Recently, Zhang Zhehan (张哲瀚), a Chinese actor and singer ended his career in the entertainment industry, due to a mistake he made during his nine-day endorsement with the Japanese jewelry brand TASAKI. Why? Because of his misbehaviors in patriotism. Weibo deleted both his personal Weibo account and his studio’s account.

Right before that, top Chinese celebrity Kris Wu was accused of sexual assault and rape of minors. The scandal was so massive that the police detained him. Related topics covered Weibo’s hot topic ranking board for days. Louis Vuitton and Bvlgari were among the luxury brands that had to terminate their collaborations with him so as not to get in any trouble (or any more trouble than they were already in.)

Several months ago, another case that generated a great deal of attention was Zheng Shuang’s scandal. On the day the scandal exploded online, Prada, who had named Zheng as its ambassador just seven days before, experienced a 1.7% drop in its stock price.

However, the sweet taste of working Chinese celebrities still overcomes the potential risks that it might bring. But it hasn’t always been this way.

When Did Luxury Brands Begin Liking Chinese Celebrities?

It is not until recent years that luxury brands let down their guards and began to fancy Chinese celebrities.

In 2013, Gucci had actress Li Bingbing (李冰冰) as its ambassador, first in Asia and later the title bacame a global level. Li showed professional skills at performance, and she had no scandal. Back then, brands were skeptical and being very cautious to name a Chinese celebrity as ambassador.

However, with the development of Fan Economy and social media in China, celebrities had an increasing influence on their fans. In 2016, Lu Han (鹿晗, who has 63M followers on Weibo currently) was invited by Cartier to be its “Brand Friend”. Following Lu, in the same year, Kris Wu became the first non-British ambassador for Burberry and walked in its show. With Wu’s influence back then, Burberry’s sales performance grew 25% in the third quarter of 2016.

Dior is the first one to test the water

Among the many luxury brands vying for a piece of the China market, Dior has benefitted the most from its celebrity strategy.

In 2017, Angelababy became the brand’s first Chinese ambassador. The announcement post had more than 380k reposts within hours, making it the most-reposted post on Weibo at that time.

Dior didn’t stop at one spokesperson in China, building a team to expand its influence. It has another skincare ambassador, a makeup ambassador, a jewelry ambassador, a fragrance ambassador and many other Brand’s Friends.

It only took four years for Dior to grow its follower base from 1.79M to 6.56M. Dior has become one of the most popular luxury brands among Chinese consumers.

After Dior’s Success, Other Luxury Brands Decide the Risk is Worth it

In 2019, Prada signed young idol singer Cai Xukun (蔡徐坤, who has 36M followers on Weibo) as its ambassador. At the time, there were voices saying Cai had not been famous for very long and he may not be qualified to be a luxury brand’s spokesperson. Yet since then his fame has only grown, and many of his campaigns with Prada have done quite well.

In 2020, Tiffany’s started working with Jackson Yee (易烊千玺), and promoted him to be a global ambassador. Then Guerlain announced Fan Bingbing (范冰冰) as one of its global ambassadors. This appointment also triggered many skeptical voices. Fan was involved in massive a tax evasion scandal not even a year before.

This year, we have TOD’S collaboration with Xiao Zhan (肖战), who had previously been criticized by state-run media outlet People’s Daily. On the day of the announcement, the number of followers of TOD’S Tmall flagship store grew 110k, which was 24 times the scale before.

Despite the risk that many of these brands face working with these celebrities, especially those with past incidents or those that are newer celebrities, it seems the benefits outweigh the risks. In such a short time span, brands went from being reluctant to work with Chinese celebrities to being so willing to work with them that they are willing to risk their brand reputation.

Panerai Welcomes Chinese Actress Dilraba as Its First-Ever Female Global Brand Ambassador

And despite the host of scandals lately, it appears brands are not planning to stop working with Chinese celebrities anytime soon. What’s more, they are appointing them to even more prominent positions. For example, only yesterday, Chinese actress Dilraba joined the Italian luxury watch maker Panerai as its first-ever female Global Brand Ambassador. Not just Brand Ambassador for China or Asia, but the global ambassador. This is a brave time to make that move!

