In the past two years, there have been many rapidly emerging new consumer categories and brands. For example, in the beauty field, there are Perfect Diary, Huaxizi, HFP; in the coffee field, there are Luckin Coffee, Saturdan Coffee, oneshot; In the beverage field, there are Genki Forest, Hankow No.2 Factory, Heytea, Nayuki; ice cream includes Zhong Xue Gao, Russian ice bars, and so on.

What inspiration do these viral new consumer brands, sought after by young people, offer to old brands that want to rejuvenate?

Why are they loved and widely shared by the younger generation?

Behind the sudden rise of these brands, what specific points of young people are they hitting?

And what have they done right? Let's take the beverage field as an example, which has the broadest audience, the most comprehensive marketing channels, the most established players, and the most striking rise of newcomers, to analyze this. -01- Case 1: Hankow No.2 Factory "Hankow No.2 Factory" is a beverage brand under Wuhan Hengrun Operation Management Co., Ltd. The brand originates from the once-popular "No.2 Factory Soda" in Wuhan. Inspired by the nostalgia of old soda, the founder hopes to create a "trendy brand beverage" that accompanies the growth of contemporary young people. 1. Create label-oriented products that young people like The retro national style can be said to be the most distinctive label of Hankow No.2 Factory, positioning the market towards the post-95s and post-00s. Therefore, although the packaging is retro, the labels pay great attention to youthful expression, such as the lychee-flavored soda named "Inspirational" soda. 2. Focus on online communication, content marketing, and understand the traffic economy well It has only been two years since Hankow No.2 Factory was founded, and almost every product has quickly become a hit after launch, triggering large-scale organic online traffic. From being strongly recommended by celebrities on the popular variety show "Please Take Care of the Fridge" to "Lipstick Brother No.1" Li Jiaqi strongly "recommending" the Inspirational soda during his live stream, Hankow No.2 Factory has become one of the hottest brands in the industry within two years of launch. You can also observe Hankow No.2 Factory's new media channels and self-media; it should be the most interesting soda in terms of new media content marketing, basically collaborating with various public accounts related to food and entertainment every few days. Hankow No.2 Factory City Commemorative Edition Soda 3. Focus on taste and fashion Young people pursue novelty, quality, face, and spiritual resonance. Hankow No.2 Factory also follows the principle that appearance is paramount, for example, using higher-transparency cosmetic-grade glass and designing raised retro patterns on the bottle body. In terms of taste innovation and ingredient optimization, the team chose real fruit juice concentrate instead of flavorings. The orange juice soda has a juice content of 60%, not only providing excellent taste but also creating richer flavors such as lemon sea salt, passion fruit lactic acid bacteria, and green grape ice cream. Hankow No.2 Factory adopts a high-frequency pace in launching new flavors. Rapid new product releases bring significant "attention" to the brand. -02- Case 2: Genki Forest The founder of Genki Forest, Tang Binsen, was the CEO of the social game developer Zhiming Xingtong and the founder of Happy Farm, giving the brand a natural internet gene. Therefore, on its official website, the brand is described as: Genki Forest is an internet-innovative beverage company, focusing on healthy and delicious drinks for the younger generation. This is a company with precise positioning, focus, and a focus on sugar-free beverages. In just four years since its inception, it has carved out a path in the red ocean beverage market, rising to become a dark horse in the domestic beverage industry, with annual sales exceeding 1 billion yuan. The reason is that Genki Forest has very well grasped the needs of young people: good taste, good looks, and no weight gain. 1. Accurately target young people's preferences, starting from product characteristics Genki Forest, from its Japanese-style name to its fresh packaging to its zero-calorie selling point, fully aligns with young people's pursuit of Japanese freshness and avoiding sugar that causes weight gain. The main product, the sparkling soda water, is the main force behind Genki Forest's popularity. In terms of taste, besides the three flavors of Calamansi lime, white peach, and cucumber, the most important measure is to meet the needs of young consumers for sugar-free, high appearance, and good taste. After research and experimentation, the product team found "erythritol" and finally solved the taste problem. The addition of erythritol ensures sweetness while avoiding calories, making it a product with high appearance, sugar-free, good taste, and full of freshness. 2. Focus on social communication, word-of-mouth spreads quickly Internet socializing is an indispensable part of young people's lives. Genki Forest's marketing and PR have long been active on major social media platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu. Not only have celebrities like Fei Qiming and Xu Kai posted attention, but also top KOLs like Li Jiaqi, the No.1 live-streamer, have recommended it. Searching for "Genki Forest" on Xiaohongshu yields more than 6,000 articles of soft ads and product recommendations, showing how much it values social communication. 