Key Points of the Article
1. Today, consumers have developed a stronger resistance to advertisements and promotions, challenging the traditional KOL model.
2. Zhang Xiaohui integrates stories, knowledge, and products, focusing on products as the core, and successfully blending high-quality content with commercial monetization. Her first livestream on Xiaohongshu achieved a GMV of 600 million.
3. Xiaohongshu aims to establish a differentiated and unique live broadcast environment by collaborating with highly influential, professional, and tasteful KOS.
4. The era of generalized traffic has passed. With brands cooperating more closely with content producers, future seeding and livestream platform content will focus more on personalization and quality. The core is shifting from the product to the people. Consumers will also pay more attention to the reputation, influence, professionalism, and authenticity of anchors and key opinion leaders, heralding the arrival of the true era of content marketing.
In the past, brands usually achieved sales growth through large-scale advertising, channel expansion, and market expansion. The focus was on promoting products or services to as many people as possible, increasing sales by expanding market share and reaching more potential consumers.
However, with intensifying market competition and changing consumer behavior, pursuing breadth alone is no longer sufficient. The accuracy and precision of targeting have become increasingly important for improving sales and market share. Accurate targeting means delivering the brand's message and products specifically to the genuinely interested and willing target audience.
In short, brands now need not only traditional KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) but also KOSs (Key Opinion Sales), key figures who can influence consumer decisions .
The explosive popularity of Dong Jie's livestream on Xiaohongshu, and Zhang Xiaohui's appearance in a Xiaohongshu livestream a couple of days ago, seems to prove this fact.
If Dong Jie's success was an unexpected delight for Xiaohongshu, then inviting Zhang Xiaohui to livestream was clearly a wise and timely decision for Xiaohongshu: On one hand, because she can directly influence a group of high-consumption individuals, her recommendations of popular goods have validated her taste and vision. On the other hand, Xiaohongshu needs continuous innovation and differentiation, especially in the field of livestreaming .
In today's article, let's see what Xiaohongshu's ambition in livestream business shows with Zhang Xiaohui, representative of KOS, and explore the direction of changes and upgrades in livestreaming and seeding platform content, as well as how to guide brands to keep up with trends for marketing.
In the past KOL era, brands would usually look for people with large followings and influence on social media or other fields to collaborate on promoting products or services. These KOLs seed by sharing their insights, opinions, and experiences to shape consumers' purchasing decisions.
However, as of today, consumers have become more immune to advertisements and promotions, and the traditional KOL model faces challenges.
Whereas KOS (Key Opinion Sales) emphasizes the influence of key opinions on consumer decision-making, as well as the direct correlation of this influence with sales outcomes. KOS focuses on individuals or channels that can genuinely influence consumer purchasing decisions and drive sales. This could include sales experts, industry leaders, professional buyers, or others with unique insights and influence.
The emergence of KOS is closely linked to changes in the market environment and the evolution of consumer behavior.
Today's consumers place a greater emphasis on personalized and valuable shopping experiences. They are more inclined to trust real, reliable opinions and advice. Compared to advertising-style promotions, consumers prefer to listen to real, valuable opinions and consider them when making purchasing decisions. Therefore, KOSs, who can provide targeted, professional, and high-quality opinions, have become key players for brands to win consumer trust and drive sales.
So how exactly did Zhang Xiaohui become a KOS in the fashion field?
Let's first learn a bit about Zhang Xiaohui herself.
Zhang Xiaohui was born into a wealthy family in Hong Kong, with her father being a first-generation ad man and her mother an aristocratic lady. This background gave her opportunities to be exposed to advertising and fashion from a young age, leading her to develop a deep interest in aesthetics and fashion, and an in-depth understanding and collection of clothing, brands, and fashion magazines. Relationships with billionaires such as Kenny Bee and Chen Yaomin in her younger days also brought her wide attention and topics of conversation in the entertainment circle, accumulating a degree of fame and influence.
After facing adversities such as a broken marriage, Zhang Xiaohui embarked on her own business through her determination and entrepreneurial spirit: writing articles for magazines, starting a consignment shop, and attracting a number of wealthy women with her keen fashion sense.
Zhang Xiaohui is such a person with top-notch fashion ability and buyer power. Her unique life experiences have given her a very avant-garde sense of fashion matching and shopping perspective, ahead of the times. In fact, many best-selling products were popularized through her promotion, just that at the time there was no internet, so many people did not know about it. For example, she began using Jo Malone's niche perfumes in the 90s, which have now entered the mainstream from niche.
