• Lululemon has partnered up with China’s respected psychologist Li Songwei to debut a love audio guidebook on the eve of this year’s Chinese Valentine’s Day.
• The audible book collected dilemmas faced by partners in a romantic relationship with advice for each scenario given by Li.
• The sensible efforts follow the successful collaboration between Lululemon and Li for last year’s World Mental Health Day, earning Lululemon the title of “a brand with emotional resonance”.

In the run up to this year’s Chinese Valentine’s Day, also known as Qixi Festival, which falls on 22 August, rather than purely celebrate romance, the Canadian activewear brand Lululemon decided to revisit the intimate bond between today’s Chinese couples. The reflective journey is in collaboration with Li Songwei, a doctor of Peking University, giving birth to the audio book entitled “100 Love Practices”.

A remedy for “troubles” in relationships

Narrated by the respected psychologist, an interactive page was built to accommodate the audible guidebook where users can flip back and forth to listen to different episodes, while a shareable poster is generated at the end of each part which presented some of the keywords from the episode. Collecting dilemmas faced by partners, the audio book provides advice given by Li for each scenario, such as how to set boundaries for personal space, and how to have an equal partnership in a romantic relationship.

Li’s narration is shrewdly accompanied by meditation style background music, creating an ambiance for listeners to rethink how to nurture a healthy, affectionate relationship while also giving a nod to the brand’s association with yoga and a healthy lifestyle.

The audio production is coupled with Lululemon’s Qixi Festival limited capsule collection. With the tagline “Feel the Love With”, the series features minimalist and versatile designs, drawing inspiration from fresh meadows and gentle gardens in its overall colour palette.

Consisting of the Silk-Blend loose-fit t-shirts paired with lightweight loose-fit, high-waisted shorts or trousers for women and Back Pocket loose-fit shorts or trousers for men, it includes a ‘Both Ways’ reversible fisherman hat, ‘Cotton Canvas’ tote bag, and the ‘Daily Stride’ mid-calf socks, which shows its intention to cater to a comfortable and natural feeling relationship.

The synergy of psychology and marketing

In fact, this is not the first time Lululemon has tapped into the psychology expert Li Songwei and playing on the practice of psychological health in marketing. The two parties joined forces last October for World Mental Health Day, initiating the “Keep Good State Together” campaign, bringing topics such as happiness and negative emotion control to the forefront. The endeavour was well received with the campaign hashtag garnering over 350 million views on China’s microblog mecca Weibo within a month and over 1.8 million views of its campaign video.

The second collaboration has also been faring well, attracting millions of views on China’s lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu since the launch on 10 August, and another hundreds of thousands of discussions building on Weibo as of 18 August.

To retain enthusiasm, Lululemon supplements the campaign by featuring individual stories of several KOLs, extending the definition of intimate relationships to include kinship, friendship or even just simply love of oneself, responding to the pursuit of a more diversified interpretation of romantic relationships amongst today’s Chinese consumers.

“In intimate relationships, there is love, but there will also be confusion”, said Li in a post endorsing the campaign on Weibo, “Yet, it’s precisely because of this confusion that we continuously explore how to love, allowing the relationship to gradually take on its unique form and attain a positive state.”

“That is the capacity of love, something that must be practiced little by little. The closer the relationship, the more this holds true,” Li continued. Li’s sharing has prompted many to re-explore their relationships, sparking conversations about how to maintain independence, discovering a sense of security and balance and compromises in a close partnership, and more.

Lululemon earns praise as “a brand with emotional resonance” with its sensible combination of activewear and love psychology. The traction gained by Lululemon once again shows the appreciation from Chinese consumers of the educational value that brands can bring in their marketing.

As the demographics are more active in re-discovering themselves and their surroundings, efforts that can resonate with them from inside are more likely to be applauded. That means businesses who can demonstrate their understanding of consumers’ psychological needs have a better chance of winning over their target audience.

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With the traditional Chinese Valentine’s Day just around the corner, falling on 22 August this year, Vip.com has teamed up with 500 brands to launch tens of thousands of Qixi festival gift boxes, providing consumers with personalised and cost-effective gift choices.

So far, categories including jewellery, beauty and cosmetics, and skincare and perfume are particularly sought after, with sales of each category recording an increase of more than 120% during the initial promotional period.

