Are luxury goods suitable for TikTok marketing? ?

Last week, TikTok officially announced that its global monthly active users have exceeded 500 million. This number has a certain symbolic significance, as it symbolizes that TikTok has become a popular video exchange platform. Some time ago, due to the popularity of Tik Tok, some people suggested that companies operating social media should consider "Two Micros and One Dou" (Weibo, WeChat and Tik Tok). At that time, although Tik Tok was very popular, it was still regarded by many people as a non-mass platform that focused on "trendsetters". Now, with the success of Tik Tok, it has obviously broken through the existing circle and become one of the most active and largest super social platforms in China.

"Two Weibo and One Douyin" has become the standard for corporate marketing , and the data also confirms this. The corporate Blue V white paper released by Douyin in June 2018 showed that Blue V accounts have published 75,000 videos, with a total of 6.5 billion views. Tik Tok has become a must-have communication platform for many brands .

Luxury brands are a special group among enterprises. They are special because on the one hand they need to maintain their existing noble tone, and on the other hand they also need to substantially promote the transformation of brand communication. So, are luxury brands suitable for TikTok?

1. Luxury goods face a transformation towards younger people

Luxury brands are facing new challenges in the digital media era. In the past, these brands adopted a high-profile strategy of advertising outdoors, on television, in fashion and financial magazines to attract consumers. However, young consumers today have to some extent detached themselves from traditional media, and high-end media content may not be able to " reach " young people. For global luxury brands that have been trying to get rid of the aging image of "this is a gift for mom" in the global market, especially the Chinese market, how to communicate with young people in China has always been an "enduring" topic.

In fact, change has already happened.

Burberry chose Kris Wu as its spokesperson in 2016, and continued to forge ahead with the launch of a new collaborative collection in 2017, which included 19 items including patterned sweatshirts, sweatpants, and hooded sweatshirts with embroidery and prints inspired by Kris Wu’s personal tattoos and lyrics.

If you think this is just a small breakthrough, Tiffany's communication strategy may make you laugh. It says: a paper clip worth $1,500, a wool ball worth RMB 80,000, and a bubble toy worth more than RMB 2,000. Do you know?

Of course there are many more examples, whether it's DIOR promoting AB as its brand ambassador for China, Coco Game Center landing in Shanghai, GUCCI's fairy tale book "Miracle of Love", or even global luxury brands rushing to land on Tmall and JD.com , it can be clearly seen that luxury brands have carefully planned their communication around the panoramic life path of young Chinese people . If you want to say that it reflects their anxiety to a certain extent, that's fine too.

2. How do luxury brands on Douyin communicate with users?

Judging from the general trend, embracing digital media and targeting young consumers has become a necessary decision for luxury brands. It is nothing new for luxury brands to play on social networks . On Facebook and Instagram, a large number of luxury brands have already settled in and operated for a long time. On 2, Chanel’s fans increased from 6 million to 15 million in one year.

So let’s get back to the topic of this article: Are luxury goods suitable for Douyin? Maybe you already have a rough answer, but below I will give a detailed analysis based on my personal observations.

Currently, brands such as Dior and BMW have settled in Douyin. Dior also completed a UGC event on the platform - "Let's Glow Together". The affordable luxury brand Michael Kors has also jointly launched a video contest with TikTok. In order to ensure the effect, TikTok invited fashion experts such as @吴佳煜 to wear Michael Kors smart watches and new bags, and use sticker props customized for Michael Kors to attract a large number of young users to participate.

In July this year, @Show Luo joined TikTok. In his first video, the big GUCCI on his body attracted attention. As you can imagine, this was certainly not unintentional. This was a marketing test by GUCCI with the help of Show Luo on the TikTok platform. The luxury brand completed a native advertising marketing through Show Luo's short video .

Judging from the existing cases on the Douyin platform, Douyin, a platform focusing on young people, is certainly suitable for luxury goods. The key lies in how to play it.

3. Luxury brands play TikTok: Maintaining the spiritual beliefs of luxury while embracing new trends

Judging from the current commercial application value of TikTok, its super traffic pool of 500 million monthly active users worldwide and its entry point for communicating with young people cannot be ignored.

