The secret to 5 successful startups is to use product thinking for marketing

What kind of marketing methodology does Du Guoying have, who has succeeded in his five entrepreneurial ventures? Is he a "leek master" or a "product manager"? What is his entrepreneurial methodology? What is his marketing methodology? This article will discuss them one by one, hoping to inspire you.

I have always wanted to study Du Guoying's marketing methodology.

Maybe many people born in the 1990s or 2000s are not familiar with this name, but those born in the 1980s are definitely familiar with it. If I talk about the products he has made, everyone will know: Beibeijia, Haojixing, Eren Eben, 8848, Xiaoguancha, all of which are products created by Mr. Du Guoying.

In the marketing circle, everyone has a particularly contradictory attitude towards Du Guoying.

On the one hand, many people think that this person is particularly despised, thinking that he has made so many products to cheat people, and I don’t want to be such a person. On the other hand, everyone is curious that even such products are bought by people, this person is a marketing expert, and he is secretly learning from others behind the scenes.

When we see someone succeed, we like to label him or her and abstract his or her success model. For example, the online summary of Du Guoying's success model is a three-part syllogism:

First, meet a precise need.

Second, find a spokesperson to do advertising and product packaging.

Third, through saturation advertising attacks, the products are pushed into the mass market and the users are constantly brainwashed.

This is Du Guoying's successful syllogism. But if you think about it carefully, this syllogism does not stand up to scrutiny.

For example, you say that he can accurately identify the user's pain points. But how can you guarantee that he can identify the real pain points instead of the imagined ones?

You say that others spend money on advertising to promote their products, but since they are also spending money on advertising, why aren’t they wasting money while you are?

Du Guoying does not define himself as a so-called marketing expert, and even more so refuses to be a master of cutting leeks. He defines himself as a "product manager".

I think there are many things worth pondering about Du Guoying: Is he a "leek master" or a "product manager"? What is his entrepreneurial methodology? What is his marketing methodology? Let's reveal it today.

1. The key to breaking through is product innovation

Before Du Guoying started Beibeijia, he believed in the power of advertising.

Because before he started Beibeijia, Du Guoying worked as a salesperson at a company in Tianjin. He accidentally spent 2,000 yuan on an advertisement on Tianjin Radio Station, and the product sold like hot cakes. The company's performance tripled because of this move.

When did he realize that this was not right? It was when his business failed.

After leaving the sales company, he made corrective underwear and thermal shoes. However, these two entrepreneurial projects were hastily launched into the market without proper testing and ultimately failed.

Du Guoying said that they failed not because of poor marketing, but because the product itself was wrong.

When he started his next business, Du Guoying wrote a sentence in his notebook: "Marketing is a technique, product is a way." Later, he revised this sentence to " Product is 1, marketing is 0. "

Du Guoying said that the reason why Beibeijia was successful back then was not because of its excellent marketing, but because the product itself had great innovation.

Beibeijia seems to be a very simple product today. It uses the principles of mechanics to correct hunchbacks in teenagers.

But it is still innovative in many aspects. After Du Guoying obtained the patent for Beibeijia, he made some changes to the entire structure and fabric. For example, how to make the fabric more comfortable, and how to make the strength applied by the fabric more scientific? Although it was just some minor innovations, consumers immediately bought it.

Why is it so important to make the right product?

Because the Beibeijia product is still alive, many people may not know that Beibeijia still has annual online sales of 200 million yuan. It is children and girls who buy this product, and these 200 million yuan in sales were achieved without any investment.

If the product is made right and the demand is captured accurately, it can replace advertising and marketing actions, allowing the product itself to bring sales.

Later, when Du Guoying created Haojixing, his product awareness was fully awakened.

In 2003, a friend of Du Guoying showed him a product called a word memory machine.

What is a word memory machine?

Its principle is very simple. There is a memory method called the Ebbinghaus memory method. Simply put, 7 times of memorization will form a lifelong memory. The principle of this memory machine is to remind students to remember words based on the human memory curve.

Du Guoying looked at the status of the entire Chinese market and found that most of the products in the Chinese market were not word memory machines or learning machines, but electronic dictionaries.

At that time, Du Guoying thought that the purpose of students looking up words was to remember them, not to find them, so he felt that the demand for electronic dictionaries was inaccurate. The future market must be the market for learning machines, so he made a learning machine himself, called a word memory machine.

When he first entered the consumer electronics industry, he remembered the so-called micro-innovation actions of Beibeijia. He said that my product must, to some extent, surpass the current situation of the industry, and he must have his own innovation in it.

So he made several innovations to this product.

First of all, this product has started the legalization of the electronic education industry. All the content in it is genuine, which is very advanced.

