Brand upgrade: How can brands sell at a higher price and sell more?

Generally speaking, brands are likely to encounter upgrade issues. This article explains in detail what brand upgrade is and how to upgrade a brand with many specific examples. It is recommended for students who want to understand brand operations.

Brands will encounter many new issues during the operation process, such as adjustments to business and product structure, changes in the market and target users. These are commonplace for business operations, and brand building must also be adjusted accordingly to adapt to such changes.

Generally speaking, there are several main issues that brands will encounter.

1. Brand upgrade

With the advancement of technology and consumer concepts, companies must continuously launch better products or develop new product categories, and companies always hope that their products will sell at higher and higher prices. As technology, quality, categories and prices are upgraded, the brand's value and image at the intangible level must also be upgraded.

On the other hand, in order to achieve greater growth, many companies tend to develop more products, cover more categories, carry out various business types, and enter more market segments. As product lines are extended and businesses are diversified, companies also need to upgrade their brand connotations and concepts, as well as consumers' brand awareness.

2. Rebranding

Like people, companies also have their own life cycle. In the middle and late stages, performance declines, the company begins to decline, and the brand's competitiveness and charm are gone. At this time, if the brand wants to attract consumers again, it must be reshaped to regain the brand's value and key assets.

On the other hand, due to the decline and limitations of the original business, enterprises will also implement strategic transformation in the course of operation, moving from the original business unit into unfamiliar fields, or implementing diversification strategies and expanding to multiple industrial sectors. At this time, enterprises must also reshape their brands and adjust their brand connotations and images to match the business transformation.

3. Brand rejuvenation

As time goes by, consumer generations will change and consumer concepts will change. Even if you were once at the peak of your career, the new generation of consumers may know nothing about you, or label you as "outdated", "outdated", "old-fashioned", or "mom/dad brand". At this time, the brand must implement rejuvenation to revitalize the brand and make it evergreen.

Brand rejuvenation is actually a type of brand reshaping, which is caused by the aging of image and solidification of cognition due to changes in consumers. However, since many companies have a strong demand for this topic, we have listed it as a separate topic.

These are all new issues that a brand encounters in its operation after reaching maturity, so in the fifth part of the 30 Lectures on Brands, we will interpret them as a special topic. In this lecture, we will first talk about brand upgrading.

1. What is upgrading? Why upgrade?

Many companies did not carry out systematic brand planning at the beginning of their business. Even the most basic LOGO may be simple, crude, and not specially designed by someone; product packaging design is varied, with various colors, layouts, and patterns; various visual images are not extended according to VI requirements, lack a unified visual language, or even have no VI; there is no clear brand core value, mission and vision, etc., lack of coherence in publicity and promotion, and frequent changes in product selling points and appeals.

These are all problems that exist in the early stages of a brand’s establishment.

Of course, it does not necessarily affect the survival of the enterprise, but once the enterprise has solved the survival problem, reached a certain scale, and began to have the need to build a brand, the first thing to do is often to optimize the brand logo and VI, unify the packaging design and visual image, refine the advertising slogan and core value, clarify the brand positioning, sort out the brand house, etc. Once the visual specifications are made, the advertising slogan is determined, and a few main planes are designed and an image film is shot, the enterprise immediately has the appearance of building a brand.

Therefore, many people call these things brand upgrading, but in fact I don’t think this is brand upgrading. It is just the standardization and regularization of the brand, which is the foundation before starting to build the brand.

There are also companies that update their brand proposition, change spokespersons, launch new brand videos and print ads, or adjust their brand logos every few years. Many people call this practice brand upgrading, but strictly speaking, I don’t think this is a brand upgrading.

Brand upgrading is driven by specific goals: one is to sell at a higher price and enter a higher-end market; the other is to sell more and enter a larger market. Only with these two core goals can it be considered a real upgrade.

In order to sell products at a higher price, some companies choose to raise prices directly, such as high-end liquors such as Moutai and many luxury brands. However, this requires that the company's products and processes are scarce and non-replicable, which most companies cannot imitate.

Some companies will choose to create a new brand to specifically target the high-end market and attract high-end people, such as Haier launching Casarte and Toyota launching Lexus. Traditional companies often take this approach to avoid affecting the mass market occupied by their original brands and to avoid the problem that the original brand image is cheap and popular and cannot endorse high-end products, so they use new products to solve the problem.

Even more companies choose to upgrade their original brands, launching higher-priced high-end product lines while improving their brand image and value.

The latter two situations can be collectively referred to as brand high-endization , which is essentially the implementation of brand upgrading through price increase.

Whether it is upgrading the brand or creating a new high-end brand, if a company wants to sell at a higher price, it must not only have an explanation at the product level, such as better quality and functions, technology and raw materials, but also cooperate at the brand level to make consumers feel a sense of upgrade, luxury and superiority, and that the brand is worth selling at a higher price.

In addition to the price increase, there is also the expansion of business.

For example, let’s take Didi. At the beginning, it was engaged in the taxi business, so in May 2014, the brand was officially named “Didi Dache”.

Subsequently, the company launched its private car service in August 2014, started operating its express car service in May 2015, and began internal testing of its carpooling system in July 2015. As its business expanded, Didi Dache was officially renamed Didi Chuxing in September 2015, and its brand logo was adjusted from a crude cartoon taxi pattern to a letter D rotated 90 degrees.

(Didi Taxi's original brand LOGO)

(Didi Chuxing’s current brand logo)

At present, in addition to a number of travel businesses such as taxis, express cars, private cars, ride-sharing, long-distance carpooling, bicycles, buses, car rentals, freight, etc., Didi has also expanded into refueling, express delivery, finance, unmanned driving, and cloud computing based on its travel services.

In addition, Didi has three business sub-brands: Licheng Private Car, Qingcai Carpooling, and Qingju Bicycle (in May 2021, Didi abandoned two of the sub-brands and renamed them Didi Private Car and Didi Carpooling in order to simplify consumer choices and reduce cognitive costs. This is a change in the multi-brand strategy. To understand the pros and cons of multi-brands, you can refer to the lecture "Brand Portfolio Strategy").

Today, Didi's business is so diverse and not limited to travel, so "Didi Chuxing" often refers to itself as "Didi". The brand "Didi" originally represented taxi-hailing, then travel, and now it represents more.

If we only do taxi business, the brand appeal can be called "cheap and fast taxi", but now the brand appeal has become "just take Didi, wonderful travel", "do good", "take every journey seriously", etc., to communicate more on the level of brand concepts and values.

Therefore, the direct driving force of brand upgrading is price upgrading and business upgrading. If the price is increased, the brand value and image will rise accordingly; if the business is expanded, the brand connotation and extension will be expanded. These two visible changes at the physical level are the root causes of brand upgrading.

