A few words brought in 70 million yuan worth of goods, and the middle-aged man couldn't get out of the live broadcast room of the "female boss"

In the fierce competition of live e-commerce, the operations of "Macau COCO Sister" and Gao Duan Jie have brought new ideas to live streaming sales. This article analyzes the psychological strategy behind this sales model and how it satisfies the pursuit of "success" and "status" symbols by middle-aged male consumers.

"A man whose spending power is not as good as a dog" spends a fortune in the live broadcast room.

How difficult is it to get money out of a man's pocket?

There has always been an unwritten chain of contempt in the consumer world, where men not only rank behind women, but even behind dogs. The phrase "middle-aged men are worse than dogs" is both offensive and realistic. Even knowledgeable e-commerce players believe that middle-aged men are the most difficult group to pry open.

But recently, millions of middle-aged men have fallen at the feet of a "female boss" and "spent a fortune" in her live broadcast room just for a word "brother".

"Macau Sister COCO" in the live broadcast room, with a disdainful expression and domineering, opened an exquisite box to display the goods, took out a shower gel priced at 8.9 yuan, and said, "Do you have the ability? Brother, say something!" The exquisite "counter" live broadcast background, the foreign-faced warm-up brothers, coupled with the passionate background music and sharp whistles, easily pushed the atmosphere to the limit.

Similar to Macau’s COCO sister, there are “No. 4 Haoqing Sister” and “No. 5 Haoqing Sister”, with the same “big brother” status, similar products, and similar sales routines. What is not quite in line with the status of a female big brother is the various products in the live broadcast room, such as 8.9 yuan shower gel, 18.8 yuan men’s underwear, 20 yuan ashtrays…

The exaggerated performances and low-priced goods have made millions of middle-aged men press the "follow" and "order" buttons: According to Chanmama data, in the past 30 days, "Macau COCO Sister" has gained nearly 500,000 fans, with the number of fans reaching 2.662 million. Among her live broadcast viewers, 70% are male, and 48.23% are between 31 and 40 years old. The total sales of goods brought by her live broadcast in the past 30 days exceeded 70 million yuan.

70 million yuan may not be enough compared with the top live-streaming anchors, but when it comes to the ability to take money out of men's pockets, Macau's COCO sister is far ahead. Her account not only topped the Chanmama Douyin men's clothing live-streaming sales list, but her live-streaming sales volume also surpassed the second place by more than 10 million yuan.

Live streaming e-commerce is becoming more and more popular. The once neglected market has been rediscovered. The "hardest to deal with" middle-aged men have also become the customer group targeted by live streaming e-commerce players. Macau Sister COCO, who helps men feel the "big boss temperament" at low cost, has replicated the previous live streaming e-commerce routines on men, and has also allowed many middle-aged male users to pay for their fantasy of a "high-end, classy and classy" big boss life.

01 "Female boss", bringing in 70 million yuan worth of goods

Unlike other anchors who speak in a soft voice, can’t wait to take apart the products to explain them in detail to users, and “beg” users to place orders in the live broadcast room, Macau COCO sister takes the route of a “female boss”.

"Macao Coco Sister" and her male assistants

Different from the stereotype of black stockings, short skirts and high heels that men like to see, Macau COCO sister wore a little black dress, smoky makeup, and several male assistants in suits stood behind her.

The camera in the live broadcast room slightly looked up, and Macau sister COCO had a rather disdainful expression, and from time to time she would say, "Do you dare to call yourself the number one sister if you don't have any strength?" "Do you have the strength? Brothers, say something!"

When the male assistant pushed the box covered with black velvet forward, the background music suddenly became tense and the atmosphere in the live broadcast room reached a climax. Just as everyone was curious about the products in the box, Macau COCO opened the black velvet and took out a toothbrush from the box. "Nano-grade, very soft and sticky." Then she used her hands to make a one and an eight, and the assistant behind her exclaimed, "One dollar and eight cents!"

