How to quickly increase sales of new products? 4 typical cases of different ways to promote hot products!

After launching a new product, how can a brand increase product sales and keep the new product alive? This involves corresponding operations and marketing strategies. In this article, the author disassembles several brand cases and the reasons why these brands can make their products successful. Let's take a look.

The backend often receives questions like this:

• How can new products be effectively launched in various channels? ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍
• How to effectively improve brand voice and maximize output through collaboration inside and outside the site? ‍
• How to allocate budget and resources for new product promotion?
• With such fierce market competition, do new brands still have a chance to enter?

In fact, many brands have launched their new products in the first half of 2023, but so far, only a few products have survived. In this issue, we have selected 48 new products launched in the first half of the year to lead everyone to explore the secrets behind product survival: What actions do you need to take to make a product in the current market? How to allocate product promotion resources? What is the survival rate of new products?

(Those who don’t have time to read the analysis can jump directly to the end of the article to read the summary!)

First of all, for the definition of a product, we assume that the cumulative sales exceed 10,000 units. As shown in the figure below, among these 48 products, only 15 products meet the requirements, accounting for 31%.

There are only 6 products that have accumulated sales of more than 50,000 pieces, accounting for 12%. And there is only 1 product that has accumulated sales of more than 100,000 pieces. So it is not difficult to see that it is quite difficult to promote a product at present.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor Douyin data source - Chan Mama)

We can observe that most of the products with cumulative sales exceeding 10,000 pieces are domestic brands, with only 3 overseas brands. Domestic brands are also the main brands for products with cumulative sales exceeding 50,000 pieces.

Although overseas brands have certain endorsements and brand advantages, in terms of product promotion success rate, domestic brands currently have unique advantages.

Among the products with cumulative sales of over 50,000, Dr. Aier and Xiwuji are both new products that have grown up in the past two years. They have very strong advantages in expert resources and channel resources.

Due to the rise of the medical beauty market in the past two years and users' preference for skin care brands with technological ingredients, Kefumei has become a representative domestic brand like Winona and PROYA.

Among the 48 newly launched products, it is obvious that Douyin sales are an indispensable key channel. Among the products with cumulative sales of more than 10,000 units, Douyin sales accounted for more than 50% of the products.

It can be seen that Douyin is an indispensable channel for current products to survive or grow quickly.

Next, we have selected 3 typical domestic brands and 1 overseas brand for analysis. They are: Dr. Aier Lip Cream , which ranks first in sales, Dr. Aier Flash Cream , which also sells well in spring and summer, as well as the Carefree Collagen Soothing Patch and Dr. Ci:Labo's 169 Essence .

By observing the promotion of these four products, we can find out what advantages the products must have in order to be promoted to this scale.

1. Dr. Aier Lip Cream

Dr. Aire's Cream Lip Cream was launched in October last year, which is the best-selling season for lip care products in autumn and winter. It has two sales channels: Taobao and Douyin. In addition to the official flagship store, it also has a large number of distribution channels on the Taobao platform.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor)

As shown in the figure above, judging from the sales in the past 30 days, the contribution rate of official channels is about 68%, so 32% is contributed by the distribution channel. This is the sales path of Dr. Aire Lip Cream.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor Xiaohongshu data source - Huitun)

The product’s traffic promotion channels were basically placed on Xiaohongshu, and some notes on recommending good products were directly made. A small number of collection evaluation videos were also used on Douyin for promotion.

It is obvious that the overall volume of its placement on Xiaohongshu is not large, with a total of only 140 notes and only 6 popular articles with more than 1,000 interactions. This is not considered a very high volume of placement on Xiaohongshu.

It is a method of leveraging a large amount of channel resources to jointly boost product sales at seasonal points through relatively less exposure.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor)

As shown in the figure above, at the search level, we can see that during the hot advertising period in the fall and winter of last year, the number of searches exceeded 10,000, but as the popularity declined, the search volume also decreased.

This direct search volume can only bring in a few thousand or so people to pay, but the sales of a single link to the product's official store exceeds 100,000+, which is not just the value of brand exposure.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor)

As shown in the above figure, the link for the lipstick product that sold over 100,000 units was indeed dominated by searches when it was launched, and searches are the core force in selling the entire product.

In addition to direct brand searches, it can be clearly seen that as sales accumulate, the product has attracted a large amount of category word traffic, accounting for nearly 80% of searches at its highest. This is a reflection of the team's strong product selection capabilities.

So what is category word guidance?

For example, if the user just wants Dr. Aire's lipstick, then he will search for the keyword Dr. Aire's lipstick. This is called precise demand logic and will be classified as a brand word.

Category demand actually means that the user does not have a clear brand in mind that he wants to buy, but just wants to buy a lipstick, so he will search for category words related to lipstick.

