2021 Fashion Industry Marketing Insights Report

From January to July 2021, the TOP5 brands with the highest voices were Nike, Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and ERKE. The content dissemination of brands such as Dior was more driven by the brands to create topics, while local brands, such as ERKE, made it into the list purely relying on spontaneous grassroots traffic.

In terms of mini program operations, top students Adidas and Uniqlo have prompted mid-range fashion brands to become leaders in mini program operations. Domestic brands are currently at a relatively low level, but have also maintained rapid growth. It is worth mentioning that domestic brands’ mini programs have a strong appeal to users born in the 1970s and 1960s and users in third-tier and lower cities.

Mass consumer brands have a wide audience. Relying on high-frequency and normalized live broadcasts, cost-effective products, and a mature supply chain system, they have established a closed-loop system, and their live broadcast sales performance is strong. Judging from the sales effect of Douyin’s official live broadcast room, from August 23 to 29, 2021, among the TOP10 brands in live broadcast sales, except Adidas, all of them were domestic brands, and sports brands Li Ning and Anta performed particularly well.

What is the specific situation? Why not read the report?

The fashion industry has derived a new distribution system. KOLs, mini programs, and live broadcasts have become new channels for fashion brands to carry out brand marketing and sales. The new distribution system shortens the path from user cognition to purchase and helps brands achieve digital marketing.

Different types of fashion brands have different advantages and disadvantages in the new channels due to their different target audiences and distribution systems. Domestic mass consumer goods have an opportunity for development.

01. Luxury goods have gained a firm foothold in content marketing, and domestic mass consumer goods have taken a differentiated approach

1. Luxury brands lead in content quantity and interaction volume due to their wide popularity. The content for mass consumption is less than that for mid-range fashion, but it is usually topical and has high interaction volume.

2. Luxury and affordable luxury brands have established good cooperative relationships with celebrities and various top KOLs. The content sources are driven by celebrity accounts with more than 10 million fans, while mass consumer content is mainly driven by ordinary users.

3. The distribution of the four categories of content on different platforms shows obvious differences. Luxury and light luxury content have established a solid foothold on Weibo, mass consumer goods have achieved a breakthrough on Douyin, and mid-range fashion brands have been deeply promoted on Xiaohongshu and Bilibili.

4. Foreign brands have a mature content marketing system, which far exceeds that of local brands in terms of the volume and interaction of relevant content. KOLs with more than one million fans among publishers have a lasting impact on users' minds.

5. The distribution of content between foreign and domestic brands also shows a split in platforms. Foreign brands are stronger than Weibo and Xiaohongshu, while domestic brands are stronger than Douyin and Kuaishou, reflecting the divergence of their marketing positions.

6. The most popular brands on the content platform are mainly divided into luxury goods and sports brands with "national popularity". Dior and Erke are the two brands that attract the most attention from users.

7. Dior's content is mostly created by the brand and celebrities, while Erke's is spread by grassroots users spontaneously. The difference between the two represents the different modes of building content systems for luxury goods and mass consumer goods.

02. Mid-range fashion brands are good at mini-program operations. Mass consumer brands attract users in low-tier cities.

1. The scale of mini programs of various brands in the fashion industry has maintained a growth trend. Mid-range fashion and luxury brands have developed rapidly. Domestic brands started lower than foreign brands but maintained rapid growth.

2. Young users born in the 1990s and 2000s are interested in luxury goods, while those born in the 1960s and 1980s are more concerned about product cost-effectiveness as they age. Mass consumer brands are attractive to users in lower-tier cities.

3. There is a clear differentiation between foreign and domestic brands in terms of user portraits. Users born in the 1990s and 1980s and those living in second-tier cities and above pay more attention to foreign brands, while users born in the 1970s and 1960s and those living in third-tier cities and below prefer domestic brands.

4. Adidas and Uniqlo have mature mini-program operations and leading user bases. Li Ning and Gucci maintain their advantages in their respective fields. The overall operation of light luxury brands is relatively weak.

03. Brands’ own live broadcasting has made a strong entry into mass consumption, and high-frequency and regular live broadcasting by sports brands has become a new trend

1. Mass consumer brands attach importance to occupying live broadcast channels and promoting products to a wide range of live broadcast audiences; domestic brands focus on official self-broadcasting, and the number of broadcasts is far higher than that of foreign brands

2. High-frequency and regular live broadcasting has become a standard feature of domestic brands. Sports brands Xtep and Li Ning use matrix accounts to broadcast live broadcasts, making live broadcast rooms a core online sales channel

3. Mass consumer brands have launched a large number of cost-effective products, and the sales effect is strong, while luxury brands have not yet paid attention to self-broadcasting channels

4. The supply chain system of domestic brands for live streaming is mature, and each brand has a large number of products on the shelves and a large sales volume, with sales far exceeding those of foreign brands.

5. Domestic brands generally attach importance to self-broadcasting. Except for Adidas, all the top 10 brands in sales are domestic brands. Sports brands have achieved outstanding results in live streaming.

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