How does Jiao Xia tap into this lucrative market in China? What are some of the key takeaways brands can learn from its success?

About Jiao Xia

Jiao Xia was founded in 2013. It specializes in sun-protective items, including umbrellas, hats, gloves, jackets, and shoes.

The brand grows wildly. From its prospectus, it managed to achieve annual revenues of over 380 million RMB, 790 million RMB, and 2.4 billion RMB from 2019 to 2021. With a gross profit rate of over 50%, Jiao Xia has become a vanguard in the industry.

Tap into the Hard Sun Protection Trend

“Hard sun protection” or physical sun protection is a trendy concept among Chinese girls, thanks to the education finalized by many online publications. It delivers the message that physical items, such as umbrellas, hats, and gloves, are better at preventing sun than sun cream.

With growing awareness of physical sun protection, China Insights Consultancy estimates that the market scale of sun-protective clothes grows from 45.9 billion RMB to 61.1 billion RMB from 2016 to 2021. It is expected that by 2026, the number will reach 95.8 billion RMB in China.

Jiao Xia has met its golden growing period when anxiety and solutions both exist in the market. Most Chinese consumers want to have fair skin and they’ve been educated to embrace the hard sun protection. Jiao Xia, an expert specializing in sun-protective products is there to solve their issues.  

Dare to Change Hero Products  

Sun-protective umbrellas have been Jiao Xia’s hero products for a long time. It is sold at 179 RMB, not cheap in the China market, but with its creative paintings on the umbrellas, a UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) above 50, and its carriable size that can be easily put in a pocket, it wins love from many Chinese girls. Based on Jiao Xia’s Tmall statistics, the brand sold more than 4.5 million umbrellas.

What makes the brand continue to grow is that it doesn’t stand where it was but keeps exploring new opportunities. It sounds cliché, but in practice, not many brands dare to lower the contribution percentage of a lucrative business section to their annual revenues.

In 2019, it introduced new product categories, including sun-protective face masks, jackets, and hats. Moving to 2021, the brand expanded its business to a broader range, such as sunglasses, leggings, and Martin boots.

With new product categories, the contribution of the umbrella has gradually decreased from 86.9% in 2019 to 20.8% in 2021. What replaces the umbrella’s iconic position are clothes and accessories (sunglasses, face masks, and gloves), with growing percentages from 0.8% and 5.3% in 2019 to 29.5% and 25.4% in 2021 respectively.

Use Numeric Facts to Convince Consumers

According to Jiao Xia’s prospectus, the brand has worked with more than 600 KOLs by 2021, among which 199 of them amass over 1 million followers. Together they brought over 4.5 billion traffic for Jiao Xia on the Internet.

Since the prices of Jiao Xia’s products are higher than the average, KOLs often tell the brand’s stories from different angles based on their follower’s profiles. Jiao Xia also scientifically frames its products with hard facts, such as its competitive UPF index, reports from professional assessment organizations, and customers’ feedback.

Our Thoughts

Spotting the trend and leveraging it to expose the brand name and keep introducing new products to satisfy the market’s ever-changing needs secure Jiao Xia’s position in the China market. The brand also has KOLs to tell its story and uses numeric facts to convince consumers.  

With growing numbers of players in the sun protection industry, it requires more for brands to stand out and let consumers see them and try them.

The post How Does Chinese Brand Jiao Xia Tap into The Sun Protection Market In China? appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Check out why it is a big hit among Chinese consumers. You may draw some inspiration on communicating with the group, especially on how to leverage Chinese social media to create buzz.

How Popular Is Air Fryer?

The popularity of air fryers not only exists in China, but it is also a global phenomenon. Based on Euromonitor’s data, the market scale of air fryers reached $2.3 billion in 2021. It is expected to be $3.6 billion by 2026.

In terms of the China market, JD sold over 1.2 million air fryers in January 2022. It was a 360% YOY growth with sales revenue over 460 million RMB. It turned out to be the peak of JD air fryers in the last two years.

Chinese young people show great interest in home appliances. GKURC finds that in China, dish-washing machines (37.41%) and air fryers (25.11%) are the two home appliances that most Gen Z desire to buy. They may not be good at cooking but are looking for homemade food, and air fryers satisfy their needs perfectly.

Why Have Air Fryers Become a Trendy Item for Chinese Consumers to Have?

Air fryers were created in the 1990s in America. It was not until 2015 that the home appliance was introduced to the China market by some of the leading companies in the industry, such as Joyoung (九阳) and the Midea Group (美的).

The first couple of years after it was brought to China, most people didn’t hear of air fryers. The turning point came to 2020 when it started to be massively mentioned on Chinese social media. Why?

The Outbreak of Covid-19

Covid-19 resulted in the lockdown of many places back in 2020. While staying at home, people started to pay attention to health, and homemade food became popular. The demand for small home appliances increased significantly during this period, with a sales volume rising by 11% globally.

China recovered from Covid earlier than most countries did, and thus, international production orders were handed over to Chinese manufacturers. This boosted the development of many OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) home appliances factories in China.

