CEO live streaming is not for selling goods!

More than 30 years ago, when Microsoft was promoting Windows 1.0, it placed an advertisement. Steve Ballmer, who was a business manager at the time, played the role of a salesman in the advertisement. His crazy movements and exaggerated expressions were so impressive that it was hard to imagine that he would become the future CEO of Microsoft.

When talking about the price, Ballmer said excitedly, "Don't want 500, don't want 1,000, just 99, oh, my God, buy it, buy it."

Ballmer probably never imagined that the way he promoted Internet software back then would be widely used in Internet live streaming sales today. From this perspective, Ballmer may be considered the originator of CEO live streaming to sell goods.

But think about it carefully: is this advertisement live streaming or brand marketing?

Ballmer's sales pitch in the video is almost identical to the tactics used by Li Jiaqi to sell products now. They quickly introduce the products and features, and then offer shocking prices to attract consumers to buy.

But Ballmer's video is only like a live broadcast of goods in terms of performance format, but it is actually an out-and-out advertisement.

At that time, Windows had just been launched, and the purpose of this advertisement was to let the public know about the software, understand its functions, and finally pay for it. For this advertisement, letting more people see and understand it was more important than buying it. Without the first two steps, there would be no last step.

As an advertisement, the main function of Ballmer's video is brand marketing, and its link is much longer than that of live streaming sales. Everyone knows that the ultimate purpose of advertising is sales, but it is definitely not direct sales.

In the article "What is more important than live streaming to sell goods is live streaming to sell brands", I believe that live streaming can be divided into two types.

The first one is live streaming with goods, and its main purpose is to promote sales. Now most live streaming e-commerce companies like Weiya, Li Jiaqi, Luo Yonghao, Simba, etc. are engaged in live streaming with goods.

The second type is live streaming with branding, and its main purpose is brand marketing. This method will become a trend in live streaming e-commerce marketing.

At present, most of the content about live streaming is about bringing goods. This article will continue to talk about live streaming bringing brands. The article will solve the following problems:

1. Which platform is more suitable for live streaming with brands?
2. Which types of products are suitable for live streaming with brands?
3. What are some examples of live streaming promoting brands?
4. How to promote branding through live streaming?

01 Douyin and Kuaishou are content e-commerce, while Taobao is e-commerce content

First, let’s talk about the three giants of live e-commerce, Taobao Live, Douyin Live, and Kuaishou Live. People often ask what the differences are among the three live-streaming e-commerce platforms. I think it can be summarized in one sentence: Douyin and Kuaishou are content e-commerce platforms, and Taobao is e-commerce content.

As the name suggests, content e-commerce means content comes first and e-commerce comes later.

Douyin and Kuaishou are first and foremost short video and live streaming platforms with a massive amount of content. Most users come here to watch content and kill time. When the platform has formed a huge content ecosystem, e-commerce including live streaming is just one of its monetization methods. The core of Douyin and Kuaishou is still content.

On the contrary, e-commerce content comes first and content comes later.

Taobao is a place to buy goods. Although Taobao now has content, basically no one regards Taobao as a place to read content or watch videos. Taobao is launching more and more content such as short videos and live broadcasts in an attempt to keep users on its platform longer, because the longer users stay, the greater the chance of consumption. But its core is still e-commerce.

To give an example, Douyin and Kuaishou are like a cinema. Because there are many people watching movies, in order to monetize the traffic, they also sell popcorn and cola. We all know that the profits from selling popcorn and cola are considerable.

Taobao is a shopping mall, and the mall also holds various performances in the atrium, which is equivalent to the content of its own platform. However, these activities are held to attract people and make them stay longer, so that there is a greater chance of selling more goods.

02 Tik Tok is more suitable for branding

After understanding the essential differences between Taobao Live and Douyin and Kuaishou Live, it is not difficult to determine which platform is more suitable for branding. In a nutshell: create branding where you create content, and do promotions where you create sales.

The only goal of a brand store in a shopping mall, such as Nike, is sales, so the main marketing action in the store is promotion. However, Nike needs to use media outside of shopping malls to run brand advertising, content marketing, and events so that consumers can understand the brand. When consumers understand the brand, they will buy Nike products after entering the mall.

Here, Taobao is a shopping mall, and Douyin and Kuaishou are places for Nike to advertise.

Some people say that advertising can be done inside shopping malls. Of course, it can be done, but advertising in shopping malls is insignificant compared to all of Nike’s advertising. For example, in order to enrich its own ecosystem, Taobao launched the “One Thousand and One Nights” series of advertisements on the second floor of Taobao, but outside the advertising circle, how many people knew about it?

So overall, from the perspective of live streaming for brand marketing, Douyin is more suitable than Taobao. As for Kuaishou, due to its advantages in the sinking market and the fact that its main product categories are daily necessities and food, it is still more suitable for selling goods at this stage.

