Focus on cultural phenomena and styles that influence contemporary consumers
作者 | Jingyi Li 编辑 | Mos Wu
Image source: AYAYI's official Weibo
From the popularization of the Internet, to the rise of e-commerce and social media, to the application of mobile Internet and big data, and the future of intelligent and omni-channel integration...... Looking back at China's digital wave, we have witnessed the rapid development of technology and profound changes in consumer behavior. These phased changes have also had a profound impact on the brand's cultural communication.
In this article, Jing Daily takes the digitalization process as a clue, sorts out the connotation characteristics of each stage of development, and analyzes the cultural communication and challenges of brands in China's digitalization process.
Everything breaks ground
The rise of e-commerce
In 1994, China officially connected to the Internet, marking the beginning of China's Internet era. With the spread of the Internet in China, the number of Internet users has increased rapidly, email and instant messengers have become the main means of digital communication, and brand marketing has gradually migrated online. At that time, brands began to establish an official website to showcase their brand image and introduce products and services. Although less interactive, this is the brand's first attempt to spread its culture through China's online channels.
The real "digital" shift in consumption in the Chinese market was in the mid-2000s. At the beginning of 2003, the outbreak of SARS had a huge impact on society, and the large reduction of crowd gatherings and personal contacts created an opportunity for the development of e-commerce in China. Driven by the social environment, consumer demand and technological progress, China's e-commerce has been making great progress, from Taobao, Paipai.com, and eBay to Jingdong and Taobao, and then to Pinduoduo to stand out from the encirclement, Douyin and Kuaishou live broadcast e-commerce have entered the game, showing a situation in the e-commerce era of "competing for the deer".
E-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com have become an important channel for brand marketing, with brands opening official stores on e-commerce platforms to market and sell products directly to consumers. Compared with physical stores, the unique advantage of online e-commerce is that it breaks the geographical and time constraints, enabling brands to reach a wider audience and disseminate brand information around the clock. On the other hand, through data analytics and artificial intelligence technology, brands are able to achieve precise marketing and personalized recommendations.
E-commerce platforms such as Tmall have become important channels for brand marketing.
Image source: Tmall
In 2016, Taobao took the lead in launching the live e-commerce feature, which is also known as the "first year of live e-commerce". With the explosion of Douyin live broadcast, live broadcast e-commerce has developed rapidly in 2019 and has become the most important marketing model and consumption scenario in the consumer market. According to Zhang Xiao, deputy director of the China Internet Network Information Center, online consumer applications such as e-commerce live streaming will continue their growth momentum in 2023, with more than 60 million users compared to 2022. After seeing the huge potential of China's e-commerce live streaming, luxury brands that are constantly pursuing growth are also exploring live streaming in order to find new growth points.
User-led
Social media ecology
In the past "618", many e-commerce platforms gave up the "pre-sale" rules of previous years and directly attracted consumers with low prices, but failed to stimulate more enthusiasm among them. Since last year, major e-commerce platforms have also "tacitly" no longer announced the "618" report card, but selectively announced the sales of some categories, which also reflects the overall growth rate of "618" is slowing down.
The overall growth rate of China's e-commerce "618" is slowing down.
图片来源：Marketing China
Ms. Zhou, an e-commerce veteran, told Jing Daily that the "coldness" of e-commerce promotions is an inevitable phenomenon, "With the gradual saturation of the Internet user base, traditional traffic acquisition methods can no longer bring a large number of new users to brands, which will inevitably lead to a decline in sales of e-commerce platforms." The competition between e-commerce platforms is becoming increasingly fierce, and various promotional activities are emerging one after another, and it is naturally difficult to increase sales under the constraints of all parties." At this point, the intervention of social media can help brands attract new traffic and direct it to e-commerce platforms or offline stores, achieving seamless omni-channel integration.
According to the report "Enjoying the New Chapter of the Digital Future: Insights into the Digital Trends of China's Luxury Market (2023 Edition)" jointly released by Tencent Marketing Insights (TMI) and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), China's main online sales channel is e-commerce platforms, but one obvious phenomenon is that its sales share is decreasing, from 83% in 2019 to 74% in 2022, and more opportunities are flowing to social platforms with e-commerce business.
It is worth noting that users who go to social platforms no longer passively accept product information and promotional advertisements transmitted by brands, but more actively and actively obtain interesting brand information and valuable brand content through different media, and make corresponding judgments and decisions. Peng Lan, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University, pointed out in "Introduction to Network Communication" that the protagonist of social media platforms is the user, not the operator of the website, and the large number of people and spontaneous communication are the two major elements that constitute social media. And these two points happen to bring a certain uncertainty to the cultural communication of the brand.