Read more: 深度｜奢侈品牌请中国明星代言的风潮终于要过去了？

The post With so Many Massive Scandals, Do Luxury Brands Still Love Chinese Celebrities? appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

China is Building its Hypercar in Italy

The S9 is a joint venture between the start-up Silk EV and the Chinese automotive manufacturer FAW (First Automotive Works). Silk is an international automotive design and engineering company and FAW is China’s largest and the oldest automotive manufacturer (and parent company of Hongqi). FAW currently has joint ventures with Audi and Volkswagen Group, Toyota, GM and many more.  The joint venture with Silk plans to build a full range of models called the S series under the Hongqi brand in Italy and China. 

China’s S9 hypercar is expected to be built in the “Motor Valley” of Italy – Reggio Emilia. The joint venture’s new factory is only 27 miles away from Ferrari and an hour by car from Lamborghini. 

Why would they build it here? Well besides the obvious, that Italy is known for making exotic supercars and hypercars, the most important factor was that Italy was the first G7 nation to endorse China’s Belt and Road Initiative. 

The S9 is special and here is why

The S9 isn’t the first super/hypercar to come out of China. The NIO EP9 and the Qiantu K50 have already made little waves in the automotive world. However, the NIO EP9 isn’t street legal and the Qiantu K50 has already gone bankrupt. 

Also both are full electric. The S9 is going to be a plug-in hybrid and is expected to use a newly developed 4-liter V-8 with electric turbocharged gasoline engine capable of 880 hp. It is also expected to have two electric motors to further boost its combined output up to 1,400 hp. 

What makes the S9 special is China is willing to compete in the internal combustion engine segment, which has always been dominated by other countries. Even with all the joint ventures from other western and Japanese brands, making large displacement engines was never China’s strong suit. In comparison to EVs, internal combustion engines are more complex. A 2-liter 4-cylinder engine has on average around 3000 parts in comparison to EVs electric motor with only has a rotor and a stator, so for China to develop this 4-liter V8 engine is showing its engineering capability. 

Where is the market for China – made hypercars?

China has long dominated the cheap and affordable consumer goods market, and countries like Germany, Italy and Japan have long been regarded as the producers of high-end, high-quality products. 

So, will anyone pay $1.8 million for a car from China? The answer is yes. It will probably be sold out before it leaves the factory. There probably will be several groups of buyers and it is highly likely most of them will be Chinese.

Red Rich

The first group could be the “red” rich (descendants of members from the Red Army). These are the people who have become rich by remaining closely associated with the Chinese government. Some may also be the heads of state-owned enterprises. Hongqi has always been regarded as the symbol of the Chinese communist party.  Owning the S9 can be interpreted as being the ultimate supporter of the CCP.

Second Generation Rich

The second group might be the second generation rich, most often their parents are the ones that are paying the bill. Buying a Ferrari or Lambo might project a rich brat image. Buying a Hongqi Hypercar doesn’t change the brat image but at least you’re a patriotic brat.

Investors

The third group will be investors, those who buy ultra-rare Ferraris and other exotic cars. These buyers buy cars purely for investment purposes. If you don’t know too much about the automotive market, typically cars are depreciating items, the moment you drive off the dealer lot you lose 20% of its original value. But that only applies to mass production vehicles, simply because anyone can buy it. 

It’s a different world when you are purchasing a Ferrari or other exotic cars that have extremely low production numbers, typically less than 500 vehicles per model, and brands like Bugatti, which only produce around 70 cars per year. And all of them will be sold long before production. 

Silk-FAW is also planning on only make 70 copies of the S9. With a market as enormous as China, I truly don’t see any reason why the S9 will have “leftovers”. 

And there will also be buyers from other parts of the world to buy the S9 simply based on personal interest and likings. However, it might take some time to build the brand image on the world stage.

The S9 isn’t a car, but an image of a nation

Since its early days, the Hongqi brand has been regarded as a symbol of China’s ruling Communist Party and has always been the brand of choice for Chinese leaders throughout history. For FAW to announce a hypercar under the Hongqi name indicates China’s reputation is on the line, there is no room for failure. 

