When the boss walks into the live broadcast room: the "traffic code" of local life and the road to "brand building"

Driven by the wave of digitalization, the marketing methods of the local life industry are undergoing a profound transformation. Business owners have entered the live broadcast room, not only to boost sales, but also to comprehensively upgrade marketing strategies, reshape brand image, and strengthen user stickiness. This article will deeply explore the "traffic code" and "brand building" behind this phenomenon.

The bosses entering the live broadcast room in large numbers are not only to boost sales, but also to comprehensively upgrade the marketing methods and find a new path for companies to reshape their brands, strengthen user stickiness, and embrace digitalization.

This is the result of Hao A Niang's Fresh-cut Beef Hotpot Buffet on October 1st. With competition in the catering industry becoming increasingly fierce today, such performance is truly commendable.

When recalling this live broadcast, founder Li Xiaoguang concluded that the boss personally appeared on Douyin's "The Boss Is Here" event, distributing coupons and interacting with consumers to bring benefits to people across the country. The greater significance of this link lies in the function of a "credential of trust", which allows everyone to feel that it is a brand with flesh and blood.

In fact, in recent times, more and more local store owners have entered the live broadcast room, scenes of "boss airdropping" have appeared frequently, and various "boss welfare specials" have become a popular means to attract consumers.

Li Xiaoguang, founder of Hao Aniang Hotpot

In these live broadcast rooms, there are celebrities like Wang Xiaofei, the boss of Ma Liu Ji, who has his own trending searches, the boss of Shuizhuyu, who has started more than a dozen businesses, the president of a foreign cosmetics brand, and the bosses of regional retail companies such as Weihai Zhenhua and New Era. Their presence not only makes the atmosphere of the live broadcast room more lively, but also significantly increases the number of viewers and fan interactions.

Is this "boss live streaming craze" an active choice to adapt to the development of the industry, or a helpless exploration under the pressure of competition? The rise of this craze may be revealing new opportunities and new directions for the local life industry.

1. The boss’s departure brings traffic to the forefront

The boss personally participating in the live broadcast is becoming a new tool for attracting traffic to the local life industry.

Take Jialeyuan in Xingtai, Hebei Province as an example. As early as 2020, they began to test the waters of live streaming, led by the second-generation founder Liao Qingchuan. During the 25th anniversary celebration this year, all the executives of Jialeyuan walked into the Douyin "Boss Arrives" live broadcast room and directly sold more than 2.4 million, taking the first place in the national shopping mall list.

Today, Jialeyuan has deployed 22 POIs (5 supermarkets and 17 shopping malls) on Douyin, and more than 1,500 employees have linked their live broadcast accounts. Live broadcasting has become a part of daily operations. However, the success of Jialeyuan is not only due to the innovation of live broadcasting format, but more importantly, the blessing of the "boss IP".

Liao Qingchuan in the live broadcast room (left); Liao Qingchuan's Douyin account (right)

Before trying the boss live broadcast, Liao Qingchuan first used his own Douyin account to "test the waters". By sharing his daily life and joking with his father, he accumulated more than 100,000 fans, laying the foundation for corporate live broadcast. At the same time, he summed up a core principle: words and deeds are consistent. Although deliberately creating a false personality in the live broadcast may attract traffic at first, once discovered by consumers, the brand's trust will collapse.

Building trust through the “boss’ personal IP” is the key logic of local life boss live broadcasts.

Unlike traditional e-commerce live streaming, local life live streaming is not just about selling goods online, it also needs to be combined with the actual offline experience. From order placement to logistics delivery, the entire process of e-commerce live streaming is completed online, and consumers do not need to leave their homes. Local life live streaming combines online and offline, and the three links of live display, user ordering, and offline consumption are indispensable.

In particular, offline consumption is the core of local life live broadcasting. Whether it is dining in a restaurant using experience coupons, entertainment, or the experience of supermarkets and shopping malls, it ultimately depends on offline physical stores to complete the service.

