This year's 618 mid-year sale kicked off earlier than ever before. As the first national shopping festival after the epidemic, merchants are working hard to take advantage of this opportunity to make a comeback.

On the first day of Tmall’s 618 sales, the transaction volume of more than 37,000 Chinese brands increased by at least 100% year-on-year. The sales of domestic brands such as Huawei, Gree, Xiaomi, and Honor exceeded 100 million yuan in a short period of time, which gave off a sense of "domestic products dominating the market."

The expansion of consumption capacity, the growth of consumer demand, and the diversification of marketing channels have jointly given rise to the birth of new consumption - people's consumption is no longer limited to meeting their life needs, but also pursues satisfaction with lifestyles and cultural attitudes.

Guochao is the product of the collision between Chinese culture and international trends. It has entered the new consumer market in a high-profile manner, carrying the "entanglements" and personalities of young Chinese people.

"Play with retro, Chinese style is trendy" - HEYTEA launches Made in China themed peripherals during the National Day holiday. Image source: HEYTEA

1. What is the trend of the Chinese nation that is riding the wind and waves?

The term "national tide" has only been around for a short time, and there is no authoritative statement in the market that can accurately define it. So when asked, "What do you think is national fashion?", the answers are varied.

• Visual designer A Shui: In my opinion, Guochao is a marketing style full of Chinese style, with bold and large Chinese characters and highly saturated colors on posters or banners, which exudes a sense of coolness in the earthiness.
• Xiaoyue, who is obsessed with research on young customers, said: Guochao literally means a trend created by Chinese brands, which is integrated with many elements of traditional culture. It is a renaissance of Chinese traditional culture.
• Xiao Liu, who does not want to reveal his name, said: I think behind the national trend is a playful spirit among contemporary Chinese young people. Its form is fashionable and interesting, but it also expresses the complex thoughts of young people.

As a hot topic in the domestic consumer market, national tide often appears together with keywords such as Chinese style, post-95s, brand collaboration, and traditional culture.

Due to the widespread use of national trends in advertising and promotions in the past two years, many people think that national trends are just a marketing gimmick, but in fact, the vitality of national trends is not only in brand marketing .

Guochao is a fashion trend originating from China. Elements with Chinese characteristics are widely used in various original designs, gradually forming a trendy style with Chinese culture as its foundation, highlighting individuality and attitude towards life.

Image source: Weibo @Tmall Spokesperson

2. From domestic trendy brands to “national trend”

The initial prototype of national fashion appeared in 2000-2010, entering the market in the form of "Chinese brand + trendy style". The most famous ones are CLOT, NPC and other trendy brands founded by celebrities. The design style of this type of domestic fashion brands is still mainly based on European and American street culture. Although they are sought after by many trendsetters, they are still a relatively niche consumption in the market at that time.

The turning point in the development of national fashion came in 2017, when the "American fashion" that integrated and precipitated hip-hop culture and street culture entered the country. The consumer demand for trendy brands in the market has increased significantly, which has pointed out a "clear path" for the transformation of old domestic brands.

NPC brand 10th anniversary fashion retrospective exhibition Image source: Weibo @李晨nic

2018 is known as the "first year of national fashion", and domestic brands have gradually found a transformation path that suits them. Li Ning, Huili and Feiyue have embraced international trend culture with open arms, refurbished their original brand designs, and created a trendy sports style with strong Chinese characteristics; brands such as White Rabbit, Want Want and the Forbidden City have also gained a lot of attention from seemingly incredible cross-border collaborations.

Huili and Feiyue, representing the youth memories of several generations, jointly launched the "National Tide Memories Killing" Photo source: Weibo @Huili Flagship Store

As the leader of the Chinese fashion industry, Li Ning appeared at the 2018 Fall/Winter New York Fashion Week with a new look that combined retro and avant-garde, and made various innovative designs on the classic "scrambled eggs and tomato" color of the Chinese team. The four big characters "China Li Ning" are printed prominently on various items. The retro sportswear has been transformed into the most popular fashion item. Li Ning's classic gymnastics moves are also printed on T-shirts, paying tribute to the glory and confidence of the Olympics that year.

