Marketing analysis: Weibo followers increased by 700,000, the gold mine behind the popularity of Jiangxi Huanong Brothers’ bamboo rats!

When I noticed this account, they were not popular yet. It was purely coincidental that I paid attention to them - the style of their videos and the facial features of their characters felt very familiar. I checked and found out that they were fellow villagers, both from Ganzhou, Jiangxi, so I paid more attention to them.

The reason we are disassembling this case today is not because they are so popular. Compared with other phenomenal short video bloggers (such as Liziqi), their size is less than one-tenth. The most important thing is that by disassembling this case, we can appropriately convey some valuable information to everyone.

There has been a lot of exaggeration in the circle recently. Some of the rubbish Taobao rebate apps have recruited more people than pyramid schemes. I feel it is necessary to say something to give everyone more ideas so that they can build their own long-term, healthy and stable projects.

1. Why did the Huanong Brothers become popular?

Hu Yueqing on the left and Liu Suliang on the right

In fact, this question seems simple, but most people may not have a clear idea. First of all, this topic implies two things to analyze:

1. First, why bamboo rats are so popular;
2. Second, why did the Huanong Brothers become popular? After all, there are so many people raising bamboo rats, including those in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Hunan.

Here I use the dichotomy of content and channel to analyze.

1. Content

Since the reform and opening up, everyone has basically no longer had to worry about food and clothing, and the pain caused by material scarcity has gradually faded away, but boredom and loneliness are pressing forward step by step. At this time, all species with "cute" bloodlines will be dug out one by one and "petted" in order to smooth out the gaps in their hearts.

The most successful ones are cats and dogs. Each breed is popular, including Teddy, Samoyed, Golden Retriever, Shiba Inu, Bulldog, Corgi, British Shorthair, Ragdoll, Scottish Fold and Persian cat, which have supported a large number of cat and dog bloggers.

Even frogs, snakes, and various types of beetles are common species in pet harems.

Taking mice as an example, guinea pigs (hamsters) and groundhogs have long been famous. From the perspective of the audience, furry and plump species like bamboo rats will definitely not be left behind.

To a certain extent, the protagonists that can be discovered from the library of billions of species are almost endless, and the opportunities are as numerous as the hairs on a cow.

Bamboo rats usually weigh four or five pounds, and their diet is not very suitable for being pets. They have to chew bamboo every day to grind their teeth, and ordinary young people in cities cannot take care of them. Another reason why it is so popular is that it is very delicious.

In my hometown, bamboo rats are generally called winter rats. They have delicious meat and are considered delicacies from land and sea. They are much better than crayfish. In the 1990s, old farmers often carried one or two to the market to sell, and wild ones could be sold for dozens of yuan per pound. Although it is now mass-produced industrially, it can be sold for dozens of yuan per kilogram when the market is good.

This means that there are strong economic interests behind this to promote the exposure of this species. The material that made them popular this time came from a video shot by farmers to promote bamboo rats.

After talking about bamboo rats, let's chat with everyone and talk about the brothers Hua (Jiang) Nong (Xi) and his cousins.

On their Weibo, there is a brief self-introduction:

The core information includes: they are from Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province; they graduated from junior high school (I feel that one of the members should have a higher education level, otherwise the wording would not be so professional); one of them knows a little about operations and can edit videos; bamboo rats are in short supply.

Even though this is just a bit of information, for me it is the basis of all the useful information , and it is even the core reason why I analyze this case. Why? To put it bluntly, if the Huanong Brothers can become popular, there is no reason why you can't be popular. I bet that 90% of our readers understand the Internet better than these two brothers.

There are actually two things that can be said about people from Ganzhou, Jiangxi. The first is that they are from Jiangxi , and the second is that they are Hakka . This is because more than 95% of the people in Ganzhou are Hakka, and their temperament is somewhat different from that of people in northern and central Jiangxi.

