How should companies update their marketing direction and quickly get to the core issues?

The author of this article discusses the current situation of the industry from the perspectives of enterprise operation, product operation, and Xiaohongshu operation, and gives some reasonable suggestions on marketing and enterprise development management in a dialogue. The author's language is relaxed and organized, and the analysis is novel and objective. It is recommended for new operators to read and learn together.

A minute of thinking is worth an hour of nagging.

When humans think, God laughs. In order to make God laugh more, I have always set a small goal for myself: think and record.

Every month, at the end of the month or the beginning of the next month, I will organize some of my thoughts for the month and continue to share them with you in 2023. In any case, I will persist in thinking and recording for a long time. As long as I am not too busy, I will continue to share them every month.

You Raise Me Up!

1. Advertising is for selling goods

Stop worrying about whether advertising is for building a brand or selling products.

The answer to this question has been there since the day a company was founded. Of course, it is to sell goods. Selling goods, selling more goods, selling goods with premium ability, making more profits, and obtaining stable cash flow, isn’t this the purpose of a company’s operation and the most basic foundation?

So, looking back, what is the core? Selling goods. What is the ultimate purpose of our advertising? Selling goods. The ultimate purpose of advertising is not to build a brand. The brand is just a strategic means in the process of selling goods. It is to help companies sell better and longer.

Even if you are doing a brand-oriented advertisement, don't forget that branding is not for the sake of creativity, nor is it for the sake of branding. It is to serve the purpose of selling goods. Your advertisement can talk about branding or feelings, but before doing it, you must think clearly about how it can serve the purpose of selling goods. If you are against selling goods, you are destroying the company.

2. Compliance Marketing, Reporting Notes

Starting from 2023, Xiaohongshu merchants should take more precautions to report . Yes, you should report what you need to report, and don't think of any crooked ways.

The platform is becoming more and more standardized, marketing is becoming more and more compliant, and traffic is becoming more and more expensive. If you don't report it, you are taking advantage of the platform and stealing the platform's traffic. If the platform is unhappy, there are many ways to deal with you.

Now the entry threshold of Xiaohongshu Dandelion platform has been lowered, and health points and brand violation points have been added to combat soft implants at the source. Although there is a little fee for reporting notes, that is, cooperating with the content of Dandelion platform, it is more standardized, has more cooperation models, and the platform is willing to include it and recommend it to traffic. This is better than anything else, and you don't have to be sneaky.

Accordingly, it is estimated that the significance of amateurs spreading the volume will be further weakened. There is no other way, the platform also needs to find a balance between its business model, brand merchants, bloggers, and users. It not only provides a traffic pool, but also needs to make a profit.

3. Emotional satisfaction and financial satisfaction

A small company can have a corporate culture, but don’t always think about talking to employees about ideals, vision, and pattern. To be honest, if you talk like this, your pattern is really low.

What do you want to talk about? Talk about feelings and money. The biggest management convenience of a small company is that there are fewer people. With fewer people, everyone's feelings can be taken care of . Emotional satisfaction is the second biggest driving force for employees to work actively.

The first driving force is naturally money . Don't play tricks. Businesses operate to make profits, and employees go to work to make money. If the money is in place and the feelings are in place, then if you are not working hard, you will be fired.

4. The “ultimate question” of enterprises

I always think that whether we are building a brand, IP, self-media, or making products, content, or marketing... we must always ask ourselves three questions:

1. What value can we create for users?
2. What value do we want to create for users?
3. What is our original intention?

It is best to remind yourself once a day, think about it shallowly every few days, and think deeply about it once every six months.

In the final analysis, this is the "ultimate question" of the enterprise, and everything revolves around it. Many times, we go astray and get into trouble, but when we suddenly look back and think about these questions again, we suddenly realize the truth. The simpler the truth, the easier it is to be forgotten. And the easier it is to be forgotten, the more enduring the fundamentals are. You can forget ambition, but don't forget common sense.

