For product managers, what is the greatest achievement? Developing a best-selling product. Seeing your product's sales soar, being recommended and shared on WeChat Moments and Weibo, that feeling is like a mother giving birth to a genius child after ten months of pregnancy. In recent years, many hit brands have emerged, such as Genki Forest, Egg Full, One Cow Raised, and Saturnbird. These brands have impressed consumers and become favorites of capital, successfully snatching a piece of the cake from big brands like Coca-Cola and Nestlé. Image source: Tmall Every soldier dreams of becoming a general, and every product manager aspires to create a best-seller. But creating a best-seller is no easy feat. According to statistics, over 25,000 FMCG products are launched each year, and 70% of new products have a survival cycle of less than 18 months. Countless products quietly launch and quietly disappear, some without even making a splash. In reality, there is a formula to creating a best-seller. This article will combine content from FBIF's live course to discuss the following questions:
1. What is a best-seller, and what characteristics does it have? 2. The birth of a best-seller: How to develop a product with best-seller potential? 3. The growth of a best-seller: Use content building to give wings to your best-seller. 4. The management of a best-seller: Fully tap into existing customer traffic and manage the user lifecycle.
-01- Best-seller Formula: Essential/Addictive Products × Solving Pain Points + High Aesthetics + Substance What is a best-seller? It is a product that, after launch, triggers consumer discussion, is shared on social platforms, creates a "internet celebrity" effect, and rapidly generates sales. Consumers voluntarily act as the brand's "ambassadors," spreading the word organically. A true best-seller is chosen by consumers, not bought with money by the brand. After analyzing several best-selling products, we found that internet-famous products share the following characteristics:
1. They are in essential/addictive product categories and are upgraded products that solve existing pain points. 2. They have high aesthetics and a good external image. 3. They have substance: good taste, nutrition, and health.
Let's break these down one by one.
1. Essential/Addictive Categories: Solve Existing Pain Points or Fulfill Unmet Needs Best-sellers become popular because they generate a large volume of purchases, which means the chosen category must have a certain universality, with a large enough consumer base or high purchase frequency. Essential products have a sufficiently large market size; even if the product only captures a small market share, it can achieve decent baseline sales. Essential products like nuts, juice, milk, and yogurt provide necessary nutrients, or products that offer sensory stimulation and emotional guidance, such as carbonated drinks, desserts, milk tea, and coffee, which have a certain addictive quality. Take carbonated drinks as an example: the refreshing sensation of carbon dioxide entering the mouth is irresistible to many. Icy sparkling drinks stimulate the taste buds, bringing mental pleasure and relaxation. Similarly, milk tea and coffee contain caffeine, which produces excitement after consumption, making them excellent addictive products. However, having the right category alone does not create a best-seller; homogeneous products within the category also fail to become best-sellers. Still using carbonated drinks as an example, "Coca-Cola and Pepsi" have monopolized the carbonated beverage market. To create a best-seller in this category, you must upgrade the product to address unmet needs or pain points in current products. The sugar content of carbonated drinks is a core pain point. According to reports, a 600ml bottle of Coca-Cola contains the equivalent of 13 sugar cubes. As consumers' demand for healthy food increases, reducing sugar and going sugar-free has become a trend. Combining "sugar-free with carbonated taste" is the only way to potentially ignite a product, and Genki Forest's sparkling water succeeded. Image source: Genki Forest official Weibo Nestlé's instant coffee holds over 70% market share, but instant coffee loses a lot of flavor and contains ingredients like creamer, which is considered unhealthy—this is a pain point. Premium instant coffee like Saturnbird solved these pain points and quickly became a best-seller. Image source: Saturnbird Tmall flagship store People love the nutrition of yogurt, but regular yogurt contains various additives, making it feel unhealthy. Young mothers want purer product choices for their families. Jian'ai Yogurt, with nothing but raw milk and lactic acid bacteria, meets this need and naturally ignites the market. Image source: Jian'ai official flagship store
2. External Beauty: Aesthetics Are Justice; Best-sellers Must Withstand the Camera Test In this era of "aesthetics are justice," attractive packaging can quickly catch consumers' eyes both online and offline, whether in stores or on promotional posters. Beauty is a subjective sensory feedback, not what product managers or R&D managers think is beautiful. When it comes to the product, it means: step outside your own aesthetic and align with the aesthetic standards of the target audience. Packaging that appeals to the target audience makes users willing to pick it up and admire it, and willing to share photos of the product on social platforms, making consumers feel that eating this food is dignified and represents their personality. When many people spontaneously share the product on social media, the product has the potential to become a best-seller.
