This summer, "dopamine dressing" suddenly became popular, becoming a new trend of fashion color matching that fashionistas in front of the screen are keen to try.
What is "dopamine outfit"? Why is it popular? What kind of marketing communication and consumption trends does it reflect by quickly becoming popular among consumers?
Xu Mengran, a young associate researcher at the Department of Marketing, School of Management, Fudan University, brought her observations and interpretations.
Why "dopamine outfits" are popular this summer
The combination of psychology and marketing is your academic research specialty. How did you come up with the idea to pay attention to "dopamine outfits"?
Xu Mengran: I have studied psychology for many years, and now I have concentrated my research direction in the field of marketing. My main research interests include consumer behavior, consumer decision-making, word-of-mouth communication, brand loyalty, etc.
Due to the research content, I need to keep an eye on some relatively new fashion trends and marketing models, especially the consumption preferences, consumption trends and consumer psychology of young people. To this end, I often go to websites and social platforms that young people like to watch the most popular content, videos, etc., and then try to use various methods and resources in academic research to analyze and interpret. According to my observations, this summer, "dopamine dressing" is one of the consumption phenomena worth paying attention to.
Readers interested in medicine and psychology may not be unfamiliar with "dopamine". Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter in the human body involved in regulating mood, attention, reward systems, and motivational behavior. When a person feels happy, the brain releases dopamine, which makes people feel happy, which in turn promotes positive behavior and learning. Proper dopamine release can improve a person's concentration, boost motivation, and promote creativity and social skills. Perhaps, it is from this that "dopamine dressing" was born.
"Dopamine dressing" is mainly based on bright, vivid and colorful color matching. Similar to the effect of dopamine, "dopamine dressing" can also make people feel good. Of course, the "emotional healing" effect of "dopamine dressing" is not in the clothes themselves, but in mobilizing people's positive emotions through bright and bright dressing to achieve "positive associations".
Shangguan News: Why is it that this summer, "dopamine dressing" has resonated with many people?
Xu Mengran: According to my observations, "dopamine dressing" has become popular among consumers this summer, on the one hand, due to consumers' current emotional needs and social needs, on the other hand, "dopamine dressing" is also a product of the current popular "Internet celebrity marketing".
Let's start with the emotional needs of consumers, especially young consumers. After several years of the epidemic, people will actually desire to meet the formation of a new order of life with a more positive psychological state. This is a healthy psychological manifestation. In the four seasons of the year, summer is a relatively "outward" rather than "adducted" season. In this season, most of the things in nature are in a state of "enthusiastic bloom", although people need to fight the heat, escape the heat, etc., but overall, the mood in the process of summer is relatively relaxed and relaxed. This provides the right seasonal background for the "dopamine outfit" that gives people a good mood through bright outfits.
Let's talk about the impact of "influencer marketing". From the perspective of the generation path of "dopamine dressing" becoming a popular fashion, the "Internet celebrity marketing" with "fashionistas" and "dress bloggers" as the main force has contributed a lot.
Today's influencer marketing combines old and new marketing tools, adopting the concept of celebrity endorsement and infiltrating the concept into content-driven marketing campaigns. The main producers and communicators of these marketing activities are "clothing bloggers" and "fashion media people" on various content platforms (represented by Xiaohongshu and Bilibili). In any industry circle, there are always some influential and expressive people. They are easily recognized by thousands of fans. The fan groups of "clothing bloggers" and "fashion media people" happen to be the target audience pursued by fashion clothing and beauty brands.
When the well-loved "fashion opinion leader" encounters consumers who are psychologically eager to be "refreshed in the living atmosphere" and "inspire creativity" by fashion information, the "dopamine dressing" that is quite easy to achieve has become a trend.
In Sydney, Australia, runners are participating in a color run. Color Run is a running activity that promotes health, happiness and self-expression. Xinhua News Agency
Influencer marketing is spreading rapidly and not just because bloggers are charismatic
Shangguan News: If it is human instinct to care about fashion trends, or just need information in the social process, then is it another thing to be willing to follow the current fashion outfits?
Xu Mengran: This brings us to a very classic theory in social psychology - the "herd effect".
In the past, observations and understandings of the "herd effect" have typically focused on the level of "normative social impacts." For example, in a classic social experiment, a group of experimenters dressed as ordinary elevator passengers shared a direct elevator ride with the subject. What the subject didn't know was that the rest of the experimenters would receive the signal at the same time and choose to turn right or left during the ride.
For ordinary people, this is a very strange behavior, because usually when people take the elevator, they will choose to stand in the direction of the elevator door. However, in the course of this social experiment, all the subjects turned synchronously from the initial hesitation to echoing and even catching up with the steps of other "passengers".
This phenomenon confirms the herd effect caused by normative social influences. Sometimes, we know that other people's choices or actions may not be correct and questionable, but we still choose to make judgments and actions that are similar to others but may not be accepted in our own hearts.
"Dopamine dressing" can become popular, and I think it can be better explained by another herd phenomenon that people may not notice very much.