5. Packaging design attracts customers

Hua Shan, chairman of H&H, has a point of view: products are information, packaging is media, shelves are advertising space, and Internet shelves are even more advertising space.

So what is the most important thing on the shelf advertising space? You can be discovered by people, that is, the first problem your packaging design needs to solve is to be discovered by people, and after being discovered, they will be interested in coming over, and after coming over, they will take the next step to pick it up, and finally make a purchase decision.

Hua Shan gave an example. On the waistband of his book "Hua Shan Explains Sun Tzu's Art of War", there are four big words: "Look at the back cover first."

The purpose is not to get you to read the back cover, but to attract you to pick it up, so that you can read the copy on it. Then the copy is your reason for buying, "This time I thoroughly understand "The Art of War".

You see, although it is simple and crude, every step is planned carefully and goal-oriented, all for the purpose of selling goods.

6. Improving content quality is the core

I often see people saying that you need to learn to change accounts when using Xiaohongshu. For example, if you used to post beauty content, you need to change your account if you want to do home furnishings, otherwise the official will not give you traffic. This is nonsense. Xiaohongshu does not have this logic. If you used to post beauty content, the official will label your account. If you keep posting home furnishings, the system will naturally readjust your account label according to your changes.

The core is the quality of the content, not those so-called secrets and tricks .

Unless your previous account has serious violations, or always posts high-risk content, you can change the account. Also, just don't change the content direction frequently.

7. Copywriting is only part of the strategy

Good copywriting is important because it can accurately and effectively express strategy. I agree with this! However, some people say that without copywriting, strategy cannot be expressed. I don’t quite agree with this.

Although copywriting has always been underestimated, it is a creative expression of strategy. But copywriting alone is only one part of the strategy. Without copywriting, the strategy can still be executed and expressed. We still have to admit this.

Indeed, some copywriters are better than strategists. Without them, the implementation of strategy will be far behind. But such copywriters are no longer just copywriters.

8. Love life and live bravely

I often see comments on Weibo saying, "In Journey to the West, when gods and immortals commit serious crimes, they are never sent to hell, but to the human world." Another commentator said, "The human world is even more miserable than hell!"

Well, how can I put it? From a rational point of view, this is a very childish, meaningless sentence. But it is indeed the voice deep in the hearts of many people. People just use this language to express their emotions. Obviously, you can't attribute all the problems to this person himself. Where there is light, there is darkness. Where there is touching, there must be cruelty. Extreme wealth always corresponds to unbearable poverty...

This reminds me of what Romain Rolland said: "There is only one kind of heroism in the world, that is, to love life after recognizing the truth of life." I would also like to add: " To live bravely after recognizing the truth of life is also a kind of heroism. "

9. Know that you don’t know, and know that you don’t know

Under the double pressure of the new consumption wave and the new consumer group, I think one of the best qualities of bosses is " not knowing what you don't know, and knowing that you don't know ". In a word, you are old! You can no longer understand the values ​​and consumption concepts of the younger generation, let alone empathize with them. Even young bosses of emerging brands cannot do this, because their positions and thoughts are already in two different worlds.

At this time, it is better to be ignorant and do what you are good at, such as big operations, big directions, big decisions, and big strategies. Leave the specific product matters to professionals, to young teams, to professional consulting companies, and to real user feedback. Optimize around user experience, not around your own inherent ideas.

If you insist that you understand user needs and preferences, you can also do a small-scale test first. Trial and error is always better than filling in the gaps. Boss, don’t you agree?

10. Don’t just make subjective judgments

Never trust your own subjective judgment too much until something happens.

After watching multiple instructional videos and authoritative articles on how to determine the gender of a parrot, I was certain that my parrot was male until she laid 4 eggs this month.

The above are some of my thoughts in March 2023! I have completed another year, which is great. I am grateful for your company. Thank you.

You can absorb some ideas from others, but you must think about them in your own way and cast the sand mold of your thoughts in your own mold. - Lamb

The brain is a good thing, don’t be too pity!

Author: Mumu Old Thief

Source: WeChat public account: Mumu Laozei (ID: mumuseo)