Does the Chinese Valentine's Day disenchant love? High-end luxury brands: It's not hard to guess the tastes of young people

When the passion of the Olympics and the romance of the festival were staged at the same time, the heat of love seemed to lose. However, high-end luxury brands showed their keen insight at this turning point. They found that the tastes of young people are not difficult to guess - they are more willing to please themselves than love.

“A wise man does not fall in love, but builds a beautiful China.” No one expected that this would be a prophecy. When the Chinese Valentine’s Day and the Olympic month coincided with each other, and the enthusiasm for the Olympics was far ahead, love really had no chance of winning.

Early in the morning of the 10th, #Chinese Valentine's Day consumption plummeted# was listed at the top of the hot search list and was put on public trial. Brand campaign publicity and promotion were all silent, and even the number of friends posting pictures of flowers and red envelopes dropped sharply compared with previous years.

According to the survey results of GMV, a professional data platform, the GMV of movie tickets increased by 113.57% year-on-year, and the GMV of luxury goods increased by 248.49% year-on-year. The GMV of products with the keyword "couples" increased by 133.12% year-on-year, and the GMV of products with the keyword "new Chinese style" increased by 212.28% year-on-year. The consumption of sports and outdoor related products also saw a corresponding increase, especially the GMV of peripheral products for popular sports such as tennis, table tennis, and cycling, which achieved year-on-year growth of 111.48%, 47.91% and 54.97% respectively.

As can be seen from the data, the "romantic economy" that was very popular in previous years does not have impressive data, while the emerging "Olympic economy" and "national style economy" have risen like dark horses, and the "middle-class economy" has maintained a high level as always.

This makes people wonder, has the wind of "romantic economy" blown away so quickly?

1. Why has the love economy become an “IQ tax”?

According to data from the population platform, my country's single population has reached 240 million and their intention towards love is very "Buddhist". Young people have certain expectations for love, but when it comes to love festivals, everyone unanimously believes that it is a "love tax."

Why do originally joyful festivals become a spiritual tax for young people? Most likely it is because the sense of oppression that "it is impossible to escape during festivals" is too strong.

This year, major brands have launched their own theme activities for Chinese Valentine's Day: LAMER held high the free banner of "Love is an adventure", but tied the destination to "Go on a wonderful journey together"; SK-II invited the illustration master Pencil Bryan to depict the "Five Languages ​​of True Love". The large-scale love graphics, the abrupt strong love atmosphere, and the overly similar promotional ideas made the Chinese Valentine's Day slightly reveal the fatigue of "inability to love", and it is really difficult for people to willingly pay for it.

The frequent festival activities launched by shopping platforms, the overly complicated exemption mechanisms, the lack of new creativity of brands... have turned love festivals into an IQ tax. This has deeply hurt the rebellious nature of young people, making them prefer to implement the "three no's" principle and temporarily leave the Internet rather than become a field of leeks to be harvested mindlessly.

The fluctuations in consumer data in recent years have made brands understand a truth: rather than paying for love, young people seem more willing to please themselves.

2. Will the “single economy” become a blue ocean for Valentine’s Day marketing?

Leading brands have long been aware that "the bubble of love will eventually fade" and have been continuously lowering their demands for holiday consumption, trying to dig deep into the holiday emotional touchpoints of single people.

Luckin Coffee, a leader in catering marketing, launched the "Gugua" limited edition product in collaboration with PEPE THE FROG in 2022, and used only a set of "Widowed King" cards to firmly maintain the waterline between couples and singles; this year's collaboration with female star Loopy directly "de-romanticized", and the popular female top meme pictures were all over the Internet. Many young people were immersed in playing with the memes, and even manually DIYed personalized emoticons to show their exclusive mental state.

The collaboration between Luckin Coffee and Loopy not only promoted the dissemination of new products, but also boosted the influence of the peripheral series. Many consumers said, who doesn’t want to own a complete set of Loopy!