Social Media Spread

Social media has become an effective way to educate people on a new product. When platforms such as Little Red Book, Douyin, and Weibo are talking about air fryers and seeing how easy it is for freshers to start with, people are flipped.

While browsing related content online, people tend to think that they can make such a dish by themselves. Social media content delivers the message to people that air fryers are easy to control and everyone can be a chef by using them. After successfully making a dish with air fryers, people are often cheered up and tend to “brag about” their experiments on social media. So air fryers-related UGC (User-generated Content) keeps coming up on social media to increase its exposure.

Besides traditional formats, air fryers are also presentable on livestream. It is easy for brands to showcase the steps to operate an air fryer and to present their “magic power.” On one of Austin Li’s livestreams, air fryers were sold out in one second after the sales began.

The Booming of Single Economy

The number of people who live alone in China has increased rapidly. About 92 million Chinese people live by themselves, which equals the population in Germany. Based on a Cyanhill Capital (青山资本) report, it only took 20 years for the percentage of solitude to grow from 6% to 25%.

To please themselves, they are seeking choices more than having instant noodles or ordering takeaway foods. People want to cook something at home that is healthy, delicious, and doesn’t take too many steps. Air fryers seem to be a perfect choice.

Other Reasons

Air fryers are healthier than the traditional ways of frying foods. Philips claimed that the fat from the French fries that its air fryers made is 80% less than the fryers.

Compared with ovens, air fryers take less space. It also frees users’ hands, who can continue their work, read books, and play games while the air fryer is cooking.

Concerns Chinese Consumers Have for Air Fryers

Due to the rising demand and imitability of air fryers, many factories joined the industry. But some of them pursue quantity over quality, which results in their air fryers’ poor performance. Since their production processes are simplified, they sell air fryers at way lower prices, which disrupts the industry with a price war.

Accompanied with air fryers’ prevalence in China, voices are questioning the health issue of the home appliance. In 2021, the Hong Kong Consumer Council pointed out that foods cooked by air fryers can lead to cancer. Though many KOLs stand out to clarify that it is not necessarily true, it still concerns many Chinese consumers.

The post Air Fryers Evoke a Cooking Wave Among Chinese Consumers appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Over the weekend, my WeChat subscription posts were bombarded by related articles of Blue Bottle Coffee. Some talked about its taste, and more were analyzing the reasons behind its overwhelming popularity in China.

Curious about the brand, I researched and decided to find out what made people wait in line for eight hours on its first day.

Blue Bottle Coffee’s Debut in Shanghai

The coffee store opened on February 25. Some people woke up at 6 am just to get a cup of Blue Bottle coffee, and on average, it took 3 hours for consumers to get in line and enter the store.

Scalpers took advantage of this chance, and some of them even ordered 60 bottles at a time, reselling each cup at 150 RMB, which was 4-5 times the original prices.

Blue Bottle Coffee’s Mini Program on WeChat also had a harvest time. Within less than one hour after launch, all of the brand’s coffee beans sold out.

About Blue Bottle Coffee

It is a coffee roaster and retailer headquartered in California, United States. In 2017, Nestlé acquired around 68% of Blue Bottle Coffee’s stake. By then, the brand had 40 stores worldwide. Five years later, its number of stores has been expanded to 100, and the Shanghai store is the first one that Blue Bottle Coffee opened in the mainland of China.

What Makes Blue Bottle Coffee A Big Hit Among Chinese Consumers?

Hu Jun (胡骏), CEO of Greater China from Blue Bottle Coffee told YiMagazine (第一财经) that it was easy to open a store, and Shanghai was the city that had new coffee stores open every day. But what made it hard were all infrastructure behind a store, such as the supply system, the IT system, the e-commerce system, and the training system. It was getting all these ready before opening was not easy.

Location

The Blue Bottle Coffee team had a very clear goal when selecting the location. The location needs to have the capability to bring the brand to a local market, and it needs to carry the Shanghai culture. The building of its Shanghai store was a flour mill, built in 1926 and refurnished in 2019. It combines the western and eastern cultures and reflects the construction style back in the Qing Dynasty. It is also located near the Suzhou River (苏州河), bringing beautiful views for customers.

Why Shanghai? If you have been to the city, you will notice how open it is. Either niche or common groups can find a place in the city.

Shanghai is also a huge coffee fan base. According to the Shanghai coffee consumption report in 2021 (上海咖啡消费指数), it is the city that has the most coffee stores in the world. Shanghai citizens love drinking coffee and trying out new flavors.

Shanghai is also many international students’ go-to city to seek job opportunities after graduation. For them, the name Blue Bottle Coffee is not strange, and they can help advocate its opening, just like my colleague did.

Localization  

If the brand just copies and pastes its menu from California, that won’t show much respect for Chinese consumers. As a result, at the Blue Bottle Coffee Shanghai store, consumers can have local snacks to match the coffee, such as mung bean pastry (绿豆糕) and mahua (麻花), a kind of fried dough food.