So why do companies need to implement brand upgrades?

First of all, it is out of the need for growth.

The most direct way to achieve growth is to either sell at a higher price or sell more. Especially when a company becomes bigger and stronger and enters the mature stage, if it wants to continue to grow and find a second growth curve, then it is almost inevitable to enter more market segments, occupy all high, medium and low price points, implement brand extension and diversified expansion.

After years of development, many industries in China's economy have shifted from scale growth to structural growth.

Let's look at the beer industry. In 2012, my country's total beer production was 49.018 million kiloliters, with sales revenue of 161.17 billion yuan. In 2022, the total beer production was 35.687 million kiloliters, and sales revenue reached 175.11 billion yuan.

The beer industry's output reached a peak in 2013, and then entered a stage of reducing production capacity and adjusting structure. This is a very good development opportunity for high-end beer. Many industries are experiencing such changes today, and brand upgrading has become increasingly important.

In addition, there are two other reasons that illustrate the value of brand upgrading.

First, for leading companies, leaders must constantly upgrade and drive industry development, otherwise they will encounter challenges or even be defeated by latecomers.

In September 2022, Haitian encountered a brand crisis. Some self-media questioned Haitian’s "double standards" in the domestic and overseas markets, selling ordinary soy sauce in China and zero-additive soy sauce overseas.

In fact, Haitian also sells zero-additive soy sauce in China, but it has not carried out large-scale promotion and publicity. Many consumers are unaware of this. In people’s minds, Haitian is still associated with traditional soy sauce, so this has become Haitian’s crime of not providing the Chinese people with healthy and good products.

As people's consumption concepts improve and their health awareness increases, more and more people begin to agree that good soy sauce is made from ingredients containing only "water, soybeans, wheat, and salt". When such consumption awareness becomes mainstream and Qianhe brand becomes the representative of zero-additive soy sauce, even without this public opinion crisis, Haitian will face severe market challenges in the future.

The emergence of new technologies and new products often creates entirely new categories, which in turn leads to the restructuring of the entire market. For example, from monosodium glutamate to chicken powder, from washing powder to laundry detergent, from traditional cameras to digital cameras, from feature phones to smartphones, etc. If companies do not pay attention, they will lose their market dominance because consumers often choose different brands when considering different categories.

Just like in the detergent market, the kings of washing powder are Tide and Diao, and the king of laundry liquid is Blue Moon. In the beverage market, the kings of sugary drinks are Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and the king of sugar-free drinks is Yuanqi Forest. In the automobile market, the kings of fuel vehicles are Volkswagen and Toyota, and the kings of electric vehicles are BYD and Tesla.

In the past two years, traditional mainstream fuel brands, whether foreign-owned Honda and Nissan or domestic-owned Great Wall and Geely, have seen a sharp decline in sales and have encountered great challenges in their operations.

Although these brands are also working hard to launch new energy vehicle models, in terms of consumers' brand awareness, when people consider buying new energy vehicles, the first brands they think of are BYD, Tesla, Wei, Xiaoli, and they can't think of traditional fuel brands at all, let alone give priority to buying them. This is the fundamental reason for the decline of these brands.

From the above cases, we can see that enterprises, especially leading enterprises, must keep up with the pace of upgrading, otherwise it will be very fatal.

Second, for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises, focusing on high-value groups and building high-end brands are essential for their survival and development.

Professor Michael Porter believes that a company has three basic competitive strategies: total cost leadership, differentiation, and focus . For large companies, they have high brand awareness, wide distribution channels, a large user base, and high sales, so they have economies of scale and can form cost advantages. It is not only difficult for small companies to compete with them on price, but it is even a way to die.

Therefore, the best market strategy for small businesses is to focus on specific groups of people and provide differentiated value.

Providing differentiated value almost certainly means investing higher costs, whether it is raw materials, labor or services. High costs mean high pricing, so locking in high-end users becomes an inevitable choice.

The value of high-end users lies not only in their purchasing power, but more importantly, they have great social influence and consumer demonstration. They can build momentum for the brand, create word-of-mouth and social attention, and achieve popularity. Many brands first penetrate and gain popularity in a small circle at the beginning of their establishment, and then spread to this group of high-potential angel users.

In the past decade, most of the well-known emerging brands in China have been in the high-end and upgraded markets, such as Yuanqi Forest, Heytea, Zhong Xuegao, Huaxizi, Guanxia, ​​Bananain, Babycare White Shell, Adopt a Cow, etc. They have differentiated themselves from traditional mainstream brands with better products, better user experience, and more refined and high-end brand image, thus standing out.

Of course, after gaining a firm foothold in the high-end market, how to further expand the market is a key issue for emerging brands in their growth stage. If they do well, they will soar to the sky, but if they do not, they will be lost in the crowd (I have tried to answer this question in "Strategies for Emerging Brands"). But in any case, going high-end is the way out for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Now that we understand the huge significance of brand upgrading to business and growth, let’s talk specifically about how to become high-end, how to upgrade, and how companies can sell at a higher price and sell more?

2. Improving brand value: How to sell at a higher price?

The increase in prices is often caused by technological changes and changes in product categories, but it is ultimately driven by consumption upgrades. Consumers choose higher-end brands in order to enjoy better products and services, gain more pleasure and psychological satisfaction, and achieve a better life. This is the fundamental motivation for brand upgrades.

What is consumption upgrading? I have summarized it in four sentences before: from function to sensory function, from quality to refinement, from need to desire, and from following the crowd to standing out.

First, consumers began to pursue experiential consumption.

When purchasing a product, people not only focus on the physical functions of the product and the final results it brings to them, but also care more about the sensory enjoyment and psychological pleasure brought by the product during use.

Secondly, consumers express their aesthetic preferences through consumption.

A product should not only have good quality, but also have a sense of design, aesthetic style and cultural connotation.

Again, consumers are paying more and more attention to spiritual needs.

Purchasing is not just to satisfy one's material needs, but also to satisfy one's spiritual needs, to pay for personal interests, to pay for an ideal life and self-realization. Consumers should not buy products that do not conform to their self-image, personality, attitude and world views, nor should they buy brands that they do not agree with.

Finally, consumers crave self-expression.

Today's consumption has evolved from the past stage of chasing trends, obeying authority, and buying whatever everyone else buys, to the stage of chasing individuality, expressing oneself, and even not buying whatever everyone else buys.

In the past, people consumed to be consistent with others, but today they consume to be different.