In addition, the influence of key opinion leaders (KOLs) and key opinion consumers (KOCs) on social media should not be underestimated, and their recommendations and shares quickly drive trends or become an important part of pop culture. With the reach of KOLs and KOCs, brands can reach their target audience on social media and build a stronger emotional connection with consumers by enhancing brand authenticity and relatability through user-generated content. At the same time, some brands are increasing their brand communication by participating in and guiding hot topics and trends.
The craze subsided
Former Universe
Just as SARS accelerated the development of e-commerce in China in 2003, the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020 also drove the concept of the metaverse to heat up rapidly in the Chinese market, becoming a hot topic in the technology and internet industries. Chinese tech giants such as Tencent, Alibaba, and ByteDance are actively deploying metaverse-related businesses, providing users with immersive digital experiences through virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), blockchain and other technologies. The government has also begun to pay attention to the development of the metaverse, and several local governments have issued policies to support the development of the metaverse industry.
Last year, Tmall created a series of luxury 3D spaces.
Image source: Alibaba
At the same time, through the creation of virtual scenes, virtual community events, NFT products, and cross-border collaborations, brands are able to immerse consumers in the brand culture in virtual spaces or experiences, increasing their sense of engagement and belonging, while increasing brand loyalty. It's a new way for brands to connect with consumers during lockdowns.
However, after a period of popularity, the metaverse is now in an embarrassing situation: metaverse project players have retreated, ByteDance has shut down the metaverse social app "Party Island", Tencent's digital collection platform "Phantom Core" has been abolished, and the TME digital collection business has also been suspended. The related virtual and digital humans are more used as marketing tools, and NFC digital collectibles have been overshadowed by their immaturity in terms of compliance after a brief period of popularity.
The reason for this is, on the one hand, that the development of metaverse technology still faces many challenges. The technology that has not yet fully matured limits the advancement of its large-scale application. On the other hand, Chinese consumers' acceptance and usage habits of new technologies have limited the popularization of the metaverse concept: although the early craze has attracted a lot of consumer attention, the user base of actual use of the metaverse and Web3 products is relatively limited, and people's understanding and application of these new technologies are still in the exploration stage, lacking the actual needs and habits of daily use.
In addition, the regulatory policies of various governments regarding the metaverse, Web3, and virtual human technology have not yet been fully clarified. Regulatory uncertainty increases the risk of companies investing and innovating in these emerging areas, affecting the speed of technology development and market acceptance. Especially in China, the government's tightening of regulations on digital currency and blockchain technology has also had an impact on the development of Web3-related technologies.
Concerns under media innovation:
Information cocoon
Looking back at the midpoint of 2024, China's digitalization process has driven the development of brand culture marketing from a simple online presence to complex precision marketing and omni-channel integration. Technological advancements and platform changes at each stage have provided brands with new tools and ways to enhance their interactions and connections with consumers.
However, due to the nature of the medium itself, people are increasingly influenced by algorithms and personalized recommendations, and the channels and content of information access tend to be simplified. American scholar Cass R. Sunstein calls this phenomenon an "information cocoon", with the development of network technology and the rapid increase of information, people are more inclined to choose the topics they want to pay attention to and hear the same voices, resulting in information and opinions being strengthened in a closed circle. So, how can brands break the "information cocoon"?
"Brands can adopt more diversified strategies to expand the breadth and depth of their messaging." Ms. Zhou thinks. For example, marketing across multiple channels and different types of media to expand the reach of brand messages. In addition, partnering with KOLs and KOCs in different fields to leverage their influence and fan base to expand the spread of brand messages may be an effective way to break the "information cocoon".
Louis Vuitton 官宣王嘉尔为品牌代言人。
图片来源:Louis Vuitton
What's next for China's digitalization journey? In China's digitalization process, the continuous evolution of technology and changes in consumer behavior have shaped a diverse market landscape. In the future, with the in-depth development of intelligent technology and omni-channel integration, brands will pay more attention to innovation and user experience, and continue to break the "information cocoon" of cultural communication through cross-border cooperation and content diversification.
author
Jing Daily 中国区编辑
Jingyi Li
Jingyi's coverage covers the fields of fashion, beauty, wellness, finance and lifestyle, and analyzes the luxury industry from multiple perspectives such as social environment, market trends, and consumer insights. She graduated from the University of the Arts London with a degree in Fashion Management and International Fashion Retailing.