7 Marketing Trends for 2022

Hongxing Erke became a big hit after donating, Mixue Ice City became popular with a song, top anchor Wei Ya was banned for tax evasion, and Popmart’s joint KFC was snapped up…

2021 has produced many representative marketing cases, but as professional marketing practitioners, we must not only be familiar with these cases, but more importantly, we must explore the trends behind the cases and analyze the principles behind the popularity, so as to explore what popular trends are in the advertising and marketing industry in 2022.

1. With the public's patriotic sentiment on the rise, brand marketing should reach new heights

From Xinjiang cotton to Erke, what we see behind them is the public's patriotism and national pride. More and more consumers are supporting these brands through purchases, orders and other actions.

This is a trend.

The link between the usefulness of a product and consumer decision-making is weakening.

In comparison, whether products can speak for us what we want to say, help those in need, and intervene in public issues has become more important today.

What people buy is not only the product itself, but also the attached values ​​of "sustainability" and "social justice".

In the face of a huge disaster, people will instinctively feel overwhelming helplessness, so when a private enterprise on its last legs announced a donation of 50 million yuan in supplies to the disaster-stricken areas, individuals tried their best to transform their feelings of helplessness into sympathy and appreciation for ERKE.

The most direct and quick way to express this emotion is to affirm the responsibility and care of the company through purchase.

More and more brands are beginning to emphasize social responsibility and provide consumers with purchasing value and ideas.

For example, Santonban’s return plan collects discarded coffee boxes, recycles the waste and produces peripheral products;

IKEA collects discarded newspapers to use as wrapping paper for fragile items.

Nike uses waste materials to make environmentally friendly shoes...

These practices are all aimed at giving consumers a better impression of the brand and prompting them to continue to become loyal supporters of these brands.

In this process, brands can gain increased favorability and lasting protection of economic benefits, and consumers can also experience the realization of their own social value.

2. Cross-border marketing still has huge traffic dividends

Contrast creates surprises, and scarcity triggers topics.

If the above two points are achieved, it will be good cross-border marketing.

Cross-border marketing is not unfamiliar to everyone and is a conventional marketing strategy. However, in 2022, there were many cross-border marketing events that went viral, such as Prada's collaboration with Shanghai Udon Market, which was originally just part of Prada's marketing plan, but it became a hit.

The sense of contrast is the public's first perception.

Many netizens joked that this might be the only affordable Prada product. The unexpected contrast between the luxury product and the wet market gained huge recognition and attracted many passers-by to check in at the wet market.

In addition to the sense of contrast, another big reason for going viral is scarcity.

Many people go to the vegetable market not to buy vegetables, but to take pictures, because only by buying can they get Prada packaging bags. Some people took pictures and then threw the vegetables into the trash can, which caused heated discussion.

This behavior is inappropriate because it is the crisis factor behind cross-border marketing.

An imbalance in supply and demand may eventually lead to negative behaviors such as scalpers and waste.

Another example is the recent popular collaboration between Pop Mart and KFC, where by purchasing designated meal packages you can get a limited edition blind box, which gave rise to the so-called "eating on behalf of others service."

Because some people will buy many packages, but only for the blind boxes, and they will buy many packages in order to draw hidden items. Since they cannot finish eating, the service of eating on behalf of others has emerged. This is actually a wasteful behavior and goes against the spirit of social order and morality.

Therefore, for brands, it is important for cross-border marketing to be novel and stand out, but there must be a complete set of mechanisms behind it to resist potential risks. Otherwise, it will be easy to be backfired by traffic and cause negative impact on the brand.

3. Xiaohongshu’s promotion of product recommendations returns to rationality

At the end of 2021, Xiaohongshu banned well-known brands such as Dove, Wonderlab, and Neutrogena one after another, all on the grounds of false marketing.

Xiaohongshu has become an important marketing platform for many brands, especially new consumer brands.

Xiaohongshu community encourages everyone to post real purchasing experiences, but many brands use paid promotions and recruit a large number of amateurs to promote their products, and many organizations provide note-writing services, which run counter to Xiaohongshu's product philosophy.

It can also be seen from Xiaohongshu’s measures that in 2022, the grass-planting on Xiaohongshu must return to rationality, that is, notes must be reported.

Xiaohongshu is currently the main battlefield for content marketing for major brands. In addition to building their own Xiaohongshu brand official accounts, Xiaohongshu also has many bloggers cooperating with it. Because Xiaohongshu has many bloggers in vertical categories, these bloggers can endorse products very well, so in 2022, Xiaohongshu will have many opportunities.

PS: Mad Men has many articles about Xiaohongshu. If you need any, you can search for the keyword Xiaohongshu in the search box.

