Before launching new products, go to Xiaohongshu first

In this rapidly changing market environment, launching new products is a risk for brands, but it is also a necessary move to meet new consumer needs. As a platform for sharing lifestyles and product experiences, Xiaohongshu provides brands with a window to observe and understand consumer needs. This article explores how brands can use Xiaohongshu as a platform to promote new products and test the market, and how to optimize products and marketing strategies through interaction with users.

1

It is actually quite rare to find a brand that still insists on launching new products these days. It can even be said that they are a bit idealistic.

Otherwise, with the market being so competitive and the success rate of new products being so low, why would we launch new products?

Wouldn’t it be nice to rehash something that was successful before?

The cost is approximately 0 and the benefits are controllable.

So what if they are criticized for selling sentimentality? The old fans will still pay for it.

Why are there more and more cases of so-called classic IPs/classic products being resold in recent years?

Everyone is doing the math in their mind.

Those who are willing to give you a new skin and put old wine in a new bottle are considered sincere. There are even those who take out the exact same thing and sell it again.

But here comes the problem.

Does this world really not need new things?

That's impossible. There will always be needs that have not been met.

Times have changed, and people will have new demands in the new environment.

Who will meet the needs of these people?

As a result, a very strange dislocation appeared in the industry:

Those who always sell you feelings are actually the ones who calculate the benefits most clearly;

On the contrary, those who invest huge amounts of money in launching new products and stumble and encounter bumps in the commercial battlefield are more sentimental.

Yes, launching new products is really a kind of sentiment.

The purpose of doing business is to make money, but brands are ultimately made up of people, and new products are ultimately designed by people.

They do have some sincerity in helping users and making life better.

That’s why we launch new products so frequently and why we’re willing to do risky things.

This is what people are like, people who cannot be calculated.

But precisely because of this, you must be more cautious, more scientific, and more skillful when launching new products.

It's good to have feelings, but it's easy to fall face first if you're not careful.

You don’t want your new product to be unsalable as soon as it is released or die as soon as it is born.

2

For many new products, the brands put a lot of thought into their products and are not trying to fool people.

But in the end, most of them are short-lived and few of them enter users' lives.

Logically speaking, these brands are not fools. They are developing new products and spending huge amounts of money on research and development and design. Don’t they know to analyze the market first and look for gaps in consumer demand?

Everyone understands the truth and everyone can talk about it.

But the reality is cruel.

It is extremely difficult for a brand to discover the real gap in consumer demand on its own.

Consumer demands are constantly changing; what they want this month may not be what they want next month.

In order to fully understand users and grasp the gaps in their needs, we need a platform that can intuitively and vividly see the changes in people's needs.

That is, Xiaohongshu.

The users there not only know how to live, understand products, and love to try new things, but are also good at discovering and expressing unmet needs in life.

The key is that the [Notes] medium is lightweight enough and does not require long-winded or carefully worded content. It allows Xiaohongshu users to open Xiaohongshu and post as soon as they have new ideas or new needs.

They will send out what you can think of, and they will also send out what you can't think of.

There is a "Listen to Advice" meme on Xiaohongshu. At the beginning, users posted selfies on Xiaohongshu, saying that they are very receptive to advice and hope everyone can give them some advice.

Later, some brands would seek advice on Xiaohongshu, also focusing on listening to advice.

I strongly recommend that brands listen more to the advice of Xiaohongshu users, especially when it comes to launching new products, and stop being so stubborn.

There are not many brands with such passion. I hope you can all find the real gaps in consumer demand and go further and healthier.

You may think that I don’t necessarily need Xiaohongshu. I can just do a survey myself and ask users what they want.

Sorry, that’s not possible.

Even if ordinary users have needs, they may not know how to express them clearly. Even if they can express them clearly, they may not tell you the truth.

My mom and I can talk at cross purposes and misunderstand each other five times after three sentences. Brands want to connect with users hand in hand by sending out questionnaires, which is almost like dreaming.

But Xiaohongshu users are different——

They actively express their ideas.

Being proactive means being sincere and unpretentious.

Whether it is enthusiastic praise or sharp criticism of the product, it is a true and real-time expression of the inner attitude.

These first-hand, fresh user expressions are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for new brand creations.

3

Why Xiaohongshu?

First, the background of Xiaohongshu is unique on the entire Internet.

Any Internet community has its basic color, and even if more elements are added later, this basic color will not change.

The underlying purpose of Xiaohongshu is to share life.

Ordinary users can also use a delicate perspective to discover the blind spots and pain points of a product in life.

The milk tea industry is already very close to consumers, but some milk tea brands still make milk tea and fruit tea sweeter and sweeter, as this Xiaohongshu user complained, making them difficult to drink.