Since it is a historic building, Blue Bottle also has its sketch on the brand’s canvas and pasters. In the future, it is likely that the brand will collaborate with local brands to drive more attention in the China market.

Quality is the key

There is a saying that Blue Bottle Coffee is the Apple in the industry. Baristas are trained at least two months before they serve customers. In terms of coffee beans, the brand selects beans that have an SCA score over 84 (The Speciality Coffee Association created the score. Coffee scoring from 80-84.99 is graded very good, and coffee scoring from 85-89.99 is graded excellent, and 90-100 means the coffee is outstanding). Blue Bottle Coffee also has a strict rule that the coffee beans need to be used within 45 seconds after they are ground. On average, it takes 15 minutes for a barista to make a coffee.

Can Blue Bottle Coffee Continue Its Popularity in the China Market?

A food publication called Penguin Guide (企鹅吃喝指南) commented after visiting the store on its first day that “It feels like a ‘bug’ that we had to wait for all the drinks that we ordered to get ready before being served. ”

After tasting the coffee, Penguin Guide also felt that the quality was, without doubt, above the middle level in the chain specialty coffee market. Still, it’s not outstanding if you compare it to some of the local independent specialty coffee brands on top.  

The team also found out that the Shanghai store sells the highest price of Blue Bottle Coffee globally. The price is 35% – 40% higher than in Japan or South Korea. In terms of the coffee bean, mixed beans are sold at 138 RMB for 200 grams, while single beans are sold at 168-188 RMB for 200 grams. These prices are 2-3 times higher than the domestic market prices.

The number of coffee stores in China is booming, especially in Shanghai. But we still can’t conclude that Shanghai’s coffee has stepped into a saturated stage. With players such as %Arabica, Peet’s, and more local players such as Manner Coffee, M Stand, and Seesaw, it will be challenging for Blue Bottle Coffee to stand out neither in terms of its in-store decoration nor its taste.

The post People Waited for 8 Hours at Blue Bottle Coffee Shanghai Store appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

A Means of Expressing One’s Personality

For Generation Z, cars are more than just transportation, they’re also a way to express themselves. This often means that Gen Zs have a very clear understanding of what type of vehicle they’re going or willing to purchase.

According to the report, the first thing they consider when purchasing a vehicle is safety, with 55% of Gen Z buyers saying they are choosing a vehicle based on the vehicle’s safety ratings. Although Gen Z buyers have a lot say in what type of car they want to purchase, oftentimes their parents or grandparents are the ones that are paying the bill. So to them, safety is number one concern for their loved ones and the top thing that needs to be taken into consideration.

But then after that, the second most important thing for Gen Z is design and styling. 49% say they choose a vehicle based on design and styling, which is 19% higher than millennials (Gen Y).

Interestingly, performance and handling is all the way down at #5.

Data also shows that 75% of Gen Z car owners use their car for daily commute, and 73% for family related use and 73% for road trips.

An Important Extension of Their Personal Space

Apart from practical use, many Gen Z buyers are under the influence of social media and the desire to project a certain personal image, so to them a car is so much more than just means of transportation.

In fact, 47% of Gen Z thinks that a car is an important extension of their personal space where they can find their own peace of quiet.  36% of Gen Z thinks that a car allows them to express themselves. Just like fashion, with aftermarket customizations and brand image, owning a cool car can be perceived by others as stylish and trendy.

Intelligence is Key

According to Ipsos’s survey, the top 6 automotive topics are smart transportation, automotive entertainment, automotive customization and DIY, racing, road trip and car models (hobby).

Among them, 40% of Gen Zs are interested in smart transportation. To many Gen Zs, a car isn’t just a driving appliance, it needs to be intelligent. Self-driving, intelligent voice recognition and in-car artificial intelligence are some of the top features that Gen Z buyers are looking for when searching for their next vehicle.

The trend of “China-chic” (GuoChao) is also influencing the automotive industry.

The China-chic trend in the fashion industry has raised awareness of appreciating traditional Chinese culture. However, it did not stop there, it also expanded the concept of “Made in China” among Gen Z consumers to many other types of products.

Generation Z grew up in the “take-off” stage of China’s economy and witnessed the development and rapid growth of domestic brands. Many Gen Zs are increasingly more confident in buying domestic brands over foreign brands. Research shows that Generation Z’s preference for domestic car brands is only second to German car brands that have 100 years of making automobiles under their belt.

47% favor domestic brands over foreign brands, and the top 5 reasons are technology, cost effectiveness, reliability/quality, design and functionality.

Interestingly, when compared to the top 5 reasons of purchasing foreign brands we can see some similarities. This further shows that from the Gen Z buyer’s perspective, the gap between foreign and domestic brands are shrinking.

Gen Z are Drawn to New Energy Vehicles

The internal combustion engine has deeply influenced many generations as the way a vehicle should be powered. Oftentimes the type of engine a car had was one of the deciding factors for purchasing a vehicle.

