Reviewing 2021, many new marketing tactics emerged, such as the new concept of 'metaverse' and 'private domain traffic'. This article sorts out several marketing focuses, key words, and marketing development trends in 2021 for reference by brand owners and distributors in the upstream and downstream of the industry.

Marketing Keywords

01. Private Domain If previously the topic of discussion was 'whether to do private domain', last year the focus rose to a new level, becoming 'how to do private domain'. In specific practice, enterprises of different industries, stages, and sizes have different needs for private domain.

For emerging brands, how to use the most effective short path to reach customers and achieve maximum value accumulation in the long term is crucial. This not only determines the speed of seizing market opportunities, but more importantly, through continuous user asset accumulation, it helps avoid becoming a commercial 'shooting star'.

Pop Mart, a representative of trendy toys, leveraged WeChat's private domain ecosystem to greatly release its business model. Through the 'Pop Mart Box Draw Machine' mini-program, it extended the offline experience to online, achieving 'know immediately upon purchase' and allowing users to share with friends or blind box enthusiasts right away. Pop Mart has accumulated over 10 million members in WeChat private domain, with a repurchase rate as high as 50%.

However, as a brand-new business paradigm, not every enterprise in it has found the correct key to open it. So first, we need to thoroughly understand the essence of private domain, deeply understand its core value and advantages; second, combine our own business model and needs to find the key leverage point to activate private domain value; finally, skillfully use the tools provided by the platform, learn from the platform and successful experiences, tailor our own strategy, and implement it firmly.

02. Metaverse In 2021, the economic situation was not optimistic, and everyone was seeking innovation and breakthroughs. Some new plays appeared in the industry, besides private domain, there was also the metaverse. From capital pursuit to giants entering the game one after another, as a combination of virtual and reality, the metaverse has been hot for nearly a year.

Some industry insiders even pointed out that after the desktop internet era connected by PC and the mobile internet era connected by smartphones, the metaverse has become the key to igniting the imagination of the next information internet era. As a result, many brand owners and platforms have tried it. For example, McDonald's released NFT-related collectibles, Nayuki sold NFT blind boxes... Mark Zuckerberg's renaming of Facebook to 'Meta' brought this hot trend to a climax.

Moreover, a large number of enterprises rushed to register 'metaverse' trademarks. According to data from the National Intellectual Property Administration, as of now, there are about 16,000 'metaverse' or 'METAVERSE' related trademark applications in the trademark database.

Amid the hustle and bustle, Scott Rigby, Chief Technology Advisor for Adobe Asia Pacific and Japan, analyzed: 'The metaverse mainly discusses a fully immersive experience in augmented reality. Currently, it cannot be widely promoted or realized in marketing, mainly because the delivery quality of the fully immersive experience cannot reach a high level.'

In 2022, more and more enterprises will try to explore the metaverse, but most will imitate McDonald's and Nayuki's practices, more to showcase the brand's innovative label to the outside world and occupy user mindshare. As for the metaverse entering ordinary people's lives, more infrastructure construction is needed.

03. Livestream Commerce As one of the carriers of content, in 2021, the heat of livestream commerce did not diminish. The '2021 New Media Content Ecosystem Data Report' pointed out that in terms of livestream commerce scale, the heat on Douyin and Kuaishou platforms continued to rise. Kuaishou's livestream commerce sessions increased from 4.93% at the beginning of the year to 11.22% at the end, while Douyin's increased from 8.32% to 9.24%.

Since 2020, Douyin has deeply intervened, and anchors like Luo Yonghao have been strongly supported. Many brand owners have started to join this field. In 2021, various livestream platforms increased their support, and more and more parties, including brand owners, celebrities, KOLs, and agency companies, joined in, prompting the rapid growth of the head, waist, and tail scales of livestream commerce.

Some new consumer brands even used livestream commerce as an important marketing lever in 2021, pushing back to plan their brand and product strategies. Taking Douyin as a single channel example, data shows that benefiting from the rapid development of livestream e-commerce, the number of enterprise-certified accounts on Douyin is more than 10 times that of personal-certified accounts, and head accounts have the highest proportion of joining MCN institutions.

At the beginning of 2021, celebrities and KOLs accounted for a large proportion of livestreams. By the second half of the year, most brand owners realized that if this track continued to develop, in the long run, it is necessary for brands to establish their own livestream positions. Last year, apparel brands like Li-Ning and Guirenniao, and platform parties like Xiaomi Youpin, NetEase Yanxuan, and Suning invested heavily in self-broadcasting. The sales departments and brand teams of these enterprises mostly have systematic approaches to livestream commerce, and daily self-broadcast attention is relatively high, so the final conversion rate is also higher.

04. Digitalization Overall, 2021 was the first year for China's marketing field to enter the post-pandemic era. In this year, we saw that users and products gradually became digital, the channels to reach users gradually became digital, and the business operation system and logic also became digital.

