There are tens of millions of brands that skirt the line, why is Coco Tree the only one that isn’t criticized?

There are many marketing methods. Coconut Tree is a brand that relies on the edge of popularity. Not only is its live broadcast business doing well, but its sales volume is also among the top ten. What is the reason? This article describes the relevant content and hopes it will be helpful to you.

From "eye-catching" to "I love watching", Coco Tree completed a counterattack in 3 months.

Since March this year, Coconut Tree has been frequently on the hot search due to its controversial live broadcasts. Walking into Coconut Tree's live broadcast room, you will see a group of muscular men exuding male hormones doing aerobics together.

The audience said it was "eye-catching", but they were honest enough to click in and enjoy it. "Male model live broadcast" became a topic of conversation after dinner, and also brought a lot of traffic to Coco Tree.

As a beverage brand that has been established for more than 30 years, Coco Tree Coconut Juice has never left people's sight. Not only has it done well in its live broadcast business, but it also ranked among the top 8 in the global beverage rankings last year.

However, Coconut Tree's marketing methods have always been controversial. So some people say "You can't imitate Coconut Tree's success." So, is this really the case?

In this article, we will take coconut trees as an example to provide some marketing inspiration for brands.

1. From female model to male model, Ye Shu found the "traffic code" of live streaming

Of course, even for Coco Tree, which has a lot of experience in marketing, the road to live streaming has not been smooth sailing.

During the National Day holiday last year, Yeshu tried live streaming on Douyin for the first time. A group of female anchors wearing tights and shorts danced passionately in the live broadcast room, which was considered to be suspected of skirting the line.

The controversy made Coco Tree a hot topic, attracting the attention of regulators and also attracted over 300,000 fans within 9 days.

However, in the face of huge traffic, controversy and fines are nothing. In the face of supervision, Yeshu paid the fines without hesitation, while showing an "unrepentant" attitude and continued to do its live broadcast.

However, careful netizens discovered that Coco Tree has made certain changes.

In March this year, the Coconut Tree Group started to test the waters of "male model anchors". A group of young and handsome male models with thick eyebrows and big eyes, who were over 180cm tall, wore fitness vests and showed off their muscles in the live broadcast room, which soon became the "happy hometown" of netizens.

This seemingly naive and rustic aesthetic is actually the result of Coco Tree's continuous optimization based on audience feedback .

In the comment section, someone even lamented, "I thought Coconut Tree was objectifying women, but I didn't expect that Coconut Tree objectified everyone equally."

With the success of the live broadcast trial, Coco Tree was encouraged to go a step further and explore a live broadcast path suitable for the brand. The male anchors completely changed the reputation of Coco Tree Live with their determined eyes, rich talents and full of hormones.

"Male Model Live Broadcast" has become another phenomenal topic in 2023, frequently appearing on hot searches, bringing huge traffic to Coco Tree. The first Taobao Live broadcast in May had a total of more than 700,000 views and 116,000 likes, which can be regarded as another masterpiece of Coco Tree's marketing.

I remember that when the person in charge of Coco Tree responded to the controversy over the live broadcast style, he expressed the view that "men have masculinity, women have femininity, coconut milk has coconut milk flavor, and the main focus is on original flavor."

But if you look closely, masculinity and femininity are actually the smell of traffic.

2. What’s the point of Coco Tree not selling any products and just “skirting the line”?

Digging deep into the brand history of Coco Tree, it is not difficult to find that relying on "marginal marketing" to attract attention and stimulate sales is its usual means. However, now in the era of short videos, new channels have been used.

Although live streaming is booming, in sharp contrast to the high popularity is Coco Tree’s “dismal” performance in selling goods.

According to Chanmama data, the Douyin account "Yeshu Group" has conducted 7 live broadcasts in the past month, but the average sales per broadcast is less than 10,000 yuan. In March this year, a live broadcast with more than 2 million likes had a final sales of only 30,000 yuan.

Many people therefore question whether Coco Tree’s live broadcast method that relies on “beauty” is really effective?

Before answering this question, let’s take a look at Coco Tree’s financial report.

Public data shows that in the past eight years, except for the counter-cyclical growth in 2019 and 2021, the growth rate of Coco Group's operating income has slowed down significantly, and even turned negative in five years.

At the same time, with the strong rise of new consumer brands such as Yuanqi Forest and Haowangshui, Coco Tree's market share has dropped from 75% at its peak to 23.6%.

All these performances reflect one fact: after 35 years of standing in the coconut milk market, Coco Tree has also ushered in its own "mid-life crisis".

If you don’t move forward, you will fall behind. Coco Tree needs a brave “breakout” to narrow the distance between itself and the young group and revitalize the old giant.

It is in this context that the "TuHai" live broadcast room has become a new publicity window for Coco Tree.

Watching any live broadcast of Coco Tree, it is nothing more than this routine: first touch the edge, show the body, and then reveal the product.

Do you think Coco Tree is really promoting products?