When people see the colorful matching popular on social media, some people will feel that these dressing trends are a gimmick, and some will tend to the current popularity, bloggers' recommendations, brand promotion hotspots, and choose products that meet the concept of "dopamine wearing". This is obviously not consumers' blind obedience to fashion trends, but the interest or sensitivity of fashion trends, and the recognition of the vision of their favorite bloggers. After being affected by this "information society", this type of consumer is more convinced of the underlying logic of "dopamine dressing" based on color psychology.
This information-based social influence is a good example of the effectiveness of influencer marketing in rapidly spreading fashion trends. The reason why influencer marketing spreads very quickly is not only because these bloggers rely on personal intelligence and charm to establish a good reputation and credibility among their fan base; The deeper reason is that the current mass communication has gradually separated from the "era of big broadcasting", and people's interest orientation and information reception habits have gradually appeared a trend of stratification.
In such a trend, it is important for media, business and brands to communicate more accurately and convincingly with their target groups. The emergence of bloggers and fashionistas who have a fan base that trusts them makes these "personal brands" more effective and accurate information dissemination subjects. Compared with celebrities, these "personal brands" are more affinity and can give fans a sense of substitution and resonance. At the same time, these bloggers and fashionistas often "specialize in the industry". The professionalism they have accumulated in their small circle also makes them more convincing.
In this way, like many hot trends and items, "dopamine dressing" has spread rapidly among consumers, especially young consumers, with the guidance of dressing bloggers and fashionistas.
In London, England, several pedestrians walk through an underpass illuminated by colored lights. Xinhua News Agency
New consumer trends lurk in the choices of the younger generation
Shangguan News: The rise of this wave of "dopamine dressing" trend allows us to see a group of young people who love life, are creative, and actively embrace their various emotions. What other observations do you have on the consumption psychology and behavior of the current young generation?
Xu Mengran: In general, the consumption psychology and consumption behavior of the younger generation always change with the change of their preferences. The growth stage, life situation, and professional field of individuals also have a greater impact on their consumption psychology and consumption behavior. If there is anything in common, it is that young people are more active in embracing change, more willing to experience new things, more daring to make choices, and more sensitive to feeling their hearts.
Take some of the current dress bloggers and fashionistas, most of them like to share, love to express and full of personality, dare to love and hate in the face of various situations in life, dare to try, and are very sensitive and honest about their inner feelings and emotions. Their characteristics correspond almost one-to-one to the types that young people like today. Today's dressing bloggers and fashionistas are much more professional than previous generations. Before analyzing some fashion trends, they will do their homework and sort out the historical context. Many of them are particularly true to the ingredients and elements, and paying attention to a thing will lead to its internal mechanism, underlying logic, basic knowledge, and scientific common sense, and enjoy it... Such experts are cute and flesh-and-blood in the eyes of consumers, and their sharing and telling are convincing.
Specific to this retrospective and observation of the "dopamine dressing" trend, I also found that there may be a certain trend among the younger generation of consumers. That is, they have a very keen sense of the emotions of the individual. In recent years, the reason why the "color economy", "phenological economy" and "blind box economy" have become popular is not unrelated to the younger generation's perception and keen perception of the subtle emotions of the self in the present or a certain moment.
After the rise of "dopamine dressing", there were also some different voices coming out. Some people feel that this outfit is too "out of line" and "out-of-line", and is incompatible with some social scenes. But for people who value their inner feelings, the reason why they choose to dress like this is the embodiment of expressing themselves, highlighting their personal style, and longing for personality release. In their minds, their own expression sometimes trumps compliance with some conventional aesthetic standards. Such a choice is in line with the characteristics of today's young people.
Shangguan News: Based on the observation of the current consumption behavior of young people, what advice will you bring to brands and enterprises?
Xu Mengran: I recently visited a company that has operated its own Hanfu brand for many years. My feeling is that in order for brands to thrive now, they must work product segmentation. The underlying logic behind this is the circle-based consumption trend just mentioned.
Take Hanfu, for example, it pays a lot of attention to the material and system of clothing. However, different consumers' needs for materials and formats will have huge differences due to personal preferences and different use scenarios. This tests the wisdom of the brand side - whether it can keenly feel and identify the needs and requirements between different audiences, and then accurately develop different series, themes, styles and even materials and standard products. For Hanfu, how to make it easier to wear out is also a topic in front of enterprises.
What kind of design is more suitable for the specific needs of certain occasions? What kind of crafts and materials are easier to integrate into daily life scenes, which is convenient for consumers to wear and travel?
What kind of clothing and accessories combination can meet consumers' "seasonal", "themed" and "scene" wearing needs?
What kind of products can effectively increase the repurchase rate of consumers and facilitate the production side to achieve mass production?
Taking into account the feelings and needs of different consumers, and achieving a balance between paying attention to consumer feelings and needs and seeking sustainable development of the enterprise itself will become a "tough battle" that brands must go through before seeking to win.
A giant abstract painting appears on a modern high-rise building in the Pudong New Area, with four blocks of color in different shades soaring into the sky, creating a different kind of outdoor space in "reinforced concrete". Two staff members collage this giant abstract painting. Liberation Daily profile picture
Editor-in-chief: Gong Danyun
Source: Author: Liu Sen