Image source: Li Ning official website

Li Ning's brand concept emphasizes the need to rekindle Chinese fashion on the world stage with a brand new attitude. At the same time, he also carries the "enlightenment" of his original intention - to understand one's own heart and follow the path of the heart. The world is full of changes, and the current situation is changing. Let the apparent and the ethereal adapt to the circumstances. Only the unchanging is the path of the heart.

Image source: Li Ning official website

In the development over the past two years, in addition to attracting consumers' attention with fashionable, cutting-edge and individual design styles, national trends have paid more attention to the expression and display of local culture and life attitudes.

Last October, the Dunhuang Museum became popular on Weibo for giving a "flying skateboard" to celebrity Wang Yibo. In addition to skateboards, the Dunhuang Museum also uses ancient Silk Road elements such as grottoes, murals, and flying apsaras on various modern daily necessities. It uses the expression method of pop art to restore the colorful murals from thousands of years ago, and has created a series of cultural and creative products such as Jile Tian, ​​Buddhist, and Nine-Colored Deer that retain the beauty of classical antiquity, which hit the "cute spots" of Buddhist young people.

Image source: Taobao Dunhuang Museum flagship store

Buddhist youth do not necessarily understand Buddhism, but it is a label that contemporary young people give themselves under the pressure and anxiety of life. The Dunhuang Museum seized the connection point of "Buddhism" and added drama to the ancient Silk Road culture. Buddhist young people have found opportunities to express their personalities in the prostitutes dancing at discotheques and the gods of music and dance playing DJs, and have demonstrated to the outside world their attitude towards life of not competing or fighting and not seeking to win or lose.

“Okay, all is fine, you have the final say” Image source: Taobao Dunhuang Museum flagship store

From domestic fashion brands to "national fashion", the combination of "domestic brands + trendy styles + Chinese culture" has produced a wonderful market chemical reaction. Guochao has gradually become an original Chinese trend that carries the changes in Chinese culture and social thoughts, and is developing towards a more popular consumer market.

3. National trend: seeing the “entanglement” of young people

In the nearly 20 years since China joined the WTO, the trend of globalization that came with market opening has profoundly influenced the growth process of young people in China.

Many young people who pursue fashion are labeled as "worshiping foreign things" and are considered to have no interest in traditional culture. But in fact, it is the young people who have a strong interest in traditional culture. Not only do they like it themselves, but they also strive to bring new interpretations to China's traditional culture through circle communication, social media, cultural and creative design and other means.

Before the outbreak, Hunan girl Peng Jingxuan often performed on the streets of France wearing Hanfu and her guzheng. She recorded the performances and uploaded them to YouTube, bilibili and other platforms, promoting China's traditional culture in her own way. Her personal account on Bilibili has gained more than 600,000 followers and more than 52 million views in more than a year.

Under the influence of broad cultural identity and strong cultural confidence, the national trend, with its mission of reviving traditional culture, has had a huge impact among young people in China. Young people used to be very fond of European, American, Korean and Japanese trends, and they are just as enthusiastic about today's Chinese trends.

Chasing trends is a common characteristic of every generation when they are young, but for the current generation born in the 1990s and 2000s, national trends are more like the spiritual fit between international trend culture and Chinese national culture.

Young people follow the vanguard of fashion trends, but they also hope to see more of themselves in the trends. It is this "tangled" mentality that makes trendy culture extend its unique temperament after entering different countries. China's young people have integrated their proud traditional culture into trendy culture, adding more Chinese elements to it and showing off their unique personality.

Chevrolet cross-border packaging of famous ancient poets, interpreting the unique national trend of life attitude. Image source: Shuying.com

On the other hand, the national trend also reflects the "entanglement" of young people in economy and consumption. Last year, in our research on credit card consumption among those born after 1995, we found that today’s young people are very willing to spend. However, as their limited income is not enough to support their shopping desire, they will rely more on tools such as credit cards to help themselves “buy big items” and satisfy their interests and hobbies.

