Integrated brand communication: How to do communication and how to write annual report?

Brands exist in the minds of consumers, and only when they are spread out can they be called brands. So, how do we understand communication? And how do we carry out communication? The author divides it into three levels based on a large number of cases: Tao, Shi, and Shu. Let's take a look!

90% of brand problems are brand communication problems.

Because brands exist in the minds of consumers, not on shelves. If consumers do not recognize your brand and do not know what functions and values ​​the brand has, then it is useless to design a perfect brand structure and pyramid, a precise brand positioning, or a high-sounding brand mission and vision. There is no way to talk about brand assets such as recognition, reputation, and loyalty.

Only a brand that is spread out can be called a brand. If a brand is well known by everyone, it has already killed most of the competing products.

But how do we understand communication? Communication can be big or small. Annual plans are communication, brand symbols and propositions are communication, TV ads are communication, graphic posters are communication, celebrity endorsements are communication, promotional activities are communication, product packaging design is communication, public account tweets are communication, product leaflets and small cards distributed on the street are communication, table cards and toothpick holders on restaurant tables are all communication to consumers. Brand communication is not equal to advertising creativity, media placement, or material design. To explain the topic of communication clearly, we need to divide it into three levels: Tao, Shi, and Shu .

1. Marketing is the way of communication

When it comes to brand communication, one theory that cannot be ignored is Integrated Marketing Communication, or IMC (Integrated Marketing Communication), which was proposed by Don Schultz, a professor at Northwestern University and one of the world's most famous marketing masters. Schultz is therefore known as the "Father of Integrated Marketing Communication."

When I was studying advertising in college, there was a professional course called Integrated Marketing Communications. The textbook used in the class was the green-covered book "Integrated Marketing Communications" written by Professor Schultz. Students majoring in advertising should all feel the same.

After graduating from university and joining an advertising company, I found that no matter whether it was the second party or the first party, they always mentioned integration; the plans they made were not called advertising plans or creative plans, but integrated communication plans; even many advertising companies like to call themselves integrated communication companies or integrated marketing planning agencies. For example, the famous advertising company Ogilvy proposed the industry-renowned operating concept "360-degree brand steward" in the mid-1990s, which is a product influenced by the integration idea.

360 degrees includes six major aspects: product, image, consumer, channel, visual management, and business reputation. Its purpose is to implement all-round management of the brand and ensure that all brand-related marketing activities of the company (not just advertising) can achieve long-term investment in the brand and enhance brand value and assets.

IMC can be said to be one of the most influential marketing theories in the second half of the 20th century. It is precisely because of this theory that advertising companies have transformed themselves into brand service companies and become brand stewards of enterprises. However, in the first few years when I joined the advertising industry, I disagreed with this theory and even looked down on it. Because the integration in the advertising industry is actually the integration of all media. For example, I helped a brand to make a plan, sorted out its core values, refined the brand proposition SLOGAN, designed the brand LOGO and VI, and created the main graphic and TVC. How to do communication next?

That is, advertising bombardment, public relations reports, channel promotion, ground activities, and all possible means are used; the same advertisements are placed on TV, outdoor, radio, the Internet and other media, with the same slogans;

The same main plane is used for extension on various materials such as posters, terminal display racks, supermarket display heads, and table cards;

In addition, the brand logo and VI are uniformly applied in various occasions that require brand vision, such as product packaging, store signs, store decoration, and employee uniforms.

This is called integration.

To use a vivid metaphor, integration is like putting fruits together in a bowl , adding a little of this and a little of that, and finally putting together a large plate of fruits. It looks rich, but this kind of integration is just a simple addition, and forcibly using the same slogan and picture in different occasions and situations will inevitably give people a sense of rigidity and roteness, so I always feel that integration has no technical content.

Later, my friend, the famous marketing expert Miao Qingxian, told me that the key to integrated marketing communication is not integration, but marketing = communication. This inspired me to rethink the IMC theory.

Integrated marketing communication is not just about integrating advertising media and promotional methods. What it really means is that everything a company does is communication . Advertising is communication, products are communication, channels are communication, and pricing is communication. Corporate marketing is to convey information to consumers through various means and send a unified voice, thereby helping consumers form a clear and profound understanding of the brand. Schultz believes that the 4Ps as a basic marketing mix cannot constitute the core competitiveness of an enterprise.

Because your product functions and designs can be easily imitated by competitors. Today is an era of product homogeneity, technology diffusion is very rapid, and it is difficult to form product barriers;

Your pricing strategy can be copied by your competitors. Pricing based on competing products is a common pricing method.

Your distribution channel competitors can follow suit and sell wherever you sell, giving channel partners greater profit margins;

Finally, your competitors can also use the same promotional methods as yours, such as advertising, public relations, product promotion, live streaming, promotions, and private domain operations.

Therefore, Schultz said: " The information that exists in the minds of consumers is the real marketing value. Information dissemination will be the main marketing force in the future and the only sustainable competitive advantage of marketing organizations. Consumer communication is all about marketing. "

Only when a brand enters the consumer's mind and occupies a unique set of information can it differentiate itself from its competitors and become its own moat. Consumers' reception and cognition of corporate marketing information are crucial, so it is necessary for companies to unify all marketing activities and send a single voice to consumers.

In a nutshell, marketing is communication and communication is marketing. The two are inseparable and must be integrated together to be instilled in consumers as a whole.

In the past, we understood IMC as the integration of media placement, which is actually just an execution link in Schultz's theory, not the core part. This was my misunderstanding of IMC theory in the past, or it could be said that most of the advertising industry has some deviations when using IMC.

If you still remember the content of "Brand 30 Lectures 15 | Experience Brand", you should know that I emphasized in the article that the best way to build a brand is to create a visual experience, manage every touch point of the consumer experience of the brand, and ensure that consumers have a consistent feeling and a unified and clear understanding of the brand. In fact, this is the embodiment of IMC thinking. For example, if you want to create a high-end mineral water brand, it is far from enough to set an expensive price and then advertise "high-end mineral water" in advertisements. Consumers will not pay for it. You have to let consumers experience the high-end of the brand in all aspects, not just see the high price.

First, your water source must be natural and rare. You must build factories in places such as Changbai Mountain, Kunlun Snow Mountain and Glacier, Alps, and New Zealand Prairie. The production process must be original and pollution-free, and the water quality and trace element content must be excellent. Secondly, your product packaging materials must be high-end materials. Plastic bottles may not work, so you have to use glass bottles; the packaging must have a sense of design, you have to invite big-name designers to do it, or cross-border with luxury brands and well-known IPs to promote joint products;

Thirdly, your channels must be high-end. You have to sell in star-rated hotels, Michelin restaurants, and airports. You also have to design exquisite showcases and displays offline. It's like if Evian mineral water is sold in a grocery store, it will not only be difficult to sell, but also affect consumers' perception of the Evian brand. In order to create a sense of being a big brand, ZARA opens its stores in the best locations in shopping malls, placing itself next to top luxury stores such as LV, Chanel, and GUCCI.

