"Plum sauce" is very popular, and brands are using it to take advantage of it to create new marketing methods

Wumeizi sauce is very popular, which brand is the best at leveraging marketing? The author of this article takes Wumeizi sauce's leveraging marketing as a starting point, and introduces several classic cases and detailed methodology of leveraging marketing. Leveraging marketing is an important part of brand marketing. Recommended for those who are interested in leveraging marketing and brand marketing.

“Your faint smile is like black plum jam, and I taste the mint flavor of lipstick at the corner of your mouth…” Overnight, Li Ronghao’s song “Black Plum Jam” became popular.

It not only topped the charts of mainstream music apps such as QQ Music and NetEase Cloud Music, but also performed very well on short video media such as Douyin and Kuaishou. Not only did it win multiple hot lists, the Douyin topic #乌梅子酱 has a terrifying playback volume of over 3.33 billion.

Not to mention how much popularity this song brought to the singer himself, I would say the real winners are the businesses that received real money.

Now, if you open Taobao, you will find that the black plum sauces sold by major merchants all have the tags of "Li Ronghao recommended"/same style", and these "little tricks" have also brought them a surge in sales.

01 The "Lyulium" players are winning

The performance of "Wumeizijiang" on Taobao is amazing. This song almost single-handedly increased the number of searches for Wumeizijiang by 843% in a single week , and all kinds of Wumeizijiang merchants made a lot of money.

However, most businesses do not have their own brand influence, and the "marketing by leverage" method they adopt is relatively simple and crude (that is, simply changing the name to gain popularity).

However, Liuliumei, a brand close to black plum, used a more advanced method and seized the opportunity of leveraging marketing.

As early as February 18, before "Plum Sauce" became completely popular, Liuliumei released related content on Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other platforms. While promoting science and promoting the brand, it also exposed the brand's popularity without making customers feel that they were being marketed to and felt disgusted.

After this series of operations, the brand not only gained popularity but also earned enough sales.

There are also many netizens who naturally associate Wumeizijiang with Liuliumei. Some people say that "Wumezijiang" is Liuliumei's advertising song, and some even associate Liuliumei's headquarters in Anhui with Li Ronghao's identity as an Anhui native.

Experience tells us that we should seize the hot spots and take advantage of the momentum. You see, just a simple lyric can potentially bring huge profits to a company.

Of course, good "marketing by leverage" is not just about riding on the trend. In my opinion, the focus of marketing by leverage is on brand communication , helping brands increase their visibility and establish a good brand image through various forces and resources.

Compared with other communication methods such as advertising, leveraging marketing can achieve great results with small efforts and accomplish great things with little money, and can often achieve a multiplier effect .

After reading the following case, perhaps you can better understand the meaning and value of leveraging marketing.

2 Analysis of marketing cases using leverage

If we really have to say which brand is the best at leveraging marketing, I think Durex must be on the list, with countless classic cases in the past.

In 2011, an unprecedented heavy rain flooded the capital, causing serious impact on Beijing's urban traffic. Durex quickly posted on Weibo: "With Durex, your shoes won't get wet in the rain."

As soon as the Weibo post was published, it became a hit on the entire Internet, with over 10,000 reposts within an hour, becoming a classic case in the marketing industry that year.

In the 2012 London Olympics, Chinese sprinter Liu Xiang suffered a relapse of his old injury and fell during the competition, but he insisted on finishing the whole race. Durex posted a blog to express its support: "The fastest man is not the best. The one who perseveres to the end is the truly strong man."

The words "fast" and "perseverance" here obviously have a meaning. Considering the background at that time, Durex started with the slogan of supporting Liu Xiang. This wave of popularity was reasonable and would not offend the audience.

In addition to Durex, the "pride of domestic products" ERKE also taught a good lesson to other companies.

In July 2021, severe floods hit many places in Henan Province. Faced with this disaster, companies represented by Hongxing Erke immediately launched relief operations to Henan and donated 50 million yuan in supplies in a low-key manner.

You should know that at that time, Hongxing Erke did not make a profit and even suffered a loss of 220 million yuan. Hongxing Erke's kindness to the victims inspired greater enthusiasm among the Chinese people.

Soon after the donation was exposed, a large number of consumers flocked to Erke's online and physical stores, triggering "wild consumption" and the company's sales increased by dozens of times. This event can be said to be a successful marketing model that gained both fame and fortune.

There are many other examples of marketing leveraging momentum like the ones above. Of course, hot spots are hard to come by and opportunities are fleeting. So how can companies take advantage of this "momentum" to make their brands go higher and further?

