Analysis of the fission marketing strategies of Qutoutiao and Luckin Coffee!

It just so happens that we are also formulating fission marketing strategies for our own products recently, so we have specially conducted a comparative analysis of two products in the market that are relatively successful in fission marketing , aiming to find out the core gameplay of fission marketing for reference and reference of our own products.

1. Common fission and incentive mechanism design

Design a social fission activity mechanism based on the needs and behavioral characteristics of the target user groups of specific products or activities. There are two mechanisms involved here: the dissemination mechanism and the reward mechanism.

Common fission propagation mechanisms include: group discounts, secondary distribution, help with bargaining, invitations for assistance, etc., all of which meet these characteristics - low (participation) threshold, zero cost, income, easy to share, and can be accumulated.

The reward mechanism is generally based on cash discounts or virtual points that can be exchanged for cash. After all, this is the most practical reward; or it is a virtual reward that can make the target audience feel valuable, such as rare in-game titles or precious props for some heavy game players.

In addition, there are three golden rules for social media activities that have been proven to be effective over the years: be useful, interesting, and valuable. Activities that meet these three points can effectively motivate user participation, which also applies to social fission.

One thing that needs to be noted here in mechanism design is to draw a clear line between it and pyramid schemes, because pyramid schemes are illegal models that are expressly prohibited by the state and must not be involved.

The viral case of NetEase Cloud Classroom at the beginning of this year used the social fission model. In order to promote the new courses, the activity has set up two-level distribution benefit rewards. The first-level "distribution" can get 60% of the course price, and the second-level "distribution" can get 30% of the profit. For example, if user A shares a course link on his social media, and user B sees it and purchases the course, user A can get 60% of the course price as profit; if user B shares the link again and user C purchases the course, user A gets 30% and user B gets 60%, and so on. The "distribution" level is controlled at the second level, because the third-level distribution is suspected of being a pyramid scheme.

Although this activity was later banned by WeChat, the main reason was that it was suspected of violating WeChat’s regulations on “inducing sharing”, not because of social fission and secondary distribution model. In general, there are many things to learn from the design of this event, and it also sparked heated discussions in the industry at the time.

In short, the social fission model itself is neither right nor wrong.

2. User Characteristics Analysis

Social fission is a profit-driven marketing model, so many participants are also profit-driven user groups. According to QuestMobile's research report, the characteristics of interest-driven user groups include:

• Relatively low time cost
• Share frequently on social media
• Have the habit and willingness to consume online
• Less familiar with mobile Internet

If a brand uses the social fission marketing model, it needs to be familiar with the characteristics of this type of users, so as to choose promotion strategies and design activity content and mechanisms in a targeted manner.

3. Qutoutiao’s fission strategy

One of the important reasons for the rapid rise of Qutoutiao is that it has adopted a series of user growth methods centered on giving benefits (money, gold coins).

1. Apprenticeship (invitation) mechanism

The so-called accepting a disciple is an invitation. For example, if your friend registers for Qutoutiao through the QR code or invitation code you shared, you will be able to get a certain amount of cash reward, and your friend's effective reading will be converted into a certain amount of gold coins as "tribute" to you. The gold coins converted into tribute by effective reading are higher than the gold coins brought to the reader himself by effective reading. For example, if your friend earns 10 gold coins by reading, then you may get 20 gold coins.

If your good friend also accepts disciples, then these disciples are your "granddisciples". When you accept a disciple, you can also get a certain amount of cash reward; when the disciple's reading reaches a certain amount, you can also get gold coins.

Invitation and sharing methods:

(1) Invite through a link: After inviting friends, users can directly receive cash, usually ranging from 6 to 10 yuan. If you use QQ channels to attract new customers, you can also participate in a lottery.

(2) Face-to-face QR code scanning: Invited users can participate in a lucky draw, with prizes of 20, 50, or 200 yuan gold coins, a Midea air conditioner cabinet, an iPhone X256g, 888 yuan, 1,000 yuan, and a Haier drum washing machine.

(3) Welfare coupons: The Welfare Club provides a series of welfare products, such as video memberships, phone bills, Q coins, etc. Users send out welfare benefits. If the friends who receive the benefits eventually log in to Qutoutiao, they can get two welfare coupons.

