At the end of 2021, the volume of the new consumption track has increased unabated. Emerging brands make high-profile debuts, mature brand kings play, and every plot in this annual blockbuster shows the logic and ultimate core of brand growth.
Under the fierce battle, 45 "hot search kings" squeezed into the "Winshang Network 2021 Q4 Hot Search Brand List", with a new fulcrum of consumption to pry more pleasing to themselves, set up people, find identity, and the overall situation of the young consumer group ——
Sports brands rush into shopping malls, and ice and snow projects become the hottest sports in 2021;
Fun and good "compound format" new species, calling young people back to the entity;
The national tide swept through the post-90s cool fathers and mothers, driving the innovation of children's format content...
The evaluation dimensions of this list mainly include:
1) The growth rate of newly opened stores in the current quarter, the city and project level of newly opened stores, and the situation of newly opened first stores;
2) The growth rate of the search index in the mainstream search engine in the current quarter;
3) The growth rate of the micro-heat index on the mainstream Weibo platform in the current quarter;
4) The growth rate of positive comments on mainstream C-end consumption platforms in the current quarter;
5) The growth rate of online voice volume in the industry media in the current quarter.
01 List keywords
Store opening "hot": China's first store / offline first store / new flagship store
In the fourth quarter of 2021, the first store of the blockbuster was opened in a concentrated manner, and 35 brands grabbed the first store economy, of which 7 international brands opened the first store in China (including the first store in the mainland) and 6 new flagship stores opened by mature brands.
The international brand "China's first store" has become the biggest highlight. The world's first store [Wallpaper STORE] of the well-known British design magazine "wallpaper*" landed in Shanghai Jing'an Kerry Centre, integrating home, coffee and exhibition, so that design trendsetters often visit Changxin; the British royal perfume brand [Penhaligon's] "Downton Manor" China's first store attracted "niche incense" enthusiasts to punch in; H&M Group's high-end sub-brand [ARKET] [& Other Stories] China's first store opened in Beijing and Shanghai.
◎ Image source: wallpaper*official website
The high-profile DTC brand goes offline. For two consecutive years, the first offline store of [Winona WINONA], which has been firmly positioned as the "first domestic product in the double 11 skin care category", has opened into Hangzhou West Lake Yintai City, and the store has added skin testing and scientific and technological care services to consolidate the positioning of functional skin care.
Mature brand innovation flagship store/concept store eye-catching. 【Uniqlo】The third global flagship store "Compound Tomorrow's Life Museum" integrates "retail + flower shop + science and technology art exhibition + cultural creation" gameplay; [SWAROVSKI] The world's largest flagship store appeared in Shanghai Huaihai Middle Road Business Circle, with Wonderlab's new concept to create a "color partition + private customization room" multi-dimensional sensory immersion experience space; [Starbucks] successively opened China's first "intangible cultural experience store", "shared space concept store", environmental protection experimental store "to the green workshop" during the season. Trying to create a richer store experience.
◎ Image source: Starbucks official blog
In addition, there are also a number of brands with high-speed expansion of the circle: The Korean street sports brand [MLB] has more than 100 stores in the season, the same products of the stars are popular, and the related notes of the Little Red Book exceed 110,000; the local tide play [Biling Planet] continues to expand the Yangtze River Delta region with Zhejiang and Shanghai as the focus during the season, and settles into 100+ high-quality projects such as Shanghai Kaidelong Dream, Hangzhou Xixi Tianjie, Zhangjiagang Zhongjun World City, etc., and adds new tide play IP and SKU categories to strengthen single-point refined operation.
Financing "hot": retail brands attract attention, and hot money pours into new restaurants
According to the incomplete statistics of Winshang Network, in the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 129 new consumer brands were raised, and 18 listed brands were favored by capital this quarter.
Retail brands absorbed the most money, accounting for about 56%, an increase of more than 30% over the previous quarter. Among them, there are 5 apparel segments, the American environmental protection shoe brand [allbirds] soared 92% on the first day of listing; "Three Pits Of Clothing" [Poetry and Kaleidoscope] received two rounds of financing in November last year; the local sportswear brand [MAIA ACTIVE] designed for Asian women received nearly 100 million yuan of C-round strategic investment from Belle International; and the "Chinese luxury brand" [Duanmu Liangjin] received strategic investment from Xiaohongshu.
◎ Image source: MAIA ACTIVE official blog
Track brands such as groceries, boutique supermarkets, and fragrances related to consumer lifestyles have become the new favorites of capital, and [Tomato Pocket], [T11 Fresh Supermarket], "Wenxian DOTUS" and so on have successively absorbed gold.
