Why do internet celebrity brands die quickly?

In recent years, the significance of Internet celebrity brands has received mixed reviews, but many people's impression of Internet celebrity brands is generally "hype and short-lived." The author has therefore paid attention to this point and further analyzed the "various causes of death" of Internet celebrity brands.

Three months ago, I asked my clients a question: “How do you view your identity as an influencer brand?”

The client’s CEO immediately retorted: “We are not an internet celebrity brand! This is a misunderstanding of us!”

I suddenly realized something: I don’t know since when, calling a brand an “Internet celebrity brand” has become equivalent to insulting someone.

This may be because many internet celebrity brands are short-lived, and even more internet celebrity brands only attract attention but not money.

However, when we can finally look at internet celebrity brands rationally, the industry’s understanding of internet celebrity brands is still very naive. For example: Why do internet celebrity brands die quickly? ——Because they only focus on gimmicks, not products; they only operate traffic, not trust.

Please, the CEOs and CMOs who can create internet celebrity brands are not fools. How is it possible that they don’t even know the basic business common sense?

Obviously, we are just wishful thinking to label Internet celebrity brands as "flashy" and "form over content" without really thinking responsibly.

Without any criticism or exaggeration, let’s rethink the real reasons why internet celebrity brands die young.

01 We may not be talking about an internet celebrity brand

When we mention Internet celebrity brands, you may be referring to: % Arabica, Bao Shifu, Heytea, Aoxue Double Yolk Egg, Perfect Diary, Canban, HFP, Adopt a Cow, Le Pure, Bubble Mask, Instant Noodle Canteen, Answer Tea, Zhong Xue Gao, Hua Xizi...

They are all called "Internet celebrity brands" by the media, but the ways they become Internet celebrities are very different. This "difference" is an important factor in our misunderstanding of Internet celebrity brands.

For example, some internet celebrity brands become internet celebrities by “spreading like wildfire”, while others become internet celebrities by “deliberately planning”.

“Spread like wildfire” type: Bao Shifu, Aoxue Double Yolk, Northeast Daban, etc.

These brands had no intention of becoming Internet celebrities, but were inadvertently recommended in a society with developed social media, thus forming an online word-of-mouth effect.

Like Bao Shifu, Aoxue and Northeast Daban, these three companies are old companies that have been established for more than 10 years. Their popularity is by no means achieved by hiring people to queue up. If they fail, it is because the company did not make full use of the opportunity to become popular.

"Deliberate" type: bubble mask, instant noodle canteen, Diaoye beef brisket, Zhong Xuegao, etc.

These brands were designed with internet celebrity genes before they were born. A typical example is the bubble mask. The gimmick of "the dirtier your face, the more bubbles" naturally cannot stand up to proof. In fact, it is determined by the surfactants and foaming ingredients.

For details, you can read Dad’s review on this mask. The link to the article is “What is the magical bubble mask that is so popular on the entire Internet and is sold out?”

The way to create an influencer brand is different:

1. Brands that use influencers as channels and are then made popular by influencers;
2. The product has the genes of an internet celebrity and is a brand amplified by the Internet.

1. Use influencers as channels

For example, Perfect Diary, HFP, Adopt a Cow, etc.

The characteristic of this kind of brand is that there is no obvious difference between the product itself and traditional brands. Their popularity is due to the use of KOLs as media channels, which are carefully placed to accumulate brand potential and produce a powerful grass-planting effect.

The more representative ones are Perfect Diary’s Xiaohongshu note placement and HFP’s WeChat KOL placement.

2. Brands whose products have the genes of Internet celebrities and are amplified by the Internet

For example: bubble mask, ginseng and half, instant noodle canteen, answer tea.

These brands naturally have budgets for KOL placement, but it is clear that their popularity relies more on the extreme innovation of the products themselves.

For example, answer tea, can milk tea also be used for fortune-telling? This kind of thing itself can arouse the interest of netizens, and coupled with the display of Douyin, it can naturally trigger a wave of network effects.

For example, Sanban not only has a completely different packaging from ordinary toothpaste, but also has a completely different concept of efficacy. It does not claim to have whitening, anti-caries, or bad breath effects, but instead takes the approach of cosmetics - "nourishing the oral cavity."

