From Efficacy Persuasion to Emotional Resonance: Tmall Health Establishes the "Emotional Value Marketing" Paradigm in the Tonic Industry

Even the oldest categories can be revitalized with fresh impetus.

The health supplement industry is a typical example. In terms of industry form, the development of the health supplement category has been stable for a long time, with a clear user base and definite consumption motivations. It is a relatively mature field. However, the problem is that when almost all brands keep adding weight around "ingredients, formulas, and efficacy cycles", the communication efficiency with consumers has been continuously declining.

This phenomenon has become even more prominent, especially after young people have become the absolute mainstream. In response, Tmall Health has made a judgment different from the mainstream path in the industry. Jiang Xia, the marketing director of Tmall Health, told 36Kr that the difficulty for health supplement brands has never been just about whether consumers believe in them, but rather whether they are willing to start. "When health supplements are packaged as a serious, professional task that requires long - term commitment, young people will naturally take a step back."

Therefore, instead of continuing to emphasize functions, Tmall Health has reversed the approach, putting the starting point of communication on emotions - first making users feel understood, and then talking about what to supplement and how to supplement.

This also forms a new path for Tmall Health in the health supplement field: using emotional value as the breakthrough point to rewrite the way of approaching health supplements.

01. Young people don't reject health supplements; they reject "health - preserving narratives divorced from life"

An easily misjudged fact is that young people don't reject health supplements.

The real problem lies in the way of expression. Health supplements have long been placed in a "narrative space divorced from life": professional, serious, and requiring long - term commitment, but also meaning self - restraint.

What young people really resist is a health - preserving narrative that is out of touch with real life. For Generation Z, physical problems often don't appear suddenly but exist for a long time in the forms of overtime work, emotional fluctuations, and rhythm disorders. This leads to the situation that if health supplements are only mentioned in the context of "needing to supplement", it is naturally difficult for them to enter daily life.

Based on this insight, Tmall Health didn't rush to give a "more youthful explanation of efficacy". Instead, it chose to break down the problem further: before the product, it first rebuilt the way health supplements are understood.

Jiang Xia believes that "health supplements actually carry very rich emotional assets, but they have not been well utilized for a long time. It is originally closely related to caring for parents, taking care of oneself, festival rituals, and self - repair after physical overdraft. However, in previous industry communications, these emotional clues have been continuously compressed, only leaving the 'efficacy expression' while gradually losing these emotional entry points."

Therefore, Tmall Health chose to start from the entry point of life and put health supplements back into the real scenarios of young people. Through the combination of health supplement products and bonus gifts, it aims to accommodate the actual states of young people. Traditional Chinese medicine bracelets, sachets, and health - themed playing cards are not an entertainment - oriented treatment of health supplements but a translation, converting the originally abstract and delayed efficacy value into an emotional experience that can be perceived immediately.

During the 2025 Chinese New Year Goods Festival, facing the scenarios of gift - giving and family reunions, Tmall Health launched limited - edition "impressive gift - giving" playing cards and mahjong sets. It transformed the health supplement gift boxes for the elderly from a simple health product into a specific expectation of "being able to play with family members during this reunion", enabling traditional health supplements to seamlessly integrate into the entertainment scenarios of contemporary families.

During the 2025 Mid - Autumn Festival, based on the insights of "missing" and new trends, the platform launched traditional Chinese medicine bracelets and sachets, which made health supplements break out of the single dimension of consumption and evolve into a wearable trendy accessory, expanding the value extension of health supplements.

Only when health supplements first appear with the message of "I understand your current state" will young people be willing to go further to understand the products, efficacy, and long - term value. This is not about lowering the standards but changing the order: empathize first, and then reason.

From this perspective, Tmall Health is not "catering to young people" but changing an inertial misunderstanding in the health supplement industry: regarding health supplements as a profession that needs to be repeatedly explained rather than a way of care that naturally integrates into life.

It is precisely on this basis that all subsequent actions of Tmall Health regarding emotional value, bonus - gift conversion, and brand rejuvenation have a real foundation for growth.

02. The replicable "emotional appeal", a new marketing paradigm in the health supplement industry

The core of emotional value marketing is to create replicable appeal.

The reason for its appearance in the health supplement industry is a more practical problem: Can this low - frequency, slow - feedback category of health supplements enter the decision - making range of young people more quickly? For many time - honored brands, it takes a lot of content, time, and repeated exposure to explain a complex health supplement logic clearly. However, the attention span of young users for health supplements is getting shorter and shorter.

However, Tmall Health found that young people are not indifferent to "health" but immune to preachy health - preserving advice. On the contrary, when information appears in the form of emotional resonance, they will actively approach it. Tmall Health's solution is to use emotions as a "pre - entry point" to complete the first - round screening and communication for brands. First, make users emotionally closer, and then smoothly introduce the efficacy and products.

The most intuitive manifestation of this logic appeared in the bonus - gift practices during a series of events such as the 2025 Chinese New Year Goods Festival and the Mid - Autumn Festival. Different from the traditional promotion method of "giving more", Tmall Health embedded bonus gifts into price thresholds, product combinations, and content scenarios, making it an important part of the user's decision - making path.

Take the Mid - Autumn Festival bonus - gift live - streaming event of the time - honored brand Tonghanchuntang as an example. With the bonus gifts of traditional Chinese medicine bracelets and sachets combined with the live - streaming of a celebrity and the ancient - recipe IP, it successfully achieved a million - level GMV, with the proportion of first - time new customers exceeding 80% and the overall exposure exceeding 5 million. This proves that through emotional translation, it can effectively break the gap between traditional brands and young circles and attract a new customer group for traditional brands.

