What is Xiaohongshu Lingxi? What is its significance for business operations?

After Xiaohongshu launched Lingxi, what can it do for people? And how can businesses learn from it? Let’s take a look at the author’s analysis.

Last year, Xiaohongshu held a business conference to formally introduce Lingxi products. The official explanation was that Lingxi is a platform for merchants to select products, conduct research, and place selling points.

In my opinion, it is similar to Douyin's Cloud Map and Taobao's Business Advisor. With this system, it can better help merchants select products, choose target users, diagnose product strength, etc.

Note: Currently it is only open to agents and some high-consumption customers, and more than 90% of merchants cannot use it.

Xiaohongshu Lingxi backend functions

Previously, Xiaohongshu also revealed in a 36Kr press release that Lingxi has content such as track, demand analysis, audience analysis and product word-of-mouth research. The latest introduction is Lingxi Insight, which solves problems at all stages of the brand.

Such as trend insights, what products to choose, how to see the market response of the products, who to communicate with, and what kind of selling points to produce. In other words, the platform is to help you win on Xiaohongshu.

Problems that Xiaohongshu Lingxi Insight solves

Let’s talk about the five major functions of Lingxi;

1. Lingxi Trend Insights

As a data platform, Lingxi integrates Xiaohongshu search and data from different community categories to see the growth of different words.

For example, for lotions, you can see whether there is recent growth, index changes, rankings, etc. Merchants will also have a reference when selecting products;

Xiaohongshu Lingxi Trend Insights

2. Lingxi helps with product selection

For example, beauty brand A is considering how to make essence and cream?

Lingxi can analyze market trends, look at market demand and competitor competition, and look at search and demand situations. From this, you can see which category the brand is in and determine its competitive advantage.

Lingxi helps brands understand the competition situation in the field

PS: The data here from Lingxi can also be viewed through the official updated monthly report and keyword planning background, where you can see the search volume and bid situation, and truly see the specific competition situation.

Taking the beauty monthly report in January as an example, we can see the proportion of industry searches and competition, and where the competition is blue ocean, red ocean, etc.

Analysis of the proportion of beauty categories on Xiaohongshu

Xiaohongshu beauty industry competition click cost

3. Lingxi helps diagnose product strength

Use Lingxi to see how the brand’s product strength is perceived by consumers?

Look at the overall reputation of the product and specific user feedback. For example, if the NPS (word-of-mouth recommendation) of brand A is higher than that of other brands, look at the positive and negative evaluations of specific dimensions, and then dynamically adjust the product based on user evaluations;

Lingxi helps diagnose product strength

PS: Lingxi sorts the points that users care about, and then further subdivides them. Taking efficacy as an example, there are demands for anti-aging, moisturizing, anti-oxidation, etc., to see what advantages the brand has in this dimension.

But I also have doubts here. As a brand, it basically promotes its own products, and promoting its own products is basically to maintain its reputation. The objectivity of the positive feedback and word cloud here is also problematic.

4. Analysis of Lingxi’s target users

In the last step, Lingxi helps brands analyze who the users are and what they like.

Define TA, enrich user tags, analyze user tags, understand customer tags, and then conduct advertising and delivery after refining the tags.

Lingxi target user portrait analysis

The core of the target users, using the anti-funnel model of Xiaohongshu, penetrates the core group and continuously breaks through the circle for conversion;

Xiaohongshu crowd anti-funnel model

For example, the core group of the cotton era gauze quilt is the mothers who sleep with panda eyes, the interested group is the white-collar workers with panda eyes, and then to the exquisite sleep home, breaking through the groups layer by layer;

The anti-funnel model of the cotton era

5. Insights into Lingxi’s selling points

Lingxi can also help brands determine which selling points to promote?

First, sort the user needs and user concerns in order to understand the effects, and then continue to drill down to the effect level. What do users care about?

Then continue to drill down to find out what the ingredients are and what advantages it has compared to other brands.

Insights into Xiaohongshu's selling points

6. Lingxi’s help to merchants

The above is the official introduction of Lingxi. Let me talk about my personal understanding of the Lingxi platform.

1. Xiaohongshu’s data capabilities upgraded

Lingxi has launched the most comprehensive data platform officially disclosed to the public. It is of reference significance to every merchant. It can be used to look at category competition, user demand, and competing products. It can also enable brands to make timely choices or even give up in time.

Compared with Douyin's Cloud Map and Taobao's Business Advisor, it is still uncertain whether Lingxi will be fully available to merchants.

Too many small businesses, private domain businesses, and even bloggers need similar data tools for guidance. Currently, market analysis tools such as Qiangua and Huitun are also assuming Lingxi-like functions.

2. Both scientific marketing and brand theory are needed

Lingxi, Business Advisor, and Yuntu are all under the 5A communication model. Almost all platforms are trying to use a set of processes to tell businesses how to do marketing scientifically, to gain insights, to create selling points, and to use delivery tools.

However, when it comes to the underlying content of marketing, theory is still lacking. For example, brand theories such as naming is strategy, communication is cost, and transaction cost, etc. Merchants still have a lot of room to learn in their operations, and they need both scientific marketing and the coordination of brand theory.

Author: Jiang He

WeChat public account: Jianghe Chat Marketing