Liu Ming, Vice President of Shangmei Group: Four Keys for Traditional Brands to Gain New Growth

With more and more attention paid to skin care ingredients, Kans King Kong Summer Mask is deeply loved by consumers with a variety of anti-sugar ingredients and all-round formulas, and it has been sold many times in Li Jiaqi live broadcast room, and the product repurchase rate is as high as 35%; Under the trend of smart retail, a leaf applet has obtained tens of millions of GMV；; Just half a year; Red Elephant, which has an accurate insight into the changes in maternal and infant market demand, has been ranked TOP 1 in Tmall maternal and infant cosmetics category since 20 19.

These fast-growing brands are all from Shangmei Group. Shangmei Group won the Product Strength Award of the Year in the "2020 China New Consumer Business Power" sponsored by CBNData.

There are several young people in this issue, and we interviewed Liu Ming, vice president of Shangmei Group. Liu Ming once pointed out in his speech that marketing power, product power, data driving force and brand influence are the four key points for brands to maintain cutting-edge growth in the traffic era. This interview also focused on these four driving forces.

Liu Ming, Vice President of Shangmei Group

The following is an interview record:

CBNData: What specific elements do you think "product power" contains? How does Shangmei build its own "product power"?

Liu Ming: Composition, efficacy, quality and face value are the "four elements" of current product strength. Under the new consumption format, I feel that only by building our own product strength can we really undertake traffic. To build product strength, I think there are mainly the following points:

First, scientific research is the cornerstone, the supply chain is the moat, and innovation in the technical field is deeply cultivated.

Every year, the United States continues to invest billions of dollars. We have established dual scientific research centers and dual supply chains in the Global Harbor in the center of Shanghai and the Medical Silicon Valley in Kobe, Japan. Some people may wonder why, as a local brand, Shangmei chose to conduct research and development in Japan. The answer is simple, because Japan has the most discerning consumers and the strictest product quality control in the world.

The picture shows Kobe Research Center, Japan, USA.

Second, in-depth study of users, products reverse customization, users have a sense of memory, willing to spread their own products.

In the creation of product strength, I think it is very important to directly affect the "contact point" of consumers. This contact point may be reflected in product composition, packaging, customized design and so on.

The young "post-wave" group who grew up in the post-90 s and post-90 s of the Internet generation is becoming our core consumer group. They have diverse ideas, are more curious, and pay attention to the efficacy, face value and social attributes of products, which also directly accelerates our shift from user insight to C-end, digs deep into users' pain points, feeds back the customization of the whole product with big data, and finally forms a strong user grip by means of intelligent explosion and social media marketing.

Third, study the market in depth, gain insight into market changes and the development of competitive products, and make a quick response.

At present, the market structure of beauty cosmetics and maternal and child products is changing rapidly, and the homogenization of products is serious. To enhance the "immunity", brands must adapt to the variability of the market environment, respond quickly, lay out in advance, and study every product to the extreme. When Red Elephant retails the best-selling product "Children's Shampoo Body Wash", it is found that girls' hair is more susceptible to pollution and damage, drying, knotting and yellowing, and there is also a lack of shampoo specifically for girls in the market. To this end, the R&D team of Shangmei quickly created an amino acid shampoo for girls, which was well received by the market. The sales volume of Double Eleven increased by 14 1% compared with the previous year's core products.

The picture shows the red elephant girl shampoo conditioner.

CBNData: In your speech, you summed up "explosion opportunity = new explosion flow in technology/supply chain innovation". How to understand this formula?

Liu Ming: With regard to the innovation of technology supply chain, in addition to establishing dual scientific research centers and dual supply chains, we also actively deploy the soft power of talents, with a team of 100 scientific research experts, many of whom are from daily chemical giants such as Procter & Gamble.

The picture shows the research and development center laboratory of Shanghai Global Port Headquarters in Shangmei.

Regarding the category of explosives, I think the birth of explosives is not accidental. In addition to continuous investment in technology and supply chain innovation, we must also grasp two key points: user insight and category trend insight. For example, we developed the Kans King Kong Xia Mask because through big data analysis, we found that users have a strong demand for firming, anti-aging, hydrating and moisturizing. From the market capacity and growth trend of facial mask, facial mask is an opportunity category with strong growth. From June 65438+ 10 to June 65438+ 10 in 2020, Tmall's transaction volume reached 209 million, accounting for 34%, an increase of 65438. Thus, the explosive King Kong mask was born.