However, with China tightening down on environmental controls, many Gen Z automotive buyers see new energy vehicles as the alternative. Research shows that 39% of Gen Z buyers are choosing alternative energy vehicles. Among them, 61% said they purchased them for environmental protection reasons.

Many new energy vehicle brands are targeting Gen Z buyers as their primary marketing audience. Brands like Tesla have greatly elevated the reputation of new energy vehicles. With its technology and fast acceleration, many Gen Z buyers sees new energy vehicles as the future of transportation.

SUVs with multi-purpose attributes have become Gen Z’s favorite vehicle type

SUVs have always been popular among the Gen Z demographic. Research shows, 44% of Gen Z automotive buyers prefer SUVs. According to the survey, many Gen Z buyers prefer SUVs because of their high ground clearance, spacious interior, and ease of entry and exit for elderly family members. Owning an SUV enables Gen Z owners to go on road trips where the road conditions may not be ideal.  

If you’re enjoying this series, check back soon for more takeaways from the report!

The post Key Takeaways from the Gen Z Automotive Preferences Insights Report: Part 2 appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Recently, Ipsos and B-Insights released the Gen Z Automotive Preferences Insights Report (Z时代汽车观洞察报告) which shares some key trends related to this increasingly important buyer group. In this series of articles, we will share takeaways from the report. This first article will give some background on the growing influence of Gen Z buyers.

83.7% of Gen Z consumers have the desire to own a vehicle

China’s economic growth has positively impacted how Chinese people spend their money. The improvement of economic conditions has made cars more accessible and popular among young people.

In comparison to previous generations, the demand for cars is growing among Gen Z, with research showing that 83.7% of Gen Z consumers have the desire to own a vehicle. In 2020, 39% of new cars were purchased by post-90s consumers, only 2% lower than millennials. It is expected that by 2025, 65% of car sales will come from post-90s and post-00s consumers.

In the fast-paced life of young people. Gen Z consumers see driving as an important skill in their social life.

Showing up in a nice car when meeting friends is the image most Gen Zs are after. Owning a car also means freedom, and that freedom allows Gen Zs to navigate their social life with ease and larger footprint.

Employment is a Major Factor Driving Automotive Sales

Research shows that more than 80% of Chinese Gen Zs started driving early in high school and college. They also chose to buy cars earlier than Gen Y.

Research shows that 67% of Gen Z purchase a vehicle when they get their first job. While many Gen Y consumers also purchased their first car around this time, we can see that many Gen Y waited until marriage or having children to purchase a car, while Gen Z tend to have a car long before that.

It is worth noting that employment appears to be a major driver of passenger car sales and something brands may want to take note of when marketing their vehicles.  

The report found that 63% of Gen Z’s first car purchase budget is 150,000 RMB (a little over 23k USD) or greater. It’s important to note though that, much of the time, they are not purchasing the vehicle on their own. Oftentimes, Chinese parents and grandparents will pitch in to help purchase the car as a reward for landing their first job.

Gen Z Also Have Significant Influence Over Their Family’s Vehicles

The study shows that as they grew up, many Gen Z developed strong preferences for car brands,  models, and features and have strong feelings about what cars both they should get, and even their family should get. The report found that 21% of Gen Zs are able to decide what brand and model their families should purchase and another 44% have a strong say in what their family purchases. This deciding power over not only their own cars, but their family’s cars, makes Gen Zs one of the most important demographics when it comes to purchasing power.

If you enjoyed this article, check back soon for more takeaways from the report!

The post Key Takeaways from the Gen Z Automotive Preferences Insights Report: Part 1 appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

On July 22, Hong Xing Erke posted on Weibo saying the company donated 50 million RMB for Henan. The post has 9.5 million likes so far and it quickly became number 1 on the hot topic ranking board.

What happened? Why did Hong Xing Erke’s donation receive such overwhelming passion from people? What can brands learn from the situation?   

On The Crazy Night of Hong Xing Erke’s Livestream 

According to Huitun Data (灰豚数据), a Taobao livestream monitoring platform, the average views of Hong Xing Erke’s livestream during the past 6 days before its Weibo announcement was only 11k, while the views on July 22 reached 2 million. The sales amount that it achieved that night (10 million RMB) was way more than what it had done on the day of 618 Shopping Festival.  

The craze continued to July 23. The number of viewers rose to 7.5 million and received more than 50 million likes, which was way more than top live streamer Viya’s performance that day.  

In the livestream, many products were quickly out of stock. And because there were too many people watching, the livestream froze sometimes, and was not able to load images of products.  

Live streamers were telling viewers to shop rationally, and to only buy what they need. But viewers were too enthusiastic, and they wouldn’t listen to live streamers. When the live streamer told them that if the shoes don’t fit their feet, they can return them. And people responded to her saying, if their shoes don’t fit their feet, that’s their feet’s problem not the shoes’, and they will make their feet to fit their shoes.  

Viewers were even asking when Hong Xing Erke would start selling their down jackets, that the air conditioner is making their home so cold. And if the brand doesn’t prepare to sell down jackets, they can just send them ducks and they will start pulling out feathers and making their own.  

