10 Marketing Trends for 2025

As 2024 draws to a close, we stand on the threshold of a new year, looking back at the past and looking forward to the future. In this article, we will take a deep dive into the top ten trends in the marketing field in 2025, from the revival of brand mindset to the decline of live streaming, from the double-edged sword effect of AI technology to the challenges faced by multinational brands.

2024 ends in exhaustion and anxiety.

Oxford University Press named the word of the year "brain rot", which directly points out the fragility of modern people's mental state: under the erosion of excessive consumption of fragmented and low-quality content, intelligence and thinking ability are being quietly weakened.

Xiaohongshu’s word of the year for 2024 is “abstract”. When a person sees too much messy and meaningless information but finds it difficult to sort out the logic behind it, he can only summarize it as “abstract”.

The annual word of B Station is "take", which is not so much a desire for opportunities as it is a reflection of a slightly negative mentality of lying down, hoping to passively gain the favor of fate.

A slightly more positive word is the Collins dictionary word "brat", which originally meant "naughty boy" or "naughty boy", but was redefined in 2024 to represent an attitude of self-confidence, independence and instant gratification. This is related to the new album "BRAT" released by British singer Charli XCX. Charli XCX interprets the image of a girl who dresses casually, lives wildly and unrestrainedly, and is full of change and straightforward personality through the new album. But in my opinion, this is more like a microcosm of individuals seeking self-consolation in the torrent of the times.

These words of the year together paint a picture of the times: people, swept away by short videos and fragmented information, have long since strayed from grand narratives and the fate of their country and family, and have even lost the ability to read and think deeply. They are addicted to immediate sensory stimulation, seeking proof of survival in the short-term secretion of dopamine, and obtaining some tiny happiness has become a capital worth showing off.

The World Economic Outlook report released by the IMF predicts that global economic growth will remain stable in 2025, but the growth rate will be mediocre. The lack of exciting growth, to a certain extent, lays the foundation for the tone of the previous year to continue in 2025.

People can only find some small meaning in the meaninglessness of Waiting for Godot.

Marketing will continue this atmosphere. Marketing will not change in 2025, but subtle trends have begun to emerge in the silence. In this era of stalling, marketing needs to find a new rhythm from the hustle and bustle and redefine what is true connection and value.

Here are ten marketing trends to watch in 2025.

01 Brand awareness is re-emerging, and brand advertising is on the rise

In the past few years, China's marketing environment has been dominated by "traffic supremacy". From short videos to live streaming, brands are competing for hot spots and traffic in order to quickly boost sales. However, as the traffic dividend gradually dries up, the limitations of this model are becoming increasingly apparent: growth driven solely by traffic is no longer sustainable.

In 2024, we began to see a new shift - in fact, it is better to say that it is a "return of old ideas": the re-emphasis of brand awareness and the return of brand advertising. This is not an improvement in brand awareness, but an inevitable choice in the face of reality. When traffic fails, brands have to look back and find that long-termism and brand building are still indispensable.

For example, ByteDance has launched a mind measurement tool, and Bilibili has also strengthened the importance of mind in its crowd model. Mind is not a new concept, but a re-exploration and application of classic marketing theory. Its core is to establish a solid brand recognition and preference in the minds of consumers through continuous brand advertising investment, thereby achieving long-term brand value accumulation.

The subtle changes in the market can also be seen from the movements of the major platforms. Traffic platforms have begun to re-emphasize the role of brand advertising in addition to performance advertising. The revenue growth of performance advertising is almost coming to an end, so it is time to make money from brand advertising again.

This trend is also reflected in the attitudes of advertisers. According to iResearch data from 2024, 86.7% of advertisers recognize the importance of brand building, but in actual budget allocation, short-term benefit growth still dominates.

This contradiction between ideal and reality is a true reflection of the current advertising market. However, more and more brands are realizing that short-term traffic can only bring temporary sales growth. If they really want to gain a foothold in the market, brand building is an indispensable long-term investment.

In 2025, we may see more brand advertising on the rise - it is not only the result of the end of the traffic dividend, but also the inevitable path for brands to return to rationality and focus on long-termism. The value of brand advertising lies in allowing brands to not only stay in consumers' shopping carts, but also stay in their memories and emotions for a long time.

02 The trend of low consumption continues, and white-label products continue to expand their market

Many young people now have the consumption concept of only eating poor people's meal sets, only drinking coffee that costs less than 9.9 yuan, only going to B1B2 for shopping, not buying big brands but buying substitutes, not buying branded products but buying unbranded products. This consumption concept of consumption downgrade has lasted for several years, but with the prospects being confused and the future full of uncertainty, there is still no obvious sign of reversal.

