Brand No. 1: Attack, Defense, Defend, Retreat

Combining Sun Tzu's Art of War with brand operations may create different sparks. This article analyzes brand operations from the four aspects of attack, defense, defense, and retreat in Sun Tzu's Art of War. It is recommended for students who want to understand brand operations.

Attack, Defense, Hold, Retreat

Battlefield (creating cognitive advantages), battle zone (focusing on advantageous resources), battle situation (brand differentiation strategy), battle trend (grasping the trend of category differentiation). Based on the advantageous cognition and the strength of the enterprise, the battle zone is selected and the outcome is decided in one battle.

As the saying goes: If you know where to fight and when to fight, you can fight thousands of miles away - The Art of War by Sun Tzu

1. The first priority of a founder: What are you?

As a category creator, the biggest market challenge comes from: what are you and who are your potential consumers. That is, how to clearly define and convey the value of the category; anchor the value in the minds of consumers who have no anchor.

The creation of new categories from scratch relies on the mobilization of cognition, not the resources in the hands of entrepreneurs. The real resources lie in mobilizing the existing cognition in the minds of consumers.

Discover consumer perception = insight into potential market potential.

• With cognition and transactions, the focus of enterprises is also the source market and source crowd;
• There is awareness but no transaction, so the company can focus on the incremental market in the second place;
• There is no knowledge, but there are transactions, which is the market where companies are most likely to make mistakes;
• A market with no cognition, no transactions, and no gains in the short term.

Almost all consumer products you can see are based on strong functions and strong benefits when they are first launched on the market. They extract core differentiated selling points, establish cognitive advantages, and then bring in transactions. That is: eliminate the product's sharpness. The clearer the differentiated selling points, the clearer the benefits, and the more efficient the transaction. Whether it is the century-old Coke or the once-billion-dollar Wanglaoji; whether it is future consumer products or old brands that have already achieved success, the same is true. That is:

• What are you: clarify the category and define the boundaries
• What’s the difference: explain the difference and convey the value

For example, in December 1995, during the Spring Festival Gala, an advertisement titled "Red Bull Comes to China" made Red Bull a household name. In 1995, there was no Internet, no WeChat, no Moments, and no TikTok. Television was the super media at the time. The Spring Festival Gala was the highlight of the brand's communication potential.

However, at the beginning of the category, advertising should convey clear usage scenarios and unique differentiated functional points. The publicity of Red Bull increased the popularity of the product in a short period of time. As for what Red Bull is - what are you (extracting the value of the category), this key question does not seem to be clarified.

In fact, it’s not just Red Bull that has this problem. Many brands now have the same problem - ignoring the basics, that is, ignoring the fundamentals of demand.

What are you and how are you different? In short, it is product strength. Products must be competitive. Product strength is essentially the understanding of the industry, category, and characteristics of entrepreneurs, business owners, and organizations, which ultimately manifests itself in the ultimate functions and benefits of products. For brand companies, what is productism is to work hard on product strength and to express and convey the company's ultimate pursuit of products through product strength.

The role of advertising is to amplify the coverage of single-point information (characteristics, value, function, benefit). If the product's point and product strength are not eliminated, the expected effect of advertising cannot be achieved. There are two concepts involved here: popularity and recognition.

A well-known brand is better than a brand without it; a brand with recognition is better than a brand without it. Brand awareness: the degree to which consumers know a brand, its fame; brand recognition: the degree to which consumers recognize the category or characteristics that a brand occupies.

• Brand awareness is large and comprehensive
• Brand awareness is the core of product strength

2. The car needs gas, I need Red Bull

"The car needs gas, I need a Red Bull" reminds drivers to buy a box of Red Bull at the gas station convenience store when refueling the car and put it in the car, so that they can have a can when they feel sleepy. Demand can be stimulated, and purchasing is a practical issue.

The price of 6 yuan per bottle and 144 yuan per box was equivalent to a week's salary for the working class at the time. This was a purchase decision that many people had to consider. Yan Bin personally led a team to give cans of Red Bull to taxi drivers on Chang'an Avenue, hoping to attract more people through tasting and free drinks.

• Origin group: Drivers
• Demand pain points: driving fatigue and drowsiness
• Origin channel: gas station

Origin market = Origin crowd + Origin channel . Origin market is not an independent concept, but grows out of the continuous superposition of origin people and origin channels. That is: through the origin crowd, clarify the origin channel; through the origin channel, amplify the origin crowd. As the origin crowd and the origin channel are continuously superimposed, the origin market gradually becomes clear.

After the origin market is clear, we select the most exemplary market based on sales data and users as the strategic target market. The significance of the strategic target market is that it can be grown, quantified, and replicated, and it can prepare data, strategies, and models for entering the mainstream market later.

In fact, it was not until 2010 that the beverage industry collectively entered the 6 yuan era, and Red Bull has been priced at 6 yuan for 25 years since 1995. (Nine years after 2010, Yuanqi Forest was the second brand to sell beverages at 6 yuan and succeeded) For this, Red Bull has been waiting for a long time.

Most companies cannot afford such a wait.

So we say: pricing is a science. This science is not only about buying and selling (who to sell to and who sells to), but also includes the science of whether you can afford to wait and whether you can't wait.