Read More:

https://www.autonews.com/cars-concepts/us-chinese-challenger-ferrari-picks-italy-debut-18m-hypercar

https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1132544_silk-faw-hires-its-second-ferrari-veteran

https://www.silkfaw.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongqi_S9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugatti_Automobiles

The post China’s Auto Industry Takes on its Biggest Challenge Yet – Building the Silk-FAW S9 Hypercar appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

When do men start preparing for the festival?

It is estimated that 27.1% of men start preparing only 1-2 weeks ahead. 15.4% of them start before 2-4 weeks, and there is a small group of men start preparing even a month ahead. One third of the men surveyed (34.7%) had no intention to prepare ahead and just want to let it go naturally.

In terms of different relationship statuses, married men and dads have the least intention to prepare gifts for wives, while men who are in a relationship but unmarried are most active in the preparation. (no surprise here hahah)

Key takeaway:

• Create multiple campaigns with different messaging and launch them at different times based on the age and relationship status of your target consumers

Selecting restaurants

The number 1 element that has the power for men to choose restaurants for Qixi dates is whether the restaurant serves dishes that match with their taste. This is 49.5% of men’s top reason for choosing a restaurant. Following this, men also want to know the cost performance of the restaurants (46.1%) and whether it has been mentioned by their partners (34%).

Men are also prepared to wait in line for the dinner on the day. Only 18.1% of men don’t want to wait. Heads up for brands, waiting might be a beautiful thing to show one’s sincerity. Half an hour, I think this is the longest period that most people would be open to waiting, beyond that, they might get annoyed.

Key Takeaway:

• Think about what men want to eat when promoting your holiday menus! haha

Where do men seek advice on gifts?

When Qixi is around the corner, men tend to seek advice on selecting gifts on different online platforms. 13.8% of men visit Hupu (虎扑, a sports information platform), Douban (豆瓣, a forum platform) and Zhihu (知乎, a forum platform as well).

When men are searching what to buy for women, the most frequent phrase they type is 七夕 (Qixi), followed by 礼物 (gifts), 七夕礼物 (gifts for Qixi), 口红 (lipsticks), 精致 (sophisticated) and so on. A phrase that is worth noticing is 面子 or face, meaning the gift can help the man earn dignity and have his partner worship him for choosing a good gift.

Key takeaway:

• Brands should incorporate these keywords in their product names and descriptions as well and KOL posts on social media to help to get more exposure for the products you would like to promote during the holiday.

• Work with KOLs on platforms that male consumers are most likely to use.

Men love gifting entry luxury products

52.1% of men go for entry luxury products on this big day. They don’t cost as much as high-end luxury, but they are not cheap either, which shows their sincerity. In a word, this is a safe choice for many men.

Following this, 38.1% of men choose international brands. Though Chinese brands are developing fast, yet only 12.5% of men buy them as gifts.

What I think about this is that the majority of Chinese consumers choose domestic brands mostly for their own daily activities, but when it comes to festivals, domestic brands may not be their first choice to send as gifts. Time for domestic brands to think about how to win more attention in such big gifting-focused festivals, and for international brands to grasp the opportunity to get more exposure and boost sales.

Key takeaway:

• For entry lux brands, this festival is a huge opportunity. If you have limited resources, it may be more relevant to focus on marketing for this holiday than some of China’s many other holidays and shopping festivals.

What gifts do girls love to receive?

While this article is focused on male consumers, the report also had some great insights on females’ preferred Qixi gifts that can help you select which items to include in your Qixi collections next year.

The top 5 gifts that girls love to receive are watches and accessories, red pockets, shoes/apparels/bags, skincare products, and makeup products.

You may have already noticed, that while one of the top searched gifting terms for men is lipstick, lipstick actually doesn’t appear on women’s TOP5 list. This is because women are picky when it comes to shades of lipsticks, and they often don’t like the shade that men select for them. Well, if men buy a whole set, that’s another story.

The other two of the TOP 3 least-liked gifts from men are snacks and toys.

