Question Laifen, Understand Laifen, Become Laifen

Laifen, a name that has rapidly risen among new consumer brands, has had its development path filled with controversy and discussion.

Some people regard it as the pride of domestic products, while others are skeptical about its rapid success.

This article will give you an in-depth understanding of Lifen’s growth story, from wild growth to aggressive expansion, and explore how it found its foothold in the highly competitive market through product innovation, marketing strategies and unique brand genes.

As a rapidly emerging new consumer brand, Lifen has been subject to much criticism in the past two years.

Whether it is merchants or consumers, there are people who love or hate it. Those who like it think it is the embodiment of justice, a price butcher, and the pride of domestic products. The big-brand experience that originally cost 3,000 yuan can now be experienced for only 300 yuan, which has effectively reduced the "IQ tax" that foreigners pay to Chinese people.

People who hate it think it "stole" other people's things, and they also make a big fuss about it, saying that it is equal to or surpasses big brands. With the overwhelming advertising and marketing, it is hard not to think about how much money this thing makes. Why did Lefen rise so quickly? What did it do right? Is it really as "magical" as many (self-) media say? As a business observer and an early employee, I would like to briefly share my personal opinion.

The development of Laifen can be divided into two stages: the first is the wild growth stage; the second is the radical expansion stage.

1. Wild growth: 2020-2023

Laifen grew during the epidemic. In 2020, it moved from Humen, Dongguan to Shenzhen, which was the first turning point for Laifen.

Having learned from the "failures" of his first two entrepreneurial ventures (there have been many reports about the founder, so I will not go into details here), Ye Hongxin, who has been deeply involved in the manufacturing industry for many years, knows that if he wants to achieve greater success, he must not just do OEM and ODM, but must build his own brand.

In August 2020, Lifen LF01 (first generation) went into production and launched on the market. At the beginning, it did not cause much splash in the industry, with sales of only a dozen units a day. At that time, the team had only 20 to 30 people.

The real turning point came from the iteration of LF03 (third generation) and the product launch video of Bilibili, as well as a video of "angry criticism" of Dyson in a conversation with Wang Cen in April 2022 (which netizens jokingly called "Two bald heads talking about hair dryers").

The press conference video of Bilibili was not very popular at the beginning, with only a few hundred thousand views, which was considered a small-scale breakthrough. Fortunately, it finally opened a gap. By the end of the year (2021), the shipment volume was close to 200,000 units.

The qualitative leap came from a video posted by Wang Cen on Douyin in April of the following year. In the video, two "bald men" who did not use hair dryers talked about hair dryers. Wang Cen, a business mentor, looked down on the founder Ye Hongxin and kept questioning him, "In what way have you surpassed Dyson?" Facing the mentor's questioning, Ye Hongxin's answer was neither humble nor arrogant, and full of confidence - "All-round surpassing."

The strong contrast and opposition made this 4-minute video full of conflict. Soon, the video received over 10,000 likes and the number of comments and interactions soared.

(Here is an episode. Many people questioned whether this video was planned or scripted. In fact, it was not. The real situation is as shown in the video. Like many entrepreneurs, in order to keep the company alive and develop better in the early days, Ye Hongxin met Wang Cen, a lecturer who was an investor of Sequoia Capital at the time, on the recommendation of a friend, and went to study with him. This is how the scene in the video happened. On the contrary, some competitors later wanted to use this method to find Wang Cen and replicate the same video, but none of them became popular.)

As a key incubator of the training institution, he naturally would not miss this wave of natural flow. So he quickly edited the video into slices and distributed them to the matrix account under Wang Cen's name.

Interestingly, this video seemed to have hit the algorithm’s lifeline at the time, and it became a huge hit.

According to incomplete statistics, Wang Cen's videos have brought Laifen a total exposure of over 100 million, with a GMV of tens of millions. Since then, Laifen has begun to deploy social media platforms, focusing on Douyin, Bilibili and Xiaohongshu.

Starting a business requires ability, luck, and more often than not, you need to go with the flow.

Faced with overwhelming traffic, Laifen took it. It quickly built multiple live broadcast rooms and established multiple complete closed-loop sales systems. From WeChat, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili to Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, Toutiao, etc., it covers all aspects from live broadcast, Dabo to influencer marketing.

It has to be said that the early media placement did bring great growth benefits to Lifen, with the ROI of the placement on Bilibili reaching 1:10, which is unimaginable today.