Based on this concept of consumption upgrading, on the brand building side, first, we must pay attention to consumer experience, from function to sensory, from quality to sophistication, so that the brand can have a premium ; second, we must win the recognition of consumers, from needs to wants, from following the crowd to standing out, so that the brand can have loyal fans .

Brand upgrading should start from the current consumption characteristics and trends. First, it should be centered on experience to create customer feelings and psychological satisfaction. Second, it should inject more cultural value into the brand to win the resonance and recognition of consumers. These two are the most critical.

In addition, the brand also needs some endorsement resources to prove the brand's sense of value and upgrade, and the brand's various images must match and meet the requirements of the upgrade. Specifically, there are the following points.

• The core of upgrading is experience
• Infusing cultural value
• Support and assistance from endorsement resources
• Matching and unification of brand image

1. The core of the upgrade is experience

Brand upgrading should start from user experience. Whether it is technological improvement or category iteration, the key is to let consumers feel the value of the product, feel that the product is indeed different from traditional products and other products, and feel that the brand image and grade are completely new. If consumers do not feel the sense of upgrade, then empty slogans are useless.

For example, more than 20 years ago, we used MSG for cooking, and later people started using chicken stock. In 2002, the chicken stock brand Taitai Le took the lead in drafting the industry standard for Chinese chicken stock seasonings, becoming the leading brand of chicken stock.

From MSG to chicken essence, this is a typical category upgrade, and consumers can indeed feel the upgrade. First of all, as a compound flavoring, chicken essence is superior to MSG in terms of freshness and taste. In addition, the name, shape and color of chicken essence give people the impression that it is made from chicken, which is healthier, more nutritious and safer. Therefore, consumers generally accept chicken essence as an upgraded product of MSG.

Around 2010, I worked for a seasoning brand. The client’s strategy at the time was to vigorously promote chicken powder products, trying to educate consumers to upgrade from chicken essence to chicken powder, thereby replacing chicken essence and defeating the mainstream chicken essence brands on the market.

Of course, customers have their own reasons. Their chicken powder products use more fresh chicken and are more authentic, unlike chicken essence, which has a low "chicken content" and is made from leftover chicken scraps. Therefore, customers think that chicken powder is an upgrade of chicken essence, and loudly announced in their TV commercials: "My seasoning has been upgraded, with three times the fresh chicken, which is more fragrant, fresher and healthier."

But the problem is that consumers cannot feel this upgrade. Chicken essence and chicken powder give people the feeling that the product looks different. The "triple fresh chicken" cannot be seen or touched. It is just an internal quality concept. So until today, chicken essence and chicken powder are just coexisting products. There is no replacement or upgrade. The client's marketing strategy was not successful.

Today, many brands like to shout slogans in their communications, and put out a lot of advertisements such as "high-end brand", "high-end sales far ahead", "high-end users use high-end", etc., loudly declaring that they are brands with better quality and higher grade, but consumers not only cannot feel it, but even think that the brand is low-end, rustic, and vulgar. Brand upgrading should be centered on experience, which makes the product value concrete and tangible, so that consumers can deeply appreciate it.

When consumers buy a product, the first thing they pursue is basic functional satisfaction and obtaining this functionality at a reasonable price, which is the price-performance ratio.

In addition to cost-effectiveness, consumers will pay attention to the sense of value. The core of the sense of value is differentiation. If a product is innovative and unique compared to competing products, then there is a sense of value because of the difference.

In addition to value, consumers begin to pursue experience.

The experience includes the entire process, including the experiences and feelings of consumers throughout the process of using the product, such as whether the purchase decision-making process is convenient, what the supporting services are like, what the consumption environment is like, how to use the product itself, and how easy it is to use and how durable it is.

Experience also includes all dimensions, including the sensory enjoyment brought by the product, such as product design and feel, product smell and texture, etc.; as well as the psychological satisfaction brought by the product, what emotional response the product causes in consumers, how it is related to and affects consumers' social relationships; and the cultural significance created by the product, what role the product plays in consumers' lives, whether it is integrated with cultural values, whether it can become a symbol of consumers' image and identity, etc.

The price-performance ratio is popular, the sense of value is personalized, and the experience is wholehearted.

Today’s consumers are very willing to accept higher prices for a little improvement in experience. For example, from toothbrushes to electric toothbrushes, both satisfy the functional need of brushing teeth clean, but electric toothbrushes are more convenient, less labor-intensive and worry-free, and can make people feel more happy, and feel a refined lifestyle and self-image. Therefore, many people are willing to upgrade their toothbrushes that cost a few yuan to electric toothbrushes that cost hundreds of yuan.

Another example is AirPods. When it was first launched in September 2016, there was a lot of complaints online. The battery life was average, the sound quality was not as good as wired headphones, and it was small and easy to lose. Many people said who would spend more than 1,400 yuan to buy this thing? Apple was also criticized for removing the headphone jack and no longer providing wired headphones with mobile phones.

But it turns out that AirPods has become a really good product. In 2017, AirPods sold 15 million pairs, 35 million pairs in 2018, 60 million pairs in 2019, and 95 million pairs in 2020, becoming Apple's best-selling hardware product after the iPhone, helping the company find a new growth point and supporting another revenue sky.

Moreover, it conquered the wireless headset industry as soon as it was released, and brought the entire market to a climax. Today, mobile phone manufacturers and headset manufacturers around the world are rushing to launch their own true wireless Bluetooth headsets (TWS). TWS has become a smart audio device that is popular all over the world and the most popular fashion item for young people.

The key to AirPods' success lies not in its revolutionary technological advancement, but in the perfect user experience it provides.

This headset is very simple and easy to use when connected to a mobile phone. It can be paired quickly. When you open the charging case and take out the headset, it will automatically recognize and connect to use. It can also connect to all Apple devices with one click, and switch between multiple devices seamlessly. Charging is also very simple. Put it in the charging case to maintain battery life.

When in use, it has a comfortable wearing feeling, easy operation, stable connection and convenient switching between the earphones and the mobile phone, and no audio delay and intermittent bad feeling. Based on this point, AirPods stand out and become the perfect companion of the mobile phone. Many people can't live without this little gadget now. When Apple launched AirPods, it claimed to "reinvent wireless headphones". In fact, it fundamentally redesigned the experience of using wireless headphones with its convenience and ease of use.

Whether the advancement of technology and categories can be accepted by consumers and sold at a high price depends on whether it provides consumers with a better and more tangible experience. In the past, brand upgrades were mainly category upgrades driven by technology, but now it is experience upgrades driven by consumption upgrades.

Today, an ice cream can be sold for 18 yuan, a cup of milk tea can be sold for 30 yuan, an electric toothbrush can be sold for 300 yuan, a makeup mirror can be sold for 600 yuan, a hair dryer can be sold for 2,000 yuan, and a sweeping robot can be sold for 4,000 yuan. These price jumps are ultimately due to the experience.

