---
title: "How Second- and Third-Tier Brands Can Take Off with Community Group Buying"
description: "At the 6th China FMCG Channel Innovation Conference, hosted by New Distribution, Guan Mingyu, co-founder of community group buying platform Yidian Youxuan, shared insights on how brands can succeed in the community group buying channel. He outlined six key steps: selecting the right category, establishing a core concept, finding endorsements, telling a story, creating strong experiences, and driving word-of-mouth, illustrated with a case study of a milk brand that achieved significant sales."
author: "关明雨"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2021-04-15"
language: "en"
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# How Second- and Third-Tier Brands Can Take Off with Community Group Buying

> At the 6th China FMCG Channel Innovation Conference, hosted by New Distribution, Guan Mingyu, co-founder of community group buying platform Yidian Youxuan, shared insights on how brands can succeed in the community group buying channel. He outlined six key steps: selecting the right category, establishing a core concept, finding endorsements, telling a story, creating strong experiences, and driving word-of-mouth, illustrated with a case study of a milk brand that achieved significant sales.

The 6th China FMCG Channel Innovation Conference, hosted by New Distribution, the leading new media in the FMCG industry, was held from April 1 to 3 at the Chengdu Agora Howard Johnson Hotel. The event attracted 3,000 industry professionals, including distributors, community e-commerce platforms, brand owners, and internet companies from across the country, filling the venue to capacity.

On April 2, at the afternoon forum of the China FMCG Community E-commerce Conference, Mr. Guan Mingyu, co-founder of the community group buying platform Yidian Youxuan, delivered a keynote speech titled "How Brands Should Embrace Community Group Buying." New Distribution has carefully organized and excerpted the essence of Mr. Guan's speech for publication.

How can manufacturers make their products sell explosively in the community group buying track? At the conference, someone said that manufacturers and platforms are in a relationship like lovers—both are afraid the other won't come, and both are afraid the other will mess around. **I often use an analogy: brands and group buying are like fish and water. When the water is big, the fish are big, and they develop together.**

Actually, before this, I participated in a live broadcast by New Distribution, where the topic given to me was "Is community group buying a poison or an antidote for brands?" When I saw the topic, I was quite confused. I thought, "I'm running a platform to help people sell goods, and now it's being called a 'poisonous chicken soup'?"

At that time, community group buying was a new channel, and its rise was brutal. It gained user trust by breaking brands' original price controls, thereby acquiring traffic. For example, milk, Red Bull, toilet paper, and even eggs were sold very cheaply. That was the positioning of community group buying back then.

But after about three years of development, many community group buying platforms have gradually found their own path. They want to build brands within community group buying, find partners willing to collaborate in this track, and together sell products explosively in the new channel.

**-01-**
**The Value of Brands**
Every era has its heroes, and every era has its brands. The rise of any new channel will create a hero. For example, 30 years ago, the rise of offline channels created the old brand "Goldlion." Ten years ago, the rise of Taobao created many brands like "Three Squirrels" and "Yunifang." Now, we see brands like "Perfect Diary," "Florasis," and "Genki Forest" that have grown rapidly in the new short-video era.

Every era has heroes rising and fading. Any brand has opportunities, but it must embrace its track. As a channel develops, it has growth and decline periods. Community group buying is currently in a rapid climbing phase.

The biggest advantage of cooperating with community platform channels is that we are seamlessly connected with consumers. The platform directly connects with group leaders, who directly connect with consumers. This ensures that consumers understand the manufacturer's products and the product's value to the greatest extent. It can turn a completely unknown product or brand into a household name in group buying.

What is the value of a brand? Twenty years ago, "a brand was to reduce the risk of choice and lower decision costs." For example, when consumers walk into a supermarket to buy milk, they would think of well-known brands like Mengniu, Yili, or Junlebao, not a generic brand. **That was the definition of brand value 20 years ago: consumers wanted to buy something without stepping on a mine, without taking risks.**

But now, times have changed, and consumers are completely different. **Consumers are not worried about risk; they enjoy risk. They particularly enjoy buying a new brand, trying a new flavor, and even the act of shopping itself is a pleasure.** Because they can try many new things, many new brands have opportunities. However, you need to have a group of people—a bunch of group leaders—who can clearly explain your brand value and genuinely promote your product.

For example, **cooperating with a community group buying platform is not just finding a platform; it's like finding hundreds or thousands of people in a city to help you do tastings and ground promotions.** Before cooperating with a brand, I often thoroughly understand the brand's products. In most cases, I even ask for many samples for group leaders to taste, buy internally, and evaluate. The goal is to make your brand recognized by consumers even if you haven't done much advertising. Consumers may not know if your brand is good or bad, but they will first approve of your product.

