From the perspective of Naitangpai and Ma Liuji: Why did you focus on the category but failed to become popular?

In many fields, once a category's mental position is formed in the minds of consumers, it will have a very strong lasting power. Therefore, the core key to building a brand is to master the discourse power of the category. This article analyzes the innovative methods of entering new categories and how to seize the discourse power of the category. It is recommended for friends who are interested in brands to read, and I hope it will be helpful to you.

As mentioned in "Category Strategy", the success of almost every "brand" is first and foremost the success of the category.

Consumer decisions are made based on categories first and brands second. This means thinking in terms of categories and expressing in terms of brands. In many fields, categories occupy a place in consumers’ minds. Once they are recognized in the minds of consumers, they will have a very strong lasting effect.

Therefore, the most important point for us to build a brand is to have the right to speak in the category.

Which brands in the new consumer market have already gained the right to speak in terms of product categories?

When we think of high-end tea, we think of Xiaoguan Tea; when we think of size-free underwear, we think of ubras; when we think of nourishing fresh bird's nest, we think of Xiaoxiandun; when we think of tiger skin chicken feet, we think of Wang Xiaolu.

These brands have already completed the construction of category brands. Before they complete the construction of category brands, they are just ordinary explosive brands. However, the ultimate path of the enterprise is to use the brand to break through the limitations of explosive products and become a super brand.

In this article, I analyzed with you the innovative methods for entering new categories. Today, I will extend it further: How to seize the right to speak in the category?

1. Positioning, positioning, and positioning bundling

Just as the "Father of Positioning" Jack Trout put forward the "Law of Cognition": "There is no objective reality in the market, and there is no better product. What exists is only the cognition in the minds of customers or potential customers."

Therefore, when building a category brand, you need to clearly tell consumers:

1. what do you?
2. What's the difference?
3. How do you know?

Just like eight masters offering you a cup of good tea, a distinguished guest has arrived, small can of tea. For size-free underwear, choose ubras. We need to continue to talk about these contents, which is what we should talk about at the category brand stage.

Next, let’s take a look at the case of Toffee Pie.

1. What are you?

The answer is the "category" to which the brand belongs. Categories can efficiently meet the needs of consumers, so it is very important to choose a good category name.

The category name of Naitangpai is: large cup bras. We professionally focus on the positioning of large cup bras and become an expert, pioneer and leader in the field of large cup bras.

This category name can accurately match customer needs, which is very different. I hope everyone can associate milk candy pie with big breasts. Consumers can understand it at a glance and at a glance.

To this end, Naitangpai has spent five years polishing its brand products and redefining large-cup bras, hoping that within the large category of underwear, there can be a sub-category - large-cup bras - to provide a one-stop solution for girls with large breasts.

2. What is the difference?

This corresponds to the competitive difference of the brand. What is the core advantage of your product? What kind of value can it bring to users? What is the biggest difference between you and your competitors?

In terms of product research and development, as an expert in the field of large-cup bras, Naitangpai has developed various types of bras for girls with large breasts, such as divided-breasted bras, sleep bras, ultra-thin bras that make large breasts look smaller, strapless bras for large breasts, sports bras for large breasts, and so on.

In terms of user experience, Naitangpai will segment users from different dimensions according to their different life stages, shopping preferences, attitudes towards purchasing underwear, etc.

After segmentation, we will re-examine the brand based on the user groups. For example, we will think many times whether there are many such users among the current co-creation users? Is this user group representative of the general population? Then we will reversely make up for the brand's shortcomings in each segmented population, such as angel users, and make a more precise and focused product based on the deviation in quantity or attributes.

3. How do you know?

The corresponding is the evidence of brand differentiation, which is called "credentials" or "trust clues."

• Based on precise positioning + effective promotion channels to obtain seed users (Douban + communities) + user co-creation of products + word-of-mouth fission (social media seeding), we have ranked first in the subdivided category online, continuously expanded our trust, and occupied the position of expert in large-cup bras.
• With brand endorsement, we have cooperated with more than 100 authoritative commercial and fashion media to actively report on the product, including "New Retail Business Review", "New World", "ELLE", "VOGUE", etc.
• Through brand collaboration, we have collaborated with Crème, a lingerie brand targeting small breasts, to launch the "Women in Green" series, amplifying the brand's potential.

Therefore, we define the new generation of brand goals as the right to speak in the category. We need to output the core key points of the brand, grasp the right to speak in the category, and try to ensure that your positioning information is spread when consumers first come into contact with you.

2. Single product, single product, single product breakthrough

For new categories, focusing on a single product is a better way to establish clear cognition in the minds of consumers than using multiple product groups. In order to ensure that the brand occupies the most valuable part of the category and enable new categories to develop rapidly in the early stages of development, core items should focus on a single large product in a certain category and create their own characteristics through differentiation, micro-innovation and new channels.

For example, when Master Kong first launched instant noodles, it focused on one product - braised beef noodles. Uni-President has launched a number of products in the low-concentration fruit juice market, including "Fresh Orange Juice" and "Peach Juice", but only "Fresh Orange Juice" succeeded because "orange juice" is the juice with the widest audience.

This principle often conflicts with the idea of ​​"satisfying consumers' demands for diverse tastes and price points" or even "it is difficult for a single product to occupy more shelf space."

Returning to the essence of business, this is more of a way of thinking that puts the cart before the horse. The core issue that brands should consider is to gain more display space for new categories, but they should not dilute and destroy new categories for the sake of more display space.

Therefore, we need to realize that focusing on categories, focusing on groups of people, and focusing on scenarios is not something that can be achieved overnight and is not a panacea for making money immediately.

When any brand starts to specialize and focus on a certain niche area, it means giving up some users or some business at the beginning.

The length of this pain period varies for each company, so you must be fully prepared mentally and have sufficient strength reserves.

3. Focus, Focus, Focus Points and Surfaces

Focus is an instant scene of a targeted group of people. The crowd is focused, the scene is focused, the content is consistent to the outside world , and then it is widely disseminated.

Focus is not being conservative. It means knowing what you want and what are the useful components of a brand. Changing your mind frequently will only waste resources and even lead to disasters along the way.

For example, the five focuses of OATLY oat milk entering China:

1. "One product": Focus on oat milk, seize the usage scenario of coffee companion, and open up consumers' awareness through niche competing coffee shops.
2. "One City": Starting from Shanghai, conquer this petty bourgeois city with a profound coffee culture, and then radