Is “giving parents Zulijian” the right strategy?

The product becomes a gift because of the brand potential. Is “giving parents Zulijian” a false concept of gift giving?

A friend sent me a short video of a conversation between the founder and successor of Zulijian. The founder believed that advertising "Send Zulijian to parents" on TV and in the media would lead customers to buy Zulijian as gifts for their parents, "because there is nothing left to give to parents."

The successor believed that the comfort of the product should be emphasized, and this comfort should be discussed in the travel scene. This strategy was opposed by the founder, on the grounds that the travel scene was too small, and the second reason was that "giving parents Zulijian" was placed in the first place, and comfort was discussed later.

Our views are as follows: It is not enough to just talk about gifts; a product becomes a gift because of brand potential, not advertising; brand potential comes from correct positioning and sales leadership.

The phrase "give parents Zulijian" can pop up in my mind, probably because of the case of "giving elders golden wine".

The reason why “giving elders golden wine” can appear is also because of “I will not accept any gifts during the holidays this year, and the only gift I will accept is Melatonin”.

However, Golden Wine did not replicate the success of Melatonin because the former only saw the advertisement of Melatonin but did not see what it did before advertising.

1. “Gift Positioning” is a pseudo-concept

When talking about Melatonin, many people think of "I won't accept any gifts this year, I'll only accept Melatonin." They will naturally equate Melatonin's success with the success of gift positioning. However, this is not the case.

Melatonin was promoted on a large scale before it was officially launched on the market, and the main method was to publish soft articles in newspapers. "Melatonin taken by astronauts": Astronauts on the Columbia space shuttle used large doses of Melatonin to help them fall asleep, and it did not produce the side effects of other sleeping pills.

"Human life expectancy is expected to reach 150 years old": As long as you sleep well, you can hope to live to 150 years old.

"Top Ten Technologies in the World": The last nine are true, only the number one, Melatonin, is fake.

"Two Biological Atomic Bombs": It put the Dolly the sheep (cloning) technology, which was a world-class topic at the time, on a par with Melatonin, thus improving the academic status of Melatonin.

"Americans sleep well, what should China do?" The US government FDA has determined that Melatonin has no side effects, which has surprised 50 million insomniacs in the United States.

"Drivers should use "Melatonin" with caution": Mellatonin's sleep-promoting effect is so good that drivers who drive frequently should use it with caution.

"Without sleep, people can only live for five days": Compared to living 20 days without food and 7 days without water, it emphasizes the importance of sleep.

"Is it a problem if you don't poop for a day?": Talking about the importance of defecation, paving the way for Melatonin's laxative function. "After the Storm": denouncing the mixed fish and dragons in the health care product market, calling for rational thinking, and not rejecting Melatonin, which is highly praised by the United States.

In order to make potential customers believe these soft articles, Melatonin also cleverly adjusted the delivery method:

• Do not publish in the advertising section, but in the health, sports, international news, and social news sections with high readership rates;
• There should be no press releases from other companies around the article. It is best if this page is full of text without advertisements.
• The title of the article cannot be changed, it must be large and eye-catching, the font and size of the article must be consistent with the main text of the newspaper, the words "food propaganda" cannot be used, no hotline number should be included, and no black frame should be added;
• Must be accompanied by a newsletter, such as "Special Report", "Global Knowledge", "Hotspot Perspective", "Focus Perspective", "Focus News", etc.;
• Each soft article must be published separately and cannot be published together with other articles;
• The title is large and eye-catching, and the font size is the same as that of a newspaper, disguised as a news article.

Melatonin also published a book called "Sweeping the World", which said that US President Clinton and Pope John Paul II were taking Melatonin. It also said that the emergence of Melatonin has increased the average age of social crimes, because the elderly who take Melatonin are as energetic as young people.

These methods were carried forward by later generations and upgraded to conducting plant experiments on CCTV Science Channel (Nongfu Spring), getting opinion leaders to recommend on Xiaohongshu and Weibo (Perfect Diary), participating in talk shows on CCTV (Jicao), product placement in popular costume dramas (Dong'e Ejiao), inviting industry masters to endorse the products (Xiaoguan Tea), and publishing memoirs to hype that the products can protect the liver (Moutai).

At the same time, the effect of public relations promotion is obviously better than advertising bombardment. Reviewing the success path of Melatonin, we will find that its public relations method is very clever and effective. We believe that this is the key to its success. In contrast, the promotion of Golden Wine is a bit hasty.

First of all, gifts are not a real positioning, but the result of the brand's best-selling. Secondly, creating a brand requires patience and using public relations to build the brand.

The key to building a brand through PR is to appeal to functional benefits. Many people do not agree with functional benefits because brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike, and Louis Vuitton emphasize spiritual values. We suggest that these people look back at the early history of these brands to see how they grew up, rather than what they did after they became successful.

Melatonin's early PR efforts focused on its sleep-aiding and intestinal functions. From 1997 to 2000, the advertisements were: "Sleep well, defecation is smooth, and energy is strong." But around 2000, cheap melatonin (sleep-aiding, 30 yuan a month) and slimming teas that promote intestinal smoothness (represented by Biostime) appeared on the market.

Melatonin, which emphasizes functionality, fell into homogeneous competition. The state stipulates that there are only 22 functions of health products, but there are far more than 22 health product brands in the country. It was at this time that Melatonin turned to the gift track and the famous slogan was born. Being shaped as a gift can indeed increase the brand value, but it must be based on functional appeal. This is where Golden Wine failed.

But why do so many brands fall into this trap - skipping functionality and directly positioning gifts? We believe that the main reason is that decision makers are trapped in internal thinking. Decision makers trapped in internal thinking ignore the true psychological state of customers and take their own feelings as the feelings of customers, which may be the reason why they fall into the trap.