Regarding new traffic, we insist on the integration of quality and efficiency, and the parallelism of depth and breadth. We use the three-dimensional combination boxing mode of new marketing-big media delivery+global content planting+information flow delivery+live broadcast+private domain to form a multi-form, multi-dimensional and multi-touch "content network" to communicate with them and occupy their minds in any field where they may meet with Generation Z.

Under this year's consumption trend, facial protective clothing, facial mask, make-up water/toner are the opportunity categories. Face-care suit, formal suit+sample collocation, not only does not damage the brand price control, but also allows consumers to gain more "sense of value"; After long-term "market education", the frequency of consumers using masks is increasing, and even applying masks every day has become a normal state. The function of the mask also extends from single skin care to first aid after sun exposure, moisturizing before makeup, medical beauty repair and so on. And the usage scenarios are more diverse; Compared with "milk" or "cream", emulsion is an irreplaceable category, and it consumes quickly and is easy to buy back.

CBNData: For Shangmei, which has a history of 65,438+08 years, how to seize the innovation opportunity in the marketing field and gain new growth? What are the marketing advantages of traditional brands compared with new brands?

Liu Ming: In this special year, faced with the double impact of epidemic and traffic, we are also actively adjusting the pace and switching strategies to seize the innovation opportunities in the marketing field and achieve growth.

First, adhere to the integration of quality and efficiency, use new traffic marketing, and adhere to the three-dimensional combination boxing output of "big media delivery+global content planting+information flow delivery+live broadcast+private domain".

The picture shows Shangmei outdoor advertisement.

Second, pay attention to the input-output ratio. At the beginning of the launch, the system planned how to get through the global marketing links, leverage resources with resources, and combine platforms, e-commerce and live broadcasts to create content and let sales land. I prefer to consider the problem from the overall perspective of the company's operation and maximize the utilization of resources. This is a higher requirement for yourself and the team.

Third, pay attention to the traffic research under the brand premium ability. This year, a large number of information streams have been put into private domain, live broadcast and Tik Tok to study traffic conversion. In February this year, Shangmei Group won the top 3 in the beauty category in Tik Tok. Through the ability of brand premium and the improvement of learning ROI, the traffic business will gain better and longer.

Compared with new brands, I think the advantage of traditional brands in marketing lies in brand barriers. Doing new marketing based on certain popularity and reputation is more likely to form high conversion, thus achieving "point-to-surface integration" and bringing the whole network closer. Cutting-edge brands may be able to use traffic to break out in a short time, but to get a longer life cycle, they need longer-term investment and change from traffic thinking to brand thinking.

CBNData: What do you think of live e-commerce? Today's live e-commerce is more entertaining and variety-oriented. What do you think is the core driver of live broadcast?

Liu Ming: For users, live e-commerce is the most direct, efficient and affordable shopping method at present. For brands, live broadcast can quickly bring traffic, drive sales and empower explosive products. Consumers are keen on live broadcast because it meets consumers' demand for commodity knowledge, high discount, entertainment and shopping experience, quality assurance and controllable price.

The picture shows a golden mask with leaves in Zhang Kangyang's live broadcast room in Sydney.

The performance of Shangmei Group in the live broadcast section is as follows: First, it started to get involved in live broadcast earlier, especially in March and April this year, we seized the live broadcast time and became the first beauty company that Tik Tok and Aauto started live broadcast faster, and the live broadcast share once ranked first in the beauty industry; Second, deeply bind the head anchor and start the annual framework-level cooperation. Only Kans King Kong Xia Mask Double 1 1 Li Jiaqi sold more than 2800 W；; Third, build a super live broadcast matrix, lay out high-quality talents inside and outside, widely cover stars, and jointly name with well-known IP, and reverse customize explosive products for super head anchors.

However, in the era of traffic and live e-commerce, we need a comprehensive layout and need calm and in-depth thinking. I hope you can actively think about the following issues and avoid all kinds of live broadcast pits-

1. What is the ratio of live broadcast in the station to daily sales? Let's analyze the sales proportion of Tmall Station. If your daily sales can't go up, the proportion of live broadcast is particularly large. Be very careful. Maybe business is unhealthy.

2. Leave a feeling of hunger. Frequent live promotion, short-term benefits, long-term can not be sold. Live broadcast should have strategy and play, don't hurt the brand for live broadcast, and learn to make certain trade-offs.

