Duan Yongping and Jiang Xiaobai: Who understands marketing better?

There are a lot of invisible marketing now, and marketing is everywhere. Duan Yongping once said that marketing is not important, while Jiang Xiaobai once attracted the audience with his copywriting. Let's see who knows marketing better between Duan Yongping and Jiang Xiaobai~

It is a bit unreasonable to compare Duan Yongping and Jiang Xiaobai to see who knows marketing better. The purpose is to create a sense of conflict and contrast to attract readers' attention. Creating conflict is an important marketing concept.

When most people see this question, their intuitive answer is often: Jiang Xiaobai understands marketing better. But Daniel Kahneman reminded us a long time ago: Your first instinct is often wrong.

Duan Yongping is the one who understands marketing better.

People often say that marketing is not important, but Duan Yongping once said that marketing is not important at all. When I encounter this kind of situation, I always ask him: How do you know that Duan Yongping said this?

Some people think Duan Yongping is very low-key and rarely accepts interviews. When I meet such people, I will also ask: How do you know Duan Yongping is very low-key?

The truth is: Duan Yongping understands marketing better. The reason is: he makes you feel that he doesn't understand marketing, but you are very familiar with him and are willing to spread his views.

Jiang Xiaobai doesn’t know as much as Duan Yongping because: he makes many people think he knows a lot about marketing.

1. Let’s start with Jiang Xiaobai’s apology

In 2021, there was a wave of public opinion saying that Jiang Xiaobai did not taste good and that Jiang Xiaobai was an advertising creative company and did not focus on making products.

Jiang Xiaobai responded to the doubts with 100 apology posters, which became a hot search. However, this wave of hot searches is not good for Jiang Xiaobai's brand value. As a food brand, customers are first concerned about the quality, safety, and craftsmanship of the food, rather than whether the brand is interesting or fun.

For example, for Shangri-La Hotel, it is not enough to emphasize cleanliness, because this is something you have to do well, needless to say.

For Hanting, it is necessary to emphasize cleanliness because it is usually difficult to keep hotels at this price level clean. Customers are concerned that hotels at this price level are not clean enough.

The same goes for Jiang Xiaobai. For liquor at this price point, there are also concerns about quality. That’s why some people question that Jiang Xiaobai has no sorghum fields, no factories, and no sorghum in its sorghum fields.

The fact that such doubts can cause customers to worry shows that they also have such a perception. Brands should respond positively to customers’ concerns, rather than using marketing creativity to avoid this fact.

The fun and interesting spiritual value of a brand is the work after the brand is successful. What is success? It means that the brand fully represents the category. For Jiang Xiaobai, it means occupying an absolute dominant position in the small bottle wine category.

This absolute advantage means that when customers think of small bottles of wine, they think of Jiang Xiaobai instead of other brands. The simplest indicator is leading sales.

Therefore, Hanting regards cleanliness as a strategy. However, Jiang Xiaobai neglects to spread the product’s capabilities and does not even shy away from the fact that it is good at marketing.

Instead of responding directly, seriously and systematically to the questions raised about the factory and the origin of raw materials, they avoided them with a mischievous attitude.

A brand with strong communication capabilities, especially when this communication capability deviates from the core value of the brand, will have a counterproductive effect. In the case of Jiang Xiaobai, customers were concerned about the brand's product capabilities because of the brand's strong marketing capabilities, but he continued to use his marketing capabilities to respond to this concern.

What was the effect? ​​Customers were more convinced that Jiang Xiaobai was good at marketing, and by the way, they were more skeptical of its product capabilities.

2. Duan Yongping said marketing is not important

If marketing is not important, why did BBK spend so much money on advertising on CCTV? Marketing is obviously very important. When BBK was at its peak, someone inside the company suggested setting up an advertising company, because it would be better to do it on its own than to spend so much money on advertising companies every year.

Duan Yongping denied the suggestion.

His reasoning was that Coca-Cola was already a world-renowned brand, but it still handed over its advertising business to others. It was this focus on its own strengths that gave it its current position.

Duan Yongping understands strategy and marketing. More importantly, he lets everyone know that he doesn’t value marketing.

If a person really doesn’t value marketing, then you won’t know him at all. Just like Duan Yongping’s label of “mysterious rich man”, a mysterious rich man known by everyone is no longer a mysterious rich man.

3. Marketing is effective only when strategic positioning is correct

We believe that products, prices, channels, promotions and other aspects should be developed around the strategic positioning of the brand. For example, Nongfu Spring has outstanding marketing creativity, and many of its slogans have been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

"What kind of water gives birth to what kind of life"

“We don’t produce water, we are just nature’s transporters”

"Every drop of Nongfu Spring comes from a natural water source"

Unlike Jiang Xiaobai, Nongfu Spring’s marketing creativity has not deviated from its strategic positioning: the representative of the natural water category.

When attacked by Evergrande Ice Spring, Nongfu Spring did not respond in the same way as Jiang Xiaobai. Instead, it launched a documentary-style advertisement with the theme of "What kind of water gives birth to what kind of life", so that customers can feel that its water source is also very good.

Compared with Duan Yongping, Jiang Xiaobai is like a child who is afraid that others don’t know how clever he is, and shows off his creativity everywhere.

Compared with Nongfu Spring, Jiang Xiaobai is like a rookie who doesn’t know where to shoot his bullets. He should have used his resources to build his own product capabilities instead of deepening the customer perception that “Jiang Xiaobai is good at marketing.”

