Crazy woman, indifferent person, pig gate...eight emotional keywords in 2024

This article reveals the eight emotional keywords that will influence consumer behavior in 2024, explores how these emotions will shape new consumer trends and market opportunities, and guides readers to deeply understand the power of emotional marketing. I hope it will be helpful to you.

No emotion is "innocent".

From lying down, giving up, and being nostalgic to collective madness, the rise of indifferent people, and the popularity of "Piggate"... On the Internet, young people release their emotions and pressure through all kinds of teasing and "memes", and at the same time, new consumption trends brought about by emotional mining are emerging one after another.

According to a survey by Credit Karma researchers, 58% of Generation Z and 52% of Millennials agree that emotional consumption behavior exists. How much consumers are willing to spend on a product largely comes from the emotional experience and "self" value brought by the product. From the product-centric marketing 1.0 era, to the user-oriented 2.0 era, and now to the emotion-centric marketing 3.0 era.

Based on this, we combined current popular cultural trends, data reports and brand cases to summarize eight emotional marketing keywords for 2024. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Madness upgrade

Under the Internet trend of people going crazy, "crazy" will evolve to "insane" in 2024. People who dare to go crazy will enjoy the world first, and the crazy men and women will take the initiative to break the rational order and interpret the absurdity in a way that is out of control.

In the orderly and efficiency-oriented modern society, "going crazy" is like a shield. It cannot block harm, but it can temporarily block a few arrows.

From "people-pleasing personality" to "people-pleasing personality", in the final analysis, going crazy is just a superficial phenomenon. The reason young people play with memes is nothing more than releasing stress. This kind of individual self-comfort is harmonious and unified with the existence of the social community.

Case reference: The 2024 New Year variety show "Infinite Beyond Class 2" became popular by "going crazy". The fool Ji Lingchen; the boneless chicken feet Zhu Zixiao; the cold hands Jin Chao who couldn't control the team members; the noisy Li Fei'er on the set; the talkative He Luoluo... The students went "crazy" in various ways, which made the popularity of the show go up straight.

At the beginning of 2024, KFC also went crazy, and found a "crazy partner" to launch a Dragon Tiger "Crazy Oil Essence" in collaboration with Dragon Tiger. This wave of "Crazy Thursday" linkage activities is only available on January 25 and February 1. The "Crazy Peripheral" is limited to 45,000 copies, which are only given away and not sold, on a first-come, first-served basis. Imagine the cool taste mixed with the fragrant fried chicken, which really makes people sober and crazy...

2. Humanities

In 2024, it seems that overnight, "indifferent people" are everywhere. More and more young people are beginning to pursue a "indifferent" lifestyle. They can't get out of a mess no matter how they swing, they can't win no matter how they roll, and they can't lie flat no matter how they lie. Therefore, in this noisy and complicated era, "indifferent people" have taken root and become a joke and self-mockery for young people. "Indifferent people", as the name suggests, are indifferent in social relationships, lifestyles, mental states, major life events, love mentality, and even the tone of voice... All of them are indifferent. The popularity of "indifferent people" is not accidental. Long before "indifferent people", "Tu Men" had attracted many disciples to join.

Capybara - as a simple creature that only eats and sleeps, no matter what happens, it always looks half-dead, with its eyes slightly closed, allowing the animals around it to manipulate it. Its emotions are extremely stable, which coincides with the spirit of "indifferent people".

Case reference:

Sharply grasping the core of "light people", Three Squirrels launched the "Original Light Flavor Guokui Melon Seeds" - even when eating melon seeds, they only eat the light-flavored original ones. The life attitude and values ​​it conveys resonate with young people.