Then, your brand design should be high-end, and the brand appeal should have connotation, such as reflecting the taste of life and the realm of life; the brand VI should be high-end, such as black, white and gray minimalist style, green natural style, blue and gold elegant style, etc. Finally, the brand promotion should be high-end, such as launching more value marketing and public welfare marketing for protecting water resources and wild animals and plants to win the recognition of users; for example, the promotion resources should be related to the upper-class lifestyle and consumption scenarios, such as special water for eating French food, special water for drinking Moutai, special water for playing golf, etc.

If a brand wants to hire a spokesperson, it should hire a first-line star with a suitable image. It would definitely be inappropriate to hire Huang Bo or Yue Yunpeng. This is not to deny their fame and strength, but because they give people a feeling of being approachable rather than high-end.

Therefore, if companies want to build their brands, they must first think clearly about what their brands are selling, what information they are conveying to consumers, and how to make them believe and agree. The core work of corporate marketing is to operate the information flow. All nodes that can reach consumers are channels for brand communication. Therefore, whether companies are developing products, setting prices, developing channels, or disseminating and promoting, they must have communication thinking and send the same voice to consumers. IMC's understanding of marketing has reached a new height and has pointed out a new direction for companies to do marketing well, which is refreshing. As for brand communication, we should also keep in mind that branding is not just about advertising, and advertising does not only appear in the media. In fact, product packaging, price tags, channels, stores, advertising, and activities are all advertising and media. Everything a company does in marketing is to communicate to consumers.

Companies should use communication thinking to shape their marketing, spread the same information by integrating their various marketing activities, and establish a consistent brand experience. This is the essence and ultimate pursuit of communication, and this is the "Tao" of communication.

2. Dual trends of content + social networking, communication + live broadcast

Now that we understand the principles of communication, we can focus our attention on advertising, media placement and promotional activities, and look at the two major trends that have emerged in brand communication today.

1. Evolution of the new model of content + social

When it comes to brand communication, there were two main approaches in the industry in the past. One was the "single appeal + integrated communication" of 4A advertising companies.

Distill a simple and powerful appeal for the brand, take it as the center, and interpret it into TVC, series of main graphics, annual events, terminal animation and other advertising forms, and then use various media combinations to carry out all-round delivery to let consumers form an overall impression of the brand.

The other is "brainwash advertising + media bombardment" by local marketing companies.

This approach is even more simple and crude. It condenses the information that the brand wants to communicate with consumers into a slogan (SLOGAN) or a symbol (LOGO), and then uses a strong media to bombard it, repeatedly brainwashing consumers and forcing them to remember. Even if consumers are bored, at least their attention is captured, and the brand awareness is increased.

These two approaches are actually the same model - " advertising + integration ". Companies film their product selling points and brand values ​​into advertisements, and then pay the media to strongly advertise them to persuade consumers.

However, this strategy is gradually becoming ineffective in today's information explosion. It is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to attract consumers simply by relying on hard advertising and large exposure, and marketing costs are also increasing. Communication is moving from advertising-centered to content-centered. Only by creating interesting content can we respond to the scarcity of consumer attention, and only by creating high-quality topics can we break through the information barriers between different platforms.

This is a change in the communication carrier, and on the other hand it is a change in the mode of communication.

In the past, communication focused more on exposure, and communication ended after the information reached consumers. But now, when we do communication, we also need to pay special attention to consumers' feedback after they are exposed to brand information, whether they resonate with it, whether they are willing to participate and share it. These behaviors of consumers are more important to achieving communication effects. Communication has moved from one-way exposure to two-way user social interaction.

In general, the communication model in the past was "advertising + integration", but now it has changed to "content + social".

Brand communication needs high-quality content to carry brand information, and interact with consumers through content, let them feel the brand, play with them, and get along with them until they become fans of the brand, forming a closer user relationship and stronger brand recognition. Then consumers will automatically and free help you spread the word, and continue to share you with more people. The "content + social" approach can first establish high potential for content.

Good content can help brands establish labels, making them unique and distinctive; it can also set topics for the public, triggering social attention and discussion, thus forming a diffusion effect. Therefore, today's brand communication pays more and more attention to the development of content materials, such as topics, stories, installations, IP, event marketing, viral videos, attitude copywriting, jokes, emoticons, etc.

In 2016, the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class was launched. First, a picture of Guan Yu holding a Qinglong sword and riding a red rabbit horse was released, with the title: "Pass 5 gates and kill 6 generals", which means that the competitors of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, the BMW 5 Series and the Audi A6L, will be killed on the spot.

This move immediately received responses from BMW and Audi, and triggered imitation and follow-up from the entire automotive industry, forming a national carnival, so everyone knew that the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class was on the market.

Although it is just a small poster, it has content and topics, and the communication effect it brings is better than tens of millions of hard ads. This is the power of content. The second is to build high potential of the crowd. Brands can capture their core consumer groups through social networking, let them form an identity recognition of the brand, and use the demonstration effect of this group of people to trigger the follow-up and imitation of the general public. Therefore, today, many brands, in addition to conventional campaign creation, have begun to engage in new media, live broadcasts, private domain operations, and create participatory user activities and brand experiences. The purpose is to establish relationships with consumers and achieve real-time communication.

We will continue to explain how to create good content and social media. To understand the detailed principles of social branding, we recommend reading "Brand Lecture 17 | Social Branding".

2. Dual-center iteration of communication + live broadcast

In the past, companies implemented advertising and integrated communications by doing campaigns. Campaign is a term that advertisers often talk about. When people in the industry chat, they always say things like "I'm busy with a campaign for brand X" or "Let's have dinner together after this campaign is done." The word campaign is originally a military term. The standard Chinese translation is "battle, movement, activity", which refers to a series of military actions with a set purpose launched in a certain period and region during a war. Later, it was extended to the business and political fields.

In the advertising industry, campaign refers to a wave of communication movements and brand campaigns launched by a brand at a certain point in time and targeting a specific market, with the aim of improving brand exposure, awareness, sales conversion and other indicators in a short period of time.

Because the terms "brand communication campaign" and "communication promotion movement" are too long and not precise enough, the industry is accustomed to using the term Campaign.

For example, as 618 is approaching, some brands have launched a massive brand communication campaign from the beginning of May to improve their e-commerce performance, which will last until the end of the 618 promotion.

In this wave of campaigns, there are a series of marketing actions including hard advertising, organizing events, creating topics, appearing on hot searches, laying out notes, planting grass, investing in short videos, broadcasting live, doing promotions, and connecting with private domains.

At the same time, this wave of campaign may be divided into several stages, including the warm-up period, the accumulation period, the detonation period, the hot-selling period, and the continuation period. Each stage will have different content to disseminate and corresponding media placements to cooperate. This is a standard campaign.

