“Ice-Cream Assassin”
The word “ice-cream assassin” has recently become an Internet sensation in China. It is a direct translation of the Chinese word “雪糕刺客”. It refers to the high price of ice creams that are not marked on the retail store’s counter but are found to be expensive when the consumer takes them to the checkout.
As far as I can remember, three or four years ago, most ice creams in China were priced within 10 RMB each, and those priced between 10 and 20 RMB were overpriced and rarely available. This was the norm in the ice cream market. Today, these ice creams, defined as ice cream assassins, are priced in the tens or even hundreds of RMB.
The #Ice Cream Assassin has now received 3.44 billion views on “Douyin” (Chinese version of TikTok). The story has even caught the attention of the Chinese government. There are now new rules that require stores to indicate the price of each type of ice cream.
Expanding into new markets?
As a marketer, it seems that the main demographic that these expensive ice cream brands want to target is high-income. This is a common marketing technique. Creating a luxury product in a previously relatively inexpensive ice cream market to satisfy a more demanding consumer. But apparently, they chose the wrong sales channel, putting the “luxury” product in a general store is clearly not targeting the “demanding” customer.
The Rise of “Xuelian”
At a time when the internet is filled with negative feedback about overpriced ice cream, “Xuelian” ice cream has interacted with everyone’s attention with its cheap selling price for years and the fact that it has never raised its price. You may not be able to imagine, it is sold 23 years ago is 0.5 yuan/packet until now has never raised the price.
Xuelian gained a huge amount of attention through “newsjacking”. In the view of customers, “Xuelian” played a hero in the “ice cream assassin” event. At a time when countless ice cream prices are going up and up. It kept the price very low. This has given customers a positive sentiment towards Xuelian.
I recently saw an interview with the founder of Xuelian by a news agency. The founder, Zhang Shejun said, “The profit of our products is 0.01RMB per packet, and our price has never changed since we launched our products 23 years ago. “During the conversation, Zhang Shejun was wearing a simple T-shirt, he looked less like a rich boss and more like a simple middle-aged man. The content of this interview and his appearance made more people like Xuelian. The interview received 760,000 likes as well as 78,000 comments on Douyin.
A successful “newsjacking”
Xuelian’s newsjacking was undoubtedly successful. I don’t have access to xuelian’s data on sales, but I do know that Xuelian gained a huge amount of brand awareness during this event. It was through this event that I learned about the Xuelian. And I know as a marketer that usually sales increase as brand awareness increases. This is a good example of using current events to promote their product.