At this point, the explanation was not over yet. Macau COCO put down her toothbrush and responded to the comments, "Brother, what's so exaggerated? Don't you dare buy it? One dollar and eighty cents, how much money would I lose on one order!" The assistant behind her had an exaggerated expression, while the broadcaster and the field controller shouted, "Wow, that's too ruthless!"

When promoting products such as perfumes, T-shirts and backpacks, Macau’s COCO sister would constantly emphasize her status as the “number one sister”, linking the products she promoted with labels such as “Macau”, “luxury goods” and “high-end”, repeating similar rhetoric.

"Take out 500,000 yuan to play and see if Sister Yi is a brother worth making friends with! If I don't lose 500,000 yuan, I'm a dog!"

"Men all like to save face and like to wear BB (a men's clothing brand promoted in the live broadcast room)."

"Have you ever been to Macau? Have you ever met women in Macau? Are women in Macau 24K pure men?"

With exaggerated rhetoric and facial expressions, the live broadcast room does not seem like a sales event, but rather like a business negotiation scene in a Hong Kong movie. The audience in the live broadcast room is negotiating a tens of millions-level deal with the "big boss" Sister COCO on the screen, so much so that one viewer joked, "We thought this deal was worth tens of thousands, but it turns out to be only worth ten dollars."

Macau’s COCO sister, who always “takes out 500,000 to play”, is not the only anchor who creates a “female boss” persona in the live broadcast room.

Another "Fourth Sister of Proud Feelings" is similar to Sister COCO from Macau, but also different.

If Macau sister COCO is going for the cool sister style, then the fourth sister Haoqing is going for the new Chinese style.

In the live broadcast room, Sister Haoqing was sitting casually on the sofa, wearing a satin new Chinese style suit, playing with a bracelet, with a green jade hanging on her chest, and two cheongsam female assistants were standing behind her. Facing the audience in the live broadcast room who were curious about her profession, Sister Haoqing smiled mysteriously and said, "Pay attention first, and you will slowly understand it later."

Like Sister COCO from Macau, Sister Haoqing also keeps repeating the same rhetoric.

"If you don't trust Fourth Sister, don't grab it!"

“Everyone asks me what I do, but I can’t tell you on the air!”

"Let me ask you a question. Can you remember Fourth Sister? Come on, call me Fourth Sister."

The assistant brought the crocodile leather gift box, and the fourth sister put on gloves, quickly opened and closed the box, and then took out an "Emma Family" belt, "I don't want 29 or 39, 19 is not my character, 18 is not my character, brothers, listen carefully today, the fourth sister only needs you to remember me, I don't need you to do anything else, understand?" Then she waved her hand and asked the assistant to change the price to 17 yuan.

In the barrage of comments in the live broadcast room, some people joked about the host and assistant, "This is the actor's sense of belief", some were curious, "Who is buying this thing?" Of course, there were also people who were touched by the demand and chose to place an order, and most of them were middle-aged men.

Taking the live broadcast on September 12 as an example, data from Chan Mama showed that the sales of Macau Sister COCO during the entire live broadcast reached 4.1 million yuan. Among the live broadcast audience, 70.8% were male, and 48.3% were between 31 and 40 years old; the sales of the entire live broadcast of Sister Haoqing reached 2.1 million yuan. Among the live broadcast audience, 72.5% were male, 41.6% were between 31 and 40 years old, and 23.7% were between 41 and 50 years old.

Sales data also proves that many middle-aged men fall for this.

According to Chanmama data, in the past 30 days, Haoqing's fourth sister has live-streamed 13 times, with a total sales of 25.34 million yuan; Macau's COCO sister has live-streamed 23 times, with a total sales of 73.384 million yuan. In the monthly ranking of men's clothing, Macau's COCO sister topped the list, with sales performance surpassing the second place by more than 10 million yuan.

02 The "luxury goods" in the live broadcast room are only 9.9 yuan

For many people, watching the live broadcasts of Macau’s Sister COCO and Sister Haoqing Si is like watching an embarrassing sitcom, or like moving scenes from old Hong Kong and Taiwan films into the live broadcast room.