In the context of consumption downgrade, consumers are more sensitive to prices, and the number of people willing to pay a high premium for brand added value is gradually decreasing. Instead, more and more consumers are inclined to choose lower-priced and more practical products, which provides an excellent market opportunity for the rise of white-label products.

In the past two years, in cities such as Beijing, I have witnessed the rapid development of a number of white-label chain brands, such as Wankelai and Chaoyiku (the latter can even be called a substitute for Uniqlo). The clothes in these stores are all unbranded or private-label products, with an average price of around 30 to 50 yuan, but they have attracted a large number of consumers, including the middle class.

This phenomenon shows that consumers are gradually abandoning the vanity brought about by brand premium and instead paying more attention to the actual functions and cost-effectiveness of the products.

In the short term, the market share of white-label products will continue to expand.

03 Brands begin to emphasize quality-price ratio

If the rise of white-label products represents a trend of low consumption, then the popularity of “quality-price ratio” reflects a more rational consumption trend. Compared with the pursuit of the lowest price, a large number of middle-class consumers have begun to turn to the “quality-price ratio” consumption concept: using reasonable prices to buy high-quality goods and services.

According to the 2023 Consumption Trend Observation by China Business News, "quality-price ratio" is becoming the core concept pursued by consumers. It goes beyond the traditional cost-effectiveness, focusing not only on price but also on product quality, emphasizing a "worthwhile" consumption experience. The rise of the quality-price ratio consumption concept shows that consumers are rejecting the vanity brought by brand premiums, and are tired of the dissatisfaction brought by cheap and low-quality products, and are beginning to find a balance point in the mid-range market.

From the perspective of market positioning, products that emphasize quality and price are usually positioned in the mid-range market, and their main target audience is the middle class. Therefore, although the pricing of such products is not as high as that of the high-end market, it is by no means cheap. In many developed regions, products with quality and price have already dominated the market.

In 2024, we have seen that some brands have begun to highlight the concept of "quality-price ratio" in their marketing strategies. For example, Douyin e-commerce upgraded its positioning to "super heartbeat quality-price ratio" through its mall Super Brand Day event, and cooperated with multiple brands to provide more competitive prices while ensuring product quality.

For example, realme, a mobile phone brand that was initially positioned as cost-effective, has also begun to emphasize quality-price ratio. By improving product quality and brand value, it seeks higher market share and profit margins, and thereby escapes the increasingly fierce homogeneous competition in the low-end market.

The "price-performance ratio" strategy can easily lead brands into a price war, and even often put them in a situation where they lose money to gain publicity. However, the "quality-price ratio" provides brands with opportunities to increase prices, which is more conducive to the long-term operation of brands. It can be predicted that in the future, more and more brands will emphasize the "quality-price ratio" in their marketing strategies to meet the increasingly rational consumption needs of consumers.

04 Live streaming sales are fading, shelf e-commerce is rising again

Live streaming sales, which was booming a few years ago, is now showing signs of fatigue. From the time when a group of refreshing top anchors emerged every year, to now when top anchors such as Dong Yuhui and Li Jiaqi are gradually returning to normal, the industry's appeal is waning.

Data shows that the scale of China's live e-commerce market will reach 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year growth rate of 35.2%. Although it seems not small, it is undoubtedly much bleaker than the growth rate that doubled in the early days of the industry. According to forecasts, the compound annual growth rate of live e-commerce will further drop to 18% in the next three years, gradually returning to normal.

As the leader of live streaming e-commerce, Douyin e-commerce is also facing growth bottlenecks. According to a report by LatePost, Douyin e-commerce's sales growth rate has dropped from more than 60% at the beginning of the year to less than 20% in September.

In contrast, shelf e-commerce scenarios represented by Douyin Mall account for more than 30% of Douyin e-commerce, and more and more brands are beginning to increase their investment in shelf e-commerce.

Unlike live streaming e-commerce, which is mainly driven by traffic, shelf e-commerce emphasizes the accumulation of brand awareness. Through continuous construction, brands can form natural traffic in consumers' search behavior and occupy users' minds for a long time.

This difference is also very obvious in corporate strategy. For example, every year on Double Eleven, Uniqlo can maintain its top sales by relying on brand recognition without too much promotion and investment. This is the core advantage of shelf e-commerce - through the long-term accumulation of the brand, its sales can remain stable even if the investment is reduced. Live streaming e-commerce is more like a short-term traffic battle. Once the investment stops, sales will fall.