1. Wake-up mechanism

In addition, if your apprentice has not logged in for a while, you can send him a link to invite him to log in again. This process is called "awakening the apprentice"; if the awakening is successful, you can get 1,000 gold coins.

1. Interest Binding Mechanism

Qutoutiao’s gold coins can be exchanged into RMB at a certain rate. Since the beginning of 2018, the exchange rate of gold coins on Qutoutiao has basically remained at 50 cents for 1,000 gold coins.

1. Task Reward Mechanism

Users can receive gold coins by reading news, signing in daily, completing tasks, opening treasure chests, and participating in sharing. These methods are extremely low-cost and have no operational threshold.

Taking opening a treasure chest as an example, users can get gold coins by simply clicking on the treasure chest. The number of gold coins each time is between 5 and 10, and the treasure chest can be opened once every three hours. Since gold coins can be exchanged for RMB, there is no essential difference between giving gold coins and giving money, except that the amount of gold coins received directly is usually smaller.

1. Gift welfare mechanism

Qutoutiao has a welfare club, and the welfare within the club includes "Tencent Video VIP Monthly Card", "5 Yuan Q Coins", "iQiyi Membership Monthly Card", "iQiyi Membership Weekly Card" and "Kugou VIP Monthly Card". Users can send these benefits to their friends. If the other party registers for Toutiao in this way, the user can get welfare coupons in exchange for these benefits.

1. "Featured" sharing copy

In terms of copywriting, Qutoutiao is also very distinctive.

The first is to give users clear tasks. The expression does not say "you will get money by inviting users", but "invite 2 friends and get a reward of 10 yuan each" or "invite 6 friends and get a reward of 10 yuan each".

A clear amount of tasks gives you a thrill of beating monsters, which can speed up the pace of sharing and fission.

Second, the copywriting on Qutoutiao is somewhat deceptive. For example, when a user clicks on the "My" page, a prompt pops up saying "Get the following benefits for free". The interface they enter still shows "Get for free", but when they click "Get", it will say "You don't have enough coupons. Go and invite your friends to earn coupons~"

Therefore, the replacement of “share and receive benefits” with “receive benefits for free” is still somewhat deceptive. Qutoutiao intentionally takes advantage of small town and rural users' ignorance of the business world and the Internet, or some kind of information asymmetry, to make users believe that there is huge profit potential and wealth potential hidden in the black box behind the product. If users find the right method, they can get huge benefits. And this benefit is far higher than the time cost I paid. Rather than convincing users that their time is worthless, it is better to exchange less money.

1. User acceptance mechanism

Now that we have fully mobilized the enthusiasm of old users to consciously attract new users, how can we successfully retain the newly reached users?

Red envelopes come first, and the benefits are higher than the costs

As long as new users download the Qutoutiao APP, they can get a new user red envelope of at least one yuan. What is the cost of downloading an APP using wifi? If you get one dollar for downloading, the cost of downloading itself can be instantly ignored.

During this process, users will have a sense of "loss", which seems to be an emotion that is rarely mobilized in marketing. What it actually means is that a certain amount of money is already yours, and you can get it as long as you download it. If you don't download it, it's yours and you didn't want it.

Moreover, when it comes to inducing new users to download the APP, Qutoutiao also has a very clever function setting.

As I just said, Qutoutiao starts with red envelopes. New users can learn from old users (their mentors) and copywriting that there will be new red envelopes to receive, but the process of receiving red envelopes is divided into several steps:

Red envelope for new members - download the APP - click to receive the red envelope - log in - click to receive the red envelope again - jump to the "My" page, and a "New Member Benefits" page will pop up - click to receive and jump to the invite friends page - there is a treasure chest on the page that can be clicked to get gold coins.

Qutoutiao not only acquires customers by using a one-yuan red envelope, but also brings users into its own gold coin system and invitation system through a series of inducements to receive benefits. The latter is the core of Qutoutiao's gameplay.

1. Activation and retention mechanisms

Qutoutiao has entered a relatively mature product stage, and user retention is mainly achieved through the mature gold coin system mentioned at the beginning of this article.

