Annual review | 3 key words for brand marketing in 2019

Introduction: Frequent collaborations, frequent hunger marketing, frequent innovations, frequent limited sales, and frequent creation of commodity shortages drive the public to feel a sense of urgency, which will lead to a situation where the marketing methods backfire on the brand. This article will start from the evolution of these three marketing buzzwords, KOL marketing, hunger marketing, and cross-border marketing, in 2019, and analyze the criticisms of contemporary marketing buzzwords.

How to keep marketing methods from being "generalized" and how to stay young forever. Instead of racking their brains on marketing tactics, brands should focus more on products and make products that cater to young consumer groups, rather than attracting attention through one "gimmick" marketing after another.

In 2019, the Year of the Golden Pig, in the huge ocean of new consumption dividends among young people, Hanfu, national trends, hip-hop, e-sports, rock, e-cigarettes, and blind boxes all shine with their own unique brilliance.

The young consumer group is a group that has not been neglected and has become the new generation of consumer main force.

Faced with the huge impact brought by the Internet revolution, the giants seem to be unable to keep up with the times. An aging image is the main problem. As capital has seen a wave of consumer brands emerge one after another, the consumer competitiveness of the giants has clearly shown signs of fatigue.

The reason for this is that with the rapid development of the Internet, brand exposure channels and product delivery channels have undergone drastic changes, and the iteration speed is getting faster and faster. Today, consumers’ channels for obtaining information are very fragmented, and brands are more segmented.

In the Internet age, brand communication is very difficult to control. Everyone’s circle of friends and Weibo are actually a communication behavior, and this kind of communication cannot be controlled at all. Therefore, brand promotion can only make their products well and make every marketing activity eye-catching enough to become a breakthrough presence on social platforms.

The brand's marketing campaign videos are uploaded to the Internet with interest, using slightly topical gimmicks to whet users' appetites. The reason why users are willing to take out their mobile phones and upload the brand's marketing campaign videos to the Internet with confusion but interest is mainly based on the charm of "Internet culture".

1. KOL Marketing: Livestreaming

Generation Z will have a stronger ability to accept new things and a stronger desire to try them. After young consumers have received beauty education from online culture, they have become an emerging consumer force and are actively paying for the beauty education they have received.

According to the "Big Data Report on Social Trends in the Beauty Industry" jointly released by Kuaimei, Weibo Fashion and CBNData, 35% of consumers expressed their willingness to obtain information about beauty products through social media, second only to third-party e-commerce. Among the positive impacts of social media on consumers, 60% of respondents agreed that social media can "help me shop better."

The report shows that young people are more likely to be influenced by beauty and cosmetics KOLs and their voice plays an important role in young people’s shopping journey.

Nowadays, brands are trying every means to get on this rare traffic train of "Li Jiaqi and others". In the "Year of Li Jiaqi", live streaming has gradually come into people's view and become a new way of shopping. Li Jiaqi's words "oh my god" made the girls willingly open the relevant links and place orders. The "discount charm" of Viya's live broadcast room is irresistible.

As an online influencer in the beauty industry, Li Jiaqi's most frequently repeated words are "color number", "oh my god", "buy it", "it looks so good", "amazing", "I went through a lot of hardships to get such a low price", and "the pride of domestic products". The underlying purpose of repeating words is to strengthen his ability to sell products and attract audiences and advertisers. From a linguistic perspective, these words constitute part of the "Li Jiaqi review language".

The purpose of these repetitive words is, on the one hand, to convince the audience, and on the other hand, to convince the manufacturers, so that advertisers believe that he is the most authoritative, professional, and knowledgeable person about women and beauty products.

“I’m not afraid of anything except Li Jiaqi’s oh my god.” Li Jiaqi’s short and powerful repetitive words have a strong ability to monetize commercially.

During the Double Eleven event in 2018, Li Jiaqi sold 15,000 lipsticks in just 5 minutes of live streaming, and his record of selling 5.35 million lipsticks in 5 hours has not been broken to date. Fans wish their phones had a split-screen function so they could watch Li Jiaqi’s videos while shopping.

Under the 5G dividend, the advantages of short videos are gradually highlighted. Young consumers are far less sensitive to text than to videos. Short videos not only have service and entertainment functions, but also the most important thing is sociality.

Papi Jiang's content can be deconstructed into "collecting the most popular comments and jokes from netizens and performing them in a concentrated video format"; Li Jiaqi's content can be deconstructed into "providing an outlet for the swollen consumption desires of contemporary sophisticated boys and girls, standing at the forefront of the lipstick economy and becoming a 'beacon' of lipstick"; Li Ziqi's content can be deconstructed into "finding an ideal lifestyle that meets public expectations."

