In “Chinese Whispers,” we share the biggest news stories about the luxury industry in China that haven’t yet made it into the English language.
In this week’s edition, we discuss:
- Little Red Book's influencer monetization plan,
- Alexander Wang's partnership with Suntchi to enter China, and
- Canada Goose's store debut in China turned out to be a hit.
1. Little Red Book offers a platform to connect brands and influencers to form partnerships - Ebrun#
The social commerce app Little Red Book has made great strides in monetizing its massive influencer pool. According to an exclusive report by Chinese media outlet Ebrun on January 3, the platform officially launched a new service called the "brand partner platform" (品牌合作人) to connect retail brands and marketing agencies to its influencers.
Last year, Little Red Book's popularity boomed after many Chinese celebrities opened accounts on the platform. It has now become a significant place for brands, especially in the travel, luxury and beauty categories, to conduct influencer marketing.
Brands need to register with Little Red Book to gain access to the information and statistics of influencers, including the number of followers, posts, and likes, as well as average page views, likes, shares and comments of posts that were published in the past 30 days. If an influencer has worked with other brands before, his or her marketing performance results will be shown, too.
On the other hand, only influencers with more than 5,000 followers and whose average page views on posts in the past 30 days reached 1,000 are qualified to list on this platform. Influencers can submit their price per post and make it available to brands for review. They are also required to mark if their posts are a paid partnership.
Ebrun's report said the move will improve the authenticity and price transparency of the influencer marketing landscape in China. At the same time, it benefits the top-tier influencers and may lead them to increase prices in the future, the report said.
2. Alexander Wang signs an exclusive partnership with Suntchi Brand & Technology, a Chinese fashion and entertainment company - Jiemian#
The namesake fashion brand of Asian-American designer Alexander Wang entered into an exclusive partnership with Suntchi Brand & Technology, a Chinese fashion and entertainment company that has a good connection with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).
The new deal will allow Suntchi to manage Alexander Wang's business operations such as marketing and public relations and market expansion in the country.
3. Chinese consumers lined up for Canada Goose's store opening in Beijing - luxe.co#
On December 28, the luxury skiwear brand Canada Goose opened its first retail store in China in Beijing's Sanlitun district. The opening came later than its original plan, which was slated for December 15. Many Chinese consumers still flocked to the store and waited in the cold winter for about an hour to get in.
International media previously speculated that Canada Goose delayed its store debut in China as it faced pressure following the Chinese-Canadian dispute over the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver.
