Reborn as a female internet celebrity in a county town

Chapter 287 Haters are fans too.
Lin Lang's visit to Yan Li's house for dinner was actually quite hasty.

If Ms. Xu knew, she would probably say a few words to him. He should at least have bought two bags of fruit.

He arrived empty-handed.

It wasn't that Lin Lang didn't want to bring it; he simply didn't have anything suitable on hand.

For example, you could send Yan Keming some cigars, or a few bottles of red wine, and maybe a bottle of 50-year or 80-year Moutai.

But he didn't have a way to buy these things.

So when Yan Keming proposed to operate a personal brand, he readily agreed, considering it a gift for Yan Keming.

After dinner, the three of them sat in the living room drinking tea and chatting about everyday things.

Yan Keming also asked about Lin Lang's family situation and his current circumstances.

Upon hearing that Lin Lang was still staying in a hotel, they said that his family owned two apartments in Shanghai and could also obtain a Shanghai residency permit for Lin Lang through Tianjin Capital.

These topics are all just casual conversation. Whether they have any results or substantive content is irrelevant. Basically, they'll be mentioned once and then forgotten.

Yan Keming also talked about the current situation of Tianjin Capital, but he didn't go into too much detail. He just said that the current situation was indeed not good and that Lin Lang and Yan Li should be more careful, as those public funds would definitely seize every loophole.

He certainly couldn't ask Lin Lang what he was thinking or how he planned to resolve the matter.

That's a secret of Tianjin Capital; no matter how good the relationship, it's impossible to just casually reveal it.

Then, the conversation gradually turned to the real topic.

"The villa we discussed this morning, and the female lead, I can find them anytime. I'll let Big Fish Media choose, and if they're not suitable, we'll choose another one... I just don't know if there are any precautions, since I'm not professional enough in this area and I don't have the ability to judge."

Yan Keming asked a question.

Lin Lang said, "The female lead should ideally be someone with an air of elegance, not the kind that's faked, but someone whose natural elegance comes from a distinguished background. Someone like President Yan, who isn't stage-frightened and has the air of a noble lady... Big Fish Media will specially create a rich lady persona for her and film some of her daily life to quickly establish the IP persona."

"Similar to showing off wealth?"

"No, it's not just about being rich. You can flaunt it casually, but it's not the mainstream content. Flaunting wealth can indeed generate a lot of traffic in the short term, but once you do, your persona becomes too high, and it's extremely difficult to bring it down. If you want to make money with a persona on social media, you either need to play on sentimentality or be down-to-earth. An ordinary person certainly doesn't have much sentimentality, so the core element of operation is being down-to-earth..."

In the past two years, there have indeed been some people who flaunt their wealth and gain millions or even tens of millions of followers in a short period of time.

However, those who flaunt their wealth almost never have a good ending, because the essence of flaunting wealth is still to harvest the韭菜 (a metaphor for easily exploited people), and the韭菜 can't afford high-end products, so if you want to harvest the韭菜, you can only produce low-end products.

Low-end products are inherently incompatible with the persona of flaunting wealth. Even if they can fool some people who have completely lost their minds, their purchasing power is very poor, and they can't keep up with the demand after a while.

Only a relatable and down-to-earth persona can ensure long-term success.

Lin Lang continued, “We can film the daily life of a rich young lady, such as how many nannies and housekeepers she has... or how many kilograms of crayfish she eats in one meal, or how much money she spends to pick up a dog, etc... We can’t show off how many luxury cars she has, or emphasize how rich she is, how big her house is, how much precious jewelry she has, or how many collectibles she has... The copywriting has nothing to do with wealth, but the content shown in the video will make people feel that she is indeed rich.”

Because flaunting wealth easily arouses suspicion, while being subtly wealthy strengthens one's public image; even highly rational people are unlikely to suspect it's scripted or something similar.

Yan Keming asked, "What does that have to do with milk tea?"