Among them, P&G-owned Japanese beauty brand SK-II is reported to have seen sales grow by 10-fold as of a week before Qixi, while the Chinese electrical appliance maker Flyco and the Tokyo-based beauty and health equipment manufacturer Ya-Man pulled off a 6-fold and 5-fold increase in sales on the platform respectively.

The concept of “gift box” continues to gain steam in China thanks to “the sense of ceremony” and festivity it enables. Many brands have seized the opportunity to release “Qixi Limited Edition” gift box sets, collaborating with well-known intellectual properties (IPs) to launch exclusive designs and limited editions. This has turned “gift box” into an effective marketing strategy to cater to diverse consumer needs, enhancing both product sales and brand recognition.

While e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall are usually brand battlefields for gift box promotions, industry insiders observe that the sensation gained by Vip.com this year is because of the overall tendency of endorsing cheaper and discounted options. Chinese consumers are exercising caution during consumption, which makes the discount retailer Vip.com a favoured alternative for festive shopping.

Such a sentiment is expected to accompany the celebratory season as Chinese consumers continue to seek balance between cost-effectiveness and their pursuit of achieving personal happiness and a higher quality of life.

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• For Valentine’s Day, Chinese coffee chain Luckin launched a romantic campaign in collaboration with cute Korean sticker memes well known and used by Chinese netizens.

• More than 76% of China’s total coffee consumers were up to 35 years old, meaning that coffee chains’ main target demographic falls under millennials and Gen Z-ers.

For this year’s Valentine’s Day, Chinese coffee chain Luckin joined hands with the cartoon IP Line Puppy to reel in customers.

Not only did Luckin launch a limited-edition drink (called “Xiugou Love Story”) for the special occasion, but they also launched the “Thorny Rose Latte” which taps into a popular Chinese talk show “Talk Show Exchange”. The name is a reference to one of comedian He Guangzhi’s self-deprecating jokes in the talk show’s fourth season: “It seems that the more beautiful things are, the crueller they are to the world. Every time I think of this, I suddenly realize that I am a rose with thorns.”

In terms of merchandise, Luckin rolled out stickers that customers were crazy about. The stickers had become so popular that they quickly ran out the following day. In addition to stickers, the campaign also included a couple of portraits and cell phone wallpapers, as well as cutesy comics that could pull on lovers’ heartstrings.

Line Puppy comes from a puppy-themed emoticon pack made by Korean illustrator moonlab studio. The emoticon characters are composed of a white Maltese puppy and a brown Golden Retriever puppy, both of which are easily recognisable by young Chinese netizens. In fact, as soon as the new IP products rolled out, netizens rushed to snag themselves limited-edition bags and stickers of their very own.

Could Internet culture be key to unlocking China’s Gen Z?

To further garner attention, Luckin created eight themed stores of Luckin Coffee and Line Puppy in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and more. The location encouraged couples and single men (with a play on words of the Chinese Gen Z slang “single dog”) to stop by and stir up some Valentine’s day romance.

This is not the first time Luckin Coffee uses memes or Internet slang to reel in China’s coffee-crazed youth. In fact, last year on Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine’s Day), the coffee chain rolled out bags and merchandise with the meme Pepe the Frog which went viral when singles posted the cartoon amphibian to show their loneliness, as croak in Mandarin Chinese (gūguā, 咕呱)  sounds similar to the word “lonely” (gūguǎ, 孤寡).

According to a survey among Chinese coffee drinkers, about 49% of respondents between 26 to 35 years old made up the majority of coffee consumers, and over 76% of the total coffee consumers were up to 35 years old. Within Luckin’s primarily millennial and Gen Z demographic, young singles account for more than 60%. This group of young people tend to be open about their single status, which has caused a wave of self-deprecating humour about being single on the Internet.

Overall, by harnessing the virality of memes and Internet culture, Luckin Coffee is able to speak directly to the humour and interests of China’s young consumers. With the constant new memes and trends on Chinese social media, businesses can tap into online internet slang and humour to create creative campaigns that are a bit more outside the box and captivating to younger audiences.

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In collaboration with Chinese artist Tian Xiaolei, Li-Ning created a digital scenario with unique storytelling where two lovers, trapped in different spaces struggle to fight against gravity to be together, indicating the breakdown between the virtual world and real life in this era. To coordinate with the cyberpunk theme, metal materials were utilised in the motif design of the collection along with the artist’s edgy style.

Futuristic elements like outer space and astronauts can be observed throughout the Valentine’s Day collection, with hoodies, denim jackets, t-shirts and trainers included. While signature colours such as black, white and pink have been applied to the outfit selections.  