3. Fully utilize data insights under the internet gene, a sign of brand rejuvenation In the long run, competition in consumer goods is competition in technological innovation, not just marketing or content innovation. And Genki Forest, with its internet gene, does this well. It is good at using big data technology to understand user needs and achieve precise marketing. In three or four years, it has completed the entire path that traditional brands take 5-10 years to walk. The most prominent feature is that it goes directly to consumers from online to offline. With its own channels, data, and operations, these constitute the brand's own traffic pool. For rapidly rising brands like Genki Forest, after focusing on social communication, the official self-media channels often gather tens of millions of fans, holding traffic and consumers directly in their hands, directly communicating, interacting, or converting. -03- Case 3: Zhong Xue Gao The new ice cream brand Zhong Xue Gao, launched on Tmall in May 2018, is undoubtedly a fighter among internet-famous brands. In its first Double 11, Zhong Xue Gao set a record of selling 50,000 sticks in 40 minutes, with a single-day sales exceeding 4.6 million yuan. It should be noted that Zhong Xue Gao is not a household national brand; its ice cream products have only been on the market for 2 years. In today's FMCG industry, which is already a red ocean, how can latecomers effectively reach consumers and occupy their minds? The answer from Zhong Xue Gao's founder Lin Sheng is "become popular, become an internet sensation." When designing the brand's "top-level design," Zhong Xue Gao's core principle is: do not promote hit flavors, only promote the brand. Because flavors will eventually go out of style, while consumers' trust and consumption habits accumulated towards the brand will become the company's core value. 1. Subvert traditional cognition, attract audience attention with uniqueness Zhong Xue Gao is probably the most expensive domestic ice cream in China. One flavor, Ecuador Pink Diamond, is sold at an astonishing 66 yuan per stick. As a new brand entering the market, this is undoubtedly a risk. With unexpected and fun names, plus varied and adventurous flavors, Zhong Xue Gao immediately attracted the attention of young consumers who love to share. For example, for this Ecuador Pink Diamond ice cream, according to Zhong Xue Gao's official announcement, the pink chocolate raw material comes from cocoa beans in the jungles of South America and Africa, with extremely scarce production and unstable supply, so only 20,000 sticks were sold on Double 11. In addition, Zhong Xue Gao also has flavors like light milk, Irish aged cheese, velvet cocoa, hand-boiled jasmine, and Wufangzhai zongzi flavor, all of which sound tempting to try. 2. Use celebrities and pop-up stores to quickly occupy consumer minds Zhong Xue Gao has signed celebrities such as Zhou Yiwei, Tong Liya, and Ao Ziyi as spokespersons, and has opened pop-up stores in cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Beijing. In terms of communication, Zhong Xue Gao, like Genki Forest and Hankow No.2 Factory, relies on channels such as WeChat, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu to quickly achieve brand fission and diffusion among consumer groups. 3. Quickly adapt to new sales channel characteristics, create and cultivate new consumption habits At its inception, Zhong Xue Gao was defined as: an ice cream brand aiming to cultivate warehouse-style consumption for middle-class families. The probability of buying a bunch of ice cream to take home in offline retail is not high, and buying ice cream online should first quickly dispel consumers' concerns about online ice cream purchases. From the beginning, Zhong Xue Gao's sales were mainly through e-commerce. Before launch, they tested and used SF Fresh for all product delivery. They ensure that every packaging bag is filled with dry ice, reaching minus 78 degrees Celsius in a completely sealed state, ensuring that the ice cream does not melt within 48 hours of arrival at the delivery location. This not only surprises customers but also overcomes the entire brand's online sales challenges. Breaking through the difficulties that previous ice cream brands had not overcome, it quickly occupied the e-commerce ice cream market. -04- What are the seven common characteristics of the most popular brands among young people? Contemporary young people are a generation of consumers. They pursue quality, individuality, and freshness. They are independent, fashionable, and diverse. They lack nothing material but seek spiritual satisfaction. After studying dozens of brands and internet-famous products currently popular among young people, we boldly summarize the seven major characteristics of brands or products most loved by young people: 1. Have a unique selling point or extremely high appearance, with sufficient sensory appeal The younger generation grew up amidst complex information, so their emotional threshold and sensory appeal threshold for brands are very high. If a product cannot attract them at first sight, it is basically difficult to retain their attention. Therefore, products that can "go viral" and "become popular" must maximize sensory appeal and enhance the product through activity experiences or environmental atmosphere. They are products that allow young people to realize their pursuit of happiness and excitement. For example, Genki Forest's sparkling water has high appearance, zero calories, and good taste, exceeding expectations in two of the five senses. 2. The product or brand has social genes or conversation topics Most of China's younger generation (post-90s, post-00s) are only children. In their eyes, friends and socializing occupy most of life, and they care extremely about others' opinions. If a product can trigger social interaction, it is bound to lay the foundation for becoming an internet sensation and going viral. For example, Suntory invented a cat bottle cap, which attracted more than 200,000 people's attention and praise. Zhong Xue Gao collaborated with Wufangzhai zongzi to launch a zongzi-flavored ice cream. The special taste and strange experience immediately became a new favorite for young people to discuss and pursue. 3. Brand personality aligns with young people's emotional needs Internet-famous and popular brands, besides meeting young people's tastes and social needs, generally express the following emotional needs in their brand personality, giving young people the greatest sense of identification: Advocate enjoying the stage of youth where any willfulness is allowed, and maximize the use of this period of youth.

