Adopt a Cow, Yuanqi Forest Private Domain Dismantling

The case shared today is a comparative analysis of the private domains of [Yongpu/Adopt a Cow/ Yuanqi Forest ]~

1. Analysis of high-quality cases

Case name: [Yongpu/Adopt a Cow/Yuanqi Forest] Private Domain Comparative Analysis

Case industry: E-commerce retail

Disassembly author: Ah Le Zhen

Case objectives: attract new customers, promote retention, and convert to cash

Case tag: social marketing

1. Background contrast

Differentiation and commonality analysis:

1) Control product quality

All three brands and products are positioned as high quality and healthy, and they have made considerable efforts in pursuing quality.

Yongpu invested in setting up factories, contracted coffee estates, and bought the exclusive cooperation rights of the Japanese factory's flash extraction technology; Adopt a Cow also introduced high-quality dairy cows from around the world to create a golden pasture suitable for dairy cows; Yuanqi Forest built its own factory and did a lot of exploration in the taste and quality of its products.

2) Focus on appearance design

Yongpu and Yuanqi Forest target the Z generation, who value good-looking product design, so innovations have been made in product appearance design. Yongpu created the lovely IP image of Shi Duanzheng, and the product appearance design is based on this image; Yuanqi Forest uses a two-dimensional and Japanese design, which is also in line with the preferences of the Z generation.

The target audience of Adopt a Cow is mainly the new generation of mothers born in the 1980s and 1990s. In the design of its children's line products, the cow is IP-ized and a cute calf "Dada" is created. The tender little horns symbolize its identity as a calf, and the tender head lines make it even more cute.

3) Core user groups

The core users of the three companies are all women in first- and second-tier cities.

Users in first- and second-tier cities are curious about new things, willing to experience new things, and maintain an open attitude towards emerging products. This gives companies like Yongpu, Adopt a Cow, and Yuanqi Forest the opportunity to stand out in a market dominated by giants. Moreover, the three companies are constantly innovating in products and flavors to satisfy users' curiosity to explore new things.

Her economic rise. Women have strong consumption demands and relatively strong spending power, and they pay more attention to their inner feelings and quality of life.

The three companies not only attach importance to quality, but also attach importance to emotional connection with consumers. All three companies have designed brand IPs that connect with users emotionally . For example, Yongpu designed the adorable Shi Duanzheng, Adopt a Cow uses the image of the cute calf Dada, and Yuanqi Forest’s milk tea series uses cute fat-headed dolls. Based on the IP, they also derive peripheral products and co-branded products, giving consumers more diverse consumption choices.

2. Traffic diversion strategy

Commonality and differentiation analysis:

1) Public domain traffic diversion

The layout of online channels has become an important strategic choice for new consumer brands.

All three brands focus on developing online channels, including public domain advertising, building a social media matrix mainly composed of Douyin, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, etc., and kol promotion.

The difference lies in cross-border collaboration. Yongpu achieved a cold start of the brand through cross-border collaboration, and made some customized products with a more physical feel for the circle of people, which gained a lot of traffic and topic.

Adopt a Cow has come up with some new ideas in cross-border collaboration. It has formed gift boxes with other consumer brands based on a common consumption scenario, created IP co-branded milk cards, extended offline pop-up stores through cross-border collaboration, and explored diverse collaboration methods through the different combination points of each brand. This not only allows the collaboration to expand the brand's voice, but also creates new brand awareness for consumers with its powerful potential.

Yuanqi Forest, on the other hand, has been deepening its presence in the dining scene by collaborating with different catering brands to create co-branded IP-specific drinks or combine co-branded gift boxes.

At the same time, Yongpu actively carries out offline brand activities as a scenario for deeply connecting with users. The co-branded offline pop-up store for adopting a cow and the ranch tour open to VIP users also achieve in-depth offline interaction with users. Yuanqi Forest has not yet carried out offline brand activities.

