Behind the 7,000 yuan down jacket, the new marketing "war" of domestic down

Recently, high-priced down jackets have attracted many netizens to discuss. The marketing methods of domestic down jackets are constantly evolving. What are the marketing routines that are "updated" now? What is the path for domestic down jackets to become younger and more high-end?

Recently, SKYPEOPLE, a down jacket brand under Yuanfudao, became a hot topic due to its high prices, attracting many netizens to watch and discuss.

The topic #Domestic down jackets sold for 7,000 yuan# ranked first on the hot search list, with over 300 million views. SKYPEOPLE then issued an official statement in response: Good products are of full weight and will not be too cheap.

According to Phoenix.com, SKYPEOPLE customer service responded: "We are worth the money. Making a good product is not a cheap thing. Why can't domestic products sell for 7,000 yuan? In terms of workmanship, fabrics, and filling, we are not inferior to international brands such as Big Goose and Moncler."

This response has allowed Skyman, a new domestic mid-to-high-end down jacket brand launched in 2022, to enter the consumer's field of vision in a high-profile manner.

The arrival of cold winter is the peak season for consumers to buy cold-proof clothing. Domestic down jacket brands have launched a variety of marketing to attract consumers' attention. First, Li Ning, Erke, and JD.com were involved in the "anti-Korean (cold)" live broadcast "commercial war", and then Skyman caused a dispute over the high prices of domestic down jackets.

In recent years, the marketing methods of domestic down jackets have been constantly evolving. What are the marketing routines that have been "updated" now? What is the path for domestic down jackets to become younger and more high-end?

1. Skyman’s high price caused controversy

On November 22, China News Service Jingwei published a Weibo post titled "#Domestic down jackets sell for 7,000 yuan#Is it not enough for the middle class?" The related content caused heated discussion.

In the article, Wang Jing, a consumer living in the south, said she wanted to buy a new down jacket, but she couldn't make the purchase. She said, "The good-looking ones are expensive, and the cheap ones are not good-looking." She found that some of the new models launched by down jacket brands such as Bosideng are priced at her monthly salary of 5,000 yuan. At the end of the article, it was mentioned that the main price of Tiankongren, a domestic high-end down jacket brand under Yuanfudao, is between 2,800 and 7,000 yuan.

Image source: Weibo screenshot

Netizens had different reactions to the news. Many netizens shared their warm items that they bought for hundreds of yuan, including affordable down jackets from brands such as Semir, Xue Zhongfei, and YaYa. Some netizens also expressed doubts as to whether these mid- to high-end down jacket brands were "deliberately trying to increase prices by any means to gain a reputation"; and some netizens lamented, "Before they were ice cream assassins, and now they are down jacket assassins."

In its response, the Skyman brand said that its product itself is positioned against top down jacket brands, with multiple "technologies" such as "all-series Diamond 800™ fill power white goose down", "0 cold spot" box-type filling technology, and a circulating moisture-wicking and warmth-keeping system, and is actually great value for money.

The prices of down jackets in Skyman's flagship store on Taobao range from 3,200 yuan to 6,800 yuan. There is only one down windbreaker priced above 7,000 yuan, and real-time sales show that 8 pieces have been sold.

At present, Skyman has set up four offline stores in Beijing and Shanghai, located in core business districts such as Beijing World Trade Center, Sanlitun, and Shanghai Xintiandi. The offline pop-up store event in Taikoo Li Sanlitun, Beijing just ended on November 19.

Skyman is a down jacket brand under Beijing Bingyuan Clothing Co., Ltd., which is wholly owned by Kanyun Holdings Co., Ltd. (the parent company of Yuanfudao). Kanyun Holdings' cross-border business is not limited to education and clothing. The company has also invested in maternal and child care companies and coffee and tea brands.

Behind the changes in consumers' perception of the prices of domestic down jackets is the fact that domestic down jacket brands are indeed collectively raising prices.

According to data from the China National Business Information Center, from 2014 to 2020, the average unit price of down jackets in my country increased from 452 yuan to 656 yuan, and the transaction price of large cold-proof clothing exceeded 1,000 yuan, of which those priced above 2,000 yuan accounted for nearly 70%.

In recent years, many down jacket brands that have taken the affordable route, such as Bosideng and YaYa, have launched their own high-end product lines.

Since 2018, Bosideng has raised prices by as much as 30%-40%. By the end of March 2022, the proportion of products with a first price of more than 1,800 yuan accounted for 46.9% of all commodities.