When it comes to Jiangxi, most people may have no impression of it. It is one of the provinces with the least presence in the country. Many people may think that Jiangxi is an old revolutionary base and relatively poor and backward. The less people know about history, the more likely they are to have such an impression.

Let me give you a little scientific knowledge here - Jiangxi has actually been the country's economic and cultural center for more than 1,000 years from the late Tang Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is a veritable land of fish and rice and a land of literature and poetry. Seeing this, most people may be surprised, or even unconvinced. Don’t worry, here are some historical facts:

Three of the Eight Great Masters of Tang and Song Dynasties are from Jiangxi, namely Wang Anshi, Ouyang Xiu and Zeng Gong. There are more than 5,000 Jinshi in the two Song Dynasties, accounting for more than 1/6 of the total number of Jinshi in the two Song Dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, "half of the court officials were from Jiangxi". Although Jiangxi does not even have a 985 university now, there were 515 academies in the country during the two Song Dynasties, and Jiangxi alone accounted for 170, accounting for 1/3 of the country. Among the four major academies in the Northern Song Dynasty, Bai Ludong ranked first. Among the four major academies in the Southern Song Dynasty, Bai Ludong and Xiangshan accounted for two.

There was war at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Central Plains was in chaos. Jiangxi was developed early and became stable and prosperous, with a dramatic population increase. By the Northern Song Dynasty, its population had jumped to the top of the country. In the first year of Chongning (1102 AD) during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, the number of registered households in Jiangxi reached more than 2.01 million and the population exceeded 4.46 million, both accounting for 1/10 of the country's total. By the Yuan Dynasty, its population accounted for more than 1/5 of the country's total. From the Northern Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, Jiangxi has always been the most populous province in the country. Jiangxi has played the role of a paradise for a long time. As the population in many parts of the country dropped sharply due to wars, Jiangxi often served as a population transfer base. The so-called "Jiangxi filling Huguang" and "Huguang filling Sichuan" in history were actually basically Jiangxi filling XXX, except for Hunan and Hubei, which had sparse populations at the time, and many of them even came from Jiangxi. Now, many people in Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangdong, and even Yunnan and Guizhou may have their family roots in Jiangxi. This also creates a strange phenomenon, that is, the ancestral homes of most great men in modern times are basically in Jiangxi. If you are interested, search "ancestral home of great men" on Baidu. I won't go into details.

After laying the groundwork for the above two points, this one is easier to understand. In history, Gan merchants were called the "Jiangyou Merchants Gang", which was the earliest and most powerful merchant gang in the country and had been powerful for more than 900 years. You may not know the name of this merchant gang, but I think most people should know the "Wanshou Palace", which is actually the guild hall of Gan merchants. There are now more than 1,000 of them across the country, both at home and abroad.

In modern times, especially modern times, railways and sea transportation replaced inland river (canal) transportation, and at the same time, Jiangxi suffered great losses in policies, and the local area fell behind. However, the ability of Jiangxi people to read and do business is rooted in their genes.

The three points mentioned above are mainly to whitewash the land of Jiangxi. As for the people, there is no need to whitewash them at all. I think it is brainless to say that people in Jiangxi are poor. The reason is very simple. First of all, there are poor people everywhere. Also, even the poorest places have people who live a comfortable life. Secondly, as for my hometown, it is known as a national-level poverty-stricken county, but during the Chinese New Year, the streets are full of license plates with Guangdong B, Guangdong A, Guangdong S, Fujian C, and Fujian D. There may be several BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes, and Ferraris parked at the door of a shabby yard. Most of them may not be from Jiangxi according to their ID cards.

In addition, as Hakkas, people from Jiangxi may have more stories. The so-called Hakkas are people who are guests. Due to wars, the population of the Central Plains has migrated south on a large scale five times in history. Jiangxi is the most important settlement point, and Ganzhou is known as the cradle of the Hakkas. We, a group of "Southerners", are actually authentic Northerners at heart. We speak a more forthright and forthright manner than the Wu dialect. The girls all drink alcohol and we love spicy food.

