Brand Growth｜2023 Brand Growth Methodology
No matter how you look at it, brands must face the following questions: How to go from 0 to 1? From 1 to 100? Or even "Everlasting success" or "Brand success"? But in the final analysis, they all point to one core essence: brand growth. The different situations faced correspond to different growth stages of the brand, but just like a person's life, one cannot choose where to be born. When one is young, one grows up relying solely on instinct and has weak resistance. In youth, one is confused and may also have a rebellious period. In middle age, functions decline and thoughts tend to be stable and conservative... How to live a good life is an eternal proposition. The same is true for brands. Brands are the result of the active efforts of corporate organizations composed of people. Broadening the observation perspective and providing a feasible path for brands from the entrepreneur's idea to growing strong enough is also called methodology. The entire article is written in plain language without any jargon, and focuses on the track selection part. The rest of the article will be interpreted in detail later. 1. Birth stageJust like the process from when parents decide to have a child to when the child is born, the birth of a brand is also a process from an idea to a thing. However, branding is very similar to a gene editing project, and the initial appearance of the brand depends on the will and settings of the company. Therefore, this stage is called the birth stage of the brand. The main tasks of this stage can be divided into: track selection - capturing the crowd - shaping the brand - doing a good job of launching the product 1. Track selectionTrack is a word that has been frequently used in recent years. As we all know, the Chinese market is very prone to language corruption. What is the track? Track originally refers to the track of a sports event, just like a minor event in a certain sport. Those who are on the track are naturally racers. Usually, for a sport to become a minor event, it means a certain scale requirement. Without scale, it cannot become a minor event. Since it is a minor event, it also means that there are unified rules or standards. Key points: a certain scale, competition, and path. Later, it was extended to the investment field, and everyone knows it, but there is no precise definition. My understanding is: it refers to the products, technologies or business models that have long-term development prospects in a certain field of economic activities, which have been nurtured under the impetus of policies, consumption habits, product innovation or technological progress, and are reflected in the rapid performance of enterprises in the foreseeable future, and the product, technology or business model trend that has attracted the attention of investors. Simply put, it is the trend of products, technologies or business models that have potential, development space and the possibility of performance explosion due to changes in the market environment, technological innovation and policy reform, but require a certain growth performance. But for enterprises, their role is not "spectator" but a competitor who has taken part in the game. There must be competition between competitors. Enterprises want to develop better in their field and run better than their competitors. The competition between competitors will jointly promote the future development of the track. The track we often talk about today is just such a concept. Whether it is a startup or a second startup, the track represents the direction that the company chooses in the market. In the consumer market, it is related to the industry, market segment or category. There are many aggregations of certain types of product or service providers in this direction. For example, the new energy track, the new tea beverage track, the tavern track... So, what is the difference and connection between it and industries, market segments, and even categories? Industry describes production relations and refers to commercial economic activities. An industry often has a single function and professional technical characteristics. It is an economic concept. Market segment refers to the market segment with specific characteristics and demands within an industry. It is a marketing concept. Category refers to the classification of products or services within an industry. It is also a marketing concept. For example, bread is a category that can be further subdivided into different types, flavors, ingredients, etc., and it is possible that it can appear as a market segment; pre-packaged bread products belong to the food processing industry, and freshly made bread belongs to the catering industry; and freshly made bread may belong to multiple tracks, such as the fast-moving consumer goods track, the baking track... Let's put it more simply. For an enterprise, which track is the enterprise running on? The actual question it points to is: where is the enterprise's path? Which track is the enterprise on? Who is the enterprise competing with? This is why the word "track" can replace the word "industry". If you ask the business owners behind the high-growth brands in recent years, they will all say "lucky, caught up with the right time". Of course, this is just a modest statement, but it just shows the necessity of choosing a track with broad prospects. The track is the first bet of the enterprise and the most important one. Only by choosing the best track can the development prospects of the enterprise be clear, which is related to the enterprise's corporate strategy, business decisions and marketing strategy. It can be said that choosing a track is not just about choice over effort, but the choice itself determines life and death. If you choose the right one, you will get twice the result with half the effort; if you choose the wrong one, you will get half the result with twice the effort or nothing at all. So how do you evaluate and choose the best track? In the past three years, from macroeconomics to smaller-scale concept tracks, everyone has tacitly emphasized the need to "follow the trend", which points out the key to making choices. If you want to follow the trend, you first need to know the trend. The first dimension of knowing the situation: First, at the macro level, you need to establish a PPT thinking framework and consider three factors: people, policy, and technology. The people here refer to people as natural and social people in the full sense, rather than people of value and personality from a marketing perspective, that is, not people as potential and target customers. Paying attention to the factor of people means paying attention to the changes in the system of people and society, the external characteristics of the population (including human income at the micro level and national income at the macro level) and internal characteristics, as well as the changes in the social environment as we say. Policy factors generally refer to the formulation of industry regulatory policies, which include the political environment, legal environment, and ecological environment. Technology refers to paying attention to the evolution of upstream and downstream technologies, especially those technological trends that can better meet and create customer needs. Technology is the primary productive force and is also the force that profoundly changes production relations. The development of technology can bring the greatest favorable development opportunities to enterprises, and we must pay close attention to technological trends. From the perspective of social development, the essence of economic and social development is determined by the overall force formed by the growth of multiple tracks. In fact, the strength of each track varies, and has different impacts on society and the economy. From a perspective beyond time and space, the development form of any track tends to be consistent and is highly consistent with the social development form. The scale of the track will gradually enter a state of diminishing marginal effects over time and enter a period of decline. The significance of the track affects the choice. Every company is closely attached to a certain track. This means that choice is more important than effort. Although it may sound alarmist that choice determines life and death, there is no shortage of practical examples in reality. For example, the former P2P and education and training were almost wiped out overnight. The track is always changing and is greatly restricted by the trend of social development. It is deeply influenced by political, economic, cultural and technological factors. In the past, we always talked more about the economy, but in today's world of great contention, the importance of political, cultural and technological factors will increase significantly, and they need to be considered more when examining the future of the track. In terms of technology, no one doubts the Internet today. The data and channel capabilities formed by changes in Internet technology have profoundly affected the supply and consumption sides, and also promoted the mutual influence between the supply and consumption sides. As the Internet further enters the data era in the future, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Everything, etc. will give birth to and influence countless new tracks. For example, it is only a matter of time before the recently popular GPT is applied to consumer robots. The second dimension is at the meso-level. There are two core factors in track selection: track size and stage. An imaginative track size determines the market size that can be achieved in the future and the number of players that the track can accommodate; the current stage determines the length of the future growth period. In terms of track size, we need to observe the market size, growth performance in recent years, and one or more driving factors and factor weights that affect track development. At the same time, we need to compare the development stages and levels of domestic and foreign markets to predict the future growth space of the track. Understanding the track size and main driving factors is necessary for accurate positioning of the track. Different track sizes have different growth spaces, which determines how high the ceiling a company can reach on this track is. Here is a little trick. According to the factors that determine economic growth and the cyclical characteristics of the economy, we can simply divide the track into the stock track and the incremental track. The so-called stock track is composed of defensive industries or cyclical industries, while the incremental track is mainly composed of growth industries and defensive industries. The existing track has not changed substantially in terms of satisfying the market supply and demand relationship, and will present a situation where the old and new tracks compete in the same industry. This is due to changes in market capacity and customer demand points, which cause qualitative changes in the form and content of the original product services. In the existing track, there is a competition for the market between players, which can be estimated based on the original industry scale combined with the penetration rate of the new track in the industry. The incremental track is the emergence of new supply and demand relationships, making it a new market, just like the freshly ground coffee and fast food that entered the Chinese market in the early years. The incremental track can be compared across market penetration rates. Of course, a brand new track is often difficult to predict, and more often it is estimated through market data and data from important companies. The stage of the track is also crucial. Sun Tzu's Art of War points out "striving for the first place". The market is like a battlefield. Enterprises that enter a track in the growth stage will have a better chance of running a successful business model. Any track must present four stages:
