What is a new category? Exploring the path to breakthrough in marketing planning

The best choice for brands to break through, create new categories, and explore new possibilities in scenarios, culture, consumer trends, and technology. This article analyzes the basic ideas of brand new category marketing planning from the perspectives of market observation and entry judgment. Taking several successful new category marketing on the market as examples, it helps readers better understand the marketing direction and strategy of brand marketing in new categories. It is recommended for those who are interested in brand marketing.

The highest peak in the world is Mount Everest, so which is the second highest peak in the world? We often say that there are top talents in every field, but for brands that are not top talents, it is very important to find new ways out. Because of the characteristics of the mental ladder, if a brand cannot be the best, it will fall behind in the competition and be ignored by consumers.

To break through the brand, creating new categories is the best choice. There is a strange phenomenon in many companies when they are building brands. They always keep their eyes on their competitors, or always think that their competitors are the top brands in their industry. They try their best to do better than these so-called competitors, and thus often fall into the trap of following others unconsciously.

In fact, it is better to be different than to be better. As the futurist Alfred Toffler said, "Whoever occupies the commanding heights can control the world." The same is true for brands. Instead of struggling to survive under the shadow of others, it is better to start a new business and occupy the mountain. The way for brands to occupy the top is to enter a completely new category. So, what is a new category? How can brands save the country through a new category? How can new brands enter a new category to overtake others?

Looking at the consumer goods market, many new brands have either emerged or gone abroad and achieved great success in breaking into new product categories, which is worth learning and discussing.

1. Brand’s new product category breakthrough path

There is no category that appears out of thin air in the world. The so-called new category is more of a category segmentation or category innovation. I think the following directions are worth trying:

1. Deep Insight into Situations

People are in certain situations all the time, and the pain points of consumers in different situations are the biggest opportunities for brands. Take drinking as an example. Traditionally, people drink at family or friends gatherings to cheer themselves up, taste or express their feelings, or as gifts. Therefore, traditional liquors are sold with history and culture, with large volumes and mostly emphasizing high-end taste.

However, as the lifestyle of young consumers changes, the drinking scene has undergone subtle changes. Drinking has become more of a social way for small gatherings or a way for a person to release emotions. This has given rise to the rise of the small wine market. Small wine is a subdivided category, with low alcohol content, high appearance, and small bottles, which are favored by young people.

Jiang Xiaobai, which is familiar to everyone, is a typical small wine. There is also RIO, a small wine for one person. It is drunk for relaxation after work and life, and has gained a lot of fans. Meijian, as a non-mainstream fruit wine, is also popular because it can capture the gathering scene of friends who have not seen each other for a long time. It has become the number one fruit wine brand in half a year.

2. Capturing pop culture

The popularity of any culture represents the pursuit of a group of people. Because of their unique label attributes and strong social connections, the high rate of image formation in the circle of people will inevitably generate opportunities for new categories. The popularity of home culture has driven the steady growth of the convenience food industry. You will see more and more people eating Zihaiguo, and new brands such as Haohuanluo and Ramenshuo have begun to grab the stomachs of many people.

With the rise of China, people's national self-confidence has increased, making Chinese style more and more popular. You can see more and more people wearing Hanfu in the streets and alleys. Going to any tourist attraction or commercial plaza, groups of people wearing Hanfu to check in has become a new fashion. Huaxizi, which is positioned as "Oriental cosmetics", took advantage of the popularity of Chinese style to quickly open up the market and become a Chinese style fashion cosmetics brand. There is also Chayan Yuese, which is known as the "national trend tea drink", which is also a Chinese style design that stands out from the red ocean of milk tea categories.

People always joke that this is a world that values ​​appearance, but you would never have thought that appearance can also create a new category! Bear Electric Appliances proposed the differentiated brand positioning of "cute home appliances", and one cute home appliance after another has won the hearts of young people. High-looking products provide users with a strong reason to buy without blinking, and also provide an opportunity to show off photos and craftsmanship. It is hard not to be popular.

3. Understand consumption trends

Where there is a trend, there is an opportunity. The rise of consumption trends must be supported by the pain points of the crowd. Soaking wolfberries in a thermos cup burns my calories. Health issues are the focus of the new generation. You will see more and more foods moving towards health, and new categories of brands are also rising. Beverages are called fat water, and people always feel guilty after drinking them. Therefore, Yuanqi Forest, which focuses on the concept of "0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories", has become a new favorite beverage.

Also focusing on health and low calories, Wang Baobao innovated the cereal category, using oats rich in dietary fiber as the main ingredient, supplemented with a variety of nutritious and colorful fruits, and used low-temperature baked cereals to create a perception that is both healthy and delicious, taking first place in the meal replacement cereal category.

4. Blasting with technology

Breakthroughs or applications of new technologies can often create a new category. This kind of technology creating a new category is not necessarily a big technological breakthrough or discovery, but more about using technology to innovate the category.

If you drink coffee regularly, you may know that most instant coffee powders are distilled under high temperature and high pressure, which makes them taste bitter and sour. However, Santonban uses low-temperature cold brewing technology, which does not damage the flavor and dissolves in 3 seconds. It has successfully opened up the market with a new category of freeze-dried cold brew instant coffee.

Xiaoxiandun also used technology to innovate its product categories. In terms of stewing technology, it innovatively developed a single-bottle water mist stewing process and adopted post-stage sterilization to improve the taste, nutrition and safety of food, becoming a benchmark brand for fresh stewed bird's nests. Whether it is category segmentation or category innovation, to some extent, it changes the use value or cognitive value of the product, allowing the brand to find a new way to grow.

2. Basic judgment on brand category entry

When brands enter new categories, they are actually breaking through the limitations of existing categories, exploring new possibilities in scenarios, culture, consumer trends and technology, and regaining the cognitive high ground. In addition to mastering the path to enter new categories, brands must also make basic judgments about new categories.

First of all, the demand space is developing towards diversification, and consumption trends are also constantly differentiating, which will continue to generate unmet needs, but not all new demands can be used for category innovation. Only a large enough demand space can support a new category. For new demands, they must be common pain points of a certain group of people, so that the new category has a "mass base". At the same time, this common pain point will stimulate them to have high repurchase consumption behavior.

This is the reason why the brands that have broken through in new categories in recent years are mainly concentrated in daily necessities and fast-moving consumer goods. Only with sufficient people and high-frequency consumption can a brand continue to develop. Just like shared bicycles, which solve the pain point of the last kilometer of urban travel, certain groups of people basically scan the code to ride a bicycle every day, and even use it several times a day. Even if the unit price has increased, there is still a large demand.

Secondly, there may be room for competitive advantage, but the opportunity may not belong to you. That’s right, if your brand does not have enough competitive advantage, even if it occupies a new category in the early stage, it will be squeezed out by latecomer brands with competitive advantages. If a brand wants to enter a new category and does not want to be a wedding dress for others, it must be irreplaceable in one or several aspects of strategic layout, supply chain, sales channels and services.

In addition, there is the irreplaceable cognitive value. In the early stage of creating a new category, you can quickly establish cognitive barriers and build a mental moat for yourself. Otherwise, your brand creates a new category and cultivates the market, but the leading brands in the mainstream category take advantage of scale or other resources to reap the fruits in an instant, and then you can only cry in the toilet. There is an old saying that if you can't solve the problem, then solve the person who raised the problem.

As for brands, if they cannot become consumers’ first choice for solving pain points in existing categories, it is better to redesign the problem, master new category paths and basic judgments, create new categories, change tracks to occupy the mental high ground, and become the primary solution provider for solving consumers’ new pain points!

Author: Little Monk Kunkun

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