Dr. Aire drove product sales to the top link through early promotion, occupying a key position in the lipstick category and gaining a large amount of traffic from category words.

The sales brought by this category word traffic can account for 35-40% of the total product sales. If you switch to a product that is difficult to have category word traffic, the brand's sales will be cut by nearly half.

Therefore, the product selection logic of Dr. Aire Lip Cream is crucial. It chooses a product that can generate category word traffic. After pushing the product to the front, it can obtain a lot of free traffic, which can increase the sales capacity of the entire product. It is also the core of the team's selection of Taobao channels as key channels.

This is the introduction to how to use Dr. Aire Lip Cream. Finally, let’s summarize what makes Dr. Aire Lip Cream so popular.

First of all, it has the advantage of product selection. The product selected by Dr. Aire this time is highly compatible with the capabilities of its team. In the lipstick category, there are a large number of category-oriented consumer users, which can maximize the operational capabilities of the team.

The second is Dr. Aire’s channel advantage, which enables it to maximize the use of its low marketing budget, which is also a capability accumulated through its long-term operations.

By leveraging the brand's channel resource advantages and product category characteristics, the product promotion return rate can be greatly improved.

2. Dr. Aire Flash Cream

The second product we selected is the Dr. Aier family flash cream, which is mainly operated by Douyin. Its Douyin was launched in October 22, and Tmall was launched in December 22.

The main sales force of the product is still the Douyin broadcast channel. As shown in the figure below, from last year to the beginning of this year, the flash charging cream has cooperated with top bloggers such as Dada, Pan Yurun, and Liu Yuanyuan.

It was not until April this year that brands began to intervene in self-broadcasting, but the overall scale of self-broadcasting was not large, accounting for only between 10% and 20% of overall sales.

The sales structure on Taobao is very similar to that of Dr. Aire Lip Cream, which is also a model of official stores + distribution, with official stores accounting for between 60% and 70% of sales.

The sales structure of Dr. Aier Flash Cream on Douyin is actually closely related to the brand background of Dr. Aier itself. The brand's previous products such as Anti-Gravity Lotion and Pioneer Essence have all had a very strong voice and exposure on Douyin. It has accumulated a lot of strong influencer resources and influencer cooperation capabilities. This is also the reason why Dr. Aier Flash Cream was able to cooperate with top influencers as soon as it was launched.

The exposure of this product is also mainly concentrated in the two channels of Xiaohongshu and Douyin. The scale of the flash charging cream on Xiaohongshu is still relatively large, about twice that of the lip cream. The content is mainly based on the recommendation notes of good things, but the brand will be forcibly grafted, and there are a large number of brand promotion and collection notes.

On Douyin, we have cooperated with many beauty and vertical influencers in content promotion, such as Pan Yurun and A Huai, who are the shoulder and head influencers of the beauty and vertical category.

Here we can see a feature, that is, the influencers who are the core partners of the brand contribute exposure when they should, and harvest when they should. For example, bloggers like Pan Yurun and Yang Meili not only contribute content, but also contribute a very high proportion of sales.

This is the exposure logic of Dr. Aier Flash Cream, with Douyin as the main exposure and Xiaohongshu as the supplement. Therefore, if you want to achieve such a sales volume of Dr. Aier Flash Cream, you first need a high exposure channel.

So the question is, every brand can find these cooperative experts, so why can't other brands reach the same level?

In fact, Dr. Aier Flash Cream had already been quietly testing the waters before it officially started on Douyin in February 2023. In October and November last year, it contributed 65,000 yuan in value. This 65,000 yuan was actually a test of whether this product could really sell.

This is why we always say that new products must have a testing phase, because we need to find out what the selling point of this product is, or what the core acceptance point of users is.

Dr. Aire Flash Cream was launched and promoted in large quantities only after it had judged the feasibility of the product in October and November.

Of course, before this, Dr. Aire Flash Cream did not really start from scratch. It also accumulated a certain amount of exposure on Xiaohongshu to facilitate users to search and find it.

This also gives us a logic for product testing: first, we need to consider the conversion ability of the influencer himself, and second, we need to make advance preparations for better conversion of the product.

If there are some bloggers with whom you have good cooperation, you can place the product in their live broadcast room in advance and do a test. If its conversion rate is significantly higher than other products in the same period, then the product is feasible.

I have previously shared with you "6 brands that have experienced explosive growth on Douyin in the past year, and how big is the difference in traffic spillover to Taobao under different gameplay?" As Douyin reaps more sales, the amount spillover to Taobao will inevitably decrease, but Dr. Aier Flash Recharge Cream is a special case. The cumulative sales on Taobao account for 60% of the Douyin channel.

