Mohan Lin

Degree Show 2024

Mohan Lin

BA Fashion Marketing

My name is Mohan Lin and I am from China. Through my three years at university, I have not only gained knowledge in fashion trends and marketing, but also in graphic design. And I have strengthened my skills through constant practice. In my final year, I created ‘Zenithpause’, a brand focusing on menopausal women in China. Zenithpause is a brand for menopausal women, aiming to help them pass through the menopause in a smooth manner through an alternative to medication. By boosting the confidence and courage of menopausal women, it enables them to take the initiative to find a life that suits them. Zenithpause fills this gap as there is currently a lack of brands for menopausal women in the Chinese market. The brand’s services help women improve their quality of life and reduce the side effects of medication through exercise, diet and herbal medicine, and Zenithpause aims to create a wellness community with a combination of traditional Chinese culture and natural therapies.

The age at which menopausal women in China experience menopausal symptoms is much lower than in other countries, but most of them choose to endure it. This result is mainly due to the lack of education of Chinese women in this area, which leads to their negative attitude towards menopause. In addition, 83% of women reported that they were unable to find a way to cope with their menopausal symptoms. However, there are also women who are looking for a suitable programme for their menopause and their need is a personalised approach to improve their physical, mental and emotional health. And a review of the apps currently available in the Chinese market for the relief of menopausal symptoms reveals that there is only one app in China that records menopausal symptoms.

Zenithpause offers products and services in the form of apps. Users start by assessing themselves and completing a questionnaire (covering physical symptoms, emotional states and lifestyle habits) to check their status and preferences. The brand includes a TCM section (e.g., herbal medicine, massage), an exercise section (e.g., yoga, meditation) and a diet section (e.g., dietary advice). Each section will generate personalised recommendations based on the user’s assessment, which will be linked to their specific symptoms and lifestyle. The brand will also recommend the Communication Centre section for users with high levels of loneliness, encouraging users to talk and communicate with each other. Brand also will hold regular expert and user networking events.

An increasing number of Gen M women believe that current adverts do not truly reflect their lives and believe that advertising signposting, marketing and consumer experience should be improved. Meanwhile, as Chinese consumers are highly engaged on social media platforms and mini-dramas in social media not only resonate emotionally with consumers, but also have the advantage of simple main themes and close character relationships. Therefore, it is profitable for brands to promote and market their brands through mini-dramas, and they can bring awareness to consumers.

On the other hand, most Chinese women in menopause love social activities. This is because social activities not only allow them to increase communication among themselves, but also relieve their anxiety about symptoms. Therefore, brands can promote consumers’ awareness of the brand by providing regular offline social activities, and it can also be a good way to build the relationship between the brand and customers and increase the impact of word-of-mouth marketing. Menopausal women develop a fear and doubtful mindset towards menopause, thus they crave for education and help that can help them with menopause.

Therefore, setting up expert seminars not only allows the brand’s team of experts to gain trust in consumers’ minds, but also realises the brand’s value by giving consumers the opportunity to positively face the natural physiological changes that exist in their bodies through the seminars. More so, as the brand region is set in China, the cultural issues in China cause women to place extreme value on their husbands and families, and the negative influence they bring to menopausal women can largely exacerbate menopausal symptoms. Therefore, the brand’s offline campaign encourages menopausal women to bring their husbands or family members along. The aim of the campaign is to make family members less prejudiced about menopause and to learn how to help menopausal women through the menopausal stage.