"Li Jiaqi", "Li Ziqi", and "Papi Jiang" make the content that videos can carry closer to the context of civilians. They are the concentrated expression of a certain field of Internet culture. They have always come out on top in the war with similar competitors and become the top Internet celebrities in the same field.

2. Hunger Marketing: IP Marketing

In this new consumption era, various novel marketing methods have been invented to attract users' attention. Hunger marketing is frequently used in this era of information explosion and difficulty in obtaining traffic because of its advantage of quickly attracting users.

The new marketing concept of "whoever wins the young people wins the world" forces brands to embrace young user groups in a youthful way, and hunger marketing is undoubtedly one of the fastest and most direct ways to resonate with young consumers.

The Uniqlo & KAWS hunger marketing case caused a "zombie"-like buying spree, which is undoubtedly one of the successful examples of hunger marketing.

Designer KAWS himself announced on Twitter that this would be his last collaboration with Uniqlo, marking the end of a collaboration cycle with Uniqlo. The limited quantity and "decisive" marketing methods have made the combination of the two a "good story" in the hunger marketing circle.

KAWS dolls have become a symbol of economic strength in the fashion circle. The limited quantity and high price mean that KAWS dolls are destined to be popular in the fashion circle. Niche means mysterious, niche means taste. KAWS has become synonymous with superiority in the fashion circle.

With limited edition and high price , KAWS fans' pent-up consumption desire has finally been realized in UNIQLO this time, and KAWS's artistic concept has also been conveyed to the public through UNIQLO's affordable T-shirts.

Consumerism is the root of trendy culture. IP has a huge influence on consumption. In the modern era of information explosion, various social media are making every effort to promote IP, even though consumers' information receiving capacity is approaching saturation.

Believe in the power of IP and the values ​​behind IP. In order to verify this value, consumers need to confirm their love for IP through a purchasing action.

KAWS is actually a kind of IP power. With the blessing of KAWS's niche trend and the affordable price of the Uniqlo & KAWS series, KAWS fans' pent-up consumption desire has found an outlet. In addition, KAWS is a natural limited edition player, and this cooperation between Uniqlo and KAWS is the last one. Various reasons have led to the crazy rush.

In a sense, the marketing path of demand construction is the path of dream-making. Merchants sell a promise to consumers. After owning the brand's products, consumers firmly believe that they will become more high-end, more fashionable, more profound, etc. But in fact, the products created by this kind of hunger marketing are dispensable for consumers. Merchants only build a "psychological expectation height" in the minds of consumers, raise consumers' psychological expectations, and then sell the products when they are delicious.

3. Cross-border marketing: reviving old brands

Heytea always has pop-up stores during every festive season. Brands like Heytea seem to always be active on social platforms, actively embracing social media that young people love. It goes without saying that users love it. Every time a new product is launched, it is supported by young people, thereby further strengthening the brand's social image.

HEYTEA is constantly making cross-border collaborations, constantly collaborating, constantly creating content, and making imaginative products. It has a cross-border collaboration with White Rabbit Toffees, launched "stinky tofu" cakes in Changsha, and launched Roujiamo in Xi'an. It has launched a "New Year's Happiness" gift box with Maowang Radio, launched a "Single Hug" challenge with TikTok, cooperated with Meitu Xiuxiu to launch HEYTEA's exclusive AR selfie effects, and collaborated with Nike to release limited edition jerseys and sneakers...

The brand that can capture the hearts of young consumers with every move is undoubtedly the one that understands consumers the best and can be called the "walking traffic" among contemporary brands. They understand that young consumers are “dislike the old and love the new”, that they care more about visual experience than text experience, and they know how to get the “G-spot” of young people.

The leaders of old brands are well aware of the truth that "winning the world of young people" and hope to establish the image of "senior cross-border players" in the minds of young people. However, this kind of marketing approach can sometimes seem to be short-sighted and sometimes backfire.

The "national auntie" Lao Gan Ma's "cool and rustic" marketing is "out of control": first it launched a "spicy" sweatshirt, then participated in the New York Fashion Week, and even launched a customized gift box with "Men's Health"; Weilong, which went abroad with a bag of spicy strips, has long been unwilling to sell only spicy strips, and after "careful design", launched an exclusive version of Weilong brand woven bags; the "king" of white wine Luzhou Laojiao launched perfume

Judging from the data, the brand impact of cross-border cooperation and hunger marketing products is short-term. Although it can satisfy young people's curiosity, it cannot become the norm.

If old brands want to achieve a premium based on sentiment, they must find ways to combine the consumption needs of young people, create a unique and personalized image, find their own positioning, and not lose their brand characteristics and fall into the quagmire of homogeneity. Let consumers become your fans, rather than those who are hyped up by cross-border marketing and hunger marketing.