The following figure summarizes the differences between the three:

03 Typical live streaming brand cases

Although everyone is currently discussing live streaming sales, there are actually many cases of live streaming selling brands. The following are typical cases of live streaming selling brands.

1. CEO promotes products

In the Internet era, Chen Ou's "I am my own spokesperson" once created a personal IP based on the corporate brand, which brought miraculous effects to the brand promotion. Today, live broadcasts by CEOs of well-known brands are also a massive marketing and PR event.

Although Liang Jianzhang and Dong Mingzhu had high sales during their live broadcasts, the sales of a single event is not that important to them. What is important is that their behavior represents the company's attitude of embracing change and the industry impact caused by the event itself.

Just like what Diao Ye said: "Some bosses claim to sell XXX million products in one night through live streaming... We tracked the Tmall data and can only describe it with two words "hehe"... The idea behind this method is to achieve a PR effect through a shining sales figure, and various media will take turns to report on it the next day - so, the purpose of free PR has been achieved...

2. The county magistrate promotes the products

Due to the epidemic, agricultural products in many cities are unsalable. In the tide of live streaming, many local county governors and deputy county governors have come in front of the camera to promote local products. This trend of county governors selling goods through live streaming has also led to the emergence of many internet-famous county governors, and the performance of many of them in selling goods has been remarkable.

For example, on April 19, Chen Shizhong, deputy county magistrate of Kazuo County, Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, and Douyin influencer Su Zi sold goods worth more than 1.1 million yuan. But promoting products is only temporary after all. The more important goal is to promote the local visibility and long-term sales of local specialties through the county magistrate's promotion.

3. Personal live broadcast

On Douyin, the most live broadcasts are not about selling goods, but many individuals. The main purpose of their live broadcasts is to share knowledge, interact with fans, and increase fan stickiness, while also increasing their own traffic and making certain monetizations . This is a typical manifestation of building a personal brand.

For example, Yang Kun often broadcasts live on Douyin at 8:30 p.m. on Friday. Through this live broadcast, Yang Kun can interact with fans, increase his activity and attention, and maintain his exposure to the public when he does not have any major works released. Yang Kun's method of using short videos + live broadcasts for continuous exposure is used by many celebrities and personal brands.

4. Celebrity live broadcast endorsement

In the field of live streaming e-commerce, you have basically never heard of any celebrity who would exclusively help a brand in a certain category to sell goods, because for the live streaming e-commerce host, of course the more types of goods, the better. But in the advertising industry, exclusive brand endorsements are very common. If this kind of endorsement is applied to selling goods, it is actually a typical celebrity exclusive live streaming selling goods, which has a strong brand communication color.

The live streaming sales that Zhao Wei did for an e-commerce brand in May was actually a brand marketing method that combined endorsement and live streaming sales. Zhao Wei was not only the spokesperson for this brand, but also helped it to sell goods through live streaming. This live streaming sales was exclusive because she did not do live streaming on a daily basis. This approach may become a new model for brand endorsements in the future.

5. Live broadcast of the press conference

Xiaomi held its first online press conference after the epidemic, and Xiaomi 10 was released through online live broadcast, which is a typical live broadcast with branding.

Similarly, the online live broadcast conducted by McDonald's China CEO Zhang Jiayin on April 15 was to promote the new product "McMc Crispy Chicken". The purpose of this live broadcast was not to sell a large number of "McMc Crispy Chicken" on the spot, but to promote consumers' attention to the new product and future offline purchases.

6. Car Live Broadcast

I have said in previous articles that bulk commodities such as cars are not suitable for live streaming sales because they do not meet the basic conditions of low unit price and high discounts. But as an experiential product, it can showcase its various configurations, functions, driving experience, etc. through live broadcast.

Tesla's high-tech features such as autonomous driving and automatic parking are very suitable for live broadcast demonstrations. In fact, Tesla has been live streaming very frequently recently. Through live broadcasts, it allows people who don't know Tesla to learn about Tesla, gradually plant the brand impression in the minds of consumers, and promote consumers' future purchasing behavior.

Luo Yonghao's live broadcast of selling Great Wall Motors cannot be considered as live broadcast selling goods, but rather live broadcast selling the brand, because there are only 10 half-price cars, and the purpose is obviously not to achieve rapid car sales, but to make the Great Wall Motors brand more exposed through this live broadcast. If this live broadcast can add experience scenes, it can be said to be a comprehensive brand marketing.

7. Real estate live streaming

If cars are difficult to sell through live streaming, then real estate is even more impossible. Buying a house is a longer-term decision and it is impossible to make an impulse purchase through a single live streaming. Real estate live streaming can tell the history of the brand, showcase the characteristics of the property, etc.

On May 5, Wang Han and Da Zhangwei did not say how many houses were sold in the live broadcast for Country Garden. It was mainly part of building Country Garden's "55 Home Buying Festival" IP, which is typical brand marketing.