"Once the persona is established, we can gradually move into the main theme. First, we can film dozens of episodes about the daily life of a rich heiress to attract a group of fans. Then, we can move into the rich heiress's entrepreneurial journey... For example, the rich heiress's family gives her a shop and wants her to run it well, but the rich heiress only wants to open a milk tea shop. So, the entrepreneurial process of the rich heiress begins... She personally finds raw materials and uses some high-end raw materials in her milk tea, giving it a touch of luxury. In this way, it will gradually move away from being synonymous with high-end."

Yan Li, standing to the side, remarked, "Is this going to follow Zhong Xuegao's path?"

Zhong Xuegao became an internet sensation last year, mainly because one of their ice creams, priced at 66 yuan, instantly became synonymous with luxury.

In an era where everyone pursues refinement and a sense of ritual, and where social media is filled with various ways of flaunting wealth, as long as everyone knows that something is a luxury item, there is a right to show it off.

Price? I'll grit my teeth and go for it.

After all, how can someone who hasn't even tried 66 ice cream be considered a sophisticated woman of the new era?

However, as consumption levels decline in a couple of years, various complaints about luxury goods arise, and even a term has been invented specifically for the ice cream industry: "ice cream assassin."

Then, when everyone could no longer afford to buy, and Zhong Xuegao itself did not have enough funds to support them through that period, it was forced to start lowering prices.

However, after they lowered their prices, the luxury item status disappeared, which basically sent them straight to hell.

Lin Lang: "That's part of the reason, but simply following their lead isn't enough. The milk tea industry is extremely competitive. The mid-range market is fiercely competitive, and the low-end market is even more difficult to survive in. If you want to succeed, you have to go for the high-end. High-end doesn't necessarily make money, but at least it's worth the investment. With the mid-range and low-end, you don't even know what you're spending money on; the money you spend doesn't necessarily gain market share, and it doesn't help with brand premium. Only by going for the high-end is it feasible..."

The profit model of low-end milk tea relies on overall supply chain costs and caters to a wider range of people, which is something a new brand cannot possess.

Even if you're willing to spend a lot of money to integrate the supply chain and reduce costs, you still can't seize the first-mover advantage from others.

Others have already succeeded; even if the overall profit is only 5%, they can still survive.

But with so much money invested in the new company upfront, can a 5% profit be enough to survive? Continuing to drag it out is pointless; it will only lead to ever-increasing investment.

Yan Li said, "High-end is a good direction, but... I'm not sure how well people will accept it. After all, a cup of milk tea, no matter how expensive, won't be that much more expensive... and there are many substitutes..."

Yan Li did not have a strong sense of agreement with Lin Lang's marketing this time.

Lin Lang said, "Then let's give milk tea an irreplaceable attribute." "What attribute?"

"Popularity, traffic! We can hire people to search for content about a particular milk tea across all platforms and then provide data feedback, such as the number of likes and comments... People are vain. They won't get this kind of vanity feedback if they buy other milk tea and post about it, but it's different if they buy our brand..."

"This... probably won't be easy to do, right?"

"Therefore, the specific marketing approach definitely cannot follow the conventional methods. Our marketing direction is to cultivate haters."

"Huh? Cultivating haters?"

"Yes! Don't underestimate the role of haters. When a brand has enough haters, and besides its high price, it has no other flaws, then those haters are traffic we can control. We don't even need to do anything afterward. Just buy our milk tea, post a video, and countless haters will come attracted by the scent. As for the person posting the video, because they are already prepared, the influx of haters won't really affect them. Instead, it will become a way for them to show off... As long as the group paying attention to this matter is large enough, it will create an effect on the internet. Just buy a cup of this milk tea, post a video, and the traffic will explode... Even if countless people ridicule it as an 'intelligence tax,' the nature of luxury goods is inherently contrary to popular thinking."

Lin Lang was definitely not making this up; it was a proven approach, only he had shifted it from something else to milk tea.

Every domestic new energy vehicle brand has been relentlessly attacked, with the level of fervor among its haters being unparalleled.

However, for various reasons, they eventually managed to gain a foothold.

It could be a stylish design, a high-tech feel, comfort, intelligence...

You don't need to think so much about milk tea, because even if it's expensive, it won't be that much more expensive.

Even if it's priced at 200 yuan a cup, the conversion rate will still be high, because there will be a lot of people who are interested in internet-related products.