Before OZing, most products used pirated software. But at that time, Du Guoying realized that if this product became popular, many legitimate companies would sue you, and legalization was the inevitable path, so he took the initiative to start legalization in the electronic education industry.

The second and bigger innovation is that this word memory machine is synchronized with the teaching materials, which is very important.

Because the core purpose of Chinese children learning English is to take exams. The word memory machine is synchronized with the textbook, which is equivalent to an external textbook, and it is very convenient to carry. This innovation has won it a large market.

Furthermore, this word memory machine at that time brought together various memory methods, not just the Ebbinghaus memory method, so it could suit the different preferences of different people.

Finally, the entire product was designed with the best craftsmanship. He found a Korean craft designer and paid a high price to do the design.

Although this was his first time entering the consumer electronics industry, he quickly gained a deep understanding of this industry.

He believes that consumer electronics are actually made up of several parts: hardware + software + content. As long as you do these three things well, the consumer electronics product will be successful.

Today we may understand this formula better. For example, a mobile phone is composed of hardware, software operating system, and content. But you have to know that 3G had not yet arrived, so it was very advanced to have such insight and understanding.

What is hardware?

Hardware refers to whether the product's craftsmanship and design are beautiful, whether it is comfortable to hold in the hand, and whether it is easy to use.

Software is actually an operating system. Du Guoying felt that the operating system was very important in his early years. Unlike today when everyone thinks that hardware can be copied, software is a technological strength that is difficult to surpass.

Finally, the content refers to the copyright of the teaching materials and the learning methods. These two parts constitute the content of the entire word memory machine.

Hardware, software and content constitute the entire competitive barrier of HaoJiXing, and this product eventually sold well.

2. Don’t run blindly in other people’s areas of strength

With the help of OZing, Du Guoying entered the consumer electronics industry and realized his dream of becoming a product manager.

In order to concentrate on products, Du Guoying sold Haojixing and Beibeijia to Oaknut International.

Later, he created the product E-book, which he concluded was the most subjective project in his entrepreneurial career.

Because this was the first time he wanted to make a product for himself. This product was also the one he considered the most unsuccessful of his previous startups.

Why do I say so?

Because Du Guoying likes to study very much, he takes a lot of notes every day, and he can use up a notebook in a week. He thought that using up a notebook in a week was too wasteful and inconvenient. So he wanted to make a digital writing tool for himself, so he made E-Book.

After E-book was launched on the market, the iPad was just released. Du Guoying thought, it’s over! E-book is going to fail.

But he immediately did one thing, he immediately asked Feng Xiaogang and Ge You to endorse the product. He knew that the product would fail, why did he do such a thing?

Because he knows a cycle: if a new electronic product is launched overseas, it will take about three months for it to enter the domestic market and be sold.

He roughly estimated that there was a three-month head start, which would allow him to activate part of the market and sell some goods. If he missed these three months, the product would be completely dead.

Therefore, he found a good spokesperson within this three-month period, made a large-scale investment, and then won a certain amount of market sales within this time difference, so that the product would not fail too miserably.

This product was actually a little better than he expected, because by the third year it was no longer selling well.

At that time, almost all IT companies were imitating the iPad, but the E-book was awkward. First of all, it was not an iPad, it was not a computer, it was a digital notebook.

What's more, what he made is very different from the iPad. In fact, what he made is closer to the logic of Kindle. He wanted to make an electronic ink screen that is more suitable for writing, rather than a handwriting tablet.

This product may seem like a failure, but it actually has a lot of innovations. The E-book handwriting feature is still ahead of the industry in terms of user experience.

He asked what is the difficulty of handwriting? It is the pressure. When I write on it with a pen, does it feel like writing on paper with a normal pen? To this day, Du Guoying still says that how to write digitally is still valuable.

In summary, the reason why Eren Eben failed is that we must still make a product based on user needs. He himself has the habit of writing in a notebook once a week, but ordinary people may not use a notebook in a year. The public is completely different from him, and this demand itself is not that strong.

Du Guoying started his consumer electronics business earlier than Xiaomi, but E-Ren E-Capital completely ruined his dream of making consumer electronics.

He felt that he could not compete with companies like Apple because he did not have the genes for technology and the Internet, and his existing advantages did not have the advantages and potential to make electronic products. Although he could see the big trends, he did not have the technical sensitivity, so he gave up in the end.

The story of E人E本 tells us that when starting a business, we should never blindly rush into other people’s areas of strength.

3. Consumers vote with their money, not their brains

Among all the products, people think that 8848 may be the one that makes the most money.

In the face of the iPhone, OPPO, and Xiaomi giants, you made such a strange phone, and you were able to make it? And people actually bought it? People think that this product is a serious IQ tax, and it is a product that coal bosses buy.

