#Change Destiny the SSM Case of SKII in China

    With the rapidly development of social media，using social media as a marketing place has been adopted by many companies who want to raise their brand awareness and promote their products. These kinds of companies not only include the newly established new media companies, but also involves some traditional high-end cosmetics companies. SKII is one of them who using social media to do their marketing work successfully.

    In April, 2016, SKII posted a short video “ Marriage Market Takeover”(她最後去了相親角) with the hashtag ＃ChangeDestiny on the main Chinese social media platforms such as WeChat, Weibo and YouKu (Chinese YouTube). It tells the stories of 3 “Leftover Ladies” who have decent job but are unmarried over 25 years old. Additionally, it points out the quite common phenomenon in China which parents pushed their daughters to get married once after they graduated from college. However, there are some girls who just like the ones appeared in this campaign video would like to stay single rather than marrying a man without thorough consideration but to fulfill the task their parents give.

    This video has been viewed by nearly 3 million online users on the video streaming platform Youku as well as raised heated discussion in the Chinese society. SKII tried to convey the information that “being a Leftover lady, you still need to live in beauty, confidence and autonomy. ”and many female users online made posts expressing they did have the same pressure in their lives. However, some counter parties’ voices also be distinguished on the social media. Some disliked this campaign video for it put too much stress on women’s appearance rather than their minds and thoughts.

    No matter what comments people have made on this campaign video, it did promote SKII products in the past few months in 2016. Due to Bloomberg’s interview with SKII Global President, Markus Strobel, the sale from April to December in 2016 had been rapidly promoted 50%.

    This campaign video actually was just one of the social media events in SKII #ChangeDestiny Series in Asia, but other several videos didn’t get as much attention as this blind date one. In the very first beginning, SKII inviting several Asian female celebrities to shoot a video about the beauty of autonomous, confident ladies. This video didn’t get much attention in the end.

    So, why this Chinese video about blind date corner can reach a success. Several reasons can be stated in the following part. First of all, the campaign video touched one of the core problems existing in Chinese society. With the rising social status of female, many Chinese young ladies perform as good or even better than male in their profession areas. However, this newly appeared phenomenon contradicts with the traditional Chinese value. Therefore, the “Leftover Lady “experiences almost happened on every Chinese girl who over 22 years old. Secondly, the storytelling strategy should be considered very carefully in the aspect of the value companies tried to delivery and how to arouse people’s empathy. The successfully video campaign usually touched the audience emotionally and then go virus. Thus, the strategy to touch your audience and the emotions you try to convey are very important. Thirdly, before doing a campaign, you should understand your target customer thoroughly. Understanding what your potential customers really care about is the key to doing a success online campaign. Previously, SKII build its brand image as a high-end elite beauty products but wants to change its images and be closer to the middle class. So they choose an issue which is mostly concerned by the young female middle class.

    From my perspective, this SKII campaign video is a successful case which we can learn some useful experiences from it.

References:

1. “她最后去了相亲角”广告后 美国SK-II在中国销售暴涨50% http://www1.guancha.cn/society/2017_02_08_393120.shtml