Key Opinion Leaders’ Influences in the Chinese Fashion Market

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 to dominate the fashion industry market. In this study, the phenomenon of KOL marketing in the Chinese fashion industry is analysed based on the development of web celebrities’ economy, media celebrity economic chain, as well as media celebrity commercial value.

SNA (Social Network Analysis) methodology was chosen to analyse the current KOL marketing in China based on the data collected by four Chinese databases, including Tencent Data Lab, China Internet Network Information Center, Hualizhi and Jingdong Finacial Research Institute. Besides, focus group interviews were conducted to gain further insight via qualitative analysis. Data were then visualised and measured to generate suggestions on the application of KOL in terms of image promotion, fashion marketing strategies and promotion methods.