This year's dark horse in beauty marketing, Winona, has opened up a cultural track beyond love.

They dug deep into the meaning of the Qiqiao Festival, used the "Weaving Girl" as an anchor and deeply combined it with Yunnan brocade, tightly binding the brand's domestic attributes with national style and ethnicity; at the same time, they associated working people with the Chinese Valentine's Day to attract emotional resonance from young audiences; the overall creativity catered to the tradition of the Chinese Valentine's Day, and broke the fixed framework based on love, standing out from the holiday marketing of its peers.

Another brand that has also set its sights on traditional culture is LOEWE. Its limited-time AR short film "Picking Stars" uses Chinese paper-cutting techniques to create images of two little hedgehogs, inviting users to use their phones to help them interact and kiss. The change in perspective, from kissing in person to kissing on the head, inexplicably connects some CP-shipping emotions. Although it has not yet departed from the level of love, the unique interactive experience can also add a lot of room for imagination.

In order to dilute the sense of holiday marketing, many brands have also adopted the method of inviting spokespersons to stand on the platform, stretching the emotional value of fans and trying to please the fan economy to survive the downturn.

PRADA focuses on oriental aesthetics and invites Li Xian and Xie Xin to take an immersive stroll through the ancient town of Huizhou, using "wandering" to explain the subtleties of love and encounter and to convey the implicit and freehand style of oriental emotions.

While other high-end luxury brands are still focusing on the topic of love, VAREWANG, a wedding dress brand that is highly compatible with the Chinese Valentine's Day, has taken a different route. Their concept this year is avant-garde romance - "wedding dresses are not exclusive to love."

Just looking at Qi Wei's promotional photos, apart from the traditional white color and the long train design, this dress does not create too much of a dreamy and romantic feeling. Looking at the brand's main keyword "pioneer", it is not difficult to guess VAREWANG's intention.

In recent years, women's public opinion has often been afraid to talk about marriage. Love is beautiful, but marriage often means responsibilities and trade-offs. At the moment when freedom consciousness is awakening, girls are more focused on self-improvement and are more willing to invest money and energy in their own values.

Wedding dresses are no longer exclusive attire for weddings, but a blank sheet of paper to support beautiful visions, a fashionable item for women to reward themselves, and also a disguised declaration by women: romance belongs to oneself and has nothing to do with love.

Comparing the marketing cases of major brands in recent years, it is not difficult to find that the strategic focus has quietly shifted from consuming love to value delivery.

In 2022, the main focus of the Chinese Valentine's Day was on "limited" rituals, with brand spokespersons transforming into limited partners to connect with fans; in 2023, the emphasis was on "rebellious" declarations, with hard-mouthed literature that was sweet and sour, and the use of memes to break the circle to interpret the mental state of contemporary people; in 2024, the core of "loving daughters" was deeply cultivated, boldly blowing away the bubble of love, truly facing the Qiqiao Festival, and returning the Chinese Valentine's Day to women.

This shows that emotional value is the strongest driving force for consumers to actively pay.

3. Where is the critical point between commercial value and emotional value?

In recent years, the discussion on emotional value has become increasingly intense. What is the emotional value of consumers? How to combine emotional value with commercialization? Where is the critical point between pleasing and flattering? In this regard, the foresight of high-end luxury brands is worth referring to.

In 2024, the luxury goods industry maintained a high level despite the double impact of love and the Olympics on Chinese Valentine's Day. A big reason for this is that they are good at using spokespersons to lead the brand image, reflect the brand personality, and provide a sense of value for fans.

Looking at the 2024 Chinese Valentine's Day business releases, the key targets of brands such as Boucheron and Audi are popular artists such as Xiao Zhan, Wang Yibo, Zhang Linghe, etc. who have upcoming film and television works. With the broadcast of film and television works, artists and brands can easily achieve a win-win situation in terms of popularity and value. Fans are also willing to promote brands and consume within their means because of the brands' recognition of their idols.