Brand communication is mainly about campaigns, which has always been the main work of the corporate brand department and its advertising agencies. For a brand, if it can do five or six campaigns in a year, it is actually very impressive and enough to ensure the brand performance results for the whole year. Campaigns are usually phased and explosive, and last no more than two months. This is due to the following three reasons.

First, when doing communication, companies must concentrate resources on short-term blasts. Campaigning is like fighting a war, which requires concentrating superior forces and launching them quickly on key battlefields and time points in order to achieve the greatest results and influence the direction of the entire war. If limited marketing expenses are spread out and spent evenly throughout the year, then communication will not make any waves.

Secondly, the time is too long and the popularity cannot be maintained. Consumers’ attention is scarce, and even most social hot spots can only maintain their popularity for two or three days before no one cares about them anymore.

Finally, the time and energy of the enterprise team are also limited. It usually takes one or two months for an enterprise to implement a campaign, from planning, approval to preparation and execution, so only a few can be done in a year.

However, with the development of the Internet and changes in the media environment, campaign-style brand communication has also changed.

During the 2012 London Olympics, Nike launched the Campaign "Live Your Greatness". This wave of communication was known for Nike's timely response to Olympic hot topics. Within two or three minutes of any event results, news or emergencies in the Olympic arena, Nike would post a hot topic poster on its official Weibo. For example, in the women's 10-meter air rifle competition, Yi Siling won the championship and attracted much media attention, but Yu Dan's name was ignored by the commentator because she only won the bronze medal. In response, Nike immediately followed up and launched a poster with the copywriting: "They may not remember your name, but they remember your greatness."

For example, Wang Hao won the silver medal in the men's singles table tennis final and finished second for three consecutive Olympic Games. Nike then released a poster: "Three second place finishes prove your determination to win the championship three times."

In the women's track cycling team sprint event, the Chinese team won the race by 0.179 seconds ahead of their opponents, but was judged to be fouled and the gold medal was changed to silver. Nike immediately commented: "The referee can determine your results, but not your greatness."

Nike's quick response to the Olympic hot spots has aroused praise and heated discussions among netizens. While watching the Olympic events, everyone is looking forward to what Nike will launch next. Every time a hot event appears, many people flock to Nike's Weibo to see what copy it has launched.

This case gave me a lot to think about. In the past, companies prepared campaigns in advance and executed them step by step. It was difficult to respond to user feedback at any time during the execution process, and it was difficult to adjust in time to sudden hot spots. It was relatively rigid. However, now campaigns must keep up with this fast-paced era and improve mobility and flexibility. However, friends who have worked in the advertising industry know that Nike's approach is actually very difficult to implement. It requires a large number of plans to be prepared in advance, and a whole team of people to follow up 24 hours a day, and make decisions and execute in a very short time. It can be said that the work intensity and pressure are full.

Companies today have no choice but to do so because the times have changed dramatically. I have seen two photos online of people watching the Qiantang Tide, one taken on September 17, 2008, and the other on September 22, 2013. The biggest difference between the two photos is that the people in the latter photo all raised their phones to take photos.

The same scene also appeared abroad. Comparing the photos of the funeral of the 264th Pope John Paul II in 2005 and the coronation of the 266th Pope Francis in 2013, people also held up their mobile phones and tablets.

There was a satirical cartoon on the Internet that mocked this behavior. If a cruise ship sank in the sea today, the people who fell into the water would take out their mobile phones to live broadcast the sinking even if they were about to be buried at the bottom of the sea.

Today, communication happens anytime and anywhere, and spreads rapidly. In the era of self-media, everyone is the protagonist. People are receiving information, participating in discussions, spreading information, and publishing content all the time. For today's brands, it is very important to respond to social hot spots and consumers' voices in a timely manner, as well as to play with consumers on a daily basis. In March of this year, a netizen found that a building in Shanghai looked like an Amul packaging box, so he posted a note on Xiaohongshu. Unexpectedly, it became popular unexpectedly, attracting a group of netizens who like to play with the melons.

After knowing this, An Muxi immediately came to the notebook to check in, and said in the comment section "This time I want to take back the building that belongs to me."

Afterwards, Amul came up with a "Plan to Take Over the Amul Building", and many netizens gave Amul advice on how to "take back the building". At the same time, Amul also shared his progress throughout the process on Xiaohongshu, live-streaming every step of his entry into the building.

In the end, Amul bought all the screen advertising space on the facade of the entire building and staged a light show to announce its success in "taking the building."

Such a campaign, "Anmuxi's plan to seize the building", is a model of responding quickly to consumers' voices and hot topics, allowing consumers to participate in brand communication throughout the process, and playing with consumers. This is the brand campaign of the new era. In addition to the changes required for campaigning, brands also need normalized communication behaviors and brand management.

In the past few years, the core of this normalized communication has been new media operations, with brands publishing content updates on their official Weibo, WeChat public accounts, Douyin and other self-media accounts on a daily basis. Later, the focus shifted to live broadcasting and private domain operations.

The biggest difference between them and campaigns is the fragmented content, dissemination anytime and anywhere, greater emphasis on consumer feedback and interaction, and the entire process is transparent and participatory.

Two or three years after Nike’s “Live Your Greatness” campaign, I was still thinking about the significance of this campaign for communication. At that time, I posted a message on WeChat Moments: “ In the era of self-media, we call for live broadcast-style communication .”

At that time, what I meant was that communication should improve the response speed to hot topics and user feedback, but I didn’t expect that brand live broadcasting would really come. In my opinion, marketing behaviors such as self-media operation, private domain operation, brand self-broadcasting and store broadcasting all belong to live broadcast communication. In addition to the communication of the campaign model, they have given brand communication a daily model.

However, how to effectively spread the daily model is still under exploration in the industry.

At the beginning, daily communication was just a supplement to the campaign model. Brand communication is still mainly based on campaigns. The emergence of new media has given companies a window to publish brand information. Most companies use new media as a supplement and a free advertising platform when doing communication.

It is common to publish some of the advertising materials, such as the main graphic and advertising films, on the self-media accounts simultaneously during the campaign dissemination.

Although Durex has become a phenomenon by posting on Weibo, many brands once thought of learning from Durex when talking about Weibo marketing and social marketing. However, its category attributes are there, and "sex" is naturally a highly concerned topic, so Durex's gameplay is difficult to imitate and is not universal.

Subsequently, live streaming and private domain operations emerged. Since they can directly bring in sales and open up media communication and channel promotion, companies began to pay more and more attention to them.

Especially since 2020, live streaming has suddenly become a life-saving straw for corporate marketing. Countless companies have begun to join the live streaming trend. Live streaming has begun to become the mainstream of marketing, and has gradually become equal to the campaign model.

However, at the beginning, many companies were still using the old methods to do live broadcasts.

Traditional companies use live streaming as a channel to distribute products.

For example, the live broadcasts by Gree's Dong Mingzhu and De Rucci Mattress President Yao Jiqing in 2020, where the presidents personally took part, pushed the wave of live broadcasts to a new height, triggering widespread attention and heated discussions in society, and the sales performance can also be said to be remarkable.