One man said he bought a whole set of clothes for his son offline at a Hong Xing Erke store and his son didn’t like them. He said he decided to change a son.  

I mean, this is really crazy! For the first time ever, I saw so many people support a brand! And not even a trendy one.  

Why Hong Xing Erke?  

This is because of contrast, in two ways. 50 million RMB isn’t a small number, yet you didn’t see the news on Weibo’s hot topic ranking board. Instead, the ranking board was filled with “xyz celebrities donated 500k or 1M RMB for Henan” and other companies’ contributions. However most of these companies, bought themselves onto the ranking board to promote their brands. So, they gave money, but they wanted to be praised for it, so it didn’t seem sincere. Compared with them, Hong Xing Erke donated 50 million but it was being low-key and other that posting on its own Weibo account it wasn’t trying to promote itself for donating.  

The other comparison comes from the most liked comment in Hong Xing Erke’s Weibo post, saying the company was about to bankrupt but still made such generous donation. In 2020, the revenue of Anta, a domestic sports giant, was 35.5 trillion RMB, while Hong Xing Erke earned 2.8 trillion, yet they both donated the same amount of money.  

Being low-key and being generous quickly gained the brand lots of attention and consumers’ sympathy, respect and trust.  

Hong Xing Erke Has Been Underperforming in Recent Years  

The brand was founded in 2020 in Fujian Province. Its slogan shows great ambition: To Be NO.1, yet from its performance during the past several years it seems it still needs to work a lot harder to achieve this goal.  

With the competition from international players such as Nike and Adidas, together with the growing popularity of other domestic sportswear brands such as LiNing and Anta, Hong Xing Erke has been struggling to keep up. Many cite its lack of creativity. For a long time, people linked its shoes with plagiarism and outdated fashion.  

To combat this, instead of improving products and marketing, the brand changed markets, targeting lower tier cities. The average prices for its products range from 150-400 RMB, which is also more affordable compared with other sports brands.  

Brand Livestreams Have Become a Forum for People to Express Their Feelings  

From the Xinjiang Cotton Scandal (when many people were flocking to Nike and H&M’s livestream to criticize them for what they have done), to KANS’ livestream and to Hong Xing Erke’s livestream, we can see that livestreaming has become a platform for consumers to express their feelings towards brand’s responses to cultural events.  

In terms of KANS’ and Hong Xing Erke’s cases, one of the reasons why they’ve received massive support from consumers is that they both quickly responded in the correct manner to a trending public affair.  

A recap of KAN’s case – It was evoked by a top Chinese celebrity Kris Wu’s scandal. Before the scandal, Kris represented many international brands such as Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari, Porsche, and many FMCG giants such as detergent brand Liby and instant noodle Master Kong. KANS was not as eye-catchy as the other brands that Kris represented.  

However, it is the first one that bravely stood out and said it would terminate its partnership with Kris. Compared with some of the brands that hesitated to do so, KANS’ quick reaction earned itself attention and favorable impression. Together with the push from its two live streamers that night, KANS has greatly promoted itself from the PR crisis.  

Back to Hong Xing Erke’s case. Its low-key and generous behavior encouraged many people to support the brand in its livestream. What also impressed consumers was that the live streamer kept telling them to shop rationally, and don’t buy anything not needed.  

Both brands’ CEOs went to their livestream afterwards, to express their gratitude and to show their faith in Chinese brands. Having CEOs show up in livestream somehow personalizes brands and it makes sure that brands are leveraging the sudden attention.  

Read more: 鸿星尔克低调捐款5000万，网友冲进直播间”买买买” 

捐款5000万”被倒闭”的鸿星尔克，劝网友”理性消费”，直播卖货破亿？

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The post Chinese Sports Brand Hong Xing Erke Sees Surge in Popularity After its Donation to Henan Flood Relief appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Following the 001’s popularity at the Shanghai Auto Show, the brand opened up pre-sale through the brand’s WeChat mini program store and other channels. Last week Zeekr sent out an official account article, saying that demand for the vehicle has surpassed their expectations. In just 60 days, the brand reached its quota, and as of June 15 it has temporarily shut down pre-orders. 

About the Zeekr 001

The 001 and its close cousin Lynk & co shares a familiar front fascia. However, the similarity ends from there. The 001 is based on the Geely’s Sustainable Experience Architecture platform that was specifically designed for the Zeekr brand.

It is good to see Geely choose a wagon version as its flagship model instead of the SUV or sedan form. I have always felt that wagons are the best of both worlds. They provide SUV-like interior space yet retain the fun-to-drive factor of sedans. 

The design of the Lynk & co vehicles has proven its popularity among Gen Z buyers in China. With increased performance in comparison to Lynk & co, it’s not hard to predict the Zeekr 001 will be a hot seller among buyers that are looking for performance out of their family hauler. 

The top dollar version will be equipped with dual motor which makes it All-wheel Drive and run dry around 435 miles (700km). The combined output of the front and rear axle is 536hp and 517 ft-lbs (700Nm) of torque and can propel the 001 from 0-100kph in 3.8 seconds. 