Sister COCO from Macau kept emphasizing that she is Macau’s star fashion designer. She appeared with her male assistant who was dressed in a suit and had an exotic face behind her. The live broadcast room instantly had a "high-end, atmospheric and classy" atmosphere.

The homepage of Haoqing Sijie's video account introduces her as "CEO" and "Executive President". The live broadcast room is more like an exquisite model room. The two female assistants in dresses and cheongsams have the feeling of beautiful female secretaries in the stereotype. When she was selling goods, she held the bracelet with her hands clasped together, which made people instantly hallucinate Wang Chuanjun in "All or Nothing".

The two female bosses created mysterious and high-end backgrounds of "celebrity fashion designers" and "female CEOs", while selling products as low as 1.88 yuan for toothbrushes, 5 yuan for perfume, and 9.9 yuan for small black tea, and emphasized that many of the products were for "personal use". As for the various "luxury brands" that appeared in the live broadcast room, they also seemed to be close to real international brands.

For example, the BB BRAELF that Macau sister COCO said "men who love face like to wear".

Left: Balenciaga short-sleeves. Right: BB men's clothing sold by Macau's COCO live streamer.

In the fashion circle, BB refers to Balenciaga, whose distinctive logo is the symmetrical letter "B". The BB sold in Macau COCO's live broadcast room is a brand called BB Baler, which is represented by two uniformly arranged letters "B". In the live broadcast room, Macau COCO can often "sell" BB short-sleeved shirts and sweatshirts that originally cost 500, 600, 700 or 800 yuan to 69, 79 or 99 yuan.

In the live broadcast room of Haoqing Sijie, the "big brand" FEMDH men's clothing is a frequent visitor, and it is also "priced at the bottom". The logo and name of this brand are somewhat similar to the luxury brand FENDI.

The details of the live broadcast room also cannot stand up to scrutiny.

In order to prove that they have provided enough benefits to their brothers, the two female bosses asked their assistants to show the brand's official website and the original price of men's clothing, and occasionally said, "There is nothing we can do if we can't get Sister COCO/Sister Four, you can go to the counter to buy it yourself." They also said that there are brand counters in Taikoo Hui and other places, and they support offline inspection, and "four times the compensation if the product is fake."

However, searching the official websites of the above brands revealed that these so-called international luxury brands only have Chinese official websites. The official websites of each brand have similar layouts and similar clothing. The detail pages of many products are blank, and it is difficult to find relevant supporting information on the Internet.

There is actually one most crucial reason for the similar way of selling products, the same live broadcast routines, and the similar clothes: Macau Sister COCO and Sister Haoqing are actually from the same company, and the "international brands" they sell are also the company's white-label products.

The big brands in the live broadcast room are all from Guangzhou Jiyuan Brand Design Co., Ltd.

A report published by the WeChat public account "Brand Alliance" mentioned that Macau's COCO sister and Haoqing's fourth sister are both e-commerce anchors under Guangzhou's well-known live e-commerce "Era Brand". "Macau Prince" on Douyin is also an anchor of his company, and his live streaming style of selling goods is like that of a "big boss".

Qichacha shows that Jiyuan Brand Culture Co., Ltd. is currently applying to register trademarks such as "BB" and "FEMDH". "femdh.com.cn" and "billybrown.com.cn" have appeared on its registered website. The live broadcast room's solemn promise of "four times the compensation if the product is fake" is mostly because the products are produced by the company itself, which is equivalent to "self-production and self-sales."

In the product review section, many people also said, "The embroidery is glued on," "It fades badly," and "The quality is poor and not worth the price at all."

But it is full of tricks and still attracts many consumers.

On Douyin, a girl complained, "My husband must buy this piece of clothing. He thinks it's fashionable, but I think it's stingy and tasteless." The picture she posted was a piece of BILLY BROWN men's clothing, which was exactly the product that Haoqing Sijie promoted in her live broadcast room. Many middle-aged men also posted their shopping proofs on Douyin, with the captions "Nowadays are not as good as before" and "Highly recommended."