2) Private domain traffic diversion

Official accounts, mini programs, and video accounts have become important traffic-generating touchpoints.

Traffic diversion channels: All three brands have deployed official accounts, mini-programs, and video accounts. Official accounts and video accounts are the first choice for diverting traffic to private domains. Yongpu and Yuanqi Forest have launched mini programs, but Adopt-A-Person has not yet launched a mini program to divert traffic to private domains.

Traffic diversion path: Yongpu and Yuanqi Forest use bait to guide users into the community, retain users through community interaction, and then complete the conversion loop; while Adopt a Cow diverts users to add WeChat accounts, and completes services and conversions on WeChat accounts.

Bait selection: Yongpu’s traffic-generating bait chooses to give away physical badges with each order, while Yuanqi Forest and Adopt a Cow both choose coupons for traffic generation.

The difference in the positioning of private domains can also be seen from the traffic. Yongpu hopes to further establish connections with users through communication communities , so it also chooses different discounts to achieve complete conversions. Instead, it attracts users in the same circle to enter the private domain through IP images and peripheral badges.

Adopt a Cow hopes to provide in-depth services to core users through private domains . The traffic flow is through WeChat accounts. Through 1v1 services, trust is strengthened and subsequent repurchases are formed.

The core of Yuanqi Forest's private domain is to build a brand collection store , select products from different brands, and extend other related consumption from beverages. Therefore, the bait for attracting traffic is also universal coupons, and the promotion of different products is completed through the community.

3. Operational Strategy

Commonality and differentiation analysis:

1) Different types of character creation

The three companies just happened to choose different types of personalities. Yongpu chose a friend-type personality to get along well with users, and its cute IP design is also more likely to make users feel good; Adopt a Cow chose to create an expert-type personality to provide users with nutritional and health knowledge, scientific milk drinking suggestions, etc.; Yuanqi Forest created the role of a welfare officer to give users food recommendations and food benefits.

Consider choosing different personas based on different products:

① Focus on user cognition shaping

Users have a relatively high level of awareness and acceptance, and require a certain degree of cognitive education. For example, for health, maternal and child, and educational products, expert personas can be used. Strengthen the output of personal content and establish a strong sense of trust with users through content.

②Focus on products and benefits

Generally, high-frequency, low-order, and multi-skus products can choose a welfare officer persona to enhance the welfare value brought to users, thereby improving user retention and repurchase.

③ Focus on brand awareness communication

Brands that want to convey certain ideas or opinions to users are actually suitable for friend-type personalities, and can establish strong emotional connections with users through high-frequency interactions.

Of course, the creation of a character is not unique. You can create multiple types of characters at the same time, or the character can be interspersed with different content, including discounts, brand concepts and opinions, and knowledge, with different proportions of content. The key is to think about what characteristics of your brand you want users to think of first when they see you.

2) Design of Moments content and private chat based on the personality framework

The content design of the Moments and private chats must be consistent with the image created by the character to avoid a sense of "out of place". During the experience, there was a sense of "out of place" from time to time, for example, the nutritionist's overly marketing and stereotyped speaking style made it inevitable that one would feel distrustful of the nutritionist's identity.

How to avoid "out of the play"? The Moments serves as a display window, and the proportion of content columns, writing style, and illustrations allow users to feel the content being conveyed at the first moment. For example, a nutritionist's insights into professional nutrition knowledge, professional analysis of product ratios, and professional advice to users can all create a sense of professionalism and authority.

As a window for direct communication and interaction with users, the first sentence of private chat should be colloquial and personalized to reflect authenticity; in subsequent conversations, the personality style should be maintained. For example, expert-type personalities should output professional content to users to make the image more popular.

3) Community has irreplaceable significance in the private domain

Compared to Adopt a Cow, which does not build a community, Yongpu and Yuanqi Forest are both building communities. However, the positioning of the communities is different. Yongpu is de-marketing. It serves as a platform for communication among users in a circle, subtly promoting products in the communication scenarios, and allowing users to form a self-active and relatively benign communication group.