The first batch of companies that have successfully implemented the model will emerge in the market, and gradually several better models will emerge, while the next batch will often seek to copy and seize the category. For example, in the alcoholic beverage industry, once pre-packaged cocktail drinks are proven to be feasible, other categories will follow suit in the low-alcohol beverage market. However, after the first-mover advantage is formed, it is very difficult to have opportunities for scale, and there are only opportunities in terms of structure. Therefore, the selection of a track requires further consideration of the market segments. In the textbooks on marketing, the analysis of market segments considers three factors: the size and characteristics of the market segments, the structural advantages of the market segments, and the matching of the market segments with the company's goals and resources. But here I changed it a bit and still considered the three aspects comprehensively: the attractiveness of the market segments, the company's capabilities and the company's characteristics. The market segments that intersect these three factors should be selected as the company's target market. First, we need to select one or more dimensions that are in line with future trends and will determine future competition to segment the market and evaluate the attractiveness of each segment. Because players in the same track are also divided into different levels, competition mainly occurs within the same level, otherwise it is easy to form misaligned competition. Secondly, the company's capabilities in important value links are evaluated according to the value chain model, and matched with the capability requirements of each market segment. This is because when evaluating the company's capabilities, it is not possible to simply perform a Buff analysis, but rather to place the company's capabilities into the value chain for a structured evaluation. Finally, combined with the characteristics of the enterprise, select attractive market segments that match the enterprise's capabilities as target markets. Enterprise characteristics can be understood as the "software" in the 7S model, which mainly includes value orientation, corporate culture or style, risk preference, and the ability tendency generated by combining with the "hardware". Just as Luo Yonghao often says that he is a craftsman, Hammer phone is a craftsman brand, but as a founder, he and his company do not possess the qualities of a craftsman, and attempts to benchmark against Apple and Steve Jobs have been unsuccessful. On the contrary, Xiaomi chose to stand on the opposite side of Apple, emphasizing geekiness and cost-effectiveness and succeeded. When analyzing market segments, it is also necessary to fully consider the market structure, which is to "know the enemy". This means analyzing the competitive situation and degree of competition. It is necessary to identify and evaluate the main competitors in the market, understand their strategies and goals, business models, core competitiveness, strengths and weaknesses, and competitive reactions, in order to help companies formulate and improve their overall strategy and competitive strategy. The importance of this step is that "knowing the enemy" assists "knowing yourself". Knowing yourself and knowing the enemy are inseparable. Although competition always has disadvantages, it is always good to have competitors. The most frightening thing is to have no competitors, just like the dinosaurs had no rivals in their era, so they did not evolve again in those 160 million years. The meaning of competition is that who you race against determines who you will become. If the competitors you are benchmarking are too bad, you will not be much better. The existence of competitors can push the track forward, promote changes in the relationship between total demand and total supply, and force track players to work hard to differentiate themselves in the process of rushing forward. When considering market segments and market structure, it is especially important to conduct in-depth analysis of the basic data of your desired target market, such as the target market's market capacity, growth rate, market share, price distribution, domestic and foreign comparisons, and a comprehensive background check on competitors. Compared with the above meso-level research, this step of work is to conduct research from a more micro perspective to help yourself. All kinds of corporate strategies at different levels, from overall strategy to competitive strategy to marketing and brand strategy, are actually selective responses or reactions to market competition. What is the internal connection between strategies at different levels? For companies that are new to the market, the overall strategy is actually only the development strategy, or more specifically, the market penetration strategy, with only one goal, which is to increase the market share of products or services through greater marketing efforts. The basic competitive strategies are divided into total cost leadership, differentiation, and concentration strategies, but in essence there is only one, which is differentiation. For companies that are new to the market, they often adopt a concentrated competitive strategy, and the corresponding marketing strategies are target market selection and market positioning. The target market selection strategy is mostly a concentrated marketing strategy corresponding to the competitive strategy, and the market positioning has three strategies: avoiding the strong, going against, and repositioning. The brand competition strategy is formulated based on the brand's market position. Brands that have just entered the market do not have a leadership position. The remaining three types of positions are challengers, followers, and niche players. It is very important for challenger brands to benchmark key competitors, observe and analyze the successful experiences of leaders and make improvements, and have the ability and hope to seize the leadership position; follower brands can often gain some benefits, but following does not mean copying, only maintaining a coexistence situation. For example, Luo Yonghao chose to follow the Apple brand, but copying Apple is obviously not appropriate; niche brands avoid competition, do not compete with major companies, find and operate a niche market, and only occupy a certain market position through their own professional operations. When identifying and analyzing competitors, we cannot simply identify them with the same price and similar products. We often apply Porter's Five Forces and strategic groups for analysis. But here, we mainly consider the "enterprise level" perspective, looking for companies with similar strategic directions or profit models to analyze. In addition, there are two perspectives in the "grasping the crowd" module at the back: one is based on the "product level" perspective, which can locate direct competitors; the other is based on the "user level" perspective, which can locate alternative competitors and cross-dimensional competitors. Taking bottled drinking water as an example, the direct competitors are other drinking water brands. Based on the perspective of user demand, the one that can form alternative competition and cross-dimensional competition to bottled water should be Mixue Bingcheng’s honey water. Although the two are in different categories, they overlap in consumption scenarios. The ultimate goal of track analysis is to determine a category, which is essentially to select a target market. Determining the category means that the enterprise needs to enter from the vertically segmented categories with real needs and market opportunities to achieve the ultimate goal of track selection. Because for the enterprise, a series of analysis and selection actions are to provide solutions (products and services) to the target market in order to obtain returns. The difference between a track and an industry is easy to understand. A track is a field in an industry, and companies in the same track are in a competitive relationship. Companies that do not constitute competition may be companies in the same industry, but they cannot be counted as companies in the same track; although they are in the same industry and are affected by the big industry, they are in different tracks, and can only be regarded as companies that know their own situation. Just like the new energy industry, there are many tracks. Although new energy vehicles have always been very popular, the overall development trend of the industry is still unclear. Therefore, except for the top players in the track, most players cannot withstand the wind and rain in the capital market. In comparison, the difference in the definitions of track and category seems a bit difficult to define, but in fact the relationship between the two is that the category requirements must be clearer than the track. Only clear categories can compete on the track. The track is the perspective of the enterprise, and the category is the perspective of the user. If we say that the words such