The "huge wealth" of bees and flowers cannot be achieved by relying solely on free traffic

As the Li Jiaqi incident continued to ferment, traditional Chinese products also took advantage of this trend and returned to the public's attention with the "79 set meal". This article provides an in-depth analysis of the reasons for the decline of traditional Chinese products and what to do next. If you are interested, come and have a look!

Recently, an unexpected incident has brought old domestic products such as Fenghua and Huoli 28, which were almost forgotten, back into people's attention. Li Jiaqi, an Internet celebrity who sells goods in a live broadcast room, caused disgust and ridicule among netizens because of his words "79 yuan is not expensive". The thing he said was not expensive for 79 yuan was the eyebrow pencil of the new domestic brand Huaxizi, and this sentence inadvertently touched many people's feelings for old domestic products.

Therefore, these old domestic brands took the opportunity to launch live broadcast marketing on platforms such as Douyin. These old domestic brands used high cost performance and domestic conscience as selling points, attracting a large number of consumers' attention and purchases, creating amazing traffic and sales.

1. This wave of old domestic products won

After Li Jiaqi’s remarks in his live broadcast room went wrong, a counterattack by traditional Chinese products began.

The first to appear was Fenghua, which quickly took advantage of the situation and launched three 79-yuan cleaning and care packages in the Douyin live broadcast room on the evening of September 11. The anchor of Fenghua also kept shouting slogans such as "79 yuan can buy 5.5 kilograms", which made netizens laugh. This move triggered heated discussions and attention from netizens, tens of thousands of people flocked to the live broadcast room, and sales also soared. According to Feigua data, the official Douyin account of Fenghua gained 486,000 followers on September 13, and the sales of the live broadcast room also exceeded 25 million yuan.

The popularity of Fenghua has attracted attention to a large number of domestic products.

Following closely behind is Yumeijing, a long-established Chinese brand that specializes in children's skin care products. It took "overnight action" on September 14, opening official accounts on Xiaohongshu and Douyin, and trying live broadcasting. Yumeijing's account quickly attracted a large number of fans and viewers. Yumeijing also invited its chairman Shi Bin to appear in the live broadcast room and dance to thank the audience. So far, the Douyin account of Yumeijing's official flagship store has gained more than 1 million fans.

With a history of nearly 70 years, Vitality 28 was not far behind. On the evening of September 13, it launched a variety of 79-yuan laundry packages in the Douyin live broadcast room, with "three old men" as the anchors. This scene aroused the curiosity and sympathy of netizens, and the number of people in the live broadcast room once reached more than 100,000. During the period, the anchors made many mistakes due to their unfamiliarity with the live broadcast rules and techniques, and netizens swiped the screen to remind or guide them. After Vitality 28's products were quickly sold out, the anchors even started chatting or dancing with netizens.

One day after the live broadcast of Vitality 28 was suspended, the number of people in the live broadcast room exceeded 70,000 on the morning of September 19, and the popularity remained unabated.

2. Why are old domestic products so popular? ——High cost performance and domestic product sentiment under consumption downgrade

It is of course accidental that this wave of old domestic products has become popular on the entire Internet with the help of Li Jiaqi's traffic, but the relationship behind it is actually closely related to people's current consumption mentality.

When Li Jiaqi said that Huaxizi eyebrow pencil is not expensive at 79 yuan, and that people should think about whether they have worked hard and whether their salary has increased, this sentence touched the pain points of many people. Because nowadays, it is not the era where hard work can increase wages. Many people work very hard, but not only do they not get a salary increase, but their wages may even decrease.

When I posted a Weibo post to explain this fact, many netizens commented that 79 was their living expenses for several days. Perhaps there was some sarcasm in these words, which reflects the current situation of consumers' unwillingness to spend money indiscriminately and low desire for consumption.

Obviously, the trend of consumption downgrade has become very obvious. Against such a background, people are no longer so concerned about the added value of brands. They no longer think that the more expensive the goods, the better. Instead, they want to buy brands that are more suitable for themselves, have high cost performance, strong practicality and reliable quality.

Fenghua, Vitality 28, Yumeijing and other old domestic brands have certain quality assurance. After years of market testing and consumer recognition, consumers can buy them with confidence. In addition, these domestic brands have high cost performance as a selling point. For example, you can buy 5.5 kilograms of Fenghua hair conditioner for 79 yuan; you can buy 4 bottles of Yumeijing children's cream...

The prices of these old domestic products are much lower than the so-called new domestic products, and the quality is not bad either. These products focus on consumers who pursue cost-effectiveness. Nowadays, consumers who pursue cost-effectiveness can be said to be mainstream consumers, so they have attracted a large number of users.

In my article "Why do Hongxing Erke, White Elephant, and Fenghua make you spend money like a savage?", I said that consumption represents an attitude. To a certain extent, what kind of products you buy represents what kind of person you are.

Because of their performance in the direction of social responsibility, Erke and Baixiang have formed a social image of "responsibility and love", thus promoting "wild consumption" among a large number of consumers.

