Double-Digit Sale Trend: the 9.9, 10.10, 11.11, 12.12
A "shopping" phenomenon recently came about; which first sprouted from the original Chinese Singles' Day on the 11 November. Because of how the digit resembles 2 X solo, that's how you get singles and the day is generally used to celebrate singlehood. But Chinese online retail giant, Taobao, soon capitalised on this micro/sub/culture and turned it successfully to one hell of a shopping celebration (one that is record-breaking with Alibaba achieving a gross merchandise value (GMV) of over $30.8 billion in sales in the 24-hour). Sounds more profitable than Valentine's Day already.
I particularly like how this trend started from the East. And if you know about the East, double digits are great; symbolises prosperity, balance, fortune. There's this whole other cultural aspect to this.
Anyway, Singles' Day became the inspiration to other similar shopping events such as 9.9 (9 September), 10.10 (10 October). Not just the prerogative of retailers only, some finance brands attempted to ride the 10.10 wave too. Here are some examples that I've received in my mailbox. Marketers will do anything.
Zalora
HipVan
AXA
What are some of the interesting ones you've seen? I would love to hear from you.
But what I'm more interested in how subcultures are formed, how can businesses leverage on such opportunities and more importantly can businesses create subcultures? Would love to hear from the experts. I would also like to invite anyone interested in the topic of microcultures to collaborate on a research project with me.