Within the context of a fast-changing business environment and ever-evolving technological innovations, the style industry is currently confronted with unprecedented opportunities and challenges. Digitalization has served as a key impetus for brand transformation, generating infinite potential for brand value enhancement and marketing growth. Against the backdrop, firstly and jointly organized by Tencent Marketing Solution, the Omni-channel marketing partner for enterprises, top fashion media WWD, and leading consulting firm BCG, the 2022 Fashion Tech·T Summit titled “Beauty and Luxury Encounters the Future” and Report on Digital Trends of China’s Luxury Market in 2022 and Report on Digital Trends of China’s Prestige Beauty Market in 2022 was successfully launched on December 12.

The conference invited fashion industry professionals from top media, consulting agencies, leading digital platforms, and famous brands in the sweetness and luxury industry. Regarding the theme of “Digital Innovation within the Beauty and Luxury Industry,” they analyzed probably the most cutting-edge market trends, presenting a holistic landscape of digital innovation in the sweetness and luxury industry by incorporating probably the most iconic innovation cases of the 12 months.

The wonder and luxury industries are booming in recent times, especially within the China market there may be unprecedented vitality. Amid the rapid evolution and iteration of the market, how can beauty and luxury brands deal with it swiftly? Through the long-term generation of opportunities within the digital universe, the brands can construct the identical frequency of growth each online and offline in addition to in virtual reality. That’s an inevitable theme in the event of the industry.

Ms. Lena Yang, WWD China Co-Founder & Vice Chairman, stated in her opening remarks with reference to “Digital Innovation within the Beauty and Luxury Industry” that from a media standpoint in today’s market, “volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity are taking up significant trends. Consequently, personalized contexts and social value expressions have step by step taken a latest direction within the upgrading of user scenarios. We must develop a more resonant narrative to deliver brand value and repair in the brand new era. In this fashion, we are able to higher engage the brand new generation of consumers and achieve the buildup and multiplication of brand name capital.”

Lena Yang said that “On this era of challenges, consumers’ expectations for a greater life and classic values remain high.” Furthermore, the expanding middle class and emerging Generation Z set high anticipation for the sweetness and luxury market. “On this regard, digital innovation applications provide a shortcut for brands to attach different circles and break the boundary between private and non-private domains. Ultimately, it also provides a broad potential for brands to grow online and offline at the identical frequency.”

As digital innovation step by step acts as a driver of sustainable growth for brands, Tencent Marketing Solution, the Omni-channel marketing partner for the sweetness and luxury industry, is led by the worth proposition of “The Future is in Omni-channel Digital Solutions.” Leveraging your entire ecology and centering on users, Tencent helps brands deliver fashion aesthetics and create meaningful digital connections in Tencent’s omni-channel through ongoing innovation and multiple approaches. Today in Tencent, the sweetness and luxury industries are a thriving potential, and it shows robust growth trends from industry content interest groups to the correlative search volume to the Mini Program GMV.

Daniel Shu, Head of Beauty & Luxury Industry of Tencent Marketing Solution said in the long term, “brand power is of the last word importance. We’re consistently serious about the way to leverage the holistic and quality content to facilitate brands to construct emotional connections with users and consequently construct brand power. The essence of decentralized transactions is to supply efficient solutions in every scenario where the users are prone to generate transactions.” In the long run, Tencent can even make continuous efforts in three areas: content technology, touch point interconnection, and Omni-channel transactions to further meet the twin needs of users and types and bridge efficient communication between the 2 sides.

Concentrate on the frontier dynamics of the buyer market and gain insight into the potential value of core strength.

The innovation of digital technology also continued to drive the general upgrade of the entire market, and the driving force behind the innovation comes from the keen perception of consumers and market changes. Mastering the annual latest trends of the buyer market will probably be the important thing to the success of the sweetness and luxury brand planning the long run digital layout. On this basis, TMI and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) jointly launched Report on Digital Trends of China’s Luxury Market in 2022 and Report on Digital Trends of China’s Prestige Beauty Market in 2022, which interpreted the newest trends and dynamics within the prestige beauty and luxury market.