However, the way they do live broadcasting is to mobilize employees of stores across the country and dealer systems to participate together. They have already completed the actions of attracting traffic and accumulating customers before the broadcast. At the same time, they use the live broadcasts of CEOs and celebrities as topic events, and design hard advertisements for them for media placement, to build momentum and exposure for the live broadcasts in advance, forming a closed-loop model of online exposure, offline accumulation of customers, and then returning to online live broadcasts for transactions. This actually reflects that in the face of the new marketing format of live broadcasting, traditional companies have easily returned to their accustomed campaign model. Use campaigns to initiate, and use live broadcasts to mobilize and harvest channel networks. Live broadcasting is actually the last detonation link of a wave of campaigns and the channel for the final conversion of a whole set of marketing activities.

New consumer companies treat live streaming as hard advertising.

In 2021, a formula for building an online celebrity brand began to circulate online: 5,000 notes on Xiaohongshu + 2,000 questions and answers on Zhihu + a top live broadcast room. With this combination of punches, a new brand basically has its prototype.

Xiaohongshu and Zhihu are used to seed content, let consumers know about products and build brand awareness. Live streaming is not only for sales, but also for increasing brand awareness and influence. Because during this period, professional anchors became the top streamers in the live streaming industry, and it became a daily routine for many consumers to visit several anchors every week to grab the lowest-priced products on the entire network. Every move of these anchors is the focus of public opinion, and being able to appear in their live streaming rooms can help a brand quickly become famous.

These top anchors actually temporarily replaced traditional TV ads/outdoor ads and played the role of hard advertising. The purpose of live broadcasting is to spread the word, and the top live broadcast rooms are used for brand exposure. These two methods of play can be said to be successful at the time, but they are not yet a conventional weapon for enterprises. They just add an execution link to the campaign model.

What companies really need is to make marketing a daily routine through live streaming. Because for consumers, live streaming is gradually becoming a lifestyle and an important purchasing scenario in daily life. For companies, today live streaming is not only for daily promotions and sales, but also for major node promotions, new product launches, rankings, membership, and private domain activation. These new marketing scenarios all require live streaming, and live streaming has been integrated into the full-link marketing of companies.

More importantly, companies need to establish their own marketing positions through live broadcasting. Today, companies increasingly need to establish real-time, two-way interactions with consumers, showcase products in a more consumer-friendly manner, and provide consumers with a more immersive shopping system. Live broadcasting can not only bring better conversion effects and efficiency, but also accumulate fans and establish continuous social relationships with consumers. Its significance and importance to corporate marketing are becoming increasingly stronger.

When a corporate brand has to broadcast live every day, at least it cannot use outdoor advertising as a means of attracting traffic, cannot use dealers as a way to accumulate customers, and cannot use CEOs and celebrities as daily highlights in the broadcast room. The achievement of marketing goals ultimately depends on the live broadcast itself.

On the other hand, although the top live broadcast rooms have achieved considerable sales and brand reputation, they have to pay high fees and provide the lowest-priced products on the entire network. This kind of gameplay has neither helped enterprises and merchants build their own channel networks nor truly established brand value. It has only changed the form of hard advertising and has also come at the cost of product price cuts. If companies rely solely on top anchors to bring goods and open up the market with ultra-low prices, consumers will soon lose the ability to perceive the actual price of the product. Once the live broadcast stops, sales will be reduced to their original form. Live broadcasts often become a loss-making business, and therefore cannot become a normalized business behavior. Therefore, live broadcasts are now gradually evolving from channel distribution live broadcasts and brand exposure live broadcasts to truly daily store broadcasts and brand self-broadcasts. The marketing costs of own live broadcast rooms are controllable, and they can be seamlessly coordinated with various marketing scenarios of the company. Moreover, live broadcasts are also becoming a new source of communication for companies, helping brands to continuously create topics.

For example, in the past one or two years, the Coco Tree live broadcast room has become the focus of online attention through live broadcasts of sexy beauties and macho men. Another example is that Hongxing Erke and Tianfu Cola also became hot topics again during their popularity because their chairman called for rational consumption in the live broadcast room.

Of course, there are also negative cases besides positive ones. For example, a blogger recently helped Yili’s Little Pudding Ice Cream go viral with the phrase “I smell like butter all over my body”. However, when asked about this in the brand’s live broadcast room, the anchor said something shocking, saying that the other party was trying to take advantage of our popularity. This move immediately aroused public anger, became a hot topic on the Internet, and brought a wave of traffic to Yili’s competitor Mengniu. From these events, we can see that live broadcasting has become the second center of corporate marketing. For some brands, live broadcasting has even replaced campaigns as the first choice for marketing. So how do we understand and handle the relationship between these two models?

Communication focuses on exposure and pursues short-term bursts; live streaming focuses on conversion and pays attention to long-term results.

Communication is reach-oriented, spreading brand information; live streaming is relationship-oriented, creating continuous dialogue.

Communication reaches passive audiences, while live streaming attracts active users.

Communication expands the breadth of brand coverage, while live streaming focuses on in-depth brand communication.

The two models are distinctly different, but can complement each other. Unlike the past when campaigns were the main focus and live streaming and new media operations were supplementary, today live streaming has taken on the responsibility of daily corporate communication and user operations, while communication is responsible for targeted reinforcement of key groups at important nodes.

Campaign mode of communication and daily mode of live streaming form a more complete communication ecology and are the dual centers of brand management . The two work together to create more new imagination and space for marketing.

Content + social networking can be said to be a vertical integration, which pays full attention to the consumer behavior chain, attracts users with content, and builds relationships with social networking. Communication + live broadcast is a horizontal integration, which occupies consumers' time, attention and life scenes in all aspects.

3. The Art of Annual Communication Plan

Friends who have read this will find that communication has become more and more complicated. It is no longer as simple as thinking of a slogan, shooting a TVC, and then going to CCTV and Focus Media. Today, we need to do campaigns, which require daily content seeding, live broadcasting, and private domain management. At the same time, we must integrate content and user social networking into the campaign. So how can these large amounts of work be organically combined in a company's operating year? And in the mid- and long-term development of the brand, how can brand communication be adjusted and planned according to the requirements of the brand strategy? Next, let's talk about the specific methods of how to make a good annual communication plan and mid- and long-term communication plan.

1. Framework and composition of the annual communication plan

During my more than ten years in the advertising company, the busiest time of the year is the end of the year, because every client has to prepare an annual plan for the following year. The annual plan is also the most important thing of the year, because it is directly related to the client's marketing strategy for the next year, the budget, and the contract renewal of the advertising company. The annual plan generally includes three components:

The first part is the annual strategy.

First of all, we need to determine the marketing goals for the whole year and the key challenges the company faces. This determines the focus and central topics of work in the coming year, such as brand upgrading, brand rejuvenation, successful launch of new products, entering new markets and regions, or defeating competitors, etc.

