Previously, many new consumer brands could quickly gather their first batch of "supporters" by positioning in niche tracks and using influencer marketing and high-aesthetic products. However, after the limited "category dividend" is consumed, converting consumers into brand fans is no longer easy. After the dividend fades, Morketing observes that new consumer brands are creating "new blood"! New consumer brands are unanimously starting to deeply study "internal strength" from different directions to build brand barriers. Therefore, to better understand the development direction of new consumer brands in the "internal strength" stage, we talked with some new consumer brands. ****Going Offline In the early stage, most new consumer brands started with online as a "pilot". But when they develop to the next stage, we see them making "initial attempts" to move from online to offline. This is largely because online cannot directly provide consumers with a more direct experience; many experiences are limited to packaging, delivery, after-sales, etc., and if any link is not in place, it may face "negative reviews". Moreover, if a brand wants to provide consumers with a deeper experience, relying solely on online channels is difficult. Therefore, to build a closer relationship with consumers, opening physical stores has become a choice for some new consumer brands. "Our current focus is to establish offline service outlets to facilitate customer on-site experience and provide professional bust shape consultation services. At the same time, we enrich the product line to meet customers' differentiated needs. Integrating online and offline to build a complete consumer experience, rather than simply pursuing single-source business growth, in my view, a good experience and word-of-mouth are the cornerstone for a brand's long-term healthy development," Dabai, founder of Naipaitang large-cup bra, shared with Morketing. So, how do new consumer brands make offline layouts? Naipaitang focuses on "experience" and builds offline service outlets. Consumers can make appointments for offline store bust shape management services on Naipaitang's official website, Tmall flagship store, or WeChat official account. After arriving at the store, they can have on-site measurement and analysis of bust shape, try on products, and get solutions for bust shape and wearing issues. In terms of products, they also add some high-quality styles mainly for offline supply. "We plan to open about 10 offline service outlets within half a year," Dabai said. In addition to Naipaitang, jewelry brand "YIN隐" will also focus on brand space experience this year. It is reported that in addition to the existing 3 independent boutique stores located in top luxury shopping malls in Beijing and Shanghai, "YIN隐" is expected to open 2-3 more offline stores in 2022. In the subsequent store expansion plan, the stores will be divided into three levels: one is the existing A-class boutique; another is a more trendy and luxurious B-class store with unified SI; and finally, a flagship store of over 100 square meters for art exhibitions and consumer activities. "We hope to further explore the deep connection between the brand and users through such a super-large space," said Ayur, founder and chief manager of YIN隐. Overall, although new consumer brands going offline will adopt differentiated operation methods based on brand positioning, one thing is the same: "steady and solid" rather than blindly rapid expansion, step by step, not impatient. ****Continuous Brand "Upgrade" In the early stage of brand creation, whether it is the logo or positioning, a prototype begins to take shape. However, in the next stage of new consumer brand development, Morketing sees that with the development of the brand itself, the positioning, logo, products, and other aspects of new consumer brands are being adjusted and upgraded according to their own development. For example, Canban and Bananain optimized their positioning long ago; the former shifted from "personal care" to "oral care", and the latter from "body sensation technology" to emphasizing "basics". Recently, Canban upgraded its logo and IP "Brother Tooth" to get closer to young people. "YIN隐" has also undergone a comprehensive upgrade of its brand VI. "YIN隐 hopes to carry out a comprehensive upgrade of the design core and work appearance, re-excavate the relationship between brand spirit and works, and continuously present a more complete work system and brand image by changing elements such as color, craftsmanship, and texture," Ayur shared with Morketing. In fact, recently, actions like Canban and YIN隐's brand upgrades are becoming more and more frequent. They re-upgrade positioning and visual identity to enrich brand tone. Therefore, new consumer brands are actually continuously "upgrading"; where there are shortcomings, they start to fill them, and they respond quickly. This is a characteristic of some brands in the 2.0 stage of new consumer brand development. After all, only by keeping pace with the times and continuously updating can they maintain their existing position for a long time. ****Continuously "Adding Value" Behind continuous upgrades is continuous "adding value". In fact, after consumers who have been bombarded by various internet celebrities, or after the brand has harvested the first batch of new users in the track, "brand power" is key to repurchase and attracting new customers. New consumer brands themselves are not as well-established as classic brands. To maintain better contact with consumers, brand value is closely related. "Facing the modern emotional concepts of the younger generation, 'YIN隐' hopes to reinterpret celibacy and intimate relationships. Therefore, it launched the brand concept of MODERN LOVE 'Ideal Love', expanding themes such as single rings, design couple rings, and diamond rings, supporting diverse emotional choices. At the same time, it planned a series of special columns, focusing on representatives of modern groups with different identities, and by exploring their ideal love in their eyes, guiding consumers to dare to retain edges in intimate relationships and improve self-exploration. This year, YIN隐 will continue to focus on this theme, launching new TVC blockbusters and more cross-border collaborations to deeply convey brand attitude from multiple dimensions," Ayur shared. And moody also invited guests such as Yamy Guo Ying and Jiang Sida to shoot its first brand attitude film at the beginning of the new year, conveying the brand attitude of "Live Different". In the film, they express the "differences" they insist on in life from their own real life experiences. Everyone is born different. moody hopes to awaken the self in everyone's heart, understand themselves better, embrace themselves, dare to live as themselves, and accept differences. Driven by the wave of "appearance economy" and "mask economy", the color contact lens track rose rapidly. But moody hopes to become a long-term brand that represents the life attitude of young people, and the core of brand power is brand thought, which can lead contemporary people's lifestyle and life attitude. "We hope that through the attitude film, consumers can understand what kind of brand we are. We explore stories about deep emotions with consumers, present them for more people to see, trigger resonance, and also hope to encourage some people to explore themselves," moody said. In addition, it must be said that the underwear category has done quite well, from Bananain to Neiwai, and then to Naipaitang. Bananain's every communication follows the "technology" route, and the communication does not forget the main line, always emphasizing "basics". Neiwai and Naipaitang take the route of "female value" and "diverse value", with more humanistic feelings. Their advertising cases have repeatedly dominated the "marketing circle". From this, we can see that at this stage, new consumer brands have transformed from simply selling products to selling brand spirit and culture. This is an important turning point, and it is also a continuous thing. In this process, Morketing also observed that "focus" is very important. Although each "value-adding" campaign has different creativity, it always emphasizes the brand spirit or key words that the brand insists on. In addition, compared with frequently using traffic stars, most new consumer brands use ordinary people, or from the brand image level, find stars like Zhou Dongyu and Zhou Xun to enhance brand image. ****Media as "Amplifier" At the same time, new consumer brands are appearing more and more frequently at large events. It can be said that founders are all hands on deck, going to large events to spread the word, frequently accepting media interviews, and deepening cooperation with the media. In different large platforms, they establish and expand their own brand value. On the other hand, it is a cliché that in expanding brand awareness, new consumer brands have unanimously started elevator ads, sponsored TV dramas and variety shows, signed new spokespersons, and other ways to amplify brand trust in consumers' minds. Recently, we saw Yongpu Coffee appear in the hit drama "I Don't Want to Fall in Love with the Boss", implanting brand ads in the TV drama. When the "tide" of rapid brand development recedes, it is particularly critical to reach consumers frequently through advertising. First, it can strengthen consumers' trust and memory of the brand; second, it can horizontally break the original coverage circle of the brand and reach more people of different ages and levels. Of course, when spreading on mass media, brands need to think clearly whether the reached population is their target group. For example, Yongpu Coffee chose "I Don't Want to Fall in Love with the Boss" largely because the plot revolves more around the office, which is relatively more compatible with the brand. Beyond the scene, one can further think about how to further convert the reached people, and how to use this implantation ad to expand influence through media. However, although media can form strong brand significance in a short time, currently in "saturated" attacks, only brands like Perfect Diary, Florasis, and Zihaiguo have persisted for a relatively long time. Because this "money-burning" play is not something all brands can play well. It requires high cash flow and supply chain requirements. After