Another example is the new luxury car brands in China in recent years. The reason why they have achieved success and are able to challenge those luxury car brands with a century-old history is not entirely because of technology, but more because of experience.

Many traditional car companies are still focusing on the performance of the car itself, such as developing technologies such as power and fuel efficiency. However, new forces are building cars as if they were a "living room", paying attention to consumers' various behaviors and ways of using the car.

For example, Ideal Auto established a brand strategy for family cars based on data analysis at the beginning of its establishment. At that time, Ideal found that among the car buyers with a price of more than 200,000 yuan, family users accounted for as high as 89%, so it focused on the family segment and began to build its brand[1].

Ideal ONE, the first model of Ideal, is designed entirely for families. It adopts the extended-range technology route, not only because it has the lowest cost, but also because it can solve the range anxiety of family self-driving trips.

Choose a large space in terms of size, and build a medium-to-large SUV that can meet the travel needs of multiple family members;

The configuration not only takes into account the needs of the driver, but also takes into account the feelings of every passenger, especially the elderly and children.

For example, in terms of seat comfort, the first two rows of seats have electric adjustment, heating, ventilation, massage and other functions. The back two rows can be placed with child safety seats, and children can choose their own seats according to their preferences.

According to statistics, 54% of car owners said that their children like the third row of Ideal ONE, which allows them to have their own independent space. Therefore, Ideal ONE broke through the "ceiling" of 300,000-level domestic cars as soon as it was launched.

After the product was launched, Ideal continued to optimize the product based on user feedback and vehicle usage data. For example, Ideal found that in 2021, the average time that Ideal ONE owners spent in their cars but not driving them per week reached 4.4 hours[2]. Many people would stay in their cars to take a lunch break, charge their cars, wait for someone, or just sit there for a while before going home at night.

In view of this, the Ideal L9, which was launched in June 2022, crammed a sofa, refrigerator, and TV into the car, and added a large number of audio and video entertainment configurations.

For example, the car is equipped with Dolby Atmos technology and 4D vibration units in the second row of seats, so you can enjoy a 4D cinema in the car.

For example, with a five-screen design, the wife sitting in the passenger seat can watch TV series on the passenger entertainment screen, and the children sitting in the back seat can play games on the rear cabin entertainment screen. The car can also realize direct screen projection of the Switch, allowing four people to play together.

In addition, some small configurations such as four-seat nap mode, dual panoramic skylights, double-layer soundproof and heat-insulating glass, electric sunshades, intelligent temperature-controlled fresh air air conditioning, fragrance system, ambient lighting, etc. are all designed to allow every family member to enjoy a warm and comfortable in-car experience, making the originally boring and tiring travel lively and pleasant, and turning the car into a mobile home and a happy home. This is the key to the further reduction of the retail price of Ideal L9 to 459,800 yuan.

In fact, in the past, in order to compete with joint venture cars, the common practice for domestic cars was to pile up configurations, using lower prices, leapfrog space, and luxurious configurations to offset the lack of brand power, and compete with joint venture brands on cost-effectiveness.

However, the ideal approach is not to blindly pile up configurations, but to have a clear direction, targeting the needs of family users and family travel scenarios, solving their pain points and optimizing their car-using experience.

Let's look at NIO. It can sell for a higher price because it provides car owners with a series of extreme and rich car experiences and creates a unique user community.

For example, the first car owner can enjoy six free battery replacements per month for life, one-click maintenance, door-to-door car washing, designated driver and parking, and even provide users with special services such as door-to-door cat feeding, child pick-up, and homework tutoring. The KPI of the NIO service team is user satisfaction. There is also the NIO house built for users, which is called "their own living room" by car owners. Car owners can come here to work, chat, read, have afternoon tea, and enjoy an exclusive private space.

This brand experience, which can be called the "Haidilao of the automotive industry", allows users to feel the high-end status of NIO and the value of being a NIO owner. NIO has thus won the recognition of users, cultivated loyal fans, and formed communities and circles. The spread of circle word-of-mouth has created topics, attention and influence for the brand, attracting more potential car buyers.

At the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, NIO founder Li Bin talked about the definition of high-end brands in an interview with the media. He believes that the core of a high-end brand is, first, to have high-level spiritual connotations, groundbreaking ideas and unique innovations; second, to be able to provide a full experience that exceeds expectations, including products-services-community.

2. Infuse cultural value

Many people think that to build a high-end brand, you only need to use better materials, higher quality and better packaging. In fact, this is far from enough. Visual upgrades are just superficial work. Better technology and craftsmanship must be experienced by consumers. In addition, the brand must also incorporate emotional personality and cultural connotations to win consumer recognition.

In recent years, successful emerging brands have generally injected cultural value into their brands.

In the beauty industry, Huaxizi advocates "Oriental cosmetics, using flowers to nourish makeup", and focuses on the traditional Chinese style in product research and development and marketing promotion; Guanxia defines itself as a lifestyle brand of "Oriental humanistic and artistic fragrance"; Banmu Huatian tells the brand story of "exploring Chinese-style plant ingredients, advocating dialogue between skin and nature, and opening up an oriental poetic slow life."

In the cold drink industry, two high-end ice cream brands, Zhong Xue Gao and Xu Jin Huan, are using traditional culture and oriental aesthetics to develop products and enrich brand connotations.

Among underwear brands, Ubras and NEIWAI choose to use the spirit of women to shape their brands. On Women's Day in 2023, Ubras launched a brand film "Free Your Body First" to express its brand attitude of helping women break free from constraints and pursue freedom and comfort;

Neiwai also launched a clear and sharp brand film "Ten Questions About the Body", encouraging women to listen to the voice of their own bodies and realize self-awareness awakening. This behavior was praised by the industry as "the compass of female marketing". From the beginning of their establishment, these brands have been built and promoted around women's independent attitude and subjectivity.

Among coffee brands, Santonban’s brand theme is “love and nature”, and its LOGO and brand story are presented around it. Its return plan for recycling empty coffee cans is also a highlight of its marketing.

Yongpu's product packaging is made of 100% recyclable materials. It also has an environmental protection action "Flying Saucer Return" plan for recycling coffee packaging. In November 2021, it also launched a public welfare project in cooperation with Ant Forest to protect the Yunnan golden monkey.

The boutique coffee chain brand M Stand has collaborated with the emerging sneaker brand EQLZ to jointly carry out public welfare activities with the theme of "Close to Nature and Rebirth".

