The iron law of consumption among contemporary young people: symbolic value economy

Why is the consumption psychology of contemporary young people a symbolic value economy? This article will show you the reasons and explore modern consumption habits through the 618 case. Of course, this article is also recommended for companies or individual business owners to read.

Since the beginning of this year, the stock price of lululemon, the most influential fashion sports brand, has fallen by nearly 40%, becoming a big news in the middle of the year.

The fact is that the company is very profitable. Net revenue in fiscal year 2023 hit a record high of $9.62 billion, and even in the first quarter of this year, net revenue also increased by 10%. And during the 618 promotion, whenever lululemon had a discount, the news spread all over the Internet like it had legs.

In other words, the brand still has a strong mass consumer base, because its meaning is more than just sportswear. Wearing lululemon to practice yoga or run means showing off one's consumer taste, body management ability, and lifestyle.

This is the normal consumption psychology of modern young people, a kind of symbolic value economy - consumption and shopping become a kind of creation, a discovery and a sensitive expression. The symbols formed by various styles and tastes are shaping, defining and expressing themselves.

During the 618 period, such consumption cases were everywhere. We no longer focus too much on conventional massive data analysis, but hope to observe the symbolic value economic characteristics of young people's consumption through this special window period. This attribute is particularly obvious in those neglected long-tail consumption behaviors.

These consumer behaviors and psychological insights are closely related to the commercial value of the platform, and to a certain extent are also a microcosm of social changes.

1. Cooking machines are selling well in the lower-tier markets

Just a few days ago, a person in charge of purchasing and sales of home appliances at JD.com accidentally discovered that smart cooking machines were selling like hot cakes.

What surprised them most was that the goods were delivered not to first-tier cities, but to lower-tier cities, and even to county-level sinking markets.

This doesn't seem to be normal.

In most people's stereotypes, smart cooking machines, which are icing on the cake and non-essential products, are either consumed by young people in first-tier cities who save time, are brave enough to try new things, and pursue fashion. After all, the lazy economy has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts; or they are used as a kind of toB business in institutional campus canteens, where the output of dishes is large, and machines can liberate labor, and the taste is not bad. The food cooked by the cooking robot in Anaya canteen is very delicious.

The JD purchasing agent further verified that the people who placed the orders were either B-end users or ordinary household users.

From a macro perspective, the scale of cooking machines is neither big nor small. According to AVC monitoring data, the online market sales of cooking robots will reach 170 million yuan in 2022 and 180 million yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%. The functions and styles of smart cooking machines are relatively limited, and there are not many models available on JD.com.

Even if you take a look at social media platforms, you will find a lot of negative reviews about cooking machines: they do the most interesting part of the entire cooking process, leaving all the dirty work to humans.

However, in the increasingly saturated market environment of small household appliances, cooking machines are a niche segment that household appliance brands have rushed into in recent years, and sales have continued to increase.

After understanding some users' purchasing needs, we roughly came up with the following group picture: Most of them are office workers. Although their pace of life is not as fast as that in first- and second-tier cities, their leisure time is also precious. They don't want to order takeout, but want to eat cleanly and hygienically at home. The cooking machine just meets their needs. The title of Supor's official account is: Since using the cooking robot, I can have a table of dishes in 30 minutes after get off work!

This just confirms what we mentioned at the beginning, the symbolic value economy behind young people’s consumption. They have their own lifestyle propositions, and consumption is just one part of it.

In an analysis report that was drawn up after investigating the audience of cooking machines, the above reasons were basically mentioned: it gives confidence to novice cooks, as if they had hired a personal assistant; the taste is not bad; it does save time, after all, they now have automatic cleaning functions.

Another point is that there are always people in this world who are pursuing new things.

As mentioned in the book "Manufacturing the Consumer", "the consumer mentality that emerged at the turn of the century expressed a desire to keep up with the times and adapt to the flow of goods. The idealized object of consumption was always slightly better than what we have."

2. Consumption Optimization Master

The hot sales of cooking machines in the sinking market are just a small aspect of the consumption trend during the 618 period. If we look at it from a broader dimension, such as the consumption behavior of different groups of people in different scenarios, we will have new discoveries.

In our current developed industrial society, factors that conditionally constrain personal consumption behavior include: professional knowledge, financial resources, and acumen. In other words, as long as you have the ability and know what you want to buy, the current channels are mature enough to buy it.

The only thing that is scarce is the pursuit of "style grammar" by young people. They are keen on capturing consumption trends and are eager to leave their own distinctive personal mark.

According to the "2024 Domestic Product Consumption Observation" released by JD Consumer and Industry Development Research Institute, among the top 100 brands searched by JD in the past year, "domestic products" accounted for more than 70%, and the amount of domestic product consumption by young consumers born in the 1990s and 2000s accounted for more than 60%.

