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.

To drive even more consumption on the platform, Douyin has created its own shopping festival: 818 (August 18). It is sandwiched between China’s two major shopping festivals, 618 and Double 11. The first-ever 818 shopping festival was last year, right after Douyin launched e-commerce features on the platform. So this was Douyin 818’s second year.

How Did the Douyin 818 Shopping Festival Perform This Year?

The 818 Shopping Festival on Douyin lasted from August 1 to August 18. Its main format was e-commerce livestreaming. Throughout the course of the festival, there were a total of 23 million hours of live streams, among which 11 million hours were from brand-run livestreams.

177 livestreams surpassed 10 million RMB in sales and 8 of them made it to 100 million RMB. Together, the total sales from the Top 100 livestreams during 818 reached 9.1 billion RMB in sales.

Compared with last year, where the total sales for the entire festival were 8 billion RMB, Douyin 818 has made great progress this year!

Top Live Streamers

Who was the live streamer that achieved the best result during 818? No surprise here. It was Luo Yonghao (罗永浩), founder of Smartisan, a technology company. Luo was one of the first celebrities/CEOs to do e-commerce live streaming on Douyin and he drew a lot of attention in his debut stream when he achieved 110 million RMB in sales. Sine then, he has become a popular streamer on the platform.

Following Luo, the next two top streamers were two male celebrities: Zhu Zixiao (朱梓骁) and Jia Nailiang (贾乃亮).

New Changes for This Year’s Douyin 818

Below are new changes in the event’s format as summarized by Today (今日网红), a livestream monitoring platform.

Change No.1: Prices are lower than Taobao

Main types of discounts during the 818 shopping festival were fan coupons, flash sales, and bonuses for newcomers. Adding these discounts, prices could be way lower.

For example, Ulike’s hair removal tool, with the original price of 2,499 RMB, was only 1,599 RMB in the livestream during 818. Its usual price on livestream was 1,769 RMB. That’s a good deal to buy it on 818.

Another type of hair removal tool whose original price was 2,499 RMB, was sold at 1,699 RMB on 818, which was the same price as on two top live streamers Austin Li and Viya’s livestreams. Usually Austin Li and Viya claim to have the lowest prices.

Other stores, such as apparel brand EGGKA, which requires Taobao users to pay 8 RMB shipping fee doesn’t ask the same thing for Douyin users during 818.

Changes No.2: Live performance by celebrities

To create buzz and grab as much as attention as possible for the 818 shopping festival, Douyin spent a large amount of budget to create a concert for its users (kind of like Alibaba’s 11.11 gala). Many top celebrities were invited, together with video calls with several Tokyo Olympic champions.

Other than the entertainment part of the gala, there were live streams with celebrities going on. In total, the gala has over 80 million viewers that night.

Changes No.3: 10 billion RMB in subsidies

This is very similar to Pinduoduo, an e-commerce platform known for its extremely low prices. By clicking “My Orders” (我的订单), users can see a page with lists of products that are subsidized with discounts from Douyin. Many of them were food & beverage, digital products, and books.

Will Douyin’s 818 Become the Next Double 11 Or 618?

It may. But there are already many e-commerce shopping festivals filling up the year, it is challenging for Douyin to create buzz and achieve the same scale that either 618 or Double 11 does.

And it seems like at the moment the goal of 818 is really to drive consumers to develop the habit of shopping on Douyin, not to create a shopping festival that will rival the big ones. The subsidies and discounts may convince consumers to make their first purchase on Douyin, or to buy more expensive items on Douyin for the first time, but will consumers continue purchasing on the platform after the festival is over? And besides that, what did Douyin do differently in this festival that makes it stand out from the other major shopping festivals? There wasn’t much innovation when it came to the festival content or shopping experience.

Read more: 亲测，抖音818真的会比淘宝双11便宜吗？

The post Can the Douyin 818 Shopping Festival Convince Consumers to Shop on Douyin? appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Well, we don’t know who started the rumor, but both sides deny that Hey Tea was ever going to acquire LELECHA. LELECHA said it is performing well and had no intention of being purchased. In fact, it is seeking another round of financing. While denying the acquisition rumors, LELECHA also announced it would open up to 140 stores before Chinese New Year in 2022.

On the other hand, Hey Tea, the big boss in the new tea or even the beverage industry in China, is valued at 60 billion RMB. The brand keeps expanding its business by opening more stores and discovering new growth areas, such as seltzer and bread. Recently, it just announced that it has become an investor in domestic coffee brand Seesaw.

