In the fields of consumption and marketing, the keyword "new group" is one of the key points of attention in the industry. After all, the growth of new group has brought different intergenerational characteristics and consumption characteristics, which to a certain extent also affects the subsequent iteration direction of the product and the strategic layout of marketers. So, how to understand one type of new people - the new middle-class people? Let’s take a look at the author’s interpretation.
new population is one of the most commonly mentioned keywords in the entire consumer field.
New middle class is also the core high-frequency word. New intergenerational populations will bring new intergenerational preferences, consumption needs, consumption habits, and decision-making paths. Brands always need to return to the product itself, address new user needs, iterate products for new consumer pain points, and then achieve product-effectiveness integration and renew brand power.
The ladder media players represented by Xinchao Media are able to grow resiliently in the post-epidemic era because they are directly exposed to the new middle-class people with higher user value. The new middle-class people have higher consumption power and desire for consumption, and pay more attention to self-improvement and self-realization. They have formed the mainstay of today's new domestic brand consumer groups.
cares about the scale, growth rate and quality of the new middle-class team, and can also approximately capture the most dynamic side of the market in this era.
Recently, QuestMobile also released the "2022 New Middle-class Insight Report" (hereinafter referred to as the report). Based on this report, in addition to being able to see some of the existing characteristics of the new middle class, such as strong Internet access ability, focusing on improving knowledge and skills, focusing on financial management, loving to try new technology products, and being the core audience of automobile consumption, the community marketing institute has also found some interesting small details: this new middle class loves to settle in Chongqing/ Suzhou /Chengdu/Tianjin/Wuhan and other cities, and loves to browse/share expert content. "Pesticides, eating chicken, and brushing Douyin" has become the three major applications of online entertainment...
In consumption upgrade/consumption downgrade, has the new middle class grown as expected in recent years?
1. What kind of consumers are the new middle class?
age range, settlement city, and online consumption capacity outline the outline of the new middle class in this report.
html Between 125-40 years old, third-tier and above cities, the monthly online consumption capacity exceeds 1,000 yuan is the new middle class. According to this definition scope, QuestMobile has done user surveys for many years. The latest conclusion they came to this year is: this year, the proportion of new middle class people in the entire network has reached 13.7%, with a scale of 163 million, and has increased by 15.6% year-on-year; and if we look at the proportion of subdivided groups, in just one year, the proportion of new middle class people born in the 1990s increased from 41.8% to 45.7%, and the proportion of users who spend more than 3,000 yuan in the single month has increased from 14% to 16.4%.The above statistical characteristics are not difficult to understand: the post-90s generation is in a period of rapid growth in their careers, and is still far from the "35-year-old career ceiling" achieved by the Internet tacit understanding. It has more workplace and skills experience than the post-95s and post-00s generations. The top echelon of this group of people has already occupied the core management of the company. With the wallet becoming more popular and the online consumption habits are formed, they are willing to spend a higher level.
Overall, the new middle class has five major behavioral characteristics: relies more on the Internet to obtain information, loves to browse/share experts to grow grass/strategy/comments/good stuff content , mobile application comes standard with three major items "pesticides, chicken eating, and Douyin", which is generally moving towards the process of purchasing real estate/cars, and loves to settle down in new first-tier cities such as Chongqing/Suzhou/Chengdu/Tianjin/Wuhan.In terms of dimensions:
In terms of online access: the proportion of users in the active morning, the new middle-class people are generally about 20 percentage points higher than the entire network users, and the gap from 7:00 to 11:00 in the morning; in the active evening, the new middle-class people prefer to develop night owl habits after 22:00 in terms of interest preferences: active proportion of TGI (compared with other user groups), the new middle-class people love food (183)＞share (152)＞game (141)＞read (140)＞music (137); the active user scale (compared with the new middle-class people), expert content (76.3%)＞music (70.6%)＞short videos (66.7%)＞film and TV dramas /Variety Show (66.5%)>Share (65.7%);
In terms of application usage time, among the top 15 applications per month per day per person, King of the new middle class (126.8min)> Douyin (115.2min)> Peace Elite (112.6min)> NetEase News (107.4min)> Bilibili (103.3min), WeChat only ranks ninth (93.1min), the total time of short video applications reached nearly 500min, accounting for about 50% of the time of To15 application. Including medium and long videos, the total time of video applications reached 850min, accounting for about 90% of the time of To15 application.
translates the above data as follows: Compared with ordinary netizens, the new middle class is a group of more "get up early and go to bed late". Getting up early to browse news and information (and usually popular information collection apps like NetEase News). Staying up late to play games (usually pesticides and eating chicken) is a basic operation. It has become a normal life for fishing at work, taking a break from busyness, and swiping various medium and long videos at home to relieve anxiety at night.
