mardi 23 juin 2020

Co-branding in China: Perfect Diary and Huawei collaboration with Art museums and artists



Co-branding strategy in China

In recent years, firms are actively experimenting with the strategy of Co-branding in China, and it seems the strategy is welcomed by Chinese consumers.

In fact, this type of strategy is highly appreciated by Chinese consumers who have the opportunity to purchase limited edition products resulting from often unexpected collaborations.

Chinese consumers see shopping not only as a necessity but also as an activity or entertainment. Consequently, they release collaborations and collections that are social, engaging, and always surprising.

The co-branding strategy begins with a collaboration between companies or brands belonging to completely different sectors. For example, in this article, we will analyze two cases of collaboration between Perfect Diary and Huawei with art museums and international artists.

In China, co-branding is highly appreciated as it offers numerous advantages for both parties:

  1. BRAND’s advantages - By collaborating with other brands, the opportunity to enter markets other than the specific one of the company itself arises. This collaboration increase brand awareness and maximize economic benefits.
  2. CONSUMER’s advantages - Chinese consumers, especially younger consumers, enjoy brands that build hype and awareness through exclusive lines and advertise collections or products through surprising or unexpected practices.

Companies from the cosmetics industry, tech brands, luxury houses are adopting this marketing strategy.

Huawei collaboration with artists


Huawei's Honor brand has recently made a bigger push in art, with the recent launch of the Honor Academy program in foreign markets to develop content-oriented partnerships with cultural institutions and educational institutions.

Huawei collaboration with the Spanish artist Salvador Dali

This collaboration has resulted in a total of 6 new themes that bring some of the most famous Dali sculptures to the smartphone screens of fans and art lovers around the world.

The works that are now accessible as themes include:
  • Lady Godiva with Butterflies
  • Alice in Wonderland
  • Nobility of Time

These works of art are housed in Dalí Paris, a permanent exhibition space in the heart of Montmartre, Paris.

Huawei collaboration with international artists

Huawei Honor has also collaborated on four artists on a series of limited edition watch straps for the Honor MagicWatch and sleeves for the MagicBook by:
  • Jacky Tsai
  • Giovanni Ozzola
  • Wang Dongling
  • Zhou Li

Each of the artist's contributions reflects their distinctive style, from Tsai's lush floral horse to Wang's experimental calligraphy, and can be paired with matching dials available through the Huawei Health app.


Perfect Diary collaboration with the British museum of Art


Perfect Diary released its “Fantastic” eye shadow kits, which were inspired by Italian Renaissance “maiolica” art, in collaboration with the British Museum of Art.

During Alibaba’s 11.11 shopping festival in 2018, the eyeshadow palette Perfect Diary produced in partnership with the British Museum sold one makeup set every 11.5 seconds.

Thanks to this collaboration Perfect Dairy became the top Chinese makeup brand by achieving a $141 million (1 billion RMB) turnover in 13 minutes.



mardi 16 juin 2020

JD and Kuaishou: e-commerce live streaming partnership





The launch of the first big promotion event on Kuaishou

JD.com and Kuaishou, the video and livestream sharing platform in China (the main rival of Douyin (TikTok) in China), have announced they will officially kick off the strategic partnership between the two sides to launch the first major promotional event on Kuaishou, today June 16th, when celebrities and KOL are promoting quality products via live streaming.

For the first promotion, JD will provide big discounts for products like:
  • 100,000 iPhone 11s,
  • 100,000 iPads,
  • 20,000 bottles of Moutai,
  • 20,000 Nintendo Switch,
  • 20,000 Estee Lauder essences,
  • 50,000 M.A.C. lipsticks

The promotion on June 16th marks the beginning of ongoing promotions through the partnership in the future. The two sides wish to develop a healthy, open and sustainable e-commerce ecosystem to meet the diversified consumer needs.


JD partnership with Kuaishou


As part of JD's 618 initiatives, on May JD and Kuaishou signed a strategic partnership focused on the supply chain. Kuaishou users will be able to purchase the products provided by JD without leaving the Kuaishou app and take advantage of the quick delivery and after-sales service provided by JD.

The collaboration is part of a rising trend in the Chinese digital market where short video apps and e-commerce platforms increasingly turn to each other for monetization synergies.

COVID-19 has certainly advanced live-streaming shopping through these short-video apps in a time when Chinese consumers were confined indoors.


The marriage between live streaming and e-commerce is reminiscent of what happened at the beginning of the social network boom, which saw the microblogging platform Weibo and Alibaba unite for similar reasons: to expand the revenue streams of content platforms beyond advertising turning content consumers into buyers.

The JD-Kuaishou alliance appears to have agreed on a friendly deal: the online retailer will allow Kuaishou users to purchase JD products directly within the video app.

The collaboration seems to be winning for both because:
  • On one hand, for Kuaishou, the addition of e-commerce features will bring new revenues not only to himself but also to his influencers, strengthening their loyalty to the video platform.
  • On the other hand, JD can rely on Kuaishou's popularity in small towns and rural villages to achieve his goal of penetrating lower tier cities.





mardi 9 juin 2020

XiaoHongShu (Little Red Book) features and live streaming e-commerce in China


Little Red Book, also known as Xiaohongshu and RED is a Chinese social media and e-commerce platform launched in June 2013. And it is precisely on June 6 that Little Red Book hold a shopping festival to celebrate the anniversary of its founding.

