In the era of live e-commerce, people are the media, people are the channels, and people are re-becoming the entrance of the next generation of transactions, and the key to this transaction is knowledge distribution, trust agency and personality connection.
In 1904, Albert Lasker, CEO of Lord Thomas, the third largest advertising company in the United States, received a small note from the doorman when attending a salon:
"I’m downstairs in this party salon. I can tell you what an advertisement is. I know you don’t know …"
John Kennedy, who was born in the Canadian Mounted Police, wrote three words for Lasker:
Sales in Print (paper marketing)
Advertising is a salesman in a two-dimensional world. John F. Kennedy established the law of copywriting according to the standards of excellent salesmen and decided how advertisements should speak to consumers.
Paper sales promotion, these three English words fundamentally changed the advertising theory and set a clear standard for the advertising industry. Lasker later said: "When writing advertising history, the first name that must be written is John Kennedy. To this day, the principle he has set has always been the criterion of every copywriter. "
Since advertising is paper sales promotion, what is live e-commerce? Actually, it’s video marketing.
"All advertising cases, there are hidden personal selling skills behind them, and all advertisements should be based on this. Standing at the door talking to a housewife has a lot in common with having a heart-to-heart conversation with her under the night light. The same salesman is applicable everywhere, and advertising is just a sales promotion on paper … The principle of advertising is no different from the principle of personal sales promotion. "
Claude Hopkins, the successor president of Lord Thomas, said.
(Lasker and Hopkins)
Whether you are writing advertising copy or doing live broadcast with goods, you should learn those classic sales principles like an excellent product salesman.
Today, when the whole people are rushing to broadcast live, Li Jiaqi and Viya can firmly hold their heads. It is very important that Li Jiaqi once worked as a teller of Nanchang Maybelline, while Viya himself opened a physical clothing store. Both of them have had face-to-face sales experience with customers, so they also know how to communicate with customers in front of the screen and how to impress them and arouse their desire to buy.
On the other hand, the live broadcast of stars, even though they often face the camera and have excellent performance talent, are often mediocre in carrying goods, and there are even many cases of rollover.
This just shows the difference between sales promotion and performance. It doesn’t mean that if you are good-looking and can speak and act, you will definitely be able to do a good job in live broadcast.
"They forget the identity of a salesman and try to become an actor, not trying to sell hard but seeking applause … Successful salesmen are rarely eloquent, they have almost no charm of speech, and some are only understanding of consumers and products, as well as unpretentious character and a sincere heart."
As one of the most outstanding copywriters in the history of advertising, Hopkins established his own method of advertising and copywriting in full accordance with the salesman’s practice. Even though nearly 100 years have passed, looking back at Hopkins’ remarks and opinions, I think it is still of great guiding significance today, especially for the live broadcast back to that marketing era, because human nature is unchanging.
At the beginning of business, salesmen are the intermediary between products and users. They bring samples and product catalogues and knock on the doors of thousands of households, so that sales can be achieved and enterprises can survive.
But this kind of one-on-one door-to-door sales also has great limitations, that is, low efficiency and high cost. Therefore, mass media and specialized distribution channels that can quickly cover the whole country have emerged. The media transmits product information and the channels provide trading occasions, which are distinct from each other. In order to achieve sales, what enterprises have to do is to advertise in the media while opening stores and distributing goods through channels.
Media+channel has replaced the important value of salesman in finding customers and become the intermediary between products and users. The salesman is only responsible for the customer’s arrival at the store. This is the era of traditional marketing.
With the advent of the Internet, new e-commerce channels have been born and new media forms have emerged. With the empowerment of new channels and new media, people’s value has been pushed up again. The user connection between media and channels is "one-to-many", while the traditional way of communication and sales promotion is "one-to-one". The advantage of "one-on-one" is that it is more accurate, easier to win the trust of customers and establish a lasting relationship; And its disadvantage is low efficiency. But now with the internet, people can easily realize "one-to-many", and although it is "one-to-many" communication, it can make consumers have "one-to-one" experience and emotional connection. This is something that mass media and channels can’t do. No one will think that the media only talks to themselves.
People are the media and people are the channels. The popularity of marketing concepts, including Wechat business, private domain traffic, KOL and KOC, all point to the same conclusion-people are becoming the trading entrance of the next generation again. If we regard people as the entrance to the next generation of transactions, then the key to the transaction is three points:
- Knowledge distribution
- Trust agent
- Personality connection
The more you talk, the better you sell. This is an unquestionable truth for live delivery.
After Luo Yonghao’s live broadcast in Tik Tok, some people said that Lao Luo had created a new business model. Enterprises asked him to live broadcast not to sell goods, but to broadcast advertisements and expose brands. Lao Luo could transform brand speakers and help brands tell stories by crosstalk. But the problem is, if it’s not about shopping or buying cheap goods, who wants to listen to you read the product manual every day?
