0 cost to build brand

This article starts with the examples of Bailemos dance platform and Xiamen tea brand, briefly introduces the positioning resetting process of the two brands, analyzes the advantages of brand positioning in a relatively comprehensive manner, and emphasizes the key role of "correct positioning" in brand creation. Recommended for friends who are interested in brand operation.

Many people have a misunderstanding that creating a brand requires a lot of money, so branding is something that can only be done after a company is successful.

However, this is not the case. It is not that a company can only create a brand after it is successful, but that a company can only become successful if it has a brand.

Thinking that “a company can only build a brand if it is successful” is like thinking that “hard work can make you rich”, both are cognitive biases.

The real way to get rich is to occupy a key node.

The ancients said: "Wealth lies in numerology, not in hard work; profit lies in the situation, not in farming."

A true brand also occupies a key node, but it occupies it in cognition, and cognitive resources are public.

So in essence, creating a brand is to occupy a public cognitive resource, and its cost is 0.

1. Strategic repositioning, focusing on core groups

When we were consulting for a dance school in Boston (Bailemos Dance Platform), the founder Pan Hongquan said that students prefer white teachers because they feel they are more professional; Chinese students also think that their dancing talent is not as good as that of white people. However, all the teachers here are Chinese.

Our advice is to start by shifting perspective.

Turn the disadvantages of Chinese teachers into advantages: Who says only white people can dance professionally? Chinese people can also be professional enough. At the same time, we can export the same confident values ​​of ethnic minorities and focus on dance training for the Chinese population.

After gaining a foothold in the Chinese community, the target population was expanded to include ethnic minorities such as Asians and Latinos, and finally the minorities in the white community were also targeted.

The minority will eventually become the majority, and this is the idea behind creating a large category.

If it is limited to the Chinese population, the category share will naturally be limited. We can also understand it as developing from a flanking war to an offensive war, continuously injecting brand potential.

Of course, a flank battle must begin in a sufficiently narrow area, with a position that is narrow enough to be defended.

We suggest that Bailemos focus on Latin dance training for Chinese teenagers aged 5-14, first win the competition in the focused market, and then expand gradually.

Bailemos founder Pan Hongquan agreed with our suggestion.

She graduated from Salem State University in Massachusetts, where she received a performing arts scholarship from the New England region.

From 2016 to 2018, she was a member of the MIT Ballroom Dance Team, Salem State University Dance Theater, and Salem State Repertory Theatre. She has performed leading roles in the Broadway dance drama Cell Block Tango, the original dance dramas Yi, Am I The Only One, and Need a person to accompany.

Her strength is enough to support her early positioning. Her own experience also proves that Chinese people have equally good dancing talents, which can give Chinese students enough confidence.

In fact, this was also Martin Luther King’s strategy.

At first, he advocated for the human rights of black people and fought for the rights that black people deserved. Later, he fought for the rights that the lower-class white people deserved, and was no longer restricted by his own background.

From the perspective of brand positioning, this is also a strategy to expand product categories.

Bailemos' values ​​were recognized by the mayor of Boston, who invited Pan Hongquan and her team to participate in community activities.

The mayor of Boston is also of Chinese descent. She believes that Bailemos' values ​​are consistent with the tradition of mutual support among Chinese people when they first arrived in North America more than 100 years ago.

And because of this opportunity, Bailemos cooperated with the North American Chinese Federation, and the latter became her partner.

The key to this case is "repositioning".

Positioning theory believes that behind every powerful thing there is a structural weakness that cannot be overcome.

For example, the United States is number one in the world, but it has risen as a hegemonic power. Its inherent weakness is that it cannot rise peacefully, and this has become the national strategy of the Eastern superpower.

Since every powerful thing has weaknesses, seemingly weak things also have strong parts.

For example, Bailemos was founded by a Chinese-American. Many customers believe that Chinese people have no talent for dancing and that Chinese coaches are not as professional as white coaches.

These are all weaknesses, but these weaknesses can be turned into strengths.

2. Focus on core items and penetrate core categories

This brand is a typical tea chain brand in Xiamen. Like all tea chain brands, it tries to win customers with various creative ideas.

There are hundreds of product models in the warehouse, and the prices on the shelves are endless. The product categories are fully covered, and they have all kinds of tea that you can name.

