Emotional Marketing Strategy of Cotton Doll Industry Based on

Female Consumption Psychology

Shanqi Zhou

School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, 250100, Jinan, Shandong, China

Keywords: Communication Psychology, Cultural Industry, Integrated Marketing Communication.

Abstract: The cotton doll industry, a cultural sector predominantly driven by female consumers, has been growing in

recent years and has emerged as a new favorite in the trendy toy market. The study starts from the emotional

marketing theory to study the psychological motivation of women to buy cotton dolls. Firstly, semi-structured

interviews are conducted with players who have relatively rich experience in playing dolls, and then

questionnaire surveys are conducted based on the interviews to further explore the emotional marketing

strategy of the cotton doll industry in order to achieve better marketing effects. The study found that women

attach great importance to the emotional experience brought by cotton dolls, including seeing them as

emotional support, life companion, or finding self-identity through interacting with the dolls. Therefore, the

cotton doll industry needs to carry out emotional marketing at the level of the whole industrial chain to meet

the psychological needs of women for cotton dolls in terms of companionship and socialisation, so as to attract

and retain more female customers.

1 INTRODUCTION

Around 2019, accompanied by the domestic trendy

play industry hot heating, the cotton doll industry

ushered in the rapid development. Starting in the

second half of 2020, Weibo super topic ‘cotton beauty

doll’ has long occupied the top of the list of ‘trendy

toys’ category. By the end of 2021, this super topic

was nearly two million posts, the number of readings

exceeded ten billion, and the number of notes related

to cotton dolls on Xiaohongshu also reached 1.58

million+. According to the data released by Youshop,

the head e-commerce platform of cotton dolls, the

online turnover of cotton dolls has exceeded 1 billion

yuan in 2021, and has grown at an average annual rate

of 15% over the past five years.

More than 98% of cotton doll players are women,

but the marketing strategy of the cotton doll industry

fails to focus on women's needs, and there are fewer

studies on women's consumption psychology in the

past. Therefore, this study starts from the aspects that

the cotton doll industry meets women's psychological

needs, and how these consumption psychology can

provide insights for the emotional marketing strategy

of the cotton doll industry. The study uses semi-

structured interviews and questionnaires to ensure the

validity and reliability of the study from both

qualitative and quantitative aspects, taking into

account the breadth and reliability of the data. The

study not only provides an empirical basis for

understanding the consumption patterns of female

consumers but also provides useful references for the

formulation of marketing strategies of the cultural

industry targeting the female market.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Emotional marketing was initially proposed by

Professor Barry Feig of the United States, who

believed that consumers' emotional needs should be

stimulated to trigger their spiritual resonance and form

purchasing behaviour and brand loyalty (Kim et al.,

2009). There are two main directions of research on

emotional marketing at home and abroad. One is to

study the content and mode of emotional marketing

itself. Li Jin believes that emotional marketing is a

marketing method that sells products to meet the

psychological needs of consumers. On the other hand,

it is the study of its use in branding, such as Brand

Design Emotional Marketing Research--Taking Coca-

Cola as an Example published by Qin Yuanyuan.

However, most of the studies still adopt the single-

case study method, which lacks the consumer

Zhou, S.

Emotional Marketing Strategy of Cotton Doll Industry Based on Female Consumption Psychology.

DOI: 10.5220/0014111700004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 239-244

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

239

perspective and does not explore what emotional

marketing tactics are more useful (Pathak & Pathak-

Shelat, 2017).

At the same time, the author searched for related

materials on China Knowledge Network with ‘female

consumption psychology’ as the search keyword, and

counted a total of 326 papers, among which, Lv

Haiping and others believe that female consumption

psychology has the characteristics of emphasis on

intuitive effect, easy to be influenced by emotions, and

focusing on the convenience of using and purchasing,

etc. (Lv et al, 2008). Su Shiwei believes that women's

cultural background and cognitive differences will

affect their consumption psychology (Millet, 2008).

3 RESEARCH METHODS

3.1 Semi-Structured Interview

In this study, 23 eligible cotton doll players were

selected for interviews through purposive sampling

and snowball sampling. The interviewees were

between 16 and 25 years old and have rich experience

in purchasing and playing cotton dolls. The

interviews were used to understand the psychological

motives behind their purchasing behaviour, to

provide variables for questionnaire design, and to

further analyse the means of emotional marketing to

women.