On China’s luxury market during the last 12 months, An Lin, Managing Director & Partner of BCG and a core member of BCG’s Consumer and Global Advantage practices, said: “Different consumer segments’ spending change varied greatly. Light spenders spent much less while medium and heavy spenders continued to extend spending. Younger generations, particularly, have change into an increasingly larger segment of luxury spenders. Amongst latest consumers, 51% is post-95s and 18% is post-00s. We consider three consumer segments will change into the important drivers of market growth in the long run, including medium and heavy spenders, younger consumers and male consumers.”

Meanwhile, value for money, classic and timeless styles, sense of accomplishment and product exclusivity have change into probably the most buying aspects, in response to the reports co-published by TIM and BCG. As for categories and channels, the macro environment has led to increasing demand of high-end home products and luxury outdoor gears/sportswear, and domestic spending continued to extend on the expense of overseas purchase.

“Brand’s official online channels including private domain traffic marketing are increasingly playing an important role in stimulating consumers’ interest, readiness of sharing and repurchases,” An added.

On China’s prestige beauty market performance in 2022, Ding Yi, project leader at BCG and a core member of BCG’s Consumer Practice in Greater China, shared that fifty% of prestige beauty consumers are under the age of 30, contributing 48% of sales, while those over 30 show greater resilience during market slowdowns. By way of spending contribution, heavy spenders’ overall spending remain stable with growth in each prestige skincare and perfumes categories, while light spenders experience substantial declines.

Future consumer expectations are promising, as Chinese consumers have gotten more conscious of private image enhancement with economic and social development. Amid major structural changes within the prestige beauty market, latest opportunities are emerging when it comes to categories, latest consumer segments and latest ways of interaction, the TMI and BCG study finds.

“For prestige skincare, consumers select products through experience and sample trials; prestige color cosmetics consumers are easily influenced by hits and trends; and for prestige perfumes, self-satisfaction and self-expression remain the important thing attributes of prestige perfumes, allowing consumers to relate emotionally to the brand story and spirit,” Yi noted.

Decode Omni-channel operation capabilities and uncover role models in technology innovation.

Given the unlimited potential in China’s beauty and luxury market, the constant upgrading of technology innovation incorporates virtuality with reality, online with offline. Increasingly, latest technologies and latest approaches have spurred brands and platforms to forge deeper emotional bonds and value recognition with consumers from the content level and to attain a holistic upgrading of omni-channel operation capabilities. Within the session on omni-channel operation capability interpretation and industry benchmark case sharing, the guests probe into how digital innovation contributes to brands’ long-term growth in three elements: omni-channel innovation trends, consumer hyperlinks, and brand longtermism.

Omni-channel Revolutionary Fashion

The advance of the omni-channel operation capability is to assist brands deliver fashion aesthetics and embrace latest opportunities and challenges. As a vital part of Tencent’s omni-channel ecosystem, Weixin’s huge social ecology is one among the crucial links between users and types. (Weixin is the Chinese version of Wechat). Within the technique of beauty and luxury brands conveying fashion aesthetics and creating revolutionary digital connections with consumers, Tencent’s revolutionary approaches within the ecology provide vast possibilities and powerful support for them to exhibit creativity and communicate with consumers. George Xie, Head of Beauty and Luxury industry planning of Tencent Marketing Solution, gave a speech themed “Resilient Growth by Integration.” He shared multiple omni-channel innovation practices including Weixin Moments, Weixin Search, Weixin Channels, and Mini Programs.

In his opinion, “In Weixin ecology, Moments is the traffic entrance, while Search connects and dispatches traffic for brands. Meantime, Weixin official accounts, Channels, and Mini Programs link to one another and connect consumers.” Each touchpoint is a dot. By connecting the dots to the massive picture, we are able to achieve maximum value and long-term resilience for the brand. Each touchpoint inside Weixin is just not isolated. This is not any longer just an promoting exposure of a single point, but an integrated operation, and a mix of brand name marketing.