YaYa has built a hierarchical design model based on its own product line. The "Ice Shell" co-branded down jackets at the top of the "pyramid", including "IP co-branded", "designer co-branded" and "high-end luxury series", have prices ranging from 499 yuan to 4999 yuan.

Image source: YaYa

As prices continue to rise, the marketing methods of domestic down jackets are also constantly innovating.

2. The marketing path of domestic down jacket brands

In recent years, the marketing "update" of domestic down jackets has mainly focused on content marketing and scenario marketing.

Bosideng, an affordable "old domestic brand" for middle-aged and elderly people that was once loved by parents, has invited many young stars or athletes such as Yang Mi, Chen Weiting, Xiao Zhan, Gu Ailing, Yi Yang Qianxi and Yang Zi to become brand spokespersons.

It is worth mentioning that Bosideng’s spokesperson, "Frog Princess" Gu Ailing, was officially announced in September 2022. This freestyle skier performed well in the 2022 Winter Olympics and became an idol for many young people because of her fashionable appearance, unique conversation and excellent achievements. She is called "my friend Gu Ailing" by fans.

Bosideng took advantage of the opportunity to officially announce Gu Ailing to increase the brand's fashion and youthfulness. After the official announcement, Gu Ailing wore Bosideng's lightweight down jacket to appear on the fashion show of Milan Fashion Week.

Bosideng also topped the Tmall Double Eleven 2023 apparel brand sales list with the help of the celebrity effect. With the support of three brand spokespersons, Gu Ailing, Yi Yangqianxi and Yang Zi, Bosideng's "Puff" down jackets sold over 10 million yuan in 4 hours after they went on sale, pushing the brand's sales to over 100 million yuan.

After undergoing a share restructuring in 2020, the YaYa brand began to focus on building live e-commerce. YaYa has incubated more than 200 brand store live broadcast sub-accounts to match different target users.

The YaYa brand also moved its live broadcast room to the snow-capped mountains of Tibet in August, which is off-season. Accompanied by the cold wind from the snow-capped mountains of Lhasa, the anchor demonstrated to the audience in the live broadcast room the warmth and cold-proof power of the YaYa down jacket.

Image source network

This live broadcast allowed the newly launched "YAYA Mountaineering Clothing Flagship Store" to quickly break out of its circle. It attracted 1.26 million viewers at the time and was hailed as the "live broadcast ceiling."

The YaYa brand director once introduced in a media interview: When promoting content on a daily basis, they tend to choose influencers in the clothing vertical category to promote content, but during big promotions, they will choose top pan-entertainment influencers with more than 10 million fans to promote content at the same time as the big promotions to divert traffic to the brand live broadcast room.

YaYa has also appeared in the live broadcast rooms of many top influencers, such as Make Friends, Crazy Little Yangge, Oriental Selection, Jia Nailiang's live broadcast room, etc.

YaYa Down Jackets officially announced that "national coach" Liu Genghong is its brand ambassador and launched the #CrazyDuckDance challenge on Douyin. The related topic has been played more than 90 million times. Many influencers took the initiative to participate in warming up for YaYa on the "Super Brand Day". Afterwards, brand spokesperson Zhao Lusi entered the live broadcast room to challenge the DuckDuck Dance, which attracted many viewers. The live broadcast was exposed more than 140 million times that night.

Soon after, YaYa achieved a record of 50 million GMV for a single store and a single item. According to data provided by YaYa officials, YaYa's omni-channel sales in 2019 were 80 million, and in 2022, YaYa's total network GMV exceeded 10 billion yuan.

The Skyman brand has some experience in content marketing, and is currently in the stage of spreading its brand influence.

In order to increase the brand's visibility, Tiankongren not only looks for influencers in the clothing vertical, but also places advertisements to influencers in the technology review, outdoor sports, and car review categories, in order to achieve a marketing effect that breaks through the circle.

Technology blogger "科技宫" released a promotional video titled "A Review of Our Ancestors' Unique Ways to Keep Warm". The video introduced the different "technologies" of Skyman brand down jackets, starting with the cold-proof products in ancient costume dramas. So far, it has received 34,000 likes. Netizens commented under the video: "Why do I feel that down jackets now have the same sense of technology as Huawei [like]?"

Another technology review blogger "Tech Dog" tested the warmth and cold-proof effects of the Skyman brand by disassembling clothes. "Zhu Weiqiang", a wilderness survival expert who has appeared on the Discovery Channel and CCTV9's "Man vs. the Situation", also released a related review video.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

In addition, Skyman set up a capsule toy machine in its pop-up store in Sanlitun, Beijing, attracting a large number of KOCs to take photos and check in offline.

