11月11日，中國再次迎來零售盛會“雙十一”，去年的“雙十一”成績十分亮眼，銷售額達到“黑五”和“網絡星期一”之和的兩倍之多。

伴隨“雙十一”活動，中國本土品牌與國際品牌也日益將目光投向了一類新生的消費群體，這群人在市場上影響力巨大，但很難被收買。

“需要與意見領袖建立關系，而且是切實的關系。”電子商務網站WOMANBOSS Inc.的創始人兼香港零售咨詢公司冰雪集團（Icicle Group）的首席執行官胡陳德姿表示。

“與其給意見領袖錢，不如直接給產品試用……也別要求發布內容。他們自己會生產真實且能夠讓消費者接受的內容。”

這些所謂的關鍵消費者（KOCs）活躍于中國的社交媒體平臺，并在各種網絡社區中扮演領袖的角色。他們憑借在聯系緊密的社區中建立起的信譽和真實性，影響力相當大。

在廣州舉行的《財富》全球科技論壇上，胡陳德姿向在場觀眾表示：“關鍵消費者擁有很大的影響力……他們的目標是以自身為中心打造社區。”

胡陳德姿解釋說，在西方，社交媒體平臺是為廣告商服務的，而在中國社交媒體并不可靠，因為微信在社交媒體領域處于絕對主導地位。外國品牌要想盡辦法與關鍵消費者建立聯系。

“ （廣告）體系（在中國）的發展與西方有所不同。”市場調研公司Coresight Research的總裁馬克斯·卡恩表示。“中國更看重體驗，需要通過直播帶貨，還需要確保媒體流量覆蓋。”

卡恩說，隨著該模式在中國獲得成功，越來越多的美國企業也加入了其中。他還舉例說最近Guess就在抖音的國際版TikTok上進行了直播。但是由于TikTok實際上也源自中國，所以該案例更像是中國營銷理念的移植而不是模仿。

但是，就像經常有企業發現全球營銷策略在中國市場行不通一樣，在中國行之有效的策略之所以可行，往往也是由于中國市場的特定特征。例如，微信之類的超級應用幾乎能夠全方位地收集消費者數據，有了這些數據，廣告商自然可以精準地投放廣告。

“這些社交平臺都是閉環生態系統，” 胡陳德姿說。“所以我們一直在跟[外國品牌]說，中國是個不一樣的市場。”

譯者：馮豐

審校：夏林

In just a few days on November 11th, China will celebrate Singles Day, the massive retail holiday that last year proved twice as large as Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

As the day approaches, Chinese and international brands will have their eye on a new class of Chinese consumer that wields enormous power over the market but can’t be bought.

“You need to build relationships, real authentic relationships [with these influencers],” says Bonnie Chan Woo, founder of e-commerce site WOMANBOSS Inc. and CEO of Hong Kong-based retail advisory Icicle Group.

“Instead of sending them money, you send them care packages…and you don’t ask them to post. They will generate content that is authentic and that really connects with the consumers.”

These so-called Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) are leaders of communities on Chinese social media platforms, and they are influential because of the trust and authenticity they inspire in close, tight-knit communities.

“These people are hugely influential…Their objective is to build communities around themselves,” Chan Woo told the audience at Fortune’s Global Tech Forum in Guangzhou, Friday.

In the West, Chan Woo explained, social media platforms have been built to service advertisers but those channels can't be relied upon in China, where WeChat is really the only dominant social-media operator. Foreign brands need to go to different lengths to develop connections with discerning Chinese consumers.

“The [advertising] system has grown up a little bit differently [in China,]” said Max Kahn, President of market research company Coresight Research. “It’s much more sort of about the experience, and about doing a livestream and being within the normal flow of the social medium.”

As this model has seen such success in China, more U.S. brands have been looking to adopt it, Kahn says, pointing to Guess’ recent livestream on TikTok as evidence. TikTok, however, is a Chinese-born app so this example perhaps points more to the migration, rather than imitation, of Chinese marketing concepts.

But, just as brands often find their global strategies don’t necessarily work when entering China, trends that work well in China are often due to specific characteristics of the market. In China, for example, do-it-all apps like WeChat can collect almost infinite data on their consumers, meaning that advertisers have a much stronger ability to target their ads.

“These are closed-loop ecosystems,” Chan Woo says. “We keep telling [foreign brands]: this is a different market.”