CBNData: The 2020 China Internet Consumption Ecological Big Data Report shows that the epidemic situation has promoted the layout of new digital infrastructure for enterprises. At what stage is the digital layout of Shangmei at present, and what are the new plans for 20021year?

Liu Ming: This year, firstly, we raised digitalization to the strategic level of enterprises; Secondly, we launched the data center platform and officially entered the digital 3.0 era. The data center platform can help the business side make more efficient decisions, link users more frequently, help enterprises to continuously obtain traffic, and realize the long-term sustainable growth of the brand. How to do this?

First of all, in the stage of insight into users, we use data to label each user with different labels such as region, behavior and preference, and study users' buying habits, search habits, catalyst habits and so on;

Then, integrate marketing resources with social media, drama series, variety show, outdoor CBD big screen and other dimensions, and cooperate with the rhythm of brand promotion, explosive product creation and platform promotion to carry out massive exposure and content combination boxing from point to face, reach users and transform purchase behavior;

After the user makes a transaction, we will also follow up the service experience in real time and track its usage, secondary purchase, social grass planting behavior, independent communication and so on.

The new scheme of 202 1 can be summarized as: 1. Establish more antennas for data collection; Second, improve the platform for managing data; Third, improve the quality of data analysis; Fourth, sort out the process of data application; 5. Popularize science and establish a company-wide data-oriented culture.

CBNData: With the Z generation gradually becoming the main consumer, the younger layout has also become an important proposition for many brands. Can you briefly talk about how Shangmei carries out the brand rejuvenation layout?

Liu Ming: First of all, brand rejuvenation should understand users, gain insight into users' needs and make products that young people like. At present, the obvious characteristics of younger users are face value control, party member, efficiency, ceremony and personality. This is obvious, but it is also diverse and complicated. Therefore, when making brand positioning, Shangmei Group will change its thinking and think from the perspective of users. For example, Yiye brand is positioned as a plant technology skin care brand, and slogan is' Yiye, fresh and more effective'. The supporting point of product research and development revolves around the needs of users, such as combining global botanists to select natural plants, adopting one-leaf molecular motor technology, and at the same time, more experience makes the effect more obvious;

Second, brand rejuvenation should start from the heart and establish emotional ties with young people. The content should be able to establish * * * emotions with users, occupy the mind, and do temperature, depth and accurate marketing at every contact point of users' lives;

Third, the rejuvenation of the brand should be played with young people in a marketing way that young people like. Wherever the young people are, we will go. For example, when Ye Yi was doing young marketing, there was a classic case, which was to send Zhang Kangyang to the live broadcast room in Sydney. In the end, the first live broadcast achieved tens of millions of sales in Sydney. From the signing of the spokesperson to the performance of the drama "Stewed Sydney with Rock Sugar", the content was created in the drama. We got through the content field+electric mall and star+head anchor, and finally realized the full link marketing model.

In 2020, Shangmei Group participated in several major dramas.

CBNData: How do you think consumers' demand for beauty care has changed? What kind of consumption trends will be predicted in the future?

Liu Ming: In terms of brand selection, international brands still dominate, but domestic products are rising day by day. Users are not only superstitious about international brands, but also willing to pay for cost-effective domestic products, which will give birth to more cutting-edge brands.

In terms of categories, anti-aging products are increasingly sought after by young users; Users pay more and more attention to skin care after medical arts, so the growth trend of beauty instruments and light medical beauty-related products is constantly improving; Consumers are increasingly demanding subdivided categories, such as oral beauty liquid and oral anti-sugar pills.

CBNData: You personally went from being an early news anchor and host to participating in Internet entrepreneurship in 15, and founded the maternal and infant brand Piaopiaoyu with Zhang Ziyi in 17, and now you have joined Shangmei Group. Why is there such a career transformation and choice?

Liu Ming: In every workplace, I will do things with an entrepreneur's mentality, not the thinking of migrant workers, and will consider problems from the perspective of boss thinking and operator thinking. At the same time, I can make key choices on important nodes. I have my own selection methodology: first, when making key choices, I should have an insight into the trend of the times and market trends, so that I can invest myself in industries with rising trends; Second, more importantly, to get out of the comfort zone, choose something more imaginative, more difficult but more correct, and choose something that has a better chance of making a qualitative change in life, instead of choosing something easier, safer and simpler for comfort.