Brand No. 1: 24 business rules

To build a brand, you also need to understand business warfare. This article summarizes 24 rules of business warfare. Let’s take a look.

1. Four dimensions of co-branding

When we engage in cross-border branding, we need four dimensions: brand collaboration, channel interconnection, product integration, and member mobilization.

2. There is a lot of buzz, but no sales

The brand's communication must be implemented in the sales of products. If the brand does not solve the product's problems, the communication will be like using an anti-aircraft cannon to kill a mosquito, with volume but no sales.

3. Come from the masses

The problem that most brands face is still the problem of sales. The problem of sales is ultimately the words and discourses of the reasons for purchase. The so-called words are the copywriting, and the so-called discourses are the on-site sales tactics. If you can sell goods, it is usually at the sales site and in the mouths of sales champions. You must be down-to-earth, come from the masses, go to the masses; you must believe in the masses and mobilize the masses.

4. Unifying interests means unifying thoughts

Organizational change is not a matter of organizational strength, but a matter of the boss and the brothers who have worked hard together. Change adjusts the organization and changes the interest groups. As the organization grows, there are more factions, some hidden and some visible, and some not. Unless the person who does this has the deep trust of the boss, he will be the victim of the interests.

5. Counter-common sense

When a brand has not yet reached the top, it should seek cooperation with the top outside the category, rather than within the category. There is no grass under a big tree. If you seek cooperation with the top in the category, in the end, people will only remember the top, not you. Cross-category brand cooperation is common sense that goes against common sense, logic that goes against logic, and experience that goes against experience.

6. Origin Crowd

When there is no clear portrait of the origin crowd, premature brand emotional publicity will attract non-origin crowds. At this time, it is often difficult to sustain after a wave of sales. We still have to go back to the origin crowd and find the brand's tone through the portrait of the origin crowd. Brand tone is not the personal preference of the brand manager, but the discovery, excavation and sublimation of the emotions and feelings of the origin crowd.

7. Innovation

The premise of innovation is that your process must be very clear, so that you have a foundation for innovation. If you don’t even have a solid foundation for the process, and you talk about innovation, it’s just like a bear innovation, creating one and then discarding one; the organization will not be able to accumulate the little experience brought by innovation.

8. Don’t be superstitious about celebrity endorsements

I am against hiring spokespersons. Especially at the beginning of a brand creation, instead of spending money on spokespersons, it is better to spend money on your real users, your real consumers. This is an era of co-creation between consumers and brands. We should spend money and budget on real consumers. Don’t be superstitious about the wild power of stars at the beginning of a brand creation.

9. Seeking instant benefits

A person who is eager for quick success and instant benefits cannot build a good brand. Brand managers should not use small and fragmented actions to delay their own anxiety. This is very dangerous, not only for the company, but also for their own career. Many actions beyond the scope are to delay anxiety. When brand managers regard the boss as the only standard for work, they lose the basic judgment and common sense of the market. Therefore, they prove their eloquence and competition. When a brand manager wants to prove to the boss, it is the beginning of the performance.

10. Global Perspective and Stage Theory

If the whole system and all stages are fully activated right from the start, either the brand manager is really awesome or he is really an idiot. It is necessary to have a global perspective and a stage-by-stage perspective.

11. Selling point parasitism

The selling point of the product should be parasitic in the scene, and brought out vividly through the expressiveness of the content, selling point-scene-content. If you are not sure, you can use the AB test method in the first round. The difference between now and the past is that the distance between brands and consumers is getting closer and closer. Xiaohongshu, e-commerce, forums, and communities are all the best ways for brands to reach consumers. Through AB testing, you can find the most lethal point. The data speaks for itself, which means judging in observation, rather than observing in judgment.

12. Appearance

If you want to improve the quality of your product, then your product appearance must be able to support it. Low-priced products have more content than form, while high-priced products have more form than content. If you like cleanliness, you can stay at Hanting, but you can't stay at Shangri-La. If you like cleanliness, you can drink Xiaodao to become a great person, but you can't drink Maotai to become a great person.

13. Common sense judgment

The real judgment should come from your consumers. Your consumers are the DNA of your brand, not the brand manager, let alone the boss. I will be selfless and my heart will be bright. In fact, winning the choice of customers is the ultimate goal. The only profound thing is common sense. The biggest risk we face does not come from knowledge itself, but from common sense. Often, the more common sense the problem is, the more irreparable losses it causes to the company.

14. Location

The first element of business is to identify and occupy an advantageous position. This advantageous position comes from: insight into category differentiation, externalization of brand symbols, and understanding of competitive positioning.

The pursuit of product quality is the foundation of building a brand. You have never seen a strong brand without strong products in the market. For example, when we mention Apple, we first think of the iPhone. Of course, Apple is not just the iPhone. Another example is that when we mention Moutai, the first thing we think of is 53° and Feitian Moutai. On the contrary, you have seen many good products in the market, but they cannot create a brand; even more often, we see that there are no strong products but they are obsessed with building a brand.

