Without working for ten years, you can’t come up with such a touching marketing case.

This article covers the actual operations of many well-known brands such as Kiehl's, Meituan, Miniso, IKEA, and Cha Yan Yue Se, and analyzes the emotional connection between brands and consumers from the perspective of how brands conduct emotional diagnosis and emotional healing. It has great reference value for professionals engaged in brand marketing.

The annual graduation season is over, and another group of college students have become new employees. Along with this, topics such as "anti-PUA, anti-involution, leaving get off work on time, passing team building, arbitration companies" and other workplace rectification topics have become popular again. A survey of nearly 40,000 people showed that 85% of people have "overtime anxiety" and 61% have "promotion anxiety."

It can be said that in the current era of "everything is in a roll", both newbies in the workplace and experienced workers are deeply troubled by workplace anxiety.

Paying for emotional value is the core consumption logic of contemporary young people. To become the darling of the new generation, maintaining emotional insight is a basic skill that brands must master. Brands that have become popular with toy marketing, feminism, and crazy literature have all reaped the benefits of emotional marketing.

This time is no exception. After all, this generation of young people is focused on making money, and the workplace is their biggest "worry". However, the premise of treating the disease is: effective diagnosis and accurate medication; if the cause of the disease is misdiagnosed and the wrong prescription is prescribed, it will also lead to negative effects.

Regarding how to handle emotions in the workplace and get closer to young people, the Knife Skills Research Institute has collected 5 marketing cases.

1. Workplace requires performance, and brand requires you to live well

Fresh graduates who have just graduated are not only faced with changes in the environment and pace of life, but also with the need to reposition their identities and mindsets. New professionals who are used to the campus environment often become the primary targets of workplace PUA because of their enthusiasm and original intentions.

1. Kiehl's x GQ: Professional Confessions in the Workplace

How can newcomers in the workplace better complete their identity transformation? In the traditional workplace environment, seniors always give newcomers a lot of professional advice, and communication is always one-way. Reverse background checks, leaving work on time, refusing team building, daring to arbitrate... Behind the rectification of the workplace, it is actually the desire of the post-00s for two-way communication, hoping to find a better way to handle workplace relationships. This August, Kiehl's and @智族GQ invited newcomers from 792 professions across the country to show their "professional confessions" against the old conventions and bad habits in the workplace, and let the workplace listen to the advice from newcomers.

“Mind your own business.” —Business Administration Major

"The Labor Law is not just for show." - Law major

“Work requires ‘hard work’, but not ‘performance effort’.” — Performance major

“The ‘labor’ of being able to work harder should be the labor of ‘reward’.” —Energy Economics Major

"People with bad stomachs should eat less 'painted cakes'." - Food Hygiene and Nutrition Major

“You can slack off, but you can’t be a complete novice.” — Aquaculture major

"With current human technology, love cannot be used to generate electricity." - New Energy Science and Engineering Major

“I suggest that the giant baby go home.” —Home Economics Major

“A loser is just a talent in the wrong place.” —Material Science and Engineering

“How to effectively manage the post-00s” has become a new topic for veterans in the workplace.

Preaching and confrontation cannot make the workplace better. Kiehl's chose to understand the emotions of young people, asking them to speak up and say "in vain" to unnecessary internal competition and anxiety about overtime, while strengthening the target audience's awareness of Kiehl's "Aqua Nourishing" spot-lightening essence.

2. Meituan buys medicine: care about work, but also care about health

It is not easy to get familiar with a strange city. Physical signals are often the most obvious reaction, which is commonly known as "acclimatization". Meituan Medicine has created a series of "First-time Workplace" posters to meet this specific demand.

For the seven cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chongqing and Hangzhou, Meituan Medicine has extracted the "city characteristics" of each city and jointly promoted them with corresponding pharmaceutical brands. For example, Guangzhou is "humidity", and the combination is the eczema medicine Astemizole.

Starting from "When you first enter the workplace in Guangzhou, please take care of yourself", it ends with "Go to Meituan to buy medicine and search for eczema medicine". Meituan buys medicine based on its own business attributes, combined with the hot topic of finding a job during the graduation season, and conducts targeted marketing around the needs of newcomers in the workplace, accurately conveying the warmth of the brand. In a high-pressure environment full of OKRs, companies only ask for performance in a cold manner. Seeing this, brands talk to young people in the posture of "domineering seniors/seniors" and "intimate friends"; starting from the hard-core "anti-PUA" and warm care, they offer a coping guide for newcomers in the workplace during the transition period. In addition to conveying the value of the product, it also provides emotional comfort and narrows the distance with young people.

2. Work Anxiety, Brands to Cure It

High unemployment rates, layoffs at the age of 35, and the culture of big companies are all the "Sword of Damocles" hanging over the heads of workers. In such an environment, most people dare not speak out. And brands choose to become the "breathing hole" for workers.

1. MINISO: Fancy Incense Burning

Young people are becoming Buddhists by offering Buddha amulets, being the first to burn incense, and buying Buddhist beads.

Under the pressure and competition of social involution, expressing one's wishes and alleviating anxiety is a way for young people to reconcile with themselves. This is also what brands want to do. On August 12, MINISO opened a floral aromatherapy theme pop-up store "Flower Incense·Good Peanuts" on Beijing Road in Guangzhou.

The pop-up store is located in front of the Big Buddha Temple, creating a traditional incense-burning atmosphere. It is also close to the MINISO Guangzhou flagship store, which just opened in June. The entire layout is circular, with a huge red wishing flower in the center. There are five experience sections: the check-in area, the peanut interactive area, the fancy corridor, the scent smelling area, and the master's fragrance creation room.

