The era of big IP has passed, and the era of small IP has arrived

Even the smallest IP is a systematic project. For an individual, building a good small IP and serving 100 people well can also continue to make oneself shine in the industry. This article analyzes the development of small IPs, hoping to inspire you.

I thought I had invented a new word, so I searched it out of habit before publishing it. Sure enough, there is a book called "Small IP" published two years ago. I haven't read it. I guess great minds think alike.

The era of big IP has passed, and the era of small IP has arrived.

Experts from all walks of life are crowded here. For individuals, forget about unreasonable desires, return to small circle thinking, make the IP sustainable and create value. 100 customers is a very good business, 1,000 paying fans can make you very well, and 10,000 readers are a stable influence.

01

Let me answer two questions first: Why IP? Why small IP?

A big IP is like a lever, using its well-known characteristics to leverage potential energy/resources that do not originally belong to your level to create high-premium commercial value. Who doesn't dream of having an opportunity to achieve great results with little effort and enjoy a certain kind of halo?

But the era of big IPs is basically over. There are countless experts in all walks of life, cities, counties, and positions. The fragmentation of media and the barriers of social circles have made it increasingly difficult to create a national IP.

From another perspective, the cause is the effect, and this is also the era opportunity for countless small IPs. Becoming a small IP is still a local optimal solution.

The small IP is more like a pulley, with a longer working cycle but also less effort.

02

Characteristics of small IP: deep experience and shallow promotion.

Most of those who promote IP in the market are superficial brokers. They are good at reselling second-hand resources, but those who really do hardcore work are just pretending.

Experts can tell whether something is good or not with just one look. Professionalism is the basic skill of all IPs. After more than a decade of great waves, there are many people with strong internal skills in a certain vertical category. You should be in awe when you go out.

Shouting is an external skill. If you shout too much, it is basically unreliable, but not shouting is also a big deal. How to grasp this degree is a big question. The basic principle is: shouting to the upper class to resonate in a small range, and shouting to the lower class to promote large-volume hits.

The positive feedback of the market is real, bloody and reasonable.

The second characteristic of a small IP: it can create a scene and gather people.

Good works speak for themselves, it’s true, but the half-life of good works is getting shorter and shorter, almost measured in days and weeks. Even if it is a temporary hit, there will not be much retention.

On the contrary, the meaning of the field is objective and realistic. Whether it is an online group field or an offline human field, they are all forms of energy convergence. Creating a field is like burning incense in a temple, with the fragrance lasting for a long time and spreading for ten miles. The field has the vitality of people, and people have the endorsement of the field.

When an IP and a field form an equivalent linkage, the field is a more lasting certainty than people, and the exchange between fields is the synergy and mutual assistance between energies.

It is difficult to create a scene. If you are too impatient, things will quickly go south. If you are not too impatient, things will be awkward. Everyone has their own worries, and different stages have specific problems to be solved.

My approach to solving the problem is very violent: in the face of absolute numbers, everything can be ignored, which may not be suitable for most people.

The third characteristic of small IP: limited quantity and strong trust.

According to conventional experience, in any precise proposition circle, the number of high-quality decision-makers (those willing to socail at the director level and above) is only 5,000-50,000 people, which is approximately equivalent to 10-100 groups. If we expand it outward by one layer, there will be only 200,000 people.

For small IP, the amount of influence is limited, but the energy is unlimited, because it has a substantial impact on industry decisions and can even directly interfere with transaction efficiency.

Especially, the critical impact on key nodes.

Characteristics of small IP four: low burst and sustainable.

Expecting a hit product to be popular among the public seems like an antique thought from the last era. What’s the point of a hit product? Apart from the superficial excitement of billions of people and the stimulation of excessive personal desires, it has no actual commercial significance, and a hit product is almost impossible to replicate.

Small IPs are much more objective and calm, both for themselves and the industry, and only by maintaining an appropriate density of quality control output can they create a reliable and stable IP image.

03

Two ways of changing.

One is primary monetization. With a small IP, there is naturally value in brand promotion, cross-border marketing, pimping, knowledge payment, and training consulting. These are basic results, and you can live well by playing conventional routines.

One is in-depth service. If you can connect with a deep and professional service team, the imagination you can conceive is unintentionally diverse. The end of traffic is selling goods, and the end of selling goods is branding. From a small IP to a big brand is also another dimension of advancement.

If you retreat, you will live a small and beautiful life; if you advance, you will become the cornerstone of broad business.

04

Two threshold points.

The above idea is really beautiful, but this should wake up the dreamer, because the road of small IP is also crowded with monsters and demons.

I specifically asked the designer to draw this picture. There are two key threshold points in the polishing of a small IP, and not everyone can pass them.