The two first launched a co-branded pair of slippers made of recyclable and environmentally friendly materials extracted from coffee grounds; they also launched a co-branded special drink "Earth Latte", which has three layers of earth color: ocean blue, forest green, and earth brown, to express an environmental attitude.

Manner has been promoting the idea of ​​“bring your own cup and get 5 yuan off” (euphemistically called “enjoy green discount”). In addition, in the first three days of a new store opening, there will be a “bring your own cup and get free coffee” event (Manner uses this method to estimate the store’s potential daily sales).

The environmentally friendly "bring your own cup" campaign has become the signature feature of the Manner brand. It not only allows Manner to have both high-quality and low prices, but also wins the favor of users in the name of environmental protection and has gained a large number of fans. As a result, Manner has become the price-performance king and hidden champion in the specialty coffee industry, opening 108 stores in 6 years, all of which are profitable.

Including the old coffee brand Starbucks, it also launched the "GOODGOOD Star Good Foodism" public welfare campaign in 2020 to create green stores that are good for both themselves and the earth.

On World Earth Day in April 2022, Starbucks also launched a "Latte of Tomorrow", using sustainably grown coffee beans, earth-friendly oat milk, and environmentally friendly cup lids and sleeves. Hundreds of thousands of cups were given away for free to encourage consumers to practice a green, low-carbon, and sustainable lifestyle.

Whether it is beauty, clothing, food and beverages, these emerging brands have injected cultural values ​​such as oriental culture, naturalism, anti-consumerism, self-growth, and female independence into their brands since their inception, thereby building brand differentiation, enhancing sense of value, and attracting a new generation of consumers.

3. Support and assistance from endorsement resources

From the perspective of the brand itself and its internal structure, brand upgrading requires strengthening the experience and integrating cultural values; from the external perspective, the brand must also support and prove the brand upgrading through endorsement resources, such as cross-border cooperation with recognized high-end brands, hiring more famous spokespersons, or using more advanced technology and raw materials.

The milk brand Adopt a Cow launched milk products with a unit price of more than 10 yuan in order to enter the ultra-high-end milk market, competing with mature large brands such as Telunsu and Jindian.

In its advertising, Adopt a Cow vigorously promotes the slogan "If you are not used to drinking ordinary milk, drink A2β-casein pure milk" to distance itself from ordinary milk. However, as I mentioned in the previous chicken powder case, it is useless to just say that the quality is higher and the raw materials are better. Consumers cannot see it, and consumers cannot understand or even pronounce the professional term "A2β-casein" and product ingredients.

Upgrading needs to be visualized so that consumers can see it. So Adopt a Cow chose to use "Janshan Cow" as its endorsement.

Jersey cows come from the Isle of Jessie in the English Channel. They are one of the best dairy cow breeds in the world. Compared with Holstein Friesian cows, which are used to produce most milk in China, Jersey cows produce milk with higher protein content, but their production is extremely low, accounting for only 1% of the world's total. Therefore, Jersey milk has been exclusively supplied to the royal family in Europe for nearly 200 years due to its high nutritional value and scarcity.

In terms of packaging design, Adopt a Cow prints the Jersey cow directly on the product packaging box, and gives the cow a hat and ribbon that European royal family members wear on important occasions. It then uses blue, which symbolizes aristocratic blood, as the standard color, and the iris pattern, which is commonly used in aristocratic clothing, as an auxiliary graphic[3]. This is to prove the high-end nature of the brand through the visible endorsement of the Jersey cow.

Another example is the laundry detergent brand Blue Moon, which was born in 1992. The company I used to work for, Guangdong Advertising Group (hereinafter referred to as "Shengguang"), started to manage its brand since 1994, helping Blue Moon become the only high-end domestic brand in the daily chemical industry under the monopoly of foreign capital. Looking back at the growth history of Blue Moon, it implemented brand upgrades in three key stages, which led to its current market performance and status.

The first phase was in 2008.

At that time, laundry detergent accounted for less than 4% of the entire laundry industry. Washing powder was still the mainstream of the market, but it was firmly occupied by two foreign giants, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Blue Moon vigorously promoted laundry detergent and promoted the upgrading of powder-to-liquid categories, seizing the market opportunity and ushering in the era of laundry detergent in China. Since then, Blue Moon has achieved the first place in the laundry detergent market share and has been the leading sales volume in the country for many consecutive years.

Blue Moon Laundry Detergent initially used deep clean technology and neutral gentle formula as its selling point, appealing to "the power of gentleness" in its communication, and there is a slogan called "wash clothes in a special way" to enhance the awareness of high-end laundry.

In order to support its high-end feeling and further enhance its brand awareness, in 2009, Blue Moon invited Guo Jingjing, the "diving queen" who won two consecutive gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, as the spokesperson.

At the same time, the famous designer and "Godfather of Hong Kong Design" Chen Youjian was also invited to redesign the brand logo to endorse the comprehensive upgrade of products, services and brands, and create a brand image of technology, cleanness and fashion.

(Blue Moon Original Brand Logo)

(Blue Moon New Brand Logo)

The second phase is 2011.

In order to consolidate the value of laundry detergent, Blue Moon proposed the product concept of "special products" at that time and successively launched a series of products such as hand washing, baby-specific, travel-specific, and pre-coated laundry detergent.

In terms of promotion, Blue Moon invited Yang Lan as the spokesperson, interpreting the attitude and pursuit of professional women in the advertisement - "Be a more professional woman, whether in work or in life." In 2012, Blue Moon also reached a cooperation with the China National Diving Team to promote its hand washing products and continue the route of sports marketing.

"Special products and special products" not only enriches Blue Moon's product line, creates a complete set of home cleaning solutions, and establishes a brand moat (until 2022, Blue Moon also launched sports-specific laundry detergent and men's underwear-specific laundry detergent). More importantly, it caters to the Chinese people's laundry habits, leads the consumption concept of washing, and establishes a professional, clean and outstanding brand image.

The third stage is 2015-2018.

With the upgrading of consumption, people have higher demands for quality of life and their requirements for washing products are getting higher and higher. Data shows that many middle-class families purchase overseas mid-to-high-end laundry detergent through overseas shopping, and Blue Moon has begun to study how to implement brand upgrades again.

At that time, Blue Moon conducted a household survey on more than 17,000 users and found that the number of laundry for a family of three was about 8 pieces per day. According to this data, in 2015, Blue Moon launched the first metered pump head and "concentrated +" formula laundry detergent in China - Machine Washing Supreme.

Machine Wash Supreme has a patented pump head design, which can accurately spray 8 grams of laundry detergent with one press, and 8 grams just wash 8 pieces of clothes. This design simplifies the laundry procedure, allowing consumers who don’t know how much laundry detergent to be put in each laundry, making laundry easier and more efficient, and perfectly match consumers’ daily living habits.