3. Spiritual Healing

In an era full of pressure and uncertainty, young people who are consumed by internal friction are in urgent need of a "spiritual healing" as an outlet for negative emotions. The "2023-2024 Mental Health and Industry Crowd Insight Report" jointly released by mental health service agencies Jiandan Psychology and CBNData shows that "anxiety", "meaninglessness" and "depression" have become the top three psychological troubles of the year. Nowadays, the "healing economy" represented by stress relief consumption and comfort consumption is developing in full swing. Meituan data shows that in December 2023, the search volume for the keyword "healing" on the Meituan platform increased by 256%, and the search volume for "singing bowl therapy" increased by 423%. From online decompression videos to the rise of balcony vegetable planting, going downstairs to hug trees, aromatic meditation, and the 20-minute effect in the park, the huge potential of the healing market is reflected.

Case reference:

HEYTEA and FLOW Meditation have joined hands to help people meditate and drink tea together, focusing on the relaxation of "drinking to feel empty". In addition to online meditation audio, HEYTEA also held a special offline "FLOW Flow Center" experience event with FLOW Meditation to start a healing journey and establish an emotional connection with young people.

Dongpeng Ceramics, together with brand friends Liu Qing and Li Xueqin, presents the short film "Seeing Nanshan", which takes Tao Yuanming's poems as the core and focuses on the confusion of life, bringing everyone the healing power of "seeing Nanshan leisurely". The short film is divided into three parts, about the questioning of self-escape - self-reflection of letting go of the comparison heart - the relief of understanding "because I am in this mountain", and conveys the life philosophy of "facing the impermanence of the world, just be calm" in the transition and progressive layers.

4. Intimacy Degradation

In modern society, intimate relationships between people are no longer as close and stable as they were in the past, and the number of people living alone has increased significantly. According to the China Statistical Yearbook (2022), there are about 239 million single people over the age of 15 in China. As intimacy degenerates, hookups, crushes, and cute pets are all the rage on the Internet, and young people meet their emotional needs through alternative "shallow social relationships" or "relationship compensation."

Da Zi: A popular social method among young people, it is shallower than friends but more than colleagues, focusing on precise companionship in a vertical niche. Topics such as #Weight Loss Da Zi#, #Travel Da Zi#, and #Food Da Zi# have been popular on social media.

Crush: describes a sudden heartbeat, a sudden liking at first sight, a short-lived but passionate infatuation. On the Xiaohongshu platform, the #Crush# topic has over 2.5 billion views. Young people record beautiful moments of heartbeat, but they do not desire to establish a long-term and stable relationship with the Crush object.

Cute pets: From pet food, pet medical care, pet supplies to pet life services, the pet consumption track is growing rapidly. According to the "2023-2024 China Pet Industry Operation Status and Consumer Market Monitoring Report" released by iMedia Consulting, the scale of China's pet economy industry will reach 493.6 billion yuan in 2022.

Case reference: At the beginning of 2024, Holiland launched a new brand, Holiland Pet, and launched 28 high-value cakes at one time. The cakes are divided into four series, including bones, flowers, toys, and paws, with prices ranging from 168 yuan to 218 yuan. The cute and adorable designs simply empty the wallets of pet owners.

5. Crispy skin for health

From soaking wolfberries in a thermos cup, soaking feet with Chinese medicine to Chinese medicine milk tea, it is not difficult to find that Chinese health care has shown a trend of becoming younger. According to the "2023 Young People's Health Care Report" of Houlang Research Institute, young people are gradually becoming "fragile" and have constant minor ailments. Cervical fatigue, eye fatigue, frequent drowsiness, and poor stomach have become the top ten health problems for young people. According to the "2023 618 Health Consumption and Marketing Trend Insight Report" released by DT Research Institute x JD Health, "young people" have become a new force in health consumption, and the demand for home medicine and machinery has grown rapidly.

Case reference:

In order to cater to the "health-preserving" consumption needs of contemporary young people, Tong Ren Tang, a century-old brand in the field of medicine and health, has also launched youth-oriented initiatives. Its new brand, "Zhi Ma Health", has successively launched a number of innovative products that are highly sought after by young people, such as staying-up-late water, health-preserving water, wolfberry latte, monk fruit American coffee, etc., bringing a new healthy lifestyle to the new consumer group.