The next step is to formulate strategies and determine what marketing combinations and tools are needed to achieve the goals. For example, based on the core strategy, which products the company needs to promote and whether it needs to launch new products; which new sales channels and consumption scenarios it needs to enter; and what needs to be communicated with consumers at the brand level and what the annual communication theme is.

The second part is the specific dissemination plan.

Generally speaking, a brand will select several major and important marketing nodes throughout the year to build a campaign. These nodes are divided into the following categories:

1) E-commerce nodes, such as 618, Double 11, and Double 12.

2) Holidays, such as traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese Valentine's Day, Double Ninth Festival, and the 24 solar terms; statutory holidays such as May 1, National Day, New Year's Day, Women's Day, Children's Day, Youth Day, etc.; there are also some daily holidays such as Valentine's Day, 520, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Christmas, etc.; in addition, there are some specific theme days such as Earth Day, World Book Day, World Smile Day, World Water Day, etc.

3) Major social events, mainly large-scale events and theme activities, such as the Olympic Games, the World Cup, etc.; there are also various phenomenal movies and TV series, which can also be targeted and planned in advance for marketing activities;

4) The company’s own marketing rhythm and product planning, such as new product launches, brand anniversary celebrations, etc.; as well as large-scale exhibitions within the industry, such as the Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou Auto Show in the automotive industry, AWE in the home appliance industry, and the Food and Drinks Fair in the wine and beverage industry.

These nodes are selected because of public attention and because consumer behavior will occur in these scenarios, such as buying New Year's goods during the Spring Festival, emptying shopping carts on Double 11, and sending gifts on Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. After selecting the nodes, we design the communication theme and content for each node, design the communication rhythm and activities, and match the corresponding media resources.

The third part is the execution plan.

One is the time scheduling, the specific time allocation and responsible personnel arrangement for each campaign, and the most important budget allocation.

This is the annual case. But I have probably stopped helping the customers I serve since 2016. At that time, I thought the annual case was outdated. The annual case that took a lot of effort and time was often idle in the computer, or the strategy was changed after one or two months of implementation. This is because the annual case in the planning is often out of touch with the actual situation of the company, such as insufficient budget, insufficient execution, or the communication plan does not match the sales channel, and has no connection with the company's daily business behavior.

On the other hand, the bigger reason is that the times are changing too quickly. There are new hot spots every day, social culture is constantly changing, and brand strategies and communication must also change. Planning Campaign based on hot spots often leads to redo because new hot spots appear. The annual plan planned a few months ago quickly becomes out of place. This is the problem that Campaign has encountered as we mentioned earlier.

So I suggested that customers only provide a core strategy and basic framework for annual cases, setting the tone of communication, but not specific implementation plans. The implementation plans are only for the last quarter, and on the basis of keeping the main line unchanged, they should be adjusted and optimized at any time.

This basic framework and main line should first determine which campaigns to do in a year based on the scene, rather than based on the hot spots. Use scenarios to integrate hot spots, and the specific hot spots to pursue and how to pursue them will be temporarily planned based on the situation. Chasing hot spots is not necessarily valuable to the company, the key is to find hot spots with consumption scenarios.

Because the scenarios and consumer needs are strongly related to pain points, and the company's sales locations and channels, locking in the scenarios can directly drive the company's growth.

For example, Meituan Takeout, the Campaign it has made in the past two or three years can basically be attributed to several scenarios. First, it is the winter scene. Meituan Takeout launched a wave of promotion in December 2022, "Eat better in winter."

The second is the summer scene. In July 2022, Meituan Takeout launched a series of short videos "Summer of Takeout", which appeals: to go to Meituan Takeout, buy swimsuits, ice cream, watermelon fruit cuts, flower dew and other series of standard summer configurations; in addition, there is a wave of small promotions of "buy braised food and go to Meituan Takeout".

In July 21, Meituan Takeout also built a beer takeout pop-up store in Sanlik, Beijing, with the giant Meituan Takeout box as the shape, which stimulated users' demand for ordering beer takeout at summer nights.

In addition to the main dining scene, Meituan Takeout does not strengthen the penetration of users' diverse life scenarios, allowing consumers to form the awareness that "no matter what they need, they can go to Meituan Takeout". These scenarios mainly include three types, which have brought new growth to the business.

The first is the flower delivery scene.

This is to promote Meituan Takeout's flower business, which includes many nodes in this scenario.

For example, on the 520 just now, Meituan made a wave of advertising, with the theme called "On Meituan Takeout, send flowers and say love is now", allowing consumers to go to Meituan Takeout to grab 100 yuan flower red envelopes without threshold.

For example, on Christmas and New Year's Day for two consecutive years, Meituan Takeout launched an advertisement called "Send Apple Bouquet, go to Meituan Takeout" and "Send New Year's gifts, go to Meituan Takeout". On Mother's Day in May 22, Meituan Takeout launched Campaign "Mom loves flowers, we love her", calling on everyone to give mothers a bouquet of flowers;

On Women's Day in March 22, 2018, Meituan Takeout created the dissemination of "She is Blooming", which not only promoted the business, but also expressed the brand attitude;

On Teacher's Day in September 21, Meituan Takeout launched "Some Flowers of Teachers";

On the Chinese Valentine's Day in August 2019, Meituan Takeout is a product that is being promoted and developed. The theme of the advertisement is "Buy flowers on Qixi Festival, go to Meituan Takeout". It can be seen that the choice of this series of holiday hot topics is actually a continuation of the same scene.

The second is the afternoon tea leisure scene. In early 2021 and May, Meituan Takeout created two waves of promotion of "Little Ear Milk Tea". It developed a soft and cute peripheral product - the Little Ear Cup Lid based on its own kangaroo head logo. Consumers will get this cute little yellow ears as long as they go to Meituan Takeout to buy milk tea.

The soft and cute accessories are popular among consumers. The hunger marketing of limited time, limited quantity, limited city and limited brand has further created a sense of scarcity. "Little Ear Milk Tea" has therefore become a new trend in takeout, setting off a fashion storm of milk tea with long ears nationwide.

In November 22, Meituan Takeout redesigned its small ears by 180 degrees, turning it into a cute autumn pants cup cover. At the same time, it joined forces with the new pants band to promote "wear autumn pants for milk tea". Not only did it play with a pair of autumn pants, but it also established the awareness of "the first cup of milk tea in autumn, go to Meituan Takeout Spot" for consumers.

In addition, in August 222, Meituan Takeout also launched a popular product "5-liter milk tea bucket" in combination with the camping scenes that became popular at that time to attract consumers to order.

Unlike flower delivery scenarios that mainly rely on hard marketing, afternoon tea scenarios mainly rely on content-based products to promote. Use content to create topics, form social concerns, and then stimulate consumers to purchase. The third is pet raising scenarios.

