Understand the Chinese fashion Key Opinion Leader

Chinese key opinion leaders are very powerful in China as they can influence buying decisions of their followers by simply posting photos on their social medias accounts. A lot of brands in China collaborate with them to increase their visibility or their brand awareness.

Unlike bloggers in the West, most of the Chinese key opinions leaders have made themselves known on Chinese social medias and only a few of them have a blog.

Why KOL are important for a brand?

A lot of Chinese consumers check social medias to get style advices and look for fashion trends. And most of those advices on the Internet come from Key Opinion Leaders, the Chinese fashion experts. They have thousands or even million of followers on Chinese social medias and have the power to awaken their follower’s desire simply by posting photos or promotional posts. Fashion and luxury brands in China already understand it and collaborate with them very often. Most of the time they asked them to come to events, take photos and posts them on their social medias wall.

A cloth or an accessories posted on a KOL account is very often sold out in a short amount of time.

Here are some very popular KOL right now in China who very often collaborate with brands :

– Han Huohuo

With more than 4 million of followers on its Weibo page, Han Huohuo is invited to every fashion show and brands events. His Weibo feeds is full of portraits of himself with designer clothes and purses. He have a deep understanding of fashion and has released a street-style book named « Fire Bible » last year.

-Karena

As a Chinese actress, she is very courted by brands as Moschino. With more than 6 million of followers, she represents a real breeding grounds for brands looking to communicate.

-Peter Wu

In addition to online campaign, Peter Wu is also collaborating with brands offline. For example he worked for Cerruti. Here is the campaign released by the brand.

But Key Opinion Leaders start to be decried.

But as in the West, fashion influencers in China are somewhat maligned. In fact most of them ask for a lot of money just for retweets and posts on their social medias. Obviously, the more followers they have the higher rates they have. Their popularity can be very expensive and some KOL accounts are purely commercial today.

Some of them have lost their identity and their spontaneity.

Brands are more and more looking to engage influencers with fewer followers.

Fashion brands are trying to promote their brand using KOL with fewer followers. In fact they can have more impacts and they take time to answer to their followers. It’s a good way for brands to attract a more affinitive target.

Meijia S, a fashion and food blogger is becoming more and more attracting for brands as she is still accessible. Omega recently invited her to its events and she posted on her blog pictures of her with an Omega watch.

Use an influencer is an excellent strategy in China; however, brands must choose them with more attention. Popularity is a good thing but it’s not everything. Brands must choose someone who is faithful to their image and style to make it consistent and to be credible.

But you don’t only have to focus on KOL in order to build a strong digital presence in China. The best thing your brand will need is to use all the tools available in the Chinese market in order to increase your brand awareness and become well-known.