We found that more and more traditional enterprises, regardless of industry, from FMCG and durable goods to real estate, property services, or financial systems, began to truly enter the year of digital economy takeoff. In this year, more and more head enterprises began to try more digital means and content, digital touchpoints and forms, and even went deep into business processes, starting the digitalization process to deepen digital operation practice.

Yang Lanqin, Vice President of Sensors Data, analyzed: 'When users, product services, and marketing channels turn digital, marketers' decision-making begins to break regional restrictions. Unlike offline marketing activities that require more time and energy for local customization, online marketing activities are more timely and immediate, avoiding many offline environmental constraints, making brand promotion and marketing activities more unified in effect.'

It was also in this year of deepening digital operation that more marketing plays emerged. Marketers can deepen marketing strategies based on new marketing touchpoints and channels, and the entire marketing process has become more dynamic.

Marketing Development Trends:

01. Symbiosis In Miniso's private domain, there is an IP image that continuously builds relationships with users, called 'Xiaoming Classmate'. This is a 22-year-old female image, with a monthly income of 4,000 yuan, a moonlight clan workplace novice, single dog, usually loves to eat, and is also a corporate slave. When users see 'Xiaoming Classmate', they will associate with themselves. The most critical thing is that the image and nickname of 'Xiaoming Classmate' were voted by users, thus narrowing the relationship between Miniso and users.

Like Miniso, many brand owners are now trying to co-create with consumers. This practice is called: symbiosis between brand and users. The book 'Symbiosis: A Brief History of China's Digital Marketing Surge' mentions that the symbiosis between brand and users goes from the earliest 'I buy you' (purchasing products), to 'I follow you' (following the brand), to 'I become you' (imagining being the brand spokesperson), to 'I am being you' (brand is me). Consumers and brands promote each other, support each other, and continue to grow.

In addition to the symbiosis between brands and users, new consumer brands and traditional brands are also coexisting and advancing together. The continuously emerging new consumer brands in the market are gradually squeezing traditional head brands in segmented tracks. At the same time, brand giants like P&G and Unilever are also incubating new brands internally, quickly replicating mature product and marketing tactics to segmented fields.

02. Calmness 'In 2021, the market seemed hot, but behind it was a process of gradually becoming calm. Everyone became more thoughtful, making every penny spent more efficient, which includes a clear understanding of whether growth is sustainable,' pointed out Zhao Jie, co-founder of ffit8, from the perspective of new consumption.

Indeed, this trend can also be seen from the capital level. The '2021 New Consumption Investment and Financing Map' mentioned that according to incomplete statistics from IT Juzi, in 2021, there were 826 financing transactions in the domestic new consumption industry (excluding IPOs and private placements), with a total disclosed financing amount of 83.1 billion yuan, far exceeding 2020.

However, a watershed appeared in July-August 2021. After the peak, both the amount and number of financing for new consumption showed a downward trend.

Although the market has cooled, it should be viewed optimistically. Health food brand ffit8 did this. ffit8 adopted a 'sniper' strategy, meaning they first hide themselves, maintaining a state of aiming with the gun, so they can discover new opportunities without exposing themselves. In 2021, ffit8 made various types of attempts in advertising, but all within reasonable control. They did not acquire customers at any cost like previous internet 'windy' tracks. Perhaps the market environment at that time allowed enterprises to do so, 'win a battle, occupy the mountain and become king.'

In today's market environment, especially in the consumer goods field, this possibility no longer exists, so brand owners must be prepared for a protracted war. ffit8 did not rush to land, but analyzed target user groups, product strength, pricing, and marketing strategies in a more calm and rational way, while observing the market environment.

That is why during last year's 618 period, ffit8 achieved over 10 million yuan in omni-channel sales, and its core product protein bar ranked No.1 in omni-channel sales. In the new consumption track, ffit8's calmness can give more enterprises inspiration.

03. Content While calmly observing the market environment, gaining insights into target user groups, and reflecting on product strength, content, as one of the most important links in the communication process, has also been elevated to a new height.

Good content itself has strong communication power and memory points. The products we provide for target consumer groups still need market education. If we do communication without content, the effectiveness will be greatly reduced. Whether it is information flow advertising or other promotions, content is the core. Therefore, improving content capability was very important in last year's marketing process, and it is also something that needs to be done long-term.

For example, Candi Party observed that many people have misunderstandings about women with large breasts, thinking they should be proud. However, in reality, the basic needs of these women are difficult to meet with a single product. For example, they fear the strange looks from society, large-cup underwear is not beautiful, it is difficult to find suitable underwear, and it is also difficult to match with various clothes. These women hope their troubles can be solved, but it is inconvenient to say. So, to address this issue, Candi Party shot a video titled 'I Have a Big Trouble', truthfully telling the various troubles women with large breasts encounter in life, helping them speak out the pent-up annoyance, and also making the public understand these women more, thus narrowing the distance between Candi Party and these target users.