But in Du Guoying's view, this product is the result of very strict exploration and thinking of market demand.

How did this demand judgment come about?

One time, a friend of his friend kept complaining and asked him if he could recommend any good mobile phone brands. He said that his aunt's iPhone was newer than his. He thought at the time that this seemed to be a market.

Because there is no high-end model in the mobile phone market to match the status symbol of the rich, but there are some in cars and home appliances. How can there be no such high-frequency electronic product as mobile phones? The most expensive iPhone is actually affordable for ordinary people.

When he entered the market, he saw that there was only one high-end mobile phone in the world, a British company called Vertu. He looked at the overall market positioning of this mobile phone and felt that the market positioning of Vertu was problematic.

Because when Rittal is sold overseas, if converted into RMB, this phone may cost hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, which is very expensive. This is a luxury product. However, a company like Rittal, in terms of software capabilities, system development capabilities, and technological capabilities, cannot compare to the iPhone and Apple.

Many bosses who bought a Rittal phone found that the phone had become a brick after two years of use. However, because they spent hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan on it, they are reluctant to discard it, so this is a very embarrassing situation.

Therefore, Du Guoying judged that this market could be entered, but he could not produce heavy luxury mobile phone products, but must produce light luxury mobile phone products.

The so-called light luxury mobile phone products mean that the product is more expensive than the iPhone, but not too much more expensive. At that time, the price of the iPhone was about 5,000 yuan, and the price of 8848 was 10,000 yuan. He said: "It is about twice the premium. I think Chinese bosses and rich people can accept it, and it also fits their status."

8848 has also made innovations in order to position itself as a high-end business.

First of all, it innovates in form, and its main focus in hardware is luxury, which is titanium alloy plus genuine leather, which looks very luxurious.

Then, the software focuses on security and dual systems, and the security aspect is particularly well grasped.

Because the boss has a lot of company secrets, once his mobile phone is lost, it will have a great impact on him and his company, so security is very important.

Some Chinese bosses may not have clean relationships with men and women, which may also be one of the reasons why this product sells so well.

8848 also hired a very good spokesperson, Wang Shi. At that time, few people in the Chinese market hired entrepreneurs as spokespersons. Wang Shi just happened to represent the image of an entrepreneur who was highly educated, wealthy and well-known.

After Wang Shi endorsed 8848, many people on the Internet laughed at Wang Shi, thinking that by endorsing such a mobile phone, he was helping others to make money.

But this may be a stigmatized perception of 8848 by the public. From the perspective of product positioning itself, 8848 is a very successful product.

Because consumers vote with their money, not their brains. As long as someone buys the product, it has been verified in the market and people are willing to spend money, it proves that the product meets their expectations.

Even if 8848 is cutting leeks, he is cutting the leeks of the rich. For the so-called rich, this is just a small amount.

The product was launched in 2015, and Du Guoying left the team in 2016. He felt that the team, product, and market structure had been formed, so he left because he wanted to make small cans of tea.

4. The ultimate goal of marketing is to output values

When making Xiaoguan Tea, Du Guoying suddenly realized that "products are not the most important thing, values ​​are the most important."

In the past, he thought that product was 1 and marketing was 0. Now he feels that everything is 0 in front of values.

Why is there the suggestion that “marketing is ultimately values”?

I don't think it comes from him, but his idol is Steve Jobs.

Marketing is ultimately a value system. This is a quote from a speech by Steve Jobs in 1997. I will repeat the original words to you:

“Marketing is mainly about the output of values. This is a very complex world, a world full of noise. We don’t have the opportunity to make people remember too many of our points. No company can do that.

We have to be very clear about what we want them to remember us for. To restore Apple's influence, it's not about product performance and price, it's not about how many hertz this computer has, it's not about why we are better than Windows.

Of all the marketing cases, Nike does the best. Nike sells shoes, but when you think of Nike, you feel that there is something about Nike that is different from a shoe company. In their ads, they never talk about the air cushions in their shoes. They always pay tribute to great athletes. "

The above passage is part of a speech given by Jobs in 1997.

Jobs introduced why he believed that the ultimate goal of marketing is values. Apple does the same. What is Apple's slogan? Think different. What is its philosophy? Change the world.

Nike, which Steve Jobs particularly admired, also did the same. What does Nike stand for? Nike stands for the idea of ​​just do it, to be brave and act immediately. In all of Nike's advertisements, it never talks about what the technology looks like or what the function is, but it is indeed a company that sells shoes.

Why, after so many entrepreneurial attempts, did Du Guoying finally realize that what Jobs said was very correct?

Because after he sold the company several times, he found that he had been doing the same thing from 0 to 1. However, many companies that started with him have grown from 10 to 100. For example, Nongfu Spring has only sold one bottle of water for so many years, but Zhong Shanshan has become the richest man in China.

