Another year Valentine's Day is approaching, this year's Valentine's Day coincides with the fifth day of the first month, the romantic atmosphere and the festivity of the Spring Festival, the wealth of the God of Wealth Festival superimposed, adding some special significance to this festival. For lovers, in order to have a sufficiently romantic, unique and heart-warming holiday experience, they first need to plan early and choose a "high-quality" gift. Data from Alimama shows that many lovers have planned in advance, secretly competing to give surprises on time and win gift contests.
When choosing gifts, combined with the timing of this year's Valentine's Day, this year's lovers hope to have both love and wealth, and the gifts are creative enough to "taste" and have a "limited edition" experience. If you want to capture the hearts of lovers, you need to invest in consumers, seize their new holiday trends, and identify products and marketing opportunities.
So, what changes have occurred to the holiday themes and gift needs of lovers? How to make a splash on Valentine's Day? How can merchants in sports, digital, pets, toys and more categories win the new trend of gifting? On January 29, Alimama, together with CBNDATA and *Hot Search, jointly released the "Alimama Business Guide" vol04 (hereinafter referred to as the "Guide"), interpreting the three major themes and two types of consumption trend scenarios of this year's Valentine's Day, and bringing Valentine's Day hot trend strategies to merchants in six major industries in advance.
As a festival to express love, the meaning of Valentine's Day has gone far beyond the scope of "lover". Whether it is the self-ridicule of "picking up garbage on Valentine's Day", or the warm topics such as "Valentine's Day Father Calls to Run Errands to Send Flowers to Single Daughter" and "Valentine's Day Vlog of Zhang Shaohan and Dogs", they all represent that contemporary people hope to increase the romantic atmosphere and sense of ritual of life through festivals, and pull in the intimate relationship with the people they care about. Reflected in the business opportunities of Valentine's Day, the theme of the festival and the festival crowd have been greatly extended, deriving multiple holiday postures and gift needs.
Three creative holiday themes make the "heartbeat" moment more diverse
When it comes to the way of celebrating the festival, if it only stays at flowers, meals, etc., it is far behind the concept of the festival of contemporary people. Lovers who "want and want" want to carefully plan a unique date, and be more detailed in terms of date preparation and appeal, love expression, and dating partner. Alimama found that "heart-warming experiential dating", "understanding what they love" and "raising babies and pets" are the three major themes of this year's Valentine's Day. This also corresponds to the consumption concept of contemporary people: daily necessities can be "improvised", while spiritual necessities must not be sloppy, and they need to be useful and interesting.
Ali Mama.
First of all, in order to increase the sense of ceremony, consumers will carefully prepare dating robes and makeup, and set the tone in various details. At the same time, some more experiential dating methods are favored by consumers. **The hot search list shows that couple photos and dating cos commissions were once on the list, becoming a new way for trendy users to open Valentine's Day.
Secondly, consumers pay attention to avoiding the same gift-giving, and accurately do what they like, and practical and interesting gifts such as e-sports trendy toys, outdoor sports, and DIY gifts have entered their gift list.
Finally, pets have become a kind of spiritual sustenance for contemporary people, and they are also included in the management of intimate relationships, and many couples will choose gifts for their pets to feel the festive atmosphere together. **Hot search data shows that the popularity of various pet products such as pet parent-child clothing continues**, becoming an opportunity category for Valentine's Day.
Love doesn't have to be confined to lovers, and two great opportunities for people to celebrate love
During Valentine's Day, it is a fixed operation to express your heart with a gift full of intentionsBut gift-giving doesn't just happen between lovers. "Alimama Business Guide" vol04 believes that sending lovers and friends are the two major gift opportunities for Valentine's Day this year. No matter who the gift giver is, the consumer's gift-giving philosophy is very particular, and the per capita incarnation is a "gift expert".
Ali Mama.
Women are still the main force when it comes to buying gifts for their loved ones, but men's motivation is also increasing rapidly. Ali data shows that young people aged 18-24 are more likely to pursue a sense of fashion and fit each other's interests and hobbies, and have a higher preference for categories such as beauty and skin care, digital e-sports, and trendy toys blind boxes. Mature age groups aged 35+ pay more attention to improving their sense of happiness and quality in life, bringing opportunities for furniture, jewelry, sports and outdoor and other categories.
