In the new consumption wave, where are the opportunities for brands?

In order to gain a foothold in the fiercely competitive market, brands must accurately interpret market and consumption changes and respond quickly. The author of this article takes us to understand the core changes in the market consumer population and how to respond to the new wave of consumption. Let's take a look.

With the changes in consumer habits, consumption mentality and contemporary marketing communication methods, as well as the emergence of new technologies and new products, brands must accurately interpret market and consumption changes and respond quickly to cope with new waves of consumption in order to gain a foothold in the highly competitive market.

1. The core change of the market consumer population: changes in consumer mentality and spending power

The underlying logic of China's consumer market changes with the changes in consumers. As consumers spend more time on the Internet, they have more time to immerse themselves in social media, which also makes them interested in consumption that expresses their own personality, making user behavior, consumption methods and consumption mentality the underlying logic of the new consumption era.

1. Changes in consumer groups bring about new consumer markets

The first change in the consumer market is the iteration of consumer groups. As the post-00s user group enters the workplace, the proportion of young consumers in the consumer market continues to increase. As Internet natives, compared with other consumer groups, the post-00s' living habits, consumption concepts, media usage habits and many other factors have led to qualitative changes in young people's consumption preferences.

For example, they want to have enough food and clothing, as well as poetry and distant places, and they also want diversified life and consumer services; they want good quality and low prices, and they have higher requirements for the quality, value and appearance of products.

2. Changes in consumer mentality: spiritual consumption in pursuit of quality

The consumption habits of Generation Z consumers are different from those of other user groups. They are keen on experience, and their dependence on brands also comes from their recognition of brand value, which prompts consumers to shift their mentality from product consumption to spiritual consumption.

Firstly, young consumers not only want "good quality and low price", but also want "spiritual resonance".

The brand has attracted much attention. The primary reason is that with the innovation of technology, the quality of the products is guaranteed. In addition, the products are good quality and inexpensive, making the brand a common choice for many young people. For example, the development and popularity of domestic products benefit from the recognition and pride of young people in traditional culture. The ultimate spiritual resonance makes more young consumers more willing to choose products that they identify with.

For example, new tea brands represented by Heytea, Nayuki, and Chayanyuese, in addition to attracting users with their high appearance, also convey the diversified brand values ​​of youth, health, and fashion, which resonates spiritually with consumers and naturally makes consumers voluntarily consume in the new tea beverage field to meet their spiritual needs.

Secondly, consumers are willing to pay for their feelings.

Feelings are part of the spiritual level. Domestic products such as Beibingyang and Jianlibao are very popular among young people, making e-commerce stores selling nostalgic foods of the post-80s and post-90s common, and creating a phenomenon of hot consumption of sentimental products.

Relevant survey data shows that 35.6% of consumers pay special attention to the feelings contained in the products, and that feelings influence their consumption choices.

For example, many adults like Disney, perhaps because the whole world is asking people to grow up and be sensible, but only Disney protects everyone's childlike innocence. This is also a kind of sentiment.

Another example is the popularity of Oriental Selection’s live streaming sales, which is largely due to their live streaming sales process, a process that can bring more added value to users, allowing consumers to buy goods while enjoying the distant atmosphere created by the live streaming sales process.

Behind the popularity of sentimental consumption, it represents the spiritual needs of more consumers, and also proves that spiritual consumption with sentimentality has greater market appeal.

3. The spending power of young consumers is evident

The changes in consumption trends, in addition to changes in consumer groups and user mentality, are also reflected in the current market's consumption power, which is composed of the size of the consumer group, consumption capacity and consumption potential.

First, the manifestation of consumption capacity

Consumption concepts, income levels, and spending can reflect the consumption capacity of young people. As a well-off generation, the post-00s have a worry-free life, a more avant-garde consumption concept, and like to pay for themselves. Their consumption capacity is prominent, making the younger generation the focus of brand attention and research.

Second, consumption potential

As the new white-collar workers born in the 2000s, as they gradually enter the workplace, they have more disposable income and are single aristocrats who are willing to please themselves. They prefer to follow trends in consumption and are regarded by brands as potential players in the future consumer market.

2. Brand transformation and turnaround: How do brands respond to the new wave of consumption?

After entering the new consumption era, the market has changed from a productivity-oriented market to a consumption-oriented market, and user consumption has also shifted from material consumption to more high-quality spiritual consumption.

1. Products are becoming more affordable to satisfy the self-expression needs of contemporary consumers

In order to cater to the needs of the new generation of consumers for self-expression, many brands choose to expand their product categories. For example, luxury brands choose to launch some entry-level products, which not only ensure the luxury of the products, but also provide a price that young people can afford. Some brands also choose to establish new brands and make their products light luxury, so that high-quality products can meet the preferences of consumers. On the basis of adhering to the light luxury brand tone, they carry out unique product design and quality assurance to help brands open up new consumer markets.

According to relevant data, about 45% of new stores opened worldwide are affordable luxury brands. With the continuous emergence of affordable luxury brands, it also proves that contemporary consumers have a high interest in products that are of good quality and can please themselves. This is also the change that contemporary brands have made to meet new consumer demands.

The tonality of the products can be seen from the tonality of the store, and the tonality of the products can reflect the brand's value proposition. For example, Wang Baobao, which has been extremely popular among the punk health crowd in recent years, has highlighted the brand's sense of fashion by making its products light luxury, and has become the common choice of many young people.

2. Joining hands with traffic stars is still an important measure for brands to leverage user consumption

In addition to product upgrades and launching new brands to expand the consumer market, some brands choose to join hands with popular celebrities to expand brand publicity on social media to enhance the brand's influence among young consumers.

Stars such as Zhao Liying, Gong Jun, and Xiao Zhan, who have both good professional skills and high traffic, have become the targets of brand selection. Through cooperation with high traffic stars, brands can leverage traffic on social platforms and increase exposure. Coupled with the influence of fan economy, the cooperation between brands and high traffic stars has become an effective way to drive consumption.

3. Make the brand trendy to attract young consumers

Attracting young people is the focus of brand communication. In order to win over the target consumer groups, many brands choose to give their brands fashion and light luxury.

Brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and OXN choose to cross-border collaborate with popular trendy brands such as Supreme to launch joint products, or launch trendy items on their own to make their brands trendy, detonate social networks, and attract more young people's attention to the brand.

For young people who like individuality and uniqueness, trendy brands with more flamboyant personalities can stimulate young people's enthusiasm for consumption and make brand trendiness a new trend in the new consumption era.

For brands, how to achieve brand and user integration through higher-level marketing in the future will be a new challenge they face in the new consumption wave.

at last

In the new consumption era, what is new is not only the consumer groups, but also the new consumption demands and consumption habits generated by the changes in users. The reason why brands can impress users now is not only the uniqueness of the products/brands, but the brand attitude is the fundamental to leverage traffic and achieve sales.

The way brands now maintain user relationships has changed from the single display of advertising information to two-way communication between brands and consumers, coupled with a more immersive experience, which enables consumers to have spiritual identification and achieves the goal of occupying users' minds and generating consumption, forming a new marketing chain. This is also a marketing strategy for brands to adapt to the trend of the times and extend the brand life cycle.

Author: Mr. Bingfa

Source: WeChat public account "Marketing Art of War (ID: lanhaiyingxiao)"