Yuanqi Forest is a welfare and discount group. It forms a conversion closed loop through welfare flash sales and product recommendations. It also plans community activities to mobilize user activity. By taking advantage of the users' natural desire to share in eating and drinking scenarios, the community achieves a rare balance between marketing and activity.

Thinking: Is it necessary to build a community in the private domain?

Actually, it’s not necessarily the case, but social networks are still the most effective way to improve traffic operation efficiency. Whether it is conveying the value of content or delivering preferential treatment, it can be accomplished through social means. In addition, communities also have effects that other touchpoints cannot match, such as forming a herd effect, creating momentum for activities, cultivating koc, etc.

Therefore, the greatest effect can be achieved if different touch points in the private domain can perform their respective functions. The community can be used as the main battlefield for content exposure, the circle of friends can be used to recommend products and showcase lifestyles, and 1v1 private chats can be used as key conversion nodes in the user life cycle (periodic repurchase nodes, big promotions).

4) Would a paid membership mechanism be a better option?

Yuanqi Forest chooses paid membership, while Yongpu and Adopt a Cow are still non-paying members (growth members, points members). Why does Yuanqi Forest choose paid membership?

Paid members actually enjoy periodic benefits by paying a threshold, and the value returns that match user needs make users pay to become paid members.

① The single customer value of paying users is higher

Yuanqi Forest’s payment benefits, such as guaranteed capital upon opening a card, show that it is not positioned as a profit-making product. Instead, it can drive the creation of higher value for users' subsequent orders.

According to Youzan’s private domain business insight report, the single-customer value of paid members is 2.7 times that of free members, the repurchase cycle is shortened by 42.7%, and sales account for 40%. Paying users can create longer-term value for the company.

②Efficiently lock in customers and improve user stickiness

Paid membership is a more cost-effective option for users based on their expectations of long-term consumption . Once users choose paid membership, they will develop a loss aversion mentality and will not easily turn to competing products.

③Filter out higher-value user groups

Based on insights into user needs, a more stable emotional connection is established through user co-creation activities such as new product trials and offline events.

So what kind of brands can consider a paid membership mechanism?

Whether you can provide differentiated products or services. Yuanqi Forest uses the full member price and plans member carnival days, exclusive benefits, and new tastings around members to enhance the sense of rights and exclusivity of member users;

Will the user choose to repurchase? Generally, users have a clearer understanding of the actual value of a paid membership after paying once . However, Yuanqi Forest has set up a card opening capital guarantee service. If the capital is not returned upon expiration, the price difference will be refunded. This "only profit, no loss" policy allows users to directly dispel their concerns about the actual value.

Whether it can fit into its core business model. Yuanqi Forest’s paid membership is based on the “selected snack shop” rather than just its own products, so there are many SKUs and new products are introduced frequently, which meets the user’s needs for diverse choices. The extended healthy food ecosystem makes up for the problem of thin product lines and serves as icing on the cake.

5) Mini-app games will be a powerful tool for private domain activation and retention

In the era of stock traffic, how to seize users' attention and time has become a new way of growth. The rich and interesting gameplay of mini-games serves as an important tool to seize users’ time, gradually occupy users’ minds in the game, and complete the interaction between brands and users.

As a simulation business game of Yongpu, users can freely decorate their own coffee shops in the game, learn different special blends, receive various interesting guests, and experience the process from seeds to raw material processing to beverage development.

The mini-game allows users to experience the process of running a coffee shop. The creative coffee produced can be realized with Yongpu coffee liquid in real life, allowing users to experience it in real scenes and then complete the transaction.

In the cloud ranch cattle-raising game of Adopt a Cow, you can adopt cows of different high-quality breeds for raising, which projects that the cows adopted in reality also have high-quality quality; the higher-level canteen gives the cows better food, which projects the high-quality meals and high food expenses of the cows adopted in reality. The cows also have bathing places and cow sheds, which projects that the cows adopted in reality can do SPA and enjoy medicinal baths.

