8 marketing buzzwords to look at consumption trends in 2023

In the past year, the business world has witnessed the ups and downs of countless brands, some of which have failed, and some of which have become popular. For brands, it is more important to grasp the regular logic behind the popularity or failure. So, what changes will occur in consumption trends in 2023? The author of this article predicts the consumption trends in 2023 from 8 marketing buzzwords. Let's take a look.

In recent years, the traditional business structure has been gradually broken, and new tracks, new models, new consumption, new brands, and new business formats have shown explosive growth, and market competition has become increasingly fierce. For example, live streaming has shown a fierce competition trend, and there is a lot of tension between traditional search e-commerce and interest e-commerce; tracks such as pre-prepared meals, outdoor economy, and Chinese coffee have shown strong growth potential; young people have a strong interest in the metaverse, sports, and quantitative life.

As we enter 2023, the market is changing unpredictably. Which industries are still worth paying attention to? Perhaps, we can find the consumption trends in 2023 from the eight marketing buzzwords that became popular in 2022.

1. Pre-prepared dishes

The reviews of pre-prepared meals on the consumer side are mixed, but this has not affected their popularity on the B-side and in the capital market. According to relevant statistics, from 2020 to 2021, there were more than 23 financing events in the pre-prepared meal track, with a total amount exceeding billions. Leading capitals such as Housheng, Sequoia, and Hillhouse have all bet on pre-prepared meals.

Moreover, the market size of the pre-prepared meal industry is huge. According to iMedia Consulting data, the scale of China's pre-prepared meal market is expected to reach 419.6 billion yuan in 2022, and it is expected that the scale of the pre-prepared meal market will double in 2025.

It can be said that the expansion of market demand has successfully attracted the entry of capital, making the pre-prepared food market even more popular. It has also prompted brands such as Hema, Walmart, Meituan Maicai, Sanquan, Jinluo, Shuanghui, and Weizhishan to increase their investment in pre-prepared food, which has become a new driving force for brand breakthroughs and the pursuit of a vast market.

With the continuous increase in consumer demand, the continuous expansion of the market size, and the improvement in consumers' recognition of pre-prepared meals, I believe that the pre-prepared meal market in the future may usher in a broader growth space.

2. Metaverse

If pre-prepared meals are a new track, then the metaverse represents a new marketing element. It is the product of the integration of multiple technologies such as new technologies, new equipment, and digitalization.

In 2021, after Liu Yexi became popular, more and more brands have set their sights on the blue ocean of the Metaverse, using it to achieve changes in their brand image. Brands such as Baidu, Mango TV, Uni-President, Qingfeng, Red Star Macalline, Xiaomi, Nayuki Tea, Tencent, and others have begun to deploy in the Metaverse, helping brands expand the functional attributes of social commerce by launching unique creative advertisements, digital collectibles NFTs, and virtual character endorsements.

At the same time, brands have grasped the characteristics of the metaverse itself, and have unlimited possibilities to win topics and traffic for the brand through scarcity, inclusiveness, ornamental value, commercial value, and self-generated traffic. Just taking NFT digital collections as an example, according to the "Global NFT Digital Collection Market Development Research Report in the First Half of 2022", China's data collections will reach a new peak in 2026, and the market size is expected to reach 29.52 billion.

In addition, the Metaverse can help brands expand the interactive space with users, carry marketing creativity, products and consumer experiences, etc., making the digital space perceptible, participatory and creative.

For example, the M-Zone World Cup Music Festival·Migu Hui brought together top stars on the Metaverse stage, allowing M-Zone’s digital spokesperson Metaverse’s unique AI girl Orange Luoluo to perform on the same stage with guests Jay Chou, Chris Lee, Cai Xukun, GAI Zhou Yan and others. The colorful digital scenes realized real-time interaction between the real world and the digital world, making the stage’s expressiveness and emotional appeal explode.

3. Chinese Coffee

The metaverse is a product carried in virtual space, and Chinese coffee can be said to be a new product that integrates Chinese traditional culture and the consumption preferences of young people.

New categories are the focus of the industry, representing new trends and consumption directions. They are the only way for brands to enter the market segment, seize the minds of consumers, and maintain sustained growth. In the face of the vast coffee market, if a brand wants to stand out from its competitors, it needs to target audience needs and consumption habits, and conduct more detailed exploration in products and marketing to seize the blank consumer market.

Chinese coffee is a collision of Western coffee culture and traditional Chinese culture, and it is also a fusion of Chinese people's health awareness and popular lifestyle. Whether it is Hey Coffee, which launched "Chinese stewed coffee" with inspiration from China's unique cooking method "stew", or M Stand, which launched fried dough sticks coffee by mixing coffee + method, or Koulikoufei, which launched gaiwan coffee by integrating Chinese tea culture and coffee culture, they all have insight into the consumption trends of young people.

Image source: Fou Le Coffee

By fully tapping into the needs of young audiences and launching products with unique brand characteristics and value, we can effectively reach the target audience, increase brand exposure, help the brand rise in the new consumption era, and gain a head start.

