A Guide to Chinese Consumer Lingo For Brands
Stay up to date by exploring current buzzwords covering the whole consumer journey: from product discovery to final purchase.
Following the sudden COVID-19 virus outbreak, many brick-and-mortar stores in China have been forced to remain closed for the safety of employees and customers alike. Smart brands have been exploring ways to diversify their revenue stream and keep cash flow coming in. While some businesses are suffering a tremendous hit without options for their employees to work remotely, some are quickly adapting to the surging “Cloud Economy” (云经济) online business modules. TAXX, one of the most popular night clubs in Shanghai has started a “Cloud Rave” (livestream clubbing) on Douyin which is said to have generated around ¥1 million ($143,000) through “gifts”, via a virtual tipping system on the app.
With many brands jumping into the ocean of social commerce and new trendy platforms such as WeChat Channels emerging every day, ‘consumer lingo’ used in the Chinese digital landscape is now more relevant than ever. In this guide, we will analyse the roots and meaning behind these words and what they mean for brands in their approach in the face of marketing campaigns or new product development.
Initial Discovery and Research of Products
种草 Zhòng Cǎo (The “Planting Grass” Phase) With the high penetration rate of social media and ecommerce in China, the shopping habits of Chinese consumers differ substantially from the rest of the world. The “Planting Grass” phase is known as the very beginning of this unique consumer journey. “Grass” is in reference to one’s strong shopping desire: an analogy of Chinese consumers’ never dying, always growing desire for purchasing products. This “grass” can be planted deep in the mind through different touchpoints such as through KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) on Little Red Book, a short video on Douyin or a product livestream on Tmall. The “grass” will then spread rapidly by sharing with friends and family via social media. Before you know it, there is a luscious garden from which to springboard.
Brands’ Takeaway: Choosing the right “grass-planting” channels for your brand is essential, given the vastly different platforms in China. For your brand, KOLs post ads on the right social platforms such as Little Red Book, WeChat, or niche platforms such as Baby Tree (Mom & Baby category-focused), or video platforms such as Douyin (a short video platform) can be utilized to increase consumers’ “grass-planting” and achieve high ROI.
Recommendation Behaviours
安利 Ān Lì (The “Amway”-Style Recommendation)Chinese consumers browse through social media religiously on a daily basis. Over 61% of WeChat users say they check WeChat Moments every time they open the app (there were over 1.15 billion monthly active users in 2019). 安利 is the Chinese name for the US brand Amway, which is known for its unique multi-level product distribution methods and individual distributors who make emphatic recommendations to their friends and family. As a result, 安利 has now been re-invented to mean “to strongly recommended from the bottom of the heart”. It is now a common term used by KOLs/KOCs, celebrities and brands in their posts and campaigns when promoting products.
带货 Dài Hùo (The Act of “Bringing Up Goods”)With the surge in the livestreaming industry and KOLs generating mouth-watering sales by 安利-ing their followers to different brands’ products on shopping festivals such as 618 and Double 11, the term 带货 has caught on. 带货 describes the ability of certain KOLs and celebrities to attract sales. No.1 livestreamer Viya and her close-second long-term rival, Li Jiaqi, have broken the records again with their ¥2.7 billion and ¥1 billion individual gross merchandise sales during 2019 Single’s Day festival (Double 11). KOLs’ 带货ability should be a measurable KPI when choosing the right representative for your brand’s products.
Brands’ Takeaway: After choosing the right “grass-planting” advertising channels, it is important to choose the right representative for promoting your products. Although not every brand can afford a legendary top-seller like Viya or Li Jiaqi, the KOLs’ ability to attract sales should be a top KPI when choosing the right promoter on top of their category-compatibility.
Making A Purchase
拔草 Bá Cǎo (The Final “Pulling Out Grass” Phase)After planting, growing and spreading the “grass”, comes the final phase, known as “pulling out the grass”. 拔草 commonly refers to making the sale on whatever product that caught one’s eye as a result of the initial consumer phases. This can go one of two ways: either the consumer simply loses interest after reading posts with negative opinions on the products; or they finally make the purchase.
秒杀 Miǎo Shā(The “Second-Kill” Purchase)/ 团购 Tuán Gòu (“Group Buying”)These two are very common promotion methods on ecommerce channels such as Tmall, JD and social ecommerce. 秒杀is a limited promotion with an attractive price that often makes consumers stay up late to snag the deal. During the Single’s Day promotion, an even lower price will be available in the first hours on the day with a limited order number.China takes 团购, also known as group-buying, to the next level. Interactive and visual mini-programs are developed for consumers to effectively share and invite more potential consumers to purchase a good. A successful example would be Pinduoduo (PDD), a group-buying social ecommerce platform, that effectively attracted “untouched” consumers from lower-tier cities by offering deeper discounts on generic products for groups. Pinduoduo is now said reported to have 483.2 million active buyers in June 2019 in comparison to Alibaba’s 672 million.
剁手Dùo Shǒu (The “Wanting To Cut Off Hand” Regret)/ 吃土 Chī Tǔ (The Post-Shopping “Mud-Eating” Phase)With an abundance of promotions and product ads richly saturating social media these days, the “grass” (consumers’ shopping desire) just seems to never die nor stop growing, but the wallet is in the victim. “To buy or not to buy” is a daily question. 剁手 describes the feeling of wanting to cut off your hand that made the purchase on the phone which has made you resort to “eating mud” (吃土) for the rest of the month before you can afford proper food after your next pay day.
Brands’ Takeaway: China ecommerce market is highly competitive across numerous marketing channels, but if you are able to strike when the iron is hot, your brand can still be competitive in the crowded space. Even though consumers’ wallets may have already been emptied by the other brands, they always still have the desire for more if marketed right.Thank you for reading this week’s article, if you need help with finding the right channel and/or the right representative for your brand, please contact us at China Skinny!