**-02-**
**How to Build a Brand in the Group Buying Track?**
**How to create a hit product? What should brands pay attention to when cooperating with community group buying platforms? What should brands do during cooperation?**

Having contacted many brands and factories, I've found that most of the time there is a gap between platforms and manufacturers. Our communication really needs translation. From the platform's perspective, I tell brand owners: if you want to cooperate with community group buying platforms and build a brand in this track, you should do six things.

**1. Choose Your Category**
First, you need to choose your category well, or some categories are particularly suitable for community group buying platforms. Many brand owners may have heard that the best products for community group buying are "high-frequency, rigid demand, and family scenarios." Now, I tell you, you can forget those.

Think differently: if your product is high-frequency, rigid demand, and fits family scenarios, how many competitors would you have? How ordinary would your product be? How strong would the substitutability be? How much pressure would you face in promotion? How well would you need to control costs? **Don't choose a crowded track, and don't force your product to fit these concepts. Just think clearly about three things:**

**Who are your users? What is their usage scenario? What are their needs? Who are your competitors?**

As a platform, I particularly like categories with broad user base, strong demand, and strong competitors. Many people think, "If only I could find a category with broad users, strong demand, and weak competitors." But such categories don't exist. Think about it: for example, Sister Ma's candy has a broad audience and strong demand before the New Year, but the competitors are definitely not weak.

The key is to form an impression of these three things in your mind. Once you have that, you'll know how to promote your brand. Who do you want to sell to? What are their needs—strong or weak? Are they necessities or consumer goods? Do you have a strong competitor, and how will you cut into their market? These are the things we need to think about more.

Different brands—some make seasonings, some milk, some cosmetics—are in different tracks. Based on different needs, user breadth, and competitors, there will be different strategies and tactics.

**2. Establish a Core Concept**
**The second step is to establish a core concept. What does that mean? It's like putting all the power of your product into the tip of a spear, focusing all your efforts on establishing your core concept. This is the most important thing.**

Consumers today are not short of products, nor are they short of concepts. They are short on time. Many brands come to me and list 100 selling points. **They list a bunch of selling points, but in reality, the more selling points, the fewer actual selling points, because no one will listen to you for that long.**

Your selling point should be condensed into one sentence, focused on one point. Tell me a strong, powerful core concept. Use one sentence or a slogan to run through your entire operation—from group leader warm-up, to group leader posting on Moments, to group leader doing ground promotion, to the product in hand. **A strong core concept runs through and is repeated constantly.**

For example, when I mention Genki Forest, you think of zero fat, zero sugar, zero calories. When I mention Red Bull, you think of "Tired and sleepy? Drink Red Bull." When I mention Wanglaoji, you think of "Afraid of getting heaty? Drink Wanglaoji." This not only defines the category but also gives consumers a reason to buy.

When we work on many products, I help brands come up with the core concept. We make them repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, so that when the platform promotes, it knows how to promote the product, and when group leaders post on Moments, even with one sentence, the concept is clear.

**3. Find Endorsements**
Third, find endorsements. Many brands are new and unheard of by customers. For example, if you're in a category with broad users, strong demand, and low barriers—like toilet paper or seasonings—endorsements might be less critical. But if you're in beauty, nutrition, or skincare, which require some barriers and premium pricing, endorsements are very important.

**Do you have a big brand behind you? That's an endorsement. Have any KOLs spoken for you? That's an endorsement. Which channels have you cooperated with before? That's an endorsement. Your honors, including OEM work you've done, and successful collaborations with others—these are all important endorsements. You must collect and keep these materials.**

If you don't have any of these, at least you might have a hot-sales proof—you've sold well on other platforms, and you have feedback from group leaders on other platforms. That's also an important endorsement. Many platforms can help you with this.

**4. Tell a Story**
**Fourth, tell a story. Give your brand founder a vivid, flesh-and-blood story to promote empathy and resonance.**

Everyone knows a brand that has developed well in recent years: "Adopt a Cow." It tells a touching story: "A father with a child worried about China's milk powder, so he visited various places and built a factory, creating a brand called 'Adopt a Cow' to convey the concept of safety and quality to consumers."

In reality, consumers can't remember many brand slogans or core selling points. But people today like to listen to stories, including group leaders. Shaping your founder as a hero is very important. Whether it's a tragic hero, a touching hero, or a hero misunderstood by the world, it all works.

You need to tell a story for your brand. At the very least, as the founder, turn your experience into a story worth spreading and full of selling points. This is important because the platform sells not only the brand but also the founder and an emotion. It requires emotional stimulation, empathy, and resonance.