Among the people who send friends, female users occupy the main body, and their gift-giving behavior is also more detailed. Young people aged 18-29 may want to become beautiful with friends, and tend to buy makeup, bags, accessories and other gifts that reflect "careful"; Or for the sake of a friend's health, give the other party nursing and health care equipment. Mature age groups of 30+ pay more attention to the value of gifts and the family relationship of the other party, and are more inclined to buy beauty and skin care products, jewelry, office and stationery.
The theme of the holiday, the changes in the crowd and the deepening of the philosophy of gift-giving have brought new opportunities for the Valentine's Day category. **According to the data, judging from the transaction data of Valentine's Day in 2023, categories such as beauty and skin care, jewelry and other natural gifts are popular for Valentine's Day gifts; Sports and outdoor, digital e-sports, pet supplies, and dolls are becoming the new fashion of gift-giving, fully reflecting the integration of fun and romance, among which the number of transactions in sports categories has increased particularly significantly month-on-month.
Specific to different categories, merchants need to accurately understand the hot trends in the industry and seize the "opportunity" of Valentine's Day.
Gift basic plate category: there is also a new idea
Whether it's for a loved one or a friend, beauty and skin care, and jewelry are popular gift categories, and the competition is more intenseMerchants need to focus on creating creativity and freshness, and find their heart.
Beauty and skin care products are the first choice for Valentine's Day gifts. **The data shows that from January 8 to January 14, 2024, the search and transaction data of low-saturation lipsticks, perfumes, and home beauty devices all have a large ** (the search and transaction data of Taonei below refer to this time period). On this basis, highlight the exclusivity and personalization of gift boxes and customized products, which can attract the attention of users. For example, the 31 Le Rouge Lipstick Gift Box No. 31 features a "limited edition of love" for lovers, incorporating the legendary 31 Rue Cambon Art Deco mirror ladder to add to the creative and artistic feel of the gift box. The Hermes Light Eau de Parfum Eau de Parfum Eau de Parfum Lip Balm Set Moisturizing Gift Box focuses on surprise and practicality, providing consumers with a choice to send to friends.
Tmall Chanel official***
The jewelry category can be combined with Valentine's Day, Spring Festival, and God of Wealth Festival to innovate in style and meaning. Alimama Insight found that the search and transaction data of categories such as national style bracelets, antique earrings, and lucky rings have increased. On social platforms, category topics with keywords such as fortune, national style, and niche also achieved good interactive performance.
Gift a new fashion category: read TA to grasp TA
Pet supplies, digital e-sports, trendy toys blind boxes, and sports and outdoor are new trends in gift-giving, and have gradually become a new choice for consumers on Valentine's Day. Such businesses need to accurately find the combination point with Valentine's Day and the interest point of the lover, so as to drive the increase of attention and transaction conversion.
On Valentine's Day this year, bringing pets home for the New Year may become a new way to celebrate the New Year, and the search and transaction performance of categories such as car kennels and pet couple clothes are better. At the same time, pet photos, pet photography, pet peripherals and other pet interaction-related topics have received high attention, and customized pet products may become the gift choice for couples.
Bluetime Daydream Pets" store.
E-sports is a home-based fun for contemporary people, and "couples' double row" is a new means for couples to enhance communication and deepen their feelings. Couples who pay attention to the importance of interest also tend to choose game consoles, peripherals, etc. when choosing gifts to bring a better gaming experience. Special designs (such as heart-shaped) and special IP co-branding (such as Little Yellow Duck) can greatly increase the festive atmosphere and gift attributes of digital products, and are included in the gift list by couples.
Tmall "OVC Digital ***
As a "toy for adults", the trendy toy blind box reflects its attractiveness to consumers due to its transaction data and interactive performance on social platforms. On the basis of focusing on fun, new Valentine's Day products and limited design can better meet consumers' dual needs for surprises and collections, such as trendy toy products that integrate the concept of Valentine's Day such as bouquets and gift boxes.