Participants can receive wish cards with seven fortunes, including career, health, and wealth. After opening them, they can receive different blessings. Then, they can write their wishes on the blank space on the back and tie them to the red wishing flower to complete the incense burning. In addition, participants can get incense burning merit packages. The scent area displays a total of 7 master flower art aromatherapy, including 3 Tanabata exclusive aromatherapy. In addition, MINISO's global brand spokesperson Chen Feiyu also came to the scene on August 12. Abstracting incense burning as a blessing ceremony and replacing incense sticks with aromatherapy, the "Fancy Incense Burning·Good Peanuts" flower art aromatherapy theme pop-up store provides young people with a more urbanized, simpler, and more positive incense burning experience.

2. IKEA: Doll "mouth replacement"

IKEA, a furniture store, has recently been popular because of its plush dolls. "IKEA dolls perform a week's life", "The mental state of IKEA staff", "9.9 yuan for a zoo", these popular entries on Xiaohongshu have attracted many people to shop in its stores.

The reason behind the dolls' popularity is actually IKEA's accurate grasp of the emotions of contemporary young people. Working is not easy and you have nowhere to complain. You want to go crazy but have too many concerns? It doesn't matter, IKEA dolls can help you achieve it.

When you walk into an IKEA store, you will find dolls appearing in various "weird" postures.

The stuffed pig on the grill has a stuffed monkey fanning the flames next to it; the panda hung up looks like it’s acting as you at work; the disheveled and crazy little bear, isn’t that the true inner state of today’s young people?

The accurate interpretation of the psychology of young people has turned IKEA dolls into another form of "Internet mouth substitute" to some extent. Anyone who sees it will sigh: "You understand me."

It is worth mentioning that IKEA’s insight into user emotions does not only stay at the level of resonance, but goes a step further to provide solutions to heal emotions.

Plush toys have the attribute of companionship and are a carrier of emotions for many users. On this basis, IKEA has injected fresh vitality into plush toys by changing the offline display method, making them more emotionally connected with users.

In addition, IKEA has established social accounts for each plush toy, using anthropomorphic techniques to increase the sense of interaction between people and toys.

For example, Shark Broai has created a "single mother shark" persona for herself and often records her life with her baby online. These lifelike clips make the companionship of the plush doll more three-dimensional and even touchable. As a result, users are happy to actively share their daily lives with the plush doll.

Understand first, then heal, and it may not be that difficult to build closer relationships with users.

3. Does healing turn into depression? It’s important to know the right balance

The essence of anxiety is caring, but not getting what you want. Although everyone says they are against involution and advocate lying down, this can only be said by workers themselves, and it is easy to "break down" when others say it.

1. Cha Yan Yue Se: All the hard work is in vain

On the evening of August 24, "Cha Yan Yue Se" published a long article on its official WeChat public account titled "Work Hard, Work Hard, Work Hard in vain."

The article begins with a reference to the movie "Slam Dunk", lamenting that the work makes people experience the mentality of "a boy who returns for a limited time", but looking at the reality, "compared to trying new possibilities, stability is the current popular tone", and "it's a pity that I can no longer be a boy at will."

At the end of the article, the brand introduced the related activities with the theme of Cha Yan Yue Se Youth.

That night, #茶颜悦色# became a hot search on Weibo. In the real-time discussion, some netizens complained that Tea Color Joy Color was "ridiculing those who work hard." Big V @拆台CT said: "You are a product seller, but you always say things that turn people off. You don't know how to say something auspicious. You deserve to be scolded." Then, Tea Color Joy Color posted an apology on the top of the comment area, and the article was deleted the next morning.

The Morning News initiated a poll on attitudes towards this incident, and more than one-third of users believed that they would be disappointed with the brand because of this.

In fact, if you look through the historical tweets of the WeChat official account of Cha Yan Yue Se, you will find that this kind of rhetoric, which is a bit rebellious, self-deprecating, and first deprecating, is its consistent tone, and is deeply loved by brand fans. For example, in the headline tweet of the WeChat official account of Cha Yan Yue Se on August 18, "Some people say we cheat tourists", the brand first put a bunch of simulated customer reviews in the comment area, and then told everyone at the end of the article that in the future, you can not only drink milk tea in the store, but also drink tea in the "Xiao Shen Xian Tea House". In the past, such operations did not cause misunderstandings.

Why did it fail this time?

Daofa once quoted the view of senior copywriter Kongshou in the article "Why 80% of brand copywriting is ineffective?" "Good copywriting needs to meet three basic conditions: concise, meaningful, and starting from the consumer ."

There is no doubt that many brands, including Cha Yan Yue Se, want to reflect their own style through the decoration of their social accounts. However, they often fall into the trap of being vague and being taken out of context by readers.

In the real world, "hard work" is a recognized way for a person to get out of the current predicament. Although hard work may not be useful, most people still choose to work hard. For them, "working hard is in vain" is a total denial of oneself. It is not difficult to understand why some netizens want to argue after reading the title.

According to the apology statement of Cha Yan Yue Se, they wanted to emphasize "cherish the process of hard work, and every inch of progress brings joy". Perhaps if they had expressed this insight from a different angle, it would have been another masterpiece that deeply empathized with users. Now we can only say, what a pity.

IV. Conclusion

As a mass communication medium, advertising must carry the most extensive social emotions. Dao Fa previously used toy marketing as an example to dismantle the way emotional marketing goes out of the circle in "Four Key Points, Dismantling How Brands Use Toys to Control Young People". Insight into public emotions is the key, but it is only the first step. Only by accurately understanding and finding the right angle of entry can consumers empathize and achieve communication effects. Miscutting or overcutting may bring counterproductive effects.

Author: Dao Fa Xing Yan WeChat Official Account: Dao Fa Research Institute