Hopkins said:
"Only people who are interested in our products will read our advertisements. No matter how long or short the advertisement is, no one will read it as a pastime. Therefore, we should regard the advertiser as a potential customer who is asking for information from you, and give him enough product information to make him pay for his consumption. "
If the live broadcast of online celebrity only talks about good products, lacks in-depth understanding of the products, and can’t provide professional product knowledge to help consumers make purchase decisions, then the effect of bringing goods will undoubtedly be greatly reduced. Lao Luo’s live broadcast, especially the first two live broadcasts, has proved this point.
There are many beauty bloggers, and Li Jiaqi’s success lies in his early focus on lipstick segmentation. It is precisely because of his rich professional knowledge in lipstick that he can make a million dollars in Tik Tok just by a short video of color test. His Tik Tok and lipstick videos accounted for more than 70% in the early days. There is a "lipstick brother" first, and today’s live broadcast is the king of goods.
Drucker said:
"Knowledge is the only meaningful resource today". For marketing, knowledge is productivity, and knowledge is the power to move people’s hearts.
You know, curiosity is the strongest motivation of human beings. And fresh knowledge can just arouse people’s curiosity and make people have the impulse to buy and try.
Hopkins advertises the full cereal product of Quaker cereal, so he won’t write that this cereal is attractive in color, delicious in smell and delicious in taste. These common information can’t arouse people’s curiosity to try Quaker at all. "Full Grain" has been advertised in this way for many years, but the result is more and more disappointing.
Hopkins, on the other hand, went to the factory to observe the grain production process, and then he wrote a slogan: "Food from the gun"-the grain expanded to eight times its usual size, each grain suffered 125 thousand steam explosions, and the food was ejected from the pole …
Everyone who read the advertisement of full grain wanted to see and taste these grains with their own eyes, and finally they became loyal consumers of Quaker.
These advertisements introducing the knowledge of grain production have become the most successful advertisements in the food field in the United States, and also make full grains the most attractive products in the breakfast food industry.
So if you come to bring a breakfast cereal, what do you say?
What you want to talk about is the production process of cereal, the eating methods and benefits of cereal, and the healthy and fashionable breakfast culture. Instead of boasting that "my cereal is good" and selfish "don’t buy other people’s cereal, buy mine".
These two are the biggest drawbacks of the advertising industry today.
The value of knowledge is to present the information that customers want, to share what benefits products can bring to users, and to provide services and convenience to customers. You know, the purpose of marketing is to arouse the needs of consumers. And where does the demand come from? A small part comes from our instinct and physiological desire, and most of the rest comes from knowledge.
For example, if you read a book about the history of photography, you will have a demand for SLR cameras. You know the history and craft of LV, and you want to have LV bags. You studied Apple’s brand story and Jobs’ life experience, and you became a fruit fan.
So if I’m going to do a live broadcast with goods, what will I choose?
I think I have the most experience and expertise in craft beer and suits. Because I read a book about craft beer myself and learned about the history and culture of craft beer before I came to into the pit. I have drunk hundreds of different flavors of craft beer; Punch in most fine wines in Beijing; I have read many books on beer tasting and technology in the market; I bought a variety of beer mug sets and studied how different beers should be matched with wine glasses; I wrote a highly praised answer about craft beer in Zhihu.
(from the real-life shooting in this space)
I have full confidence and confidence. When I share the knowledge of fine brewing with you, you will be curious about fine brewing and want to buy it. Because that’s what I do to people around me.
Knowledge creates demand.At least, only a wealth of knowledge can support you to talk for hours in the live broadcast room, so that the audience will be interested in you and willing to listen all the time, instead of being sleepy and uninterested. With rich knowledge, the live broadcast will not become boring noise. In the final analysis, knowledge is to show products in a dramatic and infectious way, rather than just saying that products are good.
When it comes to live broadcast, many people will say that this is just a replica of TV shopping. Holding this view of conformity will not help you deepen your understanding of live broadcast, and if you do live broadcast according to the game of TV shopping, it is a high probability to capsize. The reason why TV shopping collapses itself is that it has three great disadvantages:
- First, exaggerated functional ingredients and product principles, especially in weight loss, beauty, breast enhancement, height enhancement and medical care products, the magic of product principles and functions is simply staggering;
- The second is false expert testimony and consumer testimony, which proves how the product is. In popular terms, this is trust;
- The third is the chaotic pricing system. The original price is 999, and now the purchase price is only 99. The difference between the two is unbelievable. In addition, E-purchase has invented a lot of price terms, such as shocking price, special price, membership price, VIP price, this program price, limited purchase price and so on.
This led to the loss of the trust of the audience and became synonymous with fraud and counterfeiting. In fact, these disadvantages are not unique to TV shopping, but occur from time to time in today’s major grass planting platforms. If the live broadcast also plays with false prices and exaggerates functions, it will not be far from death today when information transmission is more developed.
Let’s talk about the price first The commercial essence of live broadcast with goods is low-price promotion. For consumers, cheapness is a basic driving force for watching live broadcasts. The core reason why Li Jiaqi and Viya are strong is that they can get competitive prices as the head traffic and remain strong in the supply chain. Bargaining ability+product selection ability+online celebrity IP constitute the core competitiveness of the head anchor, which other anchors do not have.
