From 2019 to 2020, these 4 marketing trends will not change

2019 has finally come to an end. This year the marketing industry was quite lively, with some good case works, some conceptual debates, and also some serious "rollover" incidents.

But no matter what, 2020 is here. Although there is a saying that "the future cannot be welcomed", if you are in the marketing industry, you still have to "welcome it" because "trends" are still very important.

The following content is just some immature suggestions.

01 “ Livestreaming with goods ” continues to rise

This year, Li Jiaqi, the lipstick king, became famous. With his repeated calls of “Oh my god, take a picture of it”, he made countless cute girls buy the products he recommended, and also made countless brands see the power of live streaming.

Behind Li Jiaqi is the popularity of the concept of "live streaming e-commerce", so some people call 2019 the "first year of live streaming e-commerce."

Many concepts emerged in 2019, some of which seemed unreliable at first glance, but "live streaming e-commerce" seemed somewhat reliable.

It does not seem like an empty concept, but more like an inevitable product of the development of the Internet to its present state.

Since the emergence of e-commerce more than 20 years ago, there has always been a major flaw: consumers can only understand the characteristics of products through some boring and rigid texts and pictures, but cannot truly experience the products.

For example, when we take a fancy to a pair of pajamas, we have no way to experience whether the material is comfortable or what it will look like when we put it on.

This is also the most significant difference between online shopping and offline physical stores, and it is also the worst experience for buyers during the consumption process.

E-commerce platforms have been thinking about how to solve this problem over the years, but there has been little progress. Some have simply transitioned from "pictures" to "videos", while others have provided free trials, unsealed returns, and so on.

Of course, some people have envisioned using VR (virtual reality) technology to solve the problem, but in the near future, it will be difficult to popularize it on a large scale due to cost issues.

However, live streaming e-commerce has “partially” solved this problem:

Consumers have no way to experience it in person?

OK, then we can find a middleman, that is, the anchors to experience it for us, feel it for us, and display it in all aspects for us. In the process of the display, they can also interact with fans and immerse fans in the purchasing scenario.

Big anchors have the blessing of traffic and the function of trust endorsement.

Therefore, this year it is not just one internet anchor who has become popular, but live streaming has partially solved the pain point of "experience" for the e-commerce industry, making the connection of the e-commerce consumption chain smoother.

In the future, this combination will most likely continue and realize more possibilities.

02 “Traffic” continues to fail, and “Purchase Path” continues to migrate

This year's several "traffic star + big IP" movies have failed at the box office, and the problem of traffic failure has become more and more serious.

In fact, the emergence of this problem is ultimately due to the migration of consumers' purchasing paths, which was predicted by marketing guru Kotler in "Marketing 4.0".

Previously, consumers’ purchasing path was the 4A model, which is:

Awareness (whether you know the brand), attitude (whether you like the brand), action (whether you decide to buy) and re-action (whether you make repeat purchases).

As you can see, in the previous purchasing path, big IP and popular artists can solve the problem very well:

For example, popular artists can solve the "cognition" problem very well. By creating a hot search, more people can know about the movie. Big IP can also solve the attitude problem very well, making more people think that the movie is worth watching.

Of course, if the movie is really bad, consumers won't "do it again", but so what? You have already seen it, and few people would watch a movie a second or third time.

However, with the rapid development of social networks, consumers can communicate almost seamlessly on the Internet, which has pushed the consumer's purchasing path to the 5A model, that is:

Aware, appeal, ask, act and advocate.

We can see that consumers’ purchasing path today has an additional “inquiry” before taking action. That is, when consumers become interested in and desire a product, they will not buy it directly, but will first inquire about the product’s reputation. Most of this “inquiry” is conducted on the Internet, which has extremely low costs.

For example, before we want to watch a movie, we will probably go to Douban to see how it is rated;

When we want to order takeout, we check the food reviews of a particular restaurant;

Or if you want to buy some cosmetics, just look through the ideas you have planted on Xiaohongshu first.

Therefore, this "inquiry" process makes many products tend to be "transparent". In a transparent environment, relying solely on traffic but with poor reputation is bound to fail.

On the other hand, we see that the last item of 5A is "advocacy", which means that today's consumers, if they have a good experience using a product, will actively advocate and promote the product. These people are what we call "tap water."