In 2018, Blue Moon upgraded its product formula based on biotechnology and increased its investment in the launch of Supreme Biotechnology laundry detergent. Supreme Laundry Detergent adopts a transparent blue bottle design, which allows you to see the remaining amount of laundry detergent. The product is small and exquisite, with a single bottle net weight of 660 grams, which can be held with one hand.

The exquisite and high-end product design has subverted the consistent impression given by traditional laundry detergent. Supreme laundry detergent has since become a representative product of Blue Moon, increasing the overall brand's sense of technology and quality. At the same time, as a high-end product of the brand, it has locked in the mid-to-high-end consumer groups and consolidated the leading brand position of Blue Moon's high-end laundry detergent.

Blue Moon has once again led the consumption concept and promoted another upgrade of the washing market with the product concept of "concentrated laundry" and the environmental protection concept of "less use and better results".

In order to promote the Supreme product line, in 2017, Blue Moon invited a total of 180 consumers to shoot TVCs for each of them, and then put them on CCTV, allowing them to be the brand's "laundry masters" to teach consumers across the country how to "paint one pump and wash clothes scientifically". This promotion method is a big deal, and the meaning is self-evident. If you use the Supreme Laundry Detergent "wash 8 pieces in one pump", then you are also a laundry master.

In September of the same year, Blue Moon also launched international supermodel Liu Wen and film and television star Peng Yuyan to jointly endorse the Supreme Laundry Detergent, appealing to "beyond cleanliness".

In January 2018, in order to release the upgraded Supreme Laundry Detergent, Blue Moon created the Supreme Technology Life Festival of "easy pump, subvert imagination", and carried out comprehensive promotion through large offline new product launch conferences, JD Super Brand Daily's new product launch, and the National Washing Technology pop-up store.

Looking at Blue Moon’s three continuous brand upgrades, each time it takes the lead in concepts, aiming to guide and innovate consumers’ laundry concepts and habits.

In this process, we use the endorsement resources of celebrity spokespersons, national teams, well-known designers, "laundry masters" user testimony CCTV advertising, etc. to guide the popularization of consumer concepts and let consumers witness the upgrade of the brand. When consumers accept the new laundry concept, they naturally accept the brand new Blue Moon products.

4. Matching and Unification of Brand Image

When upgrading a brand, the last thing to pay attention to is the brand image, which must keep up with and cooperate with the marketing actions of brand upgrade. The brand has been upgraded, and consumers' perception of brand image is still in the past and is still not high-end enough. Then no matter how many upgrade actions a brand does, it will be of little help.

Humans are emotional animals, and we often make judgments about a person based on our first impression alone. The same is true for brands, and product image and consumer image are the basis for consumers to recognize the brand.

To let consumers feel the high-end brand, first of all, the product image must be high-end, and optimize the product function, quality, design and packaging. When many brands implement brand upgrades, the first thing they do is to launch a higher-end product line first or optimize the product portfolio.

Olay, a skin care brand under Procter & Gamble, has an annual sales of more than US$2.5 billion, with an 8% share in the global facial skin care market. It is a strong brand favored by department stores. However, since 2010, Olay's sales have begun to decline year by year and are labeled as a "mom brand" by consumers. In 2016, Olay began to implement brand reshaping, and the direction of reshaping is to focus on the high-end and enhance the brand's value perception in the minds of consumers. Therefore, Olay's brand reshaping can also be understood as brand upgrade.

Olay did two things first as soon as it came out. First, cut off 20% of the products and streamlined the product line. Olay redefined the brand as an anti-aging skin care brand. All products that did not meet this definition, cheap products, and poor sales were cut off, and they were replaced with large quantities of glass bottles to improve the product level and get rid of the image perception of cheapness in the past.

Second, close 30% of offline counters in China, close all low-end, unprofitable, and diverse counters, and then upgrade potential counters.

Products (packaging) and counters (terminals and stores) are the most common contact points for consumers to contact with brands. Therefore, brand upgrades must first ensure that the brand image that consumers feel is completely renewed.

There is also an important concept in the product image, representing product items . When people mention a brand, the product that comes to mind at the first time is the representative product items of the brand. Because most brands have many products, including product lines with different price levels, styles and functions. So, when consumers mention this brand, which product first comes to mind, is it high-end or cheap? Is it innovative or mediocre? The existence of this representative product item will affect consumers' perception of the entire brand value and grade.

Among the three new car-making forces, Xiaopeng Motors always gives people a lower impression than NIO and ideal, which is caused by its product strategy and pricing strategy.

The first model of Ideal Auto, Ideal ONE, was launched at a price of 328,000 yuan; the first car released by NIO was an electric supercar, NIO EP9, which costs tens of millions and is known as the "world's most expensive tram", while the first mass-produced model, NIO ES8, was priced at 448,000 yuan.

In contrast, Xiaopeng, the first model, Xiaopeng G3, is a compact SUV, with a subsidy price starting from 135,800 yuan. The first product, as a price anchor, defines the brand's image in the minds of consumers. Therefore, in the minds of most consumers, Xiaopeng is the most friendly brand among the three Wei Xiaoli families.

Xiaopeng G3 was officially launched on Double Twelve in 2018. After a year and a half, Xiaopeng launched the second model Xiaopeng P7 in April 2020. This is a medium-sized pure electric sedan with a maximum range of more than 700KM and a subsidy price of between 229,900 and 349,900 yuan. From the perspective of pricing, Xiaopeng began to launch an impact on the high-end pure electric market at this time.

Accordingly, the brand must also be upgraded to enhance the sense of luxury and improve the entry-level, cost-effective and affordable brand image left by Xiaopeng G3.

However, the first impression a brand leaves on consumers is often deeply rooted and difficult to change. If Xiaopeng wants Xiaopeng P7 to replace Xiaopeng G3 as a representative product of the brand, then there must be an impressive big move in marketing. This big move is the Xiaopeng P7 Pengyi version released at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2020.

The Pengyi version is a facelifted model of Xiaopeng P7. The biggest highlight is that it adopts a scissor-type electric closure front door design, which is only available in a million-level supercar. The moment the door is opened, the luxury car level is instantly full, and you will immediately become the focus of attention.

Moreover, this car has an exclusive super flash green appearance paint, and is technically matched with Xiaopeng's advanced XPILOT 3.0 autonomous driving assistance system, which is also very eye-catching.

However, the price of this car has reached 430,000 yuan. Consumers have to carefully consider it when buying a car. Compared with the regular version of Xiaopeng P7, is it cost-effective to pay an extra 100,000 yuan for a car door?