About Seesaw

Seesaw is a coffee brand founded in 2012 in Shanghai. Currently, it has 33 stores located in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou and Hangzhou. By the end of 2021, it plans to expand to over 100 stores.

Seesaw is different from other coffee houses as it is not making traditional coffee, instead, they are introducing creative coffee. Its drinks are still based on coffee, but they have other unexpected ingredients added, such as soda water, tea, juice and dried fruit. This is regarded as a new growing point for the brand.

Statistics show that from November 2020 to March 2021, the sales volume that those creative coffee contributed grew from 10% to 40%, and the number has surpassed 50% in May this year. The number of its repurchase rate is also very nice, 40%. Gen Z customers make up 17% of repeat consumers.

What Attracts Hey Tea To Invest In Seesaw and the Coffee Industry?

Of course, it is not comprehensive to summarize Seesaw’s success in a few bullet points, but I want to point out what differentiates it from its competitors, and some of the key things that Seesaw has done right.

Opening big offline stores

This reminds me of another coffee house that we’ve covered before, Manner Coffee. The brand is well-known for opening small stores in CBD, making it convenient for white collars to order first and pick up on their way to work.

Well, Seesaw has the opposite opinion on offline stores. It is making them big, many of which are over 200 square meters. The brand wants customers to sit inside the store and have conversations with either friends or colleagues. Big stores are also easier to catch people’s eyes.

Shaping stores as a workplace

While I was doing research and learned that Seesaw has a store at Réel (芮欧), a high-end shopping mall, I was a bit surprise and able to recall that while I was working nearby, I often saw people working in that store.

That’s what Seesaw wants to build, making its store a go-to place for white-collars or whoever working from home and wants to find a decent environment.

It also collaborates with WeWork to consolidate the ambition of shaping its stores as workplaces.

Introducing new business models

Big offline stores may not work in some places due to site limitation. On the other hand, smaller stores can save budgets on renting.

Seesaw opened its first mini store in Nanjing at the beginning of 2021. It is also exploring more sales channels such as the online channels, for example, ordering online and picking up at the store, and the takeaway business as well. Currently, over 60% of Seesaw’s orders are from online channels.

It is also very bold to try out a new mode that serving coffee during daytime and drinks/alcohol in the evening. I am not sure about this idea. After all, consumers come to Seesaw’s stores expecting coffee, not alcoholic beverages. If they want drinks, why don’t they go to bars or restaurants?

Coffee Craze in China

It seems that coffee has blended within Chinese consumers’ daily lives, and it is getting down to lower-tier cities as well.

The industry has gained so much attention that even Internet giants such as Tencent, ByteDance and Bilibili have invested in coffee brands.

Many other industries are joining the craze as well. Tong Ren Tang, a Chinese pharmaceutical company founded in 1669, introduced its coffee line! Sinopec, a Chinese oil and gas enterprise did the same thing. Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton are joining as well.

Read more: 喜茶放弃乐乐茶却战略入股Seesaw，咖啡赛道就这么诱人吗？

The post Hey Tea Ventures Beyond Tea, Investing in Coffee Brand Seesaw appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Luxury brands love him. Over the years he has collaborated with numerous brands including Dior, Cartier, Saint Laurent, and Jimmy Choo. He has even worked with many luxury brands to co-design his own limited-edition bags, including Strathberry, Givenchy, Burberry, Tod’s, Chloé, Montblanc and Qeelin. Every time, those bags were sold out within minutes.

What I admire about him is the fact that Mr. Bags started as a college student studying finance in NYC. But he had a great passion for bags, and he bravely chose to forge a career in a brand-new industry with no connection to his college major. He shared those bags as if he was introducing old friends to readers, and the hard work paid off when he was invited to fashion shows and met high-profile people in the fashion industry.  

How did I meet Mr. Bags? 

Recently I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Bags and see him talk about bags in person at an offline event held by entry-luxury brand Tory Burch. The news was announced on Mr. Bags’ WeChat Official Account, inviting followers who are based in Shanghai to attend the event.  

To join the event, interested followers had to leave a message on the account saying that they want to join the event and leave their WeChat ID. Later followers will receive a notification asking them to add a personal WeChat account.  