4. Outdoor Economy

If pre-prepared meals are an insight into the pain points of young people in diet, the metaverse is a new species that focuses on the integration of user aesthetics and digitalization, and Chinese coffee captures young people's focus on health and wellness, then the outdoor economy is people's desire for health, poetry and distant places in a special social environment.

In the past 2022, young people working hard in the city focused their leisure and entertainment on outdoor sports with low thresholds, low consumption, strong sociality and strong leisure. Outdoor sports represented by camping, frisbee, and cycling have become a popular leisure method for people to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and seek a moment of peace.

The popularity of outdoor activities has also kept the heat of the outdoor economy rising, making consumers have a strong interest in outdoor activities. On Xiaohongshu, there are more than 4 million notes about camping, and more than 90,000 notes about exquisite camping. With the changes in people's leisure and entertainment methods, outdoor sports such as camping, frisbee, and cycling have also gone from being a niche to the mainstream, allowing the outdoor economy to maintain super high market heat and usher in wild growth.

It is worth mentioning that the booming outdoor economy has endowed outdoor activities with social attributes, allowing people to make friends through camping and posting to their friends’ circles. It has also made those outdoor sports with entertaining and social attributes gradually evolve into a lifestyle that young people are keen on, and sports social networking has become a favorite of young people.

5. Interest e-commerce

With the segmentation of industries, advancement of technology, and changes in people's lives and consumption habits, the marketing and sales channels of products have undergone tremendous changes. Traditional search e-commerce is facing unprecedented pressure, and interest e-commerce has officially emerged.

Interest e-commerce platforms represented by Douyin use content that young people are interested in as a touchpoint, use more immersive content to achieve communication with users, and establish trust with consumers. At the same time, they subtly influence users' perception of brands and stimulate their shopping desires. Some people even regard selling goods on interest e-commerce platforms as an important way to increase their knowledge and broaden their horizons, which has brought unprecedented challenges to traditional search e-commerce platforms.

For brands, in the era of interest-based e-commerce, brands need traffic, but more importantly, they need "product and effect integration" conversion. Interest-based e-commerce uses content as a touchpoint, which can catch the user's attention, win traffic for the brand, and provide an opportunity for conversion.

6. Commercialization of Film and Television IP

In addition to changes in consumer preferences, living habits, ways of making friends, etc., brand marketing methods have obvious characteristics.

For example, brands are more willing to collaborate with commercial film and television IPs, leveraging the original user popularity of film and television IPs to build up popularity for the brand, opening up new marketing tracks to achieve dissemination, and accumulating dissemination materials for the brand to extend the marketing life cycle.

For example, "The Legend of Zhen Huan", which was a big hit 11 years ago, has become popular again in the marketing circle in 2022. It co-created "The Legend of Zhen Huan" with HEYTEA content, highly restored the scenes of fame and fortune such as Concubine Xi's garden tour and stunning dance, and increased the brand's exposure and market popularity. Cooperating with Tianyancha, by sorting out the intricate relationships between characters in "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and the palace fighting tactics in the play, it highlights the fun of marketing content and achieves more accurate reach. Jointly created with Keep to create interesting sports scenes, let the plot running "The Legend of Zhen Huan" series of courses win the hearts of users, deepen users' impression of the brand, and also let Keep achieve marketing breakthroughs.

After the commercialization of film and television IP, it has become an important tool for brands to attract users' attention, deepen user cognition, improve user favorability, and break the marketing circle. With the successful cases such as "The Legend of Zhen Huan", more film and television IPs may be commercialized in the future, which will inevitably add more marketing styles and elements to the marketing circle, making the marketing content more rich and interesting.

7. Big Health Industry

In addition to the industries and categories covered by the above six hot words, the direction of the big health industry is still worthy of attention.

Under the dual pressure of life and work, young people are facing problems such as insomnia, endocrine disorders, baldness and memory loss, which make them pay more attention to their own health and step into the new era of health care. Whether choosing Chinese coffee, advocating a quantitative lifestyle, or choosing 0-additive/half-sugar products, it can prove the degree of attention that today's consumers pay to their own health.

According to the data released by online shopping platforms, among users who purchase imported health products, those born in the 1980s account for about 36% and those born in the 1990s account for about 24%. This shows that now it is not only the elderly who are concerned about their own health, but young people have also joined the health-conscious crowd.

Where there are young people, there is capital, and the addition of capital also proves the prospects of the big health industry. According to the "2022-2023 Global and China Big Health Industry Operation Big Data and Decision Analysis Report" by iMedia Consulting, from 2000 to 2021, the amount of investment and financing in the global medical and health industry in 2021 was the largest, reaching 684.603 billion.

In addition, with the popularization of smart devices, more and more young people are beginning to rely on health data reflected by electronic devices. The visualized digital life makes users pay more attention to their health, which gives rise to anxiety and also promotes the development of the health industry in reverse.

In addition, there is another keyword worth paying attention to: sports marketing. With the holding of the Winter Olympics and the World Cup, consumers regard sports as an important way to expand their social circles, stay healthy, and relax. Brands have also seen the attention of young people to sports, and have turned sports marketing into a link between brands and users, continuously expanding the boundaries of brand marketing and achieving a continuous increase in the popularity of sports marketing. For a long time in the future, sports marketing will have a good development space.

Author: Mr. Bingfa

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