Hello everyone and welcome to this episode of my interview series.
Today, we’ve got Iris Chan who is a Partner at Digital Luxury Group (DLG).
DLG (Digital Luxury Group) provides exclusive access to intelligence, industry executives, and digital marketing solutions, to enable smarter business decisions.
I spoke to Iris Chan about Chinese luxury consumers:
▪️ Finding them – Start by looking at unprompted, peer to peer conversations social
media about your brand, niche or competitors.
Little Red Book and Zhihu are great sources of insight.
▪️ The pandemic has accelerated digital confidence but in China it has integrated online and
offline more than ever before for example empowering Beauty advisors to live stream.
▪️ Engaging with them – so many touch points for your brand. Don’t neglect customer
service, even as a Cross border brand this is essential – make people feel special and answer
them quickly!!!
We also spoke about two big and important trends that all beauty brands should consider:
▪️ The rise of the individual – consumers wanting to be treated by brands as the diverse
and different people they are. This has really not been addressed in the Beauty industry
in China yet. Brands have treated it as a homogenous group in many ways – THIS IS
CHANGING ☄️
▪️ Duty Free – Hainan but other places will open as well and there is a huge opportunity
for Beauty brands here. This will not disappear when international travel opens
The rise of individualism in China
Is a marketing opportunity no brand should ignore
For many years sophisticated brands have segmented their marketing for different geographical regions in China
But this was the extent of the localization
▪️Brands catered to the majority, often treating China like a homogeneous society
▪️KOLs did not specialize and few had strong points of view focusing more on a category like
skincare or makeup
▪️Hair products focused on straight hair vs. tackling curly or wavy hair
▪️Only really 1 or 2 shades of foundation “because everyone has the same skin tone”
These are some of the sweeping generalisations that I’ve heard but of course in a population of 1.4BN there is a lot of diversity
Consumers are starting to demand diversity and brands should help celebrate it.
Are you a beauty brand looking at physical retail in China
Animal testing changes have brought down one barrier but then what….
▪️ New Retail is more advanced in China than anywhere else in the world – the mixing of offline and online.
▪️ Giving consumers a reason to go into store is important but also empowering in store
Beauty advisors to be mini brand ambassadors online through live streaming has been a
great shift
▪️ Customer service is one many CBEC brands neglect. China has strong service expectations
when it comes to online purchasing. It is rarely a no contact transaction – they expect their questions to be answered fast and knowledgeable
Keep these important factors in mind when you are thinking about your overall China strategy and make sure your partners prioritise it too!
What are your biggest Customers service headaches?
To connect with DLG and hear more about the work they do – reach out:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-luxury-group-dlg-/
Website: https://digitalluxurygroup.com/
If you want to get in touch with Iris Chan connect on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irisivychan/