In April 2023, this time of year is the breeding season for cats and dogs. The young pet transactions are about to reach their peak. Many people will start trying to keep pets, so Meituan Takeout took the opportunity to create a pet novice season. Communicate with this group of people to buy pet supplies and can go to Meituan Takeout. In October 22, Meituan Takeout also promoted a wave of pet version advertisements.

In the promotion of Meituan Takeout, catering scenarios are the basic market, and flowers delivery, afternoon tea, and pet raising are the sources of performance increase. When promoting these scenarios, brand tags should also be integrated as much as possible. Labels can condense brand value and allow consumers to form a clear and consistent understanding of the brand.

In every wave of promotion, Meituan Takeout focuses on shaping the cognitive labels that are "fast" and "everything". No matter what you want to buy, you can go to Meituan Takeout, and Meituan Takeout delivers very quickly. This is also the slogan of Meituan Takeout, "Meituan Takeout, everything you deliver is fast."

In 2022, Meituan Takeout also launched two brand TVCs, one talks about the fastest Meituan Takeout, and the other talks about the full range of Meituan Takeout. I hope everyone can think of using Meituan Takeout in addition to catering.

In response to the 22-year social event, Meituan Takeout has also created a very successful World Cup marketing. Starring spokesperson Yang Mi, he borrowed the plot of penalty kicks, own goals, and substitutions on the football field to tell the selling point of Meituan Takeout, which is everything you buy and get everything you give.

In addition to some, Meituan Takeout also has some regional and fragmented communication and promotion. For example, in April and July 2011, two waves of promotions for Shanghai "takeout is not cute, but not Shanghai", and in August 2011, "new Internet celebrity products are first-hand" for Changsha. However, its main promotion line is planned based on the principles of scenarios and labels. Scenarios can create growth and drive products and businesses. Labels can focus on cognition, consolidate and enhance brand value. This is the marketing method I talked about in "Brand 30 Lectures: 8 | The Playing of New Brands". You can review the content of the lecture again.

In today's information surplus, if companies want to do a good job in Campaign, they must focus on labels, simplify information, and explain thoroughly at a certain value point of the brand, so as to leave a deep impression on consumers. On the other hand, they must focus on resources and penetrate the core media. Being greedy for too much and seeking completeness in communication will lead to the lack of penetration of the brand.

Since brand tags represent the core value of the brand and consumers' perception of the brand, brands should also plan medium- and long-term brand communication based on the core tags.

2. Medium- and long-term communication planning and combination of brands

During its operation, a brand will do a lot of campaigns. These different campaigns must actually be carried out under the guidance of the brand's core propositions and annual communication themes to form a strategic development that supports the brand. At the same time, in the process of development, the brand image and value must be continuously adjusted and optimized to strengthen or change consumers' perception of the brand and form a clear brand mark. Therefore, the company's medium- and long-term communication planning needs to be organically integrated around the core label. I call this combination communication umbrella, which has 4 combination models.

1) Linear model

Create a single and continuous brand label in brand building, and set the core demands and annual themes of the brand based on the label. Although the themes of different Campaigns have changed, they are always presented around a core label and in combination with different nodes. This is called a linear model.

For example, BMW's long-term brand core "fun" and its brand proposition of "pure driving fun" are deeply rooted in people's hearts. In 2010, BMW proposed a new brand proposition "JOY IS BMW" in the global market and launched "BMW's Joy" in the Chinese market in combination with the Chinese context.

Since then, BMW's communication has revolved around "joy", such as the "joy of sports" created by BMW's three major product series, which appeals to "win with joy"; the "joy of dreams" created by the 5th series, which appeals to "be tolerant, joy"; the "joy of peak" of the 7th series, which appeals to "enjoy the peak life".

There is also BMW's marketing theme "Do your best for Yue" for the 2012 London Olympics and the new brand proposal "Yue Creates Miracle" replaced in 2015.

It can be said that in the medium- and long-term planning of the BMW brand, it has always strengthened the core label of "driving fun and joy", which covers multiple levels of emotions and expressions in different product dimensions.

Like Mengniu.

At the 2018 World Cup, there was an advertisement filmed by Messi. He lay on the lawn and the narration read the copywriting "I am not born strong, I am just born strong", which impressed many people. This is Mengniu's World Cup advertisement, and its official marketing theme is called "Natural Power, Being Strong". Then in 2019, Mengniu launched a new brand proposition "Nursing what you want to be strong."

"Strong" has become the brand golden word of Mengniu. Mengniu's brand marketing in the past five years has revolved around this keyword. In 2020, Mengniu proposed the "world quality" strategy, fully launched the upgrade of EU standards, and in the following year, the quality of major categories met the EU standard requirements, becoming the first in China's dairy industry. At the end of 2020, Mengniu also proposed the strategic concept of "creating another new Mengniu in the next five years".

This change in corporate strategy is also reflected in its brand. At the end of 2021, Mengniu launched a new logo to update its corporate vision and mission. In April 2022, Mengniu's brand proposition was also upgraded to "world quality, born strong."

In terms of communication, during the 2020 Spring Festival, Mengniu launched the marketing theme "Mengniu gives nutrition, and the New Year is stronger", creating Chinese comics New Year blockbusters, Beijing-Hotel High-speed Railway brand special trains and other actions, and also began to promote its own IP Niumeng. The 21st Spring Festival is the Year of the Ox, Mengniu officially announced the new brand spokesperson Xiao Zhan, launching the marketing theme "Drink Mengniu in the Year of the Ox, and you must be stronger in nutrition", and also launched a cross-border gift box product with Red Bull.

In response to the marketing node of the college entrance examination, Mengniu launched the "College Entrance Examination Question Milk" and the funny video "Back Hoof", and there is also a slogan of communication "Everything is great, everything is right"; in 2021, Mengniu launched the 2.0 upgraded version of the college entrance examination question Milk, and jointly launched the "College Entrance Examination Question Milk" and the Confucius Temple to launch the "College Entrance Confucius Temple Blessing Stationery", and there is also a slogan of communication "Better to be strong and the broad future".

In terms of sports marketing, on February 6, 2022, the Chinese women's football team regained the Asian Cup championship after 16 years. Mengniu immediately began to promote "Women blooming in China must be strong."

At the same time, Mengniu also signed a contract with Gu Ailing to create a communication battle to "burn ice and snow to strengthen China" for the Beijing Winter Olympics. At the end of 2022, Mengniu launched a massive communication battle "Everything that is strong in nutrition", and also launched the World Cup theme promotional film "Going to the Battle".

In terms of public welfare marketing, during the 2018 World Cup, Mengniu launched the charity action "Kick the football! Youth Strong". In July 2022, on the eve of the World Cup, Mengniu created the 2022 "Hope Project·Mengniu World Cup Youth Football Charity Tour" series of activities, including national football youth selection, youth football summer camp, 10,000 football campus donation action, and going to Qatar. The theme of the event is "China is strong, I will come in the future". In addition, in May 2022, Mengniu also launched a series of films for the heroes, and jointly released the micro-video "To You Who Be Strong" with the People's Daily client, with the theme of "Let the world see our strong."

