Traditonal Chinese brands have recently made a strong comeback thanks to a livestreaming
controvercy over the quality of products and whether people were working hard enough to
afford them.
Chinese brands that have faded in popularity due to a lack of marketing and online
presence seized the opportunity to show they could deliver value-for-money quality goods.
Domestic brands were put under the spotlight after China's top online host Li Jiaqi
questioned whether people had worked hard enough to get a pay rise, during a livestreaming
session on Taobao Live, Alibaba's livestreaming platform, on Sept 9. A follower had
earlier commented that a Chinese comestic brand's eyebrow pen and two refills priced at 79
yuan ($10.8) is too expensive.
Bee & Flower, a shampoo brand founded in 1985 and once a household name in China,
introduced a 79-yuan set of two large bottles of shampoo and a large bottle of hair
conditioner, which quikcly attracted people's attention.
Feigua, a livestreaming sales data provider, said the number of followers of Bee &
Flower's account on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, started to soar on Spet 11. On
Friday, it had attracted a record 559,000 followers. Sales generated during one
livestreaming session exceed 25 million yuan.
Other Chinese brands also started to promote themselves on social media and aksed people
to give them a chance to prove themselves.
People showed particular interest in Super 28, a detergent brand founded in 1950. Three
humble middle-aged factory employees of the company began a livestream on its official
Douyin account on Wednessday. The trio wanted seized the opportunity to revive the brand,
but clearly knew little about selling products on social media. Viewers had to teach them
how to list products during the livestreaming sessions.
The next day, their sincerity and the quality of the company's products had helped the
brand's Douyin account attract more than 1.61 million followers, with all available stock
sold out on that day.
Many netizens said they were surprised to see that some of the brands and products that
were popular during their childhood still existed. Some brands gained further respect
after followers learned that the parent companies had donated money and goods to help
China win the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945).
Many of the brands, including Bee & Flower and Super 28, announced that they would not
livestream on Monday, the 92nd anniversary of the September 18 Incident that marked
the start of Japan's invasion of China. They also asked people to remember history and
cherish peace.