Over the years, she has shared products that she has seen, bought, and used on Xiaohongshu and her public WeChat account. This real experience and professional vision have attracted the attention and recognition of many girls and wealthy women, making Zhang Xiaohui a leader in the fashion field.
Clearly, the direct reason Xiaohongshu chose to invite Zhang Xiaohui to livestream was because her audience highly matches Xiaohongshu's characteristics and can directly influence a group of high-consumers in the fashion and wealthy circles. Her endorsement of popular products have validated her taste and vision. This is a valuable resource for Xiaohongshu and can attract and satisfy those users on the platform who seek quality rather than just cost-effectiveness .
At the same time, Xiaohongshu as a UGC lifestyle community, is more like a boutique consignment shop rather than a large supermarket, with users focusing more on quality than cost-effectiveness. And at the planning level of the Xiaohongshu platform, in March this year, Xiaohongshu upgraded the livestream business to an independent department, managing livestream content and livestream e-commerce in a unified manner. This shows the importance Xiaohongshu places on the livestream business and hopes to drive platform conversion and growth through the livestream format. This means Xiaohongshu needs continuous innovation and differentiation, especially in the field of livestreaming.
The previous March success of Dong Jie's livestream on Xiaohongshu opened new thinking and formats for Xiaohongshu: Dong Jie shared her favorite items with the audience in a gentle, natural tone, conveying the selling points of the product and her real experience. Her understated promotion of products resonated with the audience, creating a more authentic and approachable shopping experience and building trust between her and the audience, leading consumers more likely to believe her recommendations and suggestions.
Furthermore, Dong Jie focused on details and personalization in the selection process. She would handwrite the chosen brands and styles and verify the product's price and user feedback. This demonstrated her professionalism and deep understanding of the products. By recommending niche, higher-priced light luxury brands, she directly targeted the core demographic of knowledgeable, high spending power users. The selection process and personalized recommendations also made consumers feel understood and cared for, increasing the certainty of their purchase decisions .
Xiaohongshu Requires More Differentiated Cases Following Dong Jie. As a top buyer, Zhang Xiaohui's recent Xiaohongshu live stream and previous notes have showcased similar characteristics—her serious selection of brands and products coupled with an extensive reserve of specialized vertical knowledge have made her a trusted KOL within the fashion and affluent circles, as well as a prime candidate for being a star in the Xiaohongshu live broadcast arena.
Her live stream on May 22nd demonstrated exceptional professionalism and capability, unlike Dong Yuhui's streams, she seamlessly integrates stories, knowledge, and products, focusing on products to successfully blend high-quality content with commercial monetization. Living up to expectations, Zhang Xiaohui's first Xiaohongshu live stream reached a GMV of 600 million .
According to Moojing Market Intelligence monitoring, in the past 7 days (from May 17, 2023, at 12:00 am to May 24, 2023, at 2:00 pm), posts related to Zhang Xiaohui across the entire platform exceeded 11,000, with over 7.08 million interactions, reaching a peak the day after the live stream on May 22nd.
Thus, Xiaohongshu's invitation to Zhang Xiaohui to live stream not only aims to attract users and boost sales but more importantly, to shape the distinctive value and image of Xiaohongshu’s live streaming. This also reflects Xiaohongshu's ambition in its live broadcasting venture: to establish a unique live stream arena through collaboration with highly influential, professional, and tasteful KOLs, providing users with a distinct shopping experience .
The Xiaohongshu case illustrates that nowadays, what's missing from seeding and live streaming is not quality content or goods, but rather the roles that directly influence consumer decisions .
With the era of general traffic behind us, as brands and content creators collaborate more closely, the content of seeding and live streaming platforms will increasingly focus on personalization and quality. The core is shifting from product to people, and consumers are paying more attention to the reputation, influence, professionalism, and authenticity of hosts and influencers, signaling the arrival of a true content marketing era. Expert opinion leaders in specialized fields like Zhang Xiaohui and Dong Jie will play an even more vital role: they are not merely promoters of products, but also bridges between brands and consumers, providing valuable information and shopping guidance.
While presenters, bloggers, and experts need to transform in a timely manner, brands must also keep up with trends, selecting KOLs that align with their industry's fields, focusing on product quality and uniqueness while attending to personalized consumer needs, enhancing user participation and interaction, and adjusting strategies promptly to adapt to the evolving live streaming and seeding platform environment. This is conducive to brand success on content platforms and achieving business growth.
