Image source @Visual China
Text | Wang Zhiyuan
At present, the anchor’s delivery of goods is one of the most important means of driving consumption . The reason is that it can make the goods more exposed to people’s field of vision, and stimulate the potential demand of users through a series of explicit means, thereby promoting the relationship between supply and demand.
However, everyone has mixed impressions of “live broadcast with goods”, such as:
Previously, Miss Dong of Gree Air Conditioning said that simply going online means tens of thousands of offline stores, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people will lose their jobs. We cannot give up them. The purpose of business survival is to create jobs. Generate value through them.
In a closer look, the mid-waist MCN agency, as an intermediary, said that although it charges part of the pit fee for bringing the goods, plus the expenses of rent and manpower, it is not profitable to operate.
Not to mention the solo anchor, the left hand needs to do traffic and works, and the right hand has to deal with the supply chain, negotiate prices, and when they really go to the battlefield to sell goods, the expected and actual results are simply not worth the effort invested.
We must admit that the growth of short videos has brought huge opportunities to the market. In terms of the total number of users, consumption behavior, and overall development, it is far more than the graphics and texts of the year.
The problem is, for creators and platforms, the power law is obvious, and development is not healthy at all.
However, the reality is different from what we imagined. Every day, there are a large number of entrepreneurs, new entrepreneurs, fresh meat stars, and art practitioners from short videos to live streaming . straw?
01 Why bring goods?
Everyone’s purpose is to “make money”, but the process is different; we might as well start from three perspectives and examine, why should we bring goods?
From an entrepreneur’s perspective:
Entrepreneurs bringing goods is not a big deal. During the Thousand Broadcasting War in 2016, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun held a new product launch conference on his own platform, Xiaomi Live , and attracted millions of users to watch with his increasingly skilled mouth.
According to statistics, it also received nearly 130,000 star tickets as rewards. At that time, everyone regarded live broadcasts as entertainment. Entrepreneurs had nothing to show up to increase exposure, and the audience just watched the fun.
Until the start of the epidemic in 2020, many companies had no choice but to transform their online businesses. The bosses had to solve the urgency of burning coal and end up rescuing the market; do they all have the same purpose? Not.
Take Liang Jianzhang as an example:
During the Spring Festival of 2020, Ctrip has just completed about 1.2 billion refunds and compensation, and is facing enormous pressure to survive. Starting from March, at 8 pm every week, he will “open” in the live broadcast room on time, and even put on makeup cosplay rock, allegro, Shave his head to play Cao Cao.
It’s hard to imagine that this is a professor of population economics who is close to 500 years old. Of course, after dozens of live broadcasts, Liang Jianzhang’s sales of goods exceeded 1.4 billion, and Ctrip successfully recovered blood.
Also interesting is Luo Min of the shop:
At that time, star companies were once reduced to being ridiculed by the public, and their market value evaporated by nearly 10 billion. After the early campus loan business was blocked, he was forced to start a business many times, luxury e-commerce Wanlimu, car rental business Dabai Automobile, K12 project fun learning, etc., and finally ended hastily.
Some time ago, on the short video platform, Jia Nailiang was invited to the platform, and Stud Ten million gave benefits and sold pre-made vegetables in the live broadcast room, and finally made it to the hot search, saving the company’s only place in the stock market.
It can be said that from the perspective of consumers, we can see that entrepreneurs are “constantly tossing”, but from the perspective of the other party, it may be inevitable that they are helpless. Both entrepreneurs are essentially trying to use the remaining “IP itself to influence. “Happily connected to the live broadcast, to turn the tide of enterprise transformation.
However, not all entrepreneurs are so successful.
Mr. Li Guoqing, who was kicked out of Dangdang.com, despite his dream of making a comeback and spending a year studying in the morning and evening, the spectators were not touched at all, no matter if he recruited regional agents or users who were interested in “starting a business and reading”, they would all pay the bill. Very few.