If we analyze it in hindsight, the formula for building an influencer brand is two steps:

• Select a single product and create a product that subverts consumers' impressions. The product itself can naturally trigger social conversation. As for the methods of subversion, they can be explored from various angles such as the product itself, product packaging, service experience, product efficacy, brand story, etc.
• Intensive and systematic KOL deployment is carried out on social seeding platforms (mainly the six major platforms of WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Taobao, Bilibili, and Douyin) to create word-of-mouth potential.

But the question is, why do most internet celebrity brands die early? What is the weak point of a brand built under this formula?

02 Why do internet celebrity brands die quickly?

If you want to know why most internet celebrity brands die early, let’s first take a look at which internet celebrity brands have become outdated and which ones are still strong.

• Outdated internet celebrity brands: Huang Taiji, Diaoye Beef Brisket, Instant Noodles Canteen, Answer Tea…
• Strong internet celebrity brands: Haidilao, Three Squirrels, Jiangxiaobai, Bao Shifu, Heytea...

When you see Haidilao and Three Squirrels, I think you have forgotten that they were once called Internet celebrity brands, but now they have already established their own foothold and no one calls them that anymore.

Now, let’s compare the outdated group and the strong group to see why they became Internet celebrities?

Overheated group:

• Huang Taiji: Jianbingguozi is going to become the McDonald's of China, with luxury cars delivering pancakes and a beautiful lady boss
• Diaoye Beef Brisket: God of Cookery recipe, the store has been closed for half a year, and everything in the store has a history
• Answer tea: can tell fortunes
• Instant Noodles Canteen: Instant Noodles Restaurant

Firm group:

• Haidilao: “Abnormal” service (free manicure while waiting in line, dancing with noodles, cell phone protective bags, glasses cloths…)
• Three Squirrels: Ultimate experience (squirrel tail-shaped box opener, wet wipes for wiping hands after eating, sealing clips, and calling customers "masters")
• Jiang Xiaobai: The attitude text on the bottle
• Bao Shifu + Heytea: Queue

After this comparison, we can see a phenomenon: the reasons for the popularity of the outdated group are relatively brilliant, while the reasons for the popularity of the strong group are relatively dull.

Yes, better service, longer queues, more gifts, it doesn’t seem unusual at all. Why can such a common reason make a brand popular? Why can such a common reason make the brand popular for longer?

Many people attribute the failure of Internet celebrity brands to poor product quality, saying, "Merchants just want to make money, and their products are neither tasty nor easy to use." This rough conclusion goes against common sense.

• Answer Tea is not as good as Heytea, but it is still good;
• The Zang Zang Bao is not as delicious as Bao Shifu, but it is still delicious;
• I can’t say that Diaoye’s beef brisket is bad, I can only say that it’s not amazing.

The real reason is that the “selling points” of popular online celebrity brands have shifted consumers’ consumption motivations:

1. Internet celebrity brands and shifted consumer motivations

• If the biggest selling point of Answer Tea is "fortune-telling", then consumers are not coming to drink tea, but to have their fortunes told;
• If the biggest selling point of Diaoye Beef Brisket is "the recipe of the God of Cookery, the store has been closed for testing for half a year, and everything in the store has a history", then consumers are not coming to eat, but to show off;
• If the biggest selling point of the dirty bread is that "you'll get a dirty face after eating it", then consumers are not coming here to eat bread, but to take selfies.

All of these internet celebrity selling points direct consumers' consumption motivation towards "entertainment experience" rather than "product consumption." Therefore, even if the products of the Internet celebrity brand are OK in themselves, they will eventually become entertainment foils.

Let’s take a look at the reasons why the “strong group” became popular:

Haidilao, Three Squirrels, Jiang Xiaobai, Bao Shifu, Heytea...Except for Jiang Xiaobai, these popular points all point to the products/services themselves. In other words, the selling points they have formed on the Internet ultimately empower product consumption rather than attracting customers for entertainment experiences.

During the marketing process, any brand must be wary of "deviation of consumer motivation", which will cause the company to lose its sustainable profitability .

