The high-end of the new national tide cannot be "raised" by "raising prices"

Xie Ruolin

The National Bureau of Statistics released the 2021 China economic data on January 17, and the annual GDP increased by 8.1% year-on-year, achieving a good start in the "14th Five-Year Plan". With the steady growth of the economy, the people's cultural self-confidence and national pride have been significantly improved, and the "national tide" has been redefined.

Relevant data show that in the past decade, the popularity of searches related to "national tide" has increased by 528%. Among them, in 2021, the attention related to "national tide culture" increased by 128% year-on-year; "national tide digital", "national tide clothing" and "national beauty" became the top three in the 2021 "national tide" hot search topic list.

So, what exactly is the "national tide"?

Not all domestic brands can be called "national tide", and on the basis of domestic production, it must also be integrated into the Chinese trend culture. The real "national tide" products can often stimulate consumers' strong sense of cultural and national identity in terms of design, marketing, brand establishment, etc.

As the "national tide" culture is recognized by more and more consumers, the prices of related products are also rising. As one of the representatives of the "national tide" products, Bosideng recently appeared on the hot search with the "10,000 yuan down jacket", causing netizens to lament that "the national tide is becoming more and more expensive", and even "high and unattainable". According to the relevant research reports, since 2018, the price increase of the main brand of Bosideng has reached 30% to 40%.

In fact, in addition to Bosideng, there are many national tide brands that have "raised prices" significantly. On November 4, 2021, Li Ning released a new premium sports fashion brand LI-NING1990, focusing on high-end light luxury, and the product pricing is mostly 1.3 times to 1.5 times that of China's Li Ning product line.

It is true that a brand is maturing and the premium is a normal phenomenon, but some companies have put the cart before the horse in the process of chasing the "national tide", emphasizing marketing, heavy packaging, and heavy prices, completely regard the word "national tide" as a "wealth code", ignoring the product itself: In June 2021, the so-called "no drop of water" of the national tide ice cream represented "Zhong Xuegao", who was named by the China Consumer Association for many times involving false publicity; at the 2021 National Games, the newly promoted Olympic champion Chen Yufei was cut by Li Ning's special badminton competition shoes In August 2021, the national tide brand PEACEBIRD was punished for falsely advertising that the product had a "fat-burning" effect; in September 2021, the Jiangnan cloth children's clothing brand printed with improper patterns caused consumer dissatisfaction...

According to Ai Media Consulting's "2019-2020 Analysis of Consumer Consumption Characteristics in China's New National Brand Era", 30% of the netizens surveyed expect that the "National Tide" brand can be more cost-effective in the future.

In the "national tide" trend, consumers have reflected rationality, the "national tide" brand at the same time, call on it to return to the commodity itself, "price increase" more "quality"; producers should take advantage of the situation to consolidate product quality, can not only stare at the high-end, should not be equated with high-end painting; after all, the rapid rise of the "national tide" brand still needs time to precipitate, in its quality, design, after-sales, cultural connotation and other aspects of progress, I believe that consumers will be willing to accept the high price to match.