03 The three-word strategy for leveraging marketing: fast, accurate, and ruthless

From the successful marketing cases of brands such as Durex and Erke, I have summarized three principles for the success of "leverage marketing": fast, accurate and ruthless.

1. Fast: acute perception and rapid response

The key to the success of "marketing with opportunities" lies in the use of events, which requires companies to have a keen sense, grasp business opportunities and social hot spots, and respond quickly.

The so-called hot spots must be time-sensitive. If you want to take advantage of the trend, the sooner the better. Therefore, the brand's new media department should form a mechanism to quickly capture hot spots, such as:
Relevant personnel should develop the habit of regularly observing hot topics (Weibo, hot list websites);

Simplify the review process for platform operators. By the time operators think of hot spots and report them upwards, or even report them to the boss, most of the time has already passed.

Establish a corresponding material library and have corresponding hotspot solutions for various hotspots;

In short, "speed" is the first factor, and it should be measured in hours or even minutes. For example, in 2014, when Li Chen and Fan Bingbing announced their relationship, Durex took only 9 minutes to post a related "marketing by taking advantage of the situation" picture on Weibo.

2. Accurate: judge the pros and cons and make the right choice

Hot spots are good, but we cannot seize all of them. Brands need to make accurate judgments on which trends can be leveraged and which ones are risky.

Holidays are usually the safest, while natural disasters, social tragedies, political events, social conflicts and other events are more sensitive and should not be used as marketing targets. They are very likely to cause a public relations crisis, and "taking advantage of the situation" will have a counterproductive effect.

For example, in 2020, a report titled "Food Delivery Riders, Trapped in the System" attracted widespread attention from the society. In response, Ele.me responded on Weibo: "Would you like to give me 5 more minutes?"

At the same time, it was announced that a new function will be launched - a small button "I am willing to wait 5 more minutes". Consumers can choose whether to give the rider 5 more minutes of delivery time when checking out.

Ele.me originally wanted to use this marketing campaign to show the brand's care for riders, but netizens believed that Ele.me's new function was a disguised form of moral kidnapping, which triggered many negative comments.

As for positive behaviors that help enhance the brand image, such as Hongxing Erke's donation to the disaster area, companies can generally do it with confidence.

In addition, "marketing with leverage" has another meaning, which is to accurately grasp the needs of users.

When the epidemic was at its worst in 2022, people were panicking and almost all express delivery companies stopped operating. But customer demand still existed, so JD.com made a bold decision at this time.

After a batch of couriers deliver goods to Shanghai, they will be quarantined in accordance with epidemic prevention requirements, and then the next batch of couriers will take over and deliver again. When all fourteen batches of people have entered, the first batch of people will be quarantined, completing a cycle, and repeating the cycle over and over again to ensure that someone delivers supplies every day.

This delivery method is called "JD.com's suicide logistics" by netizens. However, this "regardless of cost" service to customers has ultimately brought both good reputation and profits.

3. Ruthless: Dare to take risks and win big with a small investment

In addition, "marketing with leverage" also requires companies to dare to take risks and make a small investment for a big gain.

Faced with the international environment raging with the epidemic, people's demand for health protection has become extremely strong, making the Tokyo Olympics the most suitable one in Olympic history for "leveraging marketing" of sterilization products.

Liby seems to have foreseen this demand and seized the opportunity to reach a cooperation agreement with the State Sports General Administration in advance. It combines three antibacterial products, laundry detergent, antibacterial spray, and natural soap liquid, into a "antibacterial combat bag" that is convenient for athletes to carry.

As Sun Yiwen and others won the Olympic gold medal, Liby's products were naturally labeled as "the same products as champions", thus achieving great marketing success and upgrading its brand image.

All of this stems from Liby's ingenuity in the marketing stage, which saw the opportunity to take advantage of the situation (the public's demand for health protection and the prospect of the national team winning gold medals). So it wisely gave up signing traffic stars and chose to sponsor the national team. In the end, it achieved huge commercial results at a lower cost.

Final Thoughts

In short, momentum is everywhere. The key to marketing by leveraging momentum is to understand the psychological changes of users before and after.

When a hot event occurs, it brings psychological and cognitive impact to your target consumers. Companies need to capture such impact and leverage it to better promote their products.

Especially in today's context of the disappearance of value-added in the existing market, enterprises need to rely on marketing, because good marketing can often achieve amazing results with a small investment and at a relatively low cost.

So there is no doubt that leveraging marketing is an important lesson on the road of corporate brand marketing.

Author: Yan Tao San Shou;

WeChat public account: Yan Tao San Shou;