In addition, after telling the troubles, Candi Party realized that it also needed to give the target user group some positive energy encouragement to make everyone happier, so it shot some fun short videos. In this way, Candi Party stood from the user's perspective to think about their real pain points and customized corresponding content, so it could occupy user mindshare, while also conveying the brand's positioning and philosophy, leaving a deep impression on the target user group.

Three Major Development Trends for New and Old Brands

Last year, new consumer brands and mature head brands coexisted and integrated. The continuously emerging new consumer brands in the market are constantly squeezing the segmented tracks of mature head brands. This year, the two will continue to move towards each other.

01. Mature Brands and New Consumer Brands Move Towards Each Other In the past, new consumer brands used a lot of social media and performance marketing to promote growth, but the brand was still weak. 'In 2022, more and more new consumer brand owners will increase brand advertising, choosing content media, large-screen media, etc., to increase overall brand voice,' analyzed Tan Beiping, Dean of Miaozhen Marketing Science Academy.

In contrast, mature brands that often rely on agency companies for marketing are now actively learning from new consumer brands. For example, P&G and Unilever have launched brand incubation plans, restructured organizational structures, built their own marketing teams and digital transformation teams, and learned new tactics.

02. Mature Head Brands' Budgets More Cautious 'Specifically, mature head brands' budgets will be more cautious,' pointed out Zheng Zituo, General Manager of Xiaomi Youpin Marketing Department, and further analyzed from two aspects:

First, those who are good at spending large advertising budgets are usually mature head brands. However, the emerging new consumer brands mostly have high bargaining space and product strength from the beginning, squeezing mature head brands, causing the latter's expected effect after large-scale advertising to be greatly impacted, that is, media placement efficiency is getting lower and lower.

Second, each platform divides different circles according to user interests, and within each circle, further subdivides according to user interests. This provides competitive opportunities for many new consumer brands focusing on segmented categories. These brands gradually eat away part of the market share of original mature head brands.

For example, a few years ago, if we searched for 'vacuum cleaner' on an e-commerce platform, the platform would recommend two products: robot vacuum and handheld vacuum. But now, in addition to these two, there are also mite removers specifically for mattresses, desktop vacuum cleaners, car vacuum cleaners, and more and more segmented categories.

In this way, the previous practice of mature head brands relying on a single product to conquer the world is outdated. If such brands want to intervene in every track, the cost of switching tracks is high. Therefore, considering the above reasons and the impact of the overall economic environment, mature head brands will be relatively cautious in their marketing budgets in 2022, and when choosing channels and media, they will also consider whether they can bring better sales conversion.

03. Consumer Experience First In terms of consumer experience, many of us often consider the quality of a brand based on whether their service and experience are good. Therefore, in 2022, after returning to rationality, many brands will pay more attention to service, providing consumers with products and services that exceed their expectations.

'2021 was a turning point for consumer goods. Investment began to cool, and the market experienced setbacks in the second half of the year. Everyone will invest in a more rational direction, pursue more economical and effective methods, consider diversified development in marketing forms, focus on target segments, and do marketing in forms closer to what users like,' expressed Dabai, founder of Candi Party large-cup bra brand, with the same view.

In 2022, Candi Party plans to improve consumer experience and marketing effectiveness from three aspects: First, since the product has a certain private attribute, past expressions may have been too straightforward, so next they will think about how to make female consumers more willing to accept; Second, help consumers reduce difficulties in choosing; Third, increase offline marketing efforts, allowing consumers to further perceive and experience offline after learning about the product online.

From the Candi Party case, we can see the importance of consumer experience.

04. 2022: A Year of Life and Death for New Consumption Next, let's look at new consumer brands. In 2021, the new consumption field showed a trend of 'cooling down', with various bad news such as 'new stock breaking issue price', 'revenue decline', 'market value contraction', and 'large-scale layoffs' continuously emerging. From financing, it can also be seen that new consumption is on the decline. According to statistics from 'New Consumption Daily', the financing scale of the new consumption industry reached its peak in July 2021, with a financing amount of 14.898 billion yuan, then began to decline sharply, with an August month-on-month decline of 62.45%.

Brand survival is not easy. From birth to competition, to fierce fighting, and industry maturity, many brands will be eliminated in this process. In 2022, new consumer brands will face considerable challenges, and the competition between brands will be more intense, even with some 'life and death' news.

Content reference source: [Morketing Research] 8 Marketing Trends for 2021-2022 (Part 1) and 8 Marketing Trends for 2021-2022 (Part 2): Four Dimensions, 12 Development Directions!

-END-