as "strategy and goals", "business model", "value chain" and "core competitiveness" are centered around "knowing the situation", "knowing the enemy" and "knowing yourself", it means to see what opportunities there are from the enterprise level and the market level (including competition). When determining specific categories, more emphasis is placed on "knowing the customer", because the market opportunity does not mean that consumers have real demand, and vice versa, the demand from consumers does not mean that the market is worth investing in or can be invested in. For example, whitening soap has no opportunities from a market perspective, but whitening soap with pure plant ingredients does have opportunities, mainly on the user side. Specific user groups, such as Arabs, require "halal" in their daily consumption, so halal whitening soap has opportunities, and this opportunity comes from real demand. From the perspective of the enterprise, the term category is a programmed, fixed, and classified solution to solve problems and meet user needs, and it is classified according to the way consumers understand. The so-called category strategy is a competitive strategy because it believes that when users make decisions, they first think about the category and then choose the brand. I think this is also the only place where categories and category strategies are valuable. For companies that want to enter a certain track, there are two major values in defining product categories: for users, one is to clarify what the company's brand is and what it provides, providing a kind of endorsement; the other is to assist users in making decisions. For companies, it can help them clarify the direction of their operations and focus resources, which first includes subsequent product development. This is especially important for companies that are new to the market. Whether they can accurately position themselves in a category determines whether they can gain a foothold in the market in the future and become a strong brand. However, everything has its pros and cons. The disadvantage of categories and category strategies is that after a brand has achieved success and grown, it is easy to fall into the so-called category trap. It is necessary to start with category thinking and end with brand thinking. Since 2020, many sub-categories have become popular. On the surface, this is due to the promotion of various marketing strategies, but in essence, it is still centered on the emergence and stimulation of new demands, and is brought about by the joint promotion of new channels and new media. However, there are also a lot of false demands, or user needs and market opportunities do not match. The needle must be thin enough to be inserted easily, but it must also be inserted in the right place. However, it should be noted that the category is not defined by the company, but understood by the users themselves, that is, it is a label thinking in the user's cognition. 2. Capture the crowdThe so-called capturing the crowd means capturing the target user group. It is necessary to "know the customers", that is, consumer insights. This is not only the basis for selecting the target market, but also the most important basis for enterprises to determine product categories and subsequent series of marketing work. What is consumer insight? It can be defined as: a comprehensive understanding of what the target users think, feel, and do, so that the company can continue to sell products and services to customers in a way that customers like. However, the starting point of a brand is to grasp the real needs of users and provide solutions, otherwise there will be no follow-up. Therefore, capturing the crowd involves two dimensions of questions: Who are the target users? What are the needs of the target users? The diversity of the consumer market comes from the fact that users have very different consumer resources such as purchasing desire, purchasing behavior, purchasing habits and purchasing power. In addition, there are many factors that influence consumer purchasing behavior, including cultural factors, social factors, psychological factors, and personal factors, which lead to different purchasing behaviors. Cultural factors: culture, subculture, social class; Social factors: reference groups, family, role and status; Personal factors: age and life cycle stage, occupation, economic status, lifestyle, personality and self-concept; Psychological factors: motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes. Regarding the question of who the users are, we need to accurately locate the target users. Dividing the above factors into two categories can be used to locate the target users in two ways: one is to divide them into levels according to economic status, age and life cycle stage, China's unique first- and second-tier cities, family structure, etc.; the other is to divide them into circles according to life attitudes, that is, lifestyles. According to their occupations, roles and status, personality and self-concept, motivation and attitude, etc., they can be divided into three dimensions for consideration: AIO (activity, interest, opinion) Positioning can be done by using user portraits and labeling methods. Labels actually represent a certain lifestyle and attitude towards life. These human qualities can usually be matched with the people around them, thereby understanding what kind of person the user is. For example: Generation Z - express themselves and their individuality; new women - from pleasing others to pleasing themselves, focusing on quality and experience; the elderly - health care and enjoyment of life; straight men - fit bodies and exquisite products; social nerds - work and socialize a lot but actually like to stay at home... After finding the target users, you need to continue to explore the needs of these users. When it comes to the question of what the user's needs are, there are needs, desires, and demands: For users, need-desire-demand is a process of confirmation and selection: based on internal and external needs, problems in life will be discovered. The confirmation and selection of problems will generate desires for specific objects. Solving problems and forming a willingness to buy is demand. The key to generating demand is availability and feasibility. For enterprises, need-desire-demand is also a process of understanding and satisfying: needs are eternal and constantly emerging, and are a state of feeling. Paying attention to and studying "needs" means paying attention to and studying the problems that users as people constantly discover in life; the desire for specific objects is the user's confirmation and choice of the problem, which is an opportunity for the enterprise, or more precisely, an opportunity for the enterprise to provide solutions; but users must also be able to satisfy their desire for solutions. At this time, needs are connected with clear solutions - this is the real opportunity for the enterprise. Because only at this time can needs and desires be clearly called demands. First of all, this demand is what users need, and it can be influenced, that is, it is affected by what we call the "four major factors". Secondly, the demand can be satisfied, and consumers have the ability or their own resources to meet the consumption. The joke of selling a comb to a monk is enough, because the monk does not really need a comb, and even if it is influenced, it can only be a one-time transaction. When doing demand analysis, we must take the needs of users as the basis. In the specific analysis, the needs are usually converted into two words, namely pain points and itch points. The pain points must be painful enough, and the itch points must be itchy enough. Only by grasping the pain points and itch points can we have a better chance of success and become a brand that is touching enough in the market rather than an ordinary product. In recent years, the consumption upgrade that has been constantly mentioned in China is, on the one hand, the improvement of user capabilities; on the other hand, it is the continuous differentiation of users, that is, the continuous segmentation and personalization of needs, which is brought about by the continuous emergence of pain points and itch points. Similarly, we can also use labels to understand the opportunities brought by demand characteristics: such as lack of love - one-person meals, convenient quick-frozen food, small household appliances, small apartments, customized home furnishings, social apps; health care - health care, 0 calories, 0 fat, 0 sugar, organic food, convenient health care; such as love of beauty - high-value products, medical beauty, fitness, beauty, beauty apps... Here, companies need to pay full attention to the changing trends of user needs in the past, present and future. Users of different generations have very obvious differences in meeting the same needs. Understanding users with a time perspective can fully understand users' purchasing motivations and responses to brands. When analyzing, do not deliberately pursue big themes, but carefully discover the rise, values and lifestyles of niche groups, and look for opportunities to transform from niche groups to mass groups. Only by capturing the right crowd and understanding the target users' demand characteristics and demand change trends can you have a chance to gain a foothold in the market, become a brand in the minds of users, and have the opportunity to achieve sustained growth. Otherwise, you will be abandoned by users and eliminated by the market in the wave. At the same time, in the step of capturing the crowd, you can further fully consider competitors. Although this step is within the scope of "considering competitors" in the previous step, it is emphasized here because the previous step mainly identified and analyzed competitors at the "enterprise level", and this step mainly focuses on identifying and analyzing competitors around the "product level" and "user level". You can consider it from several aspects: What are the products with high correlation in user search behavior? What are the products with similar voice in mixed conversations? If the user does not buy this company's products, which company's products did he buy? How do users solve their needs when there are no products or services provided by the company? What are the steps for users to use competitors' products and services? Have they solved the user's pain points? Have they met their lifestyle needs? Have they complied with their purchasing and usage behaviors? And so on. 3. BrandingWhat