Brands are closing down one after another. Here are 11 suggestions for new consumption to find a way out.

Recently, we have heard news of brands going bankrupt. After reading it, we really feel that new consumption and e-commerce are not easy to do. Doing business is indeed difficult, but there is a way out. This article will provide you with 11 practical suggestions, and I hope you can learn from them.

The day before yesterday, I saw the news that the skin care brand "Gu Xiao Gu" went bankrupt, and yesterday I saw the founder of the flavored tea brand "chabiubiu" posted a message about his struggle for survival.

Some people really think that new consumption and e-commerce are not easy to do after reading this. After all, in the current environment, it is difficult to hear good news. There are indeed many reasons to prove the above point of view:

• The domestic and international environment is not good.
• The platform traffic is less and more expensive
• The anchor can't sell the goods
• Consumption downgraded
• Competition intensifies price war

Doing business is indeed difficult. It was easy for everyone to make money by catching the boom in the past few years, but the boom cannot last forever, just like stock trading, the market cannot always rise.

So the environment has changed, and the playing ideas must be updated. If you use the ideas from the past three years, or even the ideas from 2022, you cannot reuse them this year because the changes are too fast.

• Before, when products couldn’t be sold, we would look for anchors to promote the products. Now, there are only a few anchors who can promote the products.
• Before, if products couldn’t be sold, you could just draw a pie in the sky and seek investment. Now all investors have changed their careers.
• Before, when products couldn’t be sold, we would look for group leaders and channels to clear the stock, but now the group leaders have all run away.

In the past, selling goods was like Li Kui, with big openings and closings, and fierce investment. Now, they suddenly have to be like Jiangnan women, delicate and refined. Many brands don’t know this. In addition, many brands are busy making money. They used to participate in various industry sharing sessions, but now they are afraid that others will know. People haven’t heard many positive information, which has exacerbated the panic. I have been accompanying various 0-1 new brands, including skin care, pets, maternal and child, health products, beverages, accessories, etc. Now there is still growth and a way out for new consumption! But there are 11 practical suggestions, I hope everyone can listen to them.

1. Don’t make blind comparisons

We should be rational. Just treat the sales of hundreds of millions as entertainment news. It makes people think that it is easy to make hundreds of millions. Especially before, when we heard that xx anchor made tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of goods in a single show, the brand owners' eyes lit up and they wanted to kneel down in front of the anchor to ask for sales. A lot of thoughts were spent on how to build relationships with the anchor, and there was no time for development and user research.

There are very few brands with over 100 million yuan on online platforms, and the ceiling for 95% of merchants is tens of millions. Some people work hard once and get into Tsinghua University, while others will never get in in their entire lives. Accept yourself, face yourself, profit is king, don't compare. Don't think that others seem to sell well easily, it's just that they spend their energy in places you can't see. A lot of pain in life comes from comparison.

2. Content Marketing

It is the duty of a product to be good, but "good" is a word that does not have a tangible feeling. How to make consumers feel it is a very important thing, and this must be done through content. If you still don't understand content marketing now, you can really give up. It's just that too many people in the industry can't do it well, not that content marketing is ineffective. Many people still misunderstand content marketing: set a budget + find experts + publish content.

The disadvantage of creating content is that it is not fast. It is not like live streaming, which brings about strong hormone secretion and growth like a trickle of water. A little bit accumulates into a lot and eventually becomes a big river. Many brands hope to get rich overnight, so we return to the first point of "expectation". Even if you are given a pen, you can't become Lu Xun. Content skills must take time to settle, and need creativity, skills and network sense.

3. Develop a keen eye

There are many unreliable anchors and even more unreliable influencers, whether they are those who promote content or vlogs, the data are soaring, and only the brands are kept in the dark. The core of content growth is not the fan base, but the content. This is something that has a very high threshold, but many people are more confident and think too simply. Isn’t it just writing a 200-word content? You can write it after graduating from elementary school. Then they are slapped in the face, but they still don’t admit that they are not capable. They either say that the platform is not good or that the environment is not good. Anyway, it’s not their own fault. It’s easy to find influencers, but it’s not easy to find good influencers. Slow work produces fine work. If you can’t download the national anti-fraud APP, then improve your recognition ability.

