Becky Li, a traditional journalist who successfully turned into a Chinese “We-Media” fashion KOL by starting her own WeChat official account in 2015. After only 2 years, Becky refreshed the perception of Chinese social media influencers by selling out 100 BMW Mini Cooper in 5 mins on WeChat. Behind this whopping number, it’s worth having a deeper look at this influencer marketing case. Fashion bloggers are now all over the world and leading their followers on the way to pursue their aesthetic philosophy.
Becky’s fantasy, a down-to-earth dreamland for the “bourgeois” Chinese girls
Insight 1: A very clear target audience
In my personal opinion, Becky could be compared to Chiara Ferragni if you want to have a reference to her influential power and social presence in China. Yes, in China——unlike the universally-popular Italian fashion and designer icon Chiara, it seems Becky is currently only targeting towards Chinese new-generation females.
In my opinion, she is not even a typical “Asian-babe” looking fashion blogger, in comparison to Chiara who I think is a very classic blonde beauty. Looking like an “Asian-babe” is still a prevalent beauty standard for many Chinese influencers on the E-commerce platforms, such as those Taobao (Alibaba) clothing store owners who are also the models of their products. A typical phrase for this type of beauty standard is “White (pale), Rich and Beautiful”.
But when it comes to Becky Li, I would use the phrase as “educated, rich and delicate”.
So who exactly are Becky’s fans? Let’s have a look at what else Becky has sold through her WeChat blog: the Palace Museum cultural-creative products.
- First brand collaboration: 2016, the Palace Museum (Forbidden City) Cultural Jewellery limited edition, totalling 400 pieces, sold out in 20 mins generating $44,000 AUD in transactions. The following week, the Palace Museum restored 2000 pieces of this jewellery, and they also immediately sold out with a total of $400,000 AUD revenue.
Becky has a “nickname” that started by her followers: the “BuyBuyBuy Godness”, as she can seemingly sell everything that is unaffordable for normal young Chinese females. What has listed above is just a small collection reflecting Becky’s selling power, and I am always looking forward to seeing what the next product that sold by her is ——so I can keep up to date with knowing how the Chinese customers have evolved.
- After 2 months, the Palace Museum launched another brand collaboration with Becky, to promote their cultural stationery product as the Palace Museum motif notebooks. Unsurprisingly, the 10,000 notebooks sold out within 4 hours.
- Earlier this year (2018), Becky partnered with the Palace Museum again to promote the second round notebooks and the same volume of 10,000 sold out in 28 mins.
When it comes to Becky, the key metric of selling achievement is not the sales neither the revenue, it’s the time of sold-out.
2016 is the year when the Chinese E-commerce industry witnessed a rapid booming and numerous businesses have offered Becky to be their influencer. However, Becky only accepted the Palace Museum as her first brand collaboration business.
Why? Because Becky knows who are her followers, and also who will be her followers in the future. They are the new-generation Chinese young females who are looking for a sophisticated high-quality life attitude and tend to be more rational when they are making their purchase decisions.
From how to make pre-loved clothes shiny again, to the outfit guides for her followers’ boyfriends, Becky has established a solid followership.
Insight 2: High-quality content is always the key. It’s not only about looking good at all costs. It’s about how to look good and meet your actual needs.
What is high-quality content? It’s not about how high your high heels should be, or how sexy your pyjamas should look——it’s about how comfortable your high heels should be and what materials your pyjama should be made to give you a good nights sleep. Also, it’s not only just about you looking good, but it’s also about the ability that you can make your partners or your best friends look better.
Becky has considered all the needs that her potential customers aren’t aware of but which she knows will have a demand for. An accurate instinct of producing the content to meet the customers’ potential needs. And as soon as her blog posts are published, the readers would be like “Oh yes! That’s what I actually need to know and to follow!” In spite of that Becky majorly collaborates with luxury brands like Tiffany & Co, Armani, BMW… but her WeChat posts are still created based on her personal experiences, such as sharing how to navigate in the airports if you need to wait for an over-night transfer flight, how to select the right furniture to decorate your new home in order to make it more aesthetic and comfy, and of course, economic.
She added more connotations to the concept of “fashion”: Looking-good is just the basics, you have to look good while you also feel comfortable and confident.
Speaking back to the strong followership of Becky, the business didn’t end when she sold out the Mini-Cooper and the Palace Museum notebooks: She held a delicate Mini-Cooper pick-up high tea event to invite all her followers who ordered the cars to the venue and said thank-you to them in person. She also signed 400 notebooks to express her gratitude to her readers and show how much she cares about them. It is no doubt still a business activity, but not every influencer could think about or care about customer intimacy on this level.
Yes, being humble and approachable is Becky’s third weapon to maintain her solid digital followership.
If you have read all her blogs carefully, you probably would feel that Becky is just a sister-like mature and smart lady who lives next door. But the fact is, she was one of the most successful journalists who had interviewed a few “big characters” in China. She is also besties with a few of the worldwide famous A-list Chinese actresses such as Zhang Ziyi.
Knowing this, Becky still rarely mentions that information in her WeChat platform, especially since transitioning her career on to the digital platforms. This is because she understands the correct strategy to use for communicating with her audience. In conclusion, that’s the essence of social media influencer marketing.
Coconut Republic 