This gold coin system can effectively achieve user retention and activation for the following reasons:

The first reason is that users’ awakening of their apprentices can achieve supervision and motivation among users. This kind of awakening chain is often based on private social chains, so it can be expected that the effect will be better than reminders from strangers.

The second reason is that the users themselves are deeply involved in this "gold coin system". Once a user has an apprentice, he has a way to make money on a "scale". The more deeply involved he is, the more profit he will get. Therefore, the deep involvement of the game drives user usage.

The third reason is the gold coin system. Why use a coin system? Considering that gold coins can be exchanged for RMB at a certain rate, in essence, it is RMB. Its function is to tie the interests of the platform and the interests of users together. The longer the user uses the system, the more RMB a certain amount of gold coins can be exchanged for. This chain effect will also encourage users to use the product for a longer period of time.

1. Blockchain consensus mechanism

For Qutoutiao, it issues a token with currency attributes - gold coins. The proof-of-work mechanism is adopted for the issuance of gold coins. Users can obtain gold coins by completing tasks such as inviting friends, reading articles, and clicking on advertisements. Users can exchange gold coins for RMB by themselves, which further improves liquidity.

The biggest highlight of Qutoutiao's gold coin system is that the exchange rate of gold coins to RMB is linked to the platform's revenue. The higher the platform's revenue, the more RMB users can exchange for the same number of gold coins. This not only allows users to see the appreciation potential of gold coins, but also ties the platform's interests with user interests very well.

When Token has the characteristics of liquidity and appreciation, it will become the powerful Token economy. If we bring it to the operational level, we can quickly turn users into super users who are willing to work hard for the platform.

Next, let’s take a look at how Qutoutiao uses the idea of ​​Token economy to achieve growth (which can also be regarded as consolidating the understanding of Token economy):

1) Token is like the “gold coins” in Qutoutiao.

2) Mining is like the process of obtaining "gold coins" in Qutoutiao, such as obtaining "gold coins" through tasks such as inviting friends, reading articles, and clicking on advertisements.

3) The consensus mechanism adopted by Qutoutiao is the "proof of work mechanism", which is similar to Bitcoin. The more work you do, the more rewards you will get. For example, the more articles you read on Qutoutiao, the more rewards you will get.

4) The biggest highlight of Qutoutiao’s gold coin system is that it adopts a “token-like” system that ties the interests of the platform with the interests of users.

Another similar mechanism is Fcoin. Foin is a Bitcoin trading platform that became famous last year. As long as users trade through Fcoin, they will receive a transaction fee returned by the platform, but the transaction fee is returned in the form of the platform's own FT tokens. The platform will regularly distribute 80% of the platform's profits to users holding FT. The more FT one has, the more money one can get.

This is a typical way of making money together. Users will frantically invite friends and trade tokens to earn more FT.

4. Luckin Coffee’s fission marketing

For a product to achieve fission, it must first have a group of seed users, and secondly, it must have social sharing. Through the sharing of seed users on social media, the number of users can achieve geometric growth. For example, Luckin Coffee achieves the goal of stimulating fission through experiential means such as buy two get one free, buy five get five free on the APP, and free drinks when shared on WeChat Moments.

1. Media publicity mechanism

At the media level, in order to cooperate with the rapid expansion of stores in the channel, Luckin Coffee adopts a regionalized and precise delivery approach, placing targeted advertisements and WeChat Moments LBS around the opening of new stores. Therefore, although the media budget is relatively restrained, it still gives the target audience an overwhelming feeling. The repeated coverage delivery method improves the conversion effect on the media side.

With store channels opened up and media placement in place, users are almost considering trying their first order.

On the marketing side, Luckin used a very simple method to push users one step further: "New users get their first cup for free + invite friends and get one each + buy two get one free", the low threshold first order further increased the actual purchase conversion rate. At the same time, by opening pop-up stores with technology companies such as Tencent and Baidu during popular events, the brand’s tone was elevated and more attention was attracted by the younger generation.