The 001 also incorporated cool features such as “COVID-19” doors that open and close themselves for people who are afraid of touching things. Look ma no germs! 

Leveraging D2C Model to Appeal to Younger Consumers

Jokes aside, the Zeekr 001 is a very well packaged electric vehicle, and the company has invested heavily in promoting the brand. The Lynk & co brand is very focused on young consumers, and we’re guessing Zeekr is too. Perhaps the “Z” in Zeekr stands for Generation Z? 

To appeal to young consumers, the brand is taking a D2C approach instead of focusing on dealerships. 

Geely plans to open two large ‘Zeekr Experience Centers’ and 60 ‘Zeekr Spaces’ in high-traffic and shopping centers across China. There will also be 36 delivery centers and 60 service centers. By 2023 Geely wants to build 20,000 charging stations across China.

As a side note, the brand has already announced it plans to take on the European market as early as next year.

Strong Social Presence for Such a New Brand

Also part of the D2C approach, Zeekr allows consumers to place a down deposit for a vehicle through its WeChat mini program. According to the brand, 310K new accounts were created on the Zeekr WeChat mini program during the first 60 days that the vehicle was available for pre-order. 

In addition to a WeChat Official Account and mini program, it also has opened accounts on Weibo, Bilibili, and Douyin. The brand claims to now have over 1 million followers across all social platforms.

Besides official branded content, there are also numerous car review videos from influencers on Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

The post Geely’s New EV Brand Zeekr is So Popular it Had to Shut Down Pre-Orders After 2 Months appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Involution is felt by citizens everywhere in China

According to a popular thread on the Chinese question-and-answer platform, Zhihu (知乎), involution happens almost everywhere. It is in every sector and business in China. For example, a netizen shared her experience of socializing with ‘Shun Yi Moms (顺义妈妈)’, who are similar to mothers in the Upper East Side in Manhattan (if you’ve ever read Wednesday Martin’s ‘Primates of Park Avenue’). When with these women, she realized that many of them trained their children way advanced than the standard requirement of their age group. For example, they speak three languages in kindergarten.

Another story came from a recent graduate from an Ivy league university who just returned to China. The graduate remarked, “It’s harder to find a job as a haigui (海归, an overseas returnee) in big cities nowadays. Even a taxi driver in Beijing has a university certificate.” People are pushing themselves to the extreme to succeed, yet they feel like they are going nowhere. They also feel all the work is still not enough.

Involution has undoubtedly resonated with China’s millennials and Gen Z. According to BBC China, involution was the Top 10 hot topics in 2020. It also gained 10 billion searches on Weibo in 2021. So, how have Chinese brands responded to the wave of discussion around ‘Neijuan’ or Involution?

Involution Trendjacking

For content marketers, trendjacking is an effective way to reach new customer segments, while still retaining the core values of their brand. It requires them to constantly keep an eye on hot topics and respond quickly to capitalize the buzz. Many times, human or human-related events are at the center of the discussions. For example, #FriendsReunion and Bernie Sanders at the inauguration in the western world. Similarly, celebrity-led trends appear quite often in China’s marketing scene.

Lelush on Produce Camp 2021

If you follow Tecent’s reality show ‘Produce Camp 2021’ (or ‘Chuang 2021’), you should be familiar with the name ‘Lelush’(利路修). Lelush’s real name is Vladislav Ivanov. The Russian model ‘accidentally’ joined the competition for the next generation boy band with 90 contestants. Not long after the competition began, Lelush relaized he didn’t want to be there. But he had signed a contract and could only leave if the show producers kicked him off or the audience voted him out. So, he began trying hard to make that happen.

Compared to his other peers who show proactivity and diligence in the training programs, Lelush often had a ‘sang’ face and took every opportunity to slack off. He told the producers and the audience that he ‘wants to leave’ and asked, ‘When is it my turn to be weeded out?’. However, things went against his wishes and many people started voting for him to stay in the game. People resonated with his involution attitude. His fans called themselves ‘Sun si (笋丝)’ and voluntarily created many online memes about Lelush.

Brands Begin Collaborating with Lelush

Luckin Coffee (瑞幸咖啡) was the first brand that reached out to Lelush to collaborate. The campaign was launched after a short 13 day’s preparation from signing the talent, creating the script and actual production. Carrying a slogan ‘YYDS (永远滴神)’, a buzzword that means ‘greatest of all time’, the campaign launch video had almost two million times on Bilibili within 24 hours and the official hashtag #瑞幸冰咖推荐官利路修 (Chief Recommendation Officer Lelush) broke a billion mention record on Weibo. The brand was riding on the social hype of the campaign. Its sales also reached a historical high since its scandal in 2020. 

In my opinion, the reason behind Luckin’s success is not only the high agility and efficient execution, but also it truly paid efforts on understanding the trend. This allows it to maximize the uniqueness of Lelush as an influencer while still keeping the essence of its brand.