all, if "after spending money", traffic and influence come up, but the production and other back-end supply chains do not keep up, it will also cause great impact. ****Good Use of Data Tools The expansion of brand investment also tests the brand's ability to retain traffic and the strength to re-invest after analyzing data from retained traffic. How do new consumer brands collect and continuously operate their advertising data from all channels, rather than just stopping at one exposure? Choose appropriate tools and platforms. We see that more and more new consumer brands are using "tools" to help brands grow better. However, in terms of data tools, suitability is the main factor. Most new consumer brands use more lightweight small tools. "At present, the color contact lens market is still in a relatively early stage, so existing data cannot fully reflect future trends. In response to this situation, when developing color contact lens patterns, moody not only establishes a data middle platform to use data as an auxiliary to understand market trends, but also directly communicates and interacts with consumers online or offline from an emotional perspective, insight into consumers' 'little thoughts' and underlying needs, and predict fashion trends," moody said. And brands that run faster, like Perfect Diary and Florasis, invest more in this area. Taking Perfect Diary as an example, it mainly focuses on building a complete private domain traffic system, and conducts DTC conversion through self-built traffic pools. In the early stage, it invested through KOL and KOC, and later used short video advertising, live streaming e-commerce, and other methods to leverage public domain traffic, and then convert these public domain traffic into its own private domain traffic. Florasis is also the same, cooperating with Tencent and Douyin to accumulate private domain traffic under different ecosystems. It is reported that Florasis has established an enterprise account matrix on Douyin, opening a total of 11 accounts, each completing tasks such as customer acquisition, planting grass, maintaining user relationships, and live streaming e-commerce from different dimensions. ****Strengthening Content Marketing In addition, in the next few years, new consumer brands will continue to deeply cultivate content. Because in their view, doing content marketing is essentially doing "user" interaction and "user" connection. So specifically, how do new consumer brands do this? "After running through e-commerce platforms like Tmall and JD.com in the early stage of online channels, in 2021 we gradually launched systematic media investment on Xiaohongshu, looking for KOL and KOC around keywords such as 'intellectual and interesting, confident and comfortable, curious and exploratory, love life, social concern', creating interactive content that combines fun and knowledge, conveying a brand attitude of 'intelligent and comfortable new independent life'." "This year, YIN隐 also opened a new brand independent podcast column - 'A Bit Addicted', with content mainly discussing lifestyle, hoping to build a high-quality brand content ecosystem in all dimensions while deeply conveying the brand's consistent proposition of maintaining confidence, comfort, and self-consistency," Ayur said. Ayur said that YIN隐 hopes to provide users with a platform and origin through content interaction, community operation, and community salons, encouraging users to develop themselves through the brand, meet more like-minded people, and also feed these user contents back into the content gene. At the detail level, YIN隐 starts from interest tags that users love, such as astronomy, geography, humanities, and environmental protection, and forms different communities, controlling the number of each community within 250. Among them, YIN隐 will use "Xiaoyin" as the brand persona to launch various "topics" to communicate with consumers. These "topics" also promote the brand's actions and efforts on a larger scale. For example, under the topic of social responsibility, YIN隐 launched a recycling plan for its iconic glass pyramid jewelry box packaging - the "Gui Yin Plan", encouraging users to send idle pyramid jewelry boxes back to YIN隐, providing materials for sustainable art creation. And moody is more inclined to "professional science popularization" at the content level. moody established the Corneal Contact Lens Technology Innovation Research Institute with China Eye Valley, and will carry out multiple collaborations on industry white papers, clinical research, and special research topics on innovative technologies to promote industry development and bring healthier, safer, and more comfortable product experiences to domestic consumers. In customer service and promotion, use appropriate opportunities to guide consumers to use contact lenses correctly, such as guiding first-time wearers to purchase after optometry at a professional hospital according to the doctor's guidance, providing consumers with lens wearing guides, science popularization videos, and other guidance. Currently, moody has cooperated with Taobao Education and chief physicians of domestic top-tier ophthalmology hospitals and celebrity