International fashion brands often cost thousands of yuan, which always makes it difficult for the "younger generation" with limited income to afford them, while domestic fashion brands are more cost-effective in comparison. It not only demonstrates one's understanding of trends and unique personality, but also incorporates more local cultural temperament, finding a relative balance between the "ideal" of young people pursuing trends and the "reality" of economic conditions.

The "Youjian Guochao Pavilion" pop-up store in Sanlitun, Beijing. Image source: People's Daily

Young people are constantly looking for themselves and proving themselves in confusion and entanglement, and Chinese fashion is also constantly trying to create its own trendy culture.

In 2020, the first batch of post-90s officially crossed the 30-year-old threshold. The elders always teach young people to do the right things at the right age. "Being independent at the age of thirty" means working, buying a house, getting married, having children... but this generation of young people seems to be unable to do so.

Young people’s “youth crisis” stems not only from anxiety about age, but also from being given too many social expectations. Feelings of entanglement, contradiction and anxiety are particularly evident in young people over 20 years old.

We have observed the "entanglements" of many young people. Here we share with you the analysis of 5 typical behaviors and the value needs behind them:

• Punk health care - buy the most expensive eye cream and stay up all night
• Controllable companionship - a sense of companionship that does not become a burden
• Knowledge anxiety - testing the edge of the comfort zone
• Role projection - my "daydream" will be realized by someone else
• Entertainment First - The Contrasting Happiness of Transforming Classics

1. Punk health: buy the most expensive eye cream and stay up all night

Staying up late is a problem that young people cannot escape from. Even after their parents nag them thousands of times, they still can't stop themselves from committing suicide.

Although he said he didn't care, he would be scared by the news of "sudden death from staying up late" on the Internet. He felt that he was in poor spirits and his memory was declining, so he embarked on the path of "punk health preservation".

"Punk health care" refers to this alternative and contradictory way of health care - while indulging oneself in "self-destruction" unscrupulously, one also feels anxious and restless, and is willing to spend money and resources to frantically remedy the situation.

In fact, young people’s bodies are still strong and they are not yet at the age where they need to rely on health supplements to repair their bodies. On the contrary, we need a sense of ritual in health preservation to relieve generalized anxiety and reduce some psychological guilt of "seeking death", which is a kind of self-help psychological comfort.

Even without the "exaggeration" of parents and marketing accounts, young people know the dangers of staying up late, but they are always helpless in the face of pressure from study, work, and family. They just want to enjoy some time alone in the dead of night. The conflict between life pressure and free time makes there always a few bright lights unwilling to go out late at night.

In addition to purchasing health foods, health products, and skin care products, young people have also begun to actively undergo physical examinations, exercise, and purchase insurance, thereby gaining a sense of ritual that they are working hard to live and actively maintaining their health.

Crowd Insights:

The fear of aging has begun to spread among young consumer groups, and young people born in the 1990s have gradually become the backbone of "healthy consumption".

Companies can better cater to this trend by defining the brand's health concept and focusing on beverages, foods, services, etc. that have health maintenance functions. Companies in the pharmaceutical and healthcare fields also need to adopt a "youth-oriented" strategy, transforming their consumption concepts and habits to better suit the health needs of consumers.

2. Controllable companionship: companionship that does not become a burden

According to CBNData's "2019 Pet Consumption Ecosystem Big Data Report", the number of pet-owning households in China is 99.78 million, a year-on-year increase of 43.9% in five years. With the emergence of empty-nest youth and DINK families, more and more young people are facing emotional problems such as deepening loneliness and lack of security, and the pet economy is gradually showing a younger trend.

For today's young people, starting a family and having children means taking on the accompanying life pressures and responsibilities. It is difficult to make up your mind to start a family or raise children without adequate preparation, and more and more young people choose to get emotional satisfaction from pets.