The highlight of the collection is an eye-catching design of the Möbius strip in the trainers, representing the definition of ‘infinity’ which is aligned with the digital love topic. On top of this, materials such as synthetic leather and carbon fibre sparked a nostalgic feeling from the modern style. To date, all new products are available for purchase at Li-Ning flagship stores both online and offline.

This Valentine’s Day campaign was built upon the amorous imagination for the future, differentiating from previous marketing activities for the season of love by capitalising on the Metaverse concept. By doing so, Li-Ning demonstrated its insightful understanding of the younger demographics as well as the brand’s vigorous cultural innovation in the digital world.

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Currently, the service is only available at the official flagship stores of Prada, Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino on Tmall, with a plan to cover more domestic and foreign perfume brands after Valentine’s Day. Around 200 consumers came along with questions about choosing fragrances by the end of the first day, half of which were male shoppers who wished to gift perfume to their loved ones during the festival but felt uncomfortable shopping in the mall.

This explains how online consultation services came to be, as Tmall observed a consumer need for making choices online, especially amongst male shoppers, resulting in the launch of system training with fragrance brands to better equip online advisors with basic scent knowledge. To resonate with the Valentine’s Day vibe, personalised services have also been provided by Tmall, such as customised audio letters, photo printing and character carving.

Apart from satisfying fragrance shoppers’ selection demands, this service is also in line with consumers’ strong appetite towards fragrance items, with fragrances and scented candles experiencing a stable double-digit growth on Tmall over the past two years.

Notably, the fragrance industry has gained ground in China over the past decade with sales garnering 10.9 billion RMB ($1.6 billion) in 2021 and the figure is projected to reach 30 billion RMB ($4.4 billion) by 2025. The burgeoning interest in fragrance consumption is largely driven by an ever-strong desire to attain self-fulfilment and showcase individualities. Among the younger demographics, an increasing favourability for niche, in particular, oriental scents can be noticed, with homegrown brands endeavouring to integrate local elements into their products to gain traction.

By tapping into the fragrance hype and targeting consumers’ needs, Tmall has prepped online fragrance advisors in an attempt to resolve shoppers’ challenges when selecting fragrances. The approach not only further leverages the ongoing sensation towards fragrance but also achieve sales acceleration through professional assistance.

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From February 2 to February 11, customers who head over to Himo’s photo studio to take wedding registration or anniversary photos with a special wedding discount. On Valentine’s Day itself, those who place an order for two or more cups of Heytea’s ready-made drinks will receive ticket vouchers for both HeyTea and HIMO. In addition, for a limited time only, Heytea’s Shenzhen shop will be transformed into a “Happy Photo Studio” with HIMO photographers documenting couples’ happy moments.

While the Chinese traditionally commemorate around six Chinese Valentine’s Days throughout the year, celebrating Valentine’s Day like the West on February 14th has become more and more trendy among younger generations in China. In fact, data from the microcredit app Huabei shows that China’s millennials born after 1990 and Gen Z-ers born after 1995 are the country’s most frequent romantic gift shoppers. This demographic places great importance on gifts that enhance their “sense of ritual” in relationships.  Much like in the West on this day, couples will spend time together by going out on dates and offering gifts to each other.

Since its inception in 2011, the photo studio service HIMO has managed to build itself an enormous empire of over 6 million customers. In a lucrative industry valued at approximately 3.2 billion RMB (474 million USD) as of 2021, the company has become a go-to collaboration partner for many beauty and fashion brands, from Lululemon to Charlotte Tilbury.

Given that HeyTea and HIMO share a youthful and diverse consumer demographic, this V-day campaign serves as a cross-marketing strategy to not only create buzz but also to increase brand awareness, sales growth and a long-lasting relationship with new partners.

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From now on, consumers are able to access Tiffany & Co.’s world by simply searching the brand’s name on the JD.com app. In celebration of the virtual storefront landing, Tiffany & Co. presented a complete line-up of its popular products ranging from jewellery, accessories and homeware items through to fragrance collections, with new arrivals such as the Tiffany Lock bracelets included. 

With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, the brand dedicatedly launched its classic Return to Tiffany collections which are available exclusively on the JD.com app. To pamper consumers in the season of love, features such as personalised packaging services and interest-free payment plans have been prepared for the holiday season.