Having undergone years of growth in China, premium beauty professionals have keen insight and a profound perception of the varied and segmented changes in the buyer market. Meanwhile, their pioneering exploration of digital marketing also provides a worthwhile reference for your entire beauty and luxury industry. On this regard, DLG (Digital Luxury Group), specializing in digital research in the posh industry, foresaw through skilled data evaluation and industry commentary that the digital landscape of beauty and luxury brands will contain culture and emotion part, relatively than mere technical-level innovation. Tencent offers multidimensional possibilities for that.

Zhang Yi from DLG identified that recently, “the membership system structure has placed greater emphasis on the early stages of the buyer journey. We goal intentional and potential customers and boost their awareness and interest by conveying brand value and content. Because the Weixin ecosystems of beauty and luxury brands have been accomplished, the subsequent step for brands is to synchronize diversified touchpoints to maximise traffic and impact.”

The drastic market changes encourage brands to interrupt through and innovate, probing for more touchpoints to convey brand values and deepen market interactions. Based on its powerful digital innovation capabilities and extensive yet close user base, Tencent is producing latest marketing innovation highlights for beauty and luxury brands by continually upgrading its omni-channel operation capabilities. Joyce Cai commented, “Our perception of innovation may be captured in 4 words: User insight, experience balance. The muse of our innovation is rooted in our users. We leverage scenarios to catch up with to users in addition to bring emotional value to them. We’ve got noticed a shift in user search habits toward vertical APPs. For instance, 50% of Weixin users have looked for brands. Due to the maturity of Weixin ecosystem, users can find relevant brand content and services here.” The above three points are the premise for the commercialization of Weixin search.”

Concerning omni-channel innovation, the sweetness and luxury brands, as industry role models, are aiming on the omni-channel distribution, realizing multi-point triggering through higher content, achieving the closed-loop marketing from value delivery to value transformation, and accumulating momentum for long-term growth while preserving the brand tone and delivering brand value.

Consumer Hyperlinks

With the arrival of the buyer personalization era, one among the vital aspects for beauty and luxury brands to steer the market is the way to establish an efficient communication mechanism to achieve consumers in various circles and construct strong emotional connections with them. Especially, discover and cultivate more consumers with shared values in numerous interest areas equivalent to music and games.

Music and games are the “consumer hyperlinks” that effectively boost consumer reach and conversion. Their influence is big. Liu Zheng, Head of Business Promoting of TME, delivered a speech on “Take heed to the Mighty Beauty” and ushered the audience into the magnificent auditory world to feel the facility of sound. The revolutionary mix of art and music, the reinterpretation of “sound” scenes, the dynamic “sound” experience of the virtual world, and the renowned “sound” across borders.

Music can also be penetrating circles of individuals with its infectious power, resonating and emerging as the brand new language between brands and consumers. “Because music may be empathic, connecting to all scenes, it has a natural link to beauty and luxury brands,” remarked Liu Zheng. TME emphasizes the communication between people and nature and dedicates to things that carry warmth. For instance, through artistic events, we use music and art to interpret the positive emotions amongst people. We also use music to precise the vast fantastic thing about “sound” and to speak with nature through compelling content. Together with this trend, the brand innovation concept can even be enhanced by the cohesive power of music and digital innovation to attain infinite “sound” growth in numerous dimensions through crossover and circle-breaking marketing.

Just like the multi-sensory experience offered by music, the try and transcend dimensions is the communication between the physical world and the virtual one. Due to the continual upgrading of technology, the constraints of space and time within the virtual world have been eliminated, thus facilitating interaction and communication. Meanwhile, appealed by the shared interests, the culture sphere formed by enthusiasts from different regions and fields has empowered such groups with unprecedented cohesive and leading power. Because the important battlefield of the long run scene, Super QQ Show, which pools together the youngest cohorts in China, enables people to have real experience within the virtual world through cutting-edge technology, and provides one other dimensional space for brands and users to precise their personality and have an enhanced interactive experience.