8. Luxury live streaming

LV conducted a live broadcast, and its earthy style was criticized by many netizens. This was incompatible with its innate sense of luxury and also ran counter to the positioning of a luxury brand.

In my opinion, luxury brands are typical categories that are suitable for brand live streaming but not for selling goods.

Firstly, the unit price of luxury goods is relatively high, which makes it difficult to promote impulse purchases. Secondly, luxury goods cannot be sold at excessive price cuts. Once the prices are excessively reduced, it will give consumers the impression that the normal price of this product is too high and it is not worth the price at all. The price during live broadcast is the normal price. This is extremely unfavorable for luxury goods to build a high-end brand image. Live fashion shows like the one shown below are actually more suitable for live broadcasts of luxury goods.

04 How to promote branding through live streaming?

From the above, we can see that not all products are suitable for live streaming sales. Brands with high unit prices, basically no discounts, and those that hope to create a high-end brand image and have a high brand premium are not suitable for live streaming sales, such as the real estate, automobiles, and luxury goods mentioned above. But almost all brands are suitable for live streaming with branding. How can we do a good job of live streaming with branding? Here are some suggestions.

1. Use live streaming as a regular brand marketing tool

Micro-blog and Weibo operations have existed as a regular online marketing method for brands for many years. With the advent of the live broadcast trend and the lowering of the threshold for live broadcasting, live broadcasting should also be regarded as a form of content marketing and become a regular marketing method for brands.

Sales staff at many auto 4S stores will conduct live broadcasts at a fixed frequency. They regard live broadcasts as a regular marketing method to plant seeds in customers. Of course, it should be noted here that live streaming must comply with the brand’s basic regulations.

2. Short videos and live streaming traffic promote each other

Nowadays, many personal accounts on Tik Tok have formed a strategy, which is to produce and publish short videos on a daily basis, and to broadcast live at a fixed frequency (many people do so once a day). This is a way to build a personal brand. It attracts target users through short videos, allowing users to form an image of themselves, and then consolidates fans and achieves longer interactions through fixed-frequency live broadcasts, bringing people closer to fans. At the same time, the two types of traffic can also promote each other.

Brands can also adopt this strategy. After entering Douyin, some brands will produce and publish content on a daily basis. These contents can be called content marketing. Interested users will watch and become fans of the brand. Then when the brand broadcasts live, these fans will naturally come in to watch.

Here, short videos and live broadcasts can promote each other. The algorithm will allow users who watch a certain brand's short videos to receive its live stream, and users who enter a certain brand's live broadcast can also watch more short videos of the broadcaster, which becomes a combination of brand marketing strategies.

3. Short videos to promote and live streaming to remove

As a content platform, Douyin is also a platform for promoting product sales. Brands can showcase the advantages and features of their products through daily videos to arouse the interest of fans, and directly offer discounts during live broadcasts to encourage sales.

Therefore, brands can form a closed-loop marketing on Douyin by using short videos to plant seeds and live broadcasts to remove seeds. Last year, there were rumors in the industry that Taobao and Douyin had signed an annual framework agreement worth tens of billions of yuan. In fact, what they valued was the Douyin platform's ability to promote products.

4. Consider live streaming as part of integrated marketing

There is currently a problem in the entire industry. Those who are good at live streaming sales are generally emerging MCN companies, but they are not good at long-term brand building, content planning and marketing. Traditional advertising companies that are good at brand marketing and planning are currently not very willing to get involved in live streaming. Therefore, most of the current live streaming sales are scattered promotions and cannot bring substantial help to brand building.

In fact, live streaming is also a marketing method. If it is used as a part of integrated marketing, the impact it can bring will be far greater than a simple live streaming.

For example, the new product marketing of McDonald’s “McCrispy Chicken” mentioned above includes social media preheating, live streaming, and Bilibili video marketing. It is an integrated marketing, and live streaming is only one part of it. Putting aside McDonald’s tactical issues (over-hype of 5G), its strategy is correct.

05 Conclusion

Live streaming has been around for quite some time, but live streaming e-commerce, as a new thing, has not been around for long. The current mainstream voice is that live streaming e-commerce will inevitably be an important trend in the future. I agree with this, but I think live streaming e-commerce is by no means limited to live streaming with goods. What should be paid more attention to than live streaming with goods is brand marketing, that is, live streaming with brands.

With the advent of 5G, live streaming may become an infrastructure. The picture below shows what Zhao Yuanyuan mentioned in a sharing session about "what live streaming e-commerce will look like in the future." It can be seen that live streaming with goods is just a small role in it. Cloud release, Canton Fair, and shared live streaming rooms are all broader live streaming brands.

Photo: Zhao Yuanyuan

Author: Xunkong's Marketing Revelation

Source: Xunkong’s Marketing Revelation (xunkong2005)