Generation Z are aboriginals of the Internet, with a remarkable circle of temperament. They appreciate beauty and enjoy consumption; they respect individuality and have a unique way of socializing; they trust brands, but do not blindly follow big names; they love life sharing, and they prefer to stay at home... Generation Z has grown up with the rapid development of China’s economy. With superior material living conditions, it is the generation with the highest purchasing power and desire to consume. In the face of Gen Z, which is gradually becoming the backbone of the market, only a younger brand can capture the mainstream buying group.
Under the background that traditional advertising is constantly being disintegrated by new lifestyles and brand communication loses accuracy due to fragmentation of information, how can brands be younger to reach Generation Z?
The young market in the second dimension
The term "two-dimensional" comes from Japan. It is used by MAG fans to refer to the virtual world and phantom space formed by Manga (manga), Anime (animation), and Game (game). In the early 20th century, under the influence of cultural penetration and industrial interaction , Japanese MAG culture has had an important influence on the aesthetic taste and lifestyle of the new generation of China. Most of the two-dimensional culture lovers have a good educational background and are able to use the Internet proficiently. They have introduced and translated a large number of Japanese animation, manga and game cultural products, and rely on social media to establish a large number of fun communities, among the Chinese generation Z groups Established a wide and far-reaching influence.
What causes the fetters between the two dimension and young people's marketing? Most of the "post-95" Generation Z are only children. The virtual images in the two-dimensional culture just make up for their loneliness in the process of growing up. Immersion in the two-dimensional world can find spiritual comfort, such as dialogue with the virtual image is helpful for pastime Being lonely and fighting against virtual opponents can achieve self-worth. Therefore, Gen Z is willing to waste time, consume energy and spend money on the two-dimensional image that he loves. From the perspective of consumer behavior, the two-dimensional related consumer behavior has a strong purchasing power and a high degree of repurchase, which is consistent with the current and future target audience characteristics of most brands. Therefore, for the brand that is undergoing a rejuvenation transformation, the second dimension is an excellent marketing tool to cultivate the loyalty of the Z generation brand and stimulate the consumption willingness of the Z generation.
According to the "China Two-dimensional Industry Research Report" published by iResearch in October 2021 (see Figure 1), China's two-dimensional users will exceed 400 million in 2020, and it is expected to exceed 500 million by 2023. Based on traditional sub-cultural forms such as comics, animation, video games, and light novels, the two-dimensional industry has formed three major industrial chains of two-dimensional content production, two-dimensional content dissemination, and peripheral extension around popular cultural symbols. In 2020, the output value of the content market will exceed 65 billion yuan, the output value of the peripheral extension market will exceed 35 billion yuan, and the total output value of the industry will exceed 100 billion yuan. The capital side is optimistic that the industry's output value will continue to grow, and the output value will exceed 220 billion yuan by 2023.
Selling cute IP: the brand's two-dimensional entry into the circle
Moe culture has been extended from the second dimension to become a popular aesthetic tendency. Branding “Moe IP” can make consumers willingly pay for the “Moe economy”.
Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan was originally an unknown agricultural town in the central part of Kyushu Island. In 2011, he commissioned designer Mizuno Gakushu to design a mascot Kumamoto, hoping to bring more tourism income to the county. However, Kumamoto bears, who are naive, not serious, and come with two blushes, have been promoted online, and suddenly become healing pets with their "cute" and "cute" personalities, and are loved by the majority of netizens. Kumamoto Prefecture also hired Kumamoto as the prefectural business manager and happiness manager, and he became famous all over the world.
Meituan Waimai wears a kangaroo ear helmet for its takeaway boy. From a distance, it looks like a cute and cute kangaroo working hard. Who is unhappy? The ears of cute pets quickly opened up the hearts of consumers, which not only strengthened the IP image of Meituan Kangaroo and formed a unique visual identity, but also attracted a large number of fans and consumers through the two-dimensional channel. This cute and cute ear helmet not only attracts consumers' affection, but even provokes competitors to leave a message saying "I am a hungry rider, I also want to wear a kangaroo helmet."
Interesting circle: the two-dimensional expansion of the brand
The two-dimensional circle is an important manifestation of the media literacy of Generation Z. Generation Z is proficient in using the mobile Internet and has a lot of fragmented time. They pursue the quality of media content and are willing to pay for the content of interest; they like to obtain information from social media, and they like to plant grass and weeds; they pay attention to social hot spots and like to express their opinions on Weibo, WeChat Moments and Douyin; they don’t Repels the cultural label given to oneself by society, eager to join the circle of interest that highlights interest. Therefore, the rise of the two-dimensional circle culture is the inevitable result of the awakening of personality consciousness and status identity of the Z generation.