In the end, after some iterations, he had to become the “hate me” and start live streaming. Of course, this is not a shameful thing. The embarrassment is that not long after his live broadcast, he also objected to Luo Yonghao’s entry into the live broadcast industry, saying that a company I think it’s absurd if the home is self-media, relying on advertisements or bringing goods.
At the same time, there have also been many dramatic stories, such as a live broadcast with the founder of Vanke Eslite, selling 300 shirts at a cost of about 1,300 yuan, and selling 699 yuan in the live broadcast room, with a discount of nearly 50%, and finally only sold Went a few pieces and sales were very dismal.
Obviously, there is not much difference between bloggers with hundreds of thousands of fans. Some people say it is for show, and some people think it is for Li Guoqing .
From the perspective of celebrity influencers:
Why do celebrities bring goods? Common profit-making methods for celebrities include acting, singing, participating in variety shows, concerts, etc. The most profitable one is inevitably commercialization. One brand endorsement and several offline meetings are sometimes enough to account for 1/3 of the annual revenue.
Driven by technology in the past two years, media channels have changed, and brands have begun to transform from single exposure to effect conversion. Except for the top stars who can receive some advertisements, the newcomers in the second and third tiers and even just debuted have no diversified income at all. They have to use their own Halo, take advantage of the trend to bring goods.
However, it was not very smooth. Most of the stars made their debuts at their peaks. After that, car rollover incidents are commonplace. For example, since 618 last year, several stars have not brought goods directly.
What is the reason behind this?
Communicate with a few friends who have brought the artist publicity, they said that the team itself is “relational”, and the agent is a celebrity, and it is enough to compete for more exposure and business resources.
Now the transformation and delivery of goods, the selection of products behind, investment promotion, etc. have undergone a series of structural changes, which is equivalent to reopening a company, and it may also affect the artist’s own feathers due to various after-sales problems of the brand. Therefore, this road seems simple but actually very simple. Disaster.
The starting points of ordinary Internet celebrities and entrepreneurs and celebrities are obviously different. They rely on their own talents to accumulate original users, and if they cannot effectively realize their profits, they cannot support account operation based on their hobbies alone.
Like, “Classmate Zhang, Lin Yan, Chen Xiang, etc. at half past six.
In the early years, when there were not many capital chips, I could only choose to receive some brand promotion orders, and the offline commercial performance was maintained; I did not enter the game until the platform could bring goods to maintain long-term development. It seems that the money earned by bringing goods did not make video brand business. Promote more money.
To sum up, it can be seen that although they are delivering cost-effective products to consumers and increasing liquidity to obtain revenue, everyone has different processes and problems to solve. Entrepreneurs try to find the second curve. Diversified development, most of the Internet celebrities are for survival.
02 The dilemma of bringing goods
If you calm down and look at the problem, you will find that bringing goods is a dilemma (the more you sell, the more you lose, or there is only a small profit) . On the other hand, it belongs to “one of the marketing channels” in the eyes of the brand.
Starting from the industry and market:
The live broadcast has 7 characteristics, such as vividness, strong experience, limited-time promotion, curiosity-driven, impulsive consumption, star effect, and trust behind, which fully shows the selling point of a product.
It seems that live streaming has solved some consumer problems, such as:
The products look more realistic and three-dimensional, and users can interact with the anchors at any time, generating purchasing confidence and impulsive consumption, etc. However, the biggest selling point of most goods is still on the label of “lowest cost performance on the whole network”.
This is the biggest paradox of bringing goods. This is, why?
At a deeper level, live streaming is essentially a traditional e-commerce business, based on a comprehensive upgrade based on the “content field”. Before, when there was no delivery, everyone received information on the details page, pictures and texts. Now technological development has added new scenes for graphic and text presentations. .
The live broadcast itself is one of the branches in the scene, and so is the short video. There may be AR delivery in the future. With the blessing of technology, consumers can see the real products with glasses. In addition to the color, style, and size, they can also carry out Try it on, you can have a shopping experience without leaving home.