Mr. Guo Zhaolin, from Super QQ Show Business Team, said: “Within the short run, Super QQ Show gives a leg up for brands to make advanced layout in markets favored by Generation Z population, gain the first-mover advantage in scene traffic in the brand new era, and supply brands with revolutionary marketing and opportunities to interact with consumers; in the long term, we aim to bolster the long-term accumulation and enhancement of brand name value.”

Music, gaming, and other enriched cross-circle and cross-dimensional expressions at the moment are utilized by a growing variety of brands to interact and resonate with consumers. These communication approaches, grounded in numerous interests, allow communication to change into way more heartfelt. Because the leading force, Beauty and luxury brands achieve circle-breaking resource integration and value delivery through music, esports, digital collections, co-branding, and other enriched forms.

Brand Longtermism

Meantime, the expansion of omni-channel operations and the expansion of consumer circles are underpinned by brand longtermism. This longtermism is especially reflected within the enhancement of consumers’ perception of the brand. How one can construct the brand value system and differentiation through digital marketing, achieving brand innovation and trendsetting. This requires constant breakthroughs within the technique of practicing longtermism.

Because the market becomes increasingly segmented, online video platforms also showed a trend of specialization in content distribution, equivalent to fashion, variety shows, dramas, virtual idols, and sports. While developing the mass track, Tencent Video continues to cultivate the area of interest track, providing more skilled and in-depth content mechanisms for beauty and luxury brands and making a higher narrative atmosphere. Chen Gezhi, Head of the Sales Service Center of Tencent Video, shared his opinions on “Tencent Video’s Layout of Longtermism and Outlook” under the theme of “Beauty is Visionary” from a content marketing perspective. Chen remarked, “Tencent Video has proposed the concept of IP+(Mental Property Plus)and is committed to diversity, quality, and customization. We attempt to multiply IP value through multi-scene IP distribution and deepening to construct brand momentum and most significantly, brand power.”

Along with content marketing, the way to construct the brand value system and differentiation through digital innovation, enhancing consumers’ perception of brands. This requires constant breakthroughs within the technique of practicing longtermism. Lena Yang, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of WWD, then hosted a round-table session with Veronique Yang, BCG Managing Director & Senior Partner, BCG Consumer Products Practice Greater China Head, BCG Fashion & Luxury practice AP Leader, and Huang Jianxiong, senior luxury marketing consultant. The speakers shared their insights regarding the subject “Sustainable Innovation for Brands’ Latest Chapter.” The three expressed their views on the return and innovation of longtermism, brand culture, perception constructing and output, omni-channel marketing, and the social value of longtermism.

Huang Jianxiong identified, “It’s crucial for brands to discover their persona to be able to select probably the most appropriate marketing tools. That is like selecting clothes. Firstly, it’s worthwhile to know your traits. Then you understand what suits you. “When referring to long-term brand constructing and brand’s social value, Veronique Yang said: “Uni Marketing may help brands amplify the share of voice of their social value propositions and help such promise resonate with consumers, and we are able to disseminate these concepts to consumers in a really diverse way with localized language and in a form that may be understood by one another.”

In the long run, quality content and revolutionary technology will probably be equally necessary as Tencent’s ecosystem evolves right into a digital omni-channel platform. With depth and breadth, the worth delivery of beauty and luxury brands can even form a web-based ecological omni-channel landscape through the connection of varied touchpoints. As Lena Yang concluded, “In light of advanced technologies and enriched marketing approaches for consumer connection, the core all the time lies in returning to the brand value and culture.”

Subdivided skilled tracks and multi-traffic scenarios will change into a connector between online and offline, inside and out of doors of Tencent ecology. It would generate infinite potential for beauty and luxury brands, empowering them to remain competitive within the rapidly evolving market to attain long-term growth and lead the industry in transformation and upgrading.

Regardless of how leading the brand new technologies are today, and the way enriched the marketing approaches to interact with consumers, the core all the time lies in returning to the brand value and culture.