Old domestic brands such as Fenghua, Huoli 28, and Yumeijing have been labeled as conscientious domestic brands because of their fair prices. It can be said that "Chinese people do not cheat Chinese people". Coupled with the patriotic sentiments aroused by Huawei recently, consumers who buy these products have become consumers who support domestic products and are patriotic.

The only thing missing here is “If you don’t buy it, you’re not a Chinese.”

Therefore, in the context of consumption downgrade, high-cost-effective products coupled with patriotic sentiments have driven consumers to rush to the live broadcast rooms of these brands both materially and spiritually, so their live broadcast rooms have gained huge natural traffic.

When Fenghua emphasized in the live broadcast room that "you can buy 5.5 kilograms for 79 yuan" and the three old men from Huoli 28 kept making jokes in the live broadcast room, the traffic in the live broadcast room was further pushed up.

3. The old domestic products lack product innovation, but the bigger problem lies in marketing

In the short term, old domestic brands such as Fenghua, Huoli 28, and Yumeijing have gained huge traffic, and it is free traffic. This is of course an unexpected gain, but the reason why accidents are accidents is because they are uncontrollable. Domestic brands cannot rely solely on these unexpected events to take over traffic.

Compared with new domestic products such as Huaxizi, the quality of old domestic products is not bad. Many people have the impression that the quality of domestic products in the 1980s and 1990s was very good, and these domestic products were also affordable.

In comparison, they are at an absolute disadvantage in new product development and corresponding marketing.

These old domestic brands invested a lot of money in R&D in the early days. For example, according to the official website of Tianyancha, Fenghua currently has 45 valid patents and 2 patents under examination, including 30 utility model patents and 8 invention patents. Yumeijing also currently has 9 valid patents and 1 patent under examination, including 6 utility model patents and 2 invention patents.

But in recent years, they have not had any impressive new products. Even if there are new products, their release is almost silent and does not leave much noise.

In terms of marketing, they suffered a huge loss.

In the 1980s and 1990s, these old domestic brands did not face much competition, and their marketing channels were relatively simple. They used television advertising and nationwide supermarket distribution to greatly increase brand awareness and bring in real sales.

However, with the increase in similar brands on the market and changes in media channels, these old domestic brands are facing increasing pressure.

On the one hand, they put in fewer and fewer advertisements, and most of them rely on existing channels for exposure and sales. On the other hand, they are unable to effectively respond to changes in the media. When Huaxizi and others have already relied on the new consumer brand formula of "5,000 Xiaohongshu posts + 2,000 Zhihu Q&A posts + Wei Ya and Li Jiaqi's sales" for marketing, Yumeijing has not even opened Douyin or Xiaohongshu.

Under such circumstances, their products have extremely low exposure and give people a traditional, conservative and old-fashioned impression, making it difficult to attract the attention and love of young people.

For example, when it comes to launching new products, after rumors of Fenghua’s closure in 2021, they launched new shampoos and conditioners, but did not do much packaging and marketing.

In the official Douyin account of Fenghua, many netizens commented that "the packaging is cheap", "it looks very simple", "why not participate in the College Cup Advertising Competition to collect plans". The account of Fenghua replied in a funny tone, "it costs money" and "we are cheap to begin with", which made people laugh and cry.

Hua Xizi launched a Chinese carved lipstick in 2019, with monthly sales of 100,000 pieces in its Tmall flagship store in September, becoming one of the hot products that helped Hua Xizi break out of its circle.

Hua Xizi uses traditional Chinese micro-relief technology in its product packaging, carving animals and plants with oriental imagery such as cuckoos, cranes, koi, and phoenixes on the lipsticks, showing a unique sense of artistic quality and forming a differentiated positioning of a unique national style product.

In terms of marketing, it tied up with Li Jiaqi's live broadcast and became one of the first brands to enjoy the benefits of live broadcast when Taobao live broadcast exploded in 2019. Li Jiaqi recommended and tried carved lipsticks many times in live broadcasts, attracting a large number of viewers and buyers. Of course, its numerous KOL and KOC marketing on Xiaohongshu also made its information receive great attention.

Compared with new domestic brands that are good at packaging new products and marketing, old domestic brands are caught in a vicious circle: without investment in marketing, there will be no revenue growth, and without revenue growth, it will be impossible to launch new products and market them.

IV. Conclusion: Free marketing is not the norm

Old domestic products became popular with the help of the traffic of Li Jiaqi and Hua Xizi. They became hot searches and achieved huge sales in a short period of time, but the problem is that this cannot last forever.

Domestic products must find a stable source of traffic. If they still do not do product packaging, advertising, or marketing, their voices will gradually become smaller after a wave passes, and they may ultimately not escape the fate of being forgotten.

For the old domestic brands, this wave of traffic is an opportunity as well as a challenge. If these external factors can promote internal changes in the brand and complete brand upgrades and transformations, there may still be plenty of opportunities in the future. On the contrary, if they only regard this wave of traffic as earned, and there is still no change after this wave, then decline is the inevitable result.

Author: Xunkong

WeChat public account: Xunkong’s Marketing Revelation (ID: xunkong2005)