WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN KOL AND KOC? A GUIDE TO DEFINITION, COOPERATION BENEFITS AND OPERATIONAL STRATEGIES | PROJECT CONSULTING SERVICES
Nowadays, brands tend to invite KOLs and KOCs for collaborating promotions, boosting shopping behaviors through the impact of Influencers and Opinion Leaders. From the previous project experiences, besides collaborating with macro influencers, AsiaKOL discovers the important influence of KOCs. Both KOC and KOL are concepts expanded from the original word “influencer” in other countries. All of them can help increase brand awareness and its impact on consumers. This article will provide the differences between influencers, KOLs and KOCs, the size and the useful marketing strategies.
1. What Are Influencer/KOL/KOC? Deep Insight Into The Definitions And Differences
Speaking of definition, most people wonder what the differences between KOLs, KOCs and Influencers are. Here are the answers:
(1) KOL：
KOL (Key Opinion Leader) is defined as someone authoritative, professional and well-known in a specific field. A KOL’s speech can influence the buying decisions of followers.
(2) KOC：
KOC (Key Opinion Consumer) is defined as someone who can influence the consumer behavior of his/her friends or followers. Differing from the common “macro-influencer/KOL”, KOCs only have a small number of followers. However, their interaction rate is high, and the content they share is closer and more life-like to netizens. Due to the small number of followers and target audiences, brands normally can cooperate with KOCs at a lower price.
(3) Influencer:
An influencer is defined as someone famous for his/her comments on the internet, news and blogs. As social media is booming, influencers usually refer to people who have more followers on social media.
The classification of influencers can be divided into mega influencers, macro influencers, mid-tier influencers, small-tier influencers, micro-influencers, and nano influencers. This is mainly based on the number of followers, with the standards including 1 million, 500 thousand, 100 thousand, 50 thousand, 10 thousand and 1 thousand followers.
2. The Differences Between KOLs And KOCs?
The differences between KOLs and KOCs include follower base, interaction and loyalty, influence, content and cooperation fees. The former has a larger number of followers, which can provide brands and their products with positive exposure results. But because of this, there is often a sense of distance between KOLs and their followers. KOLs even give people a strong feeling of commerce. While the interaction between KOCs and followers is quite close, with a high interaction rate and loyalty along with a friendly image and reasonable cooperation fees, KOCs can easily influence followers’ buying decisions and increase the conversion rate of the products.
3. The Marketing Benefits Of KOLs/KOCs
(1) Cooperation Benefits Of KOLs
■ Benefit 1: Increase Exposure And Brand Awareness In A Short Time
Due to the large number of followers, the biggest benefit when cooperating with KOLs is increasing exposure and raising brand awareness in a short time. However, it depends on the interaction rate to boost sales or conversion effect.
■ Benefit 2: Professional And Authoritative Support
If KOLs in specific professional fields endorse a brand or product, it can usually increase the credibility of the product, help establish a connection between the brand and consumers, and promote better advertising effectiveness.
■ Benefit 3: Positive Image And Quality Add Point To Brand Favorability
Image and quality play important roles in brands’ assets. At this time, choosing to cooperate with KOLs that are consistent with the brand attributes and have a good image can quickly add points to the brand's favorability, thereby improving the brand's professional image.
(2) Cooperation Benefits Of KOCs
■ Benefit 1: Friendly And Real Consuming Experience
Recommendations made by KOCs normally are focused on real experiences but commercial content. Compared with KOL’s content, which has a heavy sense of commerce collaboration, consumers tend to believe the friendly KOCs and their real experience sharing.
■ Benefit 2: The Effectiveness Of Word-Of-Mouth Marketing
The audiences of KOCs usually have high stickiness and good interaction rates. They are easily impressed by KOC’s shared content, which in turn affects consumers’ purchasing decisions. Moreover, KOCs are known to be loyal fans of the brand themselves. Their sincere recommendations can effectively build word-of-mouth marketing.
■ Benefit 3: Low Cost Of Collaboration/High Cost-Effectiveness
Differing from macro-KOLs and KOLs, which have a higher number of followers, the collaboration cost of KOCs is relatively lower. Under the premise of a limited budget, with the collaboration fee of one KOL, brands can choose to collaborate with multiple KOCs to reach a more diverse audience in depth.