Although many new consumer brands were mired in the epidemic at that time, Lefen showed counter-cyclical growth, and countless investors, consulting companies, and suppliers flocked to seek cooperation.

During its wild growth period, Laifen was like a newborn calf that was not afraid of a tiger. Various new and unique marketing methods emerged one after another. They were not afraid of spending money and had the ability to spend money. The monthly marketing expenses ranged from several million to tens of millions. They rented venues, hired models, bought equipment, did not waste any traffic, made their own information flow, co-created with experts, double-cut, sliced, etc. There was basically no set rules for marketing. As long as there was exposure and conversion, they would try any method.

By the end of 2023, Laifen's sales reached 3 billion and the team size exceeded 300 people (Shenzhen).

Of course, all this is inseparable from the quality of the product, excellent marketing, and the founder's unique vision and courage.

2. Radical Expansion: 2024 to Present

In October 2023, LeFen released its second product, the sweeping and vibrating electric toothbrush. Traditional electric toothbrushes can only sweep or vibrate, but LeFen is the first to achieve the Bass brushing method, which can sweep and vibrate without power attenuation. In addition, major innovations have been made in the motor, appearance structure, and charging method.

Internally, this press conference is of great significance.

This will be a revolution in the history of electric toothbrushes and a new journey for Lifen. If successful, it will "step out of Dyson's shadow" and the company's strengths will be taken to a higher level.

Perhaps it was the huge success of the hair dryer that gave Lifen greater confidence to expand its presence in the electric toothbrush field.

The launch was a huge success, with 100,000 people watching online and a lot of exposure on social media platforms. In less than 5 minutes, 20,000 units were sold out.

In order to quickly open up the market, Laifen began to step on the accelerator in marketing, expanding the content team, upgrading the brand, inviting first-line stars such as Charmaine Sheh, Annie Yi, and Yu Wenwen to the platform, and conducting in-depth interviews with Lao Luo, Luo Pang, Cheng Qian and others.

At all costs, occupy the ecological niche of "sweeping vibration".

LeFen has made a lot of efforts in brand upgrading, but in my personal opinion, the most successful one is the visual upgrade.

The content team has put a lot of effort into visuals and tone. Many TVCs, promotional videos, and craft films are shot with the best equipment, which is very expensive.

If you look at the Lefen brand today, it is difficult to describe its tone. If you use one word to describe it, it would be: beautiful.

As a consumer, it is clear that good looks are a prerequisite for purchase.

Appearance is justice. Just by making the product look good, you can defeat 80% of your competitors.

If we say that during the hair dryer era, everyone's common "enemy" was the British luxury brand Dyson, and anyone who "defeated" it could get a share of the cake, then during the electric toothbrush era, there was no such obvious external "enemy" (in terms of price, Philips and Oral-B could hardly be counted as such, as they covered the entire price range). On the contrary, they were almost all fish swimming in the same river.

Perhaps it is because the potential energy is too high, and everyone's oral environment is different. The market lacks an education process (many consumers even doubt whether electric toothbrushes are cleaner than manual toothbrushes, not to mention the high prices of sweeping vibrations and replacement brush heads, which are difficult to popularize). The pace of innovation is a bit too large, so when new products come out, users' acceptance is not as high as expected.

For example, not everyone likes magnetic charging, and some users will encounter the "toothache" problem caused by the lack of power attenuation. Although these problems were later solved one by one, they are still complained about by many friendly companies.

Unlike hair dryers, electric toothbrushes are imported products after all, so users will be more cautious when choosing them. If there are any problems or negative reviews, they will give up immediately.

Although the electric toothbrush industry has been making money without doing anything for a long time, it is only a matter of time before those brands that have made huge profits are disrupted.

But Leifen still underestimated the complexity of the market.

Two or three months after the new product was released, other competitors launched products with similar functions, styles and designs, and even the proud brush heads priced at RMB 9.9 each. Soon, other competitors followed suit.

Under the internal competition of hundreds of brands, electric toothbrushes have entered a period of accelerated elimination. Those who can survive must be those who run fast and control costs to the extreme.

3. What did Laifen do right?

Growing up during the epidemic, developing and involution.

In the post-entrepreneurship era of declining consumption, the following points from Laifen are worth learning:

First, the product

1. Make the old things look new, use new technology to make old products

From hair dryers to electric toothbrushes, and to the shavers that will be released soon, every product of Lifen follows this principle, competing in the crowded market, using new technologies, new concepts, and new methods to gain market share. Doing so not only avoids the great uncertainty brought about by the development of new products, but also strikes at competitors from the side.

