The methodology for launching hot-selling products on Douyin!

In July, a super skin care product quickly became popular on Douyin - bubble mask.

If you often watch Douyin, you must have seen this recently: the blogger took out a black facial mask, put it on the face, and the mask produced bubbles by itself, claiming that "the dirtier the face, the more bubbles there are."

▲ Source: Douyin user - Chibi Maruko's daily life

Looking closely, we can see that the creator of this Douyin hit product is a well-established domestic daily chemical brand - PROYA.

Proya Bubble Mask topped the "TikTok Beauty and Skin Care List" in July, selling 800,000 boxes, helping Proya's mask sales increase from more than 20 million to 60 million. (Data source: July sales of facial masks on Alibaba.com)

▲ Source: Uncle Cao’s research on consumption upgrade

In fact, most of the old domestic brands are not having an easy time in this era of traffic planting and social media creating "Internet celebrities".

During the period of consumption transformation, they did not switch to new strategies in a timely manner, and their products lacked "appearance" and "online sense", and most of their sales were still based on traditional offline channels.

PROYA is one of them. Founded in 2003, PROYA has always been targeting second- and third-tier daily chemical channels, and its main battlefield is offline domestic cosmetics stores.

Since 2017, we have been trying to find ways to transform and adopt new marketing methods. This time, we created a super hit product and finally broke through successfully.

I found a few interesting things about the bubble mask's popularity:

First of all, PROYA, which was originally driven by offline sales, initially had 90% of its bubble mask sales come from online, and 60% came from traffic outside Taobao. It was not until recently when it became a hot topic on the entire network that the sales ratio dropped to 70% from online and 40% from outside Taobao.

According to FeiGua data, there are currently more than 750 videos related to bubble masks on the Douyin platform, involving more than 500 influencers. PROYA has achieved its goal of reaping the rewards through massive and intensive delivery.

▲ Source: Uncle Cao’s research on consumption upgrade

Secondly, facial masks are a large category and have become a red ocean with very low differentiation. PROYA’s original positioning was to make marine skin care products. Facial masks were not PROYA’s strong point, but it made a comeback with this single product and ranked second in Alibaba’s facial mask sales in July (it was only occasionally on the list before).

▲ Source: Uncle Cao’s research on consumption upgrade

Bubble mask was not invented by PROYA, but after it became popular, it boosted this category, and now every company has started to make it.

▲ Other bubble masks, data from Feigua

So I was very curious, why is PROYA Bubble Mask so popular? Can other brands follow suit and create another hit product?

For PROYA, the breakthrough of a single product has allowed it to break out of the predicament of traditional domestic brands. Can it achieve greater success in the future?

Based on the path to the popularity of PROYA Bubble Mask, we have summarized a model for creating hit products.

1. Four attributes of hit products

Products that are not popular are boring in their own way, but Douyin's popular products all have some similar "explosive attributes".

The first attribute: the novelty that resists the boredom of life.

First, let’s talk about the current social media environment and delivery formats.

Social media 1.0 is in the form of pictures and texts, mainly based on the WeChat and Weibo ecosystems, and is suitable for main functions, explaining interest points and building personal image.

2.0 is a form of community appearance represented by Xiaohongshu, which attracts people with beautiful cover pictures, or before-and-after comparison pictures of beautiful people and things.

3.0, which is mostly short videos of 15 seconds, has opened up a more concise, eye-catching and plot-grabbing form of entertainment. (sigh

How to create a sense of novelty to resist boring life in the era of short videos? In fact, it is about making products that are "counter-common sense" and "can have an impact on the visual sense."

Normally, we just put facial masks on our faces and then act like a quiet beautiful girl. However, this facial mask has the same feeling as facial cleanser and can foam automatically. It breaks people’s original association with facial masks and becomes counterintuitive.

A careful analysis shows that most of the popular products on TikTok have this "counter-common-sense" feature - Haidilao's new way of eating, birthday cakes that shoot money.

Secondly, this counterintuitive product must bring visual impact - with its own special effects.

Several bloggers on TikTok who promote bubble masks like to use pictures of foaming, or even their entire faces covered with bubbles, to arouse everyone's reaction.

Another similar product is Rever’s bath bubble ball, which is also very popular on Douyin and even Xiaohongshu. It is just an ordinary bath bubble, but when you put it in the bathtub, it will automatically add a special effect - a rainbow, so it is also very popular.

▲ From @EVA

They actually also have a brand called San Gu, which also has a strong visual impact and is all colorful.

At this point, we have to mention that this generation of young people (starting from those born after 1995) have actually seen a lot of the world and are Internet natives. It is quite difficult to attract their attention, so the overall social media environment and brand trends are actually tending towards color, special effects, novelty, and conceptualization.

What they bought was not a facial mask, but a toy!

The second attribute: sense of therapeutic effect.

Having fun alone is not enough. After all, we don’t buy facial masks just to watch them foam up.