Also, 44.3% of girls don’t directly tell their partners what gifts they want to receive. They feel that gifts can show whether the man is detailed-orientated when he’s with her and pays attention to what she says and does or how she usually dresses. It’s a test for the man. If girls don’t tell their boyfriends what to buy, then who to tell boys? The Internet. So, brands, improve your SEO and get as much as exposure before the festival, especially when it’s around the corner.

The post How do Chinese Male Consumers Prepare for Qixi? 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.

Sounds familiar right? Not long ago something similar happened with the Xinjiang cotton scandal. Every year brands get caught up in scandals. But with the correct response, it doesn’t have to mean the end of their China journey.

Coach is one of those brands. It took the slow road, but it has survived and found its way back from the scandal. Recently it held a large-scale show in Shanghai which helped the brand generate lots of buzz on social media. Though Coach still has a long way to reach its previous peak performance in China, it seems like the brand is getting there.

What happened to Coach in China in 2019?

The scandal started from Versace defining Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao as individual countries on a T-shirt. Following it, many other brands such as Coach, Givenchy were discovered to have the same issue.

People were outraged and those brands’ ambassadors were busy distancing themselves from brands by announcing the termination of their contracts. A key reason why Coach was severely influenced was the cancellation of contracts by its two ambassadors: Liu Wen (刘雯) and Guan Xiaotong (关晓彤). Both of them are top celebrities and their actions drive massive amounts of attention and traffic.  Under the comment area of Coach’s apology announcement on Weibo, many people were asking the brand to get out of China and stop earning money from Chinese consumers. The future of Coach seemed dark back then.

Coach’s performance after the scandal

Social media engagement on Weibo

I choose Weibo as the subject to monitor Coach’s social media engagement. First, the platform is one of Coach’s official channels to present its brand image and announce big events. Second, Weibo’s statistics (including numbers of likes, comments and reposts) are more transparent compared with WeChat,

The data excludes posts involving celebrities and KOLs, as the engagement numbers usually go extremely high for those posts. Here is the average engagement prior to the scandal: 

And here is the average engagement after the scandal:

You can see from these two charts that Coach’s social media engagement fell dramatically after the scandal. People were reluctant to have interactions with the brand when it first started to post content again.

Sales performance after the scandal

From lack of social media engagement, it appears Coach might not survive from the scandal. However, after parent company Tapestry released its financial report of 2020, it seemed as if the effects weren’t as serious as they looked. The report shows that Greater China achieved $600.8 million in sales, accounting for 17% of Coach’s total sales. If we look at the percentage of Greater China’s contribution in 2019 and 2018, which were 18%, it didn’t make great difference.

Coach’s bags have also frequently shown up in top fashion KOLs’ posts. The event that it held on June 3 grabbed lots of attention. It seems that people have let go of the scandal back in 2019. How does Coach manage to do so?

How Coach Earned Back the Love of Consumers in China

The first Weibo post after the scandal

After its official apology on August  12, Coach didn’t post anything on its Weibo account and went silent on social media for two months.

The first post after the scandal was not until November 6, 2019. The post announced Coach’s participation in the second China International Import Expo. This is not some usual exhibition but a national-level expo, being recognized by the Chinese government.

By showing up at the Expo, Coach was delivering the message to Chinese consumers that it was making efforts to fix its mistakes and it has gained official approval to join such a government-run event.

We don’t want anything bad happens to brands. But if your brand happens to get caught up in any scandals, do keep quiet for a while. Nike hasn’t posted anything on its Weibo account since March 12, after the Xinjiang Cotton scandal, same with Calvin Klein and H&M.

Do the politically right thing

Besides the second China International Import Expo, Coach also participated in the third Expo in 2020. This shows Coach’s sincerity to please Chinese consumers and do the politically right thing in China.

Other than the Expo, when COVID first hit Wuhan in early 2020, Coach immediately donated 1 million RMB to the city. In the comments area on Weibo, people were saying Coach reacted fast and was being generous.