Therefore, live streaming can only belong to the initial stage of live e-commerce, not to mention the number of stars, internet celebrities, and fans. At best, these are concepts created by the platform to hide people’s ears, and how much goods can be brought in the end is nothing like Pinduoduo and Taobao. too much difference.
In other words, “how much goods the live broadcast can bring depends on how much profit the merchant makes.”
From this, you can see that, whether it is Brother Xiao Yang, the Guangdong couple, the Rainbow couple, etc., in the current production of tens of millions of GMV, the essence is the best price the anchor gives fans on the entire network.
However, the anchor is not a live Lei Feng, and he has to earn commissions himself. Some big brands (Three Squirrels, Zhou Dasheng, Baicaowei) have stated in front of the public media that the Internet celebrity economy cannot bring considerable revenue. , the lowest price on the entire network requested by the anchor, and sometimes lose money.
Although the live broadcast brings the goods immediately, the socialized consumption scene directly shortens the distance between the goods and the user’s psychology, but the preconditions also have the personal IP effect of some Internet celebrity anchors, and the catalysis of the “bottom-hunting discount” of the products, in order to exchange for product sales.
Therefore, live broadcast is a kind of consumption behavior with a very short time.
From the current point of view, merchants sell goods through this kind of promotion, and at most give a good start to the sales of goods. It is impossible to become a long-term sales channel, and it is difficult to enjoy its benefits for a long time.
This is because, apart from the fact that leading brands can be self-financed and have a flat ROI and are willing to build their own teams, some merchants cannot guarantee that they can make money by investing in live broadcasts, and they also have no market application ability. For example, a series of homework such as on-site placement and optimization requires professional attention. Enter the game.
Linyi City Federation of Industry and Commerce, Chairman of Chaoshan Chamber of Commerce Chen Weiqiang said that our local self-built team is supporting live broadcast delivery, but the reality is not the case. Now only less than 5% of manufacturers can make money.
Many wholesalers in Linyi are front and back factories. In order to save themselves, everyone is transforming. At the beginning, there were hundreds of people in the live broadcast room, and then there were only a few dozen, and then there were only a dozen or a few people left. go down.
You spend money to buy traffic, but people come. The problem goods can’t be sold. Many people look at them and leave. In the end, many people put in the money and lose it. It’s like an infinite game, and the revenue is half of the platform. It gets harder and harder to do over time.
So, what’s more, if you hand over products to big anchors and try to sell them through live broadcasts, it is an act of eagerness for quick success and instant profit. There are even some merchants who expect celebrity anchors to make their products popular, which is even more ridiculous.
If you think about it, the product itself has no traffic, and the traffic is in the hands of the anchor, so the business has little right to speak, and live broadcast is an extremely utilitarian marketing behavior.
In the short term, the anchor rarely considers the value of the product, and can only use “price, category”, this kind of crude screening method to classify, in the end, what else can you have left?
From the point of view of the carrier:
At present, there are basically four types of creator ecosystems on all short video platforms: 1) Head (top-stream KOLs, stars), 2) General KOLs (excluding top-streams, live well), 3) Quasi-vertical KOLs (subdivisions also Yes, the overall ecology is high or low), 4) Long-tail creators (live broadcast, short video ecological filler).
Who are these people who play a key role in bringing goods? Obviously the top three are right, but more than 85% of Internet traffic is monopolized by BAT, and many of them have their own MCNs.
In other words, people simply don’t beat around the bush at the 618 and Double 11 promotion nodes. They clearly tell you that the platform is ecologically sound, with anchors, traffic, content, and big events to build momentum for you.
No matter which industry or brand, you only need to borrow money, buy traffic, sell products, and sell products to buy traffic, so the cycle can be done.