International luxury brands such as LV, Prada, Fendi, Chanel, and VERAWANG have chosen fashion darlings Wang Jiaer, Li Xian, Qi Wei, Jing Boran, etc. The artist's image can empower the brand well, and the spokesperson's fashion activity can also bring exposure to the brand. At the same time, the recognition of the fashion circle will feed back to the brand value level and allow consumers to maintain a strong demand for luxury consumption.

The brand's choice of spokesperson also involves considerations of public opinion and opportunities. The degree of fit between the spokesperson's image and the brand concept greatly influences consumers' purchasing decisions. A high-quality spokesperson must possess multiple comprehensive characteristics such as exposure, affinity, cooperation, and safety.

On the romantic Chinese Valentine's Day, the international wedding dress brand VERAWANG chose to join hands with Qi Wei and go against CP marketing, using the image of a single wedding dress as the brand promotion for the flagship store, which is a high recognition of Qi Wei's personal image.

The law of attracting fans in the domestic entertainment industry is often the principle of opposites attracting each other, but the portrait of Qi Wei's fans is that the proportion of female fans is far greater than that of male fans. This differentiation is closely related to Qi Wei's clear career management philosophy.

Couples in the domestic entertainment industry often face the problem of choosing between family and career. They often appear as a 1+1 couple in film and television variety shows, business endorsement events, and other occasions. A harmonious family is certainly fascinating, but the increased exposure of both people will also add many restrictions and risks.

For example, variety shows for couples such as "Wife's Romantic Travel" and "My Little Couple" not only bring exposure, but also excessive judgment of the relationship between couples from the outside world; at the same time, frequent appearances on the same stage will affect the career development of both parties, which is not a benign exposure in the long run.

On this point, Qi Wei appears to be particularly sober and restrained. She rarely appears with her other half. She is almost always solo in film, television, variety shows, and business. The few times she appears on stage together are all on the satellite TV Mid-Autumn Festival Gala.

In terms of film and television, she has very high requirements for scripts. In the short dialogue video with Yang Tianzhen, she mentioned that she chooses roles in the hope of highlighting the power of women. She hopes to encourage women to express themselves bravely through her own life experiments and to recognize their own ambitions.

In terms of variety shows, she has successively taken on a number of variety shows that can demonstrate her logical ability, life philosophy, and deep thinking, such as "The Great Detective" and "Women's Reasoning Agency"; relying on viral stalks such as "7V" and "banban" in "Ride the Wind 2024", she broke the circle and got closer to the audience, enhancing her affinity, while exporting the life philosophy that women should pursue self-worth.

In her career, she never gives up on exploring and challenging the stage, has her own strict standards and pursuits, and is brave enough to take on external doubts and discussions, using this to spur herself to become a better artist worthy of recognition.

Qi Wei's thoughts on personal growth, career and family in "Riding the Wind 2024" resonated with many female audiences and also represented a new idea for the single economy.

Therefore, when VAREWANG tried to break through the fixed impression of wedding dress brands, the first person it thought of was Qi Wei, and it also closely linked the brand's image with Qi Wei: Women are naturally brilliant.

For many years, women have been burdened with the shackles of various identities. The identities of wife, mother, and daughter have forced women to give up many opportunities and challenges on the road to self-pursuit. Even the Qixi Festival, a festival specially set up for women, has been forcibly wrapped in the robe of love.

Even if you receive a gift you like, you will be assumed to bear the invisible pressure of love, because behind the gift lies a potential responsibility. Love is not a business, and it should not be a cage for women.

As contemporary young people gradually awaken and disenchant with love, sugar-eating is no longer the mainstream choice for marketing on the Chinese Valentine's Day. Instead of racking your brains to come up with creative ideas for love, it is better to cultivate the core to create self-value, identify with consumers' demands, and output just the right emotional value, which is the direction of future festival marketing.