Celebrity and KOL strategies

After the two ambassadors terminated their collaboration with Coach, it would need to find a new one. This would be achieved once things cooled down and celebrities were willing to work with the brand again. The new ambassador it picked is Yang Zi (杨紫). She is a child star who became famous from a household TV series called Home With Kids (家有儿女). In recent years she has shed the child-star image and played the lead role in numerous romantic dramas. Yang has 57 million followers on Weibo and it is fair to say almost every young person knows her.

Before officially announcing Yang Zi as its ambassador, Coach had been interacting with her by having her appear in video clips. So on August 31, 2020, when Coach announced the collaboration, Yang’s fans were cheering up for her and the post gained 182k likes so far.

Other than Yang, Coach also actively worked with other celebrities and KOLs, including Ding Yusi (丁禹兮), Chen Yuqi (陈钰琪) and Dong Youlin (董又霖). You may find those names sound unfamiliar. And yes, they are not as famous as Liu Wen, Guan Xiaotong or Yang Zi. I think it’s not because Coach doesn’t have the budget to work with higher-level celebrities. It’s because the brand wants to be low-key for now instead of working with some big names and drawing lots of traffic all of a sudden. The brand wants to grow and recover steadily. It is playing a safe card.

Offline presence is necessary

If you follow the timeline of the Coach scandal, you will find the brand was a little bit lucky. The scandal happened in August, 2019. Coach kept silent for 2 months on social media, and then in early 2020, COVID hit the country and offline stores and events were shut down. Everything offline didn’t restart until March.

So during this period when Coach should be low-key and had better not hold any offline events, every other brand was doing the same thing because of COVID restrictions.

Even after COVID restrictions loosened, Coach stayed fairly quiet and it wasn’t until December 2020 that Coach held a big offline event. I believe December could be some people’s happiest month, as it has Christmas, and it is the end of past and a fresh start of a new beginning. Coach picked a good timing, when hate and negative voices of its past scandal might be less.

What it did for the event was to have 400 drones with lights create images of Coach’s bags and its iconic dinosaurs cartoon. The brand was wishing everyone a good holiday. The location that it chose was at The Bund, Shanghai, which is the most representative spot either in Shanghai or in China.

If The Bund event has somehow brought Coach back to the center of the stage, the following one publicly tells Chinese consumers that Coach has made its way back and it is doing better than ever.

On June 3, 2021, Coach invited top celebrities and KOLs to its Coach Winter Collection show in Shanghai. The brand designed its show place as a drive-in cinema with a vintage vibe. Celebrity attendees were diverse. There were top ones such as Yang Zi, Chinese singer Xiao Jingteng (萧敬腾) and Chinese actor Zhong Hanliang (钟汉良). Idols who become well-known to the public such because of those contestant show such as Liu Xiening (刘些宁) were also invited. In terms of KOLs, Coach mostly invited top ones such as Mr. Bag and AnnyFan.

Because of the amount of celebrities and KOLs that Coach invited and the brand’s promotion, the event drew lots of attention on social media. The tag #Coach秀场直击 (#Coach Winter Collection Broadcast) has more than 100 million views so far. Coach itself keeps posting images from the event on its official channels. KOLs who have attended the event also posted related content to further promote the show and the brand.

Our Thoughts

Well, ideally your brand doesn’t have a scandal. Though everything has two sides, and a scandal might boost your brand’s influence, in the end, it is more likely to bring negative impacts than loyal customers.

If your brand does get involved in a scandal, especially political ones which are more sensitive here in China, the first thing is always to SINCERELY apologize. Don’t just do it because you need it, such as the official apology made by Dolce & Gabbana’s founders, which worsened the situation instead.

The second thing is to keep silent. On one hand this gives your brand time to restructure and plan out next moves, and it also fades either the scandal or the brand for a while. As time goes by, with the massive amounts of information they take in every day, consumers are likely to forget the scandal.

If you strictly follow these two steps, it is likely the scandal will eventually pass.

The post China Marketing Case Study: How Coach Won Back Consumers After a Scandal appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

The Voyah brand was created under its parent company Dongfeng Motor in 2018. At the 2020 Beijing International Auto Show, Voyah officially debuted its iFree concept car. By December, the company officially announced that the iFree concept car will be put into mass production, and changed its name from iFree to Free. I guess by December adding the letter “i” in front of things was no longer cool.

