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Key Opinion Leaders’ Influences in the Chinese Fashion Market

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Fashion Communication in the Digital Age (FACTUM 2019)

Abstract

With the continuous evolution of information and media technologies, Chinese users spend a large portion of their daily lives on social media sites/apps, such as WeChat, Sina Weibo and Tencent QQ. Through social media, KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) are of great importance for fashion designers and brands, in attempting to dominate the fashion industry market. In this study, the phenomenon of KOL marketing in the Chinese fashion industry is analyzed, based on the development of a web celebrities’ economy, a media celebrity economic chain, as well as media celebrity commercial value.

SNA (Social Network Analysis) methodology was chosen to analyze the current KOL marketing in China, based on the data collected from four Chinese databases, these being Tencent Data Lab, China Internet Network Information Center, Luxe.Co and Jingdong Financial Research Institute. In addition, focus group interviews were conducted, to gain further insight via qualitative analysis. Data were then considered and measured, to generate suggestions on the application of KOL in terms of image promotion, fashion marketing strategies and promotion methods.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southwest University, Chongqing, China

    Yushan Zou

  2. University of Canberra, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Fanke Peng

Authors
  1. Yushan Zou
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  2. Fanke Peng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fanke Peng .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Digital Technologies for Communication, USI – Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

    Nadzeya Kalbaska

  2. ISEM Fashion Business School, University of Navarra, Madrid, Spain

    Teresa Sádaba

  3. IREST/EIREST, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Francesca Cominelli

  4. Institute of Digital Technologies for Communication, USI – Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

    Lorenzo Cantoni

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Zou, Y., Peng, F. (2019). Key Opinion Leaders’ Influences in the Chinese Fashion Market. In: Kalbaska, N., Sádaba, T., Cominelli, F., Cantoni, L. (eds) Fashion Communication in the Digital Age. FACTUM 2019. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15436-3_11

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