The guest list selection process didn’t finish here. After adding Mr. Bags staff WeChat account, there was another round of selection by his employees. And finally, if you are selected, you will get a WeChat message from the account.  

Attending the Event

The event was held in Tory Burch’s flagship store at Jing’an Kerry Center, Shanghai. Guests were split into several groups with different color bracelets on their waists.  

At first, I wasn’t expecting Mr. Bags to interact with guests, but to my surprise, he was there, introducing Tory Burch’s bags one by one, with so much passion.  

And because there were so many guests, he had to speak again and again to each group, like teaching the same content to students three times or even more. To be honest, while he was recommending those bags, I started to learn the charm and appreciate them. Before the event, I hardly have any knowledge about Tory Burch.  

In addition to Mr. Bags, Tory Burch also invited a fashion stylist and models to present its products. If guests finished these two activities, they were welcomed to craft their exclusive notebooks with Tory Burch’s monogram on them.  

There was also a photo session with the chance to take a picture with Mr. Bags. What also impressed me a lot was that even after speaking and introducing the bags for a long time, he stood there and nicely took photos with anyone who wanted one. Some of the guests already met him before in other events and they were greeting Mr. Bags as if they were old friends.  

My Thoughts on the Event 

I quite enjoyed the event. First, it had Mr. Bags, a fashion icon in many people’s eyes. Second, the whole setting was comfortable and not aggressive. There were waiters standing everywhere to make sure guests can grab a drink or snacks whenever they want. And staff didn’t push you to buy anything. Even when you were browsing through products, they gave you time and space to appreciate them on your own.  

It is also a good case study for brands of how they can leverage KOL marketing. Offline events serve as a key bridge for both the KOL and the brand to reach followers/consumers. Even if an attendee didn’t buy anything during the event, the feeling that the brand and the KOL generated makes this experience memorable and they may develop a positive connotation with the brand and be more likely to purchase from it in the future. As I mentioned above, I didn’t know too much about Tory Burch prior to the event but Mr. Bags’ passion for the brand made in interested in its products. 

The post I Finally Met Top Fashion KOL Mr.Bags! appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

However, the rules for getting into the EP Club seem a bit like multi-level marketing, causing some people to poke fun at the brand. Let’s take a look. 

You need to help NIO sell 25 vehicles to join NIO EP Club

Recently, a salesperson at one of NIO’s stores shared that when a customer has purchases, repurchases, or recommends others to buy a NIO, that customer will get NIO points. When the points have reached a certain level, NIO will recommend the customer to enter the high-end EP Club. 

Doesn’t sound too complicated. However, the caveat is, just how many NIO vehicles does a customer needs to purchase or refer others to buy?

On July 22, a NIO spokesperson told media outlet Red Star Capital Bureau that, according to the data from February this year, current members of the EP Club on average have purchased/helped sell 25 NIO vehicles. The spokesperson went on to say that, “Some owners have sold and purchased more than 160 cars.”

Based on the average starting price of NIO at 400,000 yuan (62k USD), if the average car owner bought/sold 25 cars, then the average EP Club car owner has driven 10 million yuan (1.6 million USD) in sales for the company. In other words, if you want to enter the EP Club you have pay more than 10 million yuan to buy NIO vehicles or created more than 10 million yuan in revenue for NIO.

What are the benefits of joining this “high-end community”?

According to NIO’s official introduction of the club, members of the EP Club can enjoy EP9 (the company’s crown jewel race car) driving experience, get formula-E racing tickets, join overseas ‘study’ tours, and business resource sharing. However, many members believe that EP Club is more like a “tour group” of the wealthy and powerful.

In November last year, many social media influencers shared EP Club’s trip to Lijiang, in Yunnan Province. According to one blogger, in addition to club members, NIO also invited some media outlets to join the event.

After arriving in Lijiang, the members dressed in formal clothes to attend the dinner on the first day, watched some members perform and CEO Li Bin also attended the dinner.

The activity on the second day was to climb the Yulong Snow Mountain in the morning and in the afternoon, members did some activities in the ancient city of Lijiang. In the evening, they held a martial arts-themed cosplay (role playing). Li Bin also dressed up and took a group photo with the members.

According to the Blogger, members only need to buy their own plane tickets, while the hotel and event expenses are all covered by NIO.

A member of the club also published a video revealing more details about the EP Club’s trip to Lijiang, including staying in a five-star hotel with gorgeous view, an EP9 track day driving experience and an interview with the CEO Li Bin. In the video Li Bin said: “the EP Club is a gathering of NIO’s most die-hard users.” Notably, he said the word users, not fans.