His expectation for brand positioning is to attract everyone's attention with a new idea.

However, my advice to him is: cut off all product models and just focus on making one small box package.

At first, the boss did not understand the strategy of "focusing on a small box and standing against small can tea."

He thought that he had tried this small box and it didn't work well. He expected me to give him a new idea and add a new item to the hundreds of items.

This is obviously not common sense. If you can't do well with hundreds of products, how can you do well by focusing on one brand?

After a long period of anxiety, after understanding "focusing on a small box package", he still didn't understand "standing on the opposite side of the small can of tea".

This tug-of-war lasted for a long time until Xiaoguan Tea launched a new brand of 2000m Plateau Black Tea, and he finally accepted it.

Because the core of the strategy I gave is "New-style Chinese tea, national gift tea", and the strategy of 2000-meter plateau black tea is "New-style Chinese tea, China's good black tea".

But the best dissemination window was also missed.

In May 2020, I felt mixed emotions when I saw the branding plan of Xiaoguan Tea’s new brand, 2000m Plateau Black Tea, announced in the industry.

The good news is that Xiaoguan Tea has finally started its self-attack and filled in the missing link. The good news is that our plan coincides with that of Xiaoguan Tea.

Sadly, my proposal was submitted to Party A one and a half months earlier, but was not adopted. Now it has been taken over by 2000-meter plateau black tea, which is a pity.

"Du Guoying, the founder of Xiaoguan Tea, recommended "Positioning" at Chaos University. Judging from the brand operation of 2000-meter Plateau Black Tea, he must also be familiar with "Business War".

The book "Business War" introduces four models of war: defensive warfare, offensive warfare, flanking warfare, and guerrilla warfare.

For leading brands, the most effective defense is self-attack.

Where does one start attacking oneself? From one's inherent weaknesses.

Opportunities for new brands often come from the weaknesses of leading brands, which is what positioning theory has always emphasized.

For example, the development opportunities of traditional Chinese medicine must start from the weaknesses of Western medicine: Western medicine only treats the symptoms and not the root cause, has strong side effects, and focuses on the part rather than the whole; the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine are small side effects and attention to the overall system.

When we were consulting for a tea brand, we had the same idea: starting from the shortcomings of Xiaoguan Tea and attacking its inherent weaknesses.

Xiaoguan Tea is expensive, ours is cheap; Xiaoguan Tea is over-packaged, ours is simple; Xiaoguan Tea uses the word "Master" which makes it old-school, ours is modern; Xiaoguan Tea has many categories, we focus on one.

Now, Xiaoguan Tea’s new brand - 2000m Plateau Black Tea has started its self-attack along this line of thought, and every move is aimed at its own weaknesses.

The best way to defend is to attack yourself. Mr. Du is familiar with Business Warfare and puts his knowledge into practice, which is admirable.

First, the new style attacks the "oldness" of Xiao Guan Tea. Since it is a master, it cannot be too young, otherwise it will look old. Secondly, the price and packaging, which we will analyze later.

The slogan of 2000-meter plateau black tea is: New-style Chinese tea, national good black tea; our slogan is: New-style Chinese tea, national gift tea.

——"The Defense of Xiaoguan Tea: 2000-meter Plateau Black Tea"

Fortunately, the strategy of focusing on a small box was implemented. The current result is that there are more than 1,000 stores nationwide, which is considered good among mid-level tea chain brands.

In conclusion

Creating a brand is not only free, it can even save you money.

For example, in the case of the tea brand, the company originally had more than 100 items, but after focusing on a small box, it saved a lot of material costs.

Not only does it save costs within the organization, but it also creates results outside the organization.

In other words, this strategy is to build a brand in a cost-effective way!

For the Boston dance training brand, it originally covered students aged 8 to 80, and taught white, black and Asian people.

After repositioning, the focus was on Asian students aged 8-14, saving a lot of marketing and communication costs.

We also took this opportunity to establish strategic cooperation with the Chinese Federation of North America, and opened up the entire North American market. This also did not increase any costs, and even reduced operating costs.

Correct positioning is the secret to creating a brand at zero cost.

Author: Zhang Zhiyu

WeChat public account: Zhang Zhiyu (ID: zhiyu2307)