1) Content

Douyin has created a unique visual + BGM expression method, which is also the key reason why Douyin stands out from the short video field. Luxury brands can find the "coolest way of disguise" on this platform to blend into the community of young people without losing their elegance.

Recently, Douyin launched a brand joint IP - Douyin's Beautiful Life Image Gallery. Douyin introduced in its official WeChat account "This time, we built a 24-hour "Beautiful Life Image Gallery": In the coming year, by paying attention to 12 kinds of branded products around "you", capturing their hidden and unique artistic atmosphere and the life aesthetics behind them, we will take everyone to experience a different kind of beauty and romance.

In the first season, Douyin focused its creative inspiration on the Chanel J12 watch, and released 12 classic-style art and lifestyle blockbusters with 12 full hours as clues. The first scene of each film is a panoramic view of Chanel watches, which is then switched to a series of art scenes - a straight road, a watch falling through the floor, an infinitely falling swimming pool, and an art landmark with a strong sense of upward contour - the Shanghai Hao Art Museum. These contents are the advertisements of luxury brands on Douyin. You can watch the collection video below to get a feel for it.

Douyin's Beautiful Life Image Journal discovers the "ordinary beauty" and the "artistic value behind good things". On the one hand, it maintains the high-quality artistic content tone, and on the other hand, it ensures the clever communication method between luxury goods and users on a young and native social platform. Judging from the comments, the products in the film have also aroused great interest among netizens. Of course, who among young people doesn’t love Chanel watches?

2) Form

Short videos are undoubtedly the content format that suits today's mobile Internet , while the vertical screen represents the creation and browsing experience of today's young people. For creators, vertical screen creation is not as professional and has a high threshold as horizontal screen creation. The vertical screen allows most young people to shoot quickly and conveniently. For viewers, vertical screen browsing is more in line with daily mobile phone usage habits and saves more time. The popularity of full-screen mobile phones has accelerated this trend. Vertical video is generally a user-centric product design concept nowadays. For luxury brands (and this certainly applies to other brands as well), vertical video content is also user-centric and embraces user performance.

3) Interaction

Luxury goods both love and fear user UGC. What they fear is damaging the brand’s tone, while what they love is the sense of participation of users and the wider spread it brings. For luxury brands, creating UGC content on Douyin requires finding a way that suits them. For example, in the DIOR Lipstick Challenge #Let’s Glow Together, Dior worked with TikTok to customize the Dior Addict Lip Glow stickers, which stimulated participation while retaining its own unique style.

The unique BGM + brand-style sticker interaction has become a "micro-innovation" that ensures that UGC remains interesting and trendy. It is also a good choice for luxury brands to find a marketing style that suits them.

4) Conversion

According to a PMX study, “Luxury Brands Online 2016”, about 6% of website traffic for 80 luxury brands came from social networks (Facebook ranked first). Luxury brands can also achieve conversions on the TikTok platform. For good PGC content and expert accounts, by loading the "shopping cart" with one click on the video content page, users can directly jump to third-party e-commerce platforms such as official websites, Tmall, and JD.com, creating the most convenient consumer experience channel from "wanting to wanting to buy."

Nowadays, it has become an inevitable trend for social networks to push precise advertising content based on user attributes and interests. With the advancement of big data and the continuous refinement of algorithms, native advertising content will increasingly meet consumer expectations. Douyin has certain advantages in this regard based on Toutiao's algorithm-based distribution strategy. Through TikTok’s algorithm, luxury brands can push content and products to people who truly like them, achieve accurate and effective scene communication and reach for luxury goods on TikTok, and create the shortest marketing conversion path.

For luxury brands, with the advent of the digital marketing era, it is not a good idea to maintain a high-end strategy. They need to embrace more users. Douyin, a social short video platform where young people gather, has what luxury brands want. It is certainly appropriate for luxury brands to market on Douyin. The key lies in how to use wisdom to communicate with more young users while still maintaining their own brand beliefs.

Source: Xunkong’s Marketing Revelation (ID: xunkong2005)