The spontaneous promotional materials generated by "tap water", such as Douban ratings, comments in WeChat Moments, and reposts on Weibo, will be seen by more "inquirers". This virtuous cycle has given rise to many movies that did not receive enough initial publicity but have excellent reputations and therefore good box office results.

In the future, the evolution of this consumption path will continue, and in this context, many products will inevitably return to their "true value".

03 Private domain traffic is still not fun

At the beginning of 2019, some people predicted the rise of "private domain traffic", and private domain traffic has indeed become a hot word in the marketing circle.

But a year has passed, and no company has really built a successful private traffic pool. Of course, micro-business is an exception.

Private domain traffic is not that fun.

In 2012, WeChat official accounts became extremely popular, and people engaged in micro-marketing training have already claimed that the advantage of micro-marketing is "locking both users and traffic in one's own hands", which is also the essence of private domain traffic (mini programs, official accounts, communities, etc.).

"Private domain traffic" is just another way of saying it.

So why did “private domain traffic” suddenly become popular again in 2019? In recent years, traffic has become more and more expensive. We have no choice but to turn around and look for more cost-effective traffic. People are optimistic about "private domain traffic" just as people say "it is cheap."

But unfortunately, the reality is not good.

WeChat official accounts, private accounts, mini-programs, communities, etc. are all so-called private traffic pools. It is easy to build such a pool, but this is only the first step. The next two important questions are: where are the users? How to activate users?

First of all, after the private domain traffic is built, consumers will not enter the private domain traffic pool for no reason unless they are diverted from other channels, and diversion requires investment of manpower or money.

Secondly, when we have spent effort and money to attract traffic from other places, how do we retain and activate it? If you don't manage the traffic well, it will run away sooner or later.

To solve this problem, we must first build a strong content and operation team. Without an operation team, how can we talk about private domain traffic? Are we just forcing employees to post on WeChat Moments?

However, a strong team means high salaries and difficulty in recruiting, and the development of a private traffic pool will not happen overnight.

Can companies give these teams half a year to form and grow? And let the account grow? Most companies cannot do this because these are all costs.

In short, private domain traffic seems "cheap", but in fact its cost is not low and the expense is not small. There is definitely no such thing as getting traffic out of nothing, and there will never be any in the future.

In other words, not all companies are suitable for private domain traffic, unless they can give it time and are willing to spend money, but this goes against the original intention of many people to "find cheap traffic."

04 “National Trend” continues to rise

Chinese-style clothing is still popular in 2019. If we stroll along any pedestrian street or tourist attraction, we can see many boys and girls wearing Hanfu.

On short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, or some live broadcast platforms, there are many beautiful young ladies dressed in Hanfu, playing the pipa, guzheng, and flute, dancing traditional dances, or singing Chinese-style songs.

The ratings of "Chinese Poetry Competition" are also high. Many viewers envy a girl like Wu Yishu who is so talented.

All these signs indicate that people's awareness of traditional aesthetics is rapidly awakening and they are beginning to discover how brilliant our traditional culture is.

This trend will inevitably have an impact on all industries.

For example, in 2018, Tmall had already created a marketing IP called "National Trend is Coming". In 2019, Tmall made use of this IP even better. Brands such as White Rabbit Milk Candy, Hero Pen, Tsingtao Beer and others all came out to have fun, and it was quite fun.

The so-called "national tide" is to combine traditional culture (country) with current fashion (trend). This combination of tradition and fashion can generate countless imagination spaces.

And this is just the beginning.

05 Summary

The above are some guesses about next year’s trends based on this year’s marketing phenomena. They may not be that accurate, but they can just serve as some ideas for everyone.

1. Live e-commerce provides a partial solution to the online consumer experience issues, so it may become more common in the future.
2. The migration of consumers’ purchasing paths will not stop, and marketing will be more inclined towards “real value”.
3. Private domain traffic seems cheap, but the cost is actually not low, so only a few companies will be able to make good use of "private domain traffic" in the future.
4. The rapid awakening of people's traditional aesthetic consciousness will bring changes to all walks of life, and the rise of national trends is just the beginning.

Author: Yu Ji

WeChat public account: Copywriter Yu Ji