Voyah Free Specs

The Voyah Free officially launched on June 19^th and is the brand’s flagship model. It is based on Dongfeng’s Electric Smart Secure Architecture (ESSA) platform. This allows the company to use the same chassis components between models in the future. A combination of front double wishbones and rear multi-links air suspension are standard on the top trim level. An all-aluminum subframe ties the suspension to the unibody.

The Voyah Free has a range of 534 miles (860km) when equipped with the C15TDR series 1.5 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder range extender engine designed and manufactured by Dongfeng Motors. The engine does not directly connect to the drivetrain, it only kicks on when battery level is low. With a whopping 670 horsepower and 734-foot pounds of torque, the Voyah Free can propel itself from 0-60 in about 4.6s and tops out at 125 miles per hour (200km/h).

Voyah Free Interior

The interior has the “standard Chinese style” screen stretching from pillar to pillar. I say standard because I have seen a surprising amount of new EVs in China coming out with this feature. The decision to have a full screen comes from the fact that most EVs currently sold in China are full autonomous driving capable, the only thing that is holding it back is the software. In the future when the software improves, the screens are there to keep both driver and passengers entertained. 

Can it Compete? 

Overall, the Voyah Free is a well-packaged family SUV that’s faster than your average sports car. However, with countless competitors, there’s not much about the brand or the vehicle that stands out and it may be hard for it to make moves against the big three: NIO, Li Auto, and Xpeng. 

The Free has already garnered decent attention, with a couple thousand search results on Xiaohongshu, but most of the posts are either from the auto related accounts and influencers, not the general public. It appears the brand has its work cut out for it when it comes to driving awareness and building its brand image. It has only just officially gone on sale, so it will be interesting to watch how the brand develops over the next few months. 

Maybe the $50k price tag can win over some buyers? We’ll have to wait and see. 

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Hongqi L-Concept Exterior

The L in L-Concept possibly stands for luxury. The overall proportion is very coupe-like, and the intricate lines of the LED headlights catches your attention. The red line down the center of the hood subtly reminds you this is still a Red Flag vehicle (Hongqi means red flag in Chinese). The finned taillight and the diamond shape pattern on the rear window would not look out of place on a sci-fi movie spaceship. Powertrain figures are currently unknown; however, it is highly likely with the government’s push towards EVs that this car will be fully electric.

Hongqi L-Concept Interior

The majority of the “Wow” happens in the interior. This car is meant to ride in, not to drive.

First off, there is no front passenger seat. The three-seat layout allows the rear seat on the right side of the vehicle to fully extend to a relaxed state with ample leg room. From the pictures, it appears that the vehicle may feature full autonomous driving, because there isn’t a traditional steering wheel, however there is still a driver’s seat, so I’m assuming there will be a retractable emergency steering wheel hiding somewhere under the dash.

Chandeliers are typically installed in your home, but why not put it in the car as well?

Yes there is a chandelier hanging between the rear seats, which joins the curvature of the panoramic glass roof. The interior dash panels are seeming to be made from high-quality ash wood.  The two-tone leather cabin divides the working and the “non-working” class.

This concept car has to be one of the most “in your face” designs I have seen this year. If this car makes to production, I think I would regard it the same way China sees pandas – as a national treasure.

The post The Hongqi L-Concept is the Definition of Luxury appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Inspired by mythology from the Tang and Song dynasties, Duanmu founder Qi Tian (祁天)  uses ancient Tang Dynasty-style wood inlaying techniques – up to thousands of wooden parts can go into the making of just one bag.

Prices typically range from 5k to 40k RMB but the brand also makes special pieces. For example, one piece sold at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong in 2019 went for 137,500 RMB ($21,375 USD).

At the moment, the brand has 4 stores in Beijing and Shanghai. It just opened the Shanghai store in Grand Gateway 66 in February. Its neighbours are LV, Chanel and other high-end luxury brands. In fact, it is the only Chinese brand on the floor with all the major international luxury brands.