3. Inner Beauty: Good Taste, Quality, and Meeting Needs The barrier to trying food is low; attractive packaging and a tempting price make it easy for consumers to spend money to try a new product. The challenge is how to get them to repurchase and share—this must come from the product's core meeting consumer needs. First, as a food product, good taste is the basic attribute of the category; second, the product meets user needs and provides practical value, such as sugar-free but naturally sweet burnt tea, which satisfies the need for health and good taste; third, the product has high quality, made with pure ingredients and pure processes, meeting consumers' upgrade needs. These characteristics collectively shape the product's core value, making it a unique brand attribute.
-02- The Birth of a Best-seller: How to Develop a Best-seller from 0 to 1? After understanding the basic characteristics of best-sellers, let's explore how to develop a best-seller from 0 to 1. We must recognize one issue: The starting point of all best-sellers is not at the time of product launch, but at the beginning of product conception and during the development process. The genes of a best-seller are implanted from the creative stage. The product is the starting point of all communication and marketing; you need to use the product to drive marketing, not use marketing to force the product. Understanding this, every step in the product development process—ideation, naming, packaging design, and formula design—will consider how to pre-embed the explosive points. The nodes of best-seller development: Product concept collection → Product development direction confirmation → Packaging design, taste testing → Pilot production → Launch and promotion. Below, we will break down the first three steps.
Step 1: Product Concept Collection The process of collecting product concepts is a continuous process of thinking and analysis. By studying current category trends, the competitive environment, and user pain points, you can find gaps for new product development. There are multiple ways to collect product concepts, and different approaches can cross-validate each other, helping product managers find creative product concepts. (1) Learn from excellent product companies: There are many mature and emerging companies both domestically and internationally. By studying their successful product experiences, you can find product creative points. (2) Learn from excellent suppliers: Many domestic and international ingredient companies have strong R&D capabilities and are willing to share food and beverage trends with brands. You can collect creative points from suppliers. (3) Learn from exhibitions: Various domestic food exhibitions and industry association product shows are great opportunities for creative collection. Through exhibition products, you can see hot food trends, find creative products, and provide ideas for new product development. (4) Find direction from trend research reports: With the popularity of big data, platforms like Tmall and JD.com publish sales analysis reports for different categories. Research platforms like Mintel, Nielsen, Analysys, and Digital 100 also share industry reports. Through these reports, you can find product creative points.
Step 2: Product Development Confirmation Based on the collected product concepts, combined with company strategy, confirm the positioning direction of the new product. During the preliminary research phase, many creative ideas will emerge. The company can establish a creative pool, throw all good creative concepts into it, and then periodically screen out suitable ideas for R&D based on the company's product strategy. During the confirmation of development direction, sometimes a product direction involves choices of different flavors, specifications, and packaging forms. You can fully mobilize company employees and product community members to vote and screen, confirming the priority for launch. From the survey process, you can also see whether the product has the potential to explode. The founder of Egg Full once mentioned that during the development of a jam, they first selected four product concepts, then threw them into the brand's own community for members to vote, choosing the flavor with the highest demand and interest for formula development.
Step 3: Packaging Design and Taste Testing In addition to aesthetic requirements, packaging design needs to align with brand positioning, communicating the brand's core philosophy and positioning to consumers through design. At the same time, the industrial design details of the packaging can also assist in information transmission. For example, Saturnbird Coffee's mini cup shape cleverly associates with the coffee category. Image source: Saturnbird official Weibo In terms of taste, returning to the best-seller characteristic mentioned earlier—good taste. Good taste means that the target audience says it's good; that's what truly matters. Therefore, extensive taste testing is indispensable. Adjust and optimize based on results until final confirmation. Ms. Ye Suping shared Genki Forest's new product development taste testing process: Each product first undergoes internal taste testing. When satisfaction exceeds 85%, external testing continues. In places like schools and office buildings, potential target groups score the product. Only when the new product surpasses the benchmark product is it considered qualified and ready for launch. The birth of a product is the collective achievement of product managers, R&D engineers, designers, and marketing managers. Therefore, a project team with a collaborative spirit and orderly internal division of labor is crucial. In this project team, the product manager acts like a thread, connecting different work content to drive the project to completion quickly and orderly. In the internet age, everyone can be a product manager. To become an excellent product manager, you must maintain strong curiosity and a firm sense of responsibility to find that product with best-seller potential among the vast array of ideas. And products carrying the genes of a best-seller must undergo effective brand building and user management to maximize their effect.
