Small and medium-sized brand owners are trapped in the game

In today's business environment, small and medium-sized brands face fierce market competition and a variety of marketing strategy choices. Many brand owners struggle with various marketing "plays" and find it difficult to determine which strategy is best for their brand. This article will delve into the challenges that small and medium-sized brands encounter in the process of e-commerce growth, analyze different marketing strategies, and provide practical suggestions to help small and medium-sized brands find a growth path that suits them.

The problem faced by many small and medium-sized bosses is that there are so many different playing styles that they don’t know which one to choose.

Bosses all have strong connections. During the brand operation process, they will constantly use their connections to consult which strategy is suitable for them. As a result, the more they ask, the more confused they become. Even employees have different ideas. Many bosses I have met face this problem.

The conclusion is that Douyin, live broadcast rooms, top anchors on Taobao, closed-loop stores on Xiaohongshu, traffic injection on Xiaohongshu, and seeding on Xiaohongshu all seem to be possible, and some friends have already done it.

Anyway, there are many suitable playing methods, but the budget is very small.

The strategy is like refining selling points. There are always selling points that have been successful in other products, but there is only one core selling point that suits you. The key is how to find your own core selling point.

We should be the only company in the industry that serves small and medium-sized brands and the growth of e-commerce. In the past few years, we have talked with and operated with hundreds of clients. There are several strategies that are not suitable for 90% of small and medium-sized brands. You can rule them out first. If you really want to do it, I suggest you think twice!

1. Tik Tok Live

It is true that there are people who make money through live streaming, but they are mainly engaged in products with low to medium customer price points and quick decision-making, such as food, department stores, books, etc.

People who make important decisions in the fields of maternal and child care, health, skin care, etc. are not suitable for Douyin live streaming, especially if they go to great lengths to set up a live streaming room and invest in traffic, but end up losing money.

I will not elaborate on how expensive Tik Tok's traffic is now. It is no longer the gentle little lamb it used to be, but now the big bad wolf that wants to eat you at any time. The budget is insufficient, and the team does not have the Tik Tok genes. It is impossible to do Tik Tok well.

Labor is expensive, traffic costs are high, return rates are high, and it’s a waste of money.

2. Top Live Streaming on Taobao

For white-label products with medium and high customer orders, going on live broadcasts by experts is just a waste of money. When a certain mushroom comes out, I know that several white-label products have been launched. Trying to ensure ROI is just a waste of money.

The brand also believed the contract guaranteeing ROI? I have never seen a contract being fulfilled. Anyway, the money will not be refunded, but the schedule will be arranged for you.

Some brands will even boast that they know the business director or vice president of a top anchor. I've heard so many stories about this that my ears are callused. But in the end, the products can't be sold. Connections don't increase ROI. You treat them as a friend, but they treat you as a loser.

Li Jiaqi? Then you have to make sure you can be on the show. If you do nothing and just rely on live streaming, I don’t recommend it even if you spend money to get Li Jiaqi.

Not much was sold in the live broadcast room, resulting in a pile of unsold inventory.

3. Xiaohongshu Information Flow

Are there any businesses that make money with this stuff? Yes, I have seen it, optimizing materials, constantly testing, low cost of attracting new customers, and switching to private domains, including products with medium and high customer unit prices, local life, etc.

But there are category restrictions for most brands. It's like taking drugs. If you don't invest, there will be no traffic. If you invest, the conversion rate will not be high. If you want to invest in information flow, you must have basic content to plant grass, and then the information flow effect will be good. If you don't do anything and expect to use money to solve the traffic problem, you will most likely lose money in the end.

4. Douyin influencer short video trailer matrix

Good influencers are not pure commission-based, and bad influencers are hard to lead. The matrix strategy of pure commission with 0 pit fees is suitable for high-gross-profit products, and the products must also be differentiated, otherwise the sales will be less than the samples given away.

And aren’t employee wages a cost?

This way of playing was okay before, but it’s no longer possible now because everyone wants to get something for free, there are too many products and not enough experts.

5. Planting Grass Rashly

Let me tell you a story from a previous incident. One day I met the owners of two skin care brands. Both of them produced cleansers, one for men and the other for women.

The prices are not expensive and they are all called amino acid facial cleansers.

Such a product is definitely not easy to promote.

Many brands do develop good products, but one thing that is unexpected is that if every brand has good products, why would consumers buy from you? What’s more, you are just a white label. Moreover, many so-called good products are not felt by consumers.

Therefore, many product recommendations have turned into finding experts, who will then talk about the users’ pain points of face cleansing + the product’s selling points + effects, or do a before/after. They do this regardless of the price range or the age of the population, and the final effect is very poor.

For new products, you should first make them recognizable. Everyone calls it amino acid facial cleanser, but you must not call it amino acid facial cleanser. If you don’t know what to call it, look for inspiration from the ingredient list.

This is not just a name, but also a product positioning. Xiwuji is positioned on Matsutake mushrooms, and all selling points, stories, and materials revolve around Matsutake mushrooms.

This is the direction of the brand.

Many bosses don't think this through, thinking that poor sales are a matter of traffic, and rush to launch. As a result, the direction is wrong and the efforts are in vain.

6. Supplement

Let’s talk about product pricing. Don’t start with a medium or low price. Medium or low prices are easy to sell, but the profit is low.

There are two ways to create a good product. Either the price is medium to high, which is different from the competition. This requires a high level of operation team. Our team likes to target medium to high customer orders the most. Or, the Xiaomi approach is the ultimate cost-effectiveness. The product is good and not expensive, but this approach does not highlight the price, but the quality, so that you feel the value first.

It is more difficult for start-up brands this year, but even if the start-up brands we cooperated with have achieved all the growth in the past two months, I have always said that there are only a few ways to play, and there are only 36 36 strategies. The key is to know which strategies cannot be used, and to find the strategy that suits your product based on category, pricing, selling point, budget, and team capabilities.