Under the cold trend of "e-commerce festival", where is the incremental field of brand business?

Image source @ Visual China

Text | Praying Mantis Observation, author | Easy

The purchase of New Year goods is a "reserved item" that the Chinese people must have every year. Even many netizens also said, "Can carry the 'double 11', may not be able to carry the New Year festival."

However, in the increasingly strong atmosphere of the New Year, Taobao, Tmall, Jingdong and other platforms for the "New Year Festival" publicity is not the previous year. Douyin and Kuaishou launched a 16-day New Year Goods Festival from the first day of 2022, and they also did not create a greater momentum in publicity.

Looking back at the past 2021, the large shopping festivals of e-commerce can hardly arouse consumers' enthusiasm for shopping. Especially in the second half of the double eleven, double twelve, the corresponding keywords, one is called "quiet", one is called "disappearing".

But business still has to be done, and young people who should "catch" must also do their best to "catch". In today's e-commerce consumption environment of "weekly festivals and daily discounts", what methods should be used to introduce "young living water" for brands?

The festival of "scale is economy" can't move young people anymore

E-commerce loves to "create festivals" because it establishes an IP that can quickly deliver discounted consumer minds to consumers, and finally bring amazing sales with group consumption enthusiasm in concentrated scenarios.

For example, Tmall Double Eleven, as an e-commerce milestone, exceeded expectations with a transaction volume of up to 52 million in the first session in 2009, and the second session in 2010 exceeded the total retail sales of shopping paradise Hong Kong with a total retail sales volume of 936 million.

Since then, this data has grown rapidly every year, and by 2021, Tmall Double Eleven will already be 540.3 billion.

Under the successful sample of Tmall Double Eleven, as the largest shopping festival in the first half of the year, 618 also came into being, and showed the same high-speed growth trend as Double Eleven.

Whether it is Double Eleven or 618, in the early stage, it is still a "festival" that consumers are full of expectations. After all, at that time, it was said that a 50% discount was a 50% discount, unambiguous.

And consumers are also discounted by the sense of truth, cultivating a "loss aversion" mentality: when double eleven, 618 equals the "cheapest of the year" cognition, if you do not buy something, it will be a big loss.

However, with more and more e-commerce festivals and more and more fierce competition, the "festival" that originally allowed merchants to clear goods and consumers to profit has moved towards an inner volume with longer and longer time and more complex rules.

Nowadays, although the transaction volume is still growing, the merchants who have lost money and made money have gradually lost their enthusiasm, and many consumers have directly laid flat. Along with this, there are also doubts from the market.

When the "festival of scale is economy" can no longer "echo" consumers, it means that the times have changed again.

In fact, there are already signs of this change.

On the one hand, it is a "festival" newly created by Douyin and Kuaishou for the whole people, and its final sales are not enough to match 618 and Double Eleven PK, but instead emphasize other data such as the number of live broadcasts, duration, and number of viewers;

On the other hand, the juhuasuan that circles young people is "muffled and rich" with "weekend my folding day", "cost-effective 8 o'clock file", "cost-effective Z selection" and other gameplay.

That is to say, the "festivals" with undifferentiated coverage of the whole population have begun to capture the personalized consumption needs of young people who are already the main force of consumption. Only marketing activities based on the individual needs of the segmented population have circled accurate consumers and brought about business increments.

This also verifies what Wu Sheng said in "Scene Revolution": "This is a big era composed of small eras of everyone, and the popularity is more gridded." ”

The e-commerce "festival" that cannot attract consumer enthusiasm enough seems to have a new idea for the development of the second half.

From the "festival" to the outbreak, return to daily operation

So, how should the e-commerce "festival" maintain the consumption enthusiasm of young people? Mantis Watch believes that the value of e-commerce "festivals" needs to be reshaped from at least two levels.

First, the idea of business will come out of the "festival" and return to the most practical needs of consumers. E-commerce can have no "festivals", but it must "play together" with consumers and make them the rules of the game.

Whether it is the New Year Festival, Double Twelve, Double Eleven in the big promotion to show sales fatigue, or vibrato, Kuaishou's newly created "festival" does not show the "temperament" of the national shopping carnival, it is enough to show that the rules of the game of the platform, consumers began not to pay.