Most Hakka people are simple, hard-working and don't talk much, but basically every village has a few extroverted guys who are good at talking and can lead the conversation. They are so funny that it's deadly, just as funny as the people from Northeast China and Sichuan. The only difference is that they speak ancient Chinese, and most people in the country can't understand our humor, so it's not very popular on the Internet, and some of our dirty words can't be found in Mandarin.

Although the Huanong brothers have a very limited vocabulary and the adjective they use most often is probably "beautiful" , they have a kind of energy that can make people laugh.

In fact, Hakka people don’t have the word “beautiful”. People usually use “peozhi” to describe all good-looking things, including girls, boys, sows, and big dogs. Sometimes adverbs of degree are added, such as “manpeozhi”.

I say so many good things about Jiangxi not to flatter myself. I really don't need to do so. As long as I want, I can say something about any place to prove that the place is worthy of pride. I would also like to make it clear to everyone that learning more about history and culture will play a very important role in creating Internet content. A more direct benefit is that when someone talks about his hometown, you can pick out a cool point to say and add a sentence like, "Speaking of which, I am half a Chinese, too." This is like flattering someone invisibly, and the person you want to please will enjoy it.

One thing I should also add is that Jiangxi's forest coverage rate exceeds 63% (the national average is 21%), and the hilly southern part of Jiangxi is even higher. It has beautiful mountains and rivers, rich products, plenty of "props", and diverse scenes.

2. Channels

Watermelon Video

At the beginning, their main base was Toutiao Xigua Video, and the reason for that was probably because Toutiao supported original short videos. Judging from the style, there are a number of "earthy" food bloggers, such as the Wild Food Brother and the Rural Fourth Brother. They really became popular after the emoticons on Weibo were widely circulated.

youtube

They also upload videos on Bilibili , and they even have an account on YouTube. They are really serious about making short videos.

I have talked about channels many times before, and today I will give you some useful information, which is why bloggers like to direct traffic to Weibo.

This is mainly determined by the product form and size of Weibo. Weibo has the strongest media attributes, a high information reach rate, a large number of users, and a strong relationship chain. It is a very good content dissemination platform. After accumulating a certain number of fans, it is easy to form a phenomenal dissemination event with the help of social fission , thus making the IP popular. When Internet celebrities compete for their status in the industry, Weibo is the best comparison target. With the decline of WeChat public accounts , Weibo is currently the most preferred channel for building IP.

2. From the popularity of Huanong Brothers, we can see the potential for mining projects

 I have always believed that projects cannot be bought. Only by cultivating projects based on who you are, what you like (are good at) from the bottom of your heart, and what resources you have can you build a long-term career.

There has always been a curse in Internet entrepreneurship . Except for the giants, the stronger the network attributes of a project, the more unstable and short-lived it is. The reason is simple. Because the threshold is low, it is easy for the industry to die if too many people do it, which has caused widespread anxiety among people in the Internet industry.

The lesson we can get from the Huanong Brothers is that even if you are a farmer, even if you raise mice or grow crops, you can use the Internet to expand your business and turn it into a long-term career.

Competition in pure network projects is becoming increasingly fierce. A significant sign is that some people have begun to shamelessly recruit people and collect IQ tax without any bottom line. At this time, the market tells us that we should apply network skills to all industries and value chains in 360 industries and find our own place in the social division of labor.

By leveraging the Internet to build IP and acquire massive customer base, no matter whether it is a traditional enterprise or a farmer, whoever has the awareness of online marketing first will be able to reap the benefits by making new buds on old trees and make money while having fun.

As the Internet and related skills become more popular, reinventors in all industries will become the new leaders. This means that using Internet marketing skills to transform any industry is like digging for gold.

Source: Xu Ge