But this does not prevent Xiaopeng Motors from putting in a lot of advertisements for this car. In the past few years, I have seen huge poster advertisements for Pengyi versions at many airports. So, why did Xiaopeng put in so many advertisements for a product that was destined to have a small sales volume?

Obviously, it is not for selling goods, but for making it a representative product of Xiaopeng and improving the overall brand image and grade. If consumers mention Xiaopeng and immediately think of this car with a million-dollar supercar, the Xiaopeng brand will definitely become tall immediately.

Moreover, the design of the scissor doors of Pengyi Edition products and the super flash green color are unique, eye-catching and unforgettable. They also have the hype topic of "China's first mass-produced pure electric vehicle with scissor door design". The existence of this car has opened up a new situation for the Xiaopeng brand. This is the support of product image for brand upgrades.

When upgrading a brand, it must consider whether the product image in consumer perception has changed. The brand upgrade must be carried by the product. In 2021, Xiaopeng Motors has once again upgraded its brand and released a brand new brand LOGO and brand concept (see the lecture "Brand Text" for details).

The opportunity for this upgrade is the new generation of flagship product Xiaopeng G9, which was unveiled at the Guangzhou Auto Show, a medium and large pure electric SUV with a price range of 309,900-469,900 yuan. Xiaopeng took this opportunity to release a new brand strategy.

Then there is the consumer image. The consumer image is the consumer's perception of a typical consumer of a brand. What kind of person is he? Age, gender, education, family status, income level, etc. Consumer image will also affect people's perception of brand value and grade. The unique brand of high-knowledge people and local boss brands, noble women brands and poor student brands, young people brands and middle-aged brands give people a huge difference.

Like Xiaopeng as analyzed earlier, the typical owner of Xiaopeng G3 is a trendy young man, while the typical owner of Xiaopeng P7 is a middle-class elite (when Xiaopeng P7 was launched, a group of testimony advertisements from elite car owners were specially placed). So, in the minds of consumers, what kind of person is the typical user portrait of Xiaopeng? This will obviously affect its brand value and level.

In 2016, I served an independent car company. At that time, the customer launched a B-class sedan with a price of between 150,000 and 200,000 yuan. The team I led was responsible for completing the launch plan of this car.

This task is quite arduous. Because the B-class sedan and its price range were the most overwhelming market segments for foreign brands at that time, it had a number of celebrity models such as Camry, Accord, Teana, Passat, and Magotan.

The only way for independent brands is to rely on super high cost performance, and use the size and configuration comparable to C-class cars, the business appearance and shape similar to luxury cars and the price lower than that of foreign-funded B-class cars.

Therefore, the portraits of this type of car owner are generally characterized by older age, low education, and mainly self-employed and small private owners. They give people the impression that the image is average, and white-collar workers are not willing to buy this type of car to avoid labeling themselves as "counterfeit" or "local boss".

Therefore, in our listing plan, one of the major strategies is to try our best to attract young white-collar workers , and to increase the proportion of car owners such as teachers, doctors, civil servants, and middle-level managers of the enterprise through special promotion. Then, these professionals are used to advertise user testimony, and to enhance brand and promote sales through upgrading user image.

At that time, a major sign of our evaluation of the success of this car was to look at the proportion of professionals, female users and young people among its owners. At that time, Geely's B-class sedan Borui was launched. This car was the only successful case of independent B-class sedans at that time. In its communication and promotion, it emphasized the high education, high income and youthfulness of its user portraits.

There is also Perfect Diary analyzed in the lecture "30 Brand Lectures: 6 | Brand Growth Strategy Design". In 2020, Perfect Diary implemented brand upgrades, trying to increase customer unit price and change the brand image of "big brand replacement". It has 4 major measures to upgrade its brand.

• Launched an upgraded product - squid heel lipstick;
• Upgraded brand LOGO - the old logo is relatively simple, while the new logo has a retro three-dimensional aesthetic style, which is more like a luxury brand (somewhat Burberry feels);
• Optimize the brand connotation - With the help of LOGO upgrade, we give the brand an attitude personality that pursues perfection, explores and discovers, expresses oneself, and embraces diversity. At the same time, we launch an attitude declaration-style brand film, appealing to "beauty, no limits" and "the pace is up to me, every step is excellent";
• Change the brand spokesperson - ask Zhou Xun to endorse it, and also cross-border cooperation with many new designers, fashion illustrators, fashion magazines, and fashion models to enhance the brand's sense of fashion and class through their endorsement.

These practices can be said to be very standard brand upgrades. Changing LOGOs, launching new slogans, and changing spokespersons is the easiest way to let consumers feel the changes in the brand. Big brand spokespersons and fashion resources can provide endorsement, and the brand appeal of personalized attitudes gives the brand cultural connotation.

In terms of product image, Perfect Diary hopes that the squid and lipstick will become a new representative product; in terms of user image, it will evolve from a "female college student" to a "new and independent woman". However, Perfect Diary's early grass-planting marketing was too successful, and the brand mark of cost-effectiveness, student party and big brands was too profound. If you want to upgrade, it will take time to accumulate and more upgrade actions to be implemented.

Among the four major measures to achieve high-end brands, strengthening user experience is the center, and strengthening experience makes brand value explicit and visual . In the article "Brand 30 Lectures: 15 | Experience Brands", I talked about the importance of experience.

The injection of cultural connotation and the use of endorsement resources give brand upgrades a pair of wings. They can give added value to the brand, and cultural connotation can also establish a fan group and user circle, while endorsement resources make brand upgrades credible and tangible.

The coordination of brand image is the basic guarantee for brand upgrades and the shortcoming in the barrel effect. In the lecture "Brand 30 Lectures: 13 | Brand Character Design", I specifically talked about the three levels of brand image, and in the lecture "Brand 30 Lectures: 3 | The Contradictory between Brand and Product", I talked about the concept of representative product items for reference.

3. Amplification of brand connotation: How to sell more?

Business expansion can be manifested as a larger business scope, an expanded sales area, or an increase in product types. However, from the perspective of the brand, the brand's extension must be enlarged and the brand's connotation must be coordinated.

For example, when Fangtai mentioned this brand, many people thought of range hoods, "Fangtai = range hoods", which is a category brand. But with more and more products under Fangtai, it now has many product series such as water heaters, steam ovens, microwave ovens, disinfection cabinets, water purifiers, dishwashers, refrigerators, etc. So what does Fangtai mean at this time? How should we define the Fangtai brand?