In addition, the search logic of shelf e-commerce directly reflects demand, and behind demand is the mind. Whether a brand can occupy a key position in search directly determines the amount of natural traffic. Instead of constantly participating in the price war of live broadcasts, it is better to keep the brand "online for a long time" in the minds of consumers through shelf e-commerce.

In 2025, as the benefits of live streaming gradually fade, brands will pay more attention to shelf e-commerce.

05 The rise of video accounts and Xiaohongshu e-commerce

In recent years, China's e-commerce landscape has undergone drastic changes. The rise of Pinduoduo and Douyin e-commerce has brought huge challenges to the old e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com. At present, the trend of Pinduoduo and Douyin e-commerce expanding their market share and becoming new giants of China's e-commerce has been basically established.

At the same time, Video Account and Xiaohongshu have gradually become important competitors in the market, trying to get a share of the e-commerce market.

Video account e-commerce is becoming a new growth point for the WeChat ecosystem. Based on the 3-fold growth rate mentioned in last year's WeChat Open Class, it is generally believed that the GMV target for video account e-commerce in 2024 will be around 300 billion.

Compared with Douyin e-commerce, Video Account e-commerce is not only interest-based e-commerce, but also social e-commerce. It can connect with WeChat’s social relationship chain to realize the circulation of goods among relatives and friends, which brings unique advantages to Video Account e-commerce.

Recently, WeChat Store grayscale tested the "send gifts" function, which made some industry insiders see the grand occasion of WeChat red envelopes during the Spring Festival. This function has been integrated into the video account e-commerce, and it will not only rely on algorithm recommendations, but also make full use of social relationships to bring more traffic growth.

Compared with the relatively mature Douyin e-commerce, the industry generally believes that video account e-commerce still has huge dividends. Its GMV of 300 billion is relatively small, but its growth rate is very rapid, which is the embodiment of the dividend. Once WeChat increases its construction and support for video account e-commerce, its future development potential is immeasurable. If the GMV of video account e-commerce approaches or even reaches the trillion level in the next one or two years, there is no need to be surprised.

Xiaohongshu has been constantly adjusting its e-commerce strategy in recent years, from the initial cross-border e-commerce to buyer e-commerce, and now positioned as a "lifestyle e-commerce". This is a strategy that does not pursue price wars and absolute market share competition, but focuses more on niche markets.

Such a strategy is essential to maintaining its unique community atmosphere and tone, especially in the context of excessive commercialization that can easily lead to user loss. This year, Li Dan's "Buddhist" live broadcast has become one of the few bright spots in the live broadcast e-commerce industry. His live broadcast style coincides with Xiaohongshu's platform strategy. Although Li Dan's live broadcast style has won a good reputation on Xiaohongshu, word of mouth alone is not enough to support the commercialization and growth of a platform. Li Dan's "Buddhist" live broadcast also reflects a certain state of Xiaohongshu's e-commerce.

Some reports suggest that the scale of Xiaohongshu's e-commerce is only at the 100 billion level, but as one of the few social media platforms in China that is still growing rapidly, once Xiaohongshu solves problems such as internal management and infrastructure construction, its growth potential is also unlimited. I believe that 2025 will be an important development opportunity period for Xiaohongshu's e-commerce.

06 AI brings a double-edged sword to marketing

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has become the biggest highlight in the field of science and technology, and this wave has also swept the advertising and marketing industry. AI has brought unprecedented efficiency and creative possibilities to marketing, such as automated advertising copy generation, and technological advances in text and video, making marketing content production faster and more cost-effective. But behind all this, AI is like a double-edged sword, which brings convenience but also sets off drastic changes within the industry.

In 2025, AI-generated content will become more mature, and it is inevitable that video platforms and social networks will be filled with a large amount of AI-generated visual and textual content. This technology has greatly lowered the threshold for content creation, allowing small brands and even individual creators to produce high-quality content comparable to big brands. But at the same time, AI has also begun to eat up the jobs of traditional advertising practitioners.

The Economist published an article in December titled "Goodbye, Don Draper: Artificial intelligence is entering the advertising industry," which indicates that AI may make classic advertising characters such as Don Draper in "Mad Men" unemployed.

Research firm Forrester is more specific, predicting that by 2030, AI technology could lead to the elimination of 7.5% of advertising jobs in the United States. In addition, the popularity of AI tools also makes it easier for clients to transfer advertising business to internal teams or hand over the work to smaller advertising companies. According to estimates by advertising consulting firm Madison and Wall, the share of all advertising service revenues by the top five advertising holding companies last year was 30%, down from 37% a decade ago.