He believes that entrepreneurship should pursue thick snow and long slopes. You should find a very long track and very wet snow, keep rolling down, and make the company as big as possible, instead of doing things like going from 0 to 1 again and again.

Many diversified companies, many companies that want to make money in all aspects, eventually fail. For example, Xu Jiayin's Evergrande finally failed in the past two years, although it was very glorious in its early years.

Feng Lun once said a very important point in an interview, which I particularly agree with.

He said: "After so many years, I think the three most important keywords for entrepreneurship are simplicity, focus and persistence."

The examples Feng Lun cited back then were Nongfu Spring and Evergrande.

He believes that if you are simple enough and focus on one thing for many years, you will definitely get a very big result. If you want to make money from everything, you will not get the best results in this market.

After Du Guoying came to this conclusion, his entire entrepreneurial behavior changed.

In the past, he would withdraw after hitting the ceiling. You see, he sold several companies he started before. He said, "I can't do it now." After he founded Xiaoguan Tea, he experienced two major setbacks.

The first setback was in 2012. That year was the fourth year since he founded Xiao Guan Tea.

It has been four years since its establishment, but he has not actually created a product or brought it to market.

He spent four years researching the market and preparing for the project. The whole process was very long and cost him about 70 million yuan. Just imagine, he spent four years starting a business and spent 70 million yuan, but in the end, the product didn't even come out. For many entrepreneurs, this would be the beginning of giving up.

But Du Guoying said: "I have never thought of giving up. I think I can keep doing this." So even though he spent almost every weekend in the tea garden and was burning money every day, he firmly believed that this path would work, but I was not doing it right.

Finally, after four years, he found a way to make it happen.

The second big setback was in 2019. Xiaoguan Tea was launched in 2016, and sales reached 2 billion in 2018. But in 2019, when he wanted to grow more aggressively, he was suddenly cyberbullied by the entire network.

Many articles dug into his history, saying that many of his products were just scams, and that he was a "leek master."

Because of this wave of attacks, the sales of Xiaoguan Tea dropped rapidly. Later, it caught up with the cycle of masks, and it was not until 2021 that the sales of Xiaoguan Tea as a whole returned to its peak.

He actually survived the cycles of cyberbullying and the epidemic. He said, "I also think I must survive and I must do this until I die." This is the charm of values. Only when we have firm values ​​can we make firm choices in life and entrepreneurship, and will not be shaken by the immediate interests.

How did Du Guoying achieve this cognitive iteration from marketing, products to values?

Du Guoying believes that if a person wants to improve his cognitive iteration, there are only three opportunities: major setbacks, meeting masters, and reading classics.

He has experienced great setbacks. As for meeting experts, we don’t know which experts he has talked to.

Reading classics, Du Guoying said that he learned all about brand marketing products by himself. In particular, he learned about brand marketing in 1995 and 1996. At that time, China's advertising market and brand marketing market were not well developed, and there were very few things available on the market.

His main focus back then was reading classics such as Positioning and some of Kotler's books. He also subscribed to industry magazines such as Sales and Marketing.

By the way, this magazine is a very important journal in this industry. Although we have entered the digital media era, this journal is still alive and well. The editor-in-chief of Sales and Marketing Magazine is also a member of our Intensive Reading Club.

Many times, encountering a big setback is not something we can encounter casually, and we don’t want to encounter a big setback casually. Therefore, a big setback is an experience in your life, not something you want to pursue.

Whether you can meet a master actually depends on the fate in our life. Whether you can meet a master and whether the master can teach you and answer your questions are not things you can control.

There is only one thing you can control, and that is reading the classics.

Our product, Intensive Reading Club, has always been to recommend some timeless and classic information to everyone. In essence, it is to let everyone talk to experts. Today, we study Du Guoying's entrepreneurial philosophy, business philosophy, and marketing methodology, which is actually a conversation with him.

Final Words

Du Guoying's three cognitive iterations of brand marketing are marketing, products and values.

The core of everyone remembers two sentences:

The first is: product is 1, marketing is 0. This is completely contrary to what the outside world thinks of Du Guoying's success. Du Guoying believes that he is a product manager, and the key to his success is that he made the right product, not because he is a marketing expert.

The second is that the ultimate goal of marketing is a question of values. This is his most profound understanding of marketing at the moment. He believes that if a company wants to achieve long-term results, it must have its own values ​​in order to withstand short-term temptations and fluctuations.

*This issue’s interpretation comes from: “A detailed discussion on Du Guoying: Marketing is ultimately a question of values”

Author: Liang Jiangjun, public account: Liang Jiangjun (ID-liangjiangjunisme)