Face Mask Brand One Leaf Leveraged Idol Culture
Face mask brand One Leaf sponsored popular reality contest TV show The Coming One (明日之子), but it wasn’t your average sponsorship. The premise of The Coming One is that it is an idol incubator, and more votes competitors get from their fans, the more resources they will be given to help them become a celebrity. Audience members are only given 1 vote per day, however, if they bought One Leaf products, they got extra votes. And if they bought specific products, they could get 5 extra votes.
At the same time, One Leaf collaborated with top-ranked Taobao live streamer Viya. The live stream not only brought exposure for One Leaf products, but also promoted the TV show. Two birds with one stone. The day that Viya live streamed, One Leaf did 6.03m RMB in sales.
Read more:《明日之子》收官！日销面膜603万，总冠名一叶子赚到飞！
An Emerging Trend: KOC, Not KOL
KOC (Key Opinion Consumers) is the latest buzzword in China’s Wemedia and advertising industry. Essentially longtail KOLs, KOCs are ordinary internet users who often leave reviews or share their opinions about products. Within their friend group they may be the go-to person for advice in a certain area, whether that’s beauty, travel, restaurants, etc. For example DazhongDianping, Mafengwo, and Xiaohongshu users. KOCs give other consumers a different feeling than a KOL might, with KOCs feeling more peer to peer while KOLs more like an expert talking to a group of people.
As KOL costs rise and consumer’s desire for authenticity grows, brands (particularly those with lower budgets) are choosing to use private traffic and KOCs to promote their products.
Read more:
从私欲流量到KOC：没钱又没想象力的2019
KOL老矣，KOC当兴
Chinese Streetwear Consumers Less Interested in Brand History, More Interested in Best Place to Buy
Streetwear consumption is growing in China, the number of people who searched online for “streetwear” in Q2 2018 is four times more than in Q1, 2015. Post-90s and post-95s are the main consuming groups. However, according to this article, interest in streetwear culture isn’t keeping up.
Chinese streetwear wemedia mostly focuses on celebrities and shoes, and doesn’t cover much about the design and history of products. What readers want to get from articles about streetwear are ways to buy those products, and price comparison.
On many of these streetwear wemedia accounts, shoes are the most frequently covered product category. Chaoxie (潮鞋 aka street wear shoes) seem to be the best topic to capture readers’ attention. On these accounts, video is the most favoured media type.
Read more: 潮牌背后是万亿级市场，那潮流新媒体赚钱了吗？
Despite a Consumerism Driven Society, Chinese People Seem to be Buying Less Clothes
According to this article, Chinese consumers are getting tired of buying clothes. Here are a few reasons why:
- Consumers used to buy clothes for different occasions, such as work, socializing, and fitness. But with the growing prevalence of athleisure and streetwear and the relaxation of dress codes, consumers want to be more comfortable, and fitness outfits and sneakers are allowed at workplaces.
- The budget that consumers plan to spend on everyday clothes is being spent on other areas. Consumers are spending more money on fitness clothes (for example Lululemon has grown quickly in recent years) and consumers are also choosing to buy bags or shoes.
- Second-hand and discount apparel is getting more and more popular. Fewer and fewer people buy full-price clothes.
- Most frustrating for luxury brands is that Generation Z is accepting of knockoffs
- Traditionally, shopping was a pastime, and for high-end brands, they regarded shopping in the physical store as a symbol of identity and class. But now, the convenience brought by the internet is erasing this feeling.
- Sustainable fashion and timeless pieces are becoming more valued by consumers. Fast fashion items which are low quality and only wearable for one season are becoming less popular.
Read more: 深度|消费者怎么不爱买衣服了？
This Case Study Shows Why Influencer Brands are a Threat to Regular Brands
This is not a case study about an influencer brand. It is a case study of a brand who took an influencer’s advice, trusting that she knew how to market to her audience better than they did, and that decision definitely paid off.
DR.WU is a skincare brand from Taiwan. While popular in taiwan, the brand entered the mainland market late so although its quality is good, it didn’t have a huge fan base. Its marketing team went to an influencer called Yu Momo (于momo) to see if she could help them sell their products through live streaming.
Yu told DR.WU that the brand needed social proof. Focus on volume over profit in the short term in order to generate awareness and credibility.
A package of DR.WU’s face masks typically sells for 20RMB each on Tmall, and for some brand campaigns it has been on sale for 12RMB. But for Yu’s live streaming she got her followers the lowest price ever, at 6.2RMB each.
On top of that, she convinced the brand to create a new product package. DR.WU has five types of face masks each with their own benefits and typically sold them separately. Yu thought this would prevent her followers from purchasing because they would spend too much time trying to figure out which type to buy and won’t want to buy 5 different boxes to try each since they don’t know the brand. So Yu convinced them to make a new sample set containing one of each.
Yu also did a preheat post for the livestream on Weibo and the post got over 100M views. Then on the day of the live stream, the brand expected Yu to sell at most 5,000 pieces, but even before the streaming started they had pre-sold 7,500 pieces. The brand had to increased its stock to 20k pieces. But at the beginning of the livestream, they were all sold out! And the brand had to do the restock again. In the end, Yu helped DR.WU sell 100k pieces of facial masks.
Yu also has generated a habit among her audience members that after her livestreams they will “submit their homework”, meaning that they post on Weibo and tag her to tell her what they’ve bought because of her recommendation. Most of their “homework” was tagged with the brand name DR.WU, which generated huge exposure for the brand.
Read more: 直播一场带货超预期20倍！于momo的网红生意经
