Behind the "staying up late" explosion: "planting grass" marketing hides a "gray area"
2022-07-08
"There is no endless morning, only endless night". Recently, a bottle of "stay up water" with a unit price of nearly 20 yuan has caused netizens' controversy. A convenience store in Beijing sells "one whole" late night water at a retail price of 19.9 yuan / bottle. Photographed by shenjiaping, reporter of people's Daily Online With its unique name and packaging, the "one whole" overnight water has attracted the attention of a large number of young people as soon as it is listed. In some areas, offline stores are even "hard to find, and the shelves are empty". The ingredient table of the product shows that the content of ginseng in each bottle, which has been artificially planted for less than five years, does not exceed 3 grams. Under the attention of the media, the selling point of its "hard core tonic" was soon "beaten in the face" by industry insiders: "the effect of artificial planting of small ginseng under 5 years is very small", "100g artificial ginseng is only worth 30 or 40 yuan" From "traffic password" to being questioned as "IQ tax", "a whole root" has only gone through a few days. This embarrassment is not unique. In recent years, in the wave of new consumption, a variety of new brands have sprung up, "after you sing, I will appear". Carefully study the "hot" path of these brands, including "grass planting marketing" and "online celebrity with goods". "Planting grass" can be understood as that ordinary consumers carry out commodity marketing or promotion activities by sharing their own experience. People's financial survey found that "grass planting" marketing meets the more efficient and accurate consumption needs of young people, but at the same time, many advertising and marketing hide behind "good things sharing" and "life experience", and false publicity and misleading consumption are repeatedly prohibited. The "grassing economy" industrial chain involving brands, platforms, marketing, online celebrities and other multi-party entities hides a "gray zone", and industry standards and management rules still need to be further clarified. "Grass planting" is popular, and the price of 21 second soft broadcast video can reach 600000 yuan According to the data of an e-commerce platform, in the past "618" activity, the sales of a domestic hair spray product with oil control and fluffy hair increased by more than 500% year-on-year. "It's amazing. I think the blogger's hair will be covered immediately after spraying this spray. It's very suitable for a girl like me who is' greasy headed 'and' rush 'it!" Xiaoyi, a college student, is an in-depth "grass planting" enthusiast. She told people.com finance that she is used to searching for terms to understand products through social platforms before shopping. "You can buy things by brushing videos and reading posts." On the Internet, the "grass planting" mode of brand marketing is quite popular. In particular, the "Internet aborigines" like Xiao Yi are more likely to trust the shared information from social platforms and become the main group affected by the "grass economy". According to the Research Report of CITIC Securities, 64.3% of generation Z (the generation born between 1995 and 2009) will be affected by the recommendation of "planting grass" when shopping. AI media consulting data shows that 68.0% of users will accept "planting grass", among which 70.7% of users will buy the goods "planted grass" according to the actual situation, and 26.2% of users will buy almost all of them. "'online celebrities' and stars have a large number of 'fans', which can directly lead the trend of' grass planting economy '. The' grass planting 'marketing takes sharing experience as the main form, avoiding direct utilitarian publicity, which is easier to be believed." According to Lu Laiming, a professor at the school of law, Beijing business and Technology University, "grass planting" is between the intersection of advertising and content sharing. The "grass planting" ability of "online celebrities" is essentially the marketing ability of goods or services. This ability is being regarded as a marketing "sharp weapon" by more brands. Wei Xing, CEO of MCN institutional star Youfan, told people.com finance that compared with traditional advertisements in newspapers, magazines and television, "grass planting" has less investment in marketing funds, clearer transformation links and higher overall cost performance, which also makes it the primary choice for many new brands to enter young consumer groups. According to Tian Liang, the founder of another MCN organization, according to the current market price, a beauty blogger with about 500000 fans generally priced at 60000-90000 yuan. According to a marketing service platform, with 71.52 million fans, Liu Zhenhong, an artist who recently became popular due to aerobics, offered 600000 yuan for a 21-60s soft broadcast video. Zhang Huiying, a "net celebrity" with more than 3.5 million fans, posted a 21-60 second soft broadcast video with a buy it now price of 78500 yuan. Wei Xing revealed that taking the "grass planting" video as an example, the brand side likes the completion rate and conversion rate. Compared with the pan traffic of artist stars, bloggers have higher vertical fan stickiness and commercial value. "Therefore, on the 'grass planting' platform, stars may not be worth more than bloggers." "Overturning" frequently "planting grass" marketing walks in the "gray area" Wenzi, a post-90s generation, calls herself a senior beauty "ingredients party". In her opinion, some "online celebrity" bloggers on social platforms have a very professional and in-depth research on product ingredients, and she will follow suit. "There are too many popular concepts of cosmetics, true or false, and it's a small matter to spend money wrongly. When you encounter 'three noes' products, it's too uneconomical to have a bad face." Wenzi told people.com finance that last year, the beauty makeup ingredient "blue copper peptide", which focuses on anti-aging, was popular throughout the network, and related products were expensive. "But I have also seen many bloggers crack down on counterfeiting, saying that because blue copper peptide is too expensive, but the color is very weak, many businesses will add blue pigment, shoddy." Screenshot of "planting grass" content of "blue copper peptide" on the network platform. "So many 