2. All products launched are high-profit products

Whether it is a hair dryer or an electric toothbrush, they are both high-gross-profit categories in the fast-moving consumer goods sector;

3. Strong pricing and strong price control

Faced with consumption downgrade, 300 yuan is a watershed for white-collar workers and the middle class. Whoever can position themselves in this price range will be able to capture the middle class.

When Laifen launches new products, the prices basically fluctuate within this range. In addition, all products are self-operated (mainly online), so there are rarely random prices.

4. Solve problems from first principles

Although LeFen likes to emphasize "technology accessibility" to the outside world, people in the industry know that this is just a slogan, and the real "technology accessibility" is the "first principles."

To put it simply: add to the cost price of the product.

Starting a business is all about calculating costs. What is the lowest cost to make a good product? How much will the cost increase if you use the best materials? Add in other costs such as manpower and marketing, and you can sell as many products as you want without losing money.

Many of Lifen’s products are built with the ultimate value for money through micro-innovations in technology.

5. Deep Learning for Apple & Tesla

Whether it is product design or press conference, LeFen is deeply imitating Apple and learning from Tesla's self-built factories;

6. Not deviating from core advantages and core user groups

From hair dryers to electric toothbrushes to shavers, on the surface, there is no necessary connection between each of Lifen's products, and it is difficult to attribute them to small appliances or personal care brands; but the logic of product development is very tight, because they all start from the core motor, and secondly, the users accumulated initially can consume again on new products.

Secondly, marketing

1. Be willing to spend money and know when to spend it

For a company to make money is a skill, and for a company to spend money is an ability.

For a startup going from 0 to 1, every penny spent must be wisely spent. However, for a company that has completed the initial stage, they will be extremely anxious if they have money but cannot spend it and their monthly sales cannot grow.

Your stagnation is your competitor's progress.

Laifen is indeed willing to spend money on marketing. In this era where "even good wine needs to be hidden in a remote alley", no matter how good the product is, it has to rely on advertising. Whether it is Douyin or Bilibili, most of the top influencers and UP hosts have cooperated with Laifen.

2. Refined content operation and high-standard content production

In an era of weak product innovation and increasing homogeneity, content is the biggest industry barrier.

After the expansion, Laifen established a large-scale content marketing team with very detailed division of labor in shooting, editing, planning, delivery, operation, etc.

All of this will eventually be reflected in the product. The so-called beauty, refinement and shock are mostly created by money.

3. Understand marketing, but be hard-core in marketing

There is no harm without comparison. Despite the support of various celebrities and experts, no matter how wonderful their words are, as a durable product, it must ultimately stand the test of the market.

In terms of self-proving and building trust, LeFen has put a lot of effort into it, including various disassembly reviews, functional experiments, performance tests, hardcore comparisons, and whole-body activities. It can be said that it has tried basically everything that can be achieved.

4. Dare to be the first

Laifen, which has recently broken out of the circle, has made various attempts in advertising.

Uncle Golden Gun's "brainwashing" advertisements were the first to seek endorsements from KOLs in the financial and business fields; although somewhat controversial, they brought a lot of exposure at the time.

Third, genetically

For a successful business, the founder’s genes play a large role.

From the early BAT to the later Meituan, ByteDance, and Pinduoduo, these companies more or less carry the genes of their founders.

Unlike entrepreneurs who come from technology or sales backgrounds, Ye Hongxin, who has been deeply involved in the manufacturing industry for many years, is very experienced in production processes, supply chain management, and quality control (especially cost control). In addition, as one of the earliest merchants to join Taobao, he has an extraordinary understanding of products, marketing, and promotion.

Everyone who has come into contact with Ye Hongxin knows that he is an introvert, socially anxious, not good at speaking (he will talk endlessly about professional products), low-key, and never attends various speech forums. In addition, his image as a programmer and a science and engineering man naturally gives users a sense of trust. At the same time, these behaviors have also given the company Lefen a mysterious veil to a certain extent. These advantages are unmatched by many entrepreneurs.

Growing from a child to a teenager is a pleasant process, but growing from a teenager to a young adult will bring many worries and problems.

After its rise, Laifen began to face growing pains. These problems mainly focused on the following four aspects:

1. Relying heavily on major social media, especially TikTok, for brand promotion and marketing. The big media strategy brought early dividends to LeFen. However, with the intensification of market competition and the increase in platform traffic costs, this "high-profile" approach faces severe challenges.