is a brand? A brand is not just a name, term, symbol or combination of them, but a highly refined value positioning that fully reflects the brand's meaning and differences and satisfies user values or user interests. The key point is a set of specific characteristics, benefits and services that the company provides to users for a long time. Translating it to users is the brand. Value or benefits are divided into three levels or layers: functional value, emotional value, and spiritual value, also called value expression benefits. The image of a brand in the minds of users is mainly divided into these three logical levels. Two key points: one is meaningfulness, and the other is differentiation. Differentiation means that the brand and its products and services must be different from similar products, which is a necessary condition for users to remember and feel familiar with the product and brand. Moreover, differentiation must be achievable and trustworthy; meaningfulness means that the brand and its products and services must be meaningful and relevant to users. Only in this way can users perceive and interpret the value brought by differentiation. Of course, in theory, the differentiation of products and brands is endless. However, when positioning, companies must choose those differences that can stimulate user emotions and become a purchasing driver. Brand building is the work of formulating and confirming brand strategy. For start-ups, this is work that starts from scratch. First, the emotional core of the brand must be determined, including the brand mission and vision, as well as the description of values; then the brand's value proposition must be determined, including the value it brings to users and to society, which must be differentiated and meaningful. Secondly, create a panoramic brand experience, including the brand's visual system, including naming, LOGO, logo, VI system; auditory system, including brand slogan, jingle or unique sound system; and other feasible perception methods. Labeling thinking can still be applied at this time. Brands are originally a kind of labeled product. In terms of conforming to user perception, such as the second dimension, national style, cute style, etc. In addition to the above, qualified enterprises can further IPize their brands. IP has unique penetration and resonance in the era of machine algorithms. The so-called IPization is not to design a virtual image, but to label the sum of customer perceptions. Finally, when designing a brand story, many companies think that the brand story is too fake. In fact, the company just tells a fake story. The brand story is a story-telling expression of the brand positioning and emotional core. It, together with the brand mission, vision, and value proposition, determines what the brand will say in the future. In an era of circle structure, brand stories have a unique appeal, and excellent brands are always telling the same story. Finally, an effective positioning method is provided for brand value positioning: First, define the five most important values for target users, which must be derived from the real needs of customers and the requirements for meeting those needs; secondly, classify the five values into: a super value with a monopoly advantage, which is the most important and outstanding value for users; a differentiated value with a differentiated advantage, which describes the differentiation between itself and competitors' brands; and three average level benchmark values, which represent the category label and trust basis of the brand and product or service in the minds of users; finally, refine and summarize the brand discourse system, refine, summarize and optimize the values classified in the previous step, and make it a positioning discourse system that can be disseminated to users. In addition, in this process, we must fully consider the characteristics of user cognition: highly refined but sufficient information. Users only accept effective and simple information, and we must be able to increase users' trust. Trust is the foundation. Only with trust can preferences be formed. We must guide users. Users’ needs are constantly changing, which means that ideas can easily lose focus. Companies must guide users’ thinking rather than being guided by them. Users’ perceptions are always greater than facts. Don’t just talk about facts. Think more from the perspective of user perception and visualization. The essence of establishing a brand identification system is visualization, as is storytelling. 4. Do a good job of opening the productAn enterprise can exist because it creates user value, and user value is reflected through its brand and products or services. Product development is not a product of the corporate perspective. The market has long ceased to be a seller's market. It is necessary to understand users, markets, and competitors, and develop products that can deliver significantly differentiated value to users. Product development cannot be a matter of chance. It is not a matter of luck, but a life-and-death challenge, which is true for any company. For start-ups, product development is the development of brand new products. The driving force comes from new markets, new technologies, new processes, and new consumer scenarios. At the same time, product development also follows a series of development processes: Product conception: systematically search for new product design concepts, including external concepts, internal concepts and crowdsourcing models; concept screening: keep good concepts and verify them from three perspectives: are they based on real needs? Do they have advantages? Are they worth investing in? Concept development and testing: develop verified concepts into effective product concepts, and test and evaluate new product concepts, first from the perspective of market competition to see competitiveness, and second from the perspective of meeting needs to see user opinions. This is followed by marketing strategy formulation, business analysis, product development, market testing, and commercialization. This process cannot be sloppy, that is, the new product development process must be fully managed. The core requirement is to be user-centric, including whether it solves the main problems of users? Can users be directly involved in the product development process? And whether the new product has a unique value proposition? It is especially important not to be too obsessed with the perfection of the product. The more you pursue perfection, the more you will ignore the real needs of users. At the same time, this process must take into account the user's adoption rate of new products. The adoption rate is the acceptance rate. The following five product features are particularly important for increasing the innovation adoption rate, namely:
Here are four paths for new product development ideas: user usage scenarios and tasks, focusing on users' deep needs, focusing on unique users, and cross-border horizontal thinking. User usage scenarios are also called product application scenarios. Products can only reflect value in the corresponding user usage scenarios. Users experience and feel the product based on specific scenarios. Only when the product usage scenarios are in line with the user's actual usage scenarios, the product is what the user needs, otherwise it will be eliminated by the user and turn to select competitors. Tasks are also called user tasks. They are the goals that users want to achieve or the improvements they expect in their actual usage scenarios. Considering it together, it means what kind of task the user completes in what kind of task scenarios. This task includes functional tasks and emotional tasks, which is the real needs of the user. Only by deeply understanding and analyzing the user's usage scenarios and tasks can we deeply grasp the user's real needs and develop products that are more suitable for users than competitors, that is, products that are more productive, which determines the product's monetization ability. Scenarios create demand and promote users to purchase, so the scene also needs to be designed to find moments and occasions that allow users to fully feel the value of the product. When describing user usage scenarios, they generally mainly describe them from five aspects: time, time, place, character, behavior, and psychology: to understand them with models, that is, "who, what, when, where, how/how and why", users create problems in such scenarios, which then transform them into demand. Among them, describing psychological conditions is the most realistic and reasonable. It is precisely because feelings are the most real. The experience that the product can bring to users during use is very important, which comes from the sensory experience brought by the product, and secondly, what the product can bring to consumption in terms of emotions and spirit. When developing products, we must also fully consider the scene triggering effect. Many products are not so recalled because the usage scenarios are too limited. Although no product can meet all the scenarios of users' lives, efforts to improve the applicable scenarios of products determine the degree of demand. The so-called scene triggering is when and where users need the product and how often they use it. Generally speaking, individual users’ decisions are divided into two core models: cognitive decision-making and habitual decision-making. Focusing on the former, cognitive decision-making is usually divided into five steps: causing demand - searching for information - evaluating alternatives - purchasing decision-making - purchasing behavior, which is also a refinement of the “stimulus-response” of user behavior. As mentioned above, "need" is that users discover problems in life based on internal and external transmission. External transmission is external stimulation, which is also a focus of particular concern for enterprises. It should be understood from the perspective of "user scenarios" and the understanding of user needs will be deeper. Naturally, the development of products can be user-centered. How to understand the in-depth needs of paying attention to users? User needs begin with needs, that is, various problems arising from users in their lives, but not all problems will be determined and selected, let alone convert needs, sorting out the problems that users have the ability and desire to solve but have not said, and giving priority to those problems that can be solved and have a relatively high importance weight. Focusing on unique users refers to those