On the other hand, young people who have suffered from the beatings of society hope to get along with people who will not cross the line or bring them extra pressure when they return home. The companionship, interaction, and dependence of pets form a close relationship between pets and their owners, which to a certain extent satisfies the emotional needs of young people for companionship and dependence, and does not bring excessive mental and financial pressure. It is a controllable sense of companionship.

Young people who do not have the financial or living conditions to keep pets have chosen to join the ranks of "cloud cat-hugging" and "cloud dog-hugging", gaining endless happiness from cute and interesting pet short videos, and pet social networking has quietly emerged.

Crowd Insights:

The loneliness economy and pet economy that care for empty-nest young people are on the rise, and the "self-pleasing" and "living alone" lifestyles are becoming more and more popular in the commercial market.

Companies can start from the contradictory emotions of young people, who feel lonely but also pursue freedom, and create social products that allow freedom and space, providing convenient services that are available on call and under control, or humanized virtual IP interactions, to help young people alleviate loneliness without bringing additional real-life pressure.

3. Knowledge anxiety: testing the edge of the comfort zone

If there is a contempt chain for positive adjectives, then the word "comfortable" must be lying at the bottom very innocently. The impetuous Internet always likes to sell anxiety, constantly urging young people to step out of their comfort zone and not be content with the status quo.

The developed information network also makes it easy to acquire knowledge. Young people have the opportunity to see more "mountains outside the mountains" and "people outside the people". As a result, they become dissatisfied with their current situation and constantly pursue broad knowledge and self-improvement.

Image source: Screenshot of "Hou Lang" from bilibili

However, the coexistence of the desire for knowledge and laziness leads to a series of very self-contradictory behaviors among young people.

Browse a wide range of content in different fields on video websites. If you want to improve your knowledge base, but don’t have time or find it boring, you need to use speed playback and barrage to quickly finish watching.

Whenever I come across useful information on Weibo, I always forward it, like it, and collect it carefully, and then mark it down for future use. But in fact, most of the time I don’t look back, and just watch them quietly gathering dust in my favorites.

Others, in order to cut off external interference, use time management tools and task models with certain reward and punishment mechanisms to urge themselves to complete their established plans, force themselves to get rid of mobile phones and entertainment, and enter a state of concentration, in exchange for high efficiency and a sense of self-control.

Forest Focus APP uses the tree planting game mode to help users stay focused

Ultimately, what inspires self-change is not the "comfort zone" but dissatisfaction with the status quo. When young people see better people and a better quality of life, they will always doubt their own ideas of being content with the status quo, thus forcing themselves to start changing. However, the laziness in their bones will make young people create various "shortcuts" on the road to self-improvement, just to see results quickly, prove that they have worked hard, and use a sense of accomplishment to relieve their anxiety.

Crowd Insights:

Companies can introduce gamified reward and punishment mechanisms in consumer scenarios, assisting young people in self-improvement in the form of tasks, maintaining restraint and order, resisting temptations from all sides, and meeting the needs of young people who lack self-control but want a sense of accomplishment.

4. Role projection: My "daydream" will be realized by someone else

Since 2018, China's local online variety show market has been booming, with serialized, assembly-line-produced idol development programs such as "Idol Producer", "Produce 101", and "Youth With You" appearing one after another.

The main audience of this type of program is the young people born between 1995 and 2000. The audience participates in the entire process of the program as fans. They are no longer pure followers, but become national producers or founders of girl groups, deciding the contestants' stay or departure through voting.

The 7 trainees who finally debuted as a group in "Creation Camp 2020" Image source: Weibo @硬糖少女303

Most idol development programs show the trainees' training process and daily life continuously and comprehensively. The audience can see that behind the star-studded idols there are also ordinary people's joys and sorrows. They can project the personality traits that they recognize and expect onto the idols, witness the idols grow step by step through their own strength, and gradually form an inseparable dependence and reliance between fans and idols.

Image source: Animal Crossing official website

Animal Crossing, which became popular in the first half of this year, is a self-projection of a group of adults who pursue a simple life.