These new middle-class users are more likely to share their personalities and class identity through niche hobbies in food, games, reading, music and social platforms. However, their loyal bodies prefer to use expert grass content, use NetEase Cloud Music emo/healing, use short videos/watch dramas to drive away boredom and loneliness.
Because more post-90s generations form the team of the new middle class, they are in their thirties, from relatives, friends, workplace and society to have various expectations. The burden of real estate/cars also comes as scheduled with age anxiety. These young middle class are more keen to settle down in new first-tier cities such as Chongqing/Suzhou/Chengdu/Tianjin/Wuhan, where living costs are lower but employment conditions are relatively mature.
2. How will the new middle class consume?
When it comes to the new middle class, it is inseparable from learning ability and planning ability. The significant manifestation of
's learning ability is that they love online more and are more proficient in finding information channels. According to this, they extend to the consumer field. The new middle class often shows great interest in emerging technology products, and it is easier to embrace new energy vehicles and new power automobile brands.
In terms of planning capabilities, the new middle class is generally not limited to the present, but pays more attention to delayed feedback and acquire medium and long-term knowledge and skills, and is eager to use this ability to achieve the preservation and appreciation of wealth in the financial field, and further consolidate its social class status.
In terms of learning ability, the new middle-class people show four major consumption characteristics: they love smart wearable devices more, are keen on discussing the meta universe, prefer smart small appliances with high appearance/black technology, prefer independent brands represented by Zekr, Xiaopeng , and Ideal and new car-making brands.
A very noteworthy phenomenon is that the niche smart device category, the new middle class will show greater interest than other types of users.
Smart Device Industry Major Sub-categories TGI shows that among the smart devices preferred by the new middle class: smart accessories (188) > smart health (170) > smart cars (155) > smart wearable (143) > smart home (137). But when facing traditional home appliances, the new middle class is more keen on well-known domestic brands, which is reflected in their attention to home appliance brands. Midea and Supor surpass other brands with 17.5% and 14.9% respectively.The contradiction of
seems easy to understand: home appliances are a very traditional industry, and the new middle class is willing to exchange brand premium for the reduction of decision-making costs, but there may not be mature big brands in the emerging technology field. The new middle class can gain stronger information acquisition capabilities and personal product insights to see the scenery of the peaks one step ahead. New energy vehicles may be such a field.
Recently, new energy vehicles are still changing rapidly. It may be out of place to talk about "Wei Xiaoli". Emerging brands such as Zekr and Tesla are emerging to grab share. Judging from the penetration rate of the smart car app to the new middle class in July this year, the top 10 applications in the smart car industry can generally achieve the new middle class: the penetration rate of the general user is twice, and the penetration rate of the Zekr and Xiaopeng reaches 284% and 254%. When looking at the user distribution in
, there will be obvious differences: for example, car owners who communicate with Ideal and NIO and potential car buyers are obviously more attractive to customers aged 25-30 and living in first-tier cities. This may be based on Ideal and NIO has opened official accounts on multiple platforms such as Weibo , Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, WeChat official accounts, etc., to establish multi-touch points for communication with users, maintain high reach while meeting users' needs for online car viewing.
. Online exposure also brings certain drainage to offline car watching test drives. It is no longer a new thing for landmark malls to open a special exhibition hall for new energy vehicles on the first floor of the mall. Car buyers can experience the image of a three-dimensional brand car company from car design to technology experience, which is something traditional car companies cannot do. An important trend of
is that online is not only a treasure land for price comparison and brand viewing, but also creating an atmosphere of online experience is becoming more and more important.
New middle class pays more attention to experience in online shopping, which is reflected in the fact that its TGI (compared to other user groups) pays attention to experience (112%) than its attention to price (111%), brand (110%), and quality (106%). In order to improve the user's experience, the importance of content platforms has become increasingly important. In addition to Douyin, the new middle class has significantly increased its usage time for B station and Xiaohongshu , with an increase of 17.1% and 107.8% year-on-year respectively.
For example, in the automotive field, the kol that the new middle class pays the most attention to include Xuehaojie, Monkey Brother Talks about Cars, Piyou, the leader of the safety officer, and the old car world. The number of fans active in July this year reached 17.26 million, 16.83 million, 13.06 million, 12.38 million, and 11.68 million respectively.
It is not difficult to find that the shopping experience has spread from offline to online, and brands need to form multiple touchpoints to communicate with consumers across the region. The prosperity of the
content platform has created this an era of experts contending. Experts all want to create their own personal IP and personality. Today's new middle class loves to obtain "insider" information from trusted experts to make further decisions.
As time goes by, the new middle class will gradually grow, but personality and class identity make it point to the division of interests and the cognitive separation of information channels. Experts may play a role like ladder media - brands that are engraved into consumers' minds before making decisions, so as to dominate consumers' decisions.
Source public account: Community Marketing Research Institute (ID: Community_Marketing), Insight into Community Consumption
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