These data all indicate that AI is reshaping the advertising industry and bringing an impact to traditional advertising practitioners.

However, opportunities always coexist with threats. The following comment from a Reddit user is very representative. AI will accelerate the replacement of junior creative marketers, but for senior creative people who have keen intuition, are good at understanding user needs, and can tell stories, AI will bring more help than threat.

07 The founder IP trend continues, and EGC becomes a trend

In 2024, the popularity of Xiaomi SU7 has made many traditional car companies re-examine the value of founder IP. Whether it is Wei Jianjun's live broadcast debut at Great Wall, Yin Tongyue's personal sales promotion at Chery, or Li Bin's interactive live broadcast with consumers at NIO, these founder IPs are becoming the core strategy of brand communication.

This trend exists not only in the automotive industry. Entrepreneurs in the consumer goods and catering fields have also appeared in the camera. Zhang Wen Zhong of Wumart, Shi Zhancheng of Jieliya, Zhou Chengjian of Metersbonwe, and Guo Feng of Waipangzi Chongqing Hotpot have all appeared in the live broadcast room, using their personal stories and styles to inject warmth into the brand.

Today, live streaming by founders is no longer just a short-term tactic, but has become an important strategy for companies to build brand IP. Through live streaming, founders cleverly combine personal traits with brand stories to form a unique content tone.

For example, Lei Jun's people-friendly style and Shi Zhancheng's youthful expression, these distinctive personal images effectively strengthen the brand's warmth and credibility in the minds of consumers. By deeply explaining the stories behind products and services, companies and consumers can establish a more lasting emotional connection.

In addition, employee-generated content (EGC) with founders or CEOs as the core is increasingly becoming an important strategy for many companies to conduct social network marketing. EGC has the advantages of employees having a better understanding of the company's situation, more secure and reliable content, lower investment costs but higher returns, etc. Many executives of Xiaomi are marketing through social networks, which is a good example. It can be predicted that more and more brands will adopt EGC as a marketing method in the future.

08 The benefits of seed marketing are fading

Around 2019, “planting grass” quickly became popular with the rise of Xiaohongshu.

Since then, the entire industry has been talking about "planting grass", and the term KOC (key opinion consumer) has also entered the stage of marketing history. Whether it is content creation or brand promotion, planting grass has almost become a necessary link.

A well-known formula back then was: new brand = 5,000 Xiaohongshu posts + 2,000 Zhihu Q&A posts + Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi promoting products. This formula is mainly about planting grass, but now this formula has long been invalid.

The essence of grass-roots marketing is a kind of content marketing, which is a marketing method that is more inclined to brand exposure rather than sales conversion. However, because in the current Internet environment, the links of grass-roots marketing can be better monitored and measured, so many brands doing grass-roots marketing will pay more attention to its conversion.

But the problem is that in an environment of quick success and instant benefits, product promotion has become the main means for many brands to gain sales. When more and more brands use product promotion to see conversions, problems arise. Fraud, high return rates, and low ROI have become the sword of Damocles hanging over this marketing method.

I remember a piece of data. In 2020, Perfect Diary spent 70% of its revenue on digital marketing, including more than 15,000 KOLs promoting its products. The brand has become a KOL employee, which immediately made people sigh that "brands all over the world have suffered from KOLs for a long time." Even though Perfect Diary has spent such a high amount of money on promoting its products, it cannot be said to have succeeded today. Facing strong competitors, it still has a long way to go.

In the past year, the benefits of planting grass have begun to gradually disappear.

On the one hand, a large number of brands adopt similar grass-planting strategies and content formats. The stereotyped copywriting and pictures are difficult to arouse users' interest and resonance, and the ROI of grass-planting has dropped rapidly.

On the other hand, the emergence of a large number of grass-roots content has made consumers more and more capable of identifying commercial information. They are no longer as easily impressed by soft articles or KOL recommendations as before, but analyze product information more rationally, and even actively search for relevant reviews and negative information.

According to Kantar data, in the second quarter of 2024, consumers' acceptance of advertising fell by 5%, and the media as a whole showed the characteristics of "high penetration and low impact". In simple terms, a lot of grass seeds have been planted, but the effect is very poor.

Xiaohongshu also published a book called "Planting Grass" this year. Objectively speaking, this book was published a little too late. It can be predicted that planting grass will still be a mainstream marketing method in the next year, but this marketing battlefield will gradually become a red ocean.

09 The luxury goods market is experiencing pain

Global sales of personal luxury goods are expected to fall 2%, the first major decline since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, according to a report by Bain & Company and Italian luxury goods industry association Altagamma.