6. Metaphysical “Medicine” Prescription

In today's extremely uncertain society, young people use methods such as "praying to Buddha and burning incense", "astrological fever", "I Ching fortune-telling", "paying to copy scriptures", and "buying lottery tickets" to fight against unknown variables and difficulties, allowing "metaphysics" to flourish. On Xiaohongshu, the traffic of the topic #寺祈福# has exceeded 75 million+, and the number of views of the topic #接好运# is as high as 100 million+. Under the topic, young people make wishes one after another, and accepting offers, getting out of singleness, and taking civil service exams have become high-frequency words. At the same time, temple coffee, cultural and creative ice cream, etc. have emerged across the country. A set of survey data released by NetEase Data Reading at the end of 2023 showed that 78.81% of young people have had the experience of "fortune-telling"; among them, constellation compass and tarot divination are the most popular among young people. The number of people over 30 years old who have had the experience of constellation compass and tarot divination accounts for 41.29%, while young people under 30 years old account for 62.05%.

Case reference: Nayuki’s “A Lotus Tea” campaign, with the theme of “A Lotus, I’ve Come to an End”, launched a new IP image of the Lotus Fairy. The packaging bag contains Buddhist quotations such as “I’ve Come to an End” and “Enlightenment”, plus stickers with good wishes such as “Full wallet” and “Let everything go with fate”, focusing on a good omen for life.

7. Nostalgia

Affected by uncertain factors such as economic development, people's anxiety and fear gradually emerged, and consumers began to choose a safe psychological comfort to escape the cruel reality and gain temporary psychological peace. As a result, "nostalgia" has become a common social symptom.

This nostalgia is spreading all over the world right now. More and more people are longing for a sense of community with collective interests and for continuity in a fragmented world. This epidemic is a defense mechanism for people in an era of accelerated changes in life and history. - Zygmunt Bauman, "Nostalgic Utopia"

Under the pressure and anxiety of reality, people will unconsciously imagine the beauty of the past and heal themselves with "nostalgia". Just as the scene described in the famous movie "Midnight in Paris", the male protagonist living in the 21st century travels back to the "golden age" in his mind and stages a romantic journey. Such a scene was also reproduced by Jay Chou, the childhood idol of the 80s and 90s, in his song "The Greatest Work". Case reference: From KFC and Psyduck from "Pokemon" being "hard to get", to the hot scenes of KFC and Sanrio Pudding Dog and Hello Kitty... For the 80s and 90s users who have watched these IPs since childhood, now they have grown up and have a certain purchasing power, and they are willing to pay for their childhood feelings.

8. Advanced “Stinginess”

9.9 yuan coffee, 7.9 yuan eyebrow pencil, 19.9 yuan poor ghost meal... This generation of young people began to be "stingy" in reverse. On the Internet, young people are trying to break through the barriers and information cocoons to get the cheapest goods. According to a statistic released by China Youth Daily, 64.61% of college students have enjoyed the act of wool-pulling; on Xianyu, swapping has become a trendy lifestyle, and young people can improve their quality of life without spending a penny by bartering. However, young people who seem to be "downgrading consumption" have not reduced their spending on health, self-pleasing, travel, and watching performances. Special forces travel and offline concerts are still popular. In "Lonely Society", the author Sanpu Hideo pointed out that people have awakened from the extreme pursuit of consumerism and paid more attention to the connection between people and the normalization of life itself. Simply put, consumption has not been downgraded, but young people are taking back the initiative of consumption and pursuing cost-effectiveness.

Case reference: WeChat and Tencent Maps have integrated convenient repair shops across the country and created a "minor repair" guide to help everyone solve repair problems. The main feature is to save money and convenience, and the residents' sense of happiness has increased dramatically.

Conclusion: From sadness, Buddhism, lying flat, to the current crazy and indifferent, the "emotion" track is not a new traffic code. The emotional connection and resonance obtained by the brand will inevitably open up the market growth space and deepen the emotional resonance with consumers. The above are the eight emotional keywords we summarized, I hope it will be helpful to you.

Author: Meihua.com Editorial Department; WeChat public account: Meihua.com