In addition to the head, the mid-waist live broadcast is also such a dilemma. It is a bit like exposure for content, spending money to buy traffic, and then selling products, making money, buying traffic for content, and unlimited games. Therefore, the relationship between the brand, the anchor, and the goods , really love and kill each other.
03 Is live streaming the antidote?
No matter how hype, the essence of live broadcast is still “exploitation and realization”.
Internet celebrity anchors, celebrities, and entrepreneurs should stop and examine how and where this antidote should be used at each stage of live broadcast for themselves and the company.
Take the car industry as an example:
As a bulk commodity, there are many difficulties in trading through live broadcast, such as high price and low frequency, emphasis on offline experience, strong professional requirements for shopping guides, long purchase decision-making cycle for users, and complex after-sales links.
In addition, after the successful purchase of a car, it will also involve a series of services such as car pickup, registration, tax payment, insurance, etc. There are also industry insiders who say that even if the live broadcast can sell the car, it is a false proposition, because if it can be done, the TV shopping guide era is also Can.
Although historical data shows that the live broadcast can indeed sell the car, like Lei Jiayin and Kuaishou anchor “Handmade Geng” to bring goods for Baowo, Li Xiang and Yan Chuang (car KOL) live broadcast, even if they win more than 1,600 pre-orders, the transaction is completed. The amount is 220 million yuan, and it is only an appointment.
On the contrary, if there are no celebrities and top Internet celebrities in the live broadcast room, professionals sit in the live broadcast room to sell cars, and there are not many people involved . In addition, there are some corporate headquarters that directly build their own live broadcast rooms and talk 24 hours a day. Car performance, configuration.
In my opinion, this kind of short-term treatment cannot effectively empower regional franchisees. A single headquarters alone cannot support the entire market, because it involves a series of remodeling issues such as the entire organizational structure and marketing methods.
For the furniture industry:
In the past year, we have also seen the launch of online activities such as Easyhome, Red Star Macalline, Bayi Furniture City, etc., which have brought a lot of performance growth. Long-term scattered users accumulated in major social media.
Many home furnishing manufacturers have also reported that direct-sale stores and franchised store shopping guides and self-broadcasts cannot be directly converted. At most, they can save money to the store. Moreover, if the headquarters broadcasts live broadcasts, it will also bring certain difficulties to the dealers.
For example, when manufacturers directly connect with users to sell goods, there will be three problems:
1) Squeeze dealers to sell goods and make room for price difference. 2) The price issue in the manufacturer’s self-broadcasting is too transparent, and some prices are the supply price, even lower than the supply price, which makes the middlemen even more embarrassed. 3 ) In the face of low prices from manufacturers, dealers have to explain to old customers, which is laborious.
Therefore, if you use the “live broadcast” pill alone, if you don’t eat it well, you will also eat it back.
Moreover, furniture products are not things that are bought for dozens of dollars. It involves various factors such as size, quality and after-sales. Once the goods are not suitable for purchase, there are potential hidden dangers.
“At present, we still focus on the offline experience link, and put the explanation and display online. At best, small pieces of tables, chairs and stools are used for retail, while large items are more traditional and still guided to the store.” A person in charge of e-commerce channels in the furniture industry said.
From the perspective of celebrity influencers:
It is another situation. Some artists face the severe winter of film and television, and their income has dropped sharply. At the same time, the new first-line fresh meat has many levels, and if they are not careful, they may become pawns of capital.
The most pressing way is to develop a side business, plus the aura empowered by his own drama and singing talent, this path is relatively very suitable.
Compared to internet celebrities? Generally speaking, it is impossible for oneself to become the focus in the early stage. When the work is interesting enough and valuable to be discovered, it is necessary to look for commercialization opportunities.
Undoubtedly, the process of live broadcast is conducive to interacting with fans. It is inevitable that some people will ask “what brand the blogger wears, whether there is a book list recommendation, how to lose weight and other knowledge or good things. ” Quick realization and mainstream communication bridge.