4. How To Choose The Suitable KOLs And KOCs?
Regarding the selection of KOLs and KOCs, brands can make decisions based on the following 4 evaluation criteria:
(1) The Interaction Rate And Stickiness Of Followers
Interaction rate and stickiness of followers are the first and foremost criteria in evaluating whether a KOL or KOC is worth the choice. No matter how many followers a KOL obtains, the key to a successful campaign lies in the interaction rate and stickiness. In fact, many micro-KOLs have better marketing effectiveness than macro-KOLs.
(2) Consistent With Brand Image/Concept
Besides the number of followers, it is recommended to consider the consistency of the KOLs/KOCs image and concept with the brands when selecting suitable influencers. Higher consistency with the brand image and concept can help increase marketing effectiveness and performance.
(3) Similar Target Audiences Can Effectively Increase Brand Resonance
A KOL whose target audience is similar to the target consumer group of the brand can help increase reach. At the very first, brands should select a KOL with a similar target audience and a large number of followers to play the pioneer role in the campaign. Then, in-depth product or service introductions provided by many KOCs can effectively increase brand resonance.
(4) Better To Choose The KOLs/KOCs Who Are The Loyal Users Of The Brands
In the final criteria, brands should consider choosing to collaborate with KOLs/KOCs who are originally their loyal users. They can create text or video content from a personal experience perspective, which can deeply hit potential consumers and reduce the commercial feeling in followers.
5. KOL x KOC Marketing Strategy
Step 1. Attract Wide Attention Through KOLs: The Traffic And Exposure
In the competitive market, KOLs with a large follower base play an important role in brand exposure. Collaborating with highly influential KOL in the early stage of a marketing campaign can reach a wider audience in a short time, effectively increasing brand awareness and product exposure.
Step 2. In-Depth Communication Through KOCs: Actual Impact On Consumer Behavior
KOCs can gain the trust of consumers when it comes to product recommendations. This can help establish an honest and influential image advantage for the brand. After inviting KOLs to promote product awareness, brands can collaborate with KOCs for in-depth communication, step by step building a foundation of good reputation and fostering followers to take action and buy.
With a limited budget, brands can consider collaborating with several KOCs to attract different audiences and enhance brand exposure. In contrast, combining KOL and KOC marketing in the strategy is recommended for those who have sufficient budget to achieve a better result.
6. KOL x KOC Marketing Solution
(1) AKBOX Giftbox Unboxing
Regarding product promotion, AsiaKOL recommends the Giftbox Unboxing Campaign. Differing from the imitation marketing methods that are too rigid, AsiaKOL can combine the products with KOL/KOC Unboxing to create interesting and eye-catching content, effectively attracting public attention, interest and purchasing motivations. This campaign can be customized based on the customer’s budget.
(2) Word-of-mouth Marketing For Small And Medium-Sized Customer
The so-called word-of-mouth marketing campaign is suitable for small and medium-sized customers, with KOC resources effectively applied. As the feedback from netizens gradually proves its role in the current market, new store owners, small and medium-sized customers need to actively foster word-of-mouth marketing to increase brand visibility. When they gather enough popularity, the business opportunities will naturally be enhanced. For instance, the Word-of-mouth Marketing For Small And Medium-Sized Customer Campaign launched by the platform Hashtager combined the KOC resources with 5 Important Advantages, helping brands gather positive feedback and create a new wave of potential customers.
7. Determine The Suitable KOLs And KOCs? Here You Are – The AsiaKOL
The rise of KOLs and KOCs has greatly changed the marketing strategy of brands. Influencer marketing may seem simple, even brands can find collaborators by themselves. However, to determine the most suitable influencers for later marketing efficiency tracking, there is a certain degree of challenge. By entrusting a professional influencer marketing company, brands can reduce the problem of information asymmetry and the cost of trial through an objective database.
With rich experience in KOL/KOC marketing, AsiaKOL can launch a collaboration with more than 100 KOCs at one time, helping brands to select the most suitable influencer. In the past, we assisted several famous brands in planning influencer marketing strategies, providing complete services to achieve the brand exposure target.