Sports and outdoor are the popular lifestyles of the public in recent years, and related items such as windproof jackets and road bikes are naturally sought after. The new outdoor lifestyle provides a new scene for people with in-depth communication and creating beautiful memories, creating outdoor exclusive time, and choosing couples' equipment has also become the combination of sports and outdoor and Valentine's Day.
How can businesses win consumer "complexes" on Valentine's Day?
The content, crowd trends and category opportunities of Valentine's Day are all clear, but competition and opportunities coexist, and merchants need to plan their layout in advance if they want to seize the opportunities, turn them into definitive business growth, and win among the same types of merchants.
During Valentine's Day, Tmall is an important position for lovers to choose gifts, and it is also an important field for merchants to market Valentine's Day. In order to help merchants lock in the best value groups during Valentine's Day, Alimama launched the "Alimama Business Guide" vol04, providing solutions for customizing crowds, content planting, and precise delivery around Valentine's Day.
For the two major Valentine's Day custom crowds, Dharma Pan provides a Valentine's Day TA crowd strategy. First of all, through the crowd insight and real-time crowd behavior analysis of the "category strategy group", the nine groups of people under the category are accurately divided, and the core groups of the industry are locked, that is, those with stable repurchases, high purchase frequency and purchase amount. According to Shiseido, a beauty brand, courtesy consumers are sticky, and half of consumers will repurchase in different categories at different courtesy nodes throughout the year.
Secondly, through the "category surprise crowd", under the three dimensions of first-level category, second-level category and leaf category, we can quickly find people with high activity in this category but low advertising reach in this category and low advertising reach on all platforms, and reach this group of people at low cost. This is also the current "blue ocean of competition" in terms of people.
Ali Mama.
In the content planting process, the key to the operation of the business lies in the expression of the atmosphere of Valentine's Day and the expansion of the communication volume of the courtesy atmosphere. "Alimama Business Guide" vol04 It is proposed that merchants can lay out through two paths: with the help of Alimama UD content x Alimama Digital Intelligence Strategy and Planning Center jointly launched the global content planting grass fast 30, to achieve the closed loop of off-site grass planting, crowd return, and in-station remarketing; Do a good job in the "shopping" delivery of the station, and realize the three-step process of planting grass for people outside the station, directly guiding the content of shopping in the station, and sequential harvesting of the crowd.
Ali Mama.
In the final delivery link, Alimama Wanxiangtai Unbounded Edition - Keyword Scenario supports brands to launch Valentine's Day hot topics and related hot dark horse words, and newly launches Valentine's Day gift packages to help merchants obtain high-quality crowd traffic behind keywords. Taking Shiseido as an example, when placing the keyword promotion related to the gift node of the courtesy node, you can specially select the courtesy consumers (especially male consumers) for premium, so as to appear in the top position when users search for gifts, so as to give priority to their own goods to seize this part of the high-quality group, and then cooperate with the all-round price adjustment to further improve the reach effect of the target group.
Ali Mama.
Through the product capabilities of the above three links, Alimama intends to provide merchants with multi-dimensional assistance for courtesy node marketing. Taking Shiseido as an example, the brand launched a limited gift box for the Year of the Dragon at the courtesy node, focusing on the atmosphere and blessing attributes for the Year of the Dragon. Shiseido also cooperated with Tmall Beauty and Alimama to first achieve ** in the courtesy mind group through the opening of the UD brand outside the station, and then to reach the target consumers through content planting, and finally to cooperate with the new way of courtesy in Taonei, and take advantage of the official announcement of the spokesperson to unlock the dynamic effect of the hidden easter eggs of the star with search words and customized words, and realize the shaping of the brand courtesy mind in a series of measures.
As the beginning of the romantic economy in 2024, Valentine's Day is a business opportunity that businesses should not miss. When the consumption trend of lovers changes, businesses also need to adjust their business strategies accordingly and evolve with consumers at the same frequency in order to win the hearts of "lovers". Except for Valentine's Day, merchants closely follow consumer needs and emotional changes at major nodes, and have emotional resonance with them, which has an important impact on business operations throughout the year. Alimama will continue to track the changes in node trends, output a series of business guides, and provide product capability support and strategic guidance for merchants to do a good job in node marketing.
Ali Mama.