Currently, It has over 300 million registered users with 1/3 and it is the number #1 for cross-border purchases.

Xiaohongshu is particularly special among all social media channels because it combined cross-border e-commerce function and because its users are a specific target market ( 86.1% users are females, 83.7% are under 35 years old and 62.5% live in 1st- and 2nd- tier cities).

XiaHongShu features


  • It is considered reliable by Chinese users for quality content. The content covers all areas of users' interest such as beauty, travel, shopping, food and fitness etc.
  • Unlike other e-commerce platforms, Little Red Book focuses on trusted user-generated content, word of mouth advertising and building online communities.
  • Little Red Book focuses heavily on building trust and reliability between the platform and consumers, rewarding users for posting suggestions and advice to followers.
  • Kols and live streaming play a fundamental role on this platform. 
  • All this adds up to a unique value proposition for the platform, where users can share content, review products and buy items all from the same place.

Why is Little red book useful for brands?


  • Specific target
  • Increase reputation
  • Increase brand awareness and loyalty through quality content
  • Attract new followers and consolidate existing ones
  • Leverage sales through its e-commerce feature

 Live streaming e-commerce and KOLs



Livestreaming fever also hit Little Red Book in 2019. In fact, livestreaming is the trend of the moment to aim for success in the Chinese e-commerce market.

Livestreaming is the primary way for key opinion leaders to engage their audience. In China, fans can ask questions about products, send comments to hosts and even send virtual gifts as a sign of appreciation while watching the live stream.

In fact, in China the key point is trust, to make a break in the hearts of Chinese consumers, you have to bring them to trust the brand. The Chinese seek reassurance in the opinions of those who have already purchased the product, as well as in the KOLs, so a collaboration with the KOLs is highly recommended on this platform.

International brand on XiaoHongShu

The Xiaohongshu app is very attractive because it allows companies to build a reputation among Chinese consumers, but the costs are lower than those of other platforms and the requirements for having an official account on Xiaohongshu are less compelling.

The main reason that drives the major global brands to invest in this social commerce is the contact with consumers.
Many brands including Hugo Boss, Max Mara, Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, are present on this platform and have many followers.

Louis vuitton


Louis Vuitton immediately grasped the great potential of Little Red Book. The fashion house was in fact the first foreign company to invest in the Little Red Book and today it has almost 140 thousand followers on the platform.

Louis Vuitton is also very adept at following and taking advantage of new popular trends in China. In particular, the live-streaming with KOLs as protagonists, which in recent years has transformed from a simple entertainment tool to a powerful promotional and sales tool that is extremely versatile.


For more insights about Xiaohongshu read the following article:
https://www.marketingtochina.com/xiaohongshu-little-red-book-the-definitive-guide-for-advanced-marketers/


mardi 2 juin 2020

During Covid-19 “Health and Wellness” trends have exploded in China



During the lockdown due to Covid-19, Chinese consumers developed new trends related to the culture of the body, mind and skin. 

The spread of the virus has, in fact, increased their awareness of the importance of these practices, leading to the explosion of these trends on social media such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu and Weibo.

Above all, the new generations have started looking for wider and more sophisticated ways to achieve well-being, curbing their anxieties for an uncertain future. Many of them research and buy products such as beauty drinks or skin care cosmetics, or practice more physical activity for the body.

In all this KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) have played a fundamental role as leaders of the new “Health and Wellness” trends.

“Eating for health” trend

Chinese urbanites are trying to improve their skin condition through a more conscious diet in 2020.
The global pandemic has further enhanced the Chinese tradition of eating specific foods to improve health or skin. 
It was a cultural belief that still dominates the Chinese mind today, that’s why new trends related to eating for health are exploding in China.

The pandemic has led Chinese people, especially the Millenians, to pay more attention skin care and now is dominating a trend:

  • The “Beauty snacking“

The now trendy term "妆食同源" refers to a kind of snack drinks designed to make your skin radiant.

Obviously, companies have followed this trend by developing products capable of satisfying the needs of Chinese consumers, Coca-Cola is an example.

The Coca-cola company has developed a line of products, exclusively for the Chinese market, called "the wakeup face", an appetizing drink to drink late at night that promises to make consumers beautiful when they wake up.

In addition to Coca-Cola, other Chinese food industry giants such as Yili and Mengniu have also launched beauty snacks with similar "food for skin" philosophies.



“Mind-care” trend


Mind care trends are exploding on various Chinese social media, leading KOLs to be the protagonists of live streaming on these platforms.
Since the beginning of Chinas lockdown, similar content has done well on social media. The hashtag #UpMyHappiness (提升幸福感) on lifestyle platform Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) now has 60k+ posts. Therefore, content of self-soothing and self-pampering routines are now very common and popular.
For example, in one of the most popular videos of the Chinese vlogger @ Suji, she documented a daily routine of pampering during the lockdown.


“At-home workout” trend

During the pandemic, Chinese consumers are becoming more dedicated to their at-home workout routines. In fact, during the pandemic, there was a 185% increase in the use of fitness apps.
Douyin has become the best platform to do physical activity online and live, and many celebrities and KOLs have participated in this trend leading the online fitness courses to get huge traffic.
This trend is expected to continue also in the post Covid-19 phase.


For additional information regarding the new trends of Chinese consumers, click on the following links: