Top 10 Brand Keywords in 2019 and 5 Trends in 2020

Today, let’s summarize and review the 10 key words in the branding industry in 2019. At the same time, we also hope to discuss with our colleagues the 5 major trend keywords in the branding industry in 2020.

Review | Top 10 keywords for brands in 2019

01. Economic downturn

This is not a new keyword, but it is a cruel keyword. The global economic growth rate slowed slightly, falling to the lowest point in the past 11 years in 2019. In 2019, we often heard news about the bankruptcy of various star startups, especially in the Internet industry. But in fact, in addition to the Internet industry, the industrial field is also facing the same situation. Many peers also began to lay off employees, optimize their businesses, and look for a second track in 2019.

02. Growth Anxiety

Growth has always been the number one issue plaguing brands. For new brands, how to grow rapidly from scratch? For semi-mature and mature brands, how to achieve sustainable growth in a systematic way? For old brands, how to grow against the trend?

In the past three years, fragmented theories such as "growth hacking" have been continuously penetrating from the Internet world into the industrial field. However, many brand operators in the industrial field will find that these fragmented theories claiming to be growth-driven and operation-driven are more inclined to how to implement them at the tactical level, but cannot answer how to build a brand in a systematic way? How should new products be launched systematically? How should the supply chain department keep pace with growth?

After all, the difference between real industry and the Internet is that real industry has inventory, cash flow pressure, and complex online and offline channel relationships, all of which cannot be directly applied to knowledge in the Internet field such as growth hacking.

03. Efficiency Anxiety

Growth in size does not necessarily mean efficiency. Given limited funding and high profit pressure, how can brands grow efficiently? Should we pursue efficiency first or scale first?

Behind the anxiety about efficiency is actually the anxiety about the brand: how to sell at a higher brand premium? How to build “brand power” in a systematic way? How to build brand at different stages?

These problems not only plague industrial brands, but are also gradually beginning to affect the Internet industry and even the financial industry. There is also an interesting phenomenon in 2019. There are many more investment institutions and investors in the market. A large number of fund investors suddenly appear. Different investment institutions also have to start self-branding and marketing. They are also worried about how to efficiently build their own capital brand?

04. Lipstick Effect

Corresponding to the macroeconomic situation of economic downturn, the lipstick effect is becoming increasingly prominent, and the fast-moving consumer goods industry has gradually risen from the bottom in 2016. Although China's economic growth rate is also slowing down, the per capita disposable income has been growing steadily, and the growth of fast-moving consumer goods has maintained a stable single-digit growth since it rebounded in 2017.

Among them, the beauty industry, the representative industry of the lipstick effect, has been particularly prominent in the past two years. Whether it is Perfect Diary, or emerging domestic brands such as Huaxizi, HFP, or foreign brands such as MAC and 3CE, they are actually taking advantage of the general trend to grow. The reason behind this is actually the increasing penetration rate of the entire category, and every brand in the category benefits from this.

05. Live broadcast and short video

As the two most popular live-streaming influencers in 2019, Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya not only amazed the entire industry at the ability of live-streaming to bring goods, but also made the entire industry feel distressed about the investment budget for live-streaming.

The rapid rise of Tik Tok and Kuaishou has also forced brand colleagues to pay attention. Now many emerging brands are actually quietly building their own MCNs instead of relying solely on external short video companies.

With the advent of the 5G era, both live streaming and short videos will become more and more popular and increasingly become daily media methods for consumers.

06. Inability to plant grass

In the past 3-4 years, many emerging brands have taken advantage of the traffic from Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Weibo and WeChat to carry out word-of-mouth marketing and rise to prominence. But in 2019, colleagues will find that things have become more difficult and the grass can no longer be planted.

There are three reasons here: First, it is because of changes in platform rules. The second reason is that there is more competition, and the third reason is because of the team. Ultimately, it is because of the lack of reliable talents.

07. IP character collapse

2019 was not only the year with the most collapse of celebrity personalities, but also the year with the most serious collapse of entrepreneurs’ and brands’ personalities. Huawei's brand image changed from a national brand at the beginning of the year to a brand that oppresses employees by the end of the year. There are several other brands similar to Huawei.

Behind the collapse of IP personality, it is actually the neglect of professionalism, lack of care, and failure to take brand IP construction seriously. Within the company, this part of the work is passed around between the corporate public relations department, marketing department, and human resources department. No one takes it seriously, and there is no systematic and professional way to handle it.

Of course, in essence, it is due to the arrogance and neglect of the founders or the management team.

08. Brand PR War

In the past, brand public relations were systematically planned and carried out slowly by third-party public relations companies. But the public relations war in 2019 also surprised peers - the company actually took matters into its own hands and launched a public relations war with its competitors.