That is to say, when the strategic positioning is not clear, marketing creativity can easily backfire. Marketing is only effective when the strategic positioning is correct.

Among the 100 solemn statements that flooded the screen of Jiang Xiaobai, although there were responses to doubts about the product, the focus was not enough and it was drowned out by the jokes.

Shortly after we expressed our views that year, Jiang Xiaobai responded quickly.

Some people think that this is a designed ending, but we disagree. Because the spread of this last statement is far less than the previous 100 articles. If the spread of the 100 articles that were hotly discussed on the Internet was 500 million times, can the spread of this last statement be 5 million times?

5 million versus 500 million is not enough to reverse the impact that has already been caused. If it had been designed earlier, this statement would have been placed at the end of the 100 statements. So we think this is a remedial action, although the effect will not be very good, but at least the brand is aware of the problem.

4. Durex, Smartisan, and Cadillac

Durex is the king of topics in the microblog era, always able to grasp all kinds of sensitive social emotions. If you take stock of Durex's various magical operations, you will find that it is simply an encyclopedia of marketing creativity. There is no hot topic that it cannot catch up with, and no creativity that it cannot think of.

But none of them have anything to do with the product.

All of Durex's creativity is ineffective under Okamoto's ultra-thin strategy. Customers will think Durex is very creative and a humorous joke teller, but do customers need to tell jokes when using such products?

Customers will like you very much, but they may not necessarily use you. Compared with ultra-thin, those interesting jokes cannot complete the final blow: let customers pay.

A similar brand is Hammer. Luo Yonghao's copywriting ability is better than Huawei, Xiaomi and Apple. If Hammer, Huawei, Xiaomi and Apple were asked to tell jokes together, Hammer would be the clear winner. But what can be done? Customers still won't buy Hammer.

Some people say that Lei Jun has strong marketing ability and the good sales of Xiaomi mobile phones are closely related to his speeches. In fact, the real core value of Xiaomi mobile phones is that they use the Internet to solve the problems of channels and marketing.

Channel costs account for 35-40% of a mobile phone. Combined with the saved marketing costs, Xiaomi can produce a cost-effective mobile phone at a price of 2,000 yuan.

Making full use of the Internet to save on communication and channel costs is Xiaomi's winning formula. Lei Jun's speaking ability is just the icing on the cake.

When Hammer entered the market, there was no place for it. Vivo and OPPO were in the low-end market, Huawei and Apple were in the high-end market, and Xiaomi was in the middle. In terms of photography, Huawei was first, in terms of smart experience, Apple was first, and in terms of cost performance, Xiaomi was first.

When there are no hills left to occupy, the hammer will rush into the open area. The boss of any hill can come down to grab food, but the hammer cannot occupy any valuable high ground.

When there is no high ground to seize, the only way is to pull others down. Durex's strategy is very effective. Although it is men who buy products, it is women who can decide which products men buy.

Under the effective attack of Durex, other brands have become the appearance of not caring about women. Even the ultra-thin characteristics that Okamoto relies on have become the appearance of irresponsibility.

Look at the widely circulated copywriting of Hammer mobile phones, such as "the best mobile phone in the Eastern Hemisphere", "I don't want to win, I'm just serious", and "too beautiful to be a talent".

From the perspective of copywriting, there are no problems, but none of them are effective attacks. Tactical diligence cannot replace strategic laziness. Brands obsessed with riding on hot topics and being clever are like examinees who always want to get by with clever tricks, and never think about the meaning of learning and taking exams.

At the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, Cadillac invited a cosplay (anime costume game) to the stage.

Cadillac's customers are 40+ males, and the brand feels middle-aged, mature and stable. Hiring cosplayers to attract traffic can indeed have a short-term effect, but it will damage the brand value.

Another similar brand is Erke.

After 100 days of popularity, 500,000 people unfollowed it. The fundamental reason is that the product strength is not strong enough, and relying on a marketing behavior that hits the jackpot cannot truly build a brand.

Some people say that Erke can be the spokesperson for national sports brands. Don’t forget that to be the spokesperson for national sports brands, you must first be the leader in the country in terms of specific products.

Before Nike endorsed the American spirit, it also carefully produced waffle shoes and air cushion shoes. Before Wanglaoji endorsed the national beverage, it first surpassed Coca-Cola in canned sales. Before Geely Auto endorsed the national car brand, it first achieved the top sales of its own brand.

Some people say that you always talk about products, products, products, but I see that luxury brands never emphasize their products.

I think it's because you haven't looked up their history. Louis Vuitton started out as a luggage manufacturer, Burberry started out as a windbreaker manufacturer, and Hermès started out as a leather goods manufacturer. Any luxury brand is the best in a particular category, and then becomes the first choice of the upper class, and then slowly becomes a luxury product.

Even after becoming a luxury brand, they still stick to their core. Take Louis Vuitton as an example. It also makes tennis rackets, golf clubs, canes and other things that have nothing to do with travel luggage, but these products appear to serve their core customers.

And it only makes things that can fit in a suitcase.

Brands that are obsessed with creating hot topics are in a dangerous trend: they believe that communication can replace products and brands, and that they can win by being clever.

The best way to communicate is to focus on the core values ​​of the brand, so that such communication will be accumulated into lasting brand assets.

V. Conclusion

Marketing is very important, but people who really understand marketing should not let customers think that they understand marketing. Marketing creativity must be carried out under the premise of correct strategy. Only when the strategic positioning is correct can marketing creativity be effective.

Author: Zhang Zhiyu WeChat public account: Zhang Zhiyu