Because of this, local life bosses need to be more authentic, down-to-earth, and have a bit of "fireworks". In the live broadcast room, they are talkative and casual, interacting with consumers in a real way to get closer to each other. Consumers often recognize the boss as a person first, and then further believe in the brand's products, services and prices.

Liao Qingchuan opened up this trust chain through the "boss IP", and how to convert this trust into customers and bring in actual business is another key point. The live broadcast strategy of Hao An Niang's fresh-cut beef self-service hot pot is a successful case.

Hao Aniang Hotpot Boss Live Room

Li Xiaoguang, the founder of Hao Aniang, said that live streaming can quickly bring in traffic, and in the process of exposure, it will promote transactions and increase the conversion rate. After each big broadcast, the brand's voice potential will be one level higher.

From the perspective of live broadcast strategy, Hao A Niang's approach is very methodical. Buffet itself is a natural traffic code, and 90% of customers come from online. Through online promotion, the entire operation is divided into three stages: the first stage is the pre-sale store explosion period, which quickly attracts traffic; the second stage is the stable sales period to maintain brand popularity; the third stage is the ranking period, which further expands the brand's influence through live broadcast.

This strategy not only allowed them to attract a large amount of online traffic, but also converted the traffic into actual customers through good offline services, while also increasing the brand's awareness.

In general, compared with traditional e-commerce live broadcasting, local life live broadcasting is not only a tool to attract customers, but also a way of business that combines online and offline operations. By showing store features and offering discounts through live broadcasting, users are attracted to the store to experience consumption, forming a closed loop of online traffic and offline conversion, effectively increasing customer flow and consumption frequency, and achieving performance growth for physical stores.

2. Why the bosses?

In Douyin's life service live broadcast room, the boss's identity plays three important roles:

First, attract users and increase conversion. The boss personally walks into the live broadcast room, attracts users with sincerity and great benefits, and directly offers real discounts. This not only makes users more trusting, but also can bring high conversions through these great benefits to drive sales growth, while also increasing brand awareness.

For example, Guo Feng, the founder of Waipangzi Chongqing Hotpot, participated in two live broadcasts in June and October this year. The GMV (gross merchandise volume) of a live broadcast in June reached more than 2 million yuan; the total GMV of the two-day live broadcast of the brand's anniversary celebration in October exceeded 3 million yuan.

Wai Pangzi Hotpot Restaurant

Guo Feng attributed this achievement to the team's solid preparation, including welfare planning and popularity accumulation, which made the live broadcast room more popular and the conversion rate came naturally. The boss's personal appearance is the key to the success of the live broadcast, which not only brings the distance with users closer, but also brings a sense of trust.

Similar cases include Hao A Niang. In early November this year, Li Xiaoguang walked into the "Boss Arrives" live broadcast room and sold 8.58 million group purchase coupons in two days; the person in charge of Weihai Zhenhua Department Store also sold 12 million supermarket group purchase coupons in two days of live broadcast. In addition, Hisense Group opened a local life live broadcast room on Douyin on November 9, and the vice president of related business of refrigerator, washing machine and air conditioner companies, the vice president of support and others sold home appliance vouchers in the live broadcast room, selling 12 million.

The boss’s appearance in the live broadcast room not only brings benefits but also serves as an accelerator for sales.

Second, build trust and shape the brand image. The boss personally participates in the live broadcast, not only to sell goods, but also to build trust with consumers. As the soul of the brand, the boss understands the brand value and user needs best. In the live broadcast room, they share brand stories and business philosophy, use sincerity and benefits to get closer to users, and shape the brand image.

Before endorsing their companies, these bosses first attract fans with their personal charm on social platforms and build their personal IP.

Take Li Xiaoguang as an example. In addition to being the founder of Hao Aniang, he is also a food blogger. The content of his account includes daily store inspections, work guidance, the places he visited during the inspections, and the food culture he felt, conveying commercial value and emotional value to fans.