3.2 Questionnaire Survey Method

The survey questionnaire targeting the consumption

psychology of female cotton doll consumers was

designed based on the conclusions drawn from

interviews and by referencing the established scales

of previous researchers. The questionnaire was

distributed through online channels from 22

November 2024, and the collection time lasted for 12

days, with a total of 133 questionnaires recovered, of

which 133 were valid, with a valid recovery rate of

100%.

In terms of questionnaire content design, the

questionnaire consists of four parts, the first part,

using the Definitive Category Scale method to design

measurement options for the user characteristics of

the research object; the second part uses Likert scale

to design measurement options for the three aspects

derived from interviews - emotional experience,

social needs, and perception of added value; the third

part uses Likert scale to The third part uses a Likert

scale to assess the audience's acceptance of certain

emotional marketing tools.

4 EMPIRICAL STUDY OF

FEMALE CONSUMER

PSYCHOLOGY

4.1 Semi-Structured Interview

This study adopts the affinity diagram method to

summarise the interview data and extract key

information about female cotton doll consumption

psychology (Table 1). Through the interview data,

this study classifies female cotton doll consumption

psychology into three aspects: emotional experience,

social needs, and perception of added value. The

specific analysis results are as follows (Zhou, 2024).

4.1.1 Emotional Experience

With the diversification of society and culture, the

‘new women's group’ in the pursuit of emotional

satisfaction shows a more delicate and multi-

dimensional face, they particularly value the

emotional experience contained in the purchase of

cotton dolls, which covers a variety of dimensions,

including emotional support, life companion, self-

identity, motherhood projection, and acquisition of a

sense of achievement. Specifically, women tend to

regard cotton dolls as the solace of the soul, that

cotton dolls can help them relieve their personal daily

life troubles, at the same time, the ‘prototype’

characters of cotton dolls and characters of emotional

support is also an important aspect. In addition, cotton

dolls are also indispensable companions for female

players when they are happy or sad. In the dimension

of self-identity, by customising or purchasing cotton

dolls that meet their personal preferences, women not

only express their unique personalities and aesthetics,

but also identify themselves with their innocence,

gentleness, and loveliness, which further strengthens

the construction of their self-image (Long, 2023).

Moreover, many women experience a sense of

responsibility and satisfaction similar to that of

motherhood in taking care of their dolls, which not

only deepens their love for their dolls, but also brings

an unprecedented sense of achievement (Chen & Xu,

2023).

4.1.2 Impact of Social Demands and Media

Interactions

As the main consumer who is keen on expression and

sharing, the female group is often highly interested in

cotton dolls that can enhance social interaction. From

the perspective of social demand, women are

influenced by the herd mentality, and the fact that

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people around them own cotton dolls will make them

eager to join the trend, while the recommendation of

friends or communities is also a strong catalyst for

purchase. From the perspective of media interaction,

when women frequently swipe cotton dolls

‘recommendation posts or videos on social media and

actively participate in the interaction of cotton dolls’

related communities, it will deepen their love for the

dolls and greatly increase their purchase intention (Li,

2024). Finally, it is worth noting that the relatively

closed and slightly exclusive nature of the Cotton Doll

circle, a characteristic that rather enhances the sense

of belonging and stickiness of the inner members,

makes women within the circle more willing to

purchase Cotton Dolls in order to integrate and

maintain this unique social atmosphere (Sun, 2022).

4.1.3 Perception of Added Value

Added value refers to the extra value or utility that

consumers or users feel for a product or service

beyond its basic function or use, and this extra value

may come from a variety of aspects, such as product

design, quality, branding, service, emotional

connection, and personalised experience. Out of the

common psychology, the cotton doll industry to

improve customer perception of added value can

increase the willingness of women to buy. When it

comes to which value-added services can increase the

willingness to buy, 20 respondents chose the after-

sales service of ‘free cleaning’, and 18 respondents

thought that ‘giving away cotton doll clothes and

accessories’ would also be appealing to them. In

terms of after-sales service, in addition to practical

after-sales services such as ‘rua tutorials’ (kneading

the doll's body and face to move the cotton to make it

fuller and more adorable), after-sales services with a

sense of emotion are also popular among female

consumers.