Flour noodles, tea and coffee, and taverns are still hot. This season, [Chen Xianggui] [Hong Kong Fat Sauce Milan Small Pot Rice Noodles] [Sweet Food] to create a new model with standardized production, mature supply chain and new channels, and continue to stimulate the enthusiasm of capital "eating noodles".
"Affordable specialty coffee" [Nova Coffee] has won two rounds of financing of 100 million yuan in succession during the season; "Peach Drink" [and Peach Peach] has received tens of millions of investments from Xicha for its outstanding explosive innovation; and [RISSE Ruihao Tavern], which has created a new interactive social scene for new youth, has received tens of millions of yuan of investment from Kaihui Fund.
Product "hot": head push new / sales surge
This season, due to the "head push new" and "sales surge" angry brush sense of existence of a total of 5 brands, accounting for about 11%.
Li Ning's new independent high-end sports fashion brand [LI-NING1990] to meet the dress needs of multiple life scenes for brand positioning, for Li Ning to explore the layout of high-end plots, brand Mini Program data show that about 5 new stores opened during the season;
◎ Image source: Li Ningguanbo
New energy vehicle "dark horse" [Nezha Car] relying on Nezha V Pro, Nezha U Pro and other cost-effective Nezha series, last November and December continuously achieved a single month delivery volume of more than 10,000, the annual year-on-year surge of 362%, closely following the first echelon "Wei Xiaoli".
Marketing "Hot": Rubbing Hot Spots/Benchmarking Mall Touring Exhibitions
During the season, there were 6 brands on the list that flew through rubbing hot spots/brand exhibition topics and exposure, accounting for about 13%.
【Naixue's Tea】Riding on the wind outlet of the meta-universe, on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the brand, the official announcement of the yuan universe brand ambassador "Naixue Girl NAYUKI", and the sale of a limited number of NFT blind boxes, to promote the birthday season activities for 72 hours to win nearly 200 million GMV;
【Le Caesar Pizza】In line with the trend of exquisite camping, it has opened a "new camping concept store", innovated multiple combination menus such as Brunch, Crepes and Pizza, and held activities such as OUTDOOR LIVE to create a new destination for young people to escape the city.
"High-end boutique men's wear" [BONI Benny] has successively opened the "Shaping Aesthetics" brand boutique exhibition, men's shaping salon and other activities in Jiaxing Yaohan, Xi'an SEG, Shanghai Global Harbor and other benchmark malls, with a sense of space design, exquisite visual display, multi-functional layout interpretation of elegant dressing philosophy, attracting different consumer groups across the country.
◎ Image source: Baoni men's clothing official micro
02 Hot search new trend
The concept of "ice and snow" is really on fire, and the sportswear/experience brand has accelerated into the mall
Riding on the two "winter winds" of cold winter and winter Olympics, ice and snow sports became popular. According to the official data of Xiaohongshu, the search volume of "ski tutorials" in 2021 increased by 100% year-on-year, and ice and snow photography skills, popular snow fields, ice and snow equipment, etc. became popular search terms. 996 under extreme pressure, the social animals, escape from the grid, crazy for the "snow".
"Ski fever" has set off a scuffle between the gods of outdoor sports brands. Through the teaching mode of "indoor skiing + outdoor skiing" and the guidance of certified instructors, the local ski training institution [Xueleshan] is favored by beginners in ice and snow sports and has more than 50,000 students. After obtaining 100 million yuan of financing during the quarter, the brand accelerated to enter the shopping mall, and the number of stores nationwide in 2021 was nearly 100.
Japanese high-end outdoor sports brand [DESCENTE], the super 1200㎡ "ice and snow" theme global flagship store with ski equipment, double-decker D space, mini museum, etc. to create a sense of future technology, and joined hands with SNOW51 to move the "snow field" into the store to meet the "ski enthusiasts" while visiting the store while skiing one-stop punch card experience.
[Goldwin], an expert in the field of Japanese skiwear, landed in Taikoo Li, Sanlitun, Beijing, and used materials such as tuff Otani stone and Shendai old cedar to create an ethereal place for quiet, allowing consumers to have a wonderful experience of "entering nature" and setting off a queue boom for "mountain life" enthusiasts.
◎ Image source: DESCENTE official blog
In addition, many niche, comprehensive sports experience brands are hot, lighting up the "sports + mall" model. Indoor surf club [FLOWLIFE] maximizes the real scene of outdoor surfing, and regularly holds activities such as "music tide" and "Christmas surf dance PARTY" to create an immersive "sports + social" experience; the comprehensive sports hall [Rock Park] aims at a diverse group of customers and creates a new sports venue integrating "basketball court + children's training + leisure and entertainment + catering", with an average daily passenger flow of 250-300 people.