Li Xiaoguang's personal account on Douyin

The same is true for Guo Feng. As a veteran in the catering industry with 28 years of experience, he took the lead in creating a personal IP account on Douyin. The content mainly focuses on catering information, sharing practical experience such as site selection, store opening, and business models with industry professionals, and gradually won recognition from fans.

Once an individual has influence, it is much easier to establish a strong connection with a company. Li Xiaoguang said that after recognizing an individual, consumers can have a deeper sense of identity with the brand by telling their original intention, brand value and product story.

This sincerity also enabled Hao An Niang to achieve rapid expansion: from opening its first store in May 2023 to now having 210 stores. "Live broadcasting can give the brand concentrated exposure. For example, during the National Day holiday, the total exposure was more than 40 million. In the traditional catering industry, this number cannot be achieved in 5 years." Li Xiaoguang said that live broadcasting is a magic weapon and weapon in the era of Internet catering.

Liao Qingchuan has been trying to start live streaming since 2020. Every time he starts a live streaming, he always keeps a small notebook next to him to record everyone's feedback. He even invites customers to the live streaming room and "asks customers what changes they have felt in us recently, or what else we are not doing enough?" Now the monthly live streaming has become a "fixed program" that fans look forward to. If he does not broadcast live for a long time, he will be urged to update it.

Third, direct communication, long-term operation, and support for offline business. Boss Live breaks through the one-way communication model of traditional marketing and realizes instant interaction between brands and consumers.

As a traditional supermarket, Jialeyuan needs to inject vitality into the brand and narrow the distance with young people and trends through innovative marketing methods and tools in the context of the gradual loss of young consumer groups. The move of Liao Qingchuan and senior executives to live broadcast can not only directly reach more levels of consumers, but also timely understand user needs and feedback, thereby optimizing the consumer experience. At the same time, live broadcast reduces the marketing costs of traditional advertising, provides greater flexibility in product pricing, and makes products more competitive.

Guo Feng, founder of Waipangzi Hotpot, in the live broadcast room

As "TikTok native" brands, Hao A Niang and Wai Pangzi have made full use of the precise operation of live broadcasts and short videos, not only effectively managing more than 210 stores under their umbrella, but also significantly increasing brand awareness. Driven by this efficient online operation, these brands have achieved rapid expansion, completed scale and chain layout, and their business has become stronger and stronger, and their brand influence has also increased accordingly.

As for Ma Liu Ji, although it has strong brand strength, its offline direct-operated restaurants are still the core foundation and the foundation of the brand. By attracting customers to the store for consumption over a long period of time, Ma Liu Ji has not only consolidated the basic plate of its physical business, but also laid a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the brand.

Therefore, the boss's live broadcast is not just for selling goods. Through live broadcast, the boss uses sincerity to shorten the distance with customers and build trust. At the same time, it can save marketing costs and improve efficiency. In the future, the boss's live broadcast will become a major advantage in the competition of the local life industry, bringing the brand closer to customers.

3. Boss live broadcast to solve consumption problems

From the perspective of the overall economy, the "Boss Special" emerged precisely to meet current market demand.

Today, consumers have become more cautious, which directly affects the growth rate of the consumer market. In the first three quarters of this year, the total retail sales of consumer goods in China increased by 3.3% year-on-year. Although it is still growing, the growth rate has slowed down, and the role of consumption in driving the economy has weakened.

The performance of the catering industry was particularly obvious. In Beijing, the revenue of catering enterprises above designated size in the first half of this year was 49.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.9%; the profit fell by 88.8% to only 180 million yuan, and the industry profit margin dropped from 3.18% to 0.37%. The situation in Shanghai was even worse. In the first half of the year, catering enterprises with annual revenue of more than 2 million yuan suffered an overall loss of 770 million yuan, while they made a profit of 1.7 billion yuan in the same period last year.

