Brand No. 1: 3 forms and 3 stages of seeding

Now everyone is aware of the importance of "planting grass", but many companies are prone to distortion when doing it, and in fact they still have a distorted understanding of "planting grass". In this article, let's analyze this issue.

1. Three forms: product promotion, breaking circle promotion, and mind promotion

Product recommendation: focus on function and strong experience

Consumers recognize brands through products, and complete their initial recognition of brands through product functions, services, and usage experience. Therefore, in this stage (consumer brand 0 to 1), the promotion should focus on the product's functions, usage, and experience. Let consumers know clearly what your product is, why they choose you, and why they trust you; that is:

• Clarify the category
• Clear differentiation
• Establishing Trust

Breaking the circle and planting grass: amplifying keywords and penetrating scenarios

After the product planting stage, we enter the stage of breaking the circle planting. The so-called breaking the circle planting is based on the brand user portrait in the first stage, gradually penetrating into competitors, category users, and then penetrating into cross-category and scenario users. Focusing on the A2-A3 population, complete the user population portrait, based on the A2-A3 user population portrait, iterate keywords and penetrate the population.

Mind planting: Brands occupy the mind

The core logic of a brand lies in the logic of the market. A brand is a tool for an enterprise and a way to occupy the minds of consumers. The core of branding is to make the brand = category and to let the brand represent characteristics. The form of planting grass must be consistent with the purpose of the brand. We plant grass, but it must grow into a big tree.

Only brands that leave a mark in the minds of consumers can overcome the backlash of traffic. Otherwise, they will continue to be blocked by traffic, the cost of media placement will be pushed up year by year, and the price asked by KOLs will naturally rise. From product selling points to keywords, from keywords to crowd portraits, from crowd portraits to labels, from labels to penetration, from penetration to the mind. Only by taking this thrilling leap can the brand complete its path of self-growth.

Whether online or offline, the ultimate competition is to achieve occupation in the minds of consumers. To achieve occupation with one word, let the brand replace the category and become the synonym of the new category. To cultivate the mind, we need to enter into the coordinated operation of all media and all channels. Online hits, offline harvesting, Internet celebrities bringing goods, KOL follow-up, and targeted elevator advertising areas to ignite.

When consumers are repeatedly exposed to "grass-planting content, live streaming, targeted advertising, and KOL short videos" during distribution and penetration, and identify with the "warmth" conveyed by the brand, the brand will gain a place in the minds of consumers, achieving a word occupation and eventually becoming synonymous with a new category/new track.

2. 3 stages of planting grass

0 to 10 million: Product promotion, functional selling points should be highlighted

At this stage, you can understand that the product should be placed before the brand. When the brand is unknown, consumers evaluate the brand by the product, and when the brand is well-known, consumers evaluate the product by the brand. From 0 to 10 million product recommendations, the functional selling points should be highlighted because the product's functions and the specific feelings brought by the experience are the basis of word of mouth.

Especially for new companies, the first step to opening the door to consumer awareness is to rely on the golden key of product strength; even if old brands launch new products, products must be the main focus.

For example: Swisse launched blood orange essence. In the first phase of Xiaohongshu, it focused on the benefits of blood orange and why blood orange can supplement collagen, helping consumers understand the benefits of blood orange. It even named the product directly after its function: Blood Orange Collagen Liquid (instead of Blood Orange Essence). The product nickname is "Collagen Liquid", which lowers the consumer's cognitive threshold and what you see is what you get. It helps consumers understand the benefits of blood orange by promoting its effects and principles.

10 million to 100 million: Amplify keywords and penetrate scenarios

After completing the product function-based promotion from 0 to 1, how to achieve the amplification from 1 to 10. The key lies in completing the crowd portrait through the data population in the first stage. Through the crowd portrait, circle the keywords, and promote the crowd around the keywords.

• Based on A4-A5 population
• Expanding the A2-A3 population through crowd profiling
• The method is to reset the core keywords

Take Xiaoxiandun as an example: in 2018, it mainly focused on weight loss and skin care; in 2019, it strengthened the extension of the concept of pregnancy care and anti-aging, and at the same time increased the percentage of skin care recommendations from 28% to 45%. This means that the combination of skin care and function is effective.

Focusing on product functions, Xiaoxiandun used weight loss and skin care as core keywords in 2018, and expanded to pregnancy care and anti-aging in 2019. From 2018 to now, Xiaoxiandun has posted a total of 422 notes on Xiaohongshu. In the past year alone, the number of Xiaoxiandun notes reached 2,202, including 231 business notes.

• 2 notes from top KOLs (1 million followers+)
• 31 notes from mid-level KOLs (200,000 to 1,000,000 followers)
• 375 notes from mid-level KOLs (1-20w followers)
• 13 notes from amateurs (1k-1w followers)

100 million to 1 billion: cross-border combination, large-scale encirclement

10 million to 100 million is 10 times, 100 million to 1 billion is also 10 times. The same 10 times, the brand's actions are different in magnitude. If you still stay in the grass planting method of the previous stage at this stage, even if you plant a lot of grass, you can't grow it into a big tree.

In the face of the increase in scale, it is time to establish the determination to sell everything and fight a big battle. In the process of enterprise development, there will always be a difficult decision (the darkest moment). Once this decision is made, the enterprise will bid farewell to mediocrity. Most companies do not lack this opportunity, but lack the courage, so they miss the critical period to seize the competitive vacancy. After the vacancy period is missed, even if you want to occupy it with ten or a hundred times the force, it will be useless - the opportunity is lost and the time will never come again.

From the perspective of user pool, the core of increasing from 100 million to 1 billion is to increase the user population from A2-3 to O-A1 through brand pull, and expand the brand's basic traffic. From brand population, to competitor population, to category population, to cross-category population, and scene population. The method is to do it through cross-border marketing, brand co-branding, grabbing new dividends of stage traffic, creating momentum, public relations, and advertising. Multi-dimensional and multi-scenario, to achieve multi-touch to the population and the general population.

Take Xiaoxiandun as an example:

• Cross-border marketing (cooperating with Didi Taxi to fight smog and deliver bird's nest);
• Launched co-branded products (Zhong Xuegao collaborated with bird's nest ice cream);
• Guochao cultural IP crossover model (customized version of Dream of Red Mansions);
• International awards/first place in various categories (landing on the Nasdaq big screen, becoming one of China's new craftsmen 100);
• 3.8 Queen's Day, invest in targeted advertising;
• Public welfare marketing (empty bottle recycling)