Restructuring of physical business experience, compound format to create "excitement points"
In 2021, offline consumption will continue to shift to online. For some rational consumers, offline has become a "Window shopping" place, even if it is a physical catering, there are also "alternatives" such as pre-made dishes and self-heating hot pot.
Physical businesses that have "fallen out of favor" urgently need to create more "excitement points" to attract consumers to return to offline - retail that integrates experience, "1+N" catering, new collection stores that meet diversified needs, etc., to create more "emotional value" for users.
Created by the former CEO of XiangTang Hotpot, the "New Generation HotPot Tavern" [Thank You Pot] created the original "Shabu + Grill + Wine" model, shabu-shabu during the day, eating barbecue, and turning into a mini bar at night, from eating to drinking The consumption closed chain contracts the boiling and micro-drunkenness of young people, and some stores maintain the "full seat + more than 90 groups of equal seats" customer flow.
The emerging eyelash brand [MLEN DIARY] opened the country's first "DIY eyelash shop" in the season, through the beauty eyelash retail + "flash connection" and other electric eye black technology experience, anchored the urban fashion essence, on the opening day to attract hundreds of Internet celebrities punch card, has now settled in Shenzhen Longhua Yifang City, Shenzhen Futian COCO park and other projects.
◎ Picture: Thank you pot, image source: Shenzhen Bonjour Hui Shopping Center
In addition, the new collection stores that cross-border mix and match out of the circle have become a sharp tool for shopping malls to gather customers because of the characteristics of sharp goods gathering, large store mode, and high film production rate.
Trend life collection store [KNOWIN trend laboratory] gathers sneakers, clothing, jewelry and other trendy goods, sets up niche art scenes, innovates the "trend + coffee" play and other circles of fans, a group of "hipsters" who pay attention to style and are keen to taste the early adopters. At present, it has been stationed in Shanghai Bailian TX Huaihai, Shanghai Ocean Crystal Classic Tianan Qianshu, Chengdu Jingronghui Shopping Center and other malls.
Relying on the "online data + buyer + user" selection model, the new generation of good things collection store [Tomato Pocket] brings together 7 categories and 10,000 + SKUs, and integrates art exhibitions, markets and other content to build a new space of fun and fun, which is called "offline little red book" by consumers.
"Not doing business" of the local streetwear collection store [Randomevent] opened the country's largest flagship store with the theme of "Ecological Aesthetics of Rainforest Circulation" during the season, relying on the "Not Much" series of explosive models, the experience space that accommodates "art + party + exhibition + music" and other forms of content, becoming a social experience venue for exquisite hipsters to make friends.
◎ Image source: KNOWIN Trend Lab Official Blog
The "baby economy" has been iteratively upgraded, and the national tide has become a new point of strength
Under the dividend of the three-child policy, the attention of children's parent-child formats has increased, but many industry pain points such as single profit model, serious homogenization, and lack of novelty still need to be solved.
The brands on the list during the season combine children's play with the current "national tide" in full swing, hit the spiritual needs of The parents of Generation Z, create a new scene experience, and achieve a breakthrough.
The leader of the parent-child family entertainment center [Cartoonney Paradise] forms an indoor amusement brand matrix with 6 IPs of "Cartoon Paradise, Baseball Joy House, Playable Museum, Bon & Cheers, Fun Forward and Monster Village", providing children of all ages with fun experiences such as puzzle sports, nature exploration, science popularization interaction, and rich theme parties. At present, the brand has expanded more than 100 stores in 20 provinces and cities across the country, including Raffles City on the North Bund in Shanghai, Raffles City in Chongqing, and Huiju Shopping Center in Changsha.
◎ Image source: Cartoon Paradise official website
In the fourth quarter of 2021, relying on the strong "scene + content" capability, CartoonNeyLand created the "Monster Village", a national tide wind paradise created by Raffles City on the North Bund, with "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" as the main axis, and 20+ amusement projects such as the Monster Adventure Village, the Monster Costume Changing Area, and the Monster Train integrate traditional Chinese knowledge, ancient architecture and other traditional cultural elements, allowing children to learn while playing, becoming the first choice for family entertainment consumption.