The tone is interesting, not following rules, not content with the status quo, and full of vitality. (e.g., Coca-Cola, Sprite)

Emphasize coolness, exclusivity, or that only a certain type of person uses it. 4. Brands are good at creating a sense of trendiness Trendiness is the standard of public sensory evaluation. Based on the understanding of human nature, whether young, middle-aged, or elderly, the underlying cognition of trendiness is herd mentality. Everyone is trying it, so it's worth trying. Therefore, internet-famous brands or popular products must be good at creating a sense of trendiness. There are many ways to create a sense of trendiness, such as investing heavily in KOLs for interpersonal communication, then mass-posting on product recommendation channels like Xiaohongshu and various live-streaming platforms. In addition, many trending topics are generated through interpersonal communication, which are then fermented and spread. Adding hunger marketing tactics like "short-term out of stock" and "buy at a premium" immediately creates a sense of trendiness for the brand. 5. Strong interaction between brand and audience, good at creating communication channels and scenarios with customers Interactivity is a sign of whether a brand is aging in the era of online communication. The younger the brand, the more it is liked by young people, and the more it does "interaction." The ordinary way is to trigger a small topic, give out small prizes or gifts, etc. The clever way is to create pop-up stores, personify the brand, or make the product generate topics, spread on social media, and directly communicate and intersect with customers. For example, Zhihu's spokesperson Liu Kanshan's cartoon image design, NetEase Cloud Music's smooth and excellent copy that resonates with many young people, and Suntory's transparent milk tea beverage triggering a big social discussion, etc. 6. Good at using traffic stars to quickly occupy the high ground of similar products in the short term In the hearts of young people, idols are a unique existence. Supporting an idol means supporting everything about them, including products. Internet-famous products with sufficient budgets generally participate in entertainment programs or quickly stand out in the name of an idol. Those with lower budgets use industry KOL channels to achieve the first influence among similar products in the short term. For example, Zhong Xue Gao and Hankow No.2 Factory later increased exposure through celebrity endorsements and entertainment activities, quickly maintaining hot topic indices. 7. Brands can bring happiness Young people like activities that stimulate positive emotions or release stress and reduce negative emotions. For young people worldwide, enjoying vacations, romantic love, trying challenges and achieving small successes rank in the top three reasons for happiness. Connecting with friends and family, listening to music, graduating, getting a driver's license, and meeting true love are all very important moments in young people's lives. Internet-famous and popular brands are those that can seize these moments and participate in young people's lives. For example, Coca-Cola's customizable graduation bottles, the ring brand that can only be owned once in a lifetime, and even "Mizone" that can make you feel energy restored anytime, anywhere... Many brands use the emotion of "happiness" to be remembered and liked by consumers. Source: Brand Geometry (ID: brand-vista) Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.