The process of raising a cow in the user game is a real-life portrayal of adopting a cow. The process of cultivating user brands through Adopt a Cow is completed through a series of steps.

Analysis of the reusable highlights of these two mini games:

①Choose the gameplay that the brand’s target users like

Yongpu and Adopt a Cow have a relatively high proportion of female users, and most of them are first- and second-tier female users who like to relieve stress, be cute (raise cute pets), and pursue individuality (run their own cafe). Therefore, they choose lighter simulation management and pet-raising games without too much competition and pressure, which are more in line with user needs.

② Combine with brand goals

Adopting a Cow is a way to implant ideas into users’ minds through mini-games, and achieve fission by completing tasks such as sharing and inviting. Yongpu is relatively conservative in its fission gameplay, hoping to build an immersive scene for users and enhance Yongpu's brand awareness.

③Use brand IP image to enhance brand awareness

The brand's IP, logo and other elements are implanted into the mini program. For example, the UI design and different character designs of Yongpu Games follow Shi Duanzheng's line-out and illustration style; the Adopt a Cow Cloud Ranch uses a large number of cow IPs as the main material. Through brand elements and images, as well as through small games, the brand can be more deeply rooted in people's hearts.

6) Analysis of video live broadcast and brand value

3. Only one cow can be adopted at home. Video account live broadcast is used as the main battlefield for private domain conversion. According to platform statistics, the revenue scale of video account live broadcast is comparable to that of Douyin. Yongpu and Yuanqi Forest’s goal is only to live broadcast on Douyin and have not yet started video account live broadcast. The advantages of video account live broadcast compared with other short video live broadcasts are analyzed as follows:

①Accurately reach loyal users

Video account live streaming can accurately reach the brand’s loyal users in the private domain, greatly shortening the initial cold start cycle of the brand’s live streaming. Help improve the conversion rate of private domains through live streaming.

② Public-private linkage

Video account live broadcast can not only reach users in private domains, but also reach traffic in the public domain of WeChat. WeChat has liberalized traffic investment this year, as well as traffic support. The WeChat platform will allocate 1:1 public domain traffic based on how many views the private domain can achieve.

③ Efficiently attract private domain traffic

Relying on the advantages of WeChat ecosystem in the private domain, public domain traffic can be more efficiently deposited directly in the private domain. The mini program can also directly complete the transaction loop.

4. Conversion strategy

The three companies have made arrangements for first-time purchases, repeat purchases, and holiday marketing, but their strategies are slightly different.

Yongpu does not conduct daily promotions, and its repurchase strategy is simply to launch new products and create derivative peripherals to attract users to continue to repurchase.

The first orders of Adopt a Cow and Yuanqi Forest were obtained through coupons and exclusive discounts for new customers, but there are slight differences in the repurchase strategies. Adopt a Cow mainly locks in customers through periodic milk cards and creates consumption festivals to stimulate users to repurchase.

Yuanqi Forest still retains customers through paid membership and exclusive membership benefits to attract users to open membership cards, thereby generating continuous repurchases.

5. Conclusion

Yongpu, Adopt a Cow, and Yuanqi Forest have actually chosen a way of playing that is more suitable for themselves in their respective private domains.

Yongpu focuses on brand ecology and hopes to establish a close relationship with users that goes beyond transactions; Adopt a Cow hopes to serve loyal users through 1v1 refined operations and build a closed loop of content, transactions, and social interaction; Yuanqi Forest creates a brand collection store, uses the community as the core scene to promote content and interact with users, and deepens the single-customer economy through paid membership.

I have summarized the three private domain models into brand interaction private domain, refined operation private domain, and deep community-based private domain. Brands need to accurately identify their positioning and core goals in the private domain, and build multiple touchpoints around these goals, such as communities, personal accounts, live broadcasts, and membership systems, in order to maximize the value of the private domain.