The creator of Chinese culture pocket toys [Biling Planet] pioneered the "Chinese Gacha" model with the "National Tide IP + Popular STEAM Educational Toys", newly developed the national flag color matching and gacha equipment with China's iconic symbols, and continued to innovate Chinese cultural toys, launching hundreds of new products suitable for children and parents to carry out interactive entertainment every year, becoming a new landmark for shopping malls to walk their babies.
◎ Image source: Biling Planet official website
03 Hot search cold thinking
Although young marketing is good, brand power and product strength are the key to "flipping"
Mature brands accounted for more than 51% of the brands on the list this quarter, and some of them are facing various systemic aging problems. For example, SWAROVSKI closed stores due to sales crashes, and Starbucks overturned its reputation due to food safety issues.
Increasing the marketing of young people is the common choice of mature brands. [SWAROVSKI] successive measures such as celebrity endorsement, national tide marketing, and joint marketing have been taken to please young consumers, but "thunder is loud, rain is small" - offline retail model of direct operation and agency mixing, low value-added, aging product design and quality problems are still criticized by consumers.
Youthful marketing can bring temporary traffic, but achieving fundamental changes from the brand and product level is the clever posture of "turning the tables against the wind".
With a history of 25 years of development, the boutique men's wear [BONI Benny] has seized the plastic men's clothing market segment by adjusting and upgrading the "plastic men's wear" strategy, carrying out key store renewal, product quality, combined marketing, channel expansion, etc., and accumulating a number of viscous VIP members. In 2021, it has successively entered the Shanghai Global Harbor, Shanghai Jiuguang and other benchmark malls, and opened new stores such as Shanghai MixC.
[DQ Ice and Snow Queen], which has been a double-digit decline in single stores year-on-year for three consecutive years, has newly launched high-end ice cream explosives such as "mixing bowl" and "fluttering full" to improve the repurchase rate, increase the categories such as light food and tea to open up new growth points, and newly open a new flagship store with the "National Tide Joint Brand + Limited New Products + Naked Eye 3D Special Effects" to reverse the decline from the three dimensions of products, categories and scenes, and achieve double-year year-on-year growth in performance in the first half of 2021.
◎ Image source: DQ China Official Blog
Is the flagship store really fragrant? But it may not be right for your brand
Whether it is a mature brand or an emerging brand, it is more and more keen to open offline flagship stores. Maximize the display of their own ace products, brand image positioning through new concepts, create topics and new experiences to create momentum and drain...
Looking at the reasons why the brand flagship store debuted, it is inseparable from the following key elements -
The site selection is aimed at the "golden position", the natural "advertising space" with its own traffic, and the quality of the passenger flow is high: among the brands on the list, the flagship stores of [Goldwin] [ARKET] have landed on the "first store harvester" In Beijing Sanlitun Taikoo Li, aiming at the strong appeal of trend landmarks to fashionable young people;
The brand has a long history, the label and circle attributes are distinct, and the "tap water" is endless: the coffee shop [Café Leitz] opened by Leica with a century-old history and the legendary New York bar [1 OAK] with countless loyal fans around the world, the first store in China has triggered a round of punching cards for "admirers";
The concept of the store is novel, and the "non-mainstream" pioneer theme scenes and compound formats refresh consumer imagination: Gentle Monster's world's largest flagship store "HAUS SHANGHAI" subverts the design of traditional retail spaces with cross-century style, futuristic shopping mode, exaggerated art, etc., and the sense of surprise explodes.
◎ Image source: Gentle Monster official blog
However, it is not easy for flagship stores to continue to generate traffic and topics. Huge rental pressure, whether the team's operational ability can keep up is the key. At the same time, in content innovation and scene iteration, constantly forming new connections with users is also a big test. While the flagship store harvests "fame and fortune", there are also many "punch card destinations" that have escaped the fate of Internet celebrities:
"Fast fashion jewelry brand" Pandora Wangfujing global flagship store announced the closure of the store, the reason for the store folding is inseparable from the "beaded story" after the failure of the brand disenchantment, poor product quality led to difficult to find a single person and other factors;
Line FRIENDS, the once popular "IP theme store", has closed its flagship stores one after another due to the single form of IP cartoon scene punch card experience, simple peripheral product styles, slow updates and lack of innovation.
From highlight to dim, behind most of the flagship stores, the epidemic naturally has to carry some pots, but the brand potential is declining, the business model is not clear, and the store operation is chaotic.
This also reminds new consumer brands that when they "covet" the superficial "scenery" of the brand flagship store, they should also reflect on whether their brand skills to maintain the vitality of the flagship store are solid.
Time and place: May 18-19 / Poly World Trade Center Expo Center, Guangzhou
Business negotiation / media cooperation / consultation hotline: 020-37128283