2. Why is gift positioning popular?

The reason why gift positioning is popular is due to misattribution. Recently, there is Xiaoguan Tea, and in the past, there is Melatonin. The success of these two brands has created an illusion for entrepreneurs: the success of a brand is to become a gift. This sentence can be interpreted in two ways: the manifestation of a brand's success is to become a gift, and the reason for a brand's success is to become a gift. In fact, the former interpretation is correct, but the latter interpretation is wrong.

The brand becoming a gift is the result of the brand's success, not the cause. Many people attribute the success of Melatonin to its gift positioning, because it looks like that on the surface, and even Shi Yuzhu himself said so.

In fact, this is totally wrong. First of all, you cannot believe the manipulator's words, because his speech itself is also an act of propaganda. Secondly, you must really go back to the historical scene to discover the truth.

After the failure of Giant Group, Shi Yuzhu concentrated on the Melatonin project. Before officially launching the advertising campaign, Shi Yuzhu and his team wrote hundreds of soft articles for promotional testing. The ones with relatively good results include: People can only live for five days without sleep, two biological atomic bombs, not defecating for a day is equivalent to smoking three packs of cigarettes, Zhang Xueliang who is sleepy in summer, how astronauts sleep, people can only live for five days without sleep, women at forty, are they flowers or tofu dregs, and can humans live forever.

All these contents point to one core: sleep is important, and smooth intestines are important. The soft article promotion effect of Shi Yuzhu's team is so good that more than ten years later, some people still make business out of cleaning intestines.

Shi Yuzhu's team first sent out hundreds of soft articles and tested them in authoritative newspapers and publications. After obtaining the test results, they continued to expand the scope of publicity.

When potential customers began to worry about sleep improvement and intestinal patency, Melatonin appeared. I believe that Melatonin's operation also inspired a reporter named Zhong from Zhejiang Daily. After resigning, reporter Zhong founded a beverage company and became China's richest man for the first time in 2020.

The most famous brand of this beverage company is Nongfu Spring. Nongfu Spring and Melatonin were launched at the same time in 1997, and their PR methods were surprisingly the same. They both promoted the products through soft articles in newspapers and magazines, telling potential customers that improved sleep can prolong life, smooth intestines can also help, and that drinking water should contain minerals, which happened to cause us panic.

After everyone was provoked to be anxious, their products appeared, which just happened to relieve your anxiety. So Melatonin and Nongfu Spring ushered in waves of best-selling. When the best-selling began, there was no need to scare us anymore. Because the best-selling itself is enough to cause best-selling. And only after the product is best-selling, it has the opportunity to become a gift.

Even their peers didn’t notice this move, as they thought it was a success in gift positioning. Xiaoguan Tea was the first to complete the branding of Chinese tea, evolving a semi-industrial tea category into an industrial product with clear standards. Specifically, it used industrialized processes to transform the industrial chain, making the output of tea stable, quality controllable, and standards clear, which is the prerequisite for becoming a brand.

Secondly, it simplifies customer choices, with unified master standards, unified small can appearance, unified price system, unified store decoration, unified one can one brew, and a unified 4 grams per brew, so that potential customers do not have to worry about origin, quality, variety, etc. when purchasing, and do not have to explain the value of the product when giving gifts.

Then, the small can tea has a reason to become a gift. Instead of appearing as a gift from the beginning. In 2009, Bama Tea tried to position itself as a "gift tea", but soon gave up.

Wang Laoji will also launch gift marketing during the Spring Festival. In the eyes of Chinese people, Wang Laoji's red can appearance and the word "Ji" in its name are very auspicious. But we know that if Wang Laoji is not popular, it will not be used as a gift. Wang Laoji is popular because it is positioned as a beverage to prevent getting angry.

After the failure of Bama Tea, which was positioned as a gift tea in 2009, in 2020, there were nearly 2,000 exclusive stores nationwide, leading the industry. At this time, potential customers began to buy Bama as a gift. When you name yourself as a gift tea but it doesn't sell well, potential customers will simply ignore you.

When you are popular, potential customers will regard you as a gift even if you don’t say you are a gift. Dong’e Ejiao is also regarded as a gift, but he didn’t say he was a gift. Instead, he said “Dong’e Ejiao, a national treasure for nourishment”; Six Walnuts is also regarded as a gift, but he said “Use your brain regularly and drink more Six Walnuts”; just like when a person goes on a blind date or a job search, he won’t directly say how excellent he is, let alone say he is here for a blind date. Instead, he will show his excellence through his conversation, experience, clothing, and cultivation.

However, many brands directly say that they are suitable gifts for someone, just like a person directly saying that he is suitable for blind dates. There are many ways for a brand to become a gift, and direct gift positioning may be the worst one.

In conclusion

The gift positioning thinking, directly saying "give to elders/leaders/parents so and so" is ineffective. The scenario thinking approach, directly saying "we focus on a certain scenario" is also ineffective. For example, the success of BMW cars is focused on the concept of "driving", the success of Jiang Xiaobai is focused on the concept of "youth", and the success of Feihe milk powder is focused on the concept of "more suitable".

Then they find the most suitable origin group based on their own concepts.

It is wrong to start thinking from the perspective of scene, crowd, or market, because they are not the primary reasons. Moreover, you cannot occupy any scene or crowd. You can send gifts to your elders, but others cannot? You can declare that you focus on a scene, but others cannot? But a brand can occupy a concept or a word.

For example, when you talk about "safe cars", you can only think of Volvo, and when you talk about "hot pot", you can only remember Haidilao. More importantly, a concept or a feature can cover many groups of people. One group of people can have many concepts.

Author: Zhang Zhiyu

Source: WeChat public account: "Zhang Zhiyu (ID: zhiyu2307)"