-03- The Growth of a Best-seller: How to Make Consumers Your Loudspeaker? The difference between the internet age and traditional sales is that in the internet age, brands have more channels to reach users. Brands can interact with consumers through content building, directly collect user feedback, and conduct brand communication or product promotion. Content building is a form of brand building that achieves brand communication goals. Content building has become a new brand building method for two main reasons: First, changes in transaction channels: Online transaction scenarios are increasing. Second, changes in information dissemination channels: The rise of social media has changed the path from brand to consumer. Consumers see ads in the same places they see content, so moving ads are first and foremost moving content. Content-based brand communication has distinct characteristics: The barrier to brand communication is lower and more frequent. By breaking the brand spirit into many small pieces of information, these pieces can be mass-produced and continuously spread through social media. At the same time, content-based communication can be more human and scenario-based. Observing successful best-sellers on the market, they basically share a common point: Consumers spontaneously spread the word, and they are very active. What kind of brands are more likely to attract user dissemination? Consumer dissemination manifests as a photo or link on WeChat Moments, a like on Weibo or Douyin... Consumers have no obligation to spread, but they are willing to do so because the content itself has social attributes. Consumers feel that this content represents my stance, viewpoint, and attitude, allowing my friends to understand my thoughts; or this content can trigger social topics, bringing me into circles I like; or this content makes me look dignified, making people envy my life and abilities, satisfying my small vanity. In simple terms, turn content into social currency, awakening users' impulses. Whether for new or traditional brands, content building is an important part of brand communication. For traditional brands, content building can play a wake-up role. Over time, traditional brands may experience brand image aging, and consumers may think they are not fashionable or trendy. Content building is a lightweight and effective communication method. Through novel product expressions, it makes consumers' eyes light up, creating a sense of breaking conventions. There are many examples of old trees blooming new flowers, such as Want Want and White Rabbit candy. Want Want found a large number of KOLs on platforms like Weibo to explore various creative ways to eat Want Want snow cakes and senbei, which was fresh and interesting, awakening everyone's memory of the Want Want brand. Image source: Weibo screenshot For new products, content is grafted onto the product. The product is the foundation, more important than content. The product drives content, not the other way around. Content presents the product's benefits to users and conveys the brand's spirit. A good product carries its own spreadability. So, how to make a new product inherently spreadable? 1. Add communication factors during product development: For example, introduce consumer communication at the idea or demo stage, let users vote and select, and let users participate in taste testing. This group of users can serve as seed users. People naturally feel a sense of familiarity with products they've participated in, making them more likely to become loyal fans. Xiaomi phones are a great example. In the food brand space, Lechun Yogurt also introduced a seed user mechanism, involving them in product development. 2. Add communication factors to the product: Through names, flavors, copy, shapes, etc., give users the interest and desire to spread. Typical examples include Single Grain Potato Chips, Double Yolk Ice Cream, Jiang Xiaobai's copy, and Zhong Xue Gao's tile-shaped ice cream. Image source: Single Grain official Weibo 3. Make the product attractive: Life needs to share small beauties and small blessings. If the product can be easily processed to present a great display effect, consumers will be willing to share that beauty on their social platforms. Typical products include Lami Noodles and Wang Baobao's processed food beauty shots. 4. Create stories for the product: Create usage scenarios. Some special scenarios can also trigger users' desire to share, such as alcoholic beverages and sports meal replacement foods. Before doing content communication, you must: Clarify as a brand what the purpose of content communication is, what message you want to convey to consumers, and ideally, this message can be condensed into one sentence. Then, starting from that sentence, find an angle to provide supporting content. Of course, good content building also requires finding a balance between content and business, reducing user resistance and lowering defenses. Content should not be pushed to users all at once, directly saying "My product is good, choose me," but rather let users discover: "Wow, this product is really good, I want to buy it!" So, content needs to create scenarios, build atmosphere, stimulate users' inner desires, and achieve purchases. Finally, regarding a question many brands care about: How to choose a content platform? Teacher Wen Jia gave her answer: There is no shortcut to choosing a content platform. You must continuously conduct small-scale experiments based on your brand tone and target audience to find the platform that suits you. Then go deep and thorough within the chosen platform. For brands with limited budgets, especially innovative brands, you can communicate with KOLs through personal contacts rather than MCN agencies. You can start with high-quality mid-tier KOLs to more fully realize the KOL communication effect.
