Category
This year’s Chinese Valentine’s Day, a.k.a, Qixi will fall earlier than usual (on 07 Aug), and 7 luxury brands are launching special campaigns and exclusive collections. Valentino has debuted a secret gift box that sold out within 20 minutes after going live. click for more…
INSIGHT & IMPLICATION: In the past few years, Qixi has become a battlefield for luxury brands trying to win over Chinese consumers’ hearts. As usual, brands are acting in advance to plant gift ideas into consumer minds, but are now using WeChat Mini Programs as their preferred channel to release exclusive collections. Other elements of campaign strategies include hunger and influencer/celebrity marketing, early releases accompanied by mobile games and unique storytelling. In order to make their products more relevant to the Chinese consumers, brands are increasingly incorporating elements of traditional Chinese culture into their design and communications. That said, unique content, storytelling and seamless experience remain the key ingredients to win over Chinese consumers who have higher-than-ever brand expectations.
Consumer
99% of Chinese GenZs (born between 1995 and 2009) said they had some knowledge of IPR (Intellectual Property Rights), compared with a global average of 85%, and 70% of them said they planned to buy fewer counterfeit products in the future. click for more…
INSIGHT & IMPLICATION: Chinese consumers nowadays are inclined to be more aware of intellectual property rights and respect them, especially younger generations like GenZ. Their attitude towards buying counterfeited goods is also more likely to be driven by ethical rather than financial considerations. This generation also takes brands more seriously and tends to appreciate their culture and values more than other generations, with the brands whose products they use helping them express themselves. This is why their expectations are higher than ever and brands need to invest in developing creative ideas and products that will capture their imagination while making it easy for Chinese consumers to spot and report counterfeited products.
Culture
The penetration rates of Tenpay, inclusive of WeChat Pay and Mobile QQ Wallet, and AliPay in China are 89.2% and 69.5% respectively, with the number of estimated users reaching 940 million and 740 million respectively, according to Ipsos’s report from May 2019. click for more…
INSIGHT & IMPLICATION: Mobile payments have become integrated into numerous aspects of life in China, with four basic payment scenarios: person-to-person (P2P), online shopping, offline shopping and financial product purchases. Online and offline shopping payments happen daily and often include smaller amounts of funds, while purchases of financial products have lower frequency but higher transaction value. Tenpay’s strength is in P2P transaction scenarios, with red envelopes (hongbao) and money transfers being the core pillars. In addition to these, Tenpay also leads in entertainment bookings (e.g. cinema or karaoke parlors) and gaming top-ups. AliPay, on the other hand, is leading in online and offline shopping scenarios. Brands need to understand each of these scenarios and when Tenpay and AliPay are being used so they can utilize these ecosystem, effectively reach their users and improve their engagement and sales conversion rates.
Media
Chinese short video app Kuaishou’s number of daily active users (DAUs) of its game-centric, live streaming service has exceeded 35 million, surpassing the game–streaming platform Douyu’s 15 million DAUs. click for more…
INSIGHT & IMPLICATION: In terms of monthly active users, Douyu is still the largest game-streaming platform, but its users are not in the habit of logging in as often as Kuaishou’s users. Although Kuaishou is mostly known as a short video app competing with Douyin, it is now unexpectedly also competing with game-streaming platforms like Douyu and Huya, which could explain why it tends to be easier to convert short video users to live-streaming users within one app. The users of these two platforms may display different behavior and have different motivations, which is why brands, in order to successfully reach these consumers, first need to understand why and how they engage on these platforms, what the key differences are and develop communications assets that will help enhance the user experience.
Have a great weekend!
