National trend marketing methodology in 2022!

Although the issue of national trends is always mentioned by a large number of brands, there may not be many brands that are truly dedicated to doing so. The attitude of a large number of brands towards national trends is actually just to gain marketing concepts.

In the past few years, we have encountered various brands that always claim to be national trends, and today they have started to say that they are metaverse brands. In short, at least in the field of mass consumption, too many companies appear in the shell of a "brand operation company", relying on some marketing or traffic techniques to get started, but without deep cultivation in brand value exploration, products, supply chain and other levels. This also shows that it is difficult for these companies to go deep and solid in fields such as "national tide", and they can often only be labeled.

Of course, from a macro perspective, if we compare the brand development history of the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries, after the per capita national income exceeds US$10,000, a large number of local brands will inevitably rise and even enter the global market in large numbers; and from the perspective of consumer changes, with the strengthening of cultural confidence among the new generation of consumers, the emergence of national trend brands will be a very certain thing in the long term.

In short, the national trend is ongoing, but many brands may be using the wrong approach.

1. Don’t turn the national trend into a “marketing speculation”

We believe that in the process of national trend marketing , brands need to clarify the following two concepts.

1) Product co-branding is not called "national trend"

The easiest way to distinguish between "traffic-type" companies and "brand-type" companies is to see whether the various sectors within the company can be organically combined. For example, looking at a single marketing campaign, "brand-type" companies are often able to connect brand communication, material design, product design, back-end supply chain and other aspects to form an overall external perception, while "traffic-type" companies are often separated from each other in each link. The most typical thing is that the combination of product and communication is relatively stiff and has a patchwork feel.

Back to the issue of national trends, we believe that in 2021, if brands still think that they can call it "national trends" through some IP product co-branding techniques and landing on fashion weeks, then they may be thinking about this matter too simply, and it can even be said to be an act of marketing speculation.

The popularity of product co-branding in recent years was indeed driven by several old domestic brands, such as the familiar Liushen and White Rabbit. Around 2018, product co-branding did frequently attract public attention and became an important means for old brands to be renewed.

But today, product co-branding/IP co-branding has become a daily marketing technique, gradually deviating from the context of national trends. The reason behind this is actually the rising cost of traffic, and brands need to work together to keep each other warm and direct traffic to each other. Behind the marketing actions such as joint ventures, brands also need to match the crowds, strategies, etc. It is a marketing action that seems simple but is actually complex.

In short, the national trend is not just about finding a few Chinese IPs and cross-border collaborations with domestic brands, but requires brands to put in more effort.

2) The splicing of cultural symbols is not a “national trend”

When a lot of brands mention "national tide", they start to link it to China's past cultural heritage, but this may also be another misunderstanding in the creation of "national tide brands". "National Trend" does not simply mean displaying past cultural heritage and oriental elements, but how to integrate local elements into modern brands and products. Exploring the uniqueness of China is the most critical point in the process of building a national trend brand.

In our opinion, the "national tide" can be divided into at least two dimensions:

One type of "national trend" brand actually needs to find local characteristics from modernity. For example, China has undoubtedly become the most digitally developed market in the world. How to form its own brand style and connotation in this modern soil of digital technology is also a proposition of national trend.

From this perspective, WeChat, food delivery, taxi-hailing, etc. can all be called national trends. Previously, there was even a term in the industry that they were China’s “new four great inventions.” Take WeChat as an example. Although it is essentially a communication software, the entire product design contains some deep insights into Chinese culture, such as the design of the Moments. If the national trend simply replicates the ancient times, it will actually be a manifestation of cultural insecurity.

The second category is naturally to find uniqueness from the cultural connotations of the past. However, in the implementation process, on the one hand, it is necessary to focus on the depth of cultural excavation, rather than just superficially exploring like IP co-branding. On the other hand, it is also necessary to pay attention to the combination of tradition and modernity. The Forbidden City only quickly broke out of the circle after it created an image of ancient emperors that was in line with modern aesthetics and was pleasing to the eye.

In general, whether it is from the perspective of contemporary China or from the perspective of cultural tradition, how to combine the modern and the ancient is actually a proposition that national trend brands cannot avoid. Simply piling up so-called Chinese elements and oriental elements is also a speculation and misunderstanding of the national trend.

2. How to find the “depth” of national trends?

As mentioned before, a large number of brands have only dabbled in the national trend and have only done so superficially, and this is the fundamental reason why their national trend image cannot be established and cannot gain popularity. Here we first take two cases of national trend brands to try to break down and analyze how companies can carry out an effective national trend brand building, find the "depth" of the national trend, and then summarize.

The first case is Guanxia.

As an oriental botanical fragrance brand, Guanxia conforms to the aesthetic habits of traditional Chinese culture in terms of the application of spices, the creation of scents, and the overall packaging design of the product brand, expressing traditional Chinese scenes through scent.

Although the custom of using incense has existed in ancient China, it was mostly done through burning and fumigation. Since the earliest use of alcohol in perfume came from France, fragrance perfume in the modern sense also mainly comes from Western traditions and aesthetic frameworks. Westerners prefer strong and bold perfume scents, and the "Oriental" perfume in Western discourse actually refers mostly to the Middle East, and Chinese style is relatively absent.

