01 Prompt marketing
There is no doubt that "playing memes" has become the hottest marketing hotspot at present. From the official account in the first half of the year to collectively increase fans by playing "abstract", to this month's Sijiatu x Yang Mi magic advertising out of the circle, more and more brands have joined the ranks of "stalk marketing" because of the "stalk" dividend, and it has also opened up more forms of online and offline stalks. Brands enter the dialogue context of young people through "memes" and resonate with them emotionally. Compared with traditional advertising, "meme marketing" has the characteristics of low cost, high dissemination, more able to stimulate users' interest and participation, and improve user stickiness. However, this month's Gu Ming meme overturning incident also reminded everyone above: not all stalks are suitable for marketing, and don't use "abstraction" as a life-saving straw. Finally, share a few hot stalks in September: "Life needs Passion" "What is true", "It is the age of xxx", "Package", "Destiny", "Destiny", ......
The eleventh long holiday is coming to an end, don't you prepare a "prefabricated circle of friends"?
02 Healing economy
The most heartwarming marketing case in September was the Disney subway advertisement.
Taking the real footage of visitors in the park, combined with Disney's fairy tale scenes and relevant copywriting, the warmth of "the world is in tatters, Disney is patching up".
Whether they have been to Disney or not, people who see these posters on the street or in the subway station will be hit and infected by the sense of story, fairy tale and happiness in the picture, and these positive emotional values silently heal every tired passerby.
It can be said that this is a successful application of the healing economy in brand marketing.
With the increasing pressure of modern society, people are paying more and more attention to their physical and mental health, and the healing economy has increasingly become a key word in brand marketing.
In addition to Disney, the popularity of the toy brand jELLYCAT has also been rising recently, and the rise of this brand with "soothing" as its core selling point once again confirms the high demand for healing products and content in the current consumer market.
03 Mid-Autumn Festival
As one of the traditional Chinese festivals, the Mid-Autumn Festival keywords are inseparable from reunion and moon appreciation, and mooncakes, as a limited item of the Mid-Autumn Festival, have always been an excellent carrier for marketing creativity.
However, according to the analysis of the "2024 China Moon Cake Industry Market Trend" report, due to the lack of consumer demand and the intensification of market competition, the overall output and sales of moon cakes this year are basically flat or slightly declined. On the market side, it is manifested that big-name mooncakes cannot be sold.
However, from the marketing side, there are still some new ideas for the 2024 Mid-Autumn Festival:
First, traditional Chinese medicine moon cakes are popular in the market, and the concept of health preservation is further highlighted in moon cakes.
For example, Beijing Tong Ren Tang, Hangzhou Huqing Yutang, Yunnan Baiyao and other time-honored brands have launched "Chinese medicine style" moon cakes this year, including green grapes, jasmine dendrobium, pumpkin egg yolk, codonopsis astragalus and other flavors, compared with the previous two years of low sugar, sugar substitute concept, the combination of the concept of "medicine and food homology" and moon cakes, so that the health attributes are more prominent.
Photo source: Xiaohongshu @ Li Xinyuan
Second, the amount of local moon cakes began to increase, and the cultural and tourism attributes of moon cakes were further strengthened.
In addition to the special mooncakes launched by museums around the world, this year, local cultural and tourism bureaus have also taken action to re-promote local specialties of the Mid-Autumn Festival. For example, the hollow moon cakes in Shanxi, the oil and spicy puff pastry moon cakes in Shaanxi, and the snail lion powder moon cakes in Guangxi have all won a lot of popularity on the Internet.
The third is the continuous involution of IP co-branding. In addition to the classic IPs that were popular in the past, Daoxiangcun has set its sights on the hot game IP "Black Myth · Wukong" this year, and launched a joint gift box of "Monkey King and Moon, Face the Mandate of Heaven"; Kuaishou and Liaoning Fine Arts Publishing House launched the "Great Sage" moon cakes.
04 Autumn Launch
Autumn is a time for many industries to launch new products, especially in the technology, automotive, and fashion industries.