Let’s take a quick look at the traffic composition of Taobao sales, as shown in the figure below.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor)

It can be clearly seen that among the traffic channels of the top products: search accounts for about 15% of the total sales, Pinxiaobao, that is, the traffic harvested by the brand, accounts for about 10%, Taobao payment accounts for 10%, Taobao customers outside the site account for 15%, and Taobao live broadcast accounts for 5%.

First of all, search does not occupy a very high position. Secondly, the operation of Taobao’s in-app payment and the harvesting of brand power have brought a lot of sales, and the team’s own operational capabilities are relatively strong.

Although the proportion of searches is not high, it can be seen from the core keywords that contribute to conversion that face creams and lip creams have certain similarities, and category words account for a high proportion, accounting for 60% of searches. In a category such as face creams that is dominated by brand consumption, this also reflects the brand's advantage in on-site operation capabilities.

Next, let’s summarize why the Dr. Air brand is more effective than other brands. Take good notes!

First, the Dr. Aier team has strong resources and relationships with top influencers. For example, DaDa contributes 65% of the sales of all face cream products. It can quickly become a hot product in the channel and transition the product from being driven by people to being driven by products.

Second, the second brand has a clear testing path to improve the success rate of product promotion and reduce the cost of trial and error.

Third, the brand team itself has strong operational capabilities and can achieve a higher share through its own operations in categories that rely purely on brand traffic.

3. Collagen Soothing Patch

The third product is the Collagen Soothing Patch, and its underlying logic is somewhat similar to that of Dr. Aire.

Let’s first look at its sales structure. As shown in the figure below, it is still mainly based on the two channels of Douyin and Taobao. The contribution of the Douyin channel is mainly from Dabo.

We can see that there are top influencers such as DaDa, Liu Fang, and LaLaLaiLuZhuang, and its influencer resources are also relatively strong. Before the launch of the Collagen Shushu Patch, Liu Fang had already contributed 3 million in sales.

Its Taobao sales are shown in the figure below, which is also mainly based on distribution and official flagship stores. Judging from the sales in the past 30 days, its official stores account for 46%, and the distribution share is even higher.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor)

So next, let’s take a look at where the pre-sales exposure comes from.

From the Tmall flagship store, the new product was officially launched in February 2023, but Douyin data monitoring shows that in fact, the Collagen Soothing Patch was already sold on Douyin in August 2022. So we regard August 2022 to February 2023 as the first cycle.

During this period, there was little exposure of the Kefumei Shushu patch, and the core was only the sales behavior of Douyin Dabo. So why is it still selling?

First of all, Kefumei has a strong brand power. You should know that during the 618 event this year, Kefumei has grown to the sixth place in the category, and its contribution to special events on the Douyin channel has basically exceeded 100 million. Secondly, the brand has a relatively strong relationship with influencers. Basically, the influencers that have cooperated with it are all promoted by multiple products.

Finally, its product combination logic, when Shushu Pie appears in the live broadcast room of experts, it is basically sold based on the logic of popular products + Shushu Pie, such as single-use essence + Shushu Pie, small water mask + Shushu Pie, etc., which is a sales logic of popular products leading other products.

Therefore, at this stage, the brand mainly cooperates with bloggers with good historical feedback data to conduct the first round of trial broadcasts, which is also to verify the logic of "whether this product can be sold" that we mentioned in Dr. Aire.

The brand officially started to promote after February 2023, which is also its second cycle. As shown in the figure below, first of all, we can see some growth in influencers, such as Doudou, Zhou Xiaoke, Lalalai Luzhuang, etc., and live broadcasts by super influencers such as Luo Wangyu are actually some promotional activities of the brand.

(TikTok data source - Chan Mama)

As brand exposure increases, the proportion of brand live broadcasts has also increased since March 2023. At this time, the official store's ability to undertake can be improved.

This is what we have slowly observed with many brands. As their exposure increases, the proportion of their own broadcast rooms will become higher and higher.

Because if there is no user accumulation, it is difficult to sell the brand live broadcast room. As the brand exposure increases, the sales of the live broadcast room will also get better and better.

In addition, there are not many popular articles on Xiaohongshu about Kefumei Shushu Patch. They are basically stable notes recommending good things, without much innovation in the content.

However, when it comes to influencer screening, Kefumei adopts a strong influencer screening logic. The cooperation cost for a single influencer is around 5,000, with the intention of driving some brand searches through the influencer’s own vertical fans.

But this logic is only suitable for brands like Kefumei that do not focus on pursuing ultra-high traffic efficiency.

On the Taobao platform, more than 10,000 pieces of Kefumei Shushu Patches were sold, of which there were two SKUs, one was a trial pack of 2 pieces at 29.9 yuan, and the other was a full pack at 169 yuan. In fact, the trial pack at 29.9 yuan was used to play its value during the product launch stage.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor)

When the product was first launched, it quickly increased the weight of the product link by selling two-packs, because the price of the trial pack was more favorable than the full pack.