The advertisement’s storyline matched well with several iconic scenes of Lelush in Produce Camp. As a result, it perfectly picked up on the fans’ ‘deja vu’ moments and created brand advocacy. Because the concept of involution was smartly reflected in the ending scene when Lelush said ‘can I leave work now?’ in his typical tired, emotionless voice, even his non-fans can resonate with the campaign and get a laugh out of it as well.

Not everyone is able to correctly capture the involution trend

Involution is such a hot topic among millennials and Gen Zs that many brands want to tap on it in China. However, not everyone did it well.

Earlier in May, a post by Zhang Jun, Head of PR at Tencent received over 60k angry reactions on Weibo as he posted about staying late for the Youth Day campaign whilst the real youth were asleep. Su Mang, former chief editor of Harper’s Bazaar China, recently apologized for her ‘inappropriate interpretation’ of involution as ‘a reflection of high desire but low willingness to put in the work among the young generation’.

Both were pointed for being ignorant of the real societal state the young workforce is in and the living pressure brought by endless competition. Apparently, the concept of involution is a double-edged sword, only those who truly understand its meaning and impact on the younger groups can capitalize off its influence. The same applies really to any controversial topics. Brands must rely on their marketers to determine which trends are appropriate to associate the brand with.

The post The Newest Buzzword ‘Involution’ and How Brands Have Responded to It in China appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Over the past several years, “light food” has become very popular among young people in China. A search for light food on Xiaohongshu brings up over 190K results. A light food diet is essentially just healthy eating – low salt, low sugar, low oil meals with a focus on protein and vegetables.

A Growing Business

While some people will make their own meals, many people who want to eat light are busy and would rather order takeout. According to Qichacha Database, there are now around 10k light food companies in China. Based on the light food consumption report published by Meituan (美团) in 2019 (轻食消费卡大数据报告), the amount of light food orders increased 98% compared with the same time in 2018, and the number of light food retailers on Meituan grew 58%. Euromonitor Consulting expects that by 2022, the scale of Chinese light food market will reach 12M RMB.

Why is this diet trend so popular in China?

In China, there is a phrase referring to having light food or salad, which is “eating grass”. The phrase contains sympathy and self-irony. Despite the fact that having “grass” is not a pleasant thing in most people’s minds, they are still willing to pay for it. Because behind this is people’s growing anxiety towards their bodies.

Read more about appearance anxiety here: Appearance Anxiety Driving Chinese Consumers to Take Loans to Pay for Cosmetic Procedures

A report published on May 11, which is Obesity Prevention Day, showed that 54.3% of Chinese women feel they are too fat. And while many women want to lose weight there is also a growing number of skinny people that are pursuing a curvier body type.  

Body related hot topics on social media also increase people’s body anxiety. For example, at one time, there was a challenge where people were crazy enough to see if they can reach around their back and touch their belly buttons. There was also a test to see if the width of your waist can fit into A4 paper. Those who can do these “challenges” post their evidence on social media which gives other pressure and body anxiety, and many people start choosing to go on a diet and eat light food after seeing these images.

Who is embracing the diet trend in China?

According to the report published by Meituan, among light food consumers, 62% of them are post-90s, and 26% of them are post-80s. Female consumers take up 70%.

That’s the statistics back in 2019. I haven’t found the latest light food consumer demographic reports, but based on my personal observation, consumers in those top tier cities are more open to light food. They embrace it as a way to guide them to a healthy lifestyle. City dwellers show great commitment to having light food, regardless of young or old.

On the other hand, in lower tier cities, most light food consumers are people who work out frequently. Their expectation for having such food is very pure: lose and control weight. The majority of them are young people, because for the older generation in lower tier cities, they can’t accept having such food while paying higher prices.

Why light food is expensive?

Light food is often very simple, yet the price for a portion of light food is typically three times the price of a hamburger.

It should be cheap theoretically for these reasons:

1. The industry has lower threshold to enter. For people without any light food management background or even dining background, they can still enter the industry with simple training. Besides, a light food restaurant requires simple processes to go through to receive a business license.
2. Lower input cost. There are two options to open a light food restaurant. One is by opening your own store and the other is to open a franchisee store. The franchisee fee is between 80k to 180k RMB, which is way lower than opening a hotpot franchisee store or a milk tea franchisee store. It costs no more than 200k RMB to open a light food restaurant in first tier cities.
3. Light food is easy to cook. This food is light because they are either steamed food or boiled food. A chief only needs to select ingredients, cook simply, place them nicely on a bowl or a plate, and pour sauces on it.

So why light food is not affordable to everyone?

