How to choose a customer acquisition channel? Share a real case study of Zhiyin and Xiaohongshu

This article shares a case of how a startup brand found a customer acquisition channel, and analyzes four key points that brands need to pay attention to when choosing channels. Let’s take a look.

Not long ago, I had a live broadcast conversation with Yang Xili, the founder and CEO of Zhiyin.

They are an original furniture design brand that has been in business for 11 years. Their product designs are extremely creative and beautiful, and they have also been rated as one of the top 100 merchants by Xiaohongshu.

I gained a lot from communicating with her.

My biggest feeling is that if you want to build a good brand, choosing the right channel is very important.

Which channel is the most efficient and has the best ROI for selling products and promoting brands? The results of choosing the right channel and the wrong channel are worlds apart.

I have seen too many companies that choose the wrong channels. They are really working hard, but their results are not as good as others.

This article will talk about Zhiyin.

Although they are a design-driven brand and company, this time I will only talk about "channel selection".

Zhiyin first chose Taobao as its online channel, and it has been doing so for 10 years with good results, growing from a one-star seller to a three-crown seller.

However, it is still a niche brand. If it wants to break through the circle and reach more targeted groups of people, it not only needs good strategies but also differentiated channels. It is not enough to just do Taobao.

The solution is to delve deeper into Xiaohongshu.

I think this is the right move, why?

First, the genes of the Zhiyin brand are an original furniture brand, and the brand value is driven by design, so the content aesthetics is very good and very consistent with the tone of Xiaohongshu.

Second, the pricing is relatively high, and Xiaohongshu has a certain audience it wants to reach, so it can do some seeding to penetrate the market.

Just look at the pricing of Zhiyin and you will get a sense of this. A Rukawa coffee table sells for nearly 4,000 yuan, and a Qingfang leather sofa sells for 6,000 yuan.

Who would buy a niche original brand?

People with certain spending power or high knowledge, such as professors, scholars, executives, entrepreneurs, etc., who care a lot about aesthetics and design concepts and have a stronger sense of brand, which just corresponds to the advantage group of Xiaohongshu.

Therefore, Zhiyin created Xiaohongshu to sell goods on the one hand, but also, and more importantly, to promote its brand.

From brand promotion to product sales, this is a typical case. Zhiyin chose the right channel.

So, for other brands, how should they choose channels?

1. Depend on the user composition and consumption habits of the channel

For example, if your users are relatively more down-to-earth and care more about cost-effectiveness, then Pinduoduo is more suitable for you.

Because the user composition of this platform is biased towards the lower-end market, and the users' mindset is to buy products with high cost performance, this is obviously different from Taobao and JD.com.

You can also choose Kuaishou. The overall average order value is dozens of yuan lower than that of Douyin. Goods worth more than 100 yuan are obviously more difficult to sell. The principle is the same.

This is the user composition and consumption nature of the platform.

Looking at the products sold by Zhang Xiaohui on Xiaohongshu, the average customer spending during the first broadcast was close to 600 yuan. This type of anchor and average customer spending would be difficult to sell on other platforms.

Even if Gigi Leung changes the broadcasting platform, she will be criticized to death.

2. The advantages of channels and products should match

A friend consulted me before and said that they have many private domains and dozens of WeChat accounts, with thousands of people in each account. He asked me how to do it?

This is the advantage. I told him that he must focus on the video account and rely on the WeChat ecosystem to have a greater chance of success.

From this case, we can also draw a definite conclusion: if you have a private domain, you must create a video account.

Let’s change the scene.

If the product is extremely good-looking, looks beautiful in photos and has a high success rate, then you should choose Xiaohongshu, which matches your advantages.

On the other hand, if your product is ugly but cost-effective, you can sell it on Pinduoduo.

This principle is relatively simple, so I won’t elaborate on it.

3. It depends on the stage of the brand or company

If you are creating a new brand, don’t rush to sell it right away.

Because you don’t know whether your product can be successful or whether consumers like it. If you put it on Taobao and Douyin right away, the advertising fee will definitely be wasted.

Although Douyin's popular products have logic in the general direction, when it comes to a specific brand, they have to be tested bit by bit. You have to step into the pits that must be stepped on, and it is normal to pay some tuition fees.

Many bosses try to bypass this novice period, but end up suffering greater losses.

The correct step is to test the channel first.

For example, you can invest in koc in Xiaohongshu and use it as a search keyword. While cultivating the market, you can also see what feedback consumers have and find out the problems with the product.

After getting started, I became familiar with the entire chain, and I saw feedback and results, so I increased my investment. At the same time, I went to Taobao and did some advertising to see the ROI.

If you want to take your product to the next level.

It is time to expand product categories and target audiences, and you can repeat the above steps in a small way. However, this is a new topic and I will not expand on it here.

4. Depends on the company’s operating conditions

A friend of mine came to me and asked me if the group wanted to create a new brand. They gave me half a year. In the first three months, I was not in a hurry to make money, so I could cultivate the brand first.

From a business perspective, this decision is correct. It is easier to succeed if you are not so eager for quick success.

You can choose a channel to try, which is what we always call MVP. There is a stage of exploration and trial. The time cannot be long, but it can be made clear that sales are not sought at this stage.

The above 4 points are the methods for choosing channels.

But don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t mean that Xiaohongshu is the only suitable channel.

There are some non-standard products that are not suitable to be sold on Taobao and JD.com, and even cannot be sold by merchants. They are more suitable to be sold in private domains, such as tea, jewelry, and fruit.

The Baiguoyuan near my home always guides me to become a member every time I buy fruit, and also pulls me into a group of 400 people. The merchant posts new fruit, discounts, community-exclusive 21% discounts and other promotional information in the group every day.

Baiguoyuan regards private domain as a channel for selling goods, just like the Decathlon community operation we analyzed before. It increases repeat purchases by organizing activities, and the community is a new traffic entrance.

Let me extend this a little further.

The rapid growth of many brands is actually due to seizing the channel dividend.

For example, Yonghui seized the dividend of the supermarket channel of agricultural reform; Xibei and Yunhaixiang seized the dividend of the rise of shopping malls; Hubang and Luckin Coffee seized the dividend of takeout; Huaxizi seized the dividend of the live streaming e-commerce channel; Three Squirrels and Linshi Wood Industry seized the dividend of Taobao e-commerce.

Seizing the bonus depends on luck on the one hand and insight and execution on the other.

Finally, let’s summarize the core points:

1. The essence of a channel is the ability to reach consumers on a large scale, and it is necessary to solve problems related to selling products, branding, and user minds.
2. The choice of channel should match the channel with one's own advantages, such as user composition, product advantages and the stage of the enterprise.

Author: Han Xu

Source: WeChat public account "HanXu (ID: kenengyouxihanxu)"