Brands learn to cut this knife, and the existing market will become incremental in seconds

The article explores how brands can activate the stock market and achieve growth through innovative binary diversion methods in the context of the consumer industry's shift from incremental markets to stock markets. Through rich case analysis, the article reveals how to shape brand competitive advantages in consumer cognition and transform invisible advantages into explicit advantages.

After experiencing rapid development over the past 40 years, the consumer industry has shifted from an incremental market to a stock market. The past approach of finding a brand positioning to occupy a niche market is losing its effectiveness.

How to activate the existing market? You might as well try to think about the problem from the perspective of binary diversion. By artificially creating opposition, divide the demand, product, and scenario into two. Create new standards to open up a battlefield and use it to influence the basis and logic of consumer decision-making. The binary diversion method proposed by Ma Xiaobo can not only be used to deal with product communication and category segmentation issues, but also to solve brand positioning issues.

Segmented positioning is suitable for incremental markets, but is not applicable in existing markets.

Why has business become so difficult since 2020? Traditional positioning methods are becoming less and less effective? It's simple. The first forty years were an era of centralized consumption, and each market was growing rapidly. When a brand is in an incremental market, it is feasible to use positioning theory to become the king of a niche market. When the market shifts from incremental to stock, even cars and mobile phones are involved in the last generation, and market positioning may be useless no matter how segmented it is.

At the summit, Ma Xiaobo first unveiled his exclusive theory "Using Dualism to Shape Competitive Advantages". He proposed that binary diversion is a way of thinking to shape competitiveness. It is a brand that uses different classification methods such as group affiliation, scene substitution, technology generation, aesthetic level, and differences in values ​​to form a binary opposition relationship between itself and its competitors in the cognition of consumers and the public, thereby influencing consumer decisions, thereby amplifying its own invisible advantages into explicit advantages and expanding its own growth space.

As a brand person or marketer, you might as well break away from the differentiation mindset and dare to think about where the brand's overwhelming advantages lie, and use this mentality, awareness and pattern to drive greater growth.

The following is what Ma Xiaobo shared.

1. Magnify invisible advantages into visible advantages

In 2014, the dualism theory took shape. I have used it to serve a variety of clients, whether they are companies with a scale of hundreds of billions, such as OPPO, or emerging brands with a scale of 700 to 800 million, such as Bananain. This theory can help different entities such as commercial brands, city brands, national brands, personal brands and third-party organization brands to explain their values ​​and actions to the target objects.

So what is dualism?

With the help of different classification methods such as group affiliation, scenario substitution, technology generation, aesthetic level, and differences in values, brands form a binary opposition relationship between themselves and their competitors in the perception of consumers and the public, thereby influencing consumer decisions and shaping key discourse power in the competition, thereby amplifying their own invisible advantages into explicit advantages, and thereby expanding their own growth space and occupying cognitive leadership and trend justice.

Let me share a recent business case we worked on, helping Perfect Diary promote its new lipstick. It is actually quite difficult for a straight man like me to sell lipstick, so we decided to use the binary diversion method to find a new breakthrough.

This advertisement is actually only to solve a problem, which is to help Perfect Diary's lipstick break through from a price of tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan. In such cutting-edge topics, the thinking often needs to be very simple and pure, to see what the biggest difference between this lipstick and other lipsticks is. In fact, it is the bionic membrane. Why are lips and corners of the eyes the most vulnerable? Because these places are not protected by sebum membranes. This lipstick adds a layer of membrane to help consumers better protect their lips. At this time, the binary diversion method is very useful. The bionic membrane can be used to distinguish the two eras and distinguish Perfect Diary's lipstick from other brands of lipstick.

When it was first pre-sold in September this year, this lipstick was priced at 120 yuan, and it was even out of stock for three weeks some time ago. Some actions taken by Perfect Diary this year in supply chain, brand and products show that Chinese local beauty brands are unwilling to be substitutes and want to benchmark against international professional beauty brands. Bionic membrane lipstick is a good start, and it can even move to a higher price range in the future. How to advance from the low-end to the mid-to-high-end? Binary diversion can solve this problem.

Another example is Timberland's yellow boots. After Olga Wu, the brand general manager at the time, found us, I began to think about a question: How to sell such niche shoes to consumers? How to make consumption decisions easier? From the niche market to the mass market, who is the most important group to capture? We used to think that the overall matching of boots would be young and fashionable, and should still be mainly for young people. But after research, we found that for students and white-collar workers, a pair of boots priced at 1,499 yuan is a very heavy decision.

