Double 11’s 268.4 billion, the most authentic marketing insights

It is no exaggeration to say that Tmall Double 11 is the most successful marketing IP. Until now, its strategy, marketing rhythm, communication path, expectation management, etc. are worthy of careful study by every marketer.

But today we are not talking about Double 11 itself, we are talking about the consumption data created by Double 11 . Tmall released the "Double 11 Fun Data", including saving 50 billion yuan, live broadcast data, new supply and diversified consumption, and consumption data in the sinking market.

This data report, which was surveyed with a total cost of RMB 268.4 billion, also contains the most authentic marketing insights. Through it, we can break through the boundaries of cognition and get a glimpse of the various aspects of Chinese consumption.

We select three dimensions to interpret this report. The first is the live streaming e-commerce that is popular this year. How much goods can be sold through live streaming? What else can live streaming do besides selling goods? The second is the supply-side reform on the brand side. The supply-side reform is a national strategy proposed by senior leaders. The current situation on the supply side can be clearly seen from the consumption data of Double 11. The third is the sinking market. In the past few years, when we talk about growth, we must talk about sinking. What is the current situation of this core growth area?

The following will summarize and sort out the Double 11 consumption data from three dimensions: live e-commerce, supply-side reform, and sinking markets. At the same time, we will look behind the data to see the consumer insights represented by these data, and then guide the next marketing strategy in the Chinese market and guide marketers to better communicate with contemporary consumers.

the following:

1. Live streaming is a scene and a tool

This year, with the emergence of Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya, live streaming sales have become extremely popular, causing many businesses to blindly follow suit without understanding the situation clearly. Some people spent a lot of money to invite celebrities to sell goods live, but the final sales were very bleak. So, is it okay to sell goods through live streaming? What is the core of live streaming to sell goods?

Statistics show that more than 50% of merchants started live broadcasts on Double 11, driving nearly 20 billion yuan in transactions throughout the day. There were more than 10 live broadcast rooms with sales exceeding 100 million yuan, and more than 100 live broadcast rooms with sales exceeding 10 million yuan. At the same time, the live broadcast hosts are diverse, including 20,000 farmers, 40 county governors, more than 100 presidents who have dropped in on the live broadcast rooms, and of course many celebrities are also participating.

Next, let me talk about my views on live streaming: First, it can sell goods because of the scenario. Many people attribute live streaming sales to internet celebrities and the star effect. They trust a certain star and buy whatever he or she recommends. This is wrong. Li Jiaqi’s main business is selling lipsticks, and he only started selling other things now that it has become a phenomenon.

The reason why goods can be sold is not because of celebrities, but because the goods are displayed in a situational context. Whoever can integrate into the scene of the goods will be suitable to be the anchor of this product. For example, for apples from Shaanxi, should we let a celebrity wear a charity T-shirt and sell them, or let the fruit farmers sell them themselves? Of course, fruit farmers are more suitable for selling apples. No one knows apples better than fruit farmers. This year, Tmall invited 20,000 farmers into the live broadcast room.

Selling goods through live streaming does not rely on trust. Live streaming requires scenes. The scenes are for seeing is believing. Selling goods requires strength. In fact, it is the products that choose the anchors, rather than the anchors selling the products. The product and the anchor who is suitable for it jointly create a scene to maximize the value of the product and drive product sales.

Second, live streaming cannot build a brand, it is just a tool. Maybe it’s because of the bad economic situation. What’s popular this year are private domain traffic, live streaming sales, KOC and other things. These are all tools. When people talk about live streaming sales, all they see are numbers. It feels exciting to see how much money is sold in an hour, but these numbers cannot build a brand.

Just as Adidas said a few days ago that it would cut off most of its performance-based advertising, Taobao Live is only the last step in the transaction and a tool for converting results, but not a means to build a brand. Most of the people who were driven to sell goods in the Double 11 live broadcast room had known about the product before, or even planned to buy it, but wanted to go to the live broadcast room to see the real display effect. After watching it, they thought it was good, so they bought it.

So, don’t look down on live streaming too much, and don’t look down on it too much. Live streaming is very good. It can shape product scenes and provide intuitive displays, which is very helpful in driving transactions. But don’t expect to sell goods through live streaming to become a big brand, and don’t think that you can make money just by live streaming. That’s not realistic.

The hammer is a good hammer, but you can't expect to build a house with one.

2. “Supply-side reform” ushered in an explosion

Next, let’s talk about the huge changes in the supply side of goods. Yes, we can see from this Double 11 that huge changes are happening.

This year, Tmall launched 1 million new products on Double 11, which directly resulted in the data on the first day of pre-sale being twice that of last year. But this is not important. What is important is 1 million new products. This is a huge number, right? However, Tmall has launched a total of 90 million new products throughout the year, which means that almost all brands have new products on the market within a year, which means that the supply side is iterating rapidly.

A lifeless consumer market would not have so many new products launched, which means that China is still a vibrant consumer market.

In 2015, top leaders proposed supply-side reform, and in the past one or two years, new consumption has emerged. But as individuals, each person's living scope is limited, and it is difficult to feel changes on the supply side. But this year, 500 million people participated in Double 11. The data in this huge traffic pool clearly tells us that all brands are iterating new products, otherwise they will be eliminated.

90 million new products were launched throughout the year, which not only showed the huge number but also the diversity of goods. In addition to brands actively settling in Tmall to provide new product launches, Tmall took the initiative to expand the supply of goods, including direct supply from factories and direct supply from the source of origin. Ningxia wolfberry, Shaanxi apples, seafood from the other side of the ocean, and Chilean cherries have all become hot-sellers on Double 11.