makeup artists to launch video science courses, providing professional and reliable support for young people to choose and use color contact lenses. These contents will be published on multiple platforms such as moody's Weibo, WeChat Video Account, and Tmall. Specifically, in terms of content, it is mainly "BGC", doing this in-house to provide consumers with different product content. Then plan some activity content to guide users to autonomously produce content and do UGC dissemination. ****Back-end Supply Chain as Guarantee In addition to the above developments, new consumer brands are also increasingly valuing the importance of the supply chain. In this regard, food brands will show this more obviously. The reason is that, in essence, food products have low entry barriers and are easy to replicate. Relying on factory OEM, in fact, the initiative is not in their own hands. So food brands like Starfield and Genki Forest are accelerating the building of their back-end supply chains, hoping to take the initiative in product production into their own hands. For example, Genki Forest invested 1 billion yuan to build a factory in Langya Economic Development Zone, Chuzhou City; Starfield's first production base and self-built factory landed in Xiaogan, Hubei Province at the beginning of this year. After building the factory, first, it ensures sufficient product capacity supply, including being able to take the lead in new product development; second, it can avoid some problems, such as delays in production capacity due to tight OEM processing schedules, and the exposure of product formulas. This is also the case for moody. After visiting nearly 80 factories, moody chose to deeply bind with top factories. "To ensure the best materials, we initially cooperated with S-level factories at twice the market price, becoming their first Chinese color contact lens brand, truly creating a technical barrier in the industry." There is also the founder of Yongpu Coffee. At that time, in order to do the supply chain and take the initiative in product development into his own hands, he pledged his house, went to Japan to find factories, invested in factories, and bound relationships. Fortunately, it was successfully developed; if not, it would have been a tragedy. Therefore, although there are many benefits, it must be said that the cost of doing a supply chain is high, so it still depends on one's own development and capital. After all, if you fight, a bicycle can become a motorcycle, or it can become nothing. ****Improving Organizational Collaboration On the other hand, "the ability of organizational collaboration and upgrading is also a test for the brand in the next stage. Gears with the same direction can rotate faster and move forward more steadily," moody said. At present, moody's core team not only has professional talents from well-known international optometry companies such as Johnson & Johnson, CooperVision, and Bausch & Lomb, but also composite talents from leading consumer goods and internet companies such as P&G, L'Oréal, Alibaba, and ByteDance. The senior executives of moody's team have rich experience in excellent companies, and more importantly, they do not stick to past rules and continuously explore new ways of collaboration. At the same time, moody is actively expanding its team. In 2021, moody launched a management trainee training system, attracting a large number of young people from top domestic and international universities such as Tsinghua, Peking, Fudan, Jiaotong, and Ivy League schools. Behind the active expansion of the team is moody's ambition for global development layout. In fact, many new consumer brands have begun to go overseas. According to incomplete statistics from White Whale Going to Sea, including Perfect Diary, Florasis, Judydoll, Keshila, Huazhixiao, Banmu Huatian, and Marie Dalgar, more than 25 new domestic beauty brands have gone overseas. ****Conclusion In the end, in any niche market, competition is across the entire industry chain and all aspects. In this big context, it can be seen that at this stage, whether new consumer brands do brand value, content marketing, or experience value, in the end, they are all doing one thing: "brand building". "I don't think new consumption has reached the 'second half'. Everyone just rushed through or fell at the starting line through various means of transportation. The real beginning is behind. The winter is relative. Only by identifying impetuousness and opportunism can we screen out anti-cyclical companies," Ayur said. ** "Many people exaggerate the value of short-term traffic and channels in business, but do not pay attention to the long-term hope, trust, and mission that the brand itself should carry. Therefore, compared with the common 'three axes' and pure money-burning traffic marketing models of new consumer brands, I think the brand should carry the belief of long-termism, focus on brand building and product design itself, rather than the tactics of staged marketing." No matter how it develops, it is foreseeable that new consumer brands are becoming more complete and gradually moving towards systematization. Source: Morketing (ID: Morketing) Are you "watching" me?