Luckin Coffee has been able to grow wildly thanks to its highly coordinated operating system and on-point execution at every step. The new online + offline retail strategy has filled the gap of no big brands in China's freshly ground coffee takeaway market. In just a few months, it has brought Luckin Coffee more than 5 million cups and provided Chinese consumers with a new coffee choice.

The overall idea is "free meal + free meal for friends". First, Luckin Coffee tells new customers: Buy my coffee and it’s free for new customers. Next, it tells you: "Let your friends try it too? Refer your friends and you can continue to get free meals!"

1. New customer acquisition and follow-up mechanism

1. First order is free: Download the luckin coffee app and get a free drink.
2. Give them a coffee: When friends download the app by sharing the link, they will each get a free drink.
3. 50% off every week: Follow the official WeChat account and receive 50% off coupons through IP implantation every week.
4. Light Meal Storm: Enjoy all light meals at 50% off.
5. Coffee Wallet: Buy drink coupons, recharge two and get one free, recharge five and get five free. During Double 11, recharge one and get two free, limited to five.
6. Place an order and get a coupon: Purchase any product and you will get one of 20 coupons. The discount depends on your luck, and the rest can be shared with friends.

Among these marketing measures, giving TA coffee and giving coupons when placing an order are the main ways of fission.

Sending TA coffee for free is an attraction that entices users to actively share it with their friends. All their friends need to do is download the app, and the threshold is very low. This not only increases the number of users, but also benefits them.

This series of actions is to let you experience their coffee. In an era when attention is the most expensive, they use free means to get users to try it for the first time, and then use users' love of free things to actively spread their brand. The threshold is very low and the effect should be good, because the first cup I saw around me seemed to be the free little blue cup.

1. Spokesperson Mechanism

National goddess Tang Wei + national male god Zhang Zhen are well-known among office workers, and their spokesperson coverage overlaps with the target customers of their products.

1. Brand image mechanism

The brand color and brand logo design are unique and sophisticated.

The brand name is transliterated in a simple and elegant way.

1. User scenario design mechanism

An urban white-collar worker will check his Moments during his free time at work during the day to see what the people he follows are following. At this time, Luckin Coffee launched a wave of advertisements in the WeChat Moments - the national goddess + the male god endorsed the small "blue" cup + download and get one for free. "Well, I didn't sleep well last night after working so long, so I'll have a drink. It's free anyway, so let's try it."

Or maybe you are chatting with friends in a friend group during your free time at work, and a friend forwards a link to share free Luckin Coffee, then this is the second exposure.

Maybe at this time, you saw your colleagues collecting takeout, and the bag contained a small blue cup. After a day of work, I took the subway to get off work, and there were also advertisements for the Little Blue Cup on the subway. In the elevator at home, I saw Tang Wei’s smiling face holding the little blue cup.

After this round of marketing, even if you are not a coffee fan, you probably know that there is a coffee drink called Luckin Coffee. Or maybe you are a little interested in coffee, I guess you will take out your mobile phone to place an order to try the first cup of free Luckin Coffee.

You'll see that they've already anticipated the context in which you'll see their ads. When placing advertisements, we sometimes define whether the advertisement is a brand advertisement or a performance advertisement. However, when we do the final evaluation, you will find that the effect of the advertisement placed through channels that were previously positioned as brand advertisements is even better than that of channels that were previously positioned as performance advertisements, because in some unexpected scenarios at the time of placement, users used the product after seeing the brand advertisement.

V. Summary and Thoughts

1. Summarize

1. think

Through the analysis of Qutoutiao and Luckin Coffee, we can see that different target users adopt different fission mechanisms and reward mechanisms; therefore, before designing the mechanism, we must recognize the psychological and behavioral characteristics of the target users, and design strategies based on these characteristics to guide users to participate and become deeply involved.

Related reading:

1. Is the era of WeChat’s explosive growth coming to an end?

2. Marketing promotion: How does fission marketing achieve market “fission”?

3. How does user operation implement fission marketing plan? Start from these 4 points!

4. Event promotion and operation: After I have done more than 100 fission events...

5. User operation: a new way to increase user base through exponential growth!

6. APP growth strategy, 6 steps to complete the violent cold start of user fission!

Author: Pilot

Source: Pilot