To welcome Tiffany & Co. onboard, JD.com delicately changed its app interface setting into the jewellery brand’s trademark colour “robin’s-egg blue” to appeal to the target audience and raise consumer awareness. In order to assist the foreign player in making a splash in the local market, JD.com rolled out customised marketing tactics from virtual storefront setups to product releases, taking advantage of its immense consumer base.

Purchasing luxury goods at home has been gaining traction among Chinese consumers in the post-pandemic era, which is an approach that is believed to be beneficial to both Tiffany & Co. and JD.com. On one hand, having the renowned jewellery brand onboard, JD.com has strengthened its stance in China’s luxury retail arena while exemplifying its sturdy business foundation. While on the other hand, Tiffany & Co. has effectively increased its sales channel and leveraged consumer engagement, capitalising on the dominant resources of the e-commerce giant.

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Beauty gift sets maintain the most favourability

Given that 70% of consumers would prefer to receive cosmetics products from their loved ones rather than flowers, jewellery, or chocolates, impressive beauty gift collections have been unveiled with enthusiasm, attempting to take over the season of love.

This year, American cosmetics company Estée Lauder in collaboration with Shanghai-based brand SHUSHU/TONG, jointly launched several types of gift sets with romantic rose patterns and bow tie elements infused on the packaging. Estée Lauder’s signature products such as its serum, eye cream and essence lotion have been included in an attempt to shower its love and care on Chinese consumers.

Italian luxury fashion house Armani is all set to take over the amourous holiday with special offerings from two of its most iconic products such as its cushion foundation and lipstick that encompasses signature shades 214, 110, and 405.

As for Japanese skincare brand SK-II, its gift wrapping has evolved from its Year-of-the-Rabbit design with additional red heart features added, and its bestselling treatment essence included inside. By drawing inspiration from China’s renowned White Rabbit candy, the brand has evoked positive nostalgia from local consumers through the widely recognised red-white-and-blue logo.

Besides the aforementioned labels, domestic cosmetics unicorn Perfect Diary has also come up with innovative ideas amongst its foreign peers to celebrate the season. Perfect Diary has capitalised on the flowering plant, Laceleaf in its gift set packaging as the flower is shaped like a heart, vividly representing a metaphor for the emotion, of love. A complete lineup of trendy items like eyeshadow palettes, lip glosses, setting powers and so much more were also included. The QR code embedded in the packaging was the highlight, encouraging consumers to scan and leave audio messages for their loved ones.

Fragrances possess high popularity in the season as usual

Italian premium fashion label Bulgari believes in the power of aroma, and dedicatedly launched a set of perfumes with each combining a charming touch of fruit, wood, and florals, catering to the tastes of different fragrance lovers.

By teaming up with sommeliers for the first time, French haute couture house Maison Margiela is offering a collection of fragrance and scented candles, flavoured with alcohol notes to capture the sensual festival. While the words “I Love You” have been imprinted on the packaging in various languages, conveying the brand’s sincere wishes to shoppers.

Despite Valentine’s Day being a western holiday, it has become highly favoured by Chinese consumers over the years with the Gen Z cohort being the main chaser. As such, brands regard this season as an essential opportunity to curate campaigns to deliver their commitment to the market. However, gift boxes which are a commonly used promotional strategy are slowly losing their uniqueness. Beauty labels should consider thinking outside of the box with new events, while also sparing some effort in seeing opportunities within the LGBTQ+ and single communities.

Moreover, apart from Valentine’s day, Internet Valentine’s Day (falls on 20 May as 520 is a homophone of “I love you” in Chinese) and Qixi festival (which falls on 22 August this year but the date changes every year based on the Chinese lunar calendar) are the two local holidays which cherish love. But how to capture consumers’ attention without overwhelming them with tired sparkling celebrations whilst still standing out amongst domestic peers, is something beauty players need to delve deeper into in order to succeed in winning over consumers.

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Dao Insights brings you three campaigns led by Burberry, Lululemon and YSL and looks at how they are winning over the savvy generations.

Burberry ‘Over the Octagram of Love’ anime

In collaboration with creative artists at W [Wild Dog], Burberry retells the mythology through a manga-style anime that redefines romance from the point of view of a young, animated character narrated by an innocent voice, showing the brand’s attempt to appeal to a youthful audience.

The brand’s stripe motif is turned into the background while also functioning as a hint to the young boy’s love adventure, an eight-angled star polygon, which is also one of the key elements of Burberry’s designs for its limited edition Qixi, representing the brand’s interpretation of love, which includes courage, understanding, sincerity, trust and exploration beyond its romantic nature.