The first threshold is the balance point of positive and negative feedback, which requires a long period of initial investment to obtain a little bit of social feedback;

The second threshold is the balance point of the investment-to-production ratio, which can only be commercially verified after multiple rounds of trial and error.

Most people will get stuck in the initial curve. Under the intense pressure of survival, they will deform, escape, give up, slap their thighs, give up again, and repeat this cycle over and over again.

05

Some possible implementation pitfalls.

Including but not limited to:

• It was a terrible name;
• Another bad name;
• If you are called IP, you will imagine yourself to be IP;
• Stop iterative upgrades and lose advancement;
• Trapped in ineffective social interactions;
• Trapped in old methodologies;
• Trapped in low-level expressiveness;
• Intangible business value is invisible;
• There is a circle but it cannot be broken;
• the despair of encountering an insurmountable barrier;
• The starting point of thirty years of hard work and failure to others;
• It cannot be upgraded upwards and cannot be backward compatible;
• The inner strength is weakening invisibly;
• Decreased hormone secretion;
• Extremely want to escape from the existing closed loop;
• mild and severe derailment;
• Doubt the meaning of persistence;
• While I was working, my IP disappeared;

…

Please don't take it lightly.

06

HOW?

It can be summarized into these eight words, thirty-six characters.

The main business is professional, and the side business is energetic. No matter what the form of IP is, whether it is text, short video, golden sentences or other, professionalism is the standard of IP, and this main value point cannot be avoided; side businesses generally tend to be social, and online communities and offline activities make IP more vital.

Don't have too many tricks, and don't change them easily. Just have one or two practical tricks and keep improving them. Whether it's writing, consulting, or giving speeches, you will have a stable input and output logic.

Restrain monetization and clarify boundaries. Survival is still the top priority. Small IPs must restrain their desires and return to the purity of the IP essence. They should have a small team of no more than five people, clear boundaries and division of labor, an open and transparent logic for dividing money, and a clear desire to make money.

Continuous iteration, unchanged core. There is no overnight success, nor is there everlasting success. Small steps and fast running and continuous iteration are the key, but we must also ensure that the underlying color remains unchanged. Only the unchanged core is the core competitiveness, such as character, trust, habits, etc.

The value of small IP lies in its size, but it has the power to leverage big IP.

07

WHO?

The big IPs are in the public eye, but in fact, there are many small IPs that are deeply rooted in various industries. They are not eye-catching, but once you conduct in-depth research, you can find out how thick they are.

The small IPs that I personally prefer include but are not limited to: @Tsinghua Chen Jing Talks Business, @Chen Caigen, @Mars Culture Li Hao, @Eight O'Clock Health Club Bai Yu, @Lukehou, @Yu Dongqi, @Beauvoir, etc.

In addition to meeting the above requirement, they all have their own distinctive characteristics, stable personality attributes in their respective industries and social circles, and their to C value and to B value are relatively balanced and lasting.

Small IP, with a sense of security under strong trust.

08

Future?

People all have desires and are stimulated by certain scenarios. Although small IPs are conservative, it does not mean that they have to completely lock themselves in. Small can also become big, depending on the trend, the basic foundation, and the gambling nature of one's stage of life.

Behind a small IP, there may be a deep understanding of the industry, and it is possible to really get started at the transaction level;

Behind a small IP, there may also be a hit on the trend, which can lead to a big business by chance;

Behind small IPs, the future is still uncertain and vague, and no one can accurately predict the future;

The essence of small IP is a kind of lower-level thinking, with a little bit of conservatism, but if life can be like this, it is also a kind of small happiness.

09

Of course, there is a higher level: I am vaguely present in the world. (This is too advanced, I don’t want to elaborate on it)

10

persist in.

They are all the result of the cleaning of time. There is no so-called gifted talent. Even the small IPs that are supported by the ancestors have gone through 1,000 or 10,000 hours of tempering and testing.

No matter how small the IP is, it is a systematic project, including: personality, content, social, media, business, collaboration, crisis, etc. It is also a long-term project cycle. Often the longer the brewing time, the more the profound value of the IP can be reflected.

Small IP is also a luxury, and it is still a fruit that only a very small number of people can harvest. Moreover, compared with big IP, small IP has more enhanced certainty of strength and resilience.

There may not be an obvious causal relationship between the previous step and the next step, but each step may be a deep pit.

There may be thousands of excuses to give up, but there is only one reason to grit your teeth and persevere.

Persevere, and persevere again.

Chief Writer: There is a Cow at the Entrance of the Village; Article Architect: Miaomiao

Source: WeChat public account "Party A Finance (ID: jiafangcaijing2019)"