Hua Xizi, whose eyebrow pencil is more expensive than gold, was scolded and trending. An eyebrow pencil worth 79 yuan but with a net content of only 0.08g, as well as Li Jiaqi’s remarks asking consumers to reflect on themselves, have caused this matter to quickly develop in a negative direction. However, Fenghua's comment about "picking up fans" under the video related to Li Jiaqi made things develop in the direction of a carnival of old domestic products.
Can domestic products regain their vitality by crying poverty?
01
Li Jiaqi asked consumers to reflect on whether they have worked hard and whether their wages have been increased over the years, and received fierce counterattack from public opinion.
Binghua, who was originally inconspicuous and commented everywhere, left a message in the comment area, "Can I pick up fans?"
The official verdict was to "add insult to injury" to Hua Xizi, and Fenghua's comments sparked heated discussions.
In addition to the comments, three sets of toiletries sets appeared in Fenghua’s live broadcast room, all worth 79 yuan and weighing five and a half kilograms, starting the most simple business war. The topic #风花商之War# was once ranked number one on Weibo’s hot search list, with a reading volume of 230 million.
Some people accused Fenghua of taking advantage of the popularity. Fenghua responded that 79 has always had toiletries and care sets. In fact, the 79 yuan toiletry set has always been available, but it was previously priced at 75 yuan. On the night of Li Jiaqi's time, fans asked him to change the price to 79 yuan.
Fenghua's Douyin account also posted "What can you buy at Fenghua for 79 yuan?" and a video that also calculated the unit price of products per gram, "wiping away" the popularity of Hua Xizi and Li Jiaqi.
According to data from Gray Dolphin, the official flagship store of Bee Flower has gained more than 1.47 million fans in the past month, of which more than 1.35 million new fans have been added in the past week. Feigua data shows that in the past 30 days, the average number of viewers of the live broadcast of Fenghua flagship store was only 2 million, but in the past 7 days, the number has increased to 10 million, the traffic has increased by more than 5 times, and the maximum number of viewers has reached almost 40 million.
The increase in traffic brings a direct increase in sales. On the morning of September 13, the total sales of the Fenghua Douyin flagship store were 4.214 million. One day later, the total sales reached 4.376 million, an increase of more than 150,000. Even if the lowest price of goods in the store is 20 yuan, the sales volume in one day exceeds 3 million.
So much so that Fenghua’s live broadcast room is now marked with the words “rational consumption”.
The surge in sales has also brought about a series of discussions. Other brands of boxes used by Fenghua for delivery have made "Fenghua pick up boxes and deliver goods everywhere" on the hot search. Although Fenghua's response may be due to "insufficient preparation", "excessive order volume", "insufficient cardboard boxes for warehouse delivery", etc., they still cannot resist the enthusiasm of netizens who think that Fenghua is "poor".
The short-term surge in sales has also caused Fenghua's production capacity to be unable to keep up, and the official flagship store products are out of stock. We call on everyone to pay attention to other domestic brands.
In addition to Bee Flower, there are also a number of domestic brands that have caught on to this wave of popularity.
Following Fenghua, Hongxing Erke, Lotus, etc. have all launched products priced at 79 yuan.
Lotus also launched a 79 yuan MSG package, Hongxing Erke launched a 79 yuan shoe package, and there are many shoe and clothing packages priced at less than 100 yuan.
In addition to these domestic brands that have a certain number of fans and have conducted live broadcasts, niche domestic brands such as Jingxin, Yunkang, and Xuelian have also commented on Fenghua’s Douyin. Official accounts such as Shaanxi Post have come to an end. Up to now, Hongxing Erke’s live broadcast room has been occupied by Fenghua, Baixiang, and Huiyuan, and has also adopted the theme of “dream linkage.”
Yu Meijing, who opened her account overnight, gained more than one million followers overnight and her sales exceeded 200,000. Jingxin, which was previously penniless, has become more popular than Bee Flower due to this wave of popularity, with sales exceeding 5 million in the past seven days.
Among this wave of popularity, the most flattering one is Vitality 28.
Relying on a group of middle-aged and elderly anchors who have not kept up with the times, Vitality 28 has been on the list of new star anchors, and all the products in the store have been sold out.
In addition to these old brands of domestic products that are actively marketed, there are also many domestic products that are not actively marketed and are actively picked out by netizens for spontaneous publicity.
This time, the negative news about Huaxizi finally started a marketing feast for old domestic products.
But can this kind of heat last?
02
As times change, many once-splendid old domestic brands are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the times.
Vitality 28, founded in 1950, was formerly known as Hubei Shashi Oil Refining Factory. It was once a leader in the field of detergents and entered the A-share market in 1996.
However, after being acquired and stashed away by foreign investors, and then listed on the backdoor by Sanan Optoelectronics, Vigor 28 was temporarily suspended and did not restart again until 2019. In June of this year, Vitality 28 was caught in a whirlpool of negative public opinion over arrears in employee wages and payment for goods.
Bee Flower was born in 1985. In the early 1990s, its sales reached 500 million yuan. However, later overseas daily chemical brands such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever entered the domestic market and seized a large amount of the market share of domestic daily chemical brands.
