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China, which accounts for one-third of the global luxury market share, is undergoing new changes. These changes have directly affected the digital and social media marketing strategies of global luxury groups and brands in China. SAME SAME but different, a global luxury digital marketing expert under Dentsu Aegis Network, recently released "Take Over the Discourse: Keywords of Social Media Marketing Trends in China's Luxury Industry in 2019-2020" in collaboration with three international fashion and style bloggers, Mr. Yoshira, NIKKI MIN and trilingual blogger YUYU , predicting the top ten development trends in China's luxury social media marketing in 2019-2020. The "2019 Global Luxury Industry Development and Outlook Report" released by Bain & Company shows that the market grew by 5% in 2018, and the global market totaled 1.2 trillion euros. The performance of the luxury industry continues to shine globally. In addition to the fact that emerging luxury experiences (such as luxury hotels, cruises, customized luxury travel, gourmet food and fine dining, etc.) are becoming new growth points, Chinese consumers' online luxury purchases have also become a new engine for the growth of luxury sales. According to the "2019 Global Fashion Industry Report" jointly released by McKinsey and BoF Fashion Business Review, China will surpass the United States for the first time in 2019 to become the world's largest fashion market. This will be a year that will go down in history. At the same time, with the rapid development of e-commerce, Internet and mobile technology in China, especially the Chinese social media platforms led by Weibo, WeChat, Xiaohongshu and Douyin are changing with each passing day, and are even gradually beginning to penetrate the Western world. A large number of high-quality fashion and fashion bloggers, represented by Mr. Yoshira, NIKKI MIN and YUYU, are constantly showing their fashion styles and expressing their fashion views to the world. They are given the reputation of "international fashion bloggers" and have become a very important and indispensable part of the social media marketing campaign in the luxury market. Under this new change, the Chinese teams of international luxury groups and brands are gradually taking over their voice in brand localization management and marketing campaigns, and gradually starting the "voice exercise" of leading the discourse. 01. Super APP-WeChat/Weibo and diversified platforms The official brand accounts of super apps WeChat and Sina Weibo are becoming the main battlefield for digital marketing of luxury brands. The top three demands are content push, number of fans, activity and the ability of official accounts to attract new members. In addition, although Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Toutiao and mini programs have not yet been widely used by international luxury groups and brands, attempts have already begun. Social media is also evolving from the largest information interaction platform in the entire industry to an online transaction platform. It is generally believed in Europe and even the international market that the luxury and fashion industries should not sacrifice nature and the green ecological environment, but should strike a balance with environmental protection, and even achieve integration and coexistence. However, the future luxuryism that is currently popular in the international market and Europe, with sustainability , ethics and innovation as the three major themes, has rarely been widely promoted and mentioned in the Chinese market. However, with the booming development of the Chinese luxury market, such a concept will become more and more important in the future Chinese market. The future luxuryism should pay more attention to the moral awareness of the brand society, through technological innovation, the use of environmentally friendly energy to replace traditional energy, reduce carbon emissions, avoid excessive waste, call for and encourage the recycling of old clothes, and gradually improve the feasibility of sustainable fashion. 03. Evolution of localized content on luxury social media platforms With the booming development of the Chinese luxury market and social media, major international luxury groups and brands are increasingly using local celebrities and bloggers who are more well-known and influential in China to endorse and speak for them. Brands are creating a variety of Chinese-style products tailored to fit local culture and customs, hoping to get closer to consumers. Therefore, the Chinese local market urgently needs more professional luxury digital marketing experts and creative agencies who can independently create and produce localized social media platform content . The view of trilingual blogger YUYU: I think this is the general trend. From a very positive and active perspective, the repeated mention of this appeal once again proves that the importance of the Chinese market in the global luxury market is increasing year by year; on the other hand, it also shows that the autonomy of China's luxury market is becoming higher and higher. Because I have studied, lived and worked in Paris for ten years, I can use Chinese, English and French proficiently. My career as a fashion blogger also started in Europe. After returning to China, many times, I feel that as a fashion blogger focusing on the luxury field, my job is a "bridge" - that is, to use the international perspective I have mastered to connect the European and Chinese local luxury markets , which is also what I want to do most in the future. In recent years, we have cooperated with many international first-line big brands in short video shooting, and there are many different attempts and innovations that are in line with the Chinese market. Although there are still many unsatisfactory aspects, and there is indeed a big gap with the international creative team, I think this is a very good thing! 