who focus on the most differentiated people, those who use large amounts, those who use frequently, and those who use in inexplicable aspects, they often bring some new points of attention to differences. Once the product has it, the next step is to set a heart-warming price for the product. The product and the price are inseparable, and are the value paid by the user for the benefits of obtaining, using the product or service. This is self-evident for enterprises. Price is the main reason that affects whether users buy or not, and it is also a key factor that determines the company's market share and profitability. Pricing is an important tool for creating and obtaining customer value. All corporate marketing activities also need to be reflected through pricing. The upper limit of pricing is the user's perception of the brand and product value, and the lower limit depends on the product cost. There are three ways for enterprise pricing: user value-based pricing, cost-based pricing, and competition-based pricing. However, we must also pay full attention to other factors that affect pricing: the overall marketing strategy of the company, goals and marketing portfolio, and the characteristics of market and demand. Especially for new products, don’t try to engage in price wars with the market, but should be value wars. Generally, core pricing methods based on user value are adopted, and competitors and product costs are fully considered. It should be noted that users often need the most suitable products, rather than products that are just piled up with value, so they generally guide product development by insighting into user needs and the price they are willing to pay to meet the needs. Only then can the company truly complete the process of brand setting to implementation. Let’s summarize: Enterprises should fully judge market opportunities and user needs, enter from vertical segments with real needs and large enough market opportunities, output meaningful differentiated value positioning, and develop products to the market based on this. In this process, we should fully consider the growth space and entry timing, target users and user needs, differentiation with competitors, scene fit, and output heart-warming products and brands. 2. Growth stageBrand landing is only the first step in the Long March. With products, brand growth has only really begun now. The so-called growth comes from the increase in sales and the expansion of user scale. Further refinement can be seen: growth = average customer price * number of users * conversion rate * repurchase rate. Among them, the average customer price is the price, which depends on the product's product strength, that is, the product's monetization power; the number of users refers to the target users reached by the enterprise. Whether it can reach the marketing power, specifically the channel penetration ability; the conversion rate is the ratio of users who have purchasing behavior among users. Both depend on the marketing power of the enterprise. Specifically speaking, advertising, public relations, promotion, etc. Of course, the factors affecting the conversion rate of the product itself and the average customer price are also very high; retention and repurchase depend on the brand's operational power, including two aspects: one is the user level and the other is the brand level. But like humans, the dilemma in the growth stage is that there are too many temptations, weak abilities, unclear goals and paths, and no resources themselves. The same is true for the dilemma faced by brands. What should brands focus on in strategic planning? How to formulate development paths? To ensure that the brand does not die in the middle? 1. Breakthrough StrategyWhether an enterprise carries out various marketing activities systematically, step-by-step and rhythmically depends on whether the enterprise has appropriate guidance documents and action programs. It is called marketing strategy and is the most core part of the enterprise marketing plan. The marketing strategy here is not only brand marketing, but refers to marketing including brand marketing. The implementation of marketing is marketing management at the enterprise level. What is marketing management? On the other hand, it is management marketing. What is specific? Marketing work includes five interlocking steps or content: understanding market and user needs, formulating and designing marketing strategies, building a marketing portfolio plan that conveys value, establishing profitable relationships and creating user pleasure, and obtaining profits, user share and user rights. To simplify it, the first four steps are "creating differentiated value + demand management + mental management + relationship management", that is, 3C+STP+4P+CRM. The last step is the return obtained by the brand to create user value, which is the profit and value return of user share and user rights obtained by the brand by creating significant differentiated value for users. The corresponding corporate marketing functions revolve around this. The four marketing functions required by marketing management are analysis, planning, execution, and control. Analysis means analyzing the marketing environment, planning means formulating an overall strategic plan and transforming it into plans of each department. Through the implementation of the specific actions converted into, the marketing organization focuses on managing users' experience and relationships with the brand, control means measuring and evaluating the results, and taking corrective measures when necessary. The most important part of a typical marketing plan is the marketing strategy part, which is the basis for a series of specific actions. The most valuable part of the marketing strategy is what we usually call 4P, namely "products, prices, channels and promotions." For start-ups, "products and prices" have been completed in the birth stage, so the next focus is channels and promotions. The so-called promotion is communication and communication. To put it bluntly, this is all for the purpose of acquiring users. However, no brand is born with a budget, especially start-up brands. Therefore, when formulating marketing strategies, you should not learn from large companies with sufficient budgets. You must learn to spend a small amount of money to conduct large penetration, first make single-point breakthroughs, single-circle penetration, channel penetration, and user operations. 2. Circle penetrationThe average customer price of the product and the number of users obtained by the enterprise constitute the basis of growth. With the product, it is naturally necessary to obtain users. Obtaining traffic becomes the most important thing. Only with traffic can there be transaction conversion. What is traffic? The essence of traffic refers to user traffic. After the product is developed, the product will be known to more people. This process is to spread and attract how many users it is called traffic. Doing content on WeChat, Douyin, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili is to obtain traffic. Advertising on the four traditional media is also to obtain traffic. Offline ground promotion, sales personnel promotion, flash, art exhibition, etc. are also to obtain traffic. It can be divided into natural traffic and paid traffic according to whether it is paid. Natural traffic is the users attracted through the product itself. Most of them are users who have demand for the product itself. Natural traffic does not require costs, but depends on the attention of users who have demand for the product. Paid traffic generally refers to users attracted through paid promotion, and these users are customers who are concerned by seeing the product on social media or some other promotion channels. But both need to be well combined and operated. In natural traffic, the competition for shelf resources in offline scenarios. The more people who can be frequently and close contact with users will be selected by users. In online scenarios, categories and product keywords are generally seized and optimized through active operations. The logic is also in the user's vision when users need it; in paid traffic, various forms of offline advertising, offline activities, ground promotion, flash, art exhibitions, etc. mentioned above are all forms of paid acquisition of traffic. In online channels, there are usually platform paid promotion tools, platform activities, live streaming traffic, fission distribution and effect advertising. The key to obtaining traffic is accuracy, especially paid traffic. If the traffic cannot be accurate, there is no conversion rate at all. Without conversion rate, not only will there be no sales, but it will not be enough to make ends meet because of traffic spending. So the attraction to precise traffic first comes from the exciting products developed by the company itself. Why do you say that? Users can be divided into five categories according to the process of users adopting new products: innovators, early adopters, early followers, late followers, and laggards. This is the user classification of new product acceptance and the process of users accepting new products. Innovators are consumer adventurers, often willing to try new concepts and technologies, and for new products, they are angel users, accounting for about 2.5%; early users are also called early tasters, often opinion leaders, and will pay more than the energy and cost required to solve the problem itself, accounting for about 13.5%; early followers are usually more cautious and will only buy their mature products, mostly thoughtful and good at socializing, accounting for about 34%; late followers are mostly skeptical and conservative, mostly traditional users, and most of them need to try them before they are willing to accept them, but they may be core users in the future, 34%; laggards are also called laggards, and they are often skeptical about new products, but are afraid of ridicule of followers, and they often accept new products in the end, accounting for about 16%. This is also why in the first stage, the importance of product development and why it is based on the real needs of users as the product. For early traffic sources of brands - innovators and early adopters, they almost all come for the product. For beginners, this is also the user that companies should focus on. No matter what the traffic comes, it is inseparable from communication. Different times, the logic of media and communication has changed. In the traditional era, communication was carried out through