Is the NIO EP Club worth it? 

NIO CEO Li Bin once bluntly said that buying NIO vehicles is not just buying a car, but “a ticket to a new lifestyle.” 

From very early on, Li Bin learned from the success of Starbucks that no matter how advanced the Internet is and how developed e-commerce is, people’s inner demand for social interaction will not decrease, and they are willing to pay for services beyond the functionality of the product.

Another aspect of this is the people in this group are either wealthy or well-connected. So, for some, this group isn’t just a “tour group” – it is more like a Country Club. The only difference is Country Club is a lot cheaper.

The resources from social connections formed at the EP Club may allow some to gain more wealth and connections, so the 10 million yuan may be well worth it. 

But some netizens have reacted unfavorably to information about the club, saying that NIO is not an EV manufacturer but a multi-level marketing (MLM) company. Others have said it seems like a high-end social networking company where the membership fee is cars. 

But this isn’t the first time NIO has been called an MLM company, the brand has been dealing with this nickname for several years now due to its ongoing referral incentives and the natural passion its owners have for their vehicles. NIO’s response? “These types of rumors exist, mainly because people don’t have a deep enough understanding of our brand.” 

The post Will NIO’s Newest Marketing Tactic, the NIO EP Club, Help or Hurt its Brand Image? appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Movie-Goer Demographics are Changing

Based on statistics from Cat Eye Movie (猫眼电影), in 2018, there were already signs that post-00s don’t visit cinemas as often as the other generations. Statistics show that, among Chinese people who went to cinemas during summer holidays from 2016 to 2018, the percentage of people who over 35 is increasing, yet the percentage of people who below age 24 is decreasing.

In 2019, the average age of this cinema visitors reached 29 for the first time, and people who between the ages of 30-34 became the main consumer group.

2020 was not an ordinary year for anything, including cinemas. After the lockdown from January to March ended, people flooded to cinemas because they finally could. During last year’s summer holiday, the percentage of movie goers below 24 increased from 29.5% in 2019 to 39.4%. But that’s it. In the following National Holiday and the Spring Festival, there was no rise in the number of post-00s visiting cinemas.

The average age of cinema visitors from 2017 to 2019 were 28.25, 28.73 and 29.18. Though in 2020, the number decreased to 28.8, but that’s only because the end of lockdown made people want to go out and partake in lots of activities.

Why Cinemas Lost Their Charm for Chinese Post-00s?

Post-00s have different ways to fill their leisure time

According to a survey by Qi’e Zhiku (企鹅智库), when post-00s and post-05s were asked what they liked to do in their free time, the top six were online chatting, browsing web pages, watching videos, playing mobile games, shopping (both online and offline) and doing sports. None of them was watching movies in cinemas.

The lockdown also changed people’s habits of watching movies, especially for Chinese post-00s, who have known the Internet since they were born. Being unable to visit cinemas, the young generation started sourcing movies at home. Watching them online costs way less than visiting cinemas, either in terms of movie tickets or peripheral costs generated from this small trip.

Consumers have fewer options for international movies

Because of Covid, many international movies such as Marvel and DC’s movies are postponed until 2022.

Though the quality of domestic movies is getting better, young people are more attracted to international ones. And that’s why if the movie is not super popular or buzzed-about on social media, they won’t go to cinemas to kill time.

Chinese Post-00s Prefer Escape Rooms and Murder Mystery Games

We’ve talked about escape rooms. They serve as a way for young people to escape reality. Post-00s especially like horror-themed rooms as these are better to distract them from daily pressure. Because they are very scary, many people also use it as a way to test their significant other.

Other than escape rooms, murder mystery games are also very popular among young people. In this game, players will be given a script in which at least one person is murdered. Every player is assigned with a character and the goal is to find out who is/are the murderers.

Other than these, spas, gaming, kitten cafes, trampoline centers, haunted houses and home parties are popular entertainment activities among post-00s.  

Read more: 电影院失去00后

The post Chinese Post-00s Youth Don’t Visit Cinemas 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？

鸿星尔克低调捐款，200万网友冲进直播间”野性消费” 

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.

It was a skincare brand KANS (韩束). This is a great case study of how to leverage ecommerce live streaming to avert a PR crisis.

So What Is the Kris Wu Scandal?