04. Indispensable opinion leaders High-quality fashion and fashion bloggers, represented by Mr. Yoshira, NIKKI MIN and YUYU, are reliable, authentic and highly professional opinion leaders for international luxury groups and brands. They also have very high professional requirements for the luxury brands they cooperate with. As an important medium for the dissemination of fashion trends and opinions, the vital role played by opinion leaders in the field of luxury social media marketing cannot be underestimated . They need to be treated more fairly and justly like any other professional service agency. At the same time, new virtual bloggers created by artificial intelligence are also beginning to be noticed by consumers and brands. As a highly sought-after emerging profession, Chinese fashion bloggers have experienced an evolution from the initial "grassroots talent" in 2009 to the current professional self-media in the past decade, with rapid growth and explosive growth between 2015 and 2016. At present, most professional bloggers are professional media workers who have transformed from early traditional paper media, with professional operation teams and the ability to operate on a large scale. In foreign countries, the main battlefield of fashion bloggers is Instagram, which mainly outputs pictures, while the main battlefield of Chinese bloggers is WeChat and Weibo, and they pay more attention to the output of content and lifestyle. When choosing bloggers to work with, international luxury groups and brands will strategically consider the bloggers' personality and personification in the entire digital and social media campaign and tailor the cooperation plan. For example, the role of some bloggers is mainly to localize and re-create the international content of international luxury groups and brands, while the role of other bloggers is closer to modeling and product display, and participating in current activities. There are also some bloggers whose roles are more about bringing goods and direct online sales. In a complete luxury social media marketing plan, these three forms of fashion bloggers are indispensable and inseparable. 05. Cultural stupidity and cultural differences All the problems caused by the insensitivity of the Western world to the culture of the Eastern world and the differences in concepts, which are deeply rooted in the concepts of international luxury groups and brands, will continue to be infinitely magnified with the booming development of social media. Therefore, how to better understand and respect the local market will become an important issue that major brands cannot avoid. 06. International Citizenship Social media, which makes the world more closely connected, forces marketers and professional agency service teams of international luxury groups and brands to have the mentality of a global citizen (The Global Cosmopolitan Mindset) - that is, professionals who are proficient in multiple cultural backgrounds and have unique and valuable thinking patterns . They should be able to integrate their own cultural background, ideas and behaviors with fashion, and have a high degree of cognitive flexibility and adaptability, and be able to creatively solve challenging problems caused by cultural differences. 07. Brand social media reputation management The differences in the perception of international luxury groups and brands caused by cultural differences and diversity will continue to be a challenge and dilemma for international luxury groups and brands in dealing with localized digital and social media marketing campaigns for a period of time. Chinese millennials and Gen Z, the next generation of luxury consumers, are a younger, extremely sensitive, aggressive and prone to shooting at will online groups. They are very easy and happy to express their dissatisfaction and feelings of being ignored on social media. Corporate executives and brand designers themselves need to listen to the voices of local teams, respect the differences and traditions of each market culture, be willing to learn from each market, and give each market team more voice and right to speak. In addition, designers themselves should strengthen their awareness of social media reputation management. While being good at using social media to create vivid and beautiful stories and images for brands, they also need to have certain professional skills in dealing with social media crises. International luxury groups and brands will encounter problems such as how to deal with the differences between local culture and the culture of the brand's native place when they enter each different market. This is not only in the Chinese market, but in Japan, this problem may be more sensitive and difficult. On the one hand, this requires a lot from the Chinese market team of international luxury groups and brands, and on the other hand, it has a lot to do with the corporate executives and designers of international brands. I think the corporate culture of luxury brands should be "bottom-up" rather than "top-down" - that is, serving consumers rather than being above them. This cognition will become more important in the era of new media and social media. 08. Social media trust crisis Globally, the trust in social media as a new communication medium is declining year by year. This "long-distance influence" brought about by the nature of social media itself makes it very likely that people will receive information from an unreliable or unfamiliar source, thus greatly increasing the possibility of people receiving false information. Social media may be the most authentic news disseminator, or the most false maker of lies. Social e-commerce refers to e-commerce activities spread through social media relationships. 2018 is the year of the explosion of social media e-commerce. It can be clearly seen that social e-commerce has penetrated into different social media platforms in China. The biggest advantage of social e-commerce is concentrated in the ability to spread product information. Through mutual stimulation and encouragement between social media communicators, social e-commerce is the social media marketing method with the greatest chance of achieving viral communication effects such as "detonating the circle of friends" and "sweeping the screen" . International luxury groups and brands may be the biggest beneficiaries of social e-commerce in the future. 10. Chinese social media goes global With the explosive growth of global social media, China's leading social media platforms, led by super apps WeChat, Weibo, Douyin and Douyin's international version TikTok, are attracting more and more attention from international brand owners. (Weibo users are close to 400 million, and WeChat users exceed 1 billion) Even some fashion brands that do not have physical stores in China have begun to seek the operation services of their brand official WeChat/official blog accounts from domestic agents. This proves that Chinese social media has begun to be valued by the international market. At the same time, because of the huge user base of these platforms and the high share of the Chinese luxury market in the world, they are gradually becoming a popular social media tool that can compete with FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM and is popular worldwide. This year's perspective aims to help international luxury groups and brands, as well as emerging brands positioned in the high-end boutique market, to jointly explore the changes and attributes of China's luxury industry in the field of social media marketing, and help them respond to the ever-changing Chinese market with forward-looking thinking and foresight in the coming year and even longer. Source: Dentsu Aegis Network |