Let’s not talk about the cleaning ability of bubble masks. Those of us who have done skin care work know that in the perception of consumers, everyone thinks that if you soak more, the mask will be clean.

So sometimes marketing is not about efficacy, but the sense of efficacy - do you feel it is effective?

In this regard, bubble masks are very advantageous. Not only do they bring a visual impact, ordinary masks just quietly moisturize, but bubble masks cleanse while foaming, making people feel like they are washing their face automatically.

Through concepts such as "foaming = cleansing" and triple purification, the bubble mask strongly links the product's novelty and selling points, thus delivering a powerful blow to conversion.

Another similar novelty product is a powder cake that sells very well on TikTok. It can be washed directly with water, and the powder remains dry, linking the powder cake's "strong waterproofness" and "no makeup removal" together.

The third attribute: social currency (oops, that word again)

Social currency is a concept derived from social media economics. It uses people's willingness to share with others to shape their products or ideas, thereby achieving the purpose of word-of-mouth communication.

To put it simply, I think it is just to create topics of conversation so that everyone can use them to chat.

When the bubble mask was first launched on TikTok, it created a memorable effect: the dirtier your face, the more bubbles it will produce.

▲ From Xingyu’s mother

This sentence is so powerful. For example, I also bought a box of bubble facial masks. A few days ago, I was going to let my husband apply the mask with me. You know that straight men are very resistant to facial masks. So I said something to him and he changed his mind: "I heard that the dirtier the face is, the more blisters will appear. I bet your face is extremely dirty." He said, "It's so magical, why don't I try it?" So in the end we started competing to see who could soak more.

▲ Why is my husband better looking than me? Why do I soak more?

You see, this is a social currency scenario. It gets bored couples like us to start chatting and playing, and gives products social attributes, which are always easier to spread because they take advantage of people's curiosity and herd mentality.

The fourth attribute: price below 100 yuan

The key to promoting popular products on Douyin is to keep the price of the product in an appropriate range, and it is best to keep it below 100 yuan. In the August monthly ranking of Douyin products, the top 10 products are all priced below 100 yuan.

▲ Source: Feigua Data, Jumei

The target consumer groups for Douyin's popular products are still mainly in the sinking market. They are easily attracted to new things, but their purchasing power is not very strong. An affordable price can dispel their concerns about buying things.

The normal price of PROYA Bubble Mask is 9.9 yuan per piece. If you get a coupon on Douyin or participate in e-commerce activities, you can buy one piece for 6 or 7 yuan.

Therefore, novelty (counterintuitive + visual impact), sense of efficacy, social topics, and prices below one hundred yuan are the universal templates for creating popular products on Douyin.

Apart from these hindsight analyses, how can brands design such popular products in normal times?

We later went to PROYA’s strategy director to investigate, and found out that the truth was actually as follows:

Although the bubble mask was launched in July, it was actually launched on June 18th. Proya finalized this product based on the selection of the big anchor, and then began to test it in batches on multiple channels in July. After a week of testing, it observed the efficient channels according to time cutoff points, and finally chose to release it on Douyin. Other channels have been maintained and tested.

Therefore, the birth of a hit product actually requires more refined marketing and operation that can "integrate product and effect". Next, let’s analyze PROYA’s methodology for launching this hit product.

2. Methodology for the distribution of popular Douyin products

I have mentioned in my three-class brand-effect marketing course that, in fact, effective delivery also requires a water wave model + keyword combination model. From my observation, PROYA’s advertising is very consistent with the effect-based advertising model I mentioned.

The so-called water wave model is actually to control the rhythm of release. The release actually has a similar effect to throwing stones into the water to produce ripples. When you throw a stone and find that the ripples are very big, then immediately throw a second stone. Each stone actually hits a different circle to achieve different effects.

I looked at the data of PROYA's advertising on Douyin. In just 30 days (August 11 to September 11, more than a month after the launch), the number of bloggers advertising PROYA was still as high as 502 bloggers, with a total of 724 related videos and 15.973 million Douyin views.

In the past month, PROYA has mainly used bloggers for recommendations (50%), beauty (10.22%), life (7.53%), comedy (7.53%), beauty (6.45%), and drama (2.51%), and even added celebrities (Wang Zulan and Li Yan), which is really a huge investment.

▲ Source: Feigua Data

As can be seen from the right picture above, the exposure brought by a single video of celebrities and funny bloggers is huge.

Below are the bloggers with the top 10 exposure rankings for a single video (based on the number of likes). The blogger account "抖格好物" was voted for 6 times in a row.

▲ Source: Feigua Data

Therefore, PROYA’s overall launch plan is:

In the first phase, the overall content will be tested starting with vertical beauty. Once the results are achieved, we will move on to the second circle of female topics, and the third topic of interest topics and even funny topics. Finally, we will add the support of celebrities to ensure that the audience can be spread and there is an interactive logic.

In extending the topic, PROYA used a large number of male bloggers to further strengthen the visual conflict of the bubble mask. For example, Li Jiaqi's assistant directly applied 5 bubble masks on his face in the video as an extreme challenge.