A Trained Architect, How Did Duanmu Founder Qi Tian End Up Making Bags?

Born in 1983 in Beijing, Qi studied architecture at Tsinghua University and the University of Pennsylvania. But it was his hobby of collecting that inspired him to launch Duanmu in 2011. When he first started the brand, he wasn’t creating bags, he was creating boxes to store antiques. He had discovered that many collectors in China were housing their valuable collectables in regular boxes.

In a recent interview he shared, “People packed museum-quality pieces, worth tens of millions of yuan, into whatever was available, such as a shoebox or a moon cake box.”

But the demand wasn’t as high as he expected. And he also felt that his creations were just being hidden away for no one to see. He wanted to create something more visible.

In 2016, Qi found that the wooden boxes he was creating could be changed into handbags. One week after he had the idea, Qi created the first Duanmu bag and decided to solely focus on the handbag business.

A Reputation for High Quality Craftsmanship

Qi treats his products like a work of art. The patterns on all of his products, from the eye of a horse to the hairs of a deer or a rabbit, are created with Tang-Dynasty-style wood inlaying techniques, which have an accuracy to the nearest 0.1 mm.

For one of his floral-patterned bags, it takes 15 pieces of wood to make a flower with six petals-each as big as a thumbnail. The finished bag consists of 758 pieces of inlaid wood, and it has been through 22 technological processes, with 194 sub-processes.

He deliberately chooses not use printing or painting, which would be less costly and quicker to produce.

Duanmu Bags Design Inspiration

As mentioned, the brand’s designs are inspired by mythology from the Tang and Song dynasties. This choice is very intentional.

Qi has shared that, while many Western brands are exploring and beginning to incorporate Chinese aesthetics, they tend to approach it from a surface level, embellishing symbolic elements of dragons and phoenixes.

Qi feels that there is so much more to be explored about Chinese society. Duanmu’s collections feature a variety of motifs based on traditional Chinese culture, some deriving from ancient practical utensils, some from ancient bricks and stones, and others from Dunhuang murals. They also incorporate incorporate Chinese fairy tales and mythology.

Maintaining Strict Control Over Entire Production Process

Qi Tian knows a key thing that will differentiate his products from domestic handbag brands and even international luxury brands is the quality. Even as the brand has grown, he has maintained strict quality control.

Except for hardware fitting, Qi and his team handle the entire production process, from sourcing raw materials, to crafting bags and to decorating and assembling. Qi also personally selected all the craftsmen that work for him to ensure an outstanding team.  

Duanmu is Deliberately Expanding Slowly

In terms of expanding, Duanmu keeps a steady and low-key speed. Every year, it opens one to two stores in first or second tier cities. The pace is decided by the Duanmu’s manufacturing capacity and the ability to provide excellent service at those offline stores.

At the beginning, Duanmu actually went a bit overboard with its sales process. Duanmu’s sales associates told long stories of the brand to customers who visited its stores. From the positioning of a brand, to the craftsmanship involved in the production process, and even the aesthetics that Duanmu was delivering, the entire introduction took up to two hours! While some customers loved listening to stories, some simply wanted a bag and not to feel like they were getting a museum tour.

Based on feedback from customers, Duanmu quickly adjusted its approach. Sales associates now only share topics that interest each customer, instead of sharing everything.  

Duanmu is Very Selective When Choosing Offline Store Locations

Duanmu believes the location of its first store in a city is important, as it will drive consumers’ first impression of the brand. For this reason, Duanmu only chooses luxury shopping malls in first tier cities to locate its stores at the moment.

It is also worth noticing that its offline stores are decorated in an ancient China theme. Qi wants to create stores that are half for shopping and half a museum or art gallery. Qi believes that this is the best way to present Duanmu’s ancient China culture to its customers.

Read more: 与Hermès、lv、CHANEL重奢同场拍卖，一只包袋售价4w人民币，中国本土品牌「端木良锦」如何做到的？

The post Chinese Luxury Brand Duanmu Creating Bags Often Compared with Hermès appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Proving its Ability to Drive Attention and Sales

Selling Through Live Streams

Over the past year, Douyin was involved in many fashion events. It worked with Shenzhen Fashion Week and supported brands with their livestreams. 