In terms of the crowd, we also face a split, deciding whether to sell to people who make light decisions or those who make heavy decisions. If a consumer only has an income of 5,000 to 6,000 yuan, or 7,000 to 8,000 yuan a month, can we sell to them? Can we quickly open up the market? Can we quickly make their consumption decisions? In fact, it is very difficult. This pair of boots should still be sold to the middle class, to people who have no shortage of shoes. Of course, it is not absolutely based on high or low income, but on mental tendencies. We choose to sell to people who make light decisions.

The next question that needed to be answered was, why did he have so many shoes in his shoe cabinet, and why did he need an extra pair of boots? Later, we still used the binary diversion method. Most shoes look their best when they are first bought, but I believe that after about three or four years, consumers will put them aside. But the big yellow boots are different. They are not beautiful because they are new. Many categories have this characteristic, such as jeans, canvas shoes, etc., which, like the big yellow boots, are beautiful because they are old. After the traces of use accumulate on the item, it will become more beautiful. This is of course related to the quality of the product. It is strong and durable, so it will become more beautiful with use. At that time, no one brought up this point. Based on this, we promoted the brand and finally got good results. This is actually a well-known case.

2. Provide simple judgment criteria to influence consumer decisions

When I was young, the industry I served the most was durable goods, such as home appliances and automobiles. Although I had not yet summarized the binary diversion into a form at that time, I was actually using it in practice. Offline competition was very fierce at that time, and sales skills were particularly tested. Most of my time was not thinking of wonderful ideas or helping brands with top-level design, but honestly writing sales skills, how to use a sentence, a product story, or a technical story to sell products to all kinds of customers.

In fact, I sold this set of sales talk to the shopping guides in the stores. Fangtai has 300 gold medal salesmen nationwide, who are between 40 and 55 years old and interact directly with consumers every day. The sisters said that these sales talk works and can help me sell things, and then I have completed my work. At that time, in order to write things, I went to Gome and Suning the most, trying to be a shopping guide. If I hadn't used this set of sales talk to sell products, how would I know if consumers really like it?

Once, I wanted to sell a range hood from a seller. At that time, the price was already 6,800 yuan. It was getting harder and harder to close a deal, so I needed to upgrade my sales pitch. Later, I used the dualism theory to divide all range hoods into two categories: one suitable for families above the 20th floor, and the other for families below the 20th floor. When a customer comes in and asks which range hood is better in your home, I will first ask them what floor they live on. The customer will be curious, what is the difference between those above the 20th floor and those below? I will tell him that for range hoods below the 20th floor, you can turn left or right and buy any one. There is not much difference in research and development, appearance design, and performance. But if you live above the 20th floor, you must choose ours.

Why? Because smoke exhaust in high-rise apartments has to go through a public flue. When every household is exhausting smoke at mealtime, the flue pressure will be relatively low, making it particularly difficult to exhaust smoke, just like highways will be congested during peak hours. Fotile's products have a very powerful function called turbocharging, which can instantly amplify the power of smoke exhaust. Before this, we did not sell this concept well, and it did not help much in sales. After this classification, this function suddenly became indispensable, allowing your home's smoke to be exhausted quickly during peak hours.

Once this mindset is established, it is not difficult to find that most of the buyers live below the 20th floor. Because consumers will have an idea that even if they don’t use it, it is definitely right to buy the best product. Later, a set of sales tactics was formed, and 40 to 50 million yuan was invested. This is a typical application of the binary diversion theory in sales tactics.

I also used this method to sell electric steamers. The initial selling point was that "steaming" can ensure that nutrients are not lost, but consumers did not buy it. Why? I believe that everyone does not have a problem with nutritional deficiencies now, and if there is, it is overnutrition. This is not a sales pitch that can impress consumers. So I used the binary method to divide all foods into two types, one is stomach-nourishing and the other is stomach-damaging. It targets a very large circle, that is, the group that works overtime. When you work overtime, do you always order takeout and like to eat greasy and spicy food? As your family member, I hope to take better care of your stomach. The food made in the electric steamer is lighter and more natural. This set of sales pitch should have increased sales by about 40%.

At the same time, it gives steamers a new motivation to buy. Chinese people have very limited kitchen space, and many consumers are struggling to decide whether to buy an oven or a steamer. Ovens are very fashionable and can bake cakes and chickens. We have found enough new reasons for steamers to compete with ovens, that is, to nourish the stomach.

3. Mark yourself and reversely locate your opponent

In a saturated competitive market, two evenly matched opponents can use binary diversion to differentiate the market and each shape their own core standards.

Let me share an example I encountered recently when I was buying a TV. I wanted to buy an LCD TV. Before placing the order, I had actually made up my mind to buy an 85-inch Samsung LCD TV because Samsung's screen is the best. Who created this concept? It was Sharp. At that time, Sharp did not use any fancy words, that is, Sharp TV uses imported LCD screens from Samsung. Because it is the world's core LCD screen manufacturer, both mobile phone manufacturers and TV manufacturers purchase LCD screens from Samsung. The sales talk of Samsung's shopping guide is the same - we leave the best screens to Samsung.