3. Three imitations: I am bigger than you, low price, focus

Differentiation is not just about products, but also about guiding consumers’ cognition, understanding consumers’ cognition, and even cognition compliance. Red Bull took the lead, and Dongpeng divided the market, first with bottles and then with cans; Red Bull changed its slogan to “Drink Dongpeng Special Drink when you are tired and sleepy”.

• Focus on local markets and make great progress
• Low price strategy, sensitive customer conversion
• You don't need it, I'll use it.

Dongpeng is really like this: it follows the big brother to make products, verifies the needs and then expands them; it follows the low-price strategy closely and focuses on the regions to occupy positions; it does a good job of being the second best without making a fuss and it is not shameful to adopt others' ideas; it has deep expertise in the regional market and makes a fortune quietly.

• Product visual differentiation: Red Bull canned VS Dongpeng Special Drink bottled
• Low-price alternative: Dongpeng 3.5 yuan VS Red Bull 6 yuan a can
• Channel focus on local advantages: Dongpeng South VS Red Bull National
• Competition in promotion scenarios: Red Bull focuses on sports scenarios VS Dongpeng Special Drink focuses on non-sports scenarios such as overtime and staying up late

When facing the leadership of the category leader, it effectively cut the market: Dongpeng Special Drinks became reflexive through products, prices, channels, and promotions, focusing on the Guangdong market and fighting a beautiful low-price flanking war. It made a breakthrough in the local market and accumulated a certain amount of funds.

It is said that Dongpeng Special Drink was piloted in Dongguan before it was launched.

The Lin brothers also issued an order: they would not enter the national market until the sales exceeded 100 million.

After the local market exceeded 100 million, Dongpeng began to move towards more markets. In 2013, Nicholas Tse was invited to endorse the product and the slogan "Drink Dongpeng Special Drink when you are tired and sleepy" was launched. Red Bull entered the Chinese market and spent ten years to create the consumer scenario of "Drink Red Bull when you are tired and sleepy" in the minds of consumers. Even though the imitation is so simple, direct and crude, it is really effective.

In 2016, Red Bull was embroiled in a trademark dispute with Thai Tianshi. With advertising sharply reduced, Dongpeng Special Drink increased its media advertising and promotion efforts. A year later, Dongpeng Special Drink's annual sales increased from over 3 billion to over 4 billion.

4. Flanking: Stand opposite

From 2000 to now, the best performing public company in the United States is an energy drink company called Monster Beverage. Its current sales are about 4 billion US dollars, profits are about 1 billion US dollars, and its market value exceeds 30 billion US dollars.

• Product: Carbonated functional beverage
• Packaging: tall and thin, green visual
• Positioning: The choice of the new generation
• Focus: Young people

Red Bull is keen on sponsoring the world's top events such as skiing and Formula One. Monster focuses on relatively niche extreme sports, such as extreme motorcycles, skateboards, and BMX. Compared with conventional sports, these extreme sports are more exciting and wilder. They focus on young people's extreme sports to penetrate the crowd and become the choice of the new generation.

In the U.S. market, Monster has a market share of 35.2% and Red Bull has a market share of 35.1%;
In the Canadian market, Monster has a 27.8% market share, while Red Bull has a 37.3% market share.
In Mexico, Monster has a 25% market share, while Red Bull has a 15.7% market share.

5. Learn to copy homework first

In fact, all the strategies you can think of have already had real and proven successful counterparts (strategies) in brand history.

Coca-Cola occupies the leading position in the market, while Pepsi-Cola first adopted a low-price strategy and shouted the slogan "Buy two for 5 cents", seizing some price-sensitive markets (Dongpeng Special Drink VS Red Bull Phase I), and then gradually evolved into a frontal offensive war.

In the confrontation, Coca-Cola also launched its own large bottle. At this time, Pepsi discovered that it was not the packaging that was difficult for Coca-Cola to change, but their promotion of "authenticity" that was difficult for Coca-Cola to change.

Authentic means traditional and classic. Pepsi hit the opposite of Coca-Cola: cola for young people. By showing the lifestyle of young people and resonating with young people, this strategy has become the main line of Pepsi's fight against Coca-Cola for decades.

Young people's brand appeal has increased Pepsi's domestic market share from 21% to 35%. Even in Atlanta, where everyone likes Coca-Cola, Pepsi's sales have increased by 30%.

VI. Conclusion

Jeffrey Moore, the godfather of Silicon Valley, once gave an interesting explanation of the final market structure of emerging industries: Imagine that there are three animals in the forest: gorillas, baboons and monkeys.

The 800-pound gorilla is the undisputed overlord, and all the bananas in the forest belong to it; the baboons do not compete with the gorillas for the market, and they focus on their own exclusive market; monkeys often travel in groups, but they can only survive by picking up small and rotten bananas that the gorillas and baboons do not eat.

Defensive warfare, offensive warfare, flanking warfare, and guerrilla warfare based on cognitive advantages as external advantages and corporate strength.

Gorilla Defense: Only market leaders should consider defense, and the best way to defend is to attack yourself.

Baboon Offensive Warfare: Find the weakness in the leader's advantage and attack that weakness.

Little Monkey's flanking attack: Launch in uncontested areas and constantly look for market gaps.

Author: Houshan Guest House

Source: WeChat public account "Lao Gao Business and Brand"