What is more noteworthy is the real response of young users to this gameplay. In the comment section of the celebrity participating in the live - streaming, fans aged 18 to 29 showed extraordinary enthusiasm and discussion for the traditional Chinese medicine bracelets, sachets, and other peripheral products.

The key to this change is not that the brand suddenly becomes younger, but that young users for the first time feel that the brand is having a conversation with them.

A similar logic is further amplified in the search gameplay of the "Ancient Recipe Surprise Box". Tmall Health placed emotional hooks such as "Mid - Autumn Festival limited", "Ancient recipe peripherals", and "Draw surprises" in the off - site content field first. Users are first attracted by emotions and then return to Tmall to search with clear interest.

In this process, health supplements are not the first contact point but naturally emerge in the path of searching, browsing, and comparing. When the "sense of participation" and "festival atmosphere" come first, health supplements themselves don't have to bear the heavy pressure of function persuasion. Data shows that during the event, more than 400,000 people participated in the box - drawing gameplay, and the proportion of new customers searching for the category increased significantly. For the first time, health supplements became something that young users "want to take a look at" in their active behavior.

If the Mid - Autumn Festival event solved the problem of "how to decently express care", then at the Winter Solstice event, the appearance of the "Three - piece set for a warm winter" brought the emotional value back to young people's perception of their own states.

In the view of Tmall Health, the Winter Solstice is not just a health - supplementing node. Behind it is a set of real life situations: working overtime until late at night, a sudden drop in temperature, physical overdraft, but still having to keep going. Compared with "It's time for you to take supplements", young people are more easily touched by implicit care such as "I know you've been very tired recently".

Based on this insight, Tmall Health launched the "Three - piece set for a warm winter" as a bonus gift at the Winter Solstice event and defined a strategy different from the gift - giving scenario: resonating with users around the theme of "how to be nicer to oneself".

In terms of specific implementation, the "Three - piece set for a warm winter" forms an "internal and external cultivation" experience structure by combining high - frequency daily items such as scarves, socks, and thermos cups with health supplement products to meet the dual needs of "external cold protection" and "internal health supplementation". The efficacy of health supplements still takes time to show, but the feeling of "warmth" is immediately materialized when users unpack the products.

The key to this design is not the practicality itself but that it completes a value confirmation in advance: making users feel that "health supplements = caring for oneself" immediately after placing an order. It is no longer a concept that needs to be understood but an experience that can be immediately perceived.

This strategy is also directly reflected in the results. On the day of the Winter Solstice, topics related to the "Three - piece set for a warm winter" quickly topped the platform's hot list, gaining tens of millions of exposures and effectively guiding users to enter the event venue to complete transactions. More importantly, at this node, health supplements are no longer only associated with "buying when sick" or "supplementing when needed" but are put back into the consumption context of "I want to be nicer to myself today", achieving a shift from functional consumption to daily - care consumption.

It can be seen that Tmall Health's strategy of emotional value consciously covers different life scenarios. Under this logic, bonus gifts help time - honored brands naturally appear in gift - giving scenarios and also allow health supplements to enter young people's daily self - care narratives for the first time, thus significantly reducing the friction cost between brands and young users.

More importantly, Tmall Health doesn't just keep the emotional value at the "good - impression level" but fully embeds it into the transaction structure, forming a set of verifiable and replicable conversion paths. That's why this emotional bonus - gift gameplay has begun to inversely affect the products and expression methods of brands themselves.

03. From "supplementation" to "healing", the shift in category perception

People's perception of health supplements is quietly changing. The underlying logic is the shift in category perception.

Tmall Health's emotional - value path adds a sense of meaning to health supplements. It makes health supplements start to be associated with the current life situation - whether I'm taking care of myself, whether my state has been noticed, and whether I'm in a sustainable life rhythm.

In this sense, for the first time, health supplements are no longer required to repeatedly "prove themselves" but are allowed to "accompany users". When it no longer only bears the responsibility of solving problems but becomes a gentle form of self - confirmation, its role also changes: from task - oriented and goal - driven consumption to a relational and long - term companion.

In the longer term, these practices have precipitated a clearly understandable and must - be - faced ability - shift path for the health supplement industry: the competitive barriers of health supplement brands are gradually shifting from supply - chain and formula advantages to "the continuous operation ability of emotional connection".

As functions gradually level out, what really sets the difference will not only be the product power itself but also whether the brand has the ability to occupy a stable position in the user's mind and continuously participate in the construction of their lifestyle. Health supplements are no longer just a part of physical management but are beginning to become an element of life attitude.

From this perspective, emotional value is not an additional item at the marketing level but an ability to redefine category boundaries. When the industry starts to shift from "what to supplement" to "why to supplement, for whom to supplement, and in what state to supplement", health supplements will truly break free from functional involution and enter a more imaginative new stage.

The role that Tmall Health plays in this is to first systemize and platformize this "emotional connection operation" ability and precipitate it into a sustainable industry infrastructure through bonus - gift IPs, seasonal rhythms, and full - domain linkage. This ability cannot be easily replicated by a single brand, but it is one of the key abilities that the health supplement industry must rely on in the next stage.

After all, the competition rules of the industry have quietly changed.