-04- Best-seller Management: 20% of Repeat Customers Can Contribute 50% of Sales! Product concepts, novel packaging designs, and impulse-triggering content can all lead to first purchases, but for a product to become a best-seller, it must generate continuous repurchases after the first purchase. Therefore, after acquiring new customers, how to make existing customers continue to consume becomes very important. Brands often put in a lot of effort to guide consumers from 0 to 1 consumption, such as new customer discounts, free tastings, or spending heavily on KOLs on platforms like WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin. With the disappearance of demographic and platform dividends, the cost of acquiring new customers is increasing. In reality, 50% of users acquired to the store are not converted, and 80% of users who make a first purchase will churn again. *Image from FBIF's "Opening Battle" live course, where Chen Yaguang, COO of One Cow Raised, shared "How to Increase the Value of Existing Customers." For the full version, reply "One Cow Raised" in the official account. Maintaining an existing customer brings more benefits than acquiring a new one. According to Chen Yaguang, COO of One Cow Raised, 20% of repeat customers can contribute 50% of sales, and repeat customers' profit contribution can even reach 80%. At the same time, repeat customers are less price-sensitive and have higher positive review rates. If a user makes more than 3 repurchases, they become a stable repeat customer, continuously generating consumption. It can be said that doing a good job of maintaining existing customers can continuously generate sales and profits, with lower maintenance costs, higher brand ROI, and better cultivation of consumer loyalty. Three methods can be used for existing customer maintenance: private domain traffic operation, establishing a membership system, and user lifecycle management.
1. Private Domain Traffic Operation Private domain traffic refers to channels that can directly reach users at any time and frequency without paying, such as self-media, Weitao, and WeChat groups. Compared to public domain traffic, there is no need to pay for purchases, users are more precise, and information transmission is more effective. During the COVID-19 pandemic, brands that relied mainly on offline stores faced unprecedented crises. But many brands responded quickly by building private domain operations, such as cosmetics brand Lin Qingxuan and restaurant brand Xibei. Through private domain operations, they converted existing customers, and some brands even performed better than usual. Users in private domain traffic recognize my brand, whether they've purchased products or registered as members. Private domain traffic increases the opportunity to communicate with users again and build relationships. In addition to the aforementioned user participation in product decisions, there are other ways to play: (1) Directly generate sales by sending new product and activity information. (2) Use existing customers to attract new customers through fission forms: Fully tap into the potential of existing customers, leverage their trust in the brand, give them certain benefits, and push them to help the brand acquire new customers. (3) When placing a group of users with common needs in a private domain pool, besides selling products, you can also combine brand-related information, sell services, and promote joint business. For example, a fitness food brand can recommend related fitness courses and fitness products, providing users with more comprehensive services.
2. Establishing a Membership System The purpose of a membership system is to treat users differently based on their tier. For users with high sales contributions and established purchase habits, continuously strengthen brand affinity, improve cost efficiency, and reduce unnecessary waste. A good membership system gives users a sense of brand exclusivity, forming a virtuous cycle of repurchase. Users can be divided into different levels based on their activity and contribution, with corresponding permissions at each level, such as privileges, points, and surprises. Points can be exchanged for brand coupons, physical items, and gifts; privileges can give users exclusive prices or services; surprises can give users at specific levels unexpected small gifts. To facilitate management, levels generally do not exceed 5.
3. User Lifecycle Management Based on users' purchase behavior on the platform, they can be divided into types such as store visitors, first-time interactors, first-time buyers, repeat buyers, and dormant users. To prevent repeated operations on the same user, the P.H.W model is recommended for lifecycle management. In this model, each user has one and only one role. In a lifecycle, a user is either a first-time buyer, a repeat buyer, or a dormant user. After role division, based on users' basic information, membership information, purchase information, and behavior information, different contact methods and promotional intensities are developed, and different contact messages are written. This allows new users to make first purchases, first-time buyers to continue repurchasing, and dormant users to be awakened with big promotions and large coupons. This makes investment and cost control more precise, improving promotion efficiency. Use the above three methods to manage existing customers well, spend limited promotional expenses on high-value users, efficiently drive users to continuously increase in value, and ensure money is spent where it matters most.
-05- Conclusion A best-seller becomes a best-seller because it contains the genes of an internet celebrity. An ordinary product is almost impossible to push into a best-seller, even with heavy spending; it would only be a "flash in the pan." Inject best-seller elements from product development, use content operations to ignite cold starts and maintain topic heat, and do a good job of user management to turn internet celebrities into long-term hits. The growth journey of a best-seller is the result of multi-faceted efforts, not just luck. Source: FBIF Food & Beverage Innovation (ID: FoodInnovation) Author: Xiaoyang Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.