketing Podcast Episode 50: How Mogu (蘑菇街) is Dominating Chinese Fast-fashion with Raymond Huang, SVP of Strategy at Mogu

Welcome to episode 50 of the China influencer marketing podcast!!!! 

Today’s guest is Raymond Huang, SVP of Strategy, at the publicly-traded fast-fashion social commerce platform Mogu or, in Chinese, 蘑菇街.

If you’re like me and have a general awareness and understanding of Mogu but don’t really know what makes the platform unique, then this episode is for you. Raymond starts off by sharing a complete overview of Mogu, such as the apps content, the products it sells, and user demographics, and more.

Then we dig a bit deeper and learn what makes Mogu unique, from their tailored content algorithm, to their hundreds of homegrown influencers, to their regulations which prevent sellers from offering the same products as each other. We also discuss e-commerce live streaming and why adding this feature a couple years ago has been incredibly beneficial for the platform. 

Listen online here, on iTunes here, and on Ximalaya FM here.


Mommy Blogger Mini-program Makes 120M RMB a Month and Only 20% of Traffic Comes from the Blogger’s Official Account

小小包麻麻 (Xiaoxiao Baomama) is a popular mommy-baby WeChat Official Account and a very successful ecommerce mini-program that earns 120 million RMB a month and has an 80% repurchase rate. But what is fascinating is that the company has managed to make this MP extremely popular, so much so that people are seeking out the mini-program on its own. Unlike many e-commerce MPs which rely on traffic from the corresponding OA, only 20% of Xiaoxiao Baomama’s traffic comes from its OA. 

Growth strategies: 

  • The CEO of 小小包麻麻 Jia Wanxing (贾万兴) doesn’t think mini programs need to rely on WeChat Official Accounts. You can find ways to drive traffic to them just like independent apps. 
  • Strategies that Jia uses to build the MP customer base include group buying and earning credits. Group buying is nothing new, but that’s why he uses it, consumers already have this habit and it has proven successful
  • Jia’s team selects specific products for group buy campaigns, specifically lower priced or trending items, because when it comes to these products, customers don’t spend too much time making purchasing decisions and are more likely to participate
  • The credits system is their “secret weapon”. When old users bring new users to the platform, they earn virtual coins. Once they accumulate enough coins, they can get discounts, or sometimes win items for free
  • After applying these two strategies, the MP’s user base grew from 100,000 to 4.3M from 2017 to 2019. 

Understanding their customers: 

  • Platform claims to be strict about product quality, logistics, package, after service, making sure that users are respected when they are shopping. 
  • Direct and easy participation in discount campaigns. Don’t make the rules overly complicated like many platforms do
  • Customers receive 3 messages after they purchase products on the platform. The first tells them payment is successful, the second is a shipping notification, and the final one is coupons. If a customer buys diapers, the team sends her other products’ coupons, for example, formula. 
  • When writing product descriptions, the team first identifies what emotions customers might have when they are shopping. Curious? Caring? Or in pursuit of authority?
  • For example, when introducing international brands, the team expects customers might question the authenticity of products. Instead of telling customers how to identify real ones and fake ones, the team directly post group photos of the main KOL 包妈 and other execs visiting the brand’s factory 
  • They customize content depending on how much info they think the customer will need to see before making a purchasing decision. When it comes to products that customers don’t need to spend too much time thinking about, such as diapers, they choose words and images. When it comes to products that need more demonstration, such as food and toys, they use videos or live streaming.

Read more: 不靠公众号粉丝,这个月入1.2亿的母婴自媒体用什么变现?


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