In the new wave of consumption, merchants and brands have begun to do business around consumers, for e-commerce platforms, festivals may no longer be important, what is important is that no matter what the activity, it is more important to attract consumers to "play together".

This requires the platform to have a full range of consumer insights.

From the "Top 10 Global Consumption Trends 2021", it can be concluded that under the characteristics of caution and frugality that consumers have already shown, high value-added value consumption will be the trend of the future.

Consumers will not blindly hoard goods because they shout "the lowest price on the whole network" in the live broadcast room, nor will they follow the trend because of the national shopping festival "everyone buys", but according to their own needs, they will spend the money worth it.

The reason why Juhuasuan can "make a fortune with muffled voices" when the old festival IP is exhausted lies in its insight into user needs and goes with the trend: to meet the user's consumption value with the "true 50% discount" of "Weekend My Folding Day", to meet the user's preferences with the fun gameplay and interaction of "cost-effective 8 o'clock file", and to help young people find the most cost-effective products on the whole network with the list of "Cost-effective Z Selection"... In this way, we can establish new value consumption links with users.

Users have needs, the platform is really discounted, pieces are just needed, is the meaning of consumption, but also the original intention of e-commerce "festival".

Second, the value of "festival" IP should return to daily operation from the pursuit of short-term outbreaks.

In order to stimulate consumption and demand outbreaks, the large-scale "festival" of e-commerce has evolved from a one-day "limited time" to an unlimited purchase lasting one month. This kind of irrational promotional behavior of overdrafting consumer enthusiasm and desire in advance, the result is often behind the short-term outbreak, which is the "cold door" for several months.

Consumers are tired, and brand owners are also frustrated.

This also means that compared with the irrational promotional behavior of overdrafting consumer enthusiasm and desire in advance, the return to daily marketing methods is the long-term value of e-commerce "festivals".

Just like Juhuasuan, "Weekend I Fold Day" accurately grasps the weekend consumption period of young people and provides consumers with normalized consumption services; "Cost-effective 8:00" focuses on consumption after 8:00 pm, with a highly immersive live interactive experience, making Juhuasuan the choice of young people's daily consumption; "Bargain Z-choice" is a list with both authority and cost performance, so that young people can "close their eyes and follow" good items that run through all life scenes, and "buy a really cost-effective".

This not only satisfies the consumer needs of young people, but also helps the settled brands find business increments. For example, in the "cost-effective Z selection" list, young users after 95 account for up to 30%, which can help brands better reach young consumer groups.

Consumers need e-commerce "festivals", but they do not need hundreds of "festivals" that pursue short-term outbreaks. Instead, it requires silent daily accompanying marketing.

There is no new idea to change the time point "to create a festival", reflecting nothing more than the "downward competition" of the lack of platform innovation. As Xiao Zhixing, a professor of management at Peking University, believes that enterprises are divided into three types: value creation, resource appropriation and power rent-seeking, and some Internet companies have slowly moved from value creation to resource possession, and even to power rent-seeking, seeking a kind of "downward competition".

Because, as long as a simple tree of a "festival" IP, you can occupy the "traffic" harvest a wave of sales, why not "lie down" a wave of it first?

But when the wheels of the times roll forward, they will not be "soft-hearted" about anything. Singles' Day has already reached a watershed, let alone other festivals?

Jack Trout, author of the best-selling book "Positioning" and marketing guru, once said: "The current business war is not a product war, the competition point is not in the factory, nor in the market, the ultimate competition battlefield must be in the minds of consumers." And those brands that are willing to read and understand consumers can have a better future. ”

The same is true for e-commerce "festivals".

Resources:

The e-commerce festival is becoming saturated, how should brands find a breakthrough? Chief Brand Officer

It's time to "go to the oil" for the e-commerce festival! Bullet Finance

Too much love to create festivals of e-commerce is not a good e-commerce "current Tech"

Self-deprecating tail-payers, Ding workers? This year's Double Eleven did not want you to be a person "Praying Mantis Observation"

Douyin e-commerce "festival": after growing up, it will become a double 11? Tech Planet