In recent years, many Quyuan groups have gradually developed into independent circles, and have broken through the circle to the public under capital operation, bringing a refreshing shock to brand marketing. A large number of top KOLs have emerged in vertical fields such as beauty, digital, fitness, fashion, and food. Relying on marketing methods such as two-dimensional creation and live broadcast, they have successfully derived Generation Z into the main group of content marketing.
The cosmetics brand MAC Mei can observe the characteristics of two-dimensional users who like to try new things and love the experience. Taking the Honor of Kings IP as the starting point for communication, it has released five new bullet lipstick color numbers, each of which corresponds to the five in the online game "Honor of Kings". The heroines Hua Mulan, Gongsunli, Diao Chan, Da Qiao and Luna, who have a bright personality, a variety of manners, and a dazzling country. Each heroine character setting product is perfectly matched with the image of five beautiful girls and stars. The five colors are sold in a limited edition of 170 yuan each, which suffocates the appetite of the fan group. MAC Magic’s new products have fully leveraged the dissemination power of the star powder circle, the beauty circle and the game circle, and successfully expanded the multi-circle layer to achieve a superimposing effect.
Role endorsement: the brand's second element breaks the circle
The two-dimensional idol endorsement brand can perfectly avoid the negative problems of real-life celebrity endorsements, and can bring a large number of pure and young pan-two-dimensional users with scarce brands.
Luo Tianyi is the world's first virtual singer idol created by fans. According to the fan voting setting, Luo Tianyi has assembled the most perfect image of the second dimension: big eyes, cute appearance, and interesting soul. Luo Tianyi uses Yamaha VOCALOID speech synthesis technology to sing any tune and lyrics input by fans. Because of his sweet appearance and electronic cute sound, Luo Tianyi has successfully captured more than 10 million Gen Z fans, with more than 10,000 original songs, and more than 10,000 fans insist on writing songs for her every year. Zhou Shen sang Luo Tianyi, Yan He Yuan's "Dala Bang Bar" and won the first place in "Singer·The Year of Dang Da", and immediately blasted the Internet. Many two-dimensional netizens shouted "The Dimensional Wall is broken". Luo Tianyi congratulated. In 2021, Luo Tianyi also appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage and became the first virtual singer to enter the mass media in China.
Relying on Luo Tianyi's endorsement or IP syndication, many brands have obtained traffic fan bonuses. Hushubao is focused on the traffic foundation of Generation Z, and uses AR black technology to cooperate with Luotianyi online to empower IP; offline products are supplemented by Luotianyi packaging, and the head UP owner and COS world gods are invited to participate in brand promotion. It stimulated the consumption potential of Luo Tianyi's core fans, increased the consumption frequency of Hushubao products, and strengthened the brand impression of Hushubao. In addition, Midland invited Luotianyi to endorse its image advertisement, Bank of Communications and Luotianyi jointly issued credit cards, PEACEBIRD WOMEN and Luotianyi cooperated to develop related clothing, and NF AUDIO and Luotianyi jointly created NA3 two-dimensional headsets... Many brands rely on Luotian. Yi's two-dimensional image has attracted a large number of young fans to participate in product development and content dissemination, which has accelerated the pace of brand rejuvenation.
In September 2021, MINISO combined with Onmyoji game for role endorsements, cleverly combining MINISO’s product development and supply chain capabilities with Onmyoji’s art image, offline store experience advantages and game players’ emotional sustenance To connect with each other. In the joint work, MINISO invited the heavy game users of Onmyoji to participate in the blind box product design, and the two-dimensional users jointly participated in the game "Onmyoji × MINISO present demons? LBS Ghost King Challenge" activity, and obtained the brocade randomly. Carp product packs, exclusive avatar frames, and a full set of joint limited flash cards are used to boost the popularity of MINISO products. At the same time, MINISO’s offline stores have many new onmyoji elements products, and the full two-dimensional atmosphere in the store environment has attracted a large number of game players and pan-two-dimensional users to experience the store. Leveraging on role endorsements and heavy participation by fans, MINISO successfully found a bridge for emotional communication with Gen Z, realized the intersection of paper characters and real users, and deeply rooted the brand image in the hearts of young people.
Concluding remarks
Enterprise development needs young users, and brand rejuvenation is an important stage in the life cycle of an enterprise. In order to reach users of Generation Z, brands can set cute IPs to enter the circle, expand different two-dimensional fun circle layers to obtain fans, and use large-scale character IPs to break the circle and create a young brand image. With the diversification and complexity of young consumers' media usage habits and life habits, the value return of brand rejuvenation needs to be dynamically adjusted. The brand uses the second dimension to complete the transformation of its youthful image. It cannot simply superimpose IP, but to find the continuity of the audience between the two IP images, the fit of the brand concept, and the possibility of product development and innovation.
评论
发表评论