One detail worth noting is that in the past year, the number of Hanfu brands on JD.com has increased by more than 140% year-on-year, and the number of products has increased by more than 150% year-on-year, including Chonghui, Shisanyu, Zhizaosi, Zhonglingji, Qingshuixi, Chixia and other Hanfu merchants. Behind this is the daily consumption of Hanfu, which has extended from travel photography to shopping and commuting for young people.

For example, the horse-faced skirt has become the sub-category with the highest year-on-year growth in views among Hanfu, with a year-on-year sales volume of more than 8 times. The sales volume of the horse-faced skirt after the improvement of the group length has increased by more than 12 times.

During the 618 period, many users posted their Hanfu orders on Xiaohongshu and shared discount methods. When buying on JD.com, there may be price comparisons, and there are also logistics, after-sales and other fulfillment considerations.

If the label of strengthening exercise as a lifestyle for female users to better show off their figures is the symbolic meaning of lululemon, then Hanfu is a self-pleasing symbol of self-cultural identity under the trend of national style.

Since the beginning of this year, the sales volume of "New Chinese Style" related products on JD.com has increased by more than 110% year-on-year, and the number of consumers purchasing "New Chinese Style" related products has increased by more than 70% year-on-year, among which the number of consumers purchasing "New Chinese Style" clothing products has increased by more than 10 times year-on-year.

From March to April, the ancient fantasy drama "Journey to the Phoenix" starring Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin was a hit. Affected by the spillover effect of the plot, JD.com's Hanfu transaction volume increased by 300% year-on-year.

If we focus on the consumption scenarios of women, in addition to pleasing themselves, they have another identity: masters of family consumption optimization.

After the home space has been optimized, modern women have naturally adapted to the behavioral patterns of mass consumption. Once any new practical and innovative ideas emerge, they will replace their previous furniture and items with new equipment, and be responsible for managing, predicting, controlling, coordinating and organizing family life.

Many women’s JD.com accounts are family accounts, and their shopping carts often take into account the consumption needs of three generations. This is because one of the manifestations of defining a family lifestyle is the right to speak and decide on items and consumption.

From the platform's perspective, these two dimensions of female consumption are primarily about capturing trends and guiding brands to better address user needs, which has become a daily routine.

3. Capture and trigger consumption trends

Compared with offline, the core advantage of e-commerce is that it can connect people and products more efficiently. To put it more bluntly, it can accurately match a large number of products with a large number of people.

There are many factors that connect them, such as price, quality, and preference. Since last year, the low-price strategy that has been talked about all over the Internet emphasizes the influence of price. As we mentioned earlier, one of the important factors that constrain purchasing behavior is financial resources.

In addition, with the increasing supply of goods, how to "foresee" and predict in advance, or even stimulate needs that users are not aware of, and trigger consumption trends is also a key issue.

Cooking machines are selling like hot cakes in the lower-tier markets. For the platforms, the first thing they should understand is consumer psychology and demand.

Compared with medium and large cities, the sinking market represented by counties still has a consumption willingness based on basic needs, such as houses, cars, furniture, large appliances and 3C products, but their consumption characteristics show a polarized trend: they are not stingy and are willing to spend on durable goods, and they are not even sensitive to the relative prices of durable consumer goods; but they are extremely frugal when it comes to fast-moving consumer goods.

In addition, young people are increasingly willing to pay for their own lifestyles. Whether they are looking for something new or just trying something new, they are more willing to accept new things. This is also one of the reasons why cooking machines are so popular.

A JD.com home appliance buyer once said that they are now focusing more on finding products that are in line with industry development trends, including the future direction of the market.

Previously, brands seemed to believe that users’ attitude towards TV size was that the bigger the better. The 50-inch to 60-inch range was almost a blank in the market, with only one or two home appliance brands making it. However, when purchasing and sales contacted users, they found that market demand actually existed.

So they worked with two leading brands to develop a 60-inch TV with a reasonable price. Finally, they tested it and found that the effect was very good. It sold out during the Double 11 shopping festival last year and was out of stock. It was this insight and decision that finally brought a size to the market.

This is a very small case of JD.com’s joint brand participation in product research and development and design, and similar things happen almost every day.

The JD purchasing and sales representative mentioned above said that they often pay attention to user comments, whether good or bad, as long as they are the users' true feelings. Only in this way can they know how to capture consumption trends in the future.

Every year, whether it is June 18 or Double 11, when everyone is more caught up in a kind of "consumption violence" and paying attention to transaction data and growth rate, they can actually capture the atoms gathered behind countless individuals, truly perceive the current consumption sentiment, and reach the code behind the symbolic value economy pursued by young people.

Author: Fan Rongzhang; Editor: Zhai Wenting

Source: New-Daybreak (ID: new-daybreak)