03 The "difficult" middle-aged man and the crazy "livelihood" merchants

In August this year, the female anchor who became popular on Xiaohongshu and Video Account was "Gaonian Jie".

Compared to a female boss, Gao Duanjie is more like a beautiful female secretary, wearing a short skirt, stockings and high heels, with a "secretary team" of five or six beautiful women. In the video, she introduces the jeans that are essential for "successful and charming men". A pair of waterproof, breathable and durable jeans costs only 158 yuan.

Despite her exaggerated performance, Gao Duanjie is expected to bring in sales worth 4.35 million to 8.75 million yuan in 30 days.

From high-end sister to Macau COCO sister, merchants are crazy about "making things happen", and they are all about content. The middle-aged men who pay for them are more like paying for the atmosphere created in the live broadcast room.

The beautiful and mysterious female anchor, the simple and straightforward product introduction, coupled with the extreme price and the word "brother", can easily attract middle-aged male consumers who have little exposure to live e-commerce. It seems that by purchasing the products in the live broadcast room, they can really become a "successful man" or become "brothers" with the mysterious female boss in the live broadcast room.

The reason for entering the men's clothing track is that in the live streaming e-commerce environment that has entered the second half, the anchors are constantly competing in terms of "people, goods, and venues". Even in the anchor rooms of top anchors such as Li Jiaqi, Xiao Yangge, or Simba, there is no "lowest price on the entire network."

Men, whose spending power was once “worse than that of dogs,” have gradually changed the consumer market situation at the end of 2023 and this year.

On Tmall's Double 11 in 2023, men's spending power "surpassed pet dogs for the first time." Tmall's list shows that the spending on "the new three treasures of men" - road bikes, e-sports products and jackets - increased by 305%, 114% and 90% respectively, which is greater than the spending on pet dogs. These are more categories that provide "emotional value" for men.

The same changes are also reflected in the men's clothing list of Tmall 618 this year.

The list shows that the top five men's clothing brands are Uniqlo, Heilan Home, Peacebird, Lilang and GXG. Compared with the Tmall 618 list in 2023, there is one less Semir and one more Lilang in the top five: Heilan Home, Lilang and GXG are all single brands that are relatively targeted at men, while the rest are collection brands that include women's wear, men's wear and children's wear.

Men have begun to spend their emotions and have also started to shop in live broadcast rooms. As live broadcast e-commerce becomes more and more popular, men's money may be "easier to make" than women's.

Turning our attention back to Gaoduanjie’s video, in the live broadcast rooms of Macau sister COCO and Haoqingsijie, they either say "successful men" or "COCOjie’s boyfriend is using it" in the product names, or let the camera in the live broadcast room focus on the embroidery patterns in close-ups, showing the "temperature-change design" and "anti-counterfeiting design" of the clothing, further highlighting the "uniqueness" of the products and not following the trend - once an order is placed, it is not just buying a piece of clothing, but also a reflection of taste, and an enjoyment that only "big guys" can have, and it is like picking up a "big bargain."

The names of some of the products sold by Macau sister COCO

Compared to the stereotype that men pursue clothing fabrics and usage effects, the female bosses in the live broadcast room started from "emotions", and used the routine that was once used on female consumers again. What they tapped into was not the practical effects that men pursued, but their emotional needs.

However, the emotions provided by the female boss ultimately come from her personality. Once the personality collapses, the emotional value cannot be sustained. The white-label men's clothing she sells is far from enough to support the "goods" needed in the live broadcast room, nor can it bring long-term traffic and sales explosion. The word "brother" that now attracts countless middle-aged men to place orders will one day become boring.

Making men pay for their emotions and tapping into men's needs are opportunities that e-commerce players are seizing at this stage, but it is not so easy to keep men paying.

Text｜Wang Zhan Editor｜Wang Yaqi This article is written by the author of Operation Party [E-commerce Online], WeChat public account: [E-commerce Online], 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.