According to the China Quality Consumption Report released on November 7, 2022, "due to the rapid growth far exceeding other countries for two consecutive years, China's domestic market has become the world's largest luxury market for the first time, with the global luxury market accounting for 30% and Chinese domestic luxury consumption accounting for 64%. Not only that, but with the full recovery of the domestic market, Bernstein Research estimates that luxury sales of Chinese consumers are expected to continue to grow by 35% in 2023. The Year of the Rabbit in the 2023 lunar calendar ushered in at this node is undoubtedly one of the moments when brands choose to bet.
In the past decade, the popularity of zodiac-themed capsule series has not decreased, and the way Chinese consumers and brands operate has undergone fundamental changes. Lazy marketing around the zodiac theme is not only completely ineffective, but gradually "bundled" with the brand image, which will leave a record in China's most important festival. One season a year Chinese New Year limited series, how do commercial brands tell stories about rabbits?
Chinese consumers want more and more authenticity, and they want brands to truly understand the nuances of Chinese culture and make products that are not too blunt – which is no easy task, of course. But brands that recognize that it is the zodiac series that provides them with a touch point with Chinese culture, they can start with the subtleties and find resonance with Chinese consumers.
Maximilian Davis, the designer who took over as FERRAGAMO, came up with a unique idea in the Year of the Rabbit limited collection, extracting the "Eyes of the Rabbit" to bring this commonplace and overlooked detail to Chinese consumers. The rabbit's eyes are transparent and colorless, but reflect the small blood vessels in the eyes, so they appear red, which is reflected in the silk fabric to bring a clear, empty visual experience. This feeling is close to the white space of Chinese aesthetics, but it is also unbiased in the context of Florentine elegance.
FERRAGAMO 2023 LUNAR NEW YEAR LIMITED SERIES
In addition, the brand chose the traditional Chinese images of white rabbits, peach trees and bamboo forests, grasping the cultural consensus of Chinese consumers, making them willing to pay for their own "white rabbit", "peach death" and "green bamboo rampant".
FERRAGAMO 2023 LUNAR NEW YEAR LIMITED SERIES
With the wide exposure of the Year of the Rabbit limited series, FERRAGAMO implanted a new brand temperament into the cognition of Chinese consumers during the important period of transformation, achieving a win-win situation of business and brand image renewal.
Of course, although it is a special collection, it still serves the overall brand marketing, and its ultimate goal is to make more consumers know and follow the brand - which requires the brand to be as authentic and consistent as possible in the Chinese New Year collection. Loewe, who has been successful and experienced in the management of animal-based products, including the highly reactive Bunny Bag, brings more mature design details to the New Year collection: enlarging the "rabbit ear" part of the rabbit image, and cleverly integrating Bunny Bag and Hammocks bags to form a "rabbit ear knot", conveying the auspicious meaning of "knot" in Chinese culture. Even less noticeable is the application of colors from Chinese monochrome glazed porcelain to the bags, which is a reflection of the brand's self-demand and sincerity, guaranteeing the high standards of Loewe's animal products and gaining more trust for it.
LOEWE's new Year of the Rabbit collection
AS ALWAYS, LOUIS VUITTON TRIES TO FIND A LINK TO THE BRAND'S ETHOS FROM ZODIAC CULTURE. AS A MORE INTERESTING INTERPRETATION OF THE RABBIT IMAGE, LOUIS VUITTON'S LUNAR NEW YEAR COLLECTION REFERENCES THE MORE REFINED RABBIT SHAPE OF CHINESE WINDOW FLOWERS AND TWO-COLOR PRINTS, A MORE GENTLE AND MODERATE RABBIT IMAGE, AND PRODUCT CONSIDERATIONS FOR A WIDER AUDIENCE OF AGE GROUPS – SINCERITY IS IMPORTANT, AND CONSUMERS ARE MORE SENSITIVE THAN EVER TODAY.
LOUIS VUITTON 2023 LUNAR NEW YEAR LIMITED COLLECTION
With the expansion of the Chinese market and the upgrading of Chinese consumers' tastes, brands must put themselves in the shoes of Chinese culture to make "big selling" Spring Festival limited series products. Or, on the other hand, rather than passively pandering, it would be smarter to proactively find a balance between Chinese culture and brand tonality.