If a milk tea brand sees this note at this time, it can serve as an important reference whether it wants to adjust current products or launch new products in the future.

These unique people who love and are good at life are the real barriers and moats of Xiaohongshu.

Their experiences and observations can bring new product inspiration to the brand that is difficult to obtain behind closed doors.

Second, there are a large number of [super users] on Xiaohongshu.

Some platforms produce many joke tellers, while others produce many commentators.

But those who can stand out on Xiaohongshu are often those who have rich experience in consumption and products, that is, "super users".

With them around, Xiaohongshu will have a steady stream of high-quality content.

I have written an article before about how my wife and I went to Xiaohongshu to read notes and do homework every day while preparing for pregnancy.

During those months, we followed a lot of Xiaohongshu bloggers crazily and recommended a lot of good things that I had never heard of before.

Some of these products are actually new. They have tried them themselves and found them good, so I will buy them too.

Why do I trust them?

Because they are really talking about their real experiences and feelings after using the product, rather than those fake advertising posts that look fake at first glance.

What is good content? It is not about sensationalism, or how gorgeous the writing is, or how sensational it is.

Instead, share truthfully and meticulously, and speak honestly about your experiences and feelings.

They recorded it down day by day, and I read it one by one.

In this process, I became involved in their lives, and of course I trusted their understanding and choices of life.

4

I am an old user of Xiaohongshu, and I often browse Xiaohongshu to kill time.

As I scrolled through the pages, I was moved by all the very real details of life.

Some are very cute and interesting. For example, a user of Xiaohongshu was tortured by mosquitoes and posted a very magical [Tips for Repelling Mosquitoes] on Xiaohongshu.

Yes, just wear the mosquito net directly on your body. Physical mosquito repellent is the real mosquito repellent.

The thing is, although this thing is really useful, it is also really funny. The more than 10,000 comments in the comment section are just bursting with laughter.

But if a brand noticed the strong demand for mosquito repellent among Xiaohongshu users and launched a new mosquito repellent that is easy to use and not embarrassing, everyone would most likely be willing to pay for it.

There are also gentle and delicate ones. A Xiaohongshu user used a long paragraph to write in detail about his understanding and love for summer.

(Picture from Xiaohongshu account - fabric softener)

This subtle, hazy emotion may become the inspiration for a fashion item or cultural and creative product.

These life observations from Xiaohongshu users are the best source of inspiration for brand new products and also the value of Xiaohongshu's new products.

While other brands are still struggling to gain insight into consumer needs, you spend three days reading your notes on Xiaohongshu and your memo will be filled with inspiration.

The key is that they not only like to express their needs, but are also willing to pay money to support products that can meet their needs.

The brand designed and produced new products based on their observations, which just met their needs and found the most appropriate audience for the new products.

Only in this way can your new product form a closed business loop.

5

In the past, when people talked about new products, they would think of occupying shelf space, buying traffic on e-commerce platforms, and organizing events.

But now, Xiaohongshu is the de facto first stop for new products.

On the one hand, brands must first look for inspiration and users’ unmet needs on Xiaohongshu to determine the direction for future new products.

The first step in launching a new product is never to sell it, but to decide what kind of new product to launch.

The essence of a new product is information gap. A successful new product must have seized on a certain information gap and satisfied some unmet needs of users.

On Xiaohongshu, this information is everywhere.

On the other hand, brands also have to promote and build momentum for new products on Xiaohongshu.

No matter what type of thing it is, as long as it is a new product, I will definitely search for it on Xiaohongshu.

After all, with the real-time nature of Xiaohongshu, maybe there will be reviews on Xiaohongshu before this product is even on the market.

How outrageous is this?

Just search and you will find out -

When Lululemon releases new clothes, Xiaohongshu users will help you try them on;

There are also Xiaohongshu users who can help you taste the new desserts released by Sam's Club;

Even Haidilao has added a new kind of fruit to its condiment table, and there are Xiaohongshu users who have tried it themselves and will tell you how it tastes.

What’s even more outrageous is that every week someone reveals on Xiaohongshu what new products Luckin will release next week. I can choose what to drink next week on Xiaohongshu a week in advance.

Of course, Luckin’s most popular new product right now is definitely the Black Myth collaboration.

Therefore, many brands directly use Xiaohongshu as a platform to promote new products, and post preview pictures on Xiaohongshu before launching new products.

It has attracted a lot of attention (and wallets) before it even goes on sale. I don’t know how I can lose with this wave of new products.

6

I recently discovered a very interesting phenomenon: many Xiaohongshu users are no longer satisfied with simply [expressing their needs] -

They also eagerly hope that their needs can be seen and met by brands.

