Today’s episode features Chloe Reuter, Founding Partner of Gusto Luxe, to share findings from Gusto’s new report on the state of China’s luxury market post COVID-19 along with some of her personal observations being heavily immersed in Shanghai’s luxury community.

Some of the ideas we discuss include:

• Is the revenge buying that we hear about in the news real? Or are luxury consumers actually being conservative with their spending?
• Is health the new wealth?
• Why COVID-19 has made sustainability a greater concern among HNWI
• What are the hottest domestic travel destinations among luxury consumers?
• Dior’s take on the e-commerce live streaming trend

Guest: Chloe Reuter

LinkedIn

Report: Love of Luxury Remains Strong Among Shanghainese Women – But Conscious Consumerism Here To Stay

Email: chloe.reuter@gusto-luxe.com

The post The State of China’s Luxury Market Post COVID-19 appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Pinduoduo is one of China’s largest e-commerce platforms and an industry leader who helped popularize the concept of social commerce in China. Yet while it initially became famous for its wildly popular group-buying feature, Pinduoduo has since evolved into much more than just a group buying platform. 

In this episode Ada Yang, Head of Social Community at Pinduoduo gives us an overview of the platform, and then shares several other features and initiatives you many not have heard of such as:

• A virtual farming game where users can earn real fruit sent to their home for free
• Its relatively new live streaming feature and how PDD is iterating on the popular live streaming trend
• Its New Brand Initiative that leverages user data to help export factories who have been hard hit by COVID and the negative geopolitical situation to create entirely new brands aimed at the domestic market, guiding them through product development, branding, and marketing.

Guest: Ada Yang

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pinduoduoinc/

Twitter: @pinduoduoinc

The China Ecommerce Podcast

Medium

Learn more about the topics we discussed:

• Pinduoduos effort to help farmers with technology and alleviate poverty in rural areas
• New Brand initiatives 
• Shanghai vintage brand Campaign 
• MIT Tech Review article on PDD C2M model
• An article about Duoduo Live

The post Understanding Pinduoduo’s Evolution, with Ada Yang appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

In this episode, Demi Ping, Sector Head for Retail and E-Commerce at the China-Britain Business Council, shares how the CBBC helps British brands of all sizes and industries succeed in China and some of the key marketing tactics they having been leveraging this year to help brands stay afloat through COVID-19.

Some of the topics we cover include:

• Which British product categories are most popular among Chinese consumers
• Why are brand stores such as K11, The Beast, and SKP an important stepping stone for many brands
• The CBBC’s annual offline event The Great British Brands Festival and how they brought it online during COVID-19 for the first ever UK Super Brand Day on Tmall
• Her experience working with brands on e-commerce live streaming and Chinese influencer campaigns and her tips for driving results

While Demi and the CBBC obviously focus on British brands, her insights are highly relevant for any foreign brands. I particularly liked the way that the CBBC organizes collaborative events and campaigns among multiple British brands. This is a great idea for brands that are newer to the market and have limited resources. 

Guest: Demi Ping

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pingping618/

Email: demi.ping@cbbc.org.cn

The post Podcast: Marketing British Brands to China appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Hi everyone and welcome back to another edition of The Pulse, where I share a collection of noteworthy China marketing campaigns and content trends.

I cover quite a few topics in this July episode including:

• Trending domestic travel destination in Ningxia nicknamed “China’s Route 66” and  “China’s Morocco”
• The massive growing demand for edible Bird’s Nest and the two brands that ranked 1 and 2 in Taobao’s Pharmaceuticals category during this year’s 618 shopping festival
• My tips for how brands can leverage the super popular reality show “Sisters Who Make Waves”
• Some examples of how brands besides Perfect Dairy are using private traffic
• Nayuki Tea’s very transparent food safety article
• A great example of how brands can be leveraging the fan economy done by C-beauty brand Colorkey
• How top live streamer Viya is expanding her presence to other social platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu and capturing people’s hearts

I filmed videos to go along with this episode and provide more visuals. I have linked to the ones that are already published and as we edit the rest of them I will continue to link them up here!

The post The China Marketing Pulse: July Edition appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Although Chinese consumers are known for their love of online shopping, offline events remain an important part of brands’ marketing mix, allowing consumers to immerse themselves in the brand and experience it with all of their senses. What’s more, attending the latest pop-ups and exhibitions and taking selfies to share on social media is a major form of social proof for China’s young consumers.

Despite the importance of offline events, it’s not something we have covered much on the podcast, which is a bit ironic given my background in event marketing. So today I invited on my former Edelman colleague Ryan Whelan, now founder of event marketing agency Pennyfields, to share his top tips for executing offline events in China.

We cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Costs
• Production quality
• Timelines
• Restrictions + regulations
• Common issues when dealing with VIP guests
• Working with Chinese press, WeMedia & KOLs

And more!

Guest: Ryan Whelan

Website: https://pennyfields.co/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rywhelan/

The post Top Tips for Executing Offline Events in China appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Private traffic (sīyù liúliàng 私域流量) was one of the biggest China marketing trends of 2019. It has become even more popular in 2020 as an increasing number of brands and livestreamers have begun implementing this tactic.

While the term is thrown around a lot, many listeners may still not have heard of it. Tune in for answers to the following questions, and more:

• What exactly is private traffic?
• Isn’t it just private WeChat groups?
• Why has this tactic become so popular?
• Is it a tactic my brand should be using?
• How does private traffic actually work and is it scalable?
• How can we track the ROI?
• Are there any case studies for my industry?