From this objective point of view, live broadcast is only a new channel driven by Internet technology and market demand. As long as the value of intermediaries is still there, it will exist forever.
It serves products, works, and personal design, and only represents a link for display and relationship building, and supplements a link in operational capabilities.
If the foundation is not stable, you will want to get out of the circle through live broadcasts and rely on talents. Most of the people you attract are melon eaters, which are of no value; therefore, live broadcasts are ultimately the same as traditional terminal channels.
04 Basic disk is the key
What is a basic disk? In his New Year’s Eve speech, Luo Zhenyu, the founder of Get APP, described it as those things that cannot be changed, taken away, or thrown away.
for example:
If you are an office worker, if you lose your job, do you have other income to support your economy? If you are an entrepreneur, if a single project is gone, do you have other projects to support it, etc.
So, whether companies, celebrities, or KOLs, what are the aspects of the basic disk itself? I think we can never do without these three elements: 1) product, 2) service and value, 3 users
From the perspective of corporate brand:
Products, as the name suggests, what the company sells, services and value belong to the additional value-added part of the product. For users, we can understand it as “where he is, how to find him, and attract him to buy, or become a long-term fan”.
for example:
For NIO, more than 70% of the orders are introduced by old users. It has a troika of apps, online communities, and offline stores. Whether it is LBS advertisements, short video placements or live broadcasts, users are introduced to the APP community and private domains.
The reason for this is that after registering on the APP, users can see the comments of old users on the car in the community, and even the wonderful moments of participating in various car clubs. In addition, the shopping guide friend circle has been planting grass for a long time, and the whole process has become invisible. A closed-loop cycle that subtly changes user perception.
However, traditional car companies are different.
All kinds of social distribution, live broadcast, and WeChat communication with shopping guides at the headquarters, each link is a meager effort. It should have upgraded the original market operation model to co-creation with franchisees, and invited various places to open accounts. operation.
The headquarters uses a public domain event to link each localized storefront, making it easier to focus and arouse thousands of waves. Each store just covers the surrounding three kilometers of local users, which greatly improves the conversion efficiency.
Therefore, live streaming is at best one of the channels of the marketing department. It is an appetizer , a one-time traffic, a screening channel, not a meal, not to mention a non-focused approach, because it cannot make the brand generate sustainable sales power, you can’t fully Bet in.
From the perspective of star net red:
The two are completely different. The basic plan of the star is “work and self-design”, which has a compound interest effect, and the scarcity value can easily stimulate large-scale users. Bringing goods as one of the identities, as long as the design does not collapse, what category does it do? Depends on personal interest.
Net red, the basic product is “content orientation”. If you can’t take root in a vertical field, you can easily be replaced in the long run, because the subdivision itself is a circle. If you don’t subdivide it, it means you can only stay at the entertainment content level. .
Secondly, it is impossible for a platform to shape an internet celebrity personality like a celebrity, and it is impossible for consumers to pay attention to a large number of homogenous bloggers, and it is impossible for bloggers to target a large and comprehensive market. Moreover, it is impossible for brands to invest for a long time. , bloggers whose value propositions don’t quite match.
Social division of labor is an inevitable phenomenon. What is worth buying, what is worth eating, and what is worth using, we will only trust people who have experienced it personally, or who are professional in the vertical field. Therefore, in theory, we are all acquiring accurate customer traffic.
Like, if you like Qin Lan, it’s impossible to follow Liu Yifei, right? Therefore, subdividing live broadcast content is the future trend. Don’t worry that the small and beautiful market is not big enough. It may be that the well is not dug deep enough.
all in all:
Live e-commerce will not disappear, and vertical delivery is the future.
Without a halo foundation, I do not recommend any ordinary person to directly transform into live broadcast or bring goods. The only way is to stabilize the basic disk, find users based on the product, and regard live broadcast as a channel branch. Perhaps, it is a long-term survival plan. (This article was first published on Titanium Media APP)