Zhang Zhixin, 1155081883
It is always hard for a new brand to enter a market with
strong leading brands. For PLANTERS (美国绅士坚果), who made
its debut in the Chinese nut market in the autumn of 2016, made a surprising
success. In 2016, the nut market in China was controlled by three local leading
brands: 三只松鼠、百草味and 良品铺子. How
can PLANTERS, as a foreign brand, attract consumers ‘attention despite the high
brand awareness of all the strong competitors? The strategy of PLANTERS is,
first attract the fangirls by inviting Lay Zhang (张艺兴),
one of the most popular young idol in mainland China, as its brand ambassador.
Choosing the right customer segment:
fangirls
What are the characteristics of
fangirls? According to the VALS typology, they are more like a combination of
Experiencer and Strivers. First, they are impulsive, always enthusiastic about
the idols, fictional characters or films/TV series/animation they love, and are
willing to support the brands even though they realize that this is just
advertising strategy.
Second,
they are heavy social media users with strong sharing intention, which can
influence the people around them, including friends and relatives. Moreover,
they usually form communities to share, enabling a quick and wide spread of
information and high social media engagement.
It is reported that young female has
become the most powerful consumers buying snacks online, especially in the area
of nuts and imported snacks. Fangirls do not only belong to this target
customers group, but are also the most influential group, who can help raise
brand awareness by sharing the campaign online and sharing the products
offline.
How Did PLANTERS Target fangirls?
Interaction is critical to the success of the campaign. The climax
of the campaign is a two-hour livestreaming show on Tmall, allowing fans to
interact with the celebrity in real time, which attract 28.6 million viewers,
setting a record of the Tmall livestreaming platform.
The highlight of the campaign is
that the brand and the agency had deep and precise insight of what would make
fangirls excited. At the first stage of promotion, the brand created the slogan
“美国绅士坚果，艺兴喂你而来”. In the promotion video released the
day after the brand announcing the ambassador, the idol “interacted”with the
fans by trying to “feed”them. The key is to build imagination for the fangirls
that the idol was flirting with them (or in Chinese, “撩妹”),
rather than the traditional way of endorsement or hard sell.
The campaign also noticed and made good use of a niche group
of fans, the fujoshi (female fans of manga and novels that feature romantic
relationships between men, or “腐女“ in Chinese). In Go fighting! (极限挑战),
one of the most popular reality show in China, people are happy to talk about
the “bromance” between Lay Zhang and Sun Honglei, and many fangirls would even
imagine that the two had a secret romantic relationship. That was why the brand
also invited Sun Honglei to shoot a short video for the early promotion of the
campaign, and the video was played 36 million times, receiving more than 300
thousand reposts. This was quite clever because through the interaction of the
two celebrities, the influence would go beyond the fangirls, reaching the
massive audience of Go fighting!.
Concerns of fans-oriented
marketing
The result of the campaign is surprising both on social
media and e-commerce platform: it received 30 million impression on WeChat and
the highest daily sales of the product on Tmall reach a million.
Although inviting young idols and attracting fanatical fans
is an effective way to raise brand awareness in a short time, there are a few
concerns of fans-oriented marketing. First, as the fans are trendy, impulsive
people, it is possible that they switch their attention to other brands, or
just do not love the idol anymore. Second, the satisfying number of the
campaign may cover up the fact that the sustainable development of the brand
depends on the brand awareness and loyalty among massive, ordinary consumers
rather beyond fans of the ambassador. After spending the huge amount of money
on fans-oriented marketing, the next step is to consider how to convert the
non-fans into loyal consumers.
References:
“华邑?交互3P营销”助力美国绅士（PLANTERS）在华登场
那些火起来的互联网坚果品牌，接下来要怎么做？
中国线上零食消费趋势:泛90后女性成消费主力
http://www.askci.com/news/dxf/20160624/08331533281.shtml
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