A good brand must not be good at everything. You must be clear about these three things!

This article analyzes why brand personality should not be all-inclusive from three aspects: recognition, customers, and marketing costs. Let’s take a look.

Why can't a good brand be good at dealing with people? The word "good at dealing with people" is quite interesting. In Chinese grammar and context, it is definitely not a commendatory word. But strangely, in daily work and life, many people can't help but envy and learn from those who are "good at dealing with people". Especially in jobs such as branding, marketing, market, and sales, "high emotional intelligence" is standard, and "high emotional intelligence" is often misinterpreted as "good at talking, good at doing things, and good at dealing with people".

It is no wonder that people who are engaged in external "promotion and sales" often have to treat people with kindness and be polite, and "speak to people in a way that is human and to ghosts in a way that is untrue" in order to "sell well". Is this really the case? It was like this in the past, but is it still true now?

But please don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to talk about brand people today. I want to talk about the character of the brand itself. Why not be good at dealing with people?

01 A brand that is good at dealing with many people but lacks recognition

The original meaning of "八面靈隆" is to have bright and spacious windows; later it is used to describe people who are smooth and considerate in dealing with people. Here it is used to describe the personality and tone of a brand, referring to some brands that deliberately consider all aspects and take all users' behaviors into consideration in their external content, actions and interactions.

I found that there are quite a few brands like this. You can recall the "apology letters" after the public opinion, the stereotyped "reception words" of the brands, the polite and artificial self-media articles, and the "dear" on the e-commerce platforms. When warm and false feelings become the standard, users can no longer remember which brand they are the "treasure" in the heart. In this situation, the recognition between brands gradually decreases, and users are even familiar with the format of the "official apology letter of the brand".

The brand itself is something that relies heavily on "recognition". The first of the seven elements of a brand is the "recognition system". Recognition means that when a brand is "searched for it for thousands of times, and suddenly looks back", it can be clearly found and remembered. "Fearing to be similar to others" is the golden thread of a brand, but nowadays, it has been made monotonous by a large number of "high emotional intelligence" operations.

It's not sincere at all. It's not memorable at all.

Some people also say that it is because the brand staff are afraid of "making mistakes". If they are careful and do not make mistakes, they can go home safely today. If they do things for the brand with this idea, I am afraid that they will not get any credit or hard work, and will only waste time. Behind the fear of "making mistakes" is the boss's lack of understanding of the brand user system and lack of confidence. He has not felt the power of "fans" yet, but has only felt the "power of customers". He has to be careful when serving customers, and he doesn't know how to serve fans. So he is "afraid of making mistakes".

Fortunately, more and more brands are not like this. This weekend I saw a cafe on the street. There was a big roll-up banner at the door, which read "We don't serve God, we only entertain friends". Although this sounds a bit "arrogant", it has to be said that this is the "nature" of a new brand!

02 A brand that is good at dealing with all kinds of people wants to occupy all customers

Being good at dealing with people is actually greed. It is greedy for everyone's favor and hopes to win everyone's heart. In the business field, especially in sales positions, it seems that there is nothing wrong with this. Isn't it better to have more customers?

For sales, yes.

But for brands and customers, the more accurate the better. At the beginning, the more consistent, the better.

A good brand should not only think clearly about what kind of customers it wants, but more importantly, what kind of customers it does not want. This is a choice and also a kind of confidence in the brand's proposition.

I am a brand. I advocate XXXX. I hope to do XXX things with all XXX people. You see, when such a sense of advocacy is revealed, you will find that this brand has made some choices and has its own "likes and dislikes". It is not operating in a state of "anyone can buy". It is actively conveying itself and influencing the world. Only at this time will it really have "fans" instead of a group of indifferent "buyers" and "spectators".

When it comes to building a brand, fans are much, much more important than buyers.

Brands with fans can often change something. From the earliest Apple fans who recognized minimalism, to Pang Donglai, a brand that stayed in the small city of Xuchang but enjoyed a national reputation, it was all thanks to the "fans" cheering that made Xuchang a "pilgrimage site" for a group of people. From the beginning, these brands never thought about "more people" or "bigger business", they all thought about "clearer value propositions and clearer expression of themselves".

However, as the number of fans increases, other people become their fans, and more people in society are influenced by their "ideas".

Who would have thought that more than a decade ago, I would be influenced and become a fan of "minimalist electronic products"? It all started with the brand's insistence on saying "no".

In this life, we always have to say "no" to some users, even if we are businessmen and engaged in business.

03 The marketing cost of a brand that is good at dealing with many people will be higher

This principle is similar to the first point. When a brand's recognition is low, its marketing cost will become high. At the same time, due to the lack of its own independent brand proposition, when the brand is marketing, it often stays on the dependence on the "platform" and "channel" traffic, waiting for the platform and channel to "drain traffic" for itself. The only trick left is to use a large amount of "exposure" to carry out brand publicity and marketing. This is actually the most expensive brand marketing method.

Good brand marketing must be based on high-quality content. When it comes to high-quality content, many brands think of gorgeous designs and spend huge amounts of money on high-end designs and magnificent SI (spatial identification) decorations, but in fact they are empty and flashy. These superficial high-quality packaging and high-quality facades are a waste of money.

Really good content is a well-thought-out proposition, content style, and content system. The process of polishing this kind of thing is very slow and requires constant rejection and constant trade-offs. Therefore, this process is very time-consuming and labor-intensive. This time-consuming and labor-intensive process truly creates a "high-end" sense of the brand. This "high-end" brought about by restraint and trade-offs is the key to a brand's premium.

It is not the case that the problem can be solved by spending a lot of money, launching a massive advertising campaign, or creating a magnificent design.

A brand should be clean and fresh at heart, and not become a flowery rapeseed. Otherwise, a lot of money will be wasted.

Author: Li Qian; WeChat public account: Li Qian talks about brands