It is not enough to just say "Fangtai = kitchen and bathroom appliances". Too generalized definition will blur the value and image of the brand, and make it lose internal connection between different product lines, making it difficult to form a synergy. In this case, not only will the brand extension change, expand the brand definition to cover more product fields and business scope; but also the brand connotation should be enriched, from real to virtual, and deepen the value concept.

In 2016, Fangtai launched a brand new brand proposition "Great because of love". In 2018, Fangtai proposed a new corporate mission "for the happiness of hundreds of millions of families". At the same time, Fangtai also created the first cultural product "Fangtai Family Happiness View".

At this time, Fangtai no longer represents a certain product, but an emotion and value concept related to family life. Many well-known advertising communications of Fangtai, such as "Fume Love Letter", "Hundred Taishu in the World", and "Help Mom refuse a cigarette before meals" are all created under the guidance of this concept.

The most critical approach to business expansion-oriented brand upgrade is called "good products".

At the beginning of development, a brand often represents a specific product and category, but with the expansion of product lines and the development of diversified businesses, the brand will usually deviate from specific business and products, and will instead represent a certain product concept and value, or a certain lifestyle of consumers.

I discussed this issue in my lecture on "The Way of Playing Mature Big Brands". Why do brands like to carry out value marketing when they reach their maturity? In fact, this is the reflection of the brand after the product and business is diversified.

For example, Baidu, its initial advertising slogans were well-known "If you have any problems, Baidu will know" and "You will know when you want to go to Baidu". From a brand perspective, Baidu = search engine, it is a tool for consumers to obtain information.

With the expansion of business scope, Baidu has now had more functions and connected more user life scenarios, such as voice search, photo recognition, audio and video entertainment, live video broadcast, online consultation, movie ticket purchase, etc. Therefore, at the 2021 Baidu Mobile Ecological Vientiane Conference, Baidu launched a brand upgrade and proposed a new brand proposition "Baidu will make life better."

From "you know" to "life is better", this is not only an amplification of the brand definition. Baidu can not only help you find information and answers, but also provide more solutions to life. At the same time, it is also a deepening of the brand's connotation, integrating value communication, and creating a better life for users.

For example, in 2017, Tmall's brand upgraded, and the brand's proposition changed from "just buy it on Tmall" to "Ideal Life on Tmall".

The original appeal was to express the business itself. Tmall has a wide range of products. Consumers can complete shopping in one-stop here and do not need to go to other e-commerce platforms. The current appeal is to emphasize that Tmall represents a superior and ideal lifestyle, which connects consumption concepts and user image.

There is also the brand upgrade of Shuijingfang, from "China's No. 1 Liquor Floor" to "China's Noble Life Element". The brand also has changed from emphasizing a long history and product status to represent lifestyles.

The lecture "Integrated Brand Communication" mentioned the progressive model of brand building. Brand is a process of continuous amplification and upward development, and brand upgrade is a phased node in this progressive process.

My company used to be a provincial and provincial, and there was also a condiment brand Haitian that has been serving since 1995. In the 1990s, Haitian was just a small local soy sauce factory, and now it has become the world's largest condiment company, with products covering soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking wine, vinegar, sauce, hot pot, chicken essence and other product series.

In the process of continuous extension of its product line and continuous expansion of sales area, first of all, this is a business expansion-oriented brand upgrade, and it is a continuous upgrade.

In the process of serving Haitian for more than 20 years, in addition to optimizing the LOGO and VI of Haitian brand many times and continuously upgrading product packaging, the brand definition has been continuously adjusted. First, it has changed from a "Cantonese soy sauce brand" to a "China's Nanpai soy sauce brand", then to a "Chinese condiment brand", and finally to an "international condiment brand".

The brand's proposition has gone from "smelling the fragrance and knowing the sea and the sky, the taste is so fresh" to "sea and the sky, the Chinese flavor", and then to "one of the world and one Chinese flavor", and finally to "very delicious life".

Brand extension continues to expand and superimpose, and brand connotation continues to enrich and deepen. This is the evolution history of Haitian brand.

On the other hand, in the past three decades, consumers' living standards have been continuously improving, and their requirements for diet and seasonings have become higher and higher. With this consumption upgrade, Haitian is also constantly developing and promoting higher-priced and value products in addition to soy sauce products. This is the price-enhancing brand upgrade.

For example, the development of Haitian oyster sauce.

When launching this product, the company conducted market research and found that most consumers believed that soy sauce was used to adjust colors, but they were slightly insufficient in seasoning. Therefore, Haitian Oyster Sauce was mainly used for seasoning and promoted marketing, which won consumer recognition by the way and complemented the soy sauce.

In addition, there is another big problem in the promotion of oyster sauce, that is, oyster sauce is mainly produced and used in the south, but is little known in the northern and mainland markets. How to educate consumers to use oyster sauce and recognize the benefits of oyster sauce products is a major challenge.

In this regard, the provincial Guangxi proposed a product that "vegetarian dishes can make seafood flavor". With the help of seafood's high-end understanding in catering, the northern consumers' yearning for seafood has successfully completed product promotion, and promoted the way to eat oyster sauce cold dishes and the selling point of fresh and flavor-enhancing.

The success of Haitian oyster sauce has helped Haitian brand create a new flagship product, becoming another top-selling product in the country after soy sauce, boosting brand growth and expanding market size. Haitian oyster sauce has a market share of more than 40%, and its sales volume can reach the sum of sales of the second to fifth brands. Moreover, oyster sauce is a high-end seasoning, which enhances the value and class of Haitian's overall brand.

In addition, based on the consumption awareness of "soy sauce color adjustment" in market research, Haitian has also continuously upgraded its soy sauce series products. For example, when many soy sauces are used for cooking, the dishes will become darker and darker, and the taste will be bitter. Therefore, Haitian started from the development of mushroom varieties made from soy sauce to create Haitian straw mushroom soy sauce. The dishes it stir-fried are rosy and bright, delicious, and will not turn black after cooking. They also have a unique mushroom aroma, becoming a benchmark for coloring soy sauce.

This is a complete brand upgrade. The brand value should be explicit, and the upgrade should be sensible and visible with the help of experience strengthening and endorsement resources; the brand connotation should be off-product, inject cultural connotation, and expand brand extension; the brand image should be unified, the product image and user image meet consumer needs, and cooperate with the brand upgrade action to ultimately complete the accumulation of brand assets and the strategic requirements of brand upward.

Notes on this article

[1][2] Source: "Ideal announces the first pure electric model, wanting to "beat" all passenger cars over 500,000 yuan, and move "ChatGPT" into the car", author: Li Hua, source: Aifaner, 2023-06-18;

[3] "The visual upgrade of the brand of adopting a cow, new standard for new people"

Author: Empty-handed

Source official account: Husband