At the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in February last year, athletes from various countries entered the venue wearing different down jackets, which made many people interested in buying down jackets of different brands.

The topic #Opening Ceremony Down Jacket# became a hot search on Weibo, and the red down jacket sponsored by the Anta brand for the Chinese team also became popular. Many netizens expressed their hope to buy the same bright red down jacket and bright red scarf.

Image source network

Marketing is a means to help domestic down jackets become popular. Behind these increasingly diverse marketing methods is the fact that domestic down jackets are actively embracing high-end and youthful positioning.

3. Domestic down jackets are becoming more high-end and younger

In the winter of 2021, with the popularity of international mid-to-high-end outdoor down jacket brands such as The North Face, Canada Goose, and Moncler, the argument of a "down jacket contempt chain" began to emerge on the Internet, and the domestic brand Bosideng was at the bottom of the "contempt chain."

The phenomenon of the "chain of contempt" to some extent also reflects the problem of insufficient recognition and influence of mid-to-high-end domestic down jacket brands among young consumer groups.

In fact, the high-end and younger trends of domestic down jacket brands are trends that have only begun to emerge in recent years.

After 2019, Bosideng officially launched its Dengfeng series of products priced at more than 11,000 yuan. Kailas, a professional outdoor sports brand focusing on mountaineering, has only broken through in the past two years with its co-branded "Havoc in Heaven" and "Wang Jiaer's Same Style". The high-end Gaofan down jacket also entered the public eye during last year's big promotion period, seizing the dividends of live e-commerce.

In the process of moving towards high-end, domestic down jacket brands mostly focus on tailoring design, materials and "technology". In addition to caring about the warmth retention function and fashionable appearance of down jackets, consumers also pay more attention to professional technical indicators such as "filling volume" and "fluffiness" of down jackets.

Domestic down jackets are mainly filled with duck down and goose down, and domestic down jackets have made great achievements in this field. Skyman launched the "Diamond White Goose Down" goose down jacket with multiple "technologies", and Yaya Down Jacket launched the "World's Rare Icelandic Goose Duck Down" down jacket. It is said that the annual output of goose duck down is only 2,000 kilograms. The Goff brand, which claims to be a benchmark for Moncler, has three unique luxury warm technologies: "flying velvet, black stone fabric and Zhongke heat storage technology".

Behind the tailoring design, materials and "technology", the price of domestic down jackets has also risen. Not only is the price of Skyman up to more than 7,000 yuan, the price of YaYa's high-end down jacket series is as high as 4,999 yuan, and the price of Gaofan's black and gold goose down series goose down jackets is also 5,999 yuan.

Domestic down jackets are "full of tricks" on the road to youth. In addition to launching relatively fashionable styles, they also take the initiative to go to international fashion weeks, cross-border co-branding with various IPs, invite various celebrities to become brand ambassadors, actively embrace popular culture, and keep pace with young consumers.

Bosideng not only appeared at Milan Fashion Week, but also launched collaborations with brands or IPs such as Van Gogh, China Aerospace ASES, and designer Gaultier.

In the past, Bosideng also co-launched the single "Chao Ji Nuan" and the corresponding co-branded model with Li Daben, the top 9 contestant of "The Rap of China", actively embracing the new ICON of hip-hop culture to attract young consumers. In September 2022, the domestic outdoor brand Camel invited the unexpectedly popular celebrity Ding Zhen Zhenzhu to become the brand spokesperson. The sales of Ding Zhen's same-style jacket exceeded 350,000, and the sales of Ding Zhen's same-style down jacket were outstanding. The YaYa brand will have ten cooperating artists in 2023. Female artists include but are not limited to Hai Qing, Wan Qian, and Sun Qian, and male artists include Chen Zheyuan, Cheng Lei, etc., a total of six female artists and four male artists. On November 8, the brand spokesperson Wang Yibo was also officially announced. On the same day, the YaYa down jacket was listed on the sales list of multiple channels such as Douyin and Tmall and ranked first.

Finally, thanks to the efforts of many manufacturers and brands, domestic down jackets have evolved from an "aging" clothing category to a younger, more fashionable and high-end one.

With the upgrading of the supply chain, rising labor costs, and increased brand marketing expenditures, the increase in the average customer price of domestic down jackets has become a natural thing.

It is hoped that in the future, domestic down jacket brands will be able to control the proportion of investment in product research and development and marketing expenses while making profits, be responsible to consumers, and allow consumers who love domestic down jackets to enjoy products that are truly value for money.

Author: Laisheng

Source: WeChat public account "Marketing Looks at Grams"