How did the "sons" in the live broadcast room capture the hearts of the elderly through the "warmth scam"?

This typical scam is here again. Recently, CCTV's 3.15 Gala exposed that "sons in the live broadcast room" sold products to the elderly by acting out sad dramas, selling personalities, and showing care to achieve revenue. The author of this article has made a detailed interpretation and analysis of this incident. Let's take a look.

Before large companies study how to make their apps more age-friendly, they should protect their own users.

"All parents, call home and get a reply in the comments section."

"My son will be live streaming at 6:50 tomorrow night. I am doing things for the people!"

This year's CCTV 3.15 Gala exposed the "sons of the live broadcast room". The anchors recognized their parents in the live broadcast room, and fabricated a series of bitter dramas by helping people solve disputes and mediate family conflicts. These anchors often label themselves as "positive energy" and further win the trust of the elderly by creating a positive image of "being a good person and doing good things", and then sell their products.

On the evening of March 15, the accounts of anchors such as "Gaolengz", "Xiao Zhang Shuoshi" and "Ma Hongliang" who were exposed at the party were all blocked on the corresponding platforms.

However, the reporter noticed that this type of emotional regulation anchor is not uncommon. On Zhihu, the topic #How to view the very popular emotional regulation anchor# has been viewed more than 120,000 times, and expressions such as "for traffic", "performing exclusively for the elderly", and "selling goods without a bottom line" have been mentioned many times, and the comment area has become a large-scale complaint site - "The biological son is not as useful as the fake son's words."

Image source: CCTV Finance

The reporter also found that after the accounts of anchors such as "Xiao Zhang Shuo Shi" were blocked by the platform, they were still unwilling to give up and tried to open small accounts to "save themselves", including Master Xiao Zhang "Brother Hui" mentioned in the 315 Gala, and the corresponding influence has not completely dissipated.

These anchors have their own fan clubs, and fans will open accounts to transfer past live broadcasts, short videos and other content. One anchor's associated account sold 2 million yuan in GMV (platform transaction volume) with only 6 products, and the average customer price of these 6 products was only 4.3 yuan, and the sales volume exceeded 500,000 units in the past 30 days.

There are heated comments under the topic on Zhihu.

Image source: Zhihu comments section

1. Nearly half of the fans are over 40 years old, and the transaction volume is amazing

Although the account has been blocked, some traces before the blockage can still be captured on third-party platforms such as FeiGua Data.

The anchor "Gaolengz", who has more than 20 million fans on the short video platform, posted his last short video on March 4. In the past 30 days, he has released 10 short videos, with an average of 677,000 views. The main account of "Xiao Zhang Shuo Shi" can no longer be searched, but the number of fans of an account called "Xiao Zhang Shuo Shi Xiaohao" has reached 23,000. The number of fans of this account and "Hui Ge Emotional Positive Energy Life Account" and "Hui Ge Emotion (618)" are highly overlapped, and Hui Ge is Xiao Zhang's master.

Judging from the time of account blocking, one of Hui Ge’s accounts stopped updating on February 28, and the other was blocked around March 12, both close to the 3.15 Gala.

These accounts have obvious characteristics: 1. Most fans are over 40 years old; 2. Fans are highly sticky and have a large number of fan groups (fan groups refer to loyal fans who have to spend money to become a member); 3. The products sold generally have a low average order value.

The account data of "高冷z" shows that 49.48% of fans are over 40 years old, and live broadcast viewers over 40 years old account for 46.17%. Among the more than 210,000 fan club members, 75% are fans over 40 years old, and their fan club levels are 100% at level 10 (fan club upgrades need to be increased by watching live broadcasts, sharing Moments, sending gifts, etc., and the maximum intimacy value increases by 120 per day, and level 10 requires an intimacy value of more than 34,200).

The anchor "Hui Ge Emotion (618)" with over 5 million fans has a very similar fan composition. The live broadcast audience is over 40 years old, accounting for 40.04%, and 66.67% of the 21,000 fans are over 40 years old.

What is not proportional to the extremely high fan stickiness is that the average customer spending of these anchors is very low. In the past 30 days, "Brother Hui's Emotional Positive Energy Life Account" has broadcast 4 shows, with an average customer spending of 8.73 yuan and sales of about 764,000 yuan.