Then, for enterprises, if they blindly find the head anchor to cooperate and hit the market with low prices, then enterprises will soon lose users’ perception of normal prices; And if enterprises blindly regard live broadcast as a tool to clear inventory, it is easy to lose users’ trust.
Price is always a double-edged sword, which is why in the past hundred years, marketing experts and brand experts have opposed the repeated low-price promotion by enterprises. If enterprises do not rely on low prices to detonate, it depends on the quality, uniqueness and differentiation of the products themselves. But to win the trust of consumers, don’t brag and exaggerate. Listen to Hopkins:
"Don’t brag, don’t brag about your own company or your products, and don’t brag about the features that you are interested in but customers don’t care much. Bragging is disgusting. "
"Don’t brag about yourself, you are selling goods instead of selling yourself. Clear purpose, straight to the point, and concise language as much as possible. Every sentence should make your customers feel your sincerity. "
"Don’t try to entertain the public, this is not the purpose of your advertisement (live broadcast). If you are looking for entertainment, people will watch entertainment news directly, and the only fun you can provide is to promote the goods they want. "
In today’s Taobao live broadcast, agricultural products are in full swing, and farmer online celebrity has created great energy and business. Why are those new farmers who are born and raised more able to win the trust of the audience and place orders? This is a question worth thinking about.
Today’s marketing is entering an era of what you see is what you get. The functions of media and channels have been integrated, such as Taobao today, which is both an e-commerce channel and a content media. So is Tik Tok, so is Little Red Book, and so is WeChat official account+applet. There is no longer a time limit between "marketing" and "selling". Consumers can buy it after reading it, and buy it while watching it. Unlike in the past, I watched an advertisement today and had to wait for a few days to go to the supermarket to buy it. This leads to the fact that the core of traditional marketing is to let consumers remember and understand, so that they can remember the brand when they go shopping and the sales can be achieved. In an era of what you see is what you get, the core of marketing has become to let consumers act immediately, buy immediately and spend impulsively.
Therefore, for live selling, the most important thing is to create an immersive sense of the scene for consumers. Let consumers naturally enter a shopping scene when watching the live broadcast, just as they go shopping in the mall online. Live broadcast should make consumers feel comfortable, comfortable and have no doubts, so that they will not search for information to learn more in a very short decision-making time, and will not directly place an order for the price and similar products.
This requires the anchor to exert his personality charm and help consumers create a good buying experience. As Viya said in an interview, live broadcast is a kind of companionship. Yes, live broadcast is a kind of companionship, and it is not just for consumers to buy it in buy buy.
Where does personality charm come from?
Personality charm = Yan value image+personality ability+expression style
Face value and image are the basis of charm. Qing Shao ran said in "Pillow Grass":
"Said the teacher must be beautiful appearance. People naturally look at his face and listen attentively, and the value of the scriptures will be remembered. If you look elsewhere, you will suddenly forget what you have heard, so the ugly monk feels guilty of making the audience listen to ungodly. "
Even monks are required to give lectures, so it is not necessary to say that live broadcasts bring goods. Of course, this is not to say that ordinary-looking people can’t do live broadcast, but to design the corresponding personal style according to their own looks and images, and the unique style creates charm. After all, a man with five big and three thick, you can’t stand the establishment of a country and a beautiful young man.
Just like Lao Luo, he used to be an angry youth when he was doing training and running a website. Since I made a mobile phone, changed my hairstyle, changed my glasses, tidied up my clothes, and managed my expression well, the original cynical temperament immediately turned into a gentle craftsman image. This is a very good person.
I think the image of Mr. Luo is suitable for bringing goods to some scientific and technological products, products with originality and design sense.
To find your own style, it also includes the use of language and pet phrases, such as mentioning "Oh My God", "All girls" and "Buy it". Everyone knows who these words refer to. Including giving yourself certain characteristics, such as beef brother always wearing a hat.
But in the final analysis, the establishment of style should start from one’s own personality and universal humanity. Don’t exaggerate for the sake of exaggeration, and don’t do something that makes most people feel uncomfortable and embarrassed in order to attract attention. This style may attract traffic and attention, but it is difficult to bring purchases. For ordinary consumers, shopping is a serious matter. Consumers are not fools. They are smart, careful and not credulous. They may watch videos about Guevara, but they will never buy a battery car with his goods.
"Put on a clown’s hat, you may get people’s attention, but your sales prospects will also be ruined."
Remember Hopkins’ advice.
Empty-handed, WeChat official account: Empty-handed (ID: Firesteal13), everyone is a product manager columnist. He has been an advertiser for 12 years, director of strategy group of Guangdong Advertising Group, and tutor of master students in Advertising Department of Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics.
This article was originally published by everyone as a product manager, and it is forbidden to reprint without permission.
The title map comes from Pexels and is based on CC0 protocol.