Secondly, through this price, we can quickly attract users to try it out and accumulate a large number of real users. We all know that Kefumei is very professional in restoration and has a certain scale, so users have a natural sense of trust in it.

This is why it can do this. If the brand does not produce products around a core circle, it will be difficult to apply the logic and mentality of the previous product.

This certainly has its pros and cons, but Fumei can indeed leverage its core circle operations around restoration, but it is also difficult to open up a new market.

Next, let’s summarize Kefumei’s ideas:

1. The brand's production logic is highly related to vertical users. Such new products can actually help leverage the brand's strength. Basically, brand users will have a natural liking for this product.
2. The brand's own capabilities are very important. Whether it is cooperation with super-head influencers or large-scale distribution and distribution on Tmall, it is all determined by the brand's own influencer relationship capabilities and channel capabilities. These resources need to be well maintained, which will help us quickly drive the growth of new products when we launch new products.
3. On the Taobao platform, Ke Fumei can use low-threshold products to increase link weight, and further increase order value and production efficiency through combination sales.
4. We cooperate with a large number of beauty influencers on the Douyin platform and use the logic of old popular products to promote the exposure of new products, thereby enhancing users' awareness of new products.

4. Dr.Ci:Labo 169 Essence

This is a product that is different from the typical public perception. It is also the only overseas brand, Dr. Ci:Labo 169 Essence. Its sales structure is also two channels, Douyin and Taobao, but Taobao is the main channel.

(Taobao data source - Business Advisor)

As shown in the above figure, we can see that its core sales have two links, the combination of morning C and evening A and a 169 essence single product, with the average customer price of 1,060 yuan and 490 yuan respectively. It is a high-priced product, and its sales combination accounts for 80%.

The difference between the promotion of this product and other brands is that the main sales channels are Weibo + Xiaohongshu.

The brand officially announced Liu Yuxin as its spokesperson this year, so the launch of this product is based on the logic of celebrity exposure and celebrity fan acquisition. In April, when the official announcement was made, the combined sales of the two links reached 4.17 million.

At the same time, it can be clearly seen that the content of Xiaohongshu also revolves around the promotional layout of Weibo, with some good product recommendations added to increase the popularity of the entire brand, achieving extremely high gains from celebrity marketing in April.

When a brand has money and resources, this approach, although with low investment, can drive brand growth very quickly. Screening out celebrity resources with more potential and advantages in the early stages is also the focus of this approach.

The second scenario that is suitable for this gameplay is when the brand is very confident in its own products and believes that through the first wave of user purchases, it can generate 50% user repurchases, so that the account can be balanced.

This is the gameplay and idea of ​​Dr. Ci:Labo 169 Essence. So what is the premise of this gameplay? In fact, we mentioned two combinations above, among which the combination of 377 Essence + 169 Essence in the morning and evening has a super high conversion rate.

First of all, the 377 essence is a popular product of Dr. Ci:Labo, which can boost the sales of the 169 essence, which satisfies the logic of "old popular products bring new products". And this combination also takes advantage of the concept of early C and late A and the popularity of A alcohol.

Moreover, the retinol on the market has common pain points, and the 169 essence can just solve this pain point, so this combination is very valuable.

Secondly, Dr. Ci:Labo 169 Essence is a brand business, and its ultimate goal is to make the product's awareness in the A-alcohol market the same as that of Dr. Ci:Labo 377 Essence in the whitening market.

Therefore, it will not care about the temporary gains and losses. This idea can be used as a reference for everyone, and you can try this idea when the brand enters a certain stage.

V. Conclusion

So far, we have understood the characteristics and situations of these four brands. Next, I will summarize for you the reasons why these brands have achieved high efficiency and succeeded.

1. Brand’s Pre-positioning Capabilities

Many things cannot be achieved overnight, and require advance reserves, that is, the unique value and brand power of the brand over a long period of time. For example, as long as the brand launches soothing products, users will naturally recognize it.

2. Brand operational capabilities

There are many ways to reflect a brand's operational capabilities. For example, Dr. Aire's lip balm has a strong ability to select products and knows what kind of products can drive higher sales with a small amount of marketing costs.

Or the strong channel resources accumulated by the brand itself can help the product grow rapidly. The time when the product is launched also tests the collaboration ability of the operation team.

3. Product positioning

We need to position and target the product well from the beginning. For example, Dr. Ci:Labo 169 Essence decided to become a representative brand in the A-alcohol market from the moment it was launched, so it is not in a hurry to reap the rewards.

Through long-term brand operation, the product can penetrate into the minds of users, but this approach requires the brand to have strong product support capabilities.