4.1.4 Although Deeply Tied to the

‘Prototype’, the Cotton Doll Is

‘Independent’

Another very special point is that for some of the

cotton dolls with attributes, female consumers have

different ways of viewing them: as prototype itself, as

a child born of oneself and prototype, and as one's

own child with prototypeal attributes. This shows that

cotton dolls with attributes are deeply bound to their

prototypes, and most of the women who purchased

cotton dolls with attributes also believe that ‘the

similarity between cotton dolls and their prototypes’

is positively related to their willingness to purchase.

This shows that as a product of the fan economy, the

character attributes and story backgrounds behind the

cotton dolls are particularly important. However,

even though cotton dolls are tied to their ‘prototype,’

when asked if the disappointment of the prototypes

affects your feelings towards the cotton dolls, all the

respondents said ‘no.’ This reflects the fact that the

time, material, and emotional investment women

make in the dolls themselves makes dolls somewhat

separate from the ‘prototypeal characters’ or even be

a living, independent entity in women's minds.

Table 1: Analysis of Consumer Psychology and Derivation

of Emotional Marketing Tactics.

Code

Level 1

Generalisation of Raw

Interview Data

Derivation of

Emotional

Marketing

Tactics

Emotional

experience

Emotional sustenance,

Emotional value,

Prototype character,

Psychological stress,

Companionship,

Childhood, Children,

Contentment

Focuse on

emotional

experiences for

emotional

marketing

Social

demands

and media

interactions

Video, Community,

Friends, Group Chat,

Referrals

Use community

attributes for

emotional

marketing

Perception

of added

value

Gift, Free,

Customisation, After-

sales

Increase

perception of

added value

The basic theoretical model framework of this

study is proposed based on the current state of

research on emotional marketing strategies and the

results of the interviews (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Theoretical Model Framework

The model highlights the importance of emotional

marketing, and clarifies the process by which it

influences female consumer behaviour, i.e. satisfying

female psychological motivations by satisfying their

emotional experience, social needs and perception of

Emotional Marketing Strategy of Cotton Doll Industry Based on Female Consumption Psychology

241

added value, thereby stimulating their willingness to

buy. The model can help the cotton doll industry use

emotional marketing strategies more specifically and

precisely to cater for the psychological needs of

female consumers.

4.2 Questionnaire Survey Method

The questionnaire was divided into three parts:

motivation to buy cotton dolls, female consumer

psychology, and acceptance of emotional marketing

tactics, and the options for each part of the question

were on a five-point Likert scale, with options ranging

from 1=‘strongly disagree’, 2=‘disagree’, 3=‘not

necessarily’, 4=‘agree’, 5=‘strongly agree’, and

6=‘agree’. ‘not necessarily’, 4=‘agree’, and

5=‘strongly agree’.

The results show that more than seventy percent

(78.95%) of women said that the quality of the

material of the cotton doll is very important in the

purchase, and nearly ninety percent (88.72%) think

that the attributes of the doll are very important. It can

be seen that the cotton doll purchase motivation, the

doll attributes that cotton dolls whether it is a favourite

IP or character and image fit the preferred conditions

for women to buy, reflecting the cotton doll is a strong

binding with the attributes of the tide of play category,

its added value and popularity depends mainly on its

linkage and representative of the IP or character, and

the quality of the material, the design and style as the

second and third considerations, reflecting the

pragmatic tendency of women's consumer

psychology. The quality of material and design style

are the second and third considerations, reflecting the

pragmatic tendency of women's consumption

psychology.

In addition, women buy cotton dolls out of

emotional experience of the consumer psychology of

the mean value is above 3.5, that is, the overall more

agreeable; social needs, social interaction affects the

willingness to buy related to the question item mean

value is relatively low, 3.5 or so, the video

communication and media interaction, the community

economy related effects mean value is relatively high,

more than 4; added value perception of gifts and after-

sales service mean value of more than 4, that is,

relatively agreeable. i.e., relatively agreeable. It can be

seen that the emotional experience is the variable with

the strongest positive correlation with women's

willingness to buy, and the community economy

effect on women's consumption psychology is also

more significant, in the community economy, there

are members within the circle who have the same

interest in the same product and the same value

orientation, which establishes a high degree of trust

and a sense of belonging, thus increasing their

willingness to buy something, and at the same time,

the norms and exclusivity within the circle also help

to maintain the purity and stability of the community,

which further enhances the purchasing power of

internal members.