Specifically, everyone is shouting to a certain brand:

I have a xx demand here, and xx Xiaohongshu users are waiting for you.

Some asked, "Is there a cat bag that cats can enter on their own?", some asked, "Is there a tent that can be formed with one click?", and some asked, "Is there soda that can be left for a day without losing its gas?"

These new demands are the best indicators of brand innovation.

To put it bluntly, when brands try to infer and guess what users need, there is still a layer of separation.

Only the needs expressed by users themselves are the most real and accurate.

Now the user has directly @ you and made it clear, it is difficult for you to go astray.

For example, there is a tea brand called "Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea", which is very influential in Wuhan.

When nearly 50,000 Xiaohongshu users from all over the country were concerned about [Milk tea is my smallest unit of paid vacation, give me a break], it stood up almost without hesitation and ended the competition with its new product [Bailan Yulu].

This wave of operations directly boosted the popularity and user favorability of Grandpa Doesn’t Make Tea——

Not only did the brand search index on Xiaohongshu increase by 75.78%, the number of notes on the topic page for the new product Bai Lan Yu Lu also skyrocketed to more than 25,000 in a short period of time, and the topic views exceeded 20 million.

Even the brand content penetration ranking in the entire tea beverage market has risen by 5 places. (Xiaohongshu internal data, April 10-June 30, 2024)

The new product, Bailan Yulu, has replaced the previous hit product, Lychee Ice Brew, and has become the No. 1 product on Xiaohongshu for Grandpa Doesn’t Brew Tea. (Xiaohongshu internal data, April 10-June 30, 2024)

The key point is that the successful launch of Grandpa Doesn’t Make Tea was not based on luck.

From the birth of [Bai Lan Yu Lu], to the start of its dissemination, to the explosion of word-of-mouth, and then to the content produced by KOLs and secondary creation by ordinary users after its explosion, it was re-seeded on Xiaohongshu and even broke the circle——

In these links, new products are repeatedly heated and heated up, given value, and ultimately achieve the leap from new products to explosive products and even classics.

This kind of success is controllable, certain, and can be replicated.

The greatest significance of launching new products is to allow new products to continue to take over the baton of popular products like this.

A brand can only thrive if there are new popular products in every generation.

Not only tea drinks, but also many brands from different industries have sensed the opportunities hidden behind this brand call event on Xiaohongshu.

The skin care industry has turned from a red ocean into a bloody ocean. There are a lot of giants and tycoons, and all kinds of products you can think of and even those you can't think of are made by brands.

But as long as you open Xiaohongshu, you can still find user needs that have not been met——

A total of 2,212,619 people on Xiaohongshu care about [I don’t want my skin to look good, I want it to be really good]. (Xiaohongshu internal data, May 21-June 21, 2024)

The new product [Focus Cream] from the skincare brand Kefumei just meets this need of Xiaohongshu users.

Soon, topics related to Kefumei’s new products became popular on the site.

Not only did the topic achieve a total exposure of 228 million, it also attracted a large number of in-depth reviews and experience sharing from KOLs on the Xiaohongshu site.

And this is just the beginning. Xiaohongshu's natural grass-growing genes and high-quality content capabilities are the core of Kefumei's new value chain:

The professional interpretations from within the industry and the in-depth speeches of influential bloggers from Meichu not only conveyed the core selling points of [Focus Cream] to potential users, but also invisibly established users' trust in the new product of Kefumei.

In addition, with the theme store broadcast of Kefumei on Xiaohongshu and the promotion of products by celebrity buyers, the purchasing link for [Focus Cream] has been opened up, completing the last piece of the puzzle for the new product to be a hit.

Brands that have been @ed and responded to Xiaohongshu users have already won, and brands that have not yet responded should work harder.

Even those brands that are not @ed should actually take the initiative to come to Xiaohongshu to [stir up trouble].

Don’t say you didn’t know about this. People have already slapped new product advertisements in your face.

How can you tolerate this?

I just can't stand it.

Even if Xiaohongshu users don’t find you, can’t you find them?

Yes, it is difficult to launch new products.

But this difficulty is based on the premise that the brand has always been fighting alone.

The value of Xiaohongshu is that it makes brands no longer lonely on the road to launching new products.

Xiaohongshu can provide support in every step of the new product launch.

Thousands of users who are good at living, understand products, and love to try new things can provide you with endless inspiration for new products;

Xiaohongshu's high-quality content capabilities and grass-planting atmosphere can help you translate new product selling points into buying points, occupy the minds of users, and achieve business growth from new products to hot products.

As long as we seize Xiaohongshu, the first stop for new products, the problem of launching new products will become less difficult.

From now on——

Anything new is a good omen.