4. Private domain traffic is still the focus

Traffic will only become more and more expensive, so for most brands, building a private traffic system under the WeChat ecosystem will also be a focus in 2022.

In particular, the construction of the matrix of video account + mini program + official account + WeChat community + personal account should also be started in 2022.

There are many excellent private domain traffic cases in the market, such as Perfect Diary, Luckin Coffee, etc., which are excellent business cases worth learning.

Regarding private domain traffic operation, it is a skill that can be easily developed for practitioners in the marketing industry.

Because private domain traffic, after all, is social networks, personal accounts, video accounts, etc.

For individuals, everyone can try it out, learn, and iterate their cognition. Cultivate this ability through practical operations, try to build a community, operate a public account or video account. These methods can help you quickly learn everything about private domain traffic.

5. The brand live broadcast room is both a live broadcast room and a public opinion field

In 2021, live streaming sales should be the hottest topic, and it is also one of the means of brand marketing, but for brands, the live broadcast room is not just a live broadcast room.

Why do you say that? Because brand live broadcast rooms can not only sell goods, but also carry user emotions. If there is enough internet sense and creativity, topic marketing can be carried out.

For example: After Hanshu and Kris Wu terminated their contract, many netizens flocked to Hanshu’s live broadcast room to express their support. However, the reason why Hanshu’s live broadcast room went viral was not the termination of the contract with Kris Wu, but the remarks made by the Hanshu anchor.

The host of Hansu's live broadcast room is not a cold selling robot, but has integrated his own ideas with the live broadcast format to achieve a resonant effect. The personalized live broadcast room eventually received market feedback. That night, Hansu's live broadcast room not only became a hot search, but also saw a dramatic increase in sales.

Wherever there are positive cases, there are negative examples. For example, some time ago, a Watsons anchor insulted consumers as mad dogs. In the end, Watsons could not bear the pressure of public opinion and apologized to the public.

Therefore, the live broadcast room is not only a live broadcast room but also a public opinion field.

Since the public relations departments of major companies are separated from e-commerce live broadcasts, sometimes when an e-commerce live broadcast makes a mistake, the public relations department can only clean up the mess behind the scenes.

Therefore, in the brand live broadcast room, public relations knowledge must be popularized to the relevant anchors. In particular, the live broadcast industry is currently in a period of wild growth and the quality of practitioners varies greatly. This is undoubtedly a time bomb, and brands must prepare for it.

6. Organic combination of sports and brand marketing

From Su Bingtian to the men's football team, to the women's football team and to the recently popular Gu Ailing.

The frequent popularity of the event reflects the increasing attention paid by the public to major sporting events and the Olympic Games.

In addition, major sports stars can also represent the sports spirit of hard work, unwillingness to admit defeat, and upwardness, which also echoes the brand attitude.

In addition to sportsmanship, another point that attracts a lot of public attention is the peripheral products of sports stars, such as clothing, accessories, etc.

For example, in the women's freestyle skiing competition where Gu Ailing won the championship, the ring she wore was recognized by netizens as a Tiffany brand, so netizens began looking for the same model.

If the relationship between a brand and a sports star is just ordinary spokesperson, shooting posters, filming TVCs, and releasing commercials, this conventional promotion method obviously cannot release the greatest commercial value.

The organic combination of brands and sports stars, exploring the overlap between sports spokespersons and brand values, and meeting market demand is a direction to be explored in 2022.

7. Brand IP is a natural traffic pool

If we talk about the two IPs that have become popular recently, they are undoubtedly Lingna Belle and the Winter Olympics mascot Bing Dwen Dwen.

We can find that if a brand IP is popular, it is a natural traffic pool. There is no need for additional marketing promotion, and users will naturally spread the brand themselves.

For example, in the case of Lingna Belle, netizens gave her nicknames, made emoticons, and recorded videos to spread on social media. All of these were spontaneous behaviors. Lingna Belle even became a natural traffic code, and it was easy to gain more attention by shooting videos of Lingna Belle.

This traffic is not all gimmicks for Disney. Many consumers will come to Disneyland in person just to see Lingna Belle.

Another example is the Winter Olympics mascot Bing Dwen Dwen, whose cute appearance is loved by the public, but is still out of stock.

Therefore, the essence of a popular brand IP must be that it is naturally loved by the public and has an extreme insight into the spiritual needs of consumers.

When the material needs of the general public are largely met, there is great room for growth in products that can meet the users' spiritual needs and express the value of individual users.

Summarize:

Private domain traffic, Xiaohongshu, live streaming sales... these are new marketing channels that have emerged in recent years. This is also the characteristic of this era - VUCA.

For those working in the marketing industry, only by continuous learning, embracing change, and gaining insight into the essence behind the presentation layer can they gain a foothold in this era.

Author: Luuuuke

Source: Luuuuke