Guanxia products incorporate Chinese artistic conception

The reason why Guanxia is called a national trend brand is that it has opened up the categories and groups of people who love "Chinese fragrance" better, and through modern aromatherapy products, it can enable people to form a strong connection with traditional cultural conception. To some extent, it has achieved a modern expression of traditional cultural connotations, which is quite rare. In addition, the "spiritual enjoyment" of using incense is an obvious trend in the upgrading of mass consumption. In the future, Guanxia may become a representative brand of national trend fragrances.

The second case is WonderLab.

As a new nutrition brand for the young new generation, WonderLab matches the lifestyle of users in modern cities and has made "leading the trend" a part of its brand DNA since its inception. From "trend" to "national trend", WonderLab began to conduct in-depth exploration of national quintessence culture.

A typical example is that in the second half of this year, WonderLab launched a cultural activity with the theme of "Exploring the Silk Road, Clearing Customs Together", attempting to retrace the Silk Road customs clearance route of the past. The point of connection behind this is that, on the one hand, probiotics and meal replacement shake products are related to the physical body. Through cultural exploration activities, the brand connotation of the nutritional lifestyle that the products bring to the younger generation of consumers can be strengthened, and the brand's spirit of endless exploration and surprising breakthroughs can be further amplified.

On the other hand, the diversified local taste system itself is an important part of Chinese culture. WonderLab's product series has a lot of room for play in terms of taste. Through cultural exploration, the product taste can be linked with regional flavor characteristics to form an overall deep cultural perception. Few people in the market have tried this.

WonderLab's Silk Road Exploration Project

From the specific implementation of the event, WonderLab has also developed a complete set of "national trend" youth brand communication strategies:

At the product level, WonderLab customized its products based on the food culture along the Silk Road and customized their flavors to suit the regional tastes. It also incorporated elements of Tang Dynasty ladies’ clothing design into the bottle packaging. In other words, it is not just a national trend, but a full-scale exploration of national trend elements in the entire chain of product flavor research and development, packaging design, etc.

In terms of brand communication, WonderLab chose Bilibili as an important platform for its brand voice this time. The brand invited ancient Chinese style UP hosts to perform the theme song of the event, thereby attracting fans of the target audience. In addition, whether in the creation of theme animation videos, various online and offline activities, the joint promotion of 9 major national brands + bloggers, or the atmosphere of the anchor's live broadcast room, all are connected with Chinese style as the keynote.

It is worth mentioning that WonderLab not only made the journey of the Silk Road Cultural Exploration into a board game similar to Ludo, but also developed a cap ornament that fits the bottle body in a blind box format, making the product itself more interactive in user communication and expressing the brand value in multiple dimensions.

WonderLab turns cultural exploration into national trend marketing product

3. Is there a methodology for national trends?

From the perspective of the overall development of the national trend in the market, we might as well simply divide it into several stages:

First, around 2018, Taobao’s “National Trend Action” and Li Ning’s entry into Fashion Week began to drive the national trend interpretation with cross-border collaboration and brand rejuvenation as marketing symbols;

Secondly, around 2020, the rise of new consumer brands and live streaming led to a large number of emerging brands seizing the concept of national fashion, and the content was more inclined to modern trendy cultural aesthetics, and the connection with traditional culture was not obvious;

Today, perhaps the national trend is moving towards the third stage. More and more brands are beginning to explore cultural connotations from the full dimension of corporate operations. Although this process requires more from the brand, it is also more meaningful in the long term.

Through the case analysis in the previous article, we might as well try to summarize the methodology of national trend brands: "one combination" + "one connection" + "seize the mind".

"One combination" means that the application of national trend elements needs to combine traditional cultural materials with modern aesthetics, rather than simply adopting them. "National" and "trend" are indispensable. For example, WonderLab has incorporated clothing culture elements and food culture elements of Xinjiang's Western Regions into its bottle design and flavor design. Modern aesthetics and modern tastes are meant to open up user scenarios, and cultural elements are meant to enrich the connotation of national trends. How to organically combine the two is actually the most difficult step.

"One breakthrough" means that national trend elements should be deeply integrated into the overall operation of the enterprise, and achieve overall expression in marketing, products, research and development, and even the industrial chain, rather than just piecing together cultural elements or conducting superficial cross-border collaborations.

"Seizing the mind" means being the first to form a brand position in a category on the marketing side. We believe that in almost all consumer categories, there is a segmented mental space for national trends. According to positioning theory, brands need to be the first to occupy the user's mental cognition in order to gain long-term operating advantages. Guanxia is now the representative of national trends in the fragrance category. Even if there are latecomers, it is difficult to disturb its user awareness. WonderLab is a new nutrition brand that focuses on building national trends, forming a clear cognitive difference with other similar brands.

We believe that the national trend is a grand trend, and we also believe that the attributes of the national trend will be penetrated and applied in all categories. Unfortunately, if we look at the overall performance of the market today, we can still find that many people talk about national trends, but there are not many brands that are truly rooted in it. But this also means that although the national trend has been talked about many times, there are still brand dividends for companies to explore in depth.