Halfway through 2021, will Internet celebrity brands collectively “collapse”?

Author | Wu Jiaoying

Editor | Jin Yufan

The excitement of the new consumption track has reached a new height in the first half of 2021. The intensity of investment and financing is unprecedented, Internet celebrity brands are blowing out, and competition for the “first share” is fierce. At the same time, the frequency of “turnovers” is not low.

Cotton Times, which sells soft cotton towels, Ubras, which sells underwear, and Cha Yanyuese, which sells milk tea, all want to capture female consumers, but they all fell in love with Bo Eyeball because they were suspected of offending women. of "creative" marketing advertising.

Yuanqi Forest, which promotes "zero sugar", actually contains sugar, Zhong Xue Gao, which promotes high-end products, is mediocre, and Xiaoxian Stew, which promotes health and nutrition, has been repeatedly questioned. Food and beverage brands have all fallen for false propaganda. .

Bubble Mart, the “first blind box stock”, Perfect Diary, the “Light of New Beauty Domestic Products”, and Nayuki’s Tea, the “first milk tea stock” competing for IPO, are listed on the market” "Death in the light", the stock price fell all the way, and the market value continued to shrink.

Is it the fate of new consumer brands to grow up amid doubts and move forward while "turning over"? The root cause is that new consumer brands are copying a set of Internet celebrity tactics in batches: selecting categories, telling stories, positioning high-end, and a three-piece marketing package of "anchors bringing products + KOL planting + celebrity endorsements". However, the fierce and urgent tactics of Internet celebrities not only expose the shortcomings of the brand, but also make consumers sober and no longer easy to be "routine".

At the same time, when new consumer brands enter the post-Internet celebrity era, problems such as low repurchase rate, high degree of homogeneity, and high pressure on corporate organizational management are gradually emerging. Whether you want to be an Internet celebrity or want to grow up, Hong, every company wants to find a feasible methodology from the successful or "fallen" pioneers.

Some people are fighting a scale war, some are obsessed with GMV sales, and some are imitating the concept of vitality forest. The new consumption track driven by capital is still moving forward in the brand melee, and it seems that it will still be difficult to cool down in the short term.

If the key word for new consumer brands in 2020 is "Internet celebrity", then in the first half of 2021, the key word for Internet celebrity stories will be "rollover".

Looking back at the "rollover accidents" of Internet celebrity brands in the past six months, we can find that most of the problems lie in marketing. Among them, the most controversial ones involve false propaganda, and are suspected of being offensive to women and gender discrimination.

Cotton Era, a lifestyle care brand that became popular during the epidemic, released an advertising video for makeup remover wipes in January this year. A young woman was followed at night. When the stalker approached, the woman took out all her makeup remover wipes. Cotton Era's makeup remover "changes face" and scares away stalkers. This advertisement was accused of being based on women's fears and was suspected of advocating the "original sin theory of appearance." China Women's News commented on this that the majority of offended female consumers will not pay for the insulting "creative".

Not long after, the marketing copy of the new underwear brand Ubras involving gender topics also "overturned". A promotional copy jointly produced by Ubras and talk show artist Li Dan reads: Equipment that allows women to easily win in the workplace. This copy was accused of being offensive to women, "too malicious", and suspected of violating the advertising law, because the advertising law stipulates that "advertising spokespersons shall not recommend or certify products that they have not used or services that they have not received."

Coincidentally, Chayanyuese, an Internet celebrity tea brand from Changsha, was also criticized on the hot search list in February for allegedly objectifying women. The advertising slogan on the surrounding mugs is "There are many beauties who come to Chayan to buy milk tea. If you happen to meet one, you can whisper to our friends: I picked up a basket", as well as the words "Guan Ren" on the tea bag packaging. "I want it" are all accused of mistaking "being smart" for creativity, objectifying and disrespecting women.

In order to create selling points, "concept cards" are used heavily, leading to "rollover" incidents suspected of false publicity, which often occur with food and beverage brands.

Immediately afterwards, an administrative penalty was exposed against the "Internet celebrity" bird's nest brand Xiaoxian Stew, saying that Xiaoxian Stew promoted ready-to-eat bird's nest raw materials, dried bird's nest content, product origin, food on the product parameter interface. Ten indicators including additives were inconsistent with the real situation and were deemed false propaganda.

In June, Zhong Xuegao, a domestic high-end ice cream brand known as the "Hermès" of China's ice cream industry, was also exposed for false advertising and was accused of charging consumers an "IQ tax." "Internet celebrity" Zhong Xuegao, whose highest price for a single product is as high as 88 yuan, and the price of which is sold as high as 200 yuan by scalpers, was actually fined twice for publishing false advertisements in 2019. For example, ice cream that claims to use special-grade red grapes is actually rated as bulk/first-grade; ice cream that advertises only uses Japanese Yaboku tea is actually made from fresh leaves of various varieties of tea trees such as Jiukeng, Longjing, and Yaboku trees. become. These are tantamount to directly tearing off Zhong Xuegao's "high-end" domestic product label.

