With the popularity of e-sports, national tide, blind box, fashion shoes and other industries in the circle of generation Z, consumer products and scenes that were unrelated in the past have been frequently twisted together in recent years. For example, Kiehl's Kiehl's and Dimoo's panda cubs are limited to public welfare, or the PUCKY flight series co-branded makeup by Fu Leishi fresh and Ju Duo...
These cross-border joint names have captured young people's pursuit of beauty and social interaction, but most of the marketing activities are "blooming inside the wall, not fragrant outside the wall".
It is obviously not the original intention of cross-border activities just to serve the fans of the respective brands. Enterprises try to explore the interests and preferences of young people through rich brand cross-border activities, but they have never been able to solve the problem of how to break the circle.
The data shows that the cultural circles of Chinese young people are divided into 8 categories and 32 sub-categories, with a total of about 169 cultural circles. There is a natural gap between each circle, and there is almost nothing in common between different circles except for the age label of the Z era...
01 Cultural power of circles, four-dimensional breakthrough
From the perspective of brand development, although the circle of Generation Z is numerous and constantly changing, we can still find the key word for integration—cultural identity.
People usually regard cultural identity as a set of characteristics that are peculiar to a particular culture and also inherent to a particular nation. Generation Z has the same cultural background, and they seek self-identification of "cultural identity" in continuously subdivided areas of interest.
Therefore, brand culture has become the most important entry point to build the next circle brand of Generation Z. But there are three issues that need to be thought through before building a brand.
First of all, how to find the brand "culture"? A complete set of "cultural" system is mainly constructed by four "forces"-concept force, vitality, expressive force and cohesion force.
Split interpretation, conceptual power requires the brand to have a clear and unique identity and values. Vitality includes not only original but also secondary creations. Brands need to keep pace with the times, continue to spread new classics, and create special products for Generation Z.
Expressiveness requires brand rich content (eg product/image) and lifestyle manifestations (eg venue/event experience). Cohesion requires the brand to have a complete circle of internal ecology and visible influence paths.
The circle of brand choice, its "cultural" system may have different performances in the above four dimensions, which also affects the marketing value of the brand.
Brands with strong concepts can more easily convey the brand spirit and form cultural identity circles, such as e-sports circles, trend circles, and hip-hop circles. Generation Z in these circles pursues their true self and original spirit, and e-sports trendy brands are very popular. .
Vitality and expressiveness are strong, which helps brands to use the "culture" system to produce creative content and develop innovative products, such as the e-sports circle culture's love for creation and surrounding blind boxes. When brands cooperate with e-sports IP, they can give away electricity Hand-made gifts for competitive star players, bringing the brand closer to Gen Z e-sports fans.
Brands with strong cohesion can more easily leverage the communication levers of circles and achieve the effect of "person-to-person" and "object-to-object". For example, the rise of new trendy games such as TheShy blind box, from niche attention to popular purchases, clearly from the inside circle to the outside circle, and even to expand the influence of the circle.
02 Consumption power in the circle, breaking the circle across borders
When brands choose the popular circles of Generation Z, they need to consider the actual business returns that consumers in the circles can bring.
In short, it depends on whether the brand circle culture can generate a natural demand scenario/willingness to pay for the category of the brand, and bring higher market value. Does Generation Z recognize the brand's "culture" and whether they can pay for it?
Look at the population growth rate first. Accurate judgments can be made by observing the content of the circle and the increase of participants. For example, in the past two years, the popularity of short video Internet celebrity culture has become the new favorite of the brand. They are listed as the main object of discussion by commercial brands, attracting the attention of many commercial brands.
Look at the "cultural wealth code" in the scale. The game circle, the second dimension, the trend circle, many fields have reached a certain scale and formed their own brands, such as e-sports game enthusiasts, shoe circle enthusiasts, Hanfu cosplay crowd, etc. Currently, among the top 10 Hanfu brands 2 have received investment.
In addition to the accurate positioning of the circle culture, the consumption power of the circle is also crucial. Especially for categories with a certain consumption threshold, such as digital 3C, fashion shoes and clothes, the consumption power of the circle group is a more important measure. Consumption only means that the brand can play a role in the circle and find opportunities to open up the market.
The most important point is that most brands hope to convert the circle consumers into brand consumers while building potential energy through circles.
Therefore, when brands evaluate the circle from the perspectives of "culture" and "commercial", whether they are entities or non-entities, they need to expand the imagination of commercial cooperation methods.
For example, trendy shoes and fashionable clothes are not just for dressing up. In the face of this circle that most young people are gradually familiar with, the telemarketing list trend is as great as the content cooperation potential. Similarly, by analogy with the content-based circles such as board games and script killings, items in the consumption scene, such as snacks, drinks, and cigarettes, can also be opportunities for space.
03 Circle business power, integration and progress
In the planning of circle marketing by most telemarketing list brands, it is easy to ignore the bonus items of circle creators. Brands can examine the participation and activity of consumers in the circle more on the Internet, such as e-sports, blind box circles and other content-based circles, and publishing content of various themes is also part of the behavior of participating circles.
There are also rap circles and electronic voice circles backed by a large number of fans, and brands can use creators in the cooperative circle to gain a higher volume of discussion. Xiaohongshu's beauty circle and wear circle are more fun to share pictures, which is very suitable for the goal of brand incubation and self-communication.