Jingxing, in fact, is Beijing Xiehe Fine Chemical Products Co., Ltd., which was registered because of the "Xiehe" trademark.
These brands were once quite brilliant, but now, most of them only have the image of being “poor” and “not good at marketing”.
Bee flower first came into public view in 2021 because of "poverty". At that time, after Binghua was rumored to be closed down on the Internet, a large number of netizens poured into the live broadcast room to support Binghua. The anchor of Bee Flower at the time also posted a video saying that Bee Flower sold 20,000 orders in one day, which was the usual sales volume in a month.
Gu Jinwen, chairman of Fenghua, once revealed in an interview that after becoming popular in 2021, Fenghua’s Douyin sales reached 15 million yuan in one month, 7 times the usual amount. In 2021, Bee Flower’s annual sales will also reach 1 billion yuan.
In 2022, there were rumors on the Internet that the chairman of Fenghua personally broadcast live, saying with tears that Fenghua was not a no-name brand. He also mentioned that the company had no violation records in 37 years, and even the price of its products had only increased by 2 yuan in 10 years, which once again touched the nerves of netizens.
On the night when the incident unfolded, the number of views in the Fenghua live broadcast room soared dozens of times, with more than 160,000 people online at the same time. Finally, Bee Flower also refuted the rumors.
In addition to Fenghua, Hongxing Erke and Baixiang have also come into the attention of netizens many times because of news related to "poverty".
Although incidents have brought about short-term traffic surges, in the long run, how to stabilize traffic and sales can completely break out of the siege.
Previously, due to rumors of bankruptcy and news of donations for the floods in Henan, Hongxing Erke was also "wildly consumed" by netizens because of his "poverty" and gained countless fans.
However, after the traffic dissipated, in less than 30 days from October 4 to 31, 2021, Hongxing Erke’s official Douyin live broadcast room gained 66,000 followers, but lost 430,000 followers at the same time.
Fenghua has relied on "crying the poor" marketing many times before to gain traffic and sales, but after the popularity subsided, sales and traffic returned to calm again.
"Crying poor" is certainly useful, but it is by no means a long-term solution.
Nowadays, there are more and more overseas brands in our lives, and there are basically only two options for domestic products, one is "Hua Xizi" and the other is "Fenghua".
Hua Xizi was famous for its sales in Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room, and it successively appeared on Tmall’s sales list and repurchase list. However, outside the live broadcast room and the Internet, few people know about it, and there is not enough brand value at all.
At the same time, due to their high reliance on top anchors such as Li Jiaqi and high commissions from top anchors, Huaxizi does not have sufficient budget for brand building, nor does it have the ability to spread through offline dealers. Despite having a large online presence, for many people, these domestic products are not big “brands”.
As for long-established domestic products such as "Fenghua", they may still have certain advantages offline, and they also have a certain public image in the minds of consumers. However, as times change rapidly, many brands have fallen behind.
Consumers' consumption habits are increasingly leaning towards online channels, while offline sales channels for many domestic products still account for a relatively large proportion and have not kept up with the digital age.
This is not unrelated to channel transformation, but it is also a common dilemma faced by domestic brands.
Gu Jinwen, chairman of Fenghua, once revealed that the average gross profit margin of Fenghua’s products is 15%, while the gross profit margin of foreign brands is generally around 40%.
Too low gross profit margin makes it difficult for many domestic brands to invest more money in product packaging and channel marketing.
From marketing to packaging, etc., it is difficult to keep up with the times. You can only rely on hot marketing again and again to get traffic again and again, and slowly accumulate traffic in the traffic.
In fact, this kind of traffic will only become more and more difficult to retain. What these domestic products are facing is that "the fragrance of wine is also afraid of the depth of the alley", and they also fall into deep traffic anxiety.
Another problem with these domestic products is "anxiety about price increases." These old domestic brands often have some classic products and maintain relatively stable prices.
The price increase caused by going high-end or rashly changing the packaging image is actually dangerous for the brand.
For domestic products that rely on low prices to make a name for themselves, whether to "save land" or "save people" is a difficult question.
03
Conclusion
The "Guochao Brand Young Consumption Insights Report" released by Xinhuanet and United Dewu shows that in the ten years from 2011 to 2021, the search popularity of "Guochao" increased by 528%, and 78.5% of consumers would be willing to choose Chinese brands.
But the Huaxizi incident tells us that everyone is just willing to support domestic products, not that they are willing to be treated as leeks because of this sentiment.
Why brands such as Fenghua, Hongxing Erke, and Vitality 28 can cause such a big discussion is that these brands actually have a considerable user base and have good brand recognition.
Consumers are willing to pay for this kind of "crying for poverty" and "showing weakness". The key is that the products of these brands are indeed of high quality and low price.
If Sanlu milk powder were to carry out the same "crying for poverty" and "selling miserably" marketing, it might not be greeted with heated discussions but with scorn.
However, to create a truly domestic product, brand value and product quality are indispensable.
The emerging brand Hua Xizi started off by relying on national style, but also plummeted after the filter of domestic products was revealed.
"Save the land and lose the people, and both the people and the land will be lost. Save the people and lose the land, and then both the people and the land will survive."
Consumers will make their own judgments.
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