For brands, either iterate products in a timely manner or wait for death. Brands that have been selling a product for many years are bound to slowly die out. Even the national internet celebrity Lao Gan Ma has remained unchanged for so many years and has not released any new products, but now its sales have begun to decline. Therefore, on the brand side, if you want to survive, you must constantly iterate your products.

New supply brings new consumption, and diversified demands are ushered in on the consumer side. 60,000 pieces of winter ice cream were sold, and the single product of vlog handheld camera increased by 232% year-on-year. At the same time, 80,000 pieces of hard currency liquor were sold; the person who grabbed the blind box figures and bought Pu'er raw tea may be the same person; there may also be people who buy pet snacks for both cats and dogs, and buy melatonin for themselves at the same time. Even so, they still buy sandwich breakfast machines and Dyson vacuum cleaners.

We can see two insights from the consumption trends. The first is the diversification of consumption . Those who rush to buy Moutai may also be buying cat food. It is difficult to define the portrait of a certain person. Everyone has thousands of faces. Second, the public is enthusiastic about new products . Most people are brave enough to try new products, but they also quickly get tired of old products. The changing of consumption trends is comparable to the changing of clothing seasons, which shows the strong vitality of the consumer market.

Then on the marketing side, for many years marketers did not dare to touch the products, and the marketing department was very far away from the product development department. The data from the supply side of Double 11 this year tells us that new products are the core driving force for creating brand barriers and driving brand growth. Therefore, brand marketing cannot avoid products. I have written about new products several times this year, all of which started from the marketing end and reversely developed new products that were widely sold.

Next, when we do marketing, we must also participate in supply-side reform. Marketers must have the courage to create new products. Products are marketing, and products are brands.

3. The sinking market will be wiped out

The sinking market has been the largest growth market in China in the past few years. When talking about growth, we must talk about the sinking market. There are two major infrastructures that are driving the growth of the lower-tier markets. One is the popularity of smartphones. With everyone having a smartphone, the number of mobile Internet users in China has reached over 1 billion. In other words, all mobile phones are smartphones.

The second is the opening up of logistics channels. Major express delivery companies are available in every village, and everyone has learned how to shop online. These two infrastructures allow rural and town users to participate in mainstream Internet channels and no longer be outsiders to the Internet.

To what extent has the sinking market been developed? It is unreliable to guess based solely on physical sensation. Let’s take a look at the Double 11 purchasing data for the sinking market. Electric toothbrushes, sweeping robots, and home treadmills, which we thought were things only the urban middle class would buy, have now entered small town families.

Including various data, the living standards in small towns have caught up with first- and second-tier cities. When people within the Fifth Ring Road are still speculating and young people in small towns buy a box of fruits for 5 yuan with free shipping, they have already watched live streaming and followed Viya to buy items worth thousands of yuan.

This Double 11 will become a watershed in the marketing of sinking markets. The few years before this were the pioneering period of the blank market. As I said before, sinking users were particularly easy to deceive because of information asymmetry and because they had never seen the world. When they saw a 2 yuan Bluetooth headset, they always wanted to buy it and try it out. This is a process that must be experienced.

But when we look at the data from this Double 11 and the products purchased by users in the lower-tier markets, we see big brands, new domestic products, and smart homes. From this point alone, we can clearly see the changes in the sinking market. Small town users have both feet stepped into the mainstream Internet, and no one can fool anyone.

My opinion on this is that the term "downstream market" will become history and will be wiped out by the Internet. We are all in the same market, and there is no one above or below. Girls in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and girls in the countryside like the same Yi Yang Qianxi and buy the same cosmetics. Can you say they are different?

Therefore, when we divide the population for marketing, we should gradually remove the dimension of first-tier cities and sinking markets. We should divide people by gender, age, and interests, but there may no longer be sinking users, and the sinking market has bottomed out.

IV. Summary: China’s consumer landscape

This year, Double 11 attracted 500 million people, with an average of 1.25 people participating in each family. Here is the only most authentic consumption data report in China, which was jointly depicted by 500 million people with 268.4 billion yuan.

This interesting data is still too general, and a more specific truth should be presented. But this data shows us several issues that marketers are most concerned about. Two core markets, the sinking market and the live broadcast market; one brand status quo, iterative explosion on the supply side, and diversified symbiosis on the consumer side.

Let's briefly summarize:

First, there was live streaming. This Double 11 caused e-commerce live streaming to explode completely, but this also means that the bubble period of live streaming is about to pass. It is no longer news to invite celebrities to do live streaming, and it is no longer news how much sales a live streaming generates.

I personally believe that live streaming will become normalized after Double 11, becoming a tool within the Taobao ecosystem and a necessary skill for store owners. Even Tmall stores of big brands may need to train their own full-time anchors.

Then there is supply-side reform and diversified consumption, which in part demonstrate the vitality of China's consumer market.

On the supply side, Tmall launched 1 million new products on Double 11, covering various industry categories. The speed of product iteration may be the fastest in the world. At the same time, new supply brings new consumption. Diversified consumption on the consumer side means that this is still a vibrant and booming consumer market. The public is willing to try more new things, and brands are constantly iterating new products.

For the sinking market, the past three years have been the fastest growing period. After three years of rapid growth, the cognitive asymmetry of small town users has gradually been eliminated.

In fact, I really want to make a consumption list of post-95s to see the proportion and differences between first- and second-tier users and rural town users in this list. Although there is no such data, what I can guess is that they are already in the same world, and the only difference may be their passion and interest.

There will be no more sinking markets in the future, only diversified consumption. There is no truth, only the appearance of all beings.

Author: Yang Buhuai

Source: Yang Buhuai