Kris Wu is a singer and an actor. The whole scandal started from one of the victims Du Meizhu’s (都美竹) Weibo post. In the post, Du was saying Kris often hooked up with girls, especially teenage girls. He often select women as commodities to decide which one to sleep with.

Following Du, there were other girls posting their chatting history with Kris, which were really disgusting and alike. The key point is, these girls were underage and many of them said they were forced to do things while under the influence of alcohol.

The scandal and related topics covered most of Weibo’s hot topic ranking board and have continued to stay there for quite some time as the situation continues to unfold.

KANS’s Live Stream Situation On The Night the Kris Wu Scandal Broke

The night Du posted about Kris’ behaviors, many netizens rushed to the live streaming rooms of brands that Wu works with and began criticizing the brands for working with Wu. This was what happened to KANS’ livestream that evening.

That night, KANS’ live stream had two co-hosts, a male and female. Neither live streamer know what had happened and had no idea why people were upset. After the boy searched on Weibo and learned what had happened, he told the girl that it was disgusting. The two live streamers were a bit panicked, and they encouraged each other not to be afraid. Of course they are saying all this live.

Shortly after this, they saw the hot topic on Weibo saying KANS has terminated its collaboration with Kris Wu due to the scandal. Their first reaction was, would KANS fire them as well? Haha, of course not.

As the first brand to bravely announced it had canceled its contract with Wu, KANS started receiving support from people. Thousands of people flocked to the livestream room and they actively shared the livestream with their friends.

The live stream lasted until 2am and the total amount of viewers reached 3.7 million. They’ve also achieved a sales amount that they would never expect: over 5.4 million RMB. That the sales from that live stream, combined with the rest of KANS’ sales in July, were more than KANS had sold over the course of 6 months the year before.

So How Exactly Did KANS Managed To Benefit From the Kris Wu Scandal?

Quick reaction to Kris Wu’s scandal

Brands that were hesitating to terminate their contracts with Kris were not able to continue their livestream that night because of too many angry netizens flooding the comments. For example, Lancôme only ran its livestream for 2 minutes before it chose to shut down.

KANS on the other hand, didn’t shut down, allowing a large amount of people to gather at a place and let off their anger. And then, when KANS announced it had canceled the contract, the stream gave people a place to come support KANS.

Two live streamers did a good job to personalize the brand

This may not be intentional, but two live streamers worked very well with each other and their interactions attracted many viewers to follow with them.

The average amount of viewers of KANS’ livestream before the scandal was not even 300. On that night, the amount became overwhelming and when the number surpassed 300, the girl asked viewers how to turn on the beauty filter so to look better.

When a serum, whose original price was 299 RMB, was auctioned to 1,200 RMB, the girl told viewers to spend their money rationally and not to keep raising prices, as it would waste their money.

And because they stayed cool-headed and performed well during the livestream, the boy received a call from their boss saying that both he and the girl would get reward for this. He looked so happy and surprised, and he excitedly shared the news with the girl and viewers.

Viewers were cheering up for them and they were encouraging the boy and girl to get married if the number of viewers reached 500k. Those two live streamers were joking that they didn’t even know each other for 3 days. After the stream, two lives streamers were titled KANS Couple.

Usually, we see live streamers recommend products, reading scripts in front of them. But this time, the KANS Couple acted like “real people”, and it really created closeness with viewers.

Two live streamers are trained well with their livestreaming skills

The first reaction that these two live streamers saw so many people coming into the livestream room, they were shocked. But they quickly presented their livestream skills: recommending products.

They stayed coolheaded and did a great job of grasping this opportunity to get in front of so many people. They told viewers that KANS’ new collection would show up in Austin Li’s livestream on July 19. Then after canceling its contract with Wu, KANS quickly announced that it appointed the National Swimming Team as its new ambassadors, and the two live streamers shared the announcement, and their joy, with viewers. 

Support from the livestream system on Taobao

Many factors influence Taobao’s live stream ranking board including the length of time that viewers’ stay in the livestream, the length of the livestream, the number of viewers, and the likes, comments and other interactions.

In total, the livestream lasted for nearly 23 hours, with different live streamers. KANS’ performance also helped the brand to stay on top on the livestream ranking board for which it got more exposure.

What Can We Learn from KANS’ Success?

Quick reaction

KANS’ quick reaction and the corporation between two live streamers really earned itself a favorable impression. On the other hand, Lancôme was under severe criticism by netizens because of its hesitation to terminate the contract.

