Recently, a report released by data analysis and research institutions R3 Worldwide and Bomoda stated that Gucci has topped the list of the most popular fashion brands among opinion leaders active on social media in China.
This survey was mainly completed by collecting statistics from social media. Bomoda selected 25 luxury brands around the world for research. They are all brands that have made greater efforts in the Chinese market in the past two quarters, or brands that value cooperation with social media experts.
And people’s online mentions, likes, reads, and other ways of engaging will reflect who’s hot right now. R3 Worldwide and Bomoda mainly collected Weibo and WeChat data of 400 social media experts, some of whom are fashion bloggers and others who are celebrities.
Their data shows that Gucci's rebranding plan has achieved good results, even better in China. Judging from 2015, Gucci performed well on global social media. It ranked eighth on Twitter and tenth on Facebook last year, but it did not even make the top ten on Instagram. But now, it is the best among Chinese experts.
Dior ranked second in this survey, Louis Vuitton ranked third, Givenchy ranked fourth, and Chanel ranked fifth.
The report found that social media experts have a significant boost to brand reputation. For example, Huo Jianhua and Ruby Lin, who got married some time ago, their news on Weibo made Bulgari and Salvatore Ferragamo, the brands used in the wedding, occupy the top positions among brands in July.
The brands people discuss on Weibo and WeChat are also different. Brands that new actor Xu Weizhou often discusses on Weibo include H&M, Louis Vuitton and Dior, but on WeChat, the list changes to H&M, Louis Vuttion and Stella McCartney.
Since investigators found that Kendall Jenner has a great influence on the fashion style of the new generation of Chinese girls, they also conducted an investigation on Jenner, and finally found that she would discuss Givenchy, Estee Lauder and Louis Vuitton on Weibo, and Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Dior on WeChat.
In addition to updating the brand rankings, this report also resolves a misunderstanding. Both R3 Worldwide and Bomoda believe that in the past, deniers believed that the value of influencer portals was not worth the advertising fees that brands paid them. However, in fact, this view came from brands usually having unrealistic expectations for post-advertising sales, which does not mean that influencers are ineffective. In the future, the function of social media experts will still be very important, especially in China, where opinion leaders will still have a key impact on consumers' brand journey.