Under such pressure, how to attract more people to consume and create new consumption scenarios has become the biggest headache for local life bosses. And using technical means to stimulate offline consumption has also become an important direction for platforms to help economic development.

Ma Liu Ji Store

As the foundation of local life, physical stores are not only an important pillar of the city's economy, but also carry a large number of employment opportunities. The operating ability of each small store is crucial, and the combined strength of these small stores is the key to supporting the resilience and vitality of the real economy.

In the past, the interaction between stores and customers was limited to the moment when customers entered the store. With the emergence of platforms such as Meituan and Dianping, this interaction has gradually moved online. Today, the rise of short video and live broadcast platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou has provided stores with more new opportunities to reach consumers, further expanding their growth space.

There is an old saying that “Good wine needs no bush”, but in today’s catering industry, this old saying is no longer applicable.

Site selection used to be the key to the success of a physical store, because a good location means a stable natural flow of customers. With the rise of the online ecosystem, the source of traffic is gradually shifting from offline to online, and local life companies have to follow this trend, adjust their strategies, and grasp online traffic.

As Li Xiaoguang said: Compared with traditional catering, there have been huge changes now.

The threshold for traditional catering is relatively low. You only need a good chef or a couple to open a shop and you can run it. The explicit threshold is very low, but the implicit threshold is very high. Today's catering has entered a new era, which requires not only the product itself, but also the optimization of product structure, refined management of offline operations, online promotion capabilities, as well as brand building and systematic presentation of the whole case.

It can be said that today's catering practitioners must become "hexagonal warriors" to gain a firm foothold in the industry. Products, operations, promotions, and brand building, each link requires corresponding capabilities.

The boss's live broadcast is a new attempt to adapt to this change.

Through live broadcast, the boss can not only directly convey the brand's ingenuity, but also use his personal charm to interact with consumers and establish a deeper emotional connection. Compared with traditional advertising, live broadcast is more direct and real, and can quickly narrow the distance between the brand and consumers.

For example, in June this year, Wang Xiaofei, CEO of Ma Liuji, promoted Douyin group buying for local life through a live broadcast. He mentioned that Ma Liuji was one of the first merchants to enter the local life platform. Douyin not only provides discounts, but also combines multiple functions such as influencer promotion and evaluation system to help merchants achieve in-depth integration of online and offline.

@Ma Liu Ji store discount group purchase official account

For example, it took Waipangzi Chongqing Hotpot just over a year from its founding to opening more than 200 stores. Guo Feng said that Douyin can let more customers know the brand in a short period of time at a relatively low cost, thus quickly detonating a county market. This efficient traffic diversion is particularly important for new brands.

Liao Qingchuan described the live broadcast format as a "new business". "Through the display on Douyin, young consumers can feel that Jialeyuan is also catering to them. This is different from traditional business. In the past, it was more about product value and functional value. Now it is about the very real interactive relationship, trust relationship and emotional value between users."

At the same time, offline supermarkets such as Jialeyuan have broken the limitations of service radius through the Douyin platform, reaching more consumers and penetrating deeply into every aspect of users.

It can be seen that the boss's entry into the live broadcast room is not just an attempt, but also a way to directly interact with consumers using the platform function. Through coupons, product displays and other means, it not only stimulates the desire to buy, but also cleverly guides online traffic to offline stores, creating a new consumer ecology that integrates online and offline.

When business owners enter the live broadcast room in large numbers, it is not just to boost sales, but to comprehensively upgrade marketing methods, and to find a new path for companies to reshape their brands, strengthen user stickiness, and embrace digitalization. At the same time, it also finds a new outlet for the real economy and gives traditional businesses new vitality. (Original work by Lingshou Media)

Author/Shili This article is written by the operator author [Lingshou Media], WeChat public account: [Lingshou], original/authorized to be published on Operation Party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.