September is not only the beginning of the new school year, but also the active launch of technology brands, which provides a hot spot for multi-industry marketing.
For example, Apple released the iPhone16 series of new products this fall, Huawei released the world's first three-fold screen mobile phone, compared with the normalized interpretation of Apple's press conference, Huawei shot nearly 20 advertisements for promotion, as well as the "three folds, how to fold, have faces" advertising slogan spread rapidly on the Internet, and created a new "electronic fold" network stalk under the meme of netizens.
In terms of taking advantage of marketing, Hema took advantage of the "apples, pomegranates" homophonic gift box launched by Apple 16 to reap a wave of attention during the press conference because of its ingenuity and joy.
05 Retail
This month, there are endless dynamic news about the retail industry, such as the opening of a mass-selling snack store that has attracted a lot of attention, the opening of Yonghui supermarkets in many places that have been renovated by Fat Donglai, and the 6.3 billion yuan investment of Miniso's investment in Yonghui...... The prospects and models of retail, especially offline retail, have been widely discussed.
At the same time, METRO's store closure and ALDI's price reduction also reveal the transformation of the industry from the era of increment to shrinkage.
In addition to the attention of benchmark enterprise models such as Fat Donglai and Sam's, trend keywords such as consumption upgrading and downgrading, channel sinking, smart supply chain and zero inventory, online and offline integration and omni-channel have also triggered thinking about industry reform and development.
06JELLYCAT
On September 21st, Jellycat CAFÉ officially opened in Shanghai, attracting attention from all walks of life.
As a toy brand, Jellycat has been known not only for its plush dolls, but also for its original and immersive selection of products.
On the basis of the anthropomorphism of the dolls, Jellycat's offline stores will also arrange for the store staff to perform "packing" performances, such as buying a potted doll, and the store staff will start with planting and give away a house-style performance including watering, pruning and other actions.
This absurd but childlike marketing model has given consumers an offline shopping experience with great emotional value, and has also triggered learning and imitation in many industries.
For example, the "Malatang Version" doll launched by Gansu Provincial Museum, the velvet bun launched by the cultural and creative brand Daxiang Cultural and Creative, and the milk tea brand Shanghai Auntie created a Shanghai plush dessert shop offline......
"Chinese's own Jellycat" has become a major marketing hotspot in the brand industry.
07 The beginning of the school season
For brand owners, students, especially college students, are a very key group. On the one hand, they have huge consumption potential and the number of groups is growing steadily, and on the other hand, they are able to create and lead new trends.
In order to grasp this group, the school season is a period of special attention for retailers and brands every year, and the commonly used marketing strategies for the school season include providing special discount promotions, focusing on the dialogue of the orientation scene, and targeting the pain points of students.
In the past two years, the focus and entry point of the brand in the marketing of the school season have become more and more refined, and the communication distance with the young group has been continuously narrowed.
For example, this year, Taobao Shendian List and Douban Group jointly launched a report on the interests and hobbies of young people, providing new guidance for brands to decode young people from the perspectives of pain culture, good luck metaphysics, manual skills, and cyber learning.
08 Wild Maillard / Yadan Wind
After peppermint mambo took over dopamine to become a popular color in the spring and summer of 2024, the Maillard style, which was popular last year, also ushered in a new upgrade this autumn.
Jingdong Apparel put forward the concept of "Wilderness Maillard" in the dressing trend released by Xiaohongshu and VOGUE, further enriching the Maillard color matching, on the basis of retaining the Maillard colors such as caramel color, coffee color, earth color, etc., adding tundra green, Maple Leaf Chinese Restaurant, rock gray, hawthorn red and other wilderness colors, integrating freedom, independence, maturity and restraint.
In the 2024 autumn and winter trend report released by Douyin Mall, the concept of "Yadan style" is proposed, emphasizing the beauty of the silhouette with both texture and rigidity and softness.
The emergence of these color hotspots has provided new inspiration for brand launches, KOL planting, IP co-branding, etc., and the emotional value and color healing function behind these colors also need to be explored and extended.
(Source: Marketing & Brand Officer)