In fact, today’s Internet celebrity food and beverages that use the “concept” brand are often unable to escape the controversy of “whether they are IQ taxes” due to their generally high prices and efficacy that has not yet been recognized by the market. There is always a risk of "rollover". For example, plant-based food has been highly praised by capital. Last year, the global investment and financing amount exceeded 8 billion yuan. A large number of new brands have emerged, such as Zhou Ling, Weishida, Green Monday, Zhou Ziwei, and Hey Mae. However, sales are still not optimistic.

There are also some consumer brands that finally rushed to IPO with prospectuses, but were quickly beaten back to their original shape by the market. Bubble Mart, the “first blind box stock”, has experienced a sharp drop in its stock price three months after its listing; Yixian E-commerce, the parent company of “New Beauty Domestic Products” Perfect Diary, exposed its excessive marketing in its first financial report after listing Dependence, now the market value has shrunk severely; "the first milk tea stock" Nai Xue's tea broke the first day of listing, and its valuation of up to 30 billion Hong Kong dollars has been questioned.

The frequency of new consumer brand marketing “overturns” is not unrelated to their usual “Internet celebrity” approach.

In the view of Wang Sheng, a partner of Inno Angel Fund, the influencer style of new consumer brands has become standardized enough that it can be copied in batches.

“First choose a category. This category needs to avoid the leading track that is already occupied by big brands and be differentiated. At the same time, the size of the category is not small and the growth rate is relatively fast; and then open up Supply chain, win the ODM factory, the packaging must be very particular, and it is best to tell a story; then lay out the online traffic strategy: must do live broadcast to bring goods, it is best to enter the live broadcast room of a big anchor, and then put KOL on various platforms information flow, rapidly expanding the scale of marketing," Wang Sheng concluded.

“Most Internet celebrity consumer brands have relatively shallow foundations and do not have many stories to carry, but they need frequent exposure to keep their brands exposed. Therefore, they are naturally more eager and eager to capture hot topics. ." Gao Jianfeng, founding partner of Shanghai Bogai Consulting, analyzed Pineapple Finance.

However, how to properly use hot spots to create exposure opportunities for brands is difficult to master. This also makes it easy for young brands to "overturn" when they "take advantage of hot spots".

Take Ubras as an example. In its propaganda, you can often see phrases such as "express yourself", "loyal to your heart" and "get rid of the constraints". The purpose is also to fit in with the younger generation of women's self-awakening ideas. Gain favor from users online. However, the social context of gender topics is complicated. Ubras’s “Equipment that allows women to easily win in the workplace” copy may have been intended to emphasize that women can also keep dressing comfortably in the workplace, but “sleep and win” has multiple meanings in the context of the Internet. The meaning undoubtedly touches the minefield of many female users.

In Gao Jianfeng’s view, domestic consumer groups and even the entire public opinion are actually more tolerant of brands than those in Europe and the United States. "For example, some domestic brands were suspected of offending women and sexism in their marketing. They apologized and it passed, but they still sold well after a period of time. But in some European and American regions, this kind of stain will continue to be criticized by some civil organizations. resist.

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Ubras still sold more than 300 million GMV on June 18 this year, ranking first among Tmall underwear brands in real-time sales. Zhong Xuegao and Yuanqi Forest, who were accused of deceiving consumers due to false propaganda, are still doing the same today Ranked on the sales list and frequented the live broadcast rooms of major anchors

Although the "black history" including marketing "rollover" does not affect the "Internet celebrity" brand to continue to make money, the brand image will be affected. The damage is undoubtedly.

An industry insider believes that the external reasons for the "overturn" of many brands' marketing may be excessive marketing in order to gain attention and gain popularity, which leads to the loss of public opinion. But to some extent, marketing is out of control. Style also reflects the values ??of a corporate team, founder and brand. “Frequent overturning is overdrafting the brand’s credit line. ”

Judging from past events, once the “overturn” caused public controversy, Internet celebrity consumer brands such as “overpriced but mediocre products” and “high-end positioning but too low technical content” have long been criticized. The problem will be brought to the table again.

The "high-end" that indirectly caused the "overturn" of new consumer brands is actually their inevitable choice.

Gao Jianfeng believes that, on the one hand, High-end means high pricing and high gross profit margin. Facing investors, brands can tell more sexy stories; on the other hand, high-end brands create a status symbol for the target audience by distinguishing consumer groups, "I can afford to spend." It shows that I am fashionable and I have certain financial strength. ”

Wang Sheng told Kaiboluo Finance that Internet celebrity consumer brands drive GMV through large-scale subsidized sales and low-price sales. Low-margin products have poor premium capabilities, cannot impress investors, and cannot open up offline channels. Channels. "Offline terminals need to make money, and intermediate wholesalers also need to make money. The pricing multiple should not exceed 3 times, and the business model will not work at all, such as consumer electronics with relatively high thresholds. ”

However, today’s consumers are tired of the above-mentioned mass-copied internet celebrity tactics, and the brand shortcomings and product problems exposed by frequent “rollovers” have also made some rational consumers start to think. , Do high-end products deserve the exorbitant prices?