mass media and Internet advertising, etc., but in the mobile Internet era, under the decentralization and fragmentation, and algorithmic mechanism, users actually exist on isolated islands. How should brands be disseminated? Before understanding how brands are spread, we need to understand why brands need to spread? There are two key points: 1. User needs can be caused by internal stimulation or external stimulation. The so-called external stimulation includes the guidance of the company; 2. When users are interested in the product, they may search for more information. When searching for information, users will obtain information from various channels, generally there are personal channels, commercial channels, public channels and experience channels. However, in most cases, commercial channels are the first source of information, while personal channels are the most effective sources of information. The former is controlled by the enterprise and plays a role in informing, while the latter has the function of judging or evaluating products. Often, the closer the relationship is, the more relevant the product purchase and use experience, the easier it is to trust users. Commercial channels include advertising, sales personnel, websites, product packaging and exhibitions, etc., but for new brands, budget issues and complex communication environments often make it difficult for companies to adapt. At this time, it is not advisable to be greedy for the big picture, but should first break up on the island, and then seek to expand and break the circle. Content marketing and reputation planting are much better tools than advertising. The so-called communication is to communicate with users. The principle of communication remains unchanged and still follows: who WHO, what WHAT is passed, what WHOM is said to whom, how to say HOW, and what effect is expected. In the process, no matter how the communication medium changes, how the user changes, it must rely on the spreading transmitter with stronger potential, through communication channels with leverage effects, target target users, especially the innovators and early tasters mentioned above, disseminate key point information with communication potential, clear obstacles that affect the spread of transmission, and monitor and adjust the trend of communication at any time. High potential energy communicators: KOL and KOC users at the head, waist and tail of each platform; communication channels with leverage effect: vertical media in the rising period, Xiaohongshu, B station, Douyin, etc.; isolated island users, also known as circle users, are also target users of the enterprise, especially seed users; key brand information with communication potential: content that users are subjectively willing to read, interact, and share is the knowledge and experience that users pay attention to, such as product reviews and recommendations,... Different grass planting platforms have their own characteristics. Brands should design corresponding communication content based on the characteristics of different platforms to suit the circle characteristics, such as Xiaohongshu is suitable for publishing product experience evaluations, usage tutorials, etc. Douyin is suitable for product unboxing and product reviews, and B station is more suitable for diverse creations and unique content that integrates product characteristics. In short, the purpose of communication is ultimately about entering the user's mind. To be more precise, it is to seek to let the brand enter the user's wake-up set and reference set. The so-called wake-up set refers to the brand that can be thought of when the user makes a purchase decision. The reference set refers to the alternative brand that the user will actually purchase. Both the wake-up set and the reference set are very important. If the user does not know you, or the brand under similar products, and the user has never heard of you, it is impossible to choose your. Because users will trust and prefer people and things they are familiar with. The more frequently the information about brands and products appears, the deeper the content (fitting to the user's life scenarios or usage scenarios) it is more likely to generate trust and preferences. Brands must first enter the user's field of vision, that is, they will have a chance to enter the wake-up set. Especially in this era of product explosion, consumers have too many choices. If the brand is not in the wake-up set of users, it is even more impossible to enter the reference set. 3. Channel OperationThe significance and function of a channel is to provide products to users more efficiently, and rely on channels to increase market share and sales growth. Whether users can purchase products more efficiently depends on the breadth and depth of the channel. With the diversification of segmented markets and the increasing channel forms, the channel construction of modern enterprises requires flattening, generally divided into online or offline. Online refers to using the Internet, and offline refers to using marketing channels such as retailers, distributors, and distributors. The so-called channel operation is to design and select marketing channels to attract the highest quality and most quantity of traffic. First of all, you need to understand the characteristics of the product and the target users you target. The channels adapted to are different for different products, especially in terminal channels. For example, condiments are not suitable for appearing in gas stations or mini grocery stores. Then collect channel information, evaluate channel effectiveness, and conduct research on competitors or similar products to understand the channel conversion effect and choose the channel that is most suitable for you. In addition, channel efficiency must be evaluated and managed, and efforts must be made to eliminate and improve channel gaps, so as to promote brands to occupy more channel share. When evaluating channels, first, evaluate channel gaps, the gap between channels selected by the enterprise and user requirements, that is, the gap between expectations and reality; second, evaluate channel performance, mainly several types of indicators: smoothness indicators, channel coverage, and channel financial performance evaluation. Many indicators in these two aspects can see the power of the channel. In terms of online channels, e-commerce platforms are still the mainstream, showing the characteristics of high channel concentration but media dispersion. This is the reason for the Tmall transactions across the network in the past few years. However, as traffic becomes more and more expensive, channels are trending to decentralize again. Foreign websites are built to achieve their own channels, while domestically, they mainly seek lower-cost traffic, such as social e-commerce, live e-commerce, and interest e-commerce. The reason behind the so-called social e-commerce, live e-commerce, and interest e-commerce are the rise. The trend behind it is that the boundaries between media and channels are disappearing. E-commerce platforms can also "create" brands, media and social platforms can also purchase products, and all scenarios can become sales scenarios and cognitive scenarios. This also brings a trend, which is the DTC trend that broke out around 2020, namely "direct to users". The so-called direct to the destination includes at least three connotations: direct product, direct service, and direct information, but this requires companies to have a deep understanding and insight into digital marketing. 4. User OperationIn the era of traffic dividends in the past, it was relatively easy for enterprises to obtain traffic, and the traffic cost was very low. Enterprises did not pay much attention to user operations. However, as the dividend disappeared, people became increasingly anxious about traffic. On the one hand, the traffic became more and more expensive, and on the other hand, it became less accurate. Then whether they could stay after gaining users, become fans and loyal users, realize retention and repurchase, and even let them bring new users, became the focus, which determined whether growth could be sustained. Enterprise operations take user needs as the starting point and user satisfaction and user relationship as the end point. User operations are operations to manage the relationship between brands and users. User relationship operations refer to the process of establishing and maintaining valuable customer relationships by conveying user value and user satisfaction. It involves all aspects of obtaining, maintaining and developing users. What is a "valued" user relationship?" Value refers to the ability of enterprises to obtain value from users, also known as returns, including: profit, loyalty, user share, and user rights; relationships refer to the loyal relationship between enterprises and users, which are generally divided into four categories: traffic, users, members, and community. User value is actually the perceived value of the user, because for users, product value is not exactly equal to user value. Users usually only buy part of the value they can perceive, and this perception is subjective, including comparison and trade-offs on their perceived gains and losses. User satisfaction is based on user value and depends on the user's perceived efficiency and expectations of product value. For some users, there are only several situations: higher prices obtain products of average value, more suitable prices buy products with reasonable value, and lower prices buy products with higher value. When users cannot perceive product value and there is a gap between the product value and expectations and reality, users will not feel satisfied, and they are very likely to turn to competitors or give up. The purpose of user operations is to achieve transactions and returns. The ultimate goal of its return is to obtain high user rights. The so-called user rights refer to the sum of discounted lifetime values of existing and potential users of the enterprise. User operations are actually the lifelong value of operating users. Therefore, users should be valued as the asset of the brand, establish appropriate relationships with the appropriate users, and improve and deepen their relationships with the users as much as possible. Generally speaking, relationships can be divided into four categories from the two dimensions of profitability and loyalty: strangers, butterflies, best friends, and barnacles. For users who have potential profitability but are not loyal enough, they can use promotional means to attract profitable transactions and fully obtain their value; for users who are very loyal but have low profitability, they can also try to sell more products to them, increase prices or reduce services, and expand sales. What companies need to pay most attention to are users who are both valuable and loyal. Brands should make continuous relationship investments to please them and keep them, while turning them into believers of the brand, which is the community mentioned above. They are heavy users of the brand and can bring a diffusion effect to the brand. What we often talk about is actually about user operations, which is the relationship leverage of the brand. 