But I also wanted to look at Sony, because it has a certain status in the minds of old men born in the 1970s like me. Sony's shopping guide told me, what's the screen? Sony's strength lies in its 40 to 50 years of experience in audio-visual entertainment. Backed by Sony Pictures, almost 40% of professional imaging studios in the country use Sony products. When buying a TV, are you buying a screen or for entertainment? And our screen is also Samsung, and on this basis, we have experience in audio-visual entertainment. In the end, we chose Sony.

The benchmarking between Samsung and Sony is actually a benchmarking of two standards. They used their respective core capabilities to make a binary split, one using hardware and the other using software.

Another case is Jiaoxia, which is positioned as a lightweight outdoor product. Why is it divided like this? First of all, we need to answer what lightweight outdoor products are. To put it bluntly, it is to serve 400 million Chinese and 1 billion global users who have never been outdoors. Lightweight outdoor products do not necessarily mean going to distant outdoor areas, but to make nearby outdoor products more interesting and to make unfamiliar outdoor products more intimate. Lightweight outdoor products are not about competition and adventure, but about play and happiness; they are not about shocking and envy, but about making people feel "it's so simple, I can do it too". Lightweight outdoor products do not pursue subversive and extreme technological revolutions, but solve small problems that have been ignored one by one. Lightweight outdoor products do not provide excessive, wasteful, and complex functions, but provide useful, easy-to-use, and simple functions. Lightweight outdoor products are not only for one person to have fun, but also for a group of people to have fun. Lightweight outdoor products are not for you to become a hero, but for you to become a better family member, lover, friend, and a better ordinary person.

Miguang is also like this. It is backed by very strong photoelectric technology. Photoelectric signals can deliver energy and ingredients through the skin more accurately to the deep layers. What does precision skin care correspond to? It is not traditional skin care, nor biological skin care, but imprecise skin care. Of course, brands also need powerful products and solutions to prove and promote precision step by step.

Finally, I would like to share a case study of Durex. This was also my first time serving family planning products. Durex wanted to review the brand’s 90th anniversary and announce that the brand would enter the next 100 years. We needed to inspire the pride of more than 100,000 Durex employees around the world and tell consumers that Durex is a brand worthy of respect, not just a condom. We once again used the binary theory to divide Durex into love and sex. When everyone said that Durex represented sex, we went a step further and talked about love.

4. Binary diversion is a knife method

There are many theoretical bases for binary diversion, including linguistics, anthropology, cognitive psychology, behavioral science, etc. My friends used to tell me that 0 and 1 are the most beautiful languages ​​in the world, that is, binary languages ​​are the most beautiful. I felt uncomfortable after hearing this, it was too polarized, but I have to admit that humans are affected by genes, and when they come into contact with a vast, unknown world, when they face a decision, they are most likely to form dependence.

The binary diversion method is actually to create opposition artificially. It is a knife method that divides all needs, products, and scenarios into two. It has a very typical technique. I will first pull you to a battlefield with my standard as the core and the judgment standard. This standard is set by me, and I can use it to influence the basis and logic of your decision-making, that is, the decision-making chain. This is the basic use of binary diversion. You can use it to deal with product communication problems, category segmentation problems, and even brand positioning problems.

We who work in branding and marketing need to have a sense of pride in our hearts. Why do we have to think about differentiated advantages all day long? Why can't we consider what my overwhelming advantage is? In front of this advantage, you definitely can't beat me. If a brand does not have such a mentality, awareness and pattern, how can it drive so many dealers to work hard for me? How can it drive employees to work together to develop the market? How to convince consumers to choose me instead of him? Can it be done based on differences alone? We must bravely think about where the overwhelming advantage lies. Is it technology? A certain lifestyle? A very advanced consciousness? Or resources? All fragmented resources are piled up to form a unified advantage, which cannot be defeated.

In 2024, after interviewing nearly 300 marketing industry experts, brand founders and front-line operators, Digipont found that marketing change is a foregone conclusion and all brands have the opportunity to win again.

Whether it is a white-label, factory brand, famous brand, or brand, what everyone needs, in addition to their own solid brand power and product power, is to continuously enhance their innovative marketing capabilities in line with the context of the times.

This summit not only has more than 50 important industry guests and more than 2,000 brand marketers on site, but also representatives from high-quality industry organizations will attend. At the summit, everyone will work together to bridge the information gap in the brand marketing circle, aggregate upstream and downstream industry resources, and help everyone in the industry survive and move forward better.