In order to maintain the past exposure rate, more budget has to be invested, and there is great uncertainty whether it can bring actual consumer conversion. The Douyin algorithm is constantly updated, and the platform's control and recommendation mechanism for content is becoming more and more complex and uncontrollable. The brand's exposure effect depends largely on the platform's distribution rules. When the brand size increases, the platform algorithm prioritizes pushing more new products or popular content, and the content of "old" brands is easily buried.

2. Product innovation is gradually showing signs of weakness. In the early days, Laifen successfully attracted a large number of users with its novel market entry and strong promotional momentum, but as the market developed, its subsequent performance began to show weakness. Every upgrade of the product is often only reflected in the horizontal expansion of functions, rather than bringing breakthrough improvements in core technology and actual user experience. This "flat" upgrade method may meet the needs of some users in the short term, but it cannot effectively stimulate users' long-term interest and stickiness.

In addition, the lack of deep technological innovation makes the product's market positioning increasingly vague. As the market becomes increasingly saturated, consumers' selection standards gradually increase, and their expectations for products become more demanding, gradually weakening its appeal in the consumer market.

3. In terms of breaking the circle, it has not penetrated into the sinking market. Although Lefen's marketing strategy has won a lot of praise in the industry, and many marketing methods are also considered quite innovative, in fact, Lefen's consumer circle has not broken through the original boundaries and has always been limited to the initial consumer group. Especially in the expansion of offline channels, it faces considerable challenges. Compared with traditional small home appliance brands, Lefen's offline sales network layout is relatively weak, sales terminal coverage is narrow, and product display experience scenes are relatively scarce.

The brand positioning and marketing methods of Lifen are also focused on young consumer groups, tending to use fashion and trendiness as selling points to attract young consumers who pursue individuality. However, this positioning and marketing method may make the brand image appear relatively single, making it difficult to establish a broad sense of identity among more diverse user groups. This also makes it lack a clear advantage in attracting more mature user groups or family consumers who value cost-effectiveness.

4. Obstacles in going overseas. Compared with the domestic market, Lifen’s performance in overseas markets is relatively weak. This is not only due to the limitation of brand awareness, but also the challenges brought about by cultural differences between domestic and foreign markets.

Laifen's successful marketing strategy in China is mainly based on a deep understanding of local consumers, relying on the traffic dividend of social media and online short video platforms, and attracting users through youthful content and interactive promotion methods. However, this model may not work in foreign markets, as it usually takes longer for overseas consumers to build trust and loyalty to a brand.

In addition, categories such as hair dryers and electric toothbrushes are low-repurchase products, and consumers usually will not purchase them again in the short term after purchasing them, which makes it difficult for independent sites to rely on these single categories to achieve continuous traffic conversion.

As for other issues, such as product defects, user complaints, and excessive marketing, these are not big problems. Many of them are just the result of competitors’ mischief.

Anyone who has worked in the digital home appliance industry knows that as long as it is an electronic consumer product, there is no 100% yield rate. As long as quality control is done well and continuous optimization and improvement are carried out, these problems can be solved later. There is only one real problem: there is no more innovation and no growth.

4. The Revelation of Leifen

A few years ago, there was a joke on the Internet about how to create a new consumer brand:

1. First, find 5,000 reviews from KOC on Xiaohongshu.
2. Then post 2,000 questions and answers on Zhihu;
3. After getting the phenomenal top anchors, they will also include the mid-level anchors;
4. Use your voice to quickly build channels;
5. Taking advantage of the situation, a popular variety show was launched to completely detonate the market.

At first glance, it is indeed the case, but if you follow this method again today, you will definitely be able to turn a BMW into a motorcycle.

The rise of Lifen is not only the result of innovation in marketing methods, but also the careful polishing of product strength and keen capture of market opportunities.

Those who once doubted Laifen began to learn from Laifen and copy Laifen. They hope to build a brand quickly in a short period of time by spending money on marketing, just like Laifen. There is no secret to Laifen's success. It is just a good product that takes advantage of the platform and content to go with the flow.

You can't win by playing someone else's game.

Imitation may bring short-term popularity, but the true product value cannot be copied.

Behind every successful person, there is his or her own unique path and persistence, rather than simply copying the footsteps of others.

Only innovation and persistence can stand the test of time.