“The cost of raw materials, technology costs, and supply chain costs of daily consumer goods are not high, and most of the money is spent on marketing. Just like Perfect Diary, I spent money comparable to that of a major international brand and bought an mediocre product. Am I helping the brand to work for internet celebrities? "A consumer asked rhetorically.

To put it bluntly, Internet celebrity brands that have been "boosted" by capital have not yet established real brand value, but consumers are not so easy to "cheat".

An undeniable fact is that the shortcomings of Internet celebrity brands have begun to appear.

“The leading Internet celebrity consumer brands often adopt a single-point breakthrough strategy, such as relying on a certain point. It relies on product, spokesperson, and name concept. At the same time, it will have obvious shortcomings in other aspects, which will definitely be exposed in the future. Gao Jianfeng used the "barrel theory" to explain this problem.

In other words, the new consumption track has experienced the life cycle of Internet celebrities under the heating of capital, and then has to face the cooling down

So, in the post-Internet celebrity era, what is the problem with new consumer brands?

The current big problems are that the freshness cannot be sustained and the repurchase rate is low. The primary problem facing most online celebrity consumer brands

Wang Sheng pointed out that brands spend a lot of money on marketing in the early stage in order to reduce repurchase costs. However, the current repurchase situation of consumer goods is not ideal, which means investment. The logic originally set by the author and brand does not hold up. In his view, the reasons are complicated. It may be that the technology is not advanced enough, the product is not perfect enough, the positioning is not accurate enough, or a certain category itself does not have a high repurchase rate. < /p>

What’s more serious is that under the protection of a sufficiently mature supply chain, very few consumer brands can rely on technology, products, and supply chains to establish barriers and moats, resulting in a high degree of homogeneity in consumer goods categories. It is easy to be copied, and the track is seriously "involuted".

“As an early-stage investment institution, when we invest in new consumption, we will definitely look at the products and supply chains first, such as consumer electronics with relatively high thresholds. Otherwise, we will fall into vicious competition of capital, competing to see who can spend the most money. "More." Wang Sheng said frankly.

Gao Jianfeng believes that in addition to the above problems, after emerging Internet celebrity brands grow, their entrepreneurial teams will also encounter organizational and management pressures that all companies need to face. "The decline of many internet celebrity brands is due to problems with basic management capabilities or because the internet celebrity's style of play is no longer effective. It's hard to tell."

When the shortcomings of internet celebrity's style of play are gradually revealed , some brands say they don’t want to be Internet celebrities, but they also want to summarize a set of methodologies for becoming popular from Internet celebrity brands.

"Nowadays, new consumption superstitions are about 'impulse'. They think that when GMV rises, consumers will trust the brand and be loyal to the brand. The cost of repurchase in the future will be greatly reduced, and they can dominate the category and then convert private products." "Domain traffic." Wang Sheng analyzed from Pineapple Finance that this set of story templates is difficult to fully apply to most consumer products, consumer platforms and consumer markets.

However, the quick-result Internet celebrity strategy is another way that new consumer brands have to take and even get twice the result with half the effort.

In Wang Sheng’s view, Yuanqi Forest has the most solid strategy among Internet celebrity consumer brands. It combines offline distribution with online marketing, and continuously optimizes the model to form a self-consistent one. "Many brands also want to copy Yuanqi Forest's play style, especially for typical fast-moving consumer goods such as food and beverages, but it is difficult to completely copy it." Wang Sheng explained, because after the time window has passed, the dividends of such a play style have been eliminated. It has been significantly diluted, and capital does not support the brand's slowdown.

The new consumption track is huge enough, and it can be divided into more refined categories. From Internet celebrities to long-term celebrities, it is basically impossible to find a "one-size-fits-all" methodology.

Many investors and analysts pointed out that in the new consumption track where entry barriers are low and neither technology nor supply chain can build a moat, if a brand wants to go from internet celebrity to long-term celebrity, it must first achieve two things. Two effects: one is the brand effect, and the other is the scale effect.

Challenger Capital partner Zhou Hua explained the brand effect in an interview with the media: A brand can be measured by a standard, that is, whether it can provide a premium and whether it can form mental property rights in the minds of consumers. "For example, when it comes to sparkling water, you may think of Yuanqi Forest." He believes that this is recognition and branding.

The scale effect is to occupy the market. The larger the size, the higher the valuation. The most typical case is the tea drinking circuit. Leading giants such as Heytea, Naixue Tea, Lele Tea, etc. are all striving for speed and scale.

“The only way for a new consumer brand is to copy itself. Until the brand can truly achieve a breakthrough with its products, or complete a nationwide layout, the demand for Internet traffic will not increase. Decline. "Gao Jianfeng believes that this was the case for Yuanqi Forest, which was promoting functional beverage brands at the time, and also for the newly emerging coffee brand Manner.

In Wang Sheng’s view, new consumer categories will continue to be popular in the next one or two years. "Overheating of the track and blind investment will lead to the gradual demise of many brands. But the track has entered a new stage of development. The market has shifted from insufficient supply to oversupply. 'People are looking for goods' has become 'goods are looking for people'. Consumers have absolutely With the right to choose and dominate, there will definitely be new brands that can adapt to consumer needs. ”

*The title picture comes from Visual China.