He is the stone of the mountain, and he can attack the jade. With the help of well-known rabbit IP, on the one hand, the brand avoids the shortcomings of its own Chinese culture, on the other hand, it has gained a wide natural audience, making the product easier to spread and discuss. The traditional view of consumption has risen to spiritual and cultural consumption here, and brands have also realized that it seems that only by constantly creating topics can they maintain freshness and influence in the user group, improve user stickiness, increase purchasing power and repurchase rate, and have the opportunity to export brand image to potential consumers.
As an "old" IP born in 1955, Miffy Rabbit is a world-famous "super fresh" fairy tale image, thinking of her, people will think of simple and relaxed childhood life, think of simple life, love and friendship. Mulberry co-branded Miffy Rabbit to launch a capsule accessories series, which well grasps the simple silhouette of Miffy Rabbit, and uses a complete color block to match the IP image with bags and accessories (the color matching includes all the colors used by Miffy Rabbit: orange, blue, yellow, green, white). Without the sense of discord and cheapness of the brand, Mulberry has become part of people's love for Miffy rabbits, successfully increasing consumers' favorability of the brand.
Mulberry x Miffy 2023 Chinese New Year capsule collection
In the case of the essence of the use value of goods, consumers try to seek a sense of identity of lifestyle and value concept through brand tonality and symbols.
The co-branding relationship between brand and IP is undoubtedly one of the excellent ways for traffic to break the circle, that is, it is important to see IP "in another place", and the use and effect of IP is the next issue to be discussed. Chloe's cute rabbit New Year series cooperates with the classic IP Melody rabbit in Japanese comics, integrating the IP image into T-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps, fisherman hats and bags with flat stitching and embroidery techniques, although there are cute items such as necklaces, knitted hangings and silk scarves, but the overall series is slightly thin, and it does not present the effect of "one plus one is greater than two" between the brand and IP, but the victory lies in Melody Rabbit's gentle IP image and its emoji culture derived in the past two years with a wide audience and high market acceptance. It is also in line with Chloe's natural and quaint brand tonality, and still captures the attention of some consumers.
Chloe x My Melody New Year's Collection
Of course, choosing IP is also choosing a brand image, and even to a certain extent, this choice determines who the product wants to "sell to", that is, the audience. The intensification of cartoon images in the operation of fashion illustrates the changes in consumer groups, and brands know more than ever that mass culture is the main form of contemporary cultural consumption, and the audience of the story can only be obtained from the brand image from mass culture.
MOSCHINO has once again co-branded with the Bugs Bunny IP to appear in its limited series. Compared with the past, the application method of Bugs Bunny IP has not been upgraded much, mainly the classic independent print, but the print image of Bugs Bunny has more elements and changes. In addition, items such as the bearded bugs and the bunny headphone car bag also maintain MOSCHINO's usual witty deconstruction. Here, Brooklyn-born Bugs Bunny is a representative of an independent, rebellious and witty character, and when people see it, they will to some extent associate MOSCHINO with the same personality. Imagine that once that happens, the brand gains marketing success.
MOSCHINO Year of the Rabbit capsule series
In essence, what the joint IP wants to do is to bring people a new imagination and perspective on the image of the rabbit. The brand should be infinitely close to the "rabbit image" in the minds of Chinese consumers, or bring them a larger "rabbit dimension", from ancient times to the present, from reality to the screen, from China to the world...
COACH further expanded the "Rabbit Universe" of the Spring Festival limited series, and selected the white rabbit milk candy-related IP that best represents the childhood memories of Chinese people. The limited series of bags and ready-to-wear have added the red, blue and white color scheme of white rabbit milk candy, and it has been proved that the more well-known the IP, the more it can create a sense of contrast and dislocation for people, which also brings topics.
COACH x White Rabbit joint series
Therefore, compared with design behavior, co-branding is more of a marketing model, testing the designer's diversified thinking and integration ability. The original long creative cycle was replaced, and the co-branded IP brought the designer's main inspiration, topic gimmicks and cultural added value enough to increase the unit price in a short period of time. It's a labor-saving path, but it doesn't point to lazy design.
In addition to the limited series of each of the best and the snatched New Year red envelope covers, the brand has also entered the field of vision of more consumers through micro-movies, animations for the Year of the Rabbit, mini program games, artworks, etc. HERMES released a fun New Year animation created by the artist Scrap 3000, Chanel created a rabbit image made of classic tweed tweed, and Bottega Veneta invited director Zou Jing to produce the "Reunion in Motion" New Year's short film. Brands are sending Chinese New Year wishes to Chinese consumers in their own ways. In the end, in the Spring Festival special event that integrates products, media interaction and artistic creation, brands received their own answers.