If you or your brand are facing questions such as these, you’re in luck! Today’s episode is the audio from our Private Traffic 101 webinar co-hosted with recent podcast guest Doris Ke.

You should be able to understand the content without visuals, but if you’d like to check out the presentations, you can watch the webinar replay here.

The post Podcast: What is Private Traffic & Should My Brand Be Using it? appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Today I have Michael Norris, Research and Strategy Manager at Agency China, on the podcast to discuss the growing intersection of luxury and gaming, from collaborations with virtual influencers, to luxury brands creating their own games or gamifying the shopping experience, to brands creating product lines influenced by characters from popular online games.

This trend is not isolated to China, it is a global phenomenon, so we discuss the origins of the trend and how it manifests itself differently in the West vs. in China, and how it might develop in the future. To help illustrate the trend, Michael and I shared several case studies which I have linked to below!

Resources/Mentioned in the Episode:

1. Global Phenomenon
   1. LV: Lightning – A Virtual Heroine
   2. Even better than the real thing? Meet the virtual influencers taking over your feeds
   3. You can try on the latest Adidas sneaker drop on Snapchat
   4. From Animal Crossing to esports: how fashion met gaming
   5. Animal Crossing

2. China Angle
   1. Dissecting the 10 Best Luxury WeChat Campaigns
   2. Luxury brands Hermès, Guerlain and Dior use mobile games to attract Chinese millennials
   3. Beauty games: M.A.C. lipstick collaboration with Tencent mobile game sells out in 24 hours (not specifically luxury, but relevant)
   4. Why luxury brands are betting on Bilibili
   5. Alibaba Uses Lockdown to Promote Its Virtual Avatar Game
   6. Can Virtual Influencers and Avatars Change the Face of Chinese Ecommerce?
   7. What Could Be the Next Trend for Livestreaming?

Guest: Michael Norris

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljohnnorris/

Twitter: briefnorris

The post Is the future of luxury in gaming? appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

On June 8, Yatsen E-commerce, the parent company of Chinese cosmetics unicorn Perfect Diary, held a press event in Guangzhou to launch its newest brand, Abby’s Choice (完子心选wánzǐ xīnxuǎn) — and the China Marketing Podcast attended!

In today’s episode, hear Kejie share what she learned at the event and her experience visiting the new Abby’s Choice offline store.

Perfect Diary has become a leader in China’s cosmetics industry in only three years and its innovative marketing strategies are often used as case studies. It will be interesting to see if Abby’s Choice can replicate Perfect Diary’s success.

In addition, while Kejie was in Guangzhou, she visited the offline stores of two other Chinese brands, tea company Nayuki Tea (奈雪的茶 nàixuě de chá) and multi-brand beauty retailer The Colorist (调色师 tiáosè shī). She also shares in this episode her impressions of the stores and her key takeaways about the brands.

Related Videos:

A Visit to One of China’s Most Popular Tea Shops, Nayuki Tea

Perfect Diary parent company Yatsen launches Abby’s Choice

Related Articles:

Perfect Diary’s Virtual Influencer Gets Her Own Mini Program Store, Product Line
THE COLORIST – Images of the Store
Nayuki Recent 520 Art Cup Collection

The post Podcast: Introducing Abby’s Choice; Visiting Nayuki and Colorist Stores appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

This week I’m introducing a new  monthly series called “The Pulse” where I will share my recent observations on the China marketing industry, ranging from new social media platform features and trending topics, to WeChat Official Accounts or influencers that I think are worth following, a cool campaign, or an up-and-coming brand. 

Topics covered in this episode:

• Xiaohongshu product sample giveaway function
• E-commerce live streaming features you may not know about
• Perfect Diary virtual pet loyalty point game
• Chinese beauty brand Little Ondine 小奥汀
• Xiaohongshu hot topic #我的看展vlog encouraging users to visit museums and offline exhibitions
• Popular search terms on Xiaohongshu 胖女孩, 微胖, 胖妹妹 show plus-sized women are seeking fashion advice
• Useful Official Account – Taobangdan 淘榜单
• Some things to consider before working with a live streaming KOL

Click on the links above to watch related videos!

The post The Pulse: Bite-sized news about China’s marketing industry appeared first on China Marketing Insights.

Over the past couple years, Chinese brands have been experiencing massive growth, both the newly founded direct to consumer brands as well as the more established Chinese brands that have rebranded and revitalized themselves to attract a younger audience. 

Where does the growth come from? Well these brands have proven themselves to be savvy marketers, quickly adopting the newest social platforms and marketing tactics, and developing products, branding and messaging that shows a deep understanding of their target audience’s preferences and tastes. 

To get a better understanding of this trend, I will be inviting several of these brands on the podcast, but before we do that, today I brought on Chinese marketing expert Doris Ke to give us an overview of the industry and key drivers behind the growth of these brands. She also shares some of her favorite domestic brands that she is watching right now. 

Doris is the Founder & CEO of Digipont and a well-known B2B marketing thought leader in China with a popular WeChat Official account. If you subscribe to my newsletter then you have definitely read her articles before! 

Brands Mentioned in the Episode: 

• 完美日记 Perfect Diary
• 元气森林 Genki Forest
• Wonderlab

The post Why Chinese brands are gaining the upper hand appeared first on China Marketing Insights.