The high-end big brands have suddenly become "overactive", and the frequent "high-end combinations" have made the cooperation between big brands and fast fashion no longer as eye-catching as before.

Just like a star who creates an image of being knowledgeable or aloof, his image suddenly collapses, causing a huge psychological gap between his fans.

The fashion world is changing rapidly, and consumers will get tired of a certain way of doing things after two or three times, not to mention that the collaboration between fast fashion and big brands has passed the "seven-year itch".

Once the "social media platform brands" that are well aware of the preferences of young people lose the magic of cross-border joint marketing, what is their magic weapon to attract young consumers?

l Criticisms of Contemporary Marketing Keywords

In the era of information fragmentation, the retention of brand imprints is time-limited, but no matter how fragmented the consumer's impression is, content viewed once will still form a fleeting impression. Even if it is not remembered in the mind and the brand name cannot be pronounced immediately, there will still be an impression.

For enterprises, all kinds of marketing tactics are just superficial. Strengthening themselves is the most important thing. Products are the core. Products are used to leverage brand leverage, leverage word of mouth, trigger a chemical reaction in people’s minds, and thus form real brand assets.

Frequent collaborations, frequent hunger marketing, frequent innovations, frequent limited sales, and frequent creation of product shortages drive the public to feel a sense of urgency, which will lead to a situation where the marketing methods backfire on the brand.

Marketing can easily fall into a dead end if one is not careful, just like a woman who wears heavily made-up. No matter how much make-up she puts on, she still cannot hide her haggard face.

The cross-border influence is long-term. Even if cross-border business is ultimately just a dream, and even if the visible sales brought by cross-border business is not much improved, for brands that want to become younger, cross-border business can attract eyeballs, traffic, and consumers' attention, and it also brings potential customers.

In today's world where "cross-border" is common, if cross-border is merely a "hot topic" behavior to be different, the brand's hope to attract young consumers through cross-border activities will sooner or later be replaced by emerging marketing activities.

Frequent collaborations, frequent hunger marketing, frequent innovations, frequent limited sales, and frequent creation of product shortages drive the public to feel a sense of urgency, which will lead to a situation where the marketing methods backfire on the brand.

How to keep marketing methods from being "generalized" and how to stay young forever. Instead of racking their brains on marketing tactics, companies should focus more on products and make products that cater to young consumer groups, rather than attracting attention through one "gimmick" marketing after another.

The young consumer group is an elusive species, and being fickle can be said to be their label. Frequent collaborations, frequent hunger marketing, frequent innovations, frequent limited sales, and frequent creation of product shortages will drive the public to feel a sense of urgency, and will lead to a situation where the marketing methods backfire on the brand, and consumers will sooner or later get tired of it.

Young people are more receptive to new things and are quicker to abandon them. The cycle of getting tired of the old and liking the new is gradually shortening. The topic that was discussed by many netizens and occupied the top of the traffic yesterday will be replaced by something more "hot" today.

In an age of material abundance and information explosion, consumers who feel overwhelmed by all kinds of marketing methods will not consume because of unfounded sentiments, unless the product can really stand out, keep up with social trends, successfully "go viral", and become a topic worthy of being listed on social platforms. Otherwise, no matter how many forms of nostalgia there are, they can only be one-off marketing, which only treats the symptoms and not the root cause.

Good consumer brands have their own traffic, and their advertisements are not directly linked to the word "marketing". Even after users have watched the entire advertisement, they are still confused and have no idea what the advertisement is talking about or what product is being sold.

Brands hope that advertisements reflect a certain content and concept, including the exquisiteness of the advertisement itself, the image of the advertisement, and at a deeper level, some spiritual pursuits and concepts.

Brands do not want to be washed away by the waves in the fiercely competitive market, nor do they want to be beaten to death on the beach by the following waves. However, it is impossible to become an evergreen brand if it does not focus on improving product quality and only focuses on attracting consumers' attention and coming up with different marketing methods.

Whether it is hunger marketing or cross-border marketing, it is a coin of marketing methods . On one hand, it maximizes the traffic of explosive products, and on the other hand, it causes a series of problems such as user dissatisfaction and damage to brand image due to "excessive marketing ".

How to weigh the pros and cons and ensure proper marketing will pose a subsequent test for both parties.

Conclusion: The frenzy of capital has passed, and capital will now only choose to add icing on the cake.

Nowadays, no marketing method is unchanging, and no industry market is not volatile. Adapting to the times is the only truth. The era when one trick can conquer the world will never come back.

As a contemporary enterprise, only by embracing change and understanding the inner thoughts of young consumers in the midst of change can we maintain the youthfulness of our brand. Otherwise, it will come and go in a hurry, and no matter how many ways to play it, it will ultimately be just a dream.

Author: Clockwork Brown

Text: PR Home