It can be seen that Mengniu brand marketing is organized and integrated with "strong". The communication themes of different Campaigns are direct expressions of "strong". The same keywords are used, covering brand strategy, Spring Festival marketing, sports marketing, public welfare marketing, specific nodes, etc.

The advantage of the linear model is that it can focus on brand propositions, continuously strengthen brand awareness, and enable consumers to have a clear and consistent understanding of brand value. However, its disadvantage is that when using the same keyword and the same slogan, when communicating with different resources and nodes, some of them have a sense of rigidity and rigidity, and Campaign's communication execution is not flexible and vivid enough.

2) Double helix model

There are often conflicts between sentimental and rationality in the advertising industry. Should brand demands communicate with consumers about rational product functional selling points, or emotional image, attitude and personality; there are also disputes between products and brands. When enterprises conduct communication and promotion, should they promote more brand concepts and values, or strengthen product-level promotion, and how to combine and allocate resources.

At this time, the company can adopt a double helix model, with the two communication lines leading alternately or unfolding in parallel. Or, while keeping the main line of the brand unchanged, a new communication line is added to promote the company's technology, quality, concepts, values, etc., and enrich the latitude of brand communication.

For example, the brand appeal of Coca-Cola, which I once shared in the book "Communication Copywriting", is to alternate between "good luck" at the physical level and "sharing happiness" at the emotional level.

For example, Toyota. In 2019, Toyota implemented a brand upgrade, released a new brand logo, and replaced the brand proposition "Moving Forward", which has been used for 15 years, and was unified to "Let's Go Places" in the global market.

The meaning of these two sentences is to express the value that Toyota brings to consumers, which can lead users to move forward step by step, go further and to success. The promotion of every model in the global market is centered around the direction guided by this proposition.

At the same time, the global automobile industry is entering an unprecedented period of change. Intelligence and electrification have become important development trends, and new energy vehicles are becoming increasingly mainstream. In order to cope with this challenge, Toyota released the "Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050" strategy in October 2015, launching challenges in three major areas, including "building better cars", "better production activities", and "better cities and better society". In terms of car manufacturing concept, it proposed all-round electrification and building a TNGA architecture, and contributed to improving and enhancing people's lives, social sustainable development, and ecological environment protection.

In order to convey this new direction of corporate development to the public and refresh the corporate brand image, Toyota launched a new corporate challenge theme "Start Your Impossible" globally in October 2017, and chose to use sports as a carrier to interpret this theme, conveying it widely to customers and society.

"Start Your Impossible"'s first global marketing campaign was at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. At that time, Toyota filmed two commercials and promoted them in 27 countries. One tells the true story of Canadian alpine skier Lauren Woolstencroft, who went through a lot of hardships and eventually became a legendary Paralympic gold medal winner; the other plays the story of American Olympic figure skater Ashley Wagner returning to the ice rink.

Then there is the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and Toyota continues to spread the brand philosophy of "Start Your Impossible". This time, it tells the story of a little boy with magic. The little boy in the story can change and update the cars around him as he pleases, thus solving many troubles in the city. This story is intended to provide us with more bold imaginations about our own way of travel.

Before the Tokyo Olympics began, Toyota put up a 60-second commercial "Going Against the Current" in the US Super Bowl, telling the story of the legendary American disabled swimmer Jessica Long, who won 23 Paralympic medals and is a holder of many world record records.

Then there is the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which also continues this theme. At the previous 2020 Beijing Auto Show, Toyota joined hands with FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota to design booths around "Environmental Protection" and "Beijing Winter Olympics", allowing consumers to experience Toyota's latest electrification technologies and products and feel the spirit of "saying no to the impossible".

At the 2017 Shanghai Auto Show, Toyota released the "TNGA Fengchao Concept" technology brand and then launched a large-scale publicity campaign to promote it. At that time, the theme slogan created for TNGA was called "experience all the impossible, creating my possibilities."

The Toyota brand's dual-line operation is one line of "Let's go places" that expresses the value of products and brand. All Toyota models are guided by this theme to express the benefits and value brought to consumers by products. The other is "Start Your Impossible" that demonstrates technological innovation and corporate philosophy, conveying the spirit of Toyota's continuous challenge of itself and turning Impossible into Possible. And Toyota constantly builds better cars, creates loving mobile tools, so that everyone can travel freely, and everyone can challenge their potential. It conforms to the era background of the great changes in the automobile industry, focusing on implementing sports resources.

This is the double helix model. Its advantage is that it can complement each other, such as one line that talks about emotion, one line that talks about rationality, one line that talks about product and user value, and one line that talks about technology and corporate culture. The disadvantage is that the two lines must be reasonably set up, and systematically planned, and the marketing resources and communication nodes that each needs to use are laid out to ensure that they complement each other.

3) Progressive model

The progressive model is to continuously amplify, sublimate and move forward in a period of time. This communication model is in line with the growth path of a brand.

During the start-up period, most brands will mainly spread the product's functional value and explain clearly what the brand does.

As the popularity increases, repeated functional promotion will lack novelty and make consumers tired. At this time, the brand will begin to promote sensory value in order to attract more general and precise people, trigger their emotional reactions, and spread brand influence.

When it reaches the maturity stage, the brand will emphasize social value and symbolic value, promote certain concepts, cultures and values, try to establish a continuous relationship with consumers, and become a part of social popular culture.

From functional value to cost-effective value, to social value and symbolic value, this is a brand route for progressive development. Therefore, the typical practice of progressive models is to expand from basic functional/physical publicity to the user level, brand concept and value levels.

For example, Zhihu is like this. It started to promote brands on a large scale in 2018. The brand proposition proposed at that time was called "If you have any problems, go to Zhihu", which was purely functional. However, many old Zhihu users at that time thought that this wave of publicity was too tool-based, straightforward and rough, and combined with the communication method of celebrity endorsement + brainwashing advertisements, they lost the elite style and speculative temperament of the Zhihu community, and were dissatisfied with it.

So in 2019, Zhihu proposed a new theme, "We are all people with problems."

In 2020, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary, Zhihu once again implemented a brand renewal, launching new brand films and a new proposition, "If there is a question, there will be an answer." This sentence not only conveys functions, but also has a clear and firm brand attitude and a youthful personality. This three-year continuous communication is a spiral upward process, which is the continuous progression and amplification of brand value.

Another example is the whiskey brand Johnnie Walker. It has been promoting "KEEP WALKING" since 1999 and has been going on for more than ten years. This brand spirit of hard work and hard work has infected many people.

However, with the changing times, ascetic struggles no longer please the young people of contemporary times. They agree more with hedonism and live in the present. So in 2015, Johnnie Walker launched a new brand proposition "JOY WILL TAKE YOU FURTHER" (joy it and take a step further). This new slogan believes that people's deep love and pursuit of happiness are the real motivation for us to do things, helping us to move further.