The full name of Animal Crossing is "Animal Crossing: New Horizons!" "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" is a game that integrates cultivation, construction, picking, fishing, creation, dressing up, and face-shaping.

Animal Crossing is a place where adults’ daydreams can come true.

In this game, there are no enemies, no risks, and no anxiety-inducing leaderboards. Although building a house on the island requires a loan, no one will urge you to repay the loan every month, and there is no additional loan interest. Players can immerse themselves in their own little world, gain a sense of happiness from collecting and picking up, strengthen friendships through exchange and gifting, and enjoy the simplest and purest happiness. If you want to interact with friends, send an invitation. If you want to be alone, add a password to the island.

This kind of idyllic and free life is difficult to achieve in real life.

Image source: Animal Crossing official website

Faced with the pressure of reality, young people choose to place their expectations on virtual characters in the game world or idols in real life to achieve goals that they cannot complete for the time being. While pursuing results, they also enjoy the process of development to gain spiritual satisfaction.

Crowd Insights:

In the Internet age, brand positioning based on emotion, personality, and IP is more effective than the influence of advertising, and the trend of personalized brand consumption is becoming more and more obvious. Companies can choose to build a personal economy from the perspective of personality traits, or they can satisfy young people's fantasies about an ideal life by creating scenarios such as role-playing and simulated life.

5. Entertainment First: The Contrasting Happiness of Transforming Classics

As Internet "natives", today's young people have grown up in a prosperous entertainment environment, and their distinctive feature is their great enthusiasm for entertainment. Young people will allocate a lot of time and energy to entertainment, and will also create entertainment methods unique to young people through their own creations and some unique cultural forms.

Ghost videos are one of the most controversial forms of entertainment. People who like to watch them get the pleasure of being "brainwashed" from them, while people who don't like them find them vulgar, boring and noisy. Classic TV dramas, popular stars, and well-known internet celebrities cannot escape the clutches of ghost videos, and if they have not been ghost videos, they cannot prove their popularity.

The creators of ghost videos don’t care whether the form is elegant or vulgar, nor do they care about the society’s recognition of them. They just want to create happiness that the mainstream cannot understand in their own way, whether it is open ridicule, implicit sarcasm, complaints, or humor.

The clip of Zhuge Liang scolding Wang Lang in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a frequent guest in ghost videos

Young people are also very keen on playing with memes, adding new meanings and new interpretations to many idioms or nouns. Old words with new meanings, as the name suggests, means giving a completely new interpretation to words that already have a fixed meaning, often in the form of homophones. Just like every idiom has an allusion or source, new words can also extend into a wonderful story through two or three words.

Image source: NetEase The wonderful world of a small Xianbao

Most idioms contain relatively orthodox and serious content such as morality, reason, and rules, but young people are keen to use the contrast between the literal meaning and the actual explanation of new words to make everyone smile while achieving excellent ironic or self-deprecating effects.

Image source: Weibo

Young people love entertainment and, with a gaming attitude, use short videos, music, emoticons and jokes to create richer interpretations of traditional and classic culture.

Their behavior may seem rebellious and incomprehensible, but in fact they are treating the world with a more relaxed and humorous attitude, looking for happiness and justice in their hearts.

DingTalk made a ghost video to beg for mercy online: "Dear young men, five stars please pay in full!" Image source: bilibili

Crowd Insights:

Using young people to communicate with young people is an important need for brands to penetrate the young population. In addition to conducting joint activities with the popular culture of young groups, brands also need to constantly build their own personalized label attributes. Occasional self-deprecation and ridicule can also increase the affinity between the brand and young people, create a common context, and gain the favor of young people.

The youth experienced by every generation is confused, entangled and anxious, but the most prominent feature of this generation of young people is "creativity".

Using methods that seem contradictory and incomprehensible to their elders to relieve their own anxiety, loneliness and stress, they create new cultural forms and use their creativity to spread their unique happiness.

Author:ETU Design

Source: ETU Design

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