Emotional consumption becomes a fashion hotspot
During the exam season, emotional consumption has become a fashion hotspot. Data shows that the sales of cheongsam on Taobao have skyrocketed recently, implying a "successful start". At the Taobao College Entrance Examination Cheer event, Sinopec launched a "College Entrance Examination Cheer Package" for eight oil and gas fields, and nearly 5,000 people bought it within a week. After consumers spend 1 cent to place an order, the "automatic delivery" will start immediately, and the selected oil and gas field will start to cheer and encourage the designated person.
Not only "College Entrance Examination Cheer Packs", but also "emotional tree holes", "wake-up calls and coaxing to sleep", "breakup comfort", "decompression toys" and other emotional consumer goods are now in great variety. New consumer concepts, new phenomena and new trends that pay for emotional value are constantly creating new consumption scenarios and evolving into new consumption momentum. The "Annual Report on the Protection of Chinese Consumer Rights and Interests" recently released by the China Consumers Association pointed out that in 2024, in addition to pursuing cost-effectiveness, emotional release will become an important factor affecting the decision-making of the younger generation of consumers, and is expected to create a new consumption hotspot in the future.
Spend a little money to buy happiness, the emotional value potential is huge. Today's young people live a fast-paced life, with great pressure in their careers and studies, and often have negative emotions such as anxiety and depression. The functions of emotional consumption such as quick decompression, relaxation and healing have become a rigid demand for a generation.
How can we seize the gold mine of emotional consumption and create a new consumption model that heals people's hearts?
Make good use of scientific and technological resources to provide high-quality and low-cost products. The younger generation is the natives of the digital age, has a good acceptance of virtual goods, and is a fan of digital consumption. Merchants can use new means and platforms such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, smart sports, and online marketing, combined with their own resource endowments, to explore high-quality service scenarios and promote the innovation and quality improvement of emotional consumption products. For example, traditional psychologists charge high fees and require prior appointments, while "AI psychological companions" can provide intelligent psychological counseling and improve negative emotions online 24 hours a day, providing safe, cheap, and convenient emotional companionship and counseling services.
Strictly adhere to the bottom line of safety and guard against legal and ethical risks. Emotional consumption also has risks. For example, some virtual emotional products play the "edge ball" of law and morality, spread pornography, gambling and drugs through vulgar products, and even cause some consumers to indulge in false emotions and cannot extricate themselves, affecting their real life. In this regard, consumer management departments should strengthen supervision, improve consumer experience, guide rational consumption, and work together through system improvement, guidance, and social supervision to strengthen the protection of consumers' personal dignity, emotional sustenance and other spiritual interests in consumption activities.
Improve relevant laws and regulations, and pay attention to user privacy protection. Emotional consumer goods are special and closely related to individual private information. Typical emotional consumption such as "emotional tree holes" and "scolding to wake up the love brain" involve a lot of personal privacy, so it is necessary to further improve relevant laws and regulations on data protection. How to standardize industry standards, how to determine service access standards, and how to handle disputes all require standardization and supervision to ensure that the value of data is used safely, reasonably, and legally, and to ensure the legal rights and privacy of users.
In addition to virtual goods, many traditional physical and experiential consumptions that contain emotional consumption components have become new consumption hotspots because they meet the psychological needs of young people, such as Hanfu, cooking tea around the stove, and "Village BA". In short, emotions, as a new consumption power, not only affect consumers' decisions, but also reshape consumption patterns. For this new hot spot of emotional consumption, we must be tolerant and respectful, as well as supervise and guide it, so that emotional consumption can develop in a healthy, orderly and vigorous manner.