At the same time, during the advertising process, PROYA not only used KOLs but also adopted the support of information flow advertising. As the advertising cycle changed, the materials were constantly switched, and the content of the materials was relatively native.

So we analyzed the materials and keyword combinations used by PROYA’s bubble mask campaign.

During the launch period, PROYA continuously conducted multi-point tests and changed combinations to test the model. The three main variables were:

Product selling point keywords (e.g.: the more you soak, the dirtier your face becomes, marine elements, three-layer purification) x content KOL attributes (funny, plot twist, head-to-head recommendation) x fan size (head, waist, tail)

These three variables constitute different delivery options, which are delivered in different time periods, just like a package.

In the early stage, PROYA conducted small-scale tests with different combinations, such as "foaming + cheap x beauty recommendation x waist expert" and "hydrating + cheap x plot content x waist expert", focusing on the foaming effect and cleansing function.

In the middle stage, PROYA used "dirty face bubbles + three-layer cleansing x funny + male blogger x waist + head", mainly promoting foaming effect and cleansing function + social topicality.

Now, PROYA has started the "Marine Essence + Moisturizing + Safety x Celebrity + Plot + Recommendation x Top Influencer" campaign, focusing on effect evaluation and ingredient explanation, in response to the controversy over facial masks.

We also summarized its script and template routines:

Template 1 - Funny review: I recently saw a bubble mask that said the dirtier your face is, the more bubbles it produces. I didn't believe it and tried it. In the end, I ended up with bubbles all over my face and body.

Template 2 - Plot reversal: An ordinary girl encounters difficulties (a scumbag ex-boyfriend, a provocation from a green tea bitch), and uses a bubble mask to make her complexion look brand new, successfully counterattacking and taking revenge.

Template 3 - Suspense revealed: After spending thousands of dollars on cleansing masks at a beauty salon, can you actually save this money? PROYA Bubble Mask has the same effect and can be used for cleansing at home.

Template 4 - Serious Recommendation: Someone around him has bad skin condition due to staying up late/not paying attention to skin care. The blogger takes out a bubble mask, helps the friend apply it while explaining the advantages of the bubble mask, and finally the friend's skin becomes refreshed.

Template 5 - Responding to controversy: After careful evaluation of the mask's soft skin feel, cleansing function, and moisturizing effect, it was concluded that there was no problem with the quality of the bubble mask.

After making these speculations, we still confirmed with the person in charge of PROYA. It is understood that PROYA has a systematic content marketing delivery strategy, which includes multi-point testing, centralized delivery, and then decentralized delivery, and has already formed a set of tactics.

3. PROYA: A flash in the pan or continued success?

After the bubble mask became a hit, many people got to know the brand PROYA.

In fact, the PROYA brand has been established for 15 years. Before its bubble mask became a hit, its main selling point was "natural marine ingredients." I clicked into PROYA's Taobao live broadcast room, and the host was promoting the hydrating effect of "Marine Essence". In the interactive area, someone was still asking "Is there any promotion for the bubble mask?"

All the products in PROYA's Taobao store are ranked by sales volume. The first one is of course the bubble mask, the second one is a liquid foundation, and the third one is the "Hydrodynamic" skin care set (monthly sales volume is less than 50,000).

This is a bit embarrassing. Generally speaking, the concept of a single product should be tied to the brand's genes. For example, HFP's representative work is the essence, and the genes of Afu essential oil and hot-selling pure dew are also very consistent. Perfect Diary's star makeup "Animal Eyeshadow Palette" also strengthened Perfect Diary's overall makeup mindset.

But in my opinion, PROYA’s “Ocean Technology” positioning is not tied to the bubble mask. Making a single product a hit and gaining the attention of the younger generation is the first step for PROYA to achieve breakthrough.

However, the function of a hit product is not only to generate revenue, but also to attract traffic. In addition to bringing in hundreds of millions in sales to PROYA, the PROYA brand bubble mask also brought in 1.4 million new users.

While capturing traffic and attention, if the memory point of the bubble mask does not bring sedimentation to the brand's genes, then these 1.4 billion users will not be willing to buy other skin care products of PROYA just because they bought the bubble mask.

What should be PROYA’s next step? We believe there are three directions for our efforts:

Continue exploring the items:

After accumulating the methodology for creating hit products and conducting launch tests, we continue to launch hit products relying on our strong R&D capabilities. Now that everyone has gained knowledge about cleansing and facial masks, we can strike while the iron is hot and explore new popular products in these two areas.

The relationship between related items and "Ocean PROYA":

Single products still need to be associated with brand positioning to shift consumers' minds from facial masks to the brand. It can be seen that when searching for PROYA’s official website on Baidu, the slogan is already “Ocean PROYA Bubble Mask”.

Strengthen user operations:

Converting the traffic brought by the bubble mask into private domain, and then further refining the operation, and using strong operational means to retain and repurchase this group of new users can also generate a considerable amount of income.

Author: Trinity

Source: Trinity