Currently, Internet world surprises us with anything and it’s just a matter of discovery. Whether we like it or not, there’s a growing popularity in trends and people have that need to be THERE.
TikTok happened.
TikTok is an app where users can upload videos and watch them in a span of 15 seconds to 10 minutes. Videos here are either entertaining, spontaneous, and genuine of course. But just like all platforms, TikTok also entered the world of business. Major question is, how do viewers adapt to this evolving popularity?
How do local brands survive it?
The emergence of short-video content was popularized to cure boredom during the pandemic, and as the world opens up lately, content similar to this is growing.
According to Hubspot, the Marketing strategies that emerged during the pandemic revolve around content marketing, SEO marketing, and AI Automation Trends. Brands make sure they retain or enhance their brand positioning as their credibility and voice rely on how the audience perceives them. Therefore, their marketing strategy heavily relies on increasing brand awareness, increasing brand retention, and increasing conversion. According to a magazine editor, Alyssa Hirose, TikTok has gained a lot of popularity for many teens and the app has a profound impact on sound and culture in the modern world — and savvy businesses everywhere who want to get in on the action through TikTok marketing.
With Tiktok, followers have less bearing compared to the engagement with the target audience. Researcher Kushaan Shah developed the PIRANHA Framework, to guide small to large businesses in utilizing content patterns that thrive in TikTok:
- Practical — Useful, brings a general utility to the table
- Influencer — Uses a big name to drive momentum
- Repackaged — Low-lift, repackaged and thrown on the platform
- Affective — Drives an emotional chord or impacts mood
- Neural Sensory — Drives light euphoria and tingles the physical senses
- Hushed — Shows behind the scenes or exclusive access
- Active — Interactive and gets users to react and respond
In the Philippines, there are also brands who aced the TikTok industry. One thing we know for sure: TikTok is changing the game when it comes to marketing and it is surely the platform where small business owners connect to their target consumers. Some of the famous local brands here in the Philippines who survived TikTok include Charlotte Folk, GRWM Cosmetics, Issy And Co. Cosmetics, CCLand World Of Sweets, and many more that people may have heard of.
TikTok is a marketing tool used by huge brands with big budgets– TRUE, but it is also true that small brands can also win and have their leverage here too. You don’t have to possess substantial marketing budgets to reach clients on TikTok. Sometimes even organic promotion is enough without investing much into TikTok ads. You should only know some hints. TikTok generally prioritizes the users’ location and language when showing them content on the For You page or FYP. You have probably noticed that watching videos from other countries is quite complicated unless they are super viral.
With the right location tagging, a couple of influencers, small budget and targeted settings, and knowing the time WHEN to post stuff where your target audience is most active– you’re hitting the jackpot. There is an on-going dedication to the country’s homegrown local brands in which people are most delighted to have. Aside from easy, it’s a less-hassle process considering the things you need are on the screen.
CONCLUSION
Content that strives on TikTok shows inspiration, and authenticity (a growing trend across social media for brands). According to a Social Media consultant, Alison Battisby, many TikTok users prefer to see raw and truthful angles, unlike on Instagram where the style of most videos and images has evolved to be more perfectly polished, and, some might say, less authentic. The shops are everywhere, people find TikTok an amazing platform to start to, business owners come to their consumers as much as they want to, and brands thrive in this specialty: authenticity.
The local brands that thrive here on TikTok make sure that the content they publish is ENTERTAINING, AUTHENTIC, and INFORMATIVE– and this is how you appeal to the masses.