**5. Create Strong Experiences**
Fifth, create strong experiences. After doing the previous steps, you need a scenario for strong experience, which requires a tangible and credible way to sell. Yidian Youxuan does this: **"First internal purchase, then tasting, then group ordering, then explosive sales."** This 12-character truth has been tested by many brands and is indeed effective.

For example, we've sold laundry detergent, lip balm, and soon we'll cooperate on rice noodles and hot dry noodles, as well as previously cooperated on donkey-hide gelatin and biscuits. In a week of 7 days, group leaders spend more than 5 days on internal purchases. How does internal purchase work? First, we talk to the brand. If the brand can support us, that's best—they can provide some free samples to the platform. The platform distributes the products to core group leaders. If the brand's product is easy to share, like being able to give tastings in stores, that's even better.

For example, if I have 500 group leaders, you can provide 150 samples for my core group leaders. After sending them, they put them in their stores for customers picking up orders to taste and experience. Then they take real videos of their own experiences. This is the best promotion for your product. Remember: "If you don't use it yourself, don't share it." This is a very simple truth.

But many manufacturers may not feel this way. They send samples to 100 platforms, 100 samples each. However, every platform receives a large number of samples daily. Honestly, Yidian Youxuan receives many samples every day, and we don't even know who sent them or how they got our address. But my tasting doesn't count. **It's better to concentrate those 100 samples on one platform to create a core case than to send one sample to 100 platforms, because most samples end up lost in the sea.**

After tasting, let group leaders start group ordering in their groups. For example, if customers came to the store today and tasted the candy, is it good? If it's good, I'll tell you the price on the spot, and then they order. This creates a hot-selling atmosphere in the group, and then it explodes. It's that simple.

**6. Drive Word-of-Mouth**
The last step is to drive word-of-mouth. After you create a core case with one platform, the community group buying circle is actually very small. And we are in a state of anxiety about product shortages every day. I am like this, and I believe other platform leaders are too. We can't wait for our friends or partners to sell a product explosively, then directly copy their marketing package and apply it to us. Every platform doesn't have time to design marketing packages every day.

**Driving word-of-mouth means that after you create a core case, your ads and your voice will naturally start spreading in the circle. Many products become popular as they sell, and many become popular as they are developed.** If a guide brings you in and you create a case, you can quickly spread it to various community platforms. The circle is really small.

**-03-**
**Case Study**
I'll randomly pick a product that is on the shelves today. It has already sold over 4,000 boxes. Before the New Year, it was sold by the truckload: Tulaolao Pure Milk. Let me use this as an example to explain the specific operation.

First, this category is milk. Milk is a category with broad audience, strong demand, and strong competitors—my favorite type. Because what I like most is cutting into others' categories. Categories are cut, not created. Creating a category is really tiring because creating demand is difficult, but I know how to cut into markets. Telunsu is our core competitor.

When we got this product, we were excited. We established the concept. At that time, we set a six-character concept for this milk, which the brand itself might not have known. Because it's milk from Xinjiang, the product is special, and that itself is a core selling point. So we created the concept: "Xinjiang milk, it's fragrant."

I kept repeating this in the group, and all group leaders repeated it with me. When they recorded videos, they put these six characters first. So, all customers, when they saw the milk, their first reaction was that the milk is fragrant. Whether it's really fragrant or not, they first hint to themselves that it's fragrant.

At that time, many people didn't know this milk. We found many endorsements, including its academic label, and that it did OEM for Weiwei and Junlebao, etc.

Then we told a story about the founder of Tulaolao. The founder is from Chaoshan. He gave up a million-yuan annual salary to raise cows. We took many photos of him holding hay in the cow farm feeding the cows. Many people were very moved after seeing them.

After the story, the experience was simple: we did tastings. We prepared over 5,000 small cups. The brand gave us about 150 boxes of milk. In the end, these 150 boxes of milk brought in sales of 15,000 boxes. The 150 boxes were placed in stores, and group leaders poured them for customers to taste. Many people found the taste good. Also, this milk has a characteristic: after boiling, it forms a milk skin. We specially did many experiments in stores, making it observable, tangible, and credible.

**No matter what category you are in, follow these six things step by step. Check them one by one: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Wherever you're lacking, improve and develop. You will definitely build your category well. There is always a selling point for you, and there is always a platform for you.**

**Summary:**
In the early 2000s, the entry of supermarkets and hypermarkets, with rows of shelves, created supermarket brands like Uni-President, Arawana, and Master Kong. In the early 2010s, the rise of platform e-commerce like Taobao created a series of Taobao brands like Three Squirrels.

Now, in 2020, the sudden rise of the community group buying track presents a new opportunity. Why shouldn't brands proactively understand channel needs, embrace new channels, and let brands and channels grow together?

As mentioned at the beginning: when the water is big, the fish are big.

Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once adopted.


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