Johnnie Walker is equivalent to adding a new value proposition "fun" in addition to "forward", so as to impress young people. However, Johnnie Walker is not a line of promotion "forward" and a line of promotion "fun", but a richer interpretation of "forward" with "fun". So it is not a double helix model, but a progressive model. This model is actually telling us that when a brand needs to be upgraded and reshaped with the development of the times, what the brand needs to do at this time is not to completely overturn the previous brand building, start a new set of things, change the course and make a new set of things. Instead, it must extend its meaning and expand its scope on its original basis, enrich its connotation and extension.

Brand building should be a superposition thinking, constantly accumulating brand assets, and giving up easily will only cause the loss and waste of the original assets.

The advantage of the progressive model is that it conforms to the brand's growth path and development laws, and brand marketing is a process of continuous amplification. The disadvantage is that the brand must make medium- and long-term strategic plans, such as in 3-5 years, in advance the strategic tasks, communication themes and content of brand communication in each year, and constantly verify the effect of brand communication and evaluate brand assets. Brand upgrades at appropriate nodes, otherwise hasteness will not be achieved.

4) Concentric circle model

The concentric circle model is a brand that always revolves around the most core label. In a longer period of time, different contents and expressions are adopted (such as hard broadcasting, events, topics, viruses, operations, etc.) and adopts different contents and expressions (such as hard broadcasting, events, topics, viruses, operations, etc.) to fully interpret and present the brand.

No matter how different Campaigns are interpreted, the core label of the brand remains unchanged, the shape and spirit remain unchanged, and everything changes are the same.

For example, Dove.

For a long time, women's brands such as beauty and women's clothing have used celebrities and models to promote endorsements in advertising. They have dreamy and difficult-to-use appearances and figures for ordinary people. On the other hand, the survey shows that only 2% of people in the world feel that they are beautiful, and the vast majority of women are not confident in themselves.

After seeing this huge contradiction, Dove started to launch a communication campaign with "Real Beauty" as its core proposition in 2004, using ordinary women as models to promote it, which caused a huge response.

In 2007, Dove launched the viral advertisement "Evolution", which shows the entire process of an ordinary woman becoming a big star in the advertisement after makeup, styling, and editing. This advertisement ignited global social networks and received 500 million viewers.

In 2013, Dove launched another viral marketing event, Real Beauty Sketches. Dove invited some women to participate in the test, asking portrait painters to draw two portraits based on their own appearance and others' appearance. The comparison of these two portraits shows that the "I" in others' eyes is much better than what I think. Dove hopes to convey to consumers the idea of ​​believing in their own beauty through this promotion.

These two virus transmissions have attracted widespread attention and heated discussion around the world. Since then, Dove has created a series of global communication activities such as "One beautiful thought", "Are you beautiful or ordinary", "I have the final say in my beauty!" (My Beauty My Say), "Let's see" (show us).

Focusing on the core proposition of real beauty, Dove will also have separate interpretations in different countries and local culture. For example, in April 2020, Dove in the UK created "Courage is beautiful" for female doctors and nurses, praising their beauty of bravely facing the epidemic and scars on their faces by masks.

In April 2021, India’s “Stop the Beauty Test” created by Dove in India, opposing appearance discrimination in blind dates. In June 2018, Dove in Canada, praised her mother for being really beautiful.

In March 2018, Japan's Dove retakes the ID photos for female students.

In March 2017, Denmark Dove's "creating unique images of women".

And in February 2022, China's "If you don't edit photos, just post them on Moments?", it tells everyone not to worry about their appearance, and it will take a lot of time to edit photos on Moments.

In addition to communications in different countries and regions, Dove will also have different acceptances in different product lines. For example, the new communication theme "I have the final say for my beauty!" launched by Dove in 2016. Dove's hair care product line launched a communication campaign in January 2017 "I have the final say for my hair".

At the same time, the Dove shower gel product line has joined hands with NetEase to create a skin story for thousands of people, and put forward the slogan of "skin is more than one kind of beauty". In 2018, Dove shower gel invited six outstanding women including Guo Jingjing to share their skin changes on the road to pursuing their dreams, and launched the "skin is beautiful because of experience" communication campaign.

In 2019, Dove launched the communication promotion of "Skin is as beautiful as me", calling on women to show off their skin.

Dove is centered on "real beauty" and performs all-round interpretations to build a brand system. This is the concentric circle model. There are several ways to interpret and interpret a central label, such as product functions, sensory experience, rational cognition, category status, brand concepts, social welfare, humanistic values, etc.

Let’s look at Nongfu Spring. Its earliest slogan proposed in 1998 was “Nongfu Spring is a little sweet”. This sentence implies the nature of Nongfu Spring from a sensory level. Sweetness is a taste sense and an experiential value. Usually we think that the mountain spring water in nature only tastes sweet.

The slogan "Natural Weak Alkaline Water" in 2007 proves the nature of Nongfu Spring from a rational level. At that time, Nongfu Spring also included PH test strips on the bottle, allowing consumers to personally measure the pH of water and prove the nature of water. Weak alkaline water is a cognitive value.

The famous "We do not produce water, we are just porters of nature" in 2008 promotes the nature of water from the perspective of brand philosophy and interprets the concept of Nongfu Spring making products.

The 2014 public welfare marketing theme "Beautiful China, Beautiful Water" expresses the nature of water from the public welfare level and demonstrates the company's environmental protection concept, local sentiment, and social responsibility.

The brand advocate in 2016, "contains natural mineral elements and is an advocate of healthy drinking water", also expressed Nongfu Spring's product functional interests, category status and brand philosophy, and conveys the natural and healthy water.

The slogan of 2018, "What kind of water source and what kind of life to nurture" is to exaggerate the nature of water from the perspective of humanistic sentiment and values, and arouse people's recognition.

In Nongfu Spring’s brand marketing for more than 20 years, although its brand slogans and communication themes have been changing, the brand core it promotes and the cognitive label it puts on itself has never changed. Nongfu Spring only shows the nature of water from different dimensions and levels. This is how to perform a comprehensive interpretation around a center. The advantage of the concentric circle model is to lock in the center of the brand, and the disadvantage is that although each Campaign has its own theme and content in its external form, its core must be expressed uniformly, and it must be prevented from being dispersed in form and spirit.

With these communication umbrella models, brands can form clear and consistent plans in the medium and long term, continuously accumulate brand assets, and point out the direction for each Campaign.

Mr. Li Ka-shing once set a six-character school motto for the Cheung Kong Business School: Take the momentum, understand the way, and excel in the art. For the integration of brand communication, first we must understand the essential laws of communication and use communication thinking to shape marketing. Secondly, we must adapt to the development trend of communication and keep up with the changes in the times of communication + live broadcast, content + social. Finally, we must continuously optimize the communication methods and technologies, create successful communication campaign and annual communication plans, and make medium- and long-term plans for brand communication.

This is to understand the way, gain momentum, and improve skills.

Author: Empty-handed

Source: WeChat official account: "Zu-hand (ID: firesteal13)"