Traffic + old domestic products, can they really become popular again and again?

Recently, due to the Li Jiaqi incident, traditional Chinese brands have become the "eye-catchers" in live broadcast rooms, competing with each other in their respective live broadcast rooms, attracting enough attention and sales. Can traffic + traditional Chinese brands really become popular again and again? This article discusses this issue.

Recently, influenced by the Li Jiaqi & Hua Xizi incident, a wave of old domestic brands have become "conspicuous bags" in the public eye.

What can you buy at Fenghua for 79 yuan? Compared to Huaxizi, which is less than one gram, Fenghua has launched a shampoo and conditioner set that can be bought for 79 yuan. The new product has sparked widespread discussion among netizens, and many netizens feel that Fenghua is the real deal. The 79 yuan shampoo and conditioner set was sold out within hours of its launch. Not long ago, Fenghua was so poor that it used cartons from other brands to ship its products, which earned a lot of sympathy from netizens.

In addition to Fenghua, the domestic skincare brand Yumeijing also attracted attention on social media by using the gimmick of "the company is too backward and only recently had an official account." After these brands took advantage of the trend, many old domestic brands began to take advantage of this favorable trend to promote their own brands.

Official accounts on social media are calling out to each other, and the live broadcast rooms of various brands are competing with each other in various ways. These days, the old domestic brands have attracted a lot of attention.

On September 13, the "big platter" of domestic brands initiated by ERKE allowed more than 10 old domestic brands such as Fenghua, Mixue Bingcheng, and Huiyuan Juice to appear in the ERKE live broadcast room, making various domestic brands very lively for a while.

White Elephant and Mixue Ice City were placed on the table, and then the shoes were dipped in Bee Flower shampoo to wash. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the performance methods during the live broadcast. In order to promote the brand, many corporate executives appeared directly in the live broadcast room. The chairman of Yumeijing danced, and the OEM factory under Vitality 28 directly let the middle and senior management team act as anchors. The hard marketing of these brands has achieved remarkable results. On the day of Hongxing Erke's live broadcast, the 79-yuan sports shoes were sold out at one time, and Vitality 28 sold 230,000 orders.

In addition, Vitality 28 even had a new harvest. Due to improper sales operations, 230,000 products were sold with an additional 10 yuan, and the company announced the withdrawal of previous orders. This performance of honest operation has increased the popularity of Vitality 28, and the news of order cancellations has once become a hot topic on the Internet.

1. Old domestic brands are addicted to riding on the trend

Just when everyone thought that the old domestic brands finally understood marketing, in fact, this is not the first time that the old domestic brands have done so.

In March this year, when the American-based panda Yaya was hotly discussed online, Fenghua reportedly said it would spend hundreds of thousands of RMB to adopt a giant panda. Although it is still uncertain whether the panda was finally adopted, the popularity that Fenghua gained from it did exist, and Fenghua's live broadcast room was once sold out.

Going back a few years, the label that only increased by two yuan also made Fenghua a social hot spot. There is also Hongxing Erke, which has doubled its favorability in the hearts of netizens with its 50 million yuan donation to the Henan flood incident in 2021. After the incident, many netizens rushed to the live broadcast room to buy out the products. Having tasted the sweetness, Hongxing Erke will come out to spread the word every time there is a disaster in the future.

Obviously, these old domestic brands seem to be addicted to riding on the trend, but why do these old domestic brands like to use hot spots for marketing?

This actually has a lot to do with the development problems of old domestic brands in the new era.

Commentator Xie Xiaowen told Yilan Business: "With economic development and changes in consumer perceptions, the competitive pressure from emerging brands and international brands continues to increase. Some old domestic brands may face challenges such as product updates and brand image updates. In this process, emerging brands are impacting the market of old domestic brands, and the popularity of old domestic brands is greatly declining. Therefore, it is very important to quickly find a marketing method that can enhance their own reputation.

Yilan Business believes that hot-spot marketing has many benefits for the development of traditional Chinese products.

First, the old domestic brands did not have a marketing strategy that matched their own characteristics. For example, although Fenghua and Hongxing Erke were always on the hot list, they left almost no impression on consumers in their marketing, just like when people mention "Starbucks" or "McDonald's", they have corresponding images in their minds, but Fenghua and other old domestic brands have not left a very distinctive feature.

In the absence of marketing methods that suit their own style, what kind of marketing is the fastest and easiest? Without a doubt, it is to take advantage of hot topics. After all, for these brands, among a dozen hot topics, there will always be one that will become popular, as was the case with the Hua Xizi incident this time, and the previous Panda Yaya incident.

Secondly, old brands can use the attributes of domestic brands to "gild" their brands. Judging from the hot topics these brands are using, most of them are related to "national trends". For example, in the Huaxizi incident, Huaxizi itself is a domestic brand, and Fenghua stood up at this time. The same brand attributes and different practices between the two can arouse a lot of discussion. And the previous Panda Yaya incident was Fenghua's use of its own domestic attributes and Yaya's national treasure attributes to achieve linkage, which caused heated discussions. In the face of these hot topics, the domestic label is their best "money-making stone".

Finally, riding on the trend is the easiest way to keep up with the trend. Outdated marketing concepts are an important problem that old brands will encounter in the process of development. With the changes of the times, past marketing strategies are often unable to adapt to the changes of the new era. For example, a number of old domestic brands such as Yumeijing and Fenghua used TV advertising as their main marketing method in the past, which marked the childhood memories of many post-90s generations with their labels.

However, with the rise of the Internet and new media brands, these brands are not able to adapt to these changes well, and often gradually lose their popularity among a group of brands. This is very fatal for the brands. However, taking advantage of hot topics can make the popularity of old domestic brands known to the public again in a short period of time.

2. Traffic that is a temporary solution

However, riding on the trend is not a long-term solution for old domestic brands.

On the one hand, the popularity of a hot spot is limited. When the hot spot fades, the traffic brought by the brand will also dissipate. If you really take advantage of the hot spot as your long-term marketing plan, the benefits gained will only be temporary.

On the other hand, hot topics have risks, and there is no guarantee that all hot topics will go in a direction that is beneficial to them. Although riding on hot topics can bring many benefits to these brands, if they are not careful, the brand itself will be affected by the unfavorable public opinion of the hot topic, and the brand is likely to be damaged.

Obviously, if you want to rely on this random hot spot traffic to gain a spot, it is like drinking poison to quench thirst. In the view of Yilan Business, old domestic brands need long-term planning if they want to adapt to the development of the new era.

First, established domestic brands can strengthen brand image building and communication, create unique cultural connotations and values, and enhance brand influence and loyalty through differentiated brand image and cultural identity.

Secondly, time-honored domestic brands can focus on product innovation and upgrading, and launch new products that meet the trend of the times and consumer needs. In addition, time-honored brands can expand sales channels and fan groups through a combination of online and offline methods, and actively use new media platforms such as social media to promote and disseminate their brands.

At the same time, time-honored domestic products can also combine with current hot topics to create unique marketing methods and activities to attract more consumers' attention and participation. Finally, time-honored brands can strengthen internal management and cultivate talents to enhance core competitiveness and corporate operating efficiency.

Only by putting more effort in these aspects can the old domestic brands have a reliable path to long-term development. Otherwise, if they simply rely on riding on the hot spots, the future of these brands will quickly dissipate like a temporary hot spot.

Author: Hu Jiebin; Editor: Xue Xiang

Source public account: Yilan Business (ID: yilanshangye), a professional consumer service platform.