No, the real purpose is not to sell products. Compared with the crude sales performance, Coconut Tree pays more attention to exposing its products through live broadcasts, thereby further strengthening its brand image and occupying the minds of young people.

Currently, neither of Coco Tree’s two Douyin accounts has any products listed in the store, even though this could have the opportunity to improve the brand’s performance.

In this Taobao live broadcast, Coco Tree simply did not promote any products. Not only did it not put any product links, but the product that was shown the most was not its own coconut juice, but the "rocket bottle" mineral water that the audience did not know much about.

After a live broadcast, mango juice and lychee juice became familiar to the audience in the live broadcast room. Other products such as "Xiahuo Tea" and coconut oil also appeared on the screen many times.

Perhaps one of the audience members sighed and aptly expressed the intention of Coco Tree, "It was not until today that I realized that Coco Tree does not only sell coconut milk."

In fact, the essence of a brand is an association.

If you can make consumers willing to take a few more glances at the coconut tree products on the shelf after they leave the live broadcast room, and the first thing they think of when they mention coconut juice is coconut tree, then such a live broadcast is successful.

Just like the Apple live broadcast not long ago, there was no product promotion, but through patient explanation, it provided consumers with an opportunity to understand the product more intuitively.

In today’s booming e-commerce era, selling products is the most common live streaming method for brands, but it is not the only one.

Not all live broadcasts have to use profit as the sole indicator. If live broadcasts can strengthen the brand image and make consumers identify with the brand, then even if they don’t make money, such live broadcasts are meaningful.

3. Simply imitating Coco Tree will only cause the brand to fail

Although Yeshu has explored a live streaming road with high traffic through its own continuous efforts, this road may not be the right one and is not suitable for most brands.

For example, in April this year, Mixue Bingcheng replaced the lively Snow King with two female anchors wearing sexy costumes in a live broadcast.

During the live broadcast, the director intentionally or unintentionally pushed the camera towards the female anchor's chest. His intention was obviously to attract traffic by "skirting the edge" and uphold an attitude of "black red is also red".

However, this "poor imitation" of Coco Tree Live did not win back the favor of netizens. Instead, it was constantly criticized and even lost some of its popularity among passers-by.

Coincidentally, on June 13, a live broadcast by Gree also went wrong.

A female anchor wearing a "dismissal skirt" was working hard to sell goods in the live broadcast room, but was boycotted by a number of netizens, who said that because of different values, they would not place orders in the live broadcast room today.

Wahaha, another long-established domestic beverage brand, also made a fuss on its product packaging, suggesting that women "can change from A to D by drinking AD calcium milk."

However, not only did the sales volume of the final product fail to increase, but under widespread criticism from the public, AD Calcium Milk officials had to publicly apologize and stated that the brand had stopped the production of the message bottle.

Why do so many companies that "imitate" Coco Tree end up failing almost without exception?

This is because from packaging design, spokesperson selection, to live broadcast method, Coco Tree’s brand image can be said to be consistent.

For example, in terms of packaging design , although the packaging of Coco Tree is "rustic", it is also very recognizable! Simple large characters, matched with bright colors, give people a down-to-earth feeling. The unique visual style makes countless consumers unforgettable.

In terms of product taste , Coco Tree insists on using fresh coconuts from Hainan Island, does not add flavors, and focuses on "original flavor". For consumers, their coconut milk is not only delicious, but also reassuring.

In terms of consumer insights , Coconut Tree knows very well what people like to watch. In the live broadcast room, the handsome men and beautiful women dancing and showing off their bodies maintain the same style as Xu Dongdong on the product packaging. Therefore, we can say that Coconut Tree has always adhered to its own aesthetics over the years.

It is precisely these efforts, through years of reinforcement, that ultimately achieved the effect of "capturing the minds of consumers."

The audience’s reaction speaks for itself. Many people have actually accepted Ye Shu’s “aesthetics” and believe that his live broadcasts do not cross the line, but are a continuation of the brand’s tone, so they are not surprised or annoyed by this.

However, most brands only saw the traffic brought by Coco Tree’s “borderline” live broadcast, but failed to see beyond the surface and the countless efforts Coco Tree had made before the live broadcast.

So what they learned was just a little bit of the surface of Coconut Tree. Simple imitation cannot learn the essence of Coconut Tree's marketing , let alone impress today's consumers, so it is not difficult to understand why they "failed".

Final Thoughts

In fact, the success of Coco Tree is not completely impossible to replicate. It just takes a lot of time to achieve the effect of being deeply rooted in people's hearts.

In addition to Coco Tree, we also see that a number of big brands including Coca-Cola and Starbucks have maintained a high degree of unity in their brand image, which is obviously a good reference for other brands.

Therefore, if you want to stand out in the market competition with serious homogeneity, consolidating the brand image and enhancing the brand value are the key.

Author: Yan Tao Source: WeChat public account "Yan Tao Sanshou (ID: yantao-219)"