After transforming into selling goods, can Xin Jifei still have "technology and hard work"?

Xin Jifei, who became popular last year for his phrase "technology and hard work", has tried to embark on the road of commercialization. Based on this, what kind of changes has Xin Jifei's content style undergone? What is his sales strategy? How is the acceptance of netizens? Let's take a look at the author's interpretation and analysis.

Last year, the phrase "technology and hard work" made Xin Jifei completely popular, and his sharp video content attracted the attention of many users. After experiencing the turmoil of canceling his Douyin account, Xin Jifei appeared in the public eye again.

Different from many food bloggers who show the food-making process and exquisite appearance, Xin Jifei does the opposite and focuses his video content on the lesser-known aspects of the common food-making process, which opens the eyes of many netizens when restoring the production process.

Because of the uniqueness of his video content, Xin Jifei is different from other food bloggers in terms of commercialization. Advertiser orders and live streaming are commercial behaviors of many food bloggers after accumulating a certain amount of traffic, but these conventional monetization methods conflict with Xin Jifei's content, which makes Xin Jifei's commercialization path stand out. Today, Xin Jifei has more than 6 million fans on Douyin and Kuaishou. What will his commercialization path look like?

1. Exploration of the road to commercialization

Judging from Xin Jifei’s recent releases, he has accelerated the pace of commercialization.

In a video released on April 8, Xin Jifei recommended Zheng'an white tea to the audience in Shiping Township, Zunyi City. In the video, Xin Jifei stood in the tea field and first highlighted the characteristics of Zheng'an white tea, which is "green, natural, and pollution-free". Then the camera focused on a certain brand of products. Xin Jifei also showed the color of the tea soup after brewing, and said that the white tea was picked by hand and some was fried by hand. Finally, at the end of the video, he also mentioned "rural revitalization."

From the comments section, we can see that some netizens are making fun of Xin Jifei's rigorous use of words, while others are supporting Xin Jifei's behavior of promoting products. "Brother Fei is very rigorous in what he says: some of the products are artificially roasted," "I will definitely buy products endorsed by Xin Jifei," and "The tea from the mountainous areas of Guizhou is really good."

On April 2, Xin Jifei released a video about Coco Tree Coconut Juice, which also contained some advertising elements. In the video, he held a 1L bottle of coconut juice and explained the safety of food additives in coconut juice to the camera. He said that two of the additives were emulsifiers, the purpose of which was to improve the taste of plant protein drinks, and that these two additives were relatively safe, so everyone could drink them with confidence. At the end of the video, he also imitated the brand's advertising slogan: "Brother Fei has been drinking Coco Tree Coconut Juice since he was a child."

In fact, as early as December last year, Xin Jifei updated a video titled "Matsutake, MSG, and Chicken Essence are all delicious!" In this video, he recommended a Matsutake compound seasoning, saying that the product only had scientific processing technology and no added harsh ingredients. He used several different vegetables to prove the high adaptability of the product. Finally, he used this seasoning to make a bowl of soup to highlight the uniqueness of the product.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

In the comment section of the video, we can see that many netizens support his commercial behavior, "I hope he promotes the product because he deserves it. He has helped too many people invisibly and started to pay attention to food safety. And I believe in his vision for selecting products, and I believe he will help us filter out those products with too many additives", "Whether it is an advertisement or not, we support recommending good things! No one wants to buy fake technology and Henhuo products."

But some netizens did not buy it and refuted it with the content of Xin Jifei's previous videos, "The ingredients include yeast extract and super MSG. Brother Fei taught you this. You can't buy this stuff." "The flavor comes from monosodium glutamate, but they went around in circles and used mushrooms. It's sold dozens of times more expensive. I'll show you what's going on." These are all opposing voices.

Afterwards, products such as Gaga Soy Sauce, Fuxing Island Sea Cucumber, Yinshan Youmai, and JANE Durian Thousand Layer appeared in Xin Jifei's videos one after another.

2. Changes in content style

At the beginning, Xin Jifei became famous for his "technology and hard work". In his videos, there was no exquisite presentation of food. Instead, the entire production process was completed with materials that consumers were not familiar with. He himself called it Hextech, and he was also given the titles of "Breaking Bad" and "Alchemist" by netizens.

@辛吉飞 was able to quickly gain followers by introducing delicious food processed with Hextech technology in each episode. For example, in the video "Drink Tech Honey in the Technological Age", he put 200 grams of white sugar and 50 grams of maltose syrup into a pot, added 250 milliliters of water and began to boil until the white sugar was completely melted, then added a few drops of lemon or citric acid, and turned off the heat when the syrup was heated to 80 degrees. He then added Hextech locust flower essence and honey essence, which is darker in color, more penetrating and richer in taste. After cooling, it is time to witness a miracle. The syrup poured into the canning bottle looks like real honey.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

At the end of this video, Xin Jifei added the prepared "honey" to the black tea and drank it. However, not long after, he rushed into the bathroom with toilet paper.

It is this unique perspective that satisfies netizens' curiosity, and his slightly exaggerated movements and language give people a strong visual impact, which has boosted his own popularity. In just 20 days, Xin Jifei gained 4.5 million followers on Douyin and ushered in his own creative explosion.