As long as the quality of raw materials is well controlled, initial losses are not a problem. As long as you persist long enough, you can build brand power.

After establishing brand power, then seek other changes.

Selling milk tea only makes a few dollars...

Yan Li fell into deep thought.

She was already able to deduce the scenario Lin Lang described. First, she would use the persona of a rich young lady as a starting point to introduce the milk tea shop. Then, she would create a unique milk tea, generate buzz and scarcity through various means, and finally guide netizens to become haters of the brand.

After all, selling a cup of milk tea for such a high price is simply insulting people's intelligence.

Then, in order to show off on the internet, some people will join in, and once there is a hot topic on the internet, it will attract more vain people to join in.

Everyone has vanity, but some people are just too old to be vain and don't know who to brag to, while others are simply too poor to show off.

Lin Lang's idea is to forcibly endow milk tea with the attributes of a luxury item.

At this point, Lin Lang continued, "If we want to take this further and increase the topic, there are many things we can do. For example, we can use the original Da Hong Pao tea from Wuyi Mountain... Although it's been banned from harvesting, we can still get some scraps, right? Like century-old Narcissus or Jin Jun Mei tea, or aged Pu'er ancient tree tea. We can even customize our milk source. We can also use expensive tonics as additives... For women, we can make beauty and skincare products; for men, we can make kidney-tonifying and qi-boosting products..."

We could even create a Moutai-flavored product. Moutai aged eighty years is an aroma many people may never have the chance to experience in their lifetime, but we can provide it…

We even offer custom ceramic packaging for each cup of milk tea, with stylish and personalized designs. We have a different design each month and a different zodiac animal each year, and these are limited editions, increasing their collectability and usability...

Making money in the milk tea industry is virtually impossible right now, because the current industry simply doesn't offer the conditions for a newcomer to break in and make money quickly. The only thing you can do is enhance your brand's image, keeping it at the forefront of online trends. Even if the product itself doesn't make money, the brand earns its premium value, allowing you to easily switch sides in the future.

Yan Keming, who was standing to the side, understood at first, but from the moment Lin Lang mentioned cultivating haters, he truly felt that he was not from the same era as them.

Not to mention Lin Lang's suggestion of imbuing the project with internet attributes, which he considered the finishing touch to the plan.

Moreover, Lin Lang's thinking is different. He doesn't focus on whether the product makes money, but rather on whether the brand is continuously increasing its premium...

Through a series of methods, what they sold was not just milk tea, but also the fun of a small circle.

However, this small circle still has the traffic and popularity of a large circle, after all, milk tea is a very popular product.

Lin Lang added, “As long as we maintain our popularity, other luxury brands will want to collaborate with us. For example, Moutai needs to conduct larger-scale marketing and reach a wider audience. Various other luxury brands can also collaborate with us. Eventually, we can even develop ourselves into a luxury goods distribution center.”

For example, someone might want vintage Moutai liquor, but their channels might not be reliable. With our membership, we can help them obtain it. Similarly, with fine teas, buying from others isn't always guaranteed authentic, but we can provide that. After all, buying luxury goods has its barriers, but owning them has none. We can be the one to remove those barriers…”

Upon hearing this, Yan Keming was startled.

Lin Lang's approach is truly amazing.

For him, luxury goods are indeed easy to obtain because those who sell them to him wouldn't dare to cheat him.

However, in the luxury goods industry, the number of counterfeit goods sold each year is always several times greater than the number of genuine products. It's just too difficult to lower the barriers to entry for luxury goods.

For those who simply want to try it, it's even less likely they'll bother to study it in detail.

Many online shopping platforms have launched their own businesses, which are essentially endorsements for luxury goods.

However... because the company's overall business direction is different, it is impossible to focus all of its main business on the small luxury goods category. In short, there are all kinds of problems. Even in self-operated stores, there are counterfeit products, and they are unable to provide authentication certificates for counterfeit products.

As per Lin Lang's requirements, the persona IP he created was to reinforce the image of luxury goods, and the fans he gathered were vain and belonged to a very precise customer base, naturally prepared to lower the threshold for luxury goods.

(End of this chapter)