For example, domestic designer brand LYNEE, which has 365k followers on Douyin, held a livestream during the fashion week. It made over 1.28 million RMB from the stream. What’s incredible is that the brand was founded in 2019 and its team only has around 10 people. When I wanted to search for the brand on Taobao to see what type of brand it was, I found it doesn’t have a Taobao or Tmall store, but it has a Douyin store.

Another domestic apparel brand Disimanling (迪丝嫚苓) also benefited a lot from Douyin’s support during Shenzhen Fashion Week. The brand did over 9.4 million RMB in sales on Douyin during the course of the week and 5.21 million of that came from one live stream session. 

Driving Attention

Douyin also worked with China Fashion Week to launch a ranking report about Chinese apparel brands’ performance on Douyin. It included brands such as Peacebird Women, LYNEE, TRACY CHU and others.

Douyin has also been giving traffic support for fashion related topics, such as #看秀时穿什么 (What do I wear when watching fashion shows). So far, the hashtag topic has 167 billion views on Douyin and people were actively participating in it, showing different outfits they would wear when watching those luxury shows. Many fashion KOLs were joining the trend, such as FuPeng (top live streamer Austin Li’s previous assistant) and Fil小白.

Douyin Flagship Store Feature Still in Early Stages

The flagship store feature is still very new and as of yet, few large international brands are treating Douyin Flagship Stores as an important sales channel. Peacebird Women is one of the few large brands that treats its Douyin flagship store seriously with similar inventory and as its Tmall store. With 1.43M followers on its Douyin account, it is very likely that Peacebird will become a trend setter and a case study for fashion brands considering the platform.

Last year, Douyin made huge progress building its e-commerce system. In the first 11 months of 2020, Douyin’s total e-commerce GMV grew 11 times and its Douyin Store (抖音小店) revenue grew 44.9 times. To clarify, when Douyin first launched e-commerce, it offered the ability to link out to other platforms such as Tmall, Taobao, and JD.com. Then, last year it started restricting outbound commerce links, encouraging brands and KOLs to open up Douyin Stores. Now the difference between Douyin Stores and a flagship store is that anyone can apply for a Douyin Store while a flagship store requires a brand’s trademark to apply, thereby is more trustworthy for consumers.

For those familiar with the Alibaba ecosystem, this is like comparing a Taobao store with a Tmall flagship store – same concept.

Compared with Taobao and WeChat, Douyin is like a teenager who has unlimited vitality and the most important fact is that, until now, there is no winners on the platform since it is still in an early age.

Ultimate Goal of Douyin Flagship Store: Convincing Luxury Fashion Brands to Join

If you read our previous article on Louis Vuitton’s 26,700 RMB inflatable vest you’ll know that an important reason why the vest went so viral and it was out of stock in many LV stores was because it went viral on Douyin. Many users were DIY-ing their own vests or testing out the LV vest as a life vest. The related topic #LV空气马甲 (LV’s inflatable vest) reached 280 million views.

Luxury brands already have confidence in Douyin. In March 2018, Dior became one of the first luxury brands to open a Douyin account. Since then many luxury brands have followed suit, opening their own accounts on the platform, including Gucci, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, Prada, Fendi and Burberry.

Behind those brands’ entering is their intention to reach young consumers. With the traffic bottleneck on Weibo and WeChat, luxury brands are urgently experimenting with Douyin, Bilibili and Xiaohongshu. 

Changing Their Mindset About Douyin

At the moment, luxury brands use Douyin as a platform to build their brand images and to tell brand stories. Douyin needs to convince them that it’s platform can also have commercial value and produce high conversion rates. 

Maybe the Douyin flagship store will open up a new world for those luxury brands, and it is very likely that in the future it will become the norm for luxury brands to have not only a Tmall flagship store and a WeChat mini program store, but now also a Douyin flagship store as well.

Read more: 深度｜时尚品牌在抖音上的机会终于来了吗？

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