3. Maturity stageThe key to the growth stage of brand is to spend a small amount of money to expand penetration, make single-point breakthroughs, and break down islands, relying on product reputation, content marketing and channel traffic. In the mature stage, what the brand needs to think about is to break through the circle and expand the circle and spread the circle to continuously expand the scale of users and bring about continuous growth of the brand. 1. Expand the circleFrom the isolated circle to the expansion of the circle, the essence is to enable the brand to move from the isolated users to the general public. Whether the circle can be expanded successfully determines whether the brand can grow. On the one hand, expanding the circle can lead to the expansion of the user scale, and on the other hand, it can improve brand awareness. At this stage, in addition to using head, waist and tail KOLs, high-potential energy communicators have the focus, and cross-border marketing of celebrity spokespersons and other homogeneous brands are the focus. In terms of communication channels, traditional media and Weibo are also needed to be added. In terms of communication content, hard broadcasting, cross-border and soft recommendations also need to be comprehensively considered. The key point is to match the three elements of communicator, communication channel, and communication content. Let me introduce the following to what are the requirements for cross-border communication and advertising endorsement. Cross-border refers to the consumption characteristics of certain consistency or correlation between users of different brands, so that some elements that originally did not intersect penetrate, integrate and expand their influence, interpret a new attitude towards life, aesthetic methods, and service awareness, so as to gain users' favorability and achieve a larger user group and increase market share. Cross-border No matter which aspect of cross-border, it is essentially a brand sharing each other's users, thereby expanding their respective user groups. Cross-border communication is to cooperate with different brands to create communication content. The focus is to find the commonality between the users of both brands, and on this basis, find the points of fit between the two brands in brand culture. If the brand difference between the two parties is too large, it will have a negative impact on the brands of both parties. On the basis of the point of fit, the two brands are integrated and innovatively expressed. The content cannot subvert but distinguish the existing perceptions of both users of the brand, and fully convey the brand's value positioning and brand proposition. In terms of channels, it is adhering to the fact that the content appears wherever the users are, and the users you attract should be transformed and deepen the relationship. The main purpose of advertising is exposure, which inevitably requires the participation of strong media. Strong media is the media that users often come into contact with, including traditional and online. Endorsement refers to the participation of celebrities and celebrities, and uses the effect of celebrities to increase brand awareness and memory points. But today, advertising also requires content thinking, otherwise the advertising will be offensive. People can't remember it by blindly making celebrities yell at each other. Just like I can never tell which domestic mobile phone is which. The reason is that its advertising tone, advertising content, and celebrity endorsement are similar - there is no brand recognition. Another point that advertising also requires content thinking is that advertising also needs to fully consider product usage scenarios and fully convey value memory points. The high-end and empty way cannot deepen memory. 2. Social symbiosisAs mentioned above, user operation is the relationship between operating a brand and user. The best relationship is to form a community between brands and users, which means that the brand and users coexist and prosper, and users are the producers and sellers of brands. Symbiosis is a common phenomenon. It reflects the interdependence, competition, order, and mutually beneficial symbiosis among many different creatures. Here, it means that users need to participate in the operation of the brand, let users have a sense of participation, find a suitable way to join users' social conversations, introduce interesting and valuable brand knowledge and content, and share value benefits, including soliciting product creativity from users, allowing users to play an active role in communication, such as content creation, transferring some discourse rights and forming an alliance of public opinion. There are several key points here: First, brand co-construction: brands have long evolved from identification symbols to mutual trust in relationships, especially in the changes in the ecology of the digital age. Based on digital road chain equipment and technology applications, brand community is the basic connection link. Based on scenarios, content, connections, and interaction, brands can play the role of direction leadership, contract management and operation services, and can also play the role of communication in brand gene retrieval, initial personality design and IP personality planning, initial value system refinement and script writing, creative event marketing and initial distribution platform planning. However, scene insights and scenario construction based on user life trajectory big data, large amounts of UGC based on user scenario-based life experience and consumption experience, viral content diffusion based on good user relationships, etc., will become the main force for users to participate in brand growth, feel brand temperature, shape brand values, drive brand evolution, face brand crises together, and share brand honors and future. The second is product co-creation: users are involved in the product conception, concept design, test and sales stages, and the products created by users are naturally closely connected with users; on the one hand, they can accurately grasp the real needs of users and reduce the risk of product development failure, and on the other hand, they are equivalent to marketing pre-positions, and the brand naturally has communication and topicality. The third is content co-creation: content explosion in the digital age, but for brands, users with excess content dissipate their attention, and there is naturally "content shock" between brands and users in terms of communication methods and content. On the one hand, it is easier to establish a relationship with users. Co-creation itself is a very friendly attitude, which can easily transform users into firm supporters and promoters of the brand, and rely on their strength to break through circle barriers; on the other hand, it solves the differences between brand production content and user needs. This difference is not only a difference in quantity, but also a difference in quality. It is not difficult to create some interesting content. It is rare to be efficiently reached many times and allow users to participate and interact. It requires users who understand users better. Fourth, interest sharing: The so-called interest sharing refers to the brand sharing the value obtained with users. There is a saying that there are no eternal friends but only eternal interests. Only when a brand forms a community of interests with users and shares value and interests can a sustainable relationship be established. 3. Pay attention to the publicThe expansion of the brand circle has enabled the brand to move from a niche circle to the public, bringing an increase in user scale and brand awareness, but it also brings threats. Many brands have fallen out of the way after entering the public perspective, and correctly handling public relations is a very important matter in the mature stage of the brand. Public relations, also known as public relations, referred to as PR, is an important management function in brand management. It aims to correctly handle relationships with the public, media, and society, shape or enhance the brand image for the company, and overall improve the economic benefits and social effects of the brand, and enhance the brand competitiveness of the company. Public relations depends on the planning and implementation of various public relations activities, and its functions mainly include: Media relations with news: First, actively produce and publish valuable information, and second, guide the media to report positively on the brand to attract opinion leaders and the public to pay attention and evaluate the brand; product promotion: promote information about certain specific products; public events: establish and maintain relationships with the community and the government; lobbying: establish good relationships with the government or relevant official organizations; investor relations: maintain good relationships with financial stakeholders; crisis handling: timely conduct public relations when a company has a crisis to reduce or reduce losses. In the digital age, public relations communication based on news, events and concepts is still applicable, but public relations must have content marketing thinking, that is, the information conveyed to users must have content sharing value. The audience perspective must first the public and then the opinion leader, so that more users and the public can participate, so that public relations communication that conforms to brand value can be distributed. In addition, we must not only pay attention to traditional media, but also social media (social media), and the integration of the two needs to be done. The advantages of traditional media lie in authority, fairness and influence, while social media has natural advantages in attracting public attention. 