4. Systematization

The growth of a brand is the result of the overall collaboration of the system. Products, marketing, teams, and services must work together . If you always want to harvest traffic, that means selling goods. If you want to be quick and easy, and want to build a brand and tone, then you will end up with nothing. The energy of a brand should not be just marketing. Even if you want to spend little money to do big things, the core is the product.

5. Don’t just focus on low prices

Don’t think that if the price is medium or high, the product will not sell well, and only low prices can have a market. Expensive prices are not an excuse for not being able to sell. If this logic is used, luxury cars will all be closed in China, and the ideal price of NIO should be within 200,000 yuan? China has a large enough user base, twice the population of Europe, so why can’t you find users who can afford your product?

The price is high, and the target user range is definitely smaller than that of popular products. Don't expect too much. Even if it is small and beautiful, it can still be a good business with a good profit margin. Be the first choice of a small number of people, make profits in the early stage, and pursue a larger market in the later stage. The brands we serve, including several friends around me, have products in the middle and high end of the same industry, with tens of millions of revenues a year and good profits. There will be no situation where no one buys.

6. Focus on target users

Don't expect everyone to be your customer. In the 0-1 stage of a brand, you should pursue reaching precise users and spend your budget wisely. You can do things that don't make money, but you must not do things that lose money. A forced melon is not sweet. Why attract users who are not yours? Users attracted by low prices will definitely be attracted by lower prices from competitors. Unless you make money from this user, you'd rather not have it.

7. Private Domain

Attracting new customers and repeat purchases are eternal themes. The premise of operating private domains and serving old users is to use accurate users, not general users. If a goddess doesn’t like you and you greet her with a smile, this is not polite, but dog-licking. If the users are not accurate, the brand’s service is equivalent to dog-licking, and in the end, you will have nothing.

8. Brand is mind

Always remember that sales are not a measure of whether a brand is good or not. Brand is the embodiment of the user's mind, and sales are the result. Especially if you spend a lot of money just to make sales look good, it is unnecessary to lose money. Wildfires cannot be extinguished, and spring breezes will bring new ones. You are not facing one opponent, but a group of opponents. When you run out of bullets, there will be all kinds of new opponents coming in. Therefore, new consumption is not APP, and it is stupid to burn money.

9. Don’t rush for quick success

Don't rush to cooperate with anchors. The essence of live broadcasting is price reduction. The slot fee + commission + price reduction, the brand side makes a lonely profit. Of course, it is acceptable to do product promotion without losing money. But if you lose money and still numb yourself and say that you are doing product promotion, that is self-consolation. You are facing price-sensitive users. How can you talk to them about product promotion and exposure?

Don’t rush to pay for placement in Douyin and Xiaohongshu information flows. These two platforms are 99% unprofitable for new brands. Don’t listen to others, especially the platform’s store assistants, who are eager for brands to place more placements.

Don’t rush to achieve a monthly sales target of one million in three months or a sales target of over 100 million in a year. Many times, things go wrong because of overthinking. Don’t expect to get free traffic by hiring a waiter.

You want the platform to give you free traffic, what do you want? Even if there is, why not give it to a billion-level or billion-level brand, and give you a small Karami brand.

10. Rhythm

The style of a company or a product is the style of its founder. If the founder is eager for quick success, the company will probably not slow down. In fact, whether it is doing business or building a brand, different things should be done at different stages. If you run a marathon at the pace of a 100-meter run, you will definitely fail. It is against human nature to resist temptation, but it is true. In many cases, slow is fast. There is an old Chinese saying: The one who laughs last laughs the best. No matter what stage or what you do, don't use other people's 1-10 stage strategy to apply to your own 0-1 stage.

11. Brand Concept

No matter how good a product is, it is essentially a commodity. Don't always think about brainwashing consumers with fancy brand spirit and brand concept. Consumers understand the product, and the product understands the brand concept and brand spirit. Don't talk about these fancy things without considering the product, and think you know the brand very well. Can you talk about it? You can. You must talk about it together with the product.

Author: Keny Wei , WeChat public account: Marketing Lao Wang