The reporter noticed that there were two main products sold by the anchor: Xiansuoyan Taiji Cordyceps Sinensis Tablets and Zangyu Beef Bone High Calcium Compressed Candy. The former was priced at 9.99 yuan and the latter was priced at 3.99 yuan. Both products have been taken off the shelves.

Even for Hui Ge's other more mature account, the average order value is only 4.37 yuan. However, with such a low average order value, the sales of the products are impressive - in the past 30 days, the sales of 6 products reached 2.214 million yuan, with an average sales volume of 84,000 pieces per sale and an average sales volume of 369,000 yuan.

The reporter also noticed that out of the GMV of more than 2 million yuan, tea priced at 3.33 yuan contributed more than 1 million yuan in revenue, while the most expensive product, "Qingzhuting Golden Tangerine Peel", was priced at 99.9 yuan but sold only 5 pieces.

This may be due to the limitation of their purchasing power. People over 40 are more sensitive to prices. These fans with higher stickiness are more in "supporting the anchor", and the essence is still fan economy.

For example, fans of "Gao Leng Z" call themselves "Farmer's Army", and fans of "Brother Li Qinghe" who has been mentioned many times in Zhihu topics call themselves "Independent Group". These anchors gather traffic by creating a persona that the elderly trust, and then further realize revenue through various methods such as monetizing popularity, monetizing traffic, and selling cheap goods.

2. Consumption driving force is not enough, "emotional force" comes to the rescue

Since they have already called each other “Daddy and Mom”, why do they have to “sell miracle drugs” instead of choosing regular live streaming to sell goods?

In a live broadcast by an account named "Xiao Zhang Says Things", Xiao Zhang said that his sister had done something bad and wanted to send her to prison. As a result, his sister's mother-in-law pretended to be a rag collector and cheated Xiao Zhang's grandfather into giving him a box of products. Xiao Zhang was eager to get it back. Suddenly, a "cancer doctor" appeared and said that this box of products could cure tumors and "protect our lungs at critical moments."

Such an absurd plot makes these anchors earn a lot of money.

The supplier of "Xiao Zhang Shuo Shi" said that (these products sold to the elderly) cost 99 yuan for 10 boxes, and the commission given to the anchor is 80 yuan, "(about 10 to 20 million boxes have been sold)."

However, the 3.15 Gala investigation found that this product is actually compressed candy, just an ordinary food with no other effects.

Why did the anchor exaggerate it as a "miracle drug"? If the compressed candies were sold through normal live streaming, the monetization efficiency of this advertising-style promotion would obviously be much lower. These products themselves do not have rich consumption scenarios, and the low pricing makes it difficult for anchors to gain price advantages, and the consumption driving force is also weak.

These anchors try to strengthen the emotional connection by becoming "sons of the live broadcast room", and then further monetize by creating a scenario that is common among the elderly group - "health".

Image source: CCTV Finance

The reason for targeting the elderly is, on the one hand, because the elderly population is growing and the corresponding market consumption power is rising; on the other hand, it is because the elderly population has more scarce channels for obtaining information than young people and they lack family companionship.

Previously, health product salesmen had often "cared" about the health of their children by pretending to be their sons or grandsons in order to gain their trust.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that as of the end of 2022, my country's population aged 60 and above was 280.04 million, accounting for 19.8% of the national population, of which 209.78 million were 65 years old and above, accounting for 14.9% of the national population.

According to a report by China Business News, my country has transformed from a mildly aging society in 2000 to a moderately aging society. A research report by China Research Institute and Puhua estimates that the total consumption of the elderly population will reach 7.01 trillion yuan in 2020, and the size of the elderly market will reach 5.4 trillion yuan. It is expected that by 2050, the total consumption of the elderly population in my country will reach 61.26 trillion yuan, and the size of the elderly market will reach 48.52 trillion yuan.

As short videos and live streaming sales are thriving, the advancement of information media has brought a more convenient and enriched life, but the emergence of the "son of the live streaming room" has sounded the alarm for everyone - this sales method of gaining trust and selling products in the name of concern should not make a comeback due to the change of media.

While major platforms are studying how to make their apps "age-friendly" and provide better services and experiences to the elderly, stepping up the governance of the platform ecosystem and protecting their own users may be more urgent than the former.

Author: Wang Yaqi; Editor: Si Wen

Source: WeChat official account: "E-commerce Online (ID: dianshangmj)"