Three questions for brand marketing planners

This article begins with a question: others have already done it, why not just do it yourself? This leads to a marketing vicious circle in the advertising industry - preferring to copy popular products. The author analyzes the reasons for this phenomenon from three aspects, and then proposes three daily reflections for brands, which should be the commandments that must be asked before each marketing campaign. Welcome marketing novices to learn together.

There is a strange phenomenon in the advertising circle: when a brand’s marketing goes viral, it will immediately trigger a wave of follow-up trends.

Even every time I have a meeting with a client, the client will ask me by name, and even slam the table if they disagree: Can't you refer to XXX? When planning a plan, many planners will also encounter similar situations. The leader often asks to simply write it down, integrate the two plans, or more directly, refer to this or that plan and change the name.

Cases are copied and failed repeatedly, why do clients still want to learn from others? Plans are copied and failed repeatedly, where does the leader get the confidence? In other words, why does the client never want to be himself? Why can't planners plan their own plans?

The reason is actually very simple, it is nothing more than too much jealousy, a little brain paralysis, and too much confusion. Here, I will use the example of Party A preferring to copy the hot products to analyze the mentality behind it, and planners can encourage each other.

1. Why do you always think about plagiarism?

From envying those who chase hot topics, to envying those who earn 100,000+, to envying those who bring in 1 billion yuan worth of goods through live streaming, no brand does not want to be in the spotlight, so the following three mentalities are their basic ones:

1. Too jealous: too eager for quick success

The basic mentality of many brand marketing is to be eager for quick success and instant benefits. They always hope to be able to fly on the wind, but they don’t even take the initiative to move towards the wind.

Always jealous of others, so always want to copy homework. You will see what others are doing that is popular, and these brands must follow suit, even if others have failed, you will still test the edge of death.

The result is as you can see. Others have reached new heights with their own brands, while you have copied and found a new realm for your own marketing. You are doing things in a haphazard manner and no one knows what you are doing.

So to this day, many brands still envy others for always having their own aperture, while some brands have already become the aperture themselves.

2. Cerebral palsy: blindness

It is normal to envy other brands that are dominating the screen, and agents also need to reflect on the fact that they failed to help their clients dominate the screen. However, it is wishful thinking to only see the success of others and ignore the efforts behind the success, and only care about others' popularity while ignoring the efforts they have made to become popular.

When doing marketing, you must not be lazy and be blinded by appearances. The dominance of others' screens is not a stimulant for your brand to start "borrowing", but a ruler to spur your brand to improve.

Learning from a person is not about learning from his success, but learning from his past. The same is true for learning from a brand. You learn from others' pride and indulgence, but you don't know how much hard work they put in before they became proud and indulged. Looking at the results and investigating the reasons is the only way.

3. Too confused: seeing flowers in the fog

Whether it is because of the desire for quick success or short-sightedness, it seems that they have committed the mistake of "borrowing", but the root cause is that they do not understand their own brand. They have not thought about what kind of brand they are, so they do not know what kind of image their brand should show to the outside world, how to interact with the public, and what kind of marketing actions they should take.

My mind was in a mess. I only thought about increasing my followers, flooding my screen with posts, and letting my boss see them. I was confused and had no idea what to do. I only wanted to do something to take credit for it.

In the era of equal communication, what you don’t do is more important than what you do, because everything you do will become part of your brand and will be watched, discussed, and gleefully reviewed by people all over the Internet. If you can’t contribute, then don’t dig your own grave.

It can be seen that if a brand wants to become a brand, a brand that is active in the public eye and comes with its own BGM, the most important thing is to do its best, and the prerequisite for doing its best is to understand itself.

2. Brands also need to reflect on their daily lives

The ancients said that I examine myself three times a day. I think that brands also need to reflect on themselves three times a day, planners also need to reflect on themselves three times a day, and decision makers need to reflect on themselves three times a day even more, so as not to lose themselves in marketing and become another follower or another spam maker.

1. Who am I?

Do you really know who your brand is? Do you do brand marketing every day, but have you ever understood what the brand story is? What is the brand spirit? What is the brand archetype? Who is the target group? Where are they and what are they interested in? Have you ever carefully thought about how to do such brand marketing actions, what tone to maintain, and what bottom line to have?

Don't rush to shout that you know it well. You know it well when you are asked, but you are confused when you do it. Think about it, how many of those silly videos, tear-jerking long pictures, and sensational manuscripts you made are in line with the brand spirit, how many directly hit the target group, and how many add bricks and tiles to the brand assets?

Marketing is like sculpture. Each marketing campaign is shaping the final sculpture. If you do not do a proper marketing campaign today, it may become a pit or stain on the brand tomorrow! Understanding who the brand is is the starting point of all marketing and the basis for testing marketing campaigns.

2. Where am I

Brands grow dynamically. On the one hand, your marketing becomes the reason why a brand is a brand. At the same time, the marketing actions that work for brands at different stages are also different.

Simply speaking from the perspective of the growth cycle, brands in the start-up phase are limited by costs but need voice, so marketing is more of a multiplier approach. During the growth phase, they expand rapidly, so marketing actions may be offensive, and they need to expand the funnel to consolidate awareness. In terms of image recognition, the image is vague, so you need to create events, cross-border actions, and other big moves to sharpen awareness. If there is a negative impact, you need to improve your reputation.

If you don’t understand the position of your own brand, the situation your brand is facing, and what issues your brand marketing is trying to solve, and you just follow the trend and then question why others can become popular but you can’t, then you are just being a hooligan!

3. Where to go?

There is a saying that goes "targeted". If there is no clear brand planning, no idea of ​​where the brand is headed, and no clear and specific marketing purpose, then no matter how much marketing you do, it will probably be like having 800-degree myopia without glasses. What effect can it have? It's a blessing if you don't fall into the ditch.

Long-term goals, no stage goals, campaign goals are not for show, but a beacon for moving forward. If the goals are too big and inappropriate every time, marketing can only be a fuss. Of course, if your goal is just to make yourself happy, then I have nothing to say.

You can fantasize that one day you will be able to attract attention, but there is no need to follow in other people’s footsteps and expect to succeed. You can’t even dream of being the same as others when you don’t even know where their footprints are!

The three daily self-examinations of a brand should be a rule that must be asked before every marketing campaign. This is true for brand marketing and planning. Whether it is Party A, Party B, or Party D, decision makers should ask themselves these three questions every day, otherwise one incompetent general will exhaust the whole army!

Everyone else has done it, why not just do your own thing?

Planners should encourage each other.

Author: Little Monk Kunkun

Source: WeChat public account "Marketing Zen Institute (ID: mandcx)"