Closely monitoring the situation

It’s what people want to see that matters.

Brands need to monitor how the whole situation goes and make decisions that will please people. The earlier they show their attitude, the less harm will occur. They may even gain bonus from it, such as KANS.

Livestream: crisis preparation 

In this incident, we can see that KANS’ live streamers are well-trained and that’s why they were able to drive so many sales in a night.

As livestream has become a necessary sales and marketing channel for many brands, brands often approach livestream agencies to look for live streamers, instead of cultivating their own. It is important that brands educate them about brands’ basic information and how they should behave if any scandal happens.

Maximize the influence of the livestream

KANS didn’t stop at that night’s livestream and has continued to ride the wave of attention. Since netizens named those two live streamers the KANS Couple, the brand has had them do more livestreaming to capture people’s enthusiasm and curiosity to watch them. Also, KANS’ CEO will appear in an upcoming livestream to meet consumers.

Read more: 吴亦凡事件发酵后，韩束直播间为何能一夜爆红？

与吴亦凡解约后，韩束直播间一场卖出500万，居然还卖起了牙签

The post How Chinese Skincare Brand KANS Actually Benefitted From the Kris Wu Scandal appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

While this news is not necessarily a consumer trend, a person’s job and work environment have a large impact on everything else in their life, from what they purchase, to what they do in their free time, and how much free time they have!

Working for Internet Giants Has Become Many People’s Goal

Working for these Internet big names such as Meituan, ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent is something that most people in China, especially young graduates, would love to have on their resumes. Even internship experience at these companies will make you stand out among the competition.

Not only job seekers, when it comes to blind dates, or when parents are rushing to introduce their children to other parents to seek potential marriage chances, working at these companies often impresses people.

Big Internet companies often offer better salaries, and they have all sorts of fancy facilities to please employees, such as canteens, gyms or leisure areas. They also have yummy afternoon tea to feed employees’ stomachs. These benefits often show up on social media, especially on Little Red Book, making viewers envious.

Yet Working for These Big Companies Like Bytedance Isn’t All Sunshine and Rainbows

Like the old saying says, every coin has two sides. Though working for these Internet giants does gain you glory and a higher salary, it has many downsides that smaller companies are doing better at. Working overtime every week is only one of the issues.

• Your Scope of Work is Very Limited

Because there are so many employees, you’re essentially h a cog in a wheel. It’s like a factory, only white collar. You are hired to do one thing, and just need to do that one thing well. For some people, this is a good thing as they will do less work and face less challenges.

But trust me, just because you finish your work doesn’t mean you can go home, especially if everyone else is still working. Plus sitting at the office not doing anything feels quite strange, and you may want to learn new skills and build up more personal connection through projects. But you won’t have the chance to be in charge of a whole project, and instead, you are only responsible for some paperwork.

Things could be worse for interns. Their daily tasks might just be ordering milk teas and booking meeting rooms. What they can gain from the internship is a nice title in their resumes.

• Lower chances to meet the management team

Because in those big companies, your supervisors have more supervisors above. It would be hard for you to meet them personally, not to mention the big boss of those Internet companies.

This is not a big issue for many people. But if employees get the chance to see the top management team, they may have more sense of belonging to the company, and they can directly express their needs without passing through several people.

• More bureaucratic

More employees tends to mean more processes. Something simple that should just be a short conversation on WeChat or Teams, must be filed with paperwork to get approved. Also, there are endless meetings. Daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings. Sometimes, lunchtime is being converted into meetings.

Why Some of ByteDance’s Employees Are Not Happy About the Cancellation

Despite all of this, yes, there are people who want to work for extra hours, even on weekends.

Having this big and small weeks policy allows ByteDance’s employees to have subsidy, and it was a generous amount. If you earn 40k RMB a month, working an extra day on weekends will help you get 3,600 RMB. In small Internet companies, the amount is likely only a day’s salary at most.

Money is one thing, but the key and most important thing is that the workload is still there. If there is no decrease in the workload, that means employees still need to work extra hours to complete their tasks. And this time, it is without being paid for that extra time.

Read more: 从取消大小周，联想到互联网英雄主义时代的落幕

你在大厂赚得像CEO, 我在小厂忙得像CEO

The post ByteDance Cancels its “Big & Small Weeks” Work Schedule 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.