4. Lead cultureBrand culture naturally exists, just like without a brand, it is also a brand. The relationship between culture and brand is reflected in two aspects: one is the construction of brand culture, and the other is the innovation of brand culture, which is also cultural construction, with the purpose of maintaining the vitality of the brand. The internal logical relationship between culture and brands is reflected in two aspects: brand is the carrier of culture, culture is the connotation of the brand; cultural behavior is reflected in the interpretation and extension of the brand image. The impact of culture on the brand is also reflected in two aspects: culture is the support and support for brand image shaping, and excellent culture is the core competitiveness of brand sustainable development. How to build culture to provide the core competitiveness of brand sustainable development depends on whether the brand organization has advanced cultural awareness, and on the other hand, it depends on whether the brand has accurate cultural positioning, which is significantly different from competitors and is sufficient to resonate with consumers. But cultural construction is a long-term project with no end. We must adhere to long-term construction and continuous innovation. In the process of brand development, with the changes in the market and users, whether the brand can keep up with, adapt to, and even lead the trend of social and cultural determines the vitality of the brand. Only when a brand conforms to the trends and psychology behind social culture can it cause the largest expansion of the circle at the social level and form a social trend, which determines whether the brand can continue to grow. In this process, it is necessary to understand the social and cultural trends, and constantly inject multiple concepts and integrate, interpret, extend and expand to bring pleasure and enjoyment to users and the public. Just like Victoria's Secret, it once defined what female underwear was, set a perfect standard for women's bodies, and promoted it to the world through Victoria's Secret show. But with the changes in women's self-pleasing and public aesthetics, Victoria's Secret had to change its course and re-examine "people's view of the body." What is social culture? It is the sum of the views and other aspects of the relationship between people and themselves and society within a certain period of time. It is determined by social development and constantly abandoned by itself, and in turn it has a huge impact on social development. 4. Great stage1. Brand vitalityHow to measure the success of a brand? First, look at the vitality of the brand. Brand vitality refers to the life cycle of a brand. To ensure that the brand remains stable in the market, it is necessary to maintain the brand's tenacious vitality. For those successful brands, we can look for many examples, such as Coca-Cola. The brand's vitality model consists of two dimensions: brand preference and market share. Coca-Cola-type successful brands have the maximization of brand preference and market share, and often have a leading brand position. After a brand has passed the growth stage, it either becomes a "pale aristocrat" or an "ordinary giant". The former refers to a high brand preference but a small market share. It is necessary to focus on expanding its user base. A multi-brand strategy can be adopted to cover a wider population; the latter refers to a low brand preference but often has a higher market share, and is a "hidden champion", which is generally synonymous with "low quality and low price" or purely "mass brand", and its brand image is more general. This type of brand needs to upgrade its brand image, give the brand richer connotation, make the brand more advanced, and generate a higher premium. For brands, in the process of development, they must fully understand their own positioning and future development paths, and choose the most suitable development path based on their own development situation, and ultimately achieve a win-win situation for market size and brand preference. There are basically two things: one is to constantly innovate, extend the brand and innovate new products, and keep up with the changes in the times; the other is to constantly give brand connotation, create a diversified brand impression and build a brand mind. 2. Brand capitalizationBrand capitalization refers to applying the brand to finance, allowing the brand to be a capital to generate financial returns, mainly including brand value assessment, brand capitalization strategy for newly formed companies and paid use strategies within the company. The theoretical basis of brand capitalization is reflected in two aspects. First, strong brands can bring stable cash flow and profits. From the user's perspective, it means that the brand will inherit the consistent brand value, users will fully trust, and have relatively balanced consumer support; second, scale effect forms good interaction. To form a strong brand requires a certain scale of brand work, and a continuous investment is required to generate a brand effect. If the brand is not capitalized, the brand work lacks a stable source. The interactive effect is the purchasing driving force brought by the brand. The richer the product, the stronger the brand needs, and it also requires more and more sufficient resources to support it. Using the brand as an asset can ensure the healthy development of the brand. There are three modes of brand capitalization: brand assets enter equity, which refers to the intangible asset being included in equity, and the use of the brand to charge a royalty fee. It is commonly used by brands to join companies, distributor companies, etc., for financing, and brands are used as corporate assets for mortgage and credit. The key steps of brand capitalization: First, enter asset appraisal. No matter what model the brand asset is used for, it requires scientific, fair and legally effective brand asset appraisal from authoritative institutions. Second, brand value evaluation, usually annually, providing support for the measurement and display of brand value, is the basis for brand capitalization. The industry practice of brand capitalization is mainly mastered in the three most authoritative institutions recognized internationally, namely Interbrand, Kantar Millward Brown and Brand finance. The models are similar, mainly based on the use of brand equity models in the academic community. 3. Brand digitalizationDigitalization is an important infrastructure for brands in the data era. For example, the industrial era tests the ability to produce something, so the data era tests the ability to produce something different. The brand needs to be able to in-depth user insights and discover different trend changes from the grass snake gray line. The realization of brand digitalization or brand digitalization capacity building is mainly reflected in several aspects: marketing digitalization, user digitalization, product digitalization, production digitalization, and channel digitalization. Marketing digitalization is a must-have for enterprises. No matter what kind of enterprise, it is consciously applied to digital marketing, but most of them are limited to communication and promotion, and do not have in-depth marketing digitalization. Marketing digitalization refers to identifying users and user needs through data, establishing digital user coverage and reach, realizing transactions and returns, and using digital means to manage users. The digitalization of users refers to the digitalization of user asset operation and management. Digital links are the core of user digitalization. Whether it is user acquisition or subsequent operation, the system of operating users can be established and improved with the help of links, and a series of actions such as finding users, creating influence, promoting conversion, and effectively activating. Secondly, the operation and management of digital users can always maintain insight into users, accurately capture user needs and pain points, and improve their own products and services. Product digitalization refers to the digitalization of product development and management, which comprehensively digitally manages and analyzes products, so that brands can continuously optimize and iterate products to meet the changing user needs. Digital production refers to the digital production of products, which requires in-depth links with the needs of end users, and quickly produce products that meet the quality and performance of users' needs. Digital production adopts a consistent comprehensive production design method, and the production process can be completed using product life cycle data. The purpose of channel digitalization is not a channel, but users on each channel. Through channel digital, the brand is closer and closer to users, so as to achieve the acquisition and analysis of user data in omnichannel, understand changes in user needs, and respond to users quickly and agilely. 4. Brand sustainabilityIf a brand wants to move towards long-termism, it must implement the brand's sustainable development strategy, referred to as ESG, which is not just the development trend of brand marketing. ESG is the abbreviation of environment, society, and brand. It is the concept and practice of integrating multi-dimensional factors of the environment, society and brand in addition to finance to measure the sustainable development capabilities and long-term value of the company. For example, carbon neutrality and carbon peak have long been written into the government work report, emphasizing green enterprises, and various policies have been introduced in response to environmental protection and climate change. Energy saving and emission reduction, sewage treatment, use of environmentally friendly materials, recyclable materials, etc. in the brand production process belongs to E; whether the brand cares about humanistic care, positive values, whether it is friendly to users and the public, respects and protects users' privacy and rights, pays attention to public welfare, etc. belongs to S; in G, the public is more concerned about tax payment in accordance with the law, fair competition, workplace environment, etc. For brands, there are three issues that need to be paid attention to: ESG strategic planning, participation in ESG marketing opportunities, and doing a good job in ESG communication. PS: In the future, each module will be interpreted in detail separately, starting with brand building... |
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