'online celebrity' bloggers call 'blue copper peptide', how much do they know about the quality of products?" Wenzi's question is really worth thinking about. The "grass planting economy" grows savagely, and excessive "grass planting" and false "grass planting" are repeatedly prohibited. After crazy "planting grass", it may be a large-scale "pulling grass". According to people.com finance, a search for the entry "bluecopper peptide planting grass" on a platform yielded more than 800 results. But at the same time, there are more than 500 posts with the keyword "blue copper peptide stepping on thunder". A survey conducted by China Youth Daily at the end of last year showed that nearly 80% of the respondents had been "planted grass" by the Internet, while more than 60% of the respondents believed that skin care products and cosmetics were products that were easy to tread on when "planted grass" by the Internet. "Planting grass is a conscientious and technical job." Wei Xing said that according to her personal observation, creators who are currently involved in "planting grass" marketing, "about 30% of creators have the problem of 'mindless' recommendation, and they simply use' planting grass' as a 'just meal' tool." Tian Liang pointed out that big V and bloggers with high reputation often have a large-scale professional selection team behind them. When taking over a new brand, we usually decide whether to help the brand "grow grass" from the comprehensive consideration of store evaluation, market reputation, appearance value, product after-sales and other aspects. This is obviously a special "number maintenance" for marketing, or it is difficult for a small team to do so. "There is still a lack of clear and specific standards or rules for 'planting grass' marketing." The statement in the process of "planting grass" is inconsistent with the facts. Is it false advertising, general false propaganda, or pure expression error? In LV Laiming's view, in the era of we media, the recognition of advertising should be expanded and explained on the concept of traditional advertising media. He believes that it is necessary to determine whether the marketing behavior constitutes false advertising according to the specific circumstances and facts. MCN institutions, bloggers and other parties in the industrial chain should also bear responsibilities in accordance with the provisions of the consumer protection law, the e-commerce law, the civil code and other laws. In addition, when the platform is directly involved in the "grass planting" marketing of specific commodities, it should also be directly responsible. The division of responsibilities of all parties involved in "grass planting" towards compliance remains to be clarified AI media consulting data show that the current "grass planting" economy has reached a scale of 100 billion yuan. In 2022, the number of MCN institutions exceeded 40000, and by 2023, the market scale of MCN will exceed 50billion yuan. "Planting grass" is threatening. In addition to reminding consumers to open their eyes and "listening at the same time is wise", we should also establish a more perfect regulatory mechanism to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. At present, many places have begun to intensify the crackdown on false propaganda and misleading consumption. In March this year, qomo culture, a beauty e-commerce marketing MCN organization, was fined 450000 yuan by the Shanghai Pudong New Area Market Supervision Administration for recruiting 400 online celebrities to "plant grass falsely". According to the administrative punishment decision (Shanghai Jianpu Office [2022] No. 152021002271), Zhengya Dental Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. randomly recruited 400 traffic bloggers through the above MCN institutions to promote its invisible braces products on the little red book app. However, after verification, the relevant bloggers were not the actual patients or users of Zhengya's invisible braces before and at the time of publishing the above pictures and texts, and the pictures and texts they published were falsely compiled based on the publicity copy of the parties. In April, Jiangsu Provincial Market Supervision Bureau issued the "guidelines for the supervision and law enforcement of commercial advertising endorsement behavior", which included the "planting grass" and other behaviors of stars and online celebrities into the scope of supervision, and made it clear that commercial advertisements published in disguise in the form of "planting grass" and other forms, whose false and misleading advertising endorsement behavior is illegal. Wei Xing admitted that major platforms are also strengthening the governance of illegal content promotion and false marketing "planting grass", and promoting related activities to be more compliant through provisions such as deposit and after-sales guarantee. Lu Laiming stressed that there are still many problems in the marketing of "planting grass" that need to be clarified. For example, how to distinguish between pure commodity consumption experience and "grass planting" marketing; How to determine the responsibilities of all parties when the "grass planting" is untrue or constitutes false publicity; How consumers protect their rights, and so on. In this regard, Lu Laiming suggested that the judgment of the nature of "planting grass" and the specific standards constituting advertisements should be confirmed as soon as possible; At the same time, strengthen the implementation of the accountability of the direct parties to the false "grass planting", that is, the relevant "online celebrities" and bloggers; We should also establish information sharing and punishment mechanisms for dishonesty, and take necessary measures in time for false "grass planting" behaviors, and publicize them in their real names. The brand party that entrusts others to engage in false "grass planting" should be punished in accordance with the provisions of the consumer protection law and the anti unfair competition law, and those who cause losses to consumers should be liable for compensation; Those who constitute fraud should bear punitive liability for compensation. (at the request of the interviewer, Wen Xiaoyi and Tian Liang are pseudonyms) (Intern Wu Shiyu also contributed to this article) (Xinhua News Agency)
Edit：Luo yu Responsible editor：Jia jia
Source：people.cn
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