1. High requirement for ingredients. Since light food is not cooked with complicated processes, and little to no oil, it maintains the original flavor of its ingredients. If the food is not fresh, it can be easily distinguished. How to maintain the freshness of ingredients? An effective way is to have those food transported by cold chains, and this adds extra cost.
2. High commission rate taken by takeaway platforms. The average commission rate taken by Eleme (饿了么) is 20% for light food retailers. The platform usually charges its retailers 15-20%, so you know light food retailers’ rate rank high on the platform. On Meituan, the rate is as high as 23%. High commission rate leaves small profits for retailers and they can only raise prices of their products to make up the gap.
3. Vendors are investing more to attract new consumers and maintain old ones. As we mentioned before, the number of light food retailers is increasing sharply in China. This means more competition. To differentiate their stores from others, retailers are investing more on the ingredients, the packaging and the quality of their service. All of these add to the price that consumers pay for in the end.
4. Vendors know consumers will pay a premium. Consumers want this specific type of food and they will pay more to get it rather than eating another type of food that is cheaper.

Light food is a trend. It has history in China and it is being accepted as a healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, plant-based meat might not. As it is very new and many people still don’t like paying a large amount of money for this not-tasty fake meat.

Traditional restaurants are joining the industry

Many traditional restaurants spot this trend and they are adding light food as an option for consumers. For example, Pizza Hut opened a light food restaurant in Beijing. McDonald’s launched its Ciabatta collection featuring light food in February 2021. At the moment, only Shanghai and Ningbo (宁波) offer these menu items, since McDonald wants to see how consumers react to its light food in these two cities first.

Chinese traditional noodle restaurant Xibei Youmian (西北莜面) opened its first yogurt dining restaurant in the CBD of Beijing in 2019. Its target consumers are young people including white collars. Founder of Xibei, Jia Guolong (贾国龙), said this was their experiment and testing of the light food market. But in early 2021, the Beijing store closed down. It appears consumers couldn’t accept the high price of its yogurt, which was 3-4 times higher than the usual price on the market.

Though light food is known for having a higher price than regular food, brands also need to figure out the acceptable price range for consumers.  

Read more: 中国女孩的身材焦虑，养活了这门40000亿的“昂贵生意”

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The post Body Anxiety Driving China’s Latest Diet Trend: Light Food appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

POPMART Didn’t Offer Discounts From the Beginning

POPMART creates collectible pop art toys. Its main consumers are not children, but Gen Z and millennials between ages 18 to 35. They are mostly white collar workers and 70% of them are females. Its consumers match with Taobao’s livestream audience.

In May 2019, POPMART started testing out the waters, running a livestream itself, not with KOLs. While livestreaming truly became mainstream in 2020, it was already quite popular in 2020 and many brands were using the format as the main way to drive sales. 

During POPMART’s first livestream, unlike other brands that offer discounts, the prices remained the same at 59 RMB. But even though it didn’t offer discounts, POPMART’s first livestream went well. In less than 2 hours sales reached nearly 70k RMB.

The brand was able to achieve this because of its fans’ loyalty. People who don’t like blind box toys just don’t like it. And for those who like it, they love it. Collecting pop toys is a niche hobby, and people who collect them feel like part of a community. This character makes them loyal to the brand. So even without lowering the price, people will still buy POPMART products. 

Singles Day 2019

Even with this initial success, POPMART didn’t have a regular live streaming schedule in 2019. But then Single’s Day hit and during the shopping festival POPMART held 4 livestreams. Together the streams achieved nearly 7 million RMB in sales. In half a year POPMART went from being able to sell 70K RMB in one stream to over 1.5 million RMB of toys in one stream. 

Following 2019, like every other brand, POPMART realized the importance of livestreaming. What’s more, COVID 19 hit and consumers couldn’t visit POPMART’s offline stores and vending machines. Since March 2020, the brand started regularly holding livestreams on Taobao Live. 

The goal of the livestreams is not only to drive sales, but to cultivate old customers’ brand loyalty and introduce the brand to new customers.

If There are No Discounts, What Do They Livestream About?

Wang Ning (王宁), the CEO of POPMART knows that by maintaining the same price on livestream it will be harder to drive sales. So he thinks of another way to save this: telling stories and introducing POPMART’s various IPs so that people understand them better and learn more about new IPs. Wang knows if there are 100 people, there will be 100 reasons for them to buy POPMART. Different toys attract different people and everyone has a different reason for a POPMART order.

POPMART also livestreams the unboxing process. This is exciting for people who love blind boxes. Just watch our unboxing video to see for yourself. 

The brand also livestreams about its rules for shopping festivals. Even though its product price remains the same, it gives bonus gifts to consumers during festivals and the gifts change depending on how much they spend. 

Livestream Campaign to Support a Wuhan Nurse

On March 6, POPMART held an unboxing livestream for a nurse who went to Wuhan to help. The nurse was a fan of POPMART and always had a dream of getting one of the hidden special edition boxes.  

So POPMART livestreamed its employees unboxing numerous boxes. In the end, they had found 7 hidden editions and they gave those to the nurse. They held lucky draws and gave away the rest of the opened toys to viewers of the stream. The livestream attracted 100k views which is quite high for a brand-run livestream. 

Read more:

别再好奇泡泡玛特为何市值千亿了，他们连直播都玩成这样了！

The Chinese Toy Brand That Surpassing Disney and Lego? Come and Meet Pop Mart!

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