Therefore, the product is the foundation, the foundation, the foundation.

• When you are still a brand, consumers evaluate brands by products
• When you are a brand, consumers judge your products by your brand

15. Pechoin vs. Herborist

By claiming to be "natural and non-irritating", Pechoin took the lead in occupying the "herbal" concept that should have belonged to Herborist, and then came from behind. However, the repositioned Herborist has assessed the situation and seized the trend of the revival of Chinese herbal medicine culture. Through the "Chinese herbal medicine skin care expert", it has highly focused on and strengthened the mental resources of Chinese herbal medicine skin care, and achieved the greatest differentiation from foreign brands and brands such as Pechoin and Herborist at a higher level, and established a higher cognitive potential.

After that, all the communication and operations of Xiangyi Bencao were focused on this point, firmly grasping the "Chinese herbal medicine". However, Pechoin did the opposite, relying on entertainment marketing, brain-opening advertising, and creative advertising to attract attention and earn gimmicks, and pursue so-called fashion and youth. However, it forgot the original way to success and is losing its foundation for survival, the mental advantage.

16. Homogenization is essentially cognitive assimilation

The essence of homogeneity is the cognitive homogeneity. In the eyes of consumers, homogeneity means "equal value" - equal value. Without unique value, your position is a spare tire, and the choice of you is random.

Homogeneity stems from fierce competition. The great abundance of goods, rapid technological advancement, intensified competition, and information overload have caused the dilution of consumer attention and the laziness of thinking, dullness of discernment, and loss of decision-making ability in consumer behavior, leading to selection difficulties.

There are two aspects of homogenization: first, convergence in fact; second, convergence in cognition despite differences in fact.

17. Plagiarism is a leader’s privilege

After a brand achieves category leadership, it will lose market sensitivity and even innovation capabilities due to the continuous expansion of the enterprise scale and the increasing size of the body. However, small enterprises that survive in the cracks can always stay close to the front line, more easily capture and grasp consumer trends, and be more innovative.

Therefore, category leaders should always pay attention to the trends of small businesses, follow up, copy, and block the effective innovation behaviors of small businesses in a timely manner, harvest their innovation results, and thus achieve continuous evolution of the brand. In this way, no matter where the wind blows, leaders can always stand at the forefront.

18. Vertically deepen the core business

You should vertically cultivate your main business, rather than horizontally expand into other fields when the growth of your main business is unfavorable, unless you can be the first in the new field. The so-called "growth bottleneck" of the industry is actually your own "thinking bottleneck". As long as you continue to deepen and adjust your strategic positioning and continue to expand demand, there will be no so-called "bottleneck" or "ceiling".

19. Only when you are number one can your brand story be more appealing

As long as there is a vacancy in the mind, you must seize it first, even if there is no clear customer benefit point. Only when you are first, your brand story will be appealing. On the contrary, it is difficult to become first just by having an appealing brand story.

20. Differentiated purchase reasons: simple, clear, and powerful

Those award-winning packaging designs that are creative and beautiful can only gain short-term curiosity and trial purchases, but it is difficult to achieve repeat purchases because they are out of position.

An energy bar that has been developed for four years, with annual sales of $100 million, and was acquired for $600 million. The packaging elements are simple and straightforward: "12g protein bar 3 proteins + 6 almonds + 4 cashews and two dates without scraps, blueberry flavor", which is almost all the content on the packaging paper. The differentiated purchase reason is simple, clear and powerful.

21. Breaking the Color

The so-called new category is just a reason for consumers to choose. If the new category cannot convey a clear or clearly perceived reason for differentiation, then the so-called new category is all "appearance" and "all false".

22. Polish the brand and let the stars stand on the stage

From Xijiade Dumplings to Xijiade Shrimp Dumplings, from Awu Gourmet to Awu Yellow River Carp, the focus is not on regressing to smaller categories, but on polishing the brand and letting celebrities endorse it.

23. Without a cognitive foundation, you will end up talking to yourself.

The process of finding and establishing positioning is the process of using all common sense advantages. The establishment of a new cognition must be based on the shoulders of another old cognition, layer by layer, step by step, and constantly deepen the theme. "×× leader", "×× expert", "×× first, ×× second", "better ××" and other claims, if there is no cognitive foundation as a foundation, will become self-talk.

24. A narrow road is better than courage

In the battle for Shu and Han, Liu Bang occupied Hanzhong (occupied an advantageous position). Xiang Yu wanted to attack but could not break in, but Liu Bang could attack at any time, achieving the strategic effect of being able to conquer the world directly or retreat to a corner (occupied an advantageous position). Business is first and foremost a battle for position. Occupying a position means finding the narrow road where the brave will win when two people meet.

Author: Lao Gao (staying in Houshan)

Source: WeChat official account: Lao Gao Business and Brand (ID: PPD6977)