How to seize the traffic of Xiaohongshu platform?

In today's world where consumer groups and consumer brands are changing with each passing day, brand storytelling seems to have formed a kind of "involution" in the industry. Whoever tells a better story, can give the product more emotional value, and resonate with users, will be the first to capture the user's mind. So how do brands empower the emotional value of their products on Xiaohongshu?

01 The consumption logic of paying for "emotions" and the changes in consumption habits

As living standards improve, consumers' consumption habits are no longer focused on solving a single specific need. The rapid development of online communication has caused consumers to have many complex emotions about consumer shopping.

The outbreak of the Hongxing Erke incident has shown us the huge volume of voice generated by emotional consumption. The high amount of donations formed a huge contrast with the fact that Erke was "insecure". Although this was not a deliberately planned marketing event, it was driven by emotional conflicts. Netizens admired ERKE's donation and recognized its cost-effective products. More importantly, the "domestic product" brand once again ignited netizens' national confidence.

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From Huawei to Perfect Diary and Huaxizi, domestic brands have risen rapidly in recent years. This time, the Hongxing Erke incident directly made domestic brands popular again. Qiangua data shows that the popularity of hot search terms has been stable in the past 30 days, but after July 22, the popularity began to rise all the way, reaching a peak on July 24.

Figure｜Qiangua Data Hot Search Word Analysis

Emotional value-driven marketing can stimulate consumers’ shopping impulse and, to a certain extent, create a greater impact.

Consumer motivations for pursuing “new” and “unique” things

An endless stream of new brands are constantly coming into our sight, and the content of mainstream consumption has been changing, but the only thing that remains unchanged is that consumer groups are keen on pursuing "new and novel".

In the past, if we wanted to whiten our skin, we would only use sunscreen or apply some skin care products to improve and prevent darkening. However, with the advent of acid peeling and the popularity of it on Xiaohongshu, more and more women who want to whiten their skin have joined the ranks of acid peeling. The skin care method that stands out with its ingredients reflects that the new consumer groups are more receptive to product selection and understand and accept products from a more scientific perspective.

Figure｜Qiangua Data Hot Search Word Analysis

Qiangua data shows that the hot search term niacinamide ranks among the top 8, and most of the influencers who recommend it are mid-level and junior influencers, with a considerable amount of interaction, which shows that users are enthusiastic about acid-flushing.

Even if consumption is driven by emotions, consumers will still remain rational in judging the effects of products and avoid paying the IQ tax. Therefore, while giving emotional value to products, brands should also try to avoid excessive marketing and create excessive psychological expectations for consumers. Pay attention to product experience effects, connect with consumers' needs, and directly address pain points.

02 Understand the needs of the venue and the venue

What makes users remember a product is often not the function of the product itself, but the fact that placing the product in a specific environment makes users associate it with the product. In specific scenarios, locking in user emotions and combining them with products can effectively solve user needs.

For example, in the early years of Wanglaoji, we would naturally think of this drink in scenarios such as eating hot pot, gatherings, and cooling down. When we want to eat hot pot in various scenarios such as working overtime, staying up late, and staying in the dormitory, we will naturally associate it with Zihaiguo. These are all emotional scenarios that we are familiar with. Brands use the commonalities in multiple scenarios to accurately differentiate their products, which not only solves the users’ current scenario needs, but also influences the users’ minds and generates a certain amount of voice. This is indeed a successful case of brand and effect integration.

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Tangdao is a home furnishing brand centered on sleeping scenes. It launched the "Cat Belly Pillow" to address the sleeping problems of contemporary young people. It uses the cat's belly to convey the brand concept of comfort and warmth, winning the support of many women.

Figure｜Qiangua Data Brand Analysis

Looking at the brand-related notes, the usage scenarios are mostly arranged in the following directions: girls living alone, items to enhance happiness, cozy bedrooms, etc. Notes integrates products into the home environment, creating an atmosphere of comfortable living and attracting users to purchase the same products.

Figure｜Qiangua Data Brand Details

Analyzing the comments, most of the users’ comments are “like”, “comfortable”, “cute”, “color”, etc. In addition to leveraging scenarios to solve user needs, the product's appearance and experience are equally important to users. This emotional consumption in pursuit of beauty is more in line with the user profile of Xiaohongshu platform, which is young and mostly female. They are more willing to pay for appearance and comfort.

03 Empower emotional value and accurately layout hot search terms

Break the traditional TA cognition and understand more of the users' interests, such as ingredient party, niche party, efficacy party, and appearance party. Use crowd classification as a breakthrough to understand the content of circle scenes, and empower the emotional value of products through the layout of hot search words in grass-planting notes.

Figure｜Qiangua Data Brand Details

Qiangua data shows that Kiehl's has launched multiple hot search terms related to product efficacy in the past 30 days, seizing the pain points of many users' skin care today, "lightening spots, moisturizing, and whitening", and deploying hot search terms that combine categories and efficacy to amplify the selling points of the products and resonate with users.

Grasp the trend of public opinion

A one-time emotional consumption cannot make a brand last forever, and a wild support will not bring sustainable growth to the brand. After consumers release emotional value, whether the brand can maintain the benefits brought by emotional value depends more on the brand’s own quality and public opinion processing capabilities to determine user retention.

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Ulike, the dark horse in the hair removal device industry, has won the favor of many consumers with its portable size and higher cost-effectiveness compared to beauty salons. The operation of hair removal devices is relatively complicated and requires more precautions. All the tedious steps of medical beauty hair removal are concentrated on the consumers' own operation. The hair removal effect varies from person to person. Therefore, brands should pay more attention to after-sales and public opinion control.

In order to ensure a smooth user experience, Ulike not only explains various precautions and possible adverse reactions in great detail in the instruction manual, but also pays more attention to after-sales customer service.

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Pay attention to brand public opinion, and make timely public relations handling, product and marketing adjustments. Negative public opinion is not a "disaster". Only by closely connecting with users and paying attention to user experience can a brand go further in the long run. Through Qiangua Data, you can monitor brands or notes, pay attention to public opinion, and make timely adjustments to the brand.

03 Conclusion

Emotions are diverse, and scenarios are also changeable. To break the constraints of conventional marketing, focus on emotions + products to assist users in decision-making, and deploy product launches based on the following three key strategies.

Understand the venue and the environment within the venue, gain insight into user needs, and enable product added value.

Accurately layout hot search terms, lock in target users, and seize the traffic market.

Improve the public opinion processing mechanism, grasp the public opinion trends in real time, and help achieve user retention.