Nowadays, perhaps for the sake of his own commercialization, his content has become much more rigorous, especially in the videos promoting products. He has changed his usual exaggerated language and actions and become cautious in his words and actions.

In an interview with the media, Xin Jifei admitted that some of the previous video content was indeed too exaggerated and not rigorous enough, which may have caused some misunderstandings to the audience and indirectly harmed some conscientious businesses operating in a legitimate manner.

For example, in the video "Eating MSG causes hair loss", Xin Jifei wanted to express that eating MSG indirectly affects hair loss, not directly. The main reason is that after consuming too much MSG, people will be very thirsty, and after being thirsty, they may drink more high-sugar drinks. High-sugar drinks are relatively high in calories, and coupled with the fast pace of life and work, people generally do not exercise much, which eventually leads to obesity or physical discomfort, indirectly affecting hair loss.

Xin Jifei said that this was mainly because he wanted to add more humorous and comedic elements when creating the work, so the form of expression and language were a bit too exaggerated.

At present, this form of expression has changed. For example, in the video "The Secret of Jiajia Soy Sauce Factory", Xin Jifei first showed the ingredients of Jiajia Soy Sauce, then went to the factory for inspection and praised the slogan on the wall: "Jiajia 0 additives, nothing that should not be added is added." He then showed the production process of Jiajia Soy Sauce, including 380 fermentation tanks and assembly line packaging process. Finally, he carefully checked the quality of the raw materials and the inspection report, and then he confidently recommended Jiajia Soy Sauce to users.

3. Will users buy into commercialization?

Judging from the current situation of Xin Jifei's personal account, his commercialization traces are not obvious. There is neither a product display window nor live streaming of goods. Only a small number of videos mention a few products, but there are no product links in the relevant videos. There are only relevant search terms to guide users to actively search and purchase.

However, on the account @辛吉飞小助手, there are already obvious signs of commercialization. Currently, there are 38 items in the product display of this account, including instant drinks, snack specialties, grains and oils seasonings, paper wipes, personal care cleaning and other categories.

The best-selling product is wet toilet paper from Deyou official flagship store, followed by Bingxiu nitrile gloves. In terms of price range, the prices of goods range from 9.9 yuan to 358 yuan. The lowest price is garbage bags, and the highest price is Dalian Fuxing Island instant sea cucumbers. Most of the goods belong to the food category.

It is worth mentioning that the account @辛吉飞小助手 will broadcast live every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7 pm. Xin Jifei himself will appear in the live broadcast room to explain food processing related content to the audience, but there is no shopping cart in the live broadcast room.

Xin Jifei once mentioned his attitude towards live streaming sales in a media interview. He said, "Sales are good. If a live streamer wants to recommend products that he approves of to everyone, I think it is a good thing. Live streaming can help more disadvantaged groups, and live streaming sales can also make money."

At present, he has not determined the time for live streaming sales. He said that if the products he approves of become more abundant in the future, he may consider selling them. The categories of goods sold will mainly focus on food, and the specific frequency will depend on the effect of the first live streaming sales and consumer feedback.

Although Xin Jifei did not put any product links in the live broadcast room, the live broadcast clips have a certain commercial effect. This year, Xin Jifei started IP slicing authorization. His video content and live broadcast content are all related materials. Authorized users can process and edit these materials and then use them to attract traffic and sell goods.

Currently, when searching for "辛吉飞" on TikTok, in addition to his own account and @辛吉飞小助手 account, there are also a large number of accounts with the nickname "辛吉飞", including @辛吉飞严选精品 (authorized), @辛吉飞精選 (authorized number), 辛吉飞直播精选 (authorized), etc. These are almost all authorized accounts of slicing of 辛吉飞's IP, using 辛吉飞's short videos and live broadcasts to sell goods.

It is understood that the MCN agency responsible for the authorization of Xin Jifei's IP slices is Goumo Technology. In the video posted by the account, Xin Jifei personally appeared and said, "Fei Ge's authorization is free. With my face and good video clips, using the good products I recommend will bring more revenue and make more money." Some netizens said in the comment area, "After adding the 70% commission, I don't know if there will be other fees." So some netizens replied, "It doesn't feel good at all. Fei Ge originally had few products." It can be seen that the prospects of Xin Jifei's IP slice authorization are not clear.

In the eyes of some users, Xin Jifei has attracted countless fans from the perspective of "technology and hard work". Although it has the effect of popularizing science, the effect of the video is more alarmist, giving people the feeling that food is unhealthy as long as it contains additives. If he sells goods through live streaming, it would be a "slap in the face" behavior.

Judging from the current situation, users do not have any obvious resistance to Xin Jifei's commercialization. In the comment section of his videos on selling goods, many netizens strongly support his behavior. It is his professional interpretation that has made many netizens trust him, and this is also the basis of his commercialization.

In short, Xin Jifei has been unconventional from the beginning. Unique content means its own uniqueness, which also means that it needs to explore step by step to keep users fresh. Now Xin Jifei needs to consider more factors on the road to commercialization, and how to balance users' expectations for content and the degree of commercialization is the key.

Author: Aries; Editor: Ji Nan

Source: WeChat public account "TopKlout (ID: TopKlout)"