5 IMPLICATIONS

5.1 Cotton Doll Industry Overview

Cotton doll industry has a more complete industrial

chain, only the upstream, midstream and downstream

of the various subjects work together in the emotional

marketing strategy, in order to promote the

continuous development of the industry (Ding, 2023).

Designers are responsible for the design of cotton

dolls, including character setting, image design, and

integration of emotional elements, manufacturers are

responsible for the production of cotton dolls, and the

marketing team is responsible for the promotion and

marketing of cotton dolls, including branding,

emotional marketing, and event planning. Each

subject in the industry chain jointly implements the

emotional impact strategy to maximise the

effectiveness of the strategy (Figure 2).

5.2 Emotional Marketing Strategies for

Each Subject

5.2.1 Product Design and Manufacturing

Carry out emotional design, through the cute version

and expression, unique dress up, highlighting the dual

value of cotton dolls accompaniment and collection,

catering to the aesthetics of female consumers.

Conduct crossovers between cotton dolls and popular

anime, games, films, television dramas or celebrities.

These dolls are designed with extra attention to the

similarity between the cotton dolls and the prototypal

characters and try to recreate the characters

themselves in expression. Soft, skin-friendly

materials and fillers are made of high-quality cotton

to ensure a soft feel and meet the needs of female

consumers who use cotton dolls as a life companion

(often cuddling cotton dolls).

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Figure 2: Cotton Doll Industry Chain.

5.2.2 Sales Promotion

Use social media platforms (KOL) to publish cotton

doll-related news or videos, including cotton doll care

methods, baby clothes show, unboxing video, DIY

transformation and other practical teaching and

situational drama, cotton dolls dancing, talking and

other emotionally oriented video, to meet the dual

needs of consumers. Through lucky draws, sunshine

contests and other online activities to encourage

consumers to share their cotton dolls and child rearing

experience, providing them with a platform to

showcase their hobbies and at the same time allow

them to find like-minded friends in the community,

enhance their sense of identity as cotton doll players,

meet their sharing and social needs, form a word-of-

mouth effect, and expand the scope of dissemination.

Cotton dolls with attributes are the main segment

of the cotton doll market, so communicating the story

of the ‘prototype’ behind the dolls is more effective

in attracting female consumers who like this

prorotype. The doll without attributes, you can touch

the hearts of consumers through touching stories

between cotton dolls and players, increasing the

emotional added value of the product. The story

content can emphasise the cotton dolls and female

self-identity of the association, to strengthen its

inspiration of female motherhood identity of the

lovely qualities, or will buy the care of cotton dolls

female consumer brave pursuit of self, to achieve self-

worth linked to the dissemination of positive values.

Create official communities, such as Wechat

group, QQ group, Weibo super topic, etc., regularly

release product information, activity previews and

community benefits, enhance the sense of belonging

of users, encourage users to share their own child-

rearing experience, stories and ideas, and form a

positive and upward community atmosphere. Use the

community effect to enhance internal stickiness. For

example, setting up a membership system, shaping

community culture, etc., but also pay attention to

actively accepting new members and lowering the

threshold of entry while maintaining the

characteristics of the community.

Enhance the sense of added value for consumers

by launching character-related peripheral products

(e.g. cotton dolls’ clothes, accessories, etc.) or setting

up exclusive after-sales service points or online

booking platforms to provide consumers with free

cotton changing and cleaning services. Provide

personalised customisation services to meet unique

needs, providing an online customisation platform

that allows consumers to choose the doll's skin

colour, hairstyle, eye colour, clothing and other

details according to their personal preferences, which

can be customised or embroidered with player-

exclusive embroidery based on the photos provided

by the consumer to create a unique cotton doll.

Adding vocal cords or an electronic pulse to a cotton

doll satisfies the female consumer's sensual need to

see the doll as a real living child.

6 CONCLUSION

The findings of this study are that the psychological

motivation of female cotton doll players to buy cotton

dolls has three aspects: emotional experience, social

needs and perception of added value, so the cotton

doll industry needs to carry out emotional marketing

from the whole industry chain for these three aspects

in order to achieve better sales results. The study

provides a useful reference for the operation

mechanism of emotional marketing, and future

Emotional Marketing Strategy of Cotton Doll Industry Based on Female Consumption Psychology

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research can focus more on the audience side to

explore more efficient marketing tactics.

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