Behind this change is actually the change in consumer psychology trends and social media environment. Because consumers are looking forward to, curious about, and eager to see the fun, and because social media gives brands the opportunity to directly wage their own public relations battles, after 2020, more brands will adopt a direct face-to-face approach, subverting the traditional third-party public relations companies' slow and leisurely way of doing public relations.

In this sense, third-party traditional public relations companies do face business challenges.

09. Z generation/Post-95s

This is one of the most popular keywords mentioned by self-media and consulting experts in 2019. A professor at an American university who specializes in "consumer behavior" talked about his research findings at a forum last time. He found that there are two types of people who are the most "loneli" in the United States, one of whom is those born after 1995. People born after 1995 all over the world may face the same "loneliness" proposition. This generation lives behind the screen. The consumer psychology and consumer demand caused by loneliness are also areas of concern in the current brand industry.

But in China, the post-95s are a rather complex group of people. Because China is vast and has obvious regional differences, the post-95s in first-tier cities are also different from those in second-tier, third-tier, and fourth-tier cities. Therefore, if you want to win the hearts of young people when building a brand in China, you cannot just focus on those born after 1995 in first-tier cities.

10. New and emerging brands

When I participated in the Tmall 2019 Emerging Brand Competition, I personally experienced the vigorous development of emerging brands. Compared with traditional brands, emerging brands are better at using the Internet and impressing young consumers. Their founders are also younger, and most of them have higher academic qualifications and educational backgrounds. Many of them did not start their businesses from 0 to 1.

There will be more cutting-edge brands in 2020 because the times are always changing, and industrial brands in particular are changing at a faster pace.

But to be honest, many traditional brands are not defeated by emerging brands, but are "killed" by themselves. Their internal management and thinking cannot keep up, so no matter how many talents they hire, they cannot retain them or use them.

Prediction | 5 key words for brand trends in 2020

01. Accelerated brand replacement

Many new brands have emerged in the past three years, while traditional brands have encountered great challenges. Behind these challenges are actually challenges to the founders, operation teams, and internal management, rather than just challenges at the external environment and tactical level.

In 2020, the speed of brand replacement will be faster, the media environment is changing with each passing day, consumers are also changing, the post-90s generation is already 30 years old, channels are also changing, and the entire macroeconomic situation is also changing. These changes will pose challenges to traditional brands, but will create unlimited opportunities for new brands.

02. Consumption is king

The lipstick effect will continue in 2020, and the influx of large amounts of capital will also make consumer goods the next industry hotspot after the Internet. The two areas that the investment community values ​​most are food and beauty.

Because China has a large market and obvious regional differences, consumption is not only upgrading but also downgrading. Under this consumption stratification, there will be more and more entrepreneurial opportunities and new brands around consumer goods in 2020.

03. Entrepreneurship 2.0

As early as two or three years ago, the entrepreneurial field was experiencing a change in the backgrounds of founders. In the past, there were grassroots entrepreneurships, but now there are professional entrepreneurships. A large number of professional entrepreneurs with good educational backgrounds, experience in Fortune 500 foreign companies, leading domestic private enterprises, and those who have started their own businesses a long time ago will flood into the market.

Many of the founders of today’s emerging brands are basically from the same circle, all come from the same former employer and the same alma mater, and are all very smart, professional, and hardworking. So the competition will be more intense than ever, and of course more professional.

04. Omni-channel marketing

In the first three years, the investment community often liked to ask brand founders: "Which traffic pool do you want to use to explode?" Since the second half of 2019, few people have asked such questions anymore - because market pressure has forced brands to conduct omni-channel marketing.

The so-called omni-channel marketing is not a new term, it is similar to the integrated marketing in the past. But the difference between the two is that integrated marketing emphasizes a stunning creativity that can cover all media channels; while omni-channel marketing does not necessarily pursue creative unity, but rather pursues coverage and penetration.

After all, the essential goal of omni-channel marketing is large-scale penetration!

05. Going out to sea and sinking

There is no need to say much about the sinking market. In 2020, more brands will enter the sinking market and launch a dimensionality reduction attack. Traditional brands that rely on WeChat business and non-professional brand operations in the sinking market will also face great challenges. More professional players will enter the sinking market, and the sinking market will also undergo brand iterations. Professionalism will gradually win, and the old methods and old operating ideas may gradually be eliminated.

Corresponding to the sinking market is another channel outlet - going overseas. With the development of the international situation and the encouragement of national policies, more and more brands will choose to go overseas.

In the 12th offline forum last year, Mr. Song Song also mentioned this point: Chinese companies are taking bigger and bigger steps to go global, with consumer electronics, games and home appliances being the main forces. The fast-moving consumer goods industry currently more often adopts the approach of cooperating with foreign companies or acquiring high-quality foreign assets/brands to go overseas.

There are still many keywords surrounding 2020 waiting for us to discover, and we also hope that all brand colleagues will share more growth cases and brand cases with HBG Research Institute in 2020.

Author: Mandy Mai

Source: Mandy Mai