The trend is largely attributed to rising prices and economic uncertainty, which has led consumers to cut spending on non-essential items. In the Chinese market in particular, luxury sales are expected to fall by 20% to 22%, ending years of growth driven by the wealthy and the growing middle class.

According to the LVMH Group's financial report, in the first half of 2024, LV's revenue fell 1.3% from the same period last year to 41.7 billion euros. Among them, core businesses such as clothing and leather products, champagne, watches and jewelry have all shrunk to varying degrees.

It is particularly noteworthy that revenue in the Asia-Pacific market (excluding Japan) fell sharply by 10%, and the weakness of the Chinese market made the situation even worse.

LV’s predicament is not an isolated case; the entire luxury industry faces similar challenges.

For example, Kering's revenue fell 11% to 4.504 billion euros in the first half of 2024. Gucci's revenue fell 21%, while Saint Laurent and other brands such as Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen also saw revenue declines of 8% and 7%, respectively.

The decline in the luxury goods market is closely related to the challenges of the global economic environment.

China's consumption downgrade phenomenon is significant, consumers tend to be rational, and reduce the purchase of luxury goods. Although the US market's economic performance is relatively stable, the high inflation rate has led to an increase in the cost of daily life. Consumers are skeptical about the future economic trend and have reduced their consumption of non-essential goods. In addition, factors such as the slowdown in EU economic growth and geopolitical instability have exacerbated consumers' uncertainty and cautious consumption behavior.

Goldman Sachs predicts that the European luxury industry will achieve a modest growth of about 3% in 2025. A research report by Deutsche Bank also pointed out that after experiencing rapid growth and normalization after the epidemic, the luxury industry will show a trend of fluctuating recovery in 2025. For the Chinese market, it is generally expected that recovery will not come until the second half of 2025.

But the so-called recovery is due to the low growth in the past few years. In the long run, luxury goods will experience long-term pain, and their prospects in 2025 are not optimistic.

10 Difficult times for multinational brands

Since the 1990s, a large number of multinational brands have entered the Chinese market, setting off a wave of brand globalization. International brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, Nike, Adidas, and BBA in the luxury car industry have once dominated the Chinese market.

Especially after China joined the WTO in 2001, the rapid economic growth led to the rise of the middle class and a significant increase in consumption capacity. Multinational brands took advantage of market gaps and first-mover advantages to achieve decades of brilliant growth.

However, these once-mighty brands are now experiencing tough times in China.

For example, Starbucks, once the leader in China's coffee market, has been overtaken by local brand Luckin Coffee in recent years amid the general trend of consumption downgrade. BBA, the benchmark in the luxury car market, has been severely impacted by new forces in China's new energy vehicles, and its market share has shrunk significantly. Even Apple, which has always firmly occupied the high-end smartphone market, has begun to face the dilemma of slowing sales growth.

These long-established multinational brands are facing three major challenges:

First, as China's economy shifts from high-speed growth to high-quality development, market growth has become more limited, making it difficult for multinational brands to achieve performance growth as easily as in the past.

Secondly, local brands are constantly catching up with or even surpassing international brands in terms of product strength, service strength and brand building. From Huawei, Xiaomi to Luckin Coffee and BYD, they are not only more attractive in terms of price, but also closer to the culture and needs of Chinese consumers, exerting tremendous pressure on multinational brands.

Third, Chinese consumers are becoming more and more mature and rational. They are beginning to pursue higher cost-effectiveness and are gradually becoming disenchanted with the "foreign brands" that they once blindly pursued. Consumers are no longer willing to pay for products with excessive brand premiums.

Under these multiple pressures, the growth of multinational brands in the Chinese market is no longer as glorious as it once was. In the long run, these brands may face a more difficult adjustment period. In 2025, more news about the poor performance of multinational brands in the Chinese market may become the norm.

Conclusion

2024 is shrouded in an atmosphere of anxiety and fatigue, and the theme of 2025 may be "fluctuating recovery" - although there is a slight recovery, it is still a long way from real recovery. In such a less exciting year, brands will have to re-examine their long-term strategies.

After the golden age of fast consumption and traffic supremacy, brands will realize that only by returning to brand building can they find a stable fulcrum in a volatile market. Although the current economic difficulties and competitive pressures may be painful, from a longer-term perspective, focusing on brands is a wiser and more sustainable choice.

2025 may not be an exciting year, but it may be a year for brands to settle down and accumulate. A small recovery, although slow, will sow the seeds for future growth. For those brands that can adhere to long-termism, this will be a critical period for quietly accumulating strength.