For example, cross-border brands have become popular in the past two years. Many old brands have regained the attention of young consumers through cross-border businesses, such as the White Rabbit Milk Candy, which has frequently crossed borders.

However, this cross-border business can only bring superficial prosperity. Consumers' motivation to buy White Rabbit Milk Candy is only because of the temporary novelty. Milk candy itself is a sunset industry. If White Rabbit cannot find growth points other than milk candy, then everything is just a mirage.

For example, many companies often get involved in price wars. The biggest impact of price wars on companies is not the loss of profits, but that they make consumers develop a habit of enjoying low prices. Their consumption motivation is no longer the value of the product, but the cheapness.

Once the product is no longer discounted, consumers’ “motivation to consume” will be gone and the market will naturally be unable to sell the product. If this continues, a vicious cycle will be formed.

For example, many newly established Internet companies often promote company benefits during the recruitment process, such as no clocking in, unlimited snacks, flexible workdays, overseas vacations, and the ability to bring pets to work...

But if a company overemphasizes benefits during recruitment, the employees' "reason for joining" will be shifted, and what they may end up recruiting are a group of lazy mediocre people rather than ambitious strivers.

We use this principle to measure the brands that were popular in 2018-2019. Brands such as "Bubble Mask" and "Dirty Bag" are bound to be unsustainable because their internet celebrity selling points have no fundamental connection with product characteristics.

We can still look forward to toothpaste brands like "Sanban", because Sanban not only has a unique packaging, but also has a unique new positioning of "nourishing the oral cavity".

2. The gap between online celebrity brands and consumer motivation

The main way to create an Internet celebrity brand is "content planting", that is, through large-scale and detailed celebrity and KOL delivery, thereby triggering word-of-mouth fission and making the brand an Internet celebrity.

The most typical one here is HFP. During 2018, they published about 400 promotional articles on their official WeChat account almost every month. Between 2016 and 2018, HFP has published 6,274 soft articles in 1,428 public accounts. (Manual statistics, may not be accurate)

It can be said that HFP is an enterprise that treats WeChat KOL as if it were CCTV. They use all the budget that traditional skin care customers would have put on television and video media to create content. With WeChat KOL as the core, and assisted by Xiaohongshu and Weibo, we carry out extreme and systematic content marketing.

However, the marketing method of content seeding itself cannot form lasting consumer motivation.

Traditional hard advertising, such as TVC and outdoor billboards, creates brand memory among consumers through repeated exposure to simple information. Once a consumer goes shopping, he will be unconsciously influenced by the advertisements and choose the brand that he has an impression of.

For example, if you are afraid of getting angry, you can try Wanglaoji. Recently, whenever I feel a little sore in my throat, I subconsciously order a can of Wanglaoji with my meals.

However, the logic behind how content influences consumers is different. Consumers’ purchases are largely due to recommendations from influencers. The vivid descriptions by internet celebrities make people want to try it.

Moreover, different KOLs will use different expressions to interpret brand information. Since advertising information is complex and not single, consumers’ impressions of brands are varied and unstable.

To put it in a metaphor, the consumption motivation generated by hard advertising is more lasting. It is more like a thorn that hurts people in their hearts. The goal is to make you "unforgettable for a lifetime."

The consumption motivation generated by content seeding is more short-lived. It is more like a feather that teases you and induces your "impulsiveness".

Since the consumption motivation generated by content seeding is short-lived, this method is more likely to attract "early adopters" rather than form stable consumption habits.

In live broadcasts by internet celebrities, the hosts generally have two requirements for the brands they promote:

1. This brand is not very common
2. The price I give you is lower than the market price.

The combined effect of these two factors is that most consumers buy products promoted by influencers for the sake of novelty and cheapness. These are a group of typical "traffic users". When you are no longer cheap, once the novelty wears off, they will easily be replaced by products recommended by other internet celebrities.

Therefore, most girls who watched Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast said they wanted to buy things instead of taking it for granted.

That is, their impact on consumption motivation is:

Hard advertising makes people feel that they are not affected by the advertisement, while content that is not targeted makes people feel that they are being misled.

Once consumers feel that they are being misled and that their consumption is not what they really need, their attitude toward the brand will become harsh. They will often be wary of and examine the brand, and then examine their own consumption habits.

