2024, Become a Brand that Listens to Advice

As the saying goes, listening to others' advice will keep you full. In terms of brand marketing, some businesses have become popular by listening to fans' suggestions. Let's take a look at these businesses that "listen to advice"~

As the saying goes, listening to advice will keep you full, and this is also true in the marketing world.

In 2023, the number of views on Xiaohongshu's related topics such as #遇事不知不知就听劝# and #听劝# exceeded 900 million times, and searches increased 51 times year-on-year, maintaining a high growth trend.

From the initial "ordinary people listen to advice and reform", to "culture and tourism listen to advice and get rich", to the recent influx of a large number of foreign netizens who "listen to advice", it can be seen that listening to advice has become the new traffic code of social media.

How can brands seize this wave of traffic? How can they enter the market? We have sorted out three ways to do it.

1. Increase brand awareness by upgrading products through “listening to advice”

The reason why brands are willing to "listen to advice" is actually to create a sense of participation for users and make them feel "valued." At the same time, they can also discover the real needs of users and make precise adjustments to products.

Xiaomi mobile phones have always relied on the "sense of participation" and unique "enthusiast" culture to complete Xiaomi's product research and development, and to upgrade the "weak user relationship" to a "strong user relationship" with high trust.

Youqu Youpin adjusted its product direction by "listening to advice" and entered the circle of young people by "creating creative ways to modify dolls", thus breaking through the dilemma of homogeneous competition.

Opening the store homepage, every new product is designed to make young people laugh: Shaqima = sharks riding horses, Bestie Family = honey living in the turtle shell, Sharkbee = sharks and bees...

The seemingly eye-catching design just meets the young people's preference for "ugly culture". The weird and ugly dolls are a way for young people to seek "personality expression" and an emotional appeal for their desire to "break through traditional constraints".

Similarly, there is the Feilian Umbrella Factory from Zhejiang. The boss found design inspiration from the comments section and launched the "Laser Reflective Umbrella", "Fishing Umbrella", "Six-Flower Umbrella"...

This wave of "listening to advice" operations enabled the umbrella factory to sell 1.3 million umbrellas last year, successfully reversing the crisis of poor sales.

Some brands have implemented “listening to advice” into their brand strategies to increase fan stickiness.

For example, the Korean brand Lovefire, after launching Liquid Foundation 2.0, responded to fans' voices of "Don't stop producing 1.0" and re-launched Liquid Foundation 1.0. Later, in response to fans' wishes of "wanting to have both liquid foundation and air cushion at the same time", it quickly launched a new link of "Buy liquid foundation and get air cushion for free".

Compared with other products, beauty products place more emphasis on appearance and usage. Generally, brands will choose to cooperate with beauty influencers and use "evaluation" and "teaching" methods to complete product market education from top to bottom.

Lianhuo, on the other hand, takes an equal attitude of "listening to the advice" of fans and improves products and brands together with users. On the one hand, it can make iterative products closer to user needs, and on the other hand, it can also make fans spontaneously support the brand and become hardcore fans.

In the era of user sovereignty, brands no longer need to "take charge of everything" as before, but can try to "decentralize appropriately" and let users participate in brand building. Perhaps the brand problem that has troubled you for a long time is hidden in a comment area with a brain-opening idea.

2. Stimulate UGC to renew brand image through "listening to advice"

Brand rejuvenation is not about changing packaging or shooting an advertisement, but about injecting vitality into the brand through active social media. The so-called "advisory" marketing is actually to use the power of user UGC to increase brand activity and renew the brand image.

The "domestic product team building" triggered by the Huaxizi incident last year is a good example.

Major domestic brands started live broadcasts to attract traffic, and netizens were spreading the word, determined not to leave out any of the old domestic brands.

Old domestic brands have "heeded the advice". Yumeijing registered a Douyin account overnight and gained more than 800,000 followers in one day; three old men from Vitality 28 started a live broadcast, and their products sold for 5 million yuan overnight and gained 3 million followers in 3 days...

Then, the Shanghai brand White Cat "listened to the advice of enthusiastic netizens: if there is no anchor, catch a white cat, which then triggered a new round of "animal-led sales" craze. Septwolves found a wolf-like Husky, Semir found a pony, and Weilong biscuits found a Luhua chicken...

This social event, co-created by brands and users, not only brought joy to the whole nation, but also gave many old domestic brands a new image.

Sincere communication of "listening to advice" naturally narrows the distance between the brand and users, and successfully breaks the public's stereotype that old domestic products are "outdated and not easy to use."

3. Establish a personal image and enhance brand identity by "listening to advice"

In the era of information explosion, a "personalized and precise" brand persona is more conducive to dissemination and attracting fans.

While other platforms are still competing on prices, Taobao relies on "listening to advice" to pamper its fans, creating a brand image of "Taobao-like personality" and directly reaching the next level.

For example, designer Chen Ergou casually posted a video of a silk stocking goblet that he made himself, which unexpectedly became popular. Netizens in the comment section immediately called on Taobao to post the link.

After "listening to the advice", Taobao immediately contacted the creators and factories for cooperation, and launched crowdfunding through the Alifish "Make New Goods" platform. The crowdfunding plan was 100% achieved in just 5 days after the project was launched, which scared Chen Ergou so much that he posted a notice overnight.

At the same time, he also started daily "cloud supervision" of Chen Ergou by posting on Weibo and making videos, with the emphasis on not letting down any fan.

Taobao's move has made the "all-powerful Taobao" persona deeply rooted in the minds of users, and has also subtly established a sense of trust with users: whether it is a novel item or a creative idea, Taobao can help you realize it.

Taobao respects the voice of every user and allows them to witness the entire creative process, from idea to physical product. This is also an iterative upgrade from "purchasing goods" to "purchasing experience."

IV. Conclusion

Persuasive marketing is essentially another form of "crowdfunding marketing."

Low threshold for interaction allows everyone to participate, and leverages the power of the masses to increase marketing exposure. High sense of participation allows users to participate in product design and promotion, making the product more in line with user needs.

The popularity of "listen to advice" marketing is also a new warning to major brands: learn to change the user's perspective and listen more to what the user wants.

Finally, listening to advice is just a traffic-generating strategy. The brand’s sincerity and execution are the key to word-of-mouth effect.

Author: Aye; WeChat public account: Shock Copywriter