Through this imaginative creation, Burberry has provided a more inclusive definition of love, which echoes the core message the brand intends to deliver through this campaign, which is “Exploring the end of love – freedom”. This is also a gentle nudge by the brand to encourage its target audience to break boundaries and pursue love freely, therefore, catering to the pursuit of individuality amongst the young generation.

Lululemon ‘Say Love Right Now’ short video

With Burberry’s love story about imagination, Lululemon highlights the simplicity of love amongst the ordinary in real life. Instead of celebrities and top-tier KOLs, the athleisure yoga wear maker whose assortment also covers lifestyle apparel shook hands with its community partners, fitness and boxing coach Cao Xinlei (180,000 followers on Weibo) and lifestyle blogger Freya (670,000 followers on Xiaohongshu).

Under the slogan “Say Love Right Now”, the one-minute campaign video features three young couples celebrating their relationships through outdoor activities such as photography, cycling and glamping. Meanwhile, the brand also partnered with China’s biggest online fitness app Keep, launching a “Summer Challenge” HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) course for couples, where lovers posting photos of themselves in a Lululemon Qixi-limited capsule on social media using the campaign hashtag are provided with special gifts.

By doing so, Lululemon has skilfully tapped into the country’s fitness fever, as well as outdoor activity sensation, that continues to gain traction as the country seeks to reopen after COVID lockdowns.

YSL X Peacekeeper Elite

French luxury brand, YSL, on the other hand, seems to have special favour amongst China’s gaming subculture for this Valentine occasion. Following its partnership with League of Legends for Western Valentine’s Day earlier in February, the brand is now embracing another hit video game Peacekeeper Elite.

The collaboration gives birth to a crossover gift box featuring YSL’s most sought-after ‘Rouge Paradoxe’ 21 product line, with a total of 2,000 sets available through the brand’s official WeChat mini program. The signature product is presented by the game’s virtual influencer Gilly. The digital character’s elegant appearance in a black playsuit brings together the game’s futuristic gene with a romantic twist. This not only complements YSL’s overall visual designs and the sentiment of the special occasion but also allows the brand to leverage the synergy of its own bestseller and the nation’s craving for virtual beings.

Moreover, the Qixi campaign has coincided with the in-game “airdrop” season, a promotional practice where players are rewarded with gifts that can be used in the game. A special feature dedicated to the Qixi promotion has been launched, inviting gamers to participate in the “Red Airdrop” challenge, where they can customise their virtual faces in Peacekeeper Elite’s digital community using YSL’s featured offerings, therefore, incorporating the concept of virtual try-ons to enhance online engagement.

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From 21 July to 7 August, the three special installations will showcase the brand’s latest Les Berlingots de Cartier jewellery series which is a limited-edition collection dedicated to the festival. Amongst the line is a semi-transparent pink Chalcedony necklace and a ring incorporating Red Jasper all of which are exclusive to the Chinese market, and naturally has been the protagonist of the showcase in the host cities.

While none of the three has previously been considered for special promotions by internationally famed luxury brands like Cartier, these cities have seen increasing interest from global labels because of their expeditions into China’s lower-tier markets driven by the growing appetite for extravaganza purchasing in these areas.

In 2020, Cartier opened a boutique store at Henglong Plaza in Kunming (second-tier city), which was one of the top two best-performing shopping malls in 2021, according to Hang Lung Properties, a Hong Kong-based property developer who built Henglong Plaza in mainland China. The complex also saw a 47% increase in rental revenue in the same year thanks to global brands rushing to open stores in the space.

Similarly gaining more attention from luxury brands is the new first-tier city Qingdao, which was selected by Louis Vuitton as the second stop after Shenzhen for its “Louis Vuitton &” exhibition in May. As a high-end shopping centre, Hisense Plaza appears to be particularly appealing to jewellery and watch brands, with Chow Tai Fook, a Chinese jewellery unicorn dropping a three-day exhibition for rare watches on 21 July.

On the other hand, as the first high-level shopping mall in the second-tier city of Nanning, Wanxiang City has also become a landing point for luxury brands, which hosts the only Cartier storefront. The outlet is currently under refurbishment with the intention of being turned into a boutique with more categories on top of its existing focus on watches. The latest Qixi pop-up event, therefore, not only leverages the traditional festival but helps Cartier strengthen their relationship with local audiences whilst offsetting potential loss due to the store improvement around this crucial promotion season.    

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