This unnatural defensive mentality is the reason for the "consumption motivation gap", which makes consumers believe that their consumption habits are unnatural and inappropriate.

3. Internet celebrity brands and consumer expectations

Content seeding is essentially more like a public relations behavior. It introduces the brand through outsiders and can explain the functions that the company is not convenient to mention on the packaging or in official commercials.

But at the same time, because different Internet celebrities interpret brand information differently, it is very easy for information to be distorted during the transmission process.

In communication studies, this phenomenon is called the "communication funnel". To see the specific logic, you can watch the game "Megaphone" in "Ace vs. Ace" and "Happy Camp", and you will be amazed at how serious the loss of information can be in transmission.

Therefore, the more times a brand is recommended, the more doubts it accumulates. If the brand itself has some "dirty" points, it will be more likely to be exposed by netizens, which may eventually lead to a public relations crisis.

For example, HFP was exposed by the beauty account Goddess Evolution. The article digs deep into the five major flaws of HFP: using the banner of "pharmaceutical cosmetics", imitating the Orainary, tricky product names, falsely low prices, and exaggerated efficacy claims.

But sometimes, even though there are no quality issues with online celebrity brands, they are still unfairly accused. For example, we often hear user reviews like this:

• Is Zhong Xue Gao selling at such a high price a way of collecting IQ tax?
• Is it a pilgrimage to queue for an hour to buy a cup of HEYTEA?
• Is there anything special about Master Bao’s pork floss clams besides the extra pork floss?

Many internet celebrity brands have been labeled as "more famous than real", for example, Huang Taiji is very unpalatable. Let’s be honest, are Huang Taiji’s pancakes bad? It’s not bad, it’s just not as authentic as some street stalls. But because it has the halo of an internet celebrity, we can only give it a bad review after eating it.

In psychology, this is a typical "anchoring effect ." When people judge something, there is no absolute good or bad. The key is how you position the base point. The base point is like an anchor. Once it is set, the evaluation criteria are set and the good and bad can be assessed.

This phenomenon is often used as a sales technique in marketing. For example, if you are a real estate agent and you want your client to rent House A, you can use this psychological technique.

First of all, you should not take him to see House A directly. Instead, take him to see a few relatively dilapidated houses first, and then show him House A. Then, this customer is very likely to rent House A.

Because the anchor point you initially give the customer is very low, making him think that the nearby houses are very bad. Once he finds that House A is much better than other houses, he will mistakenly think that this is the best house.

Similarly, the "reputation" of an Internet celebrity brand will also make the "anchor point" of a brand too high. While it attracts more people to try it, it also raises consumers' psychological expectations. Even if the product was originally very good, it will be met with a "nothing special".

In the past two years, people have often talked about the user experience of brands. The key to user experience lies in exceeding consumer expectations. Only when it exceeds their psychological anchor point will consumers be amazed by your good performance.

Therefore, the strength of Haidilao lies in that even though everyone praises its good service and the "anchor point" has been set so high, it can still provide you with services that exceed your consumption expectations.

Misrepresented brand information, coupled with the elevated word-of-mouth "anchor point", have jointly distorted consumers' consumption expectations. When the two factors combine, internet celebrity brands often end up being accused of a crime that does not live up to their reputation.

Summarize

Don't replace professional judgment with moral evaluation. This is the basic quality we should have when looking at business phenomena.

If we exclude those internet celebrity brands that only want to earn franchise fees and make money, the reason why internet celebrity brands died early is not that they only focused on gimmicks and ignored products. Instead, under the unique marketing method, it is easy to cause consumer motivation deviation, consumer power fault and consumer expectation distortion.

Although I have been analyzing the hidden dangers of Internet celebrity brands, I believe that in today's era, if a brand cannot even become an Internet celebrity, it cannot become a big brand.

It’s just that becoming popular is the starting point of a brand, not the end point. After the craze has subsided, the way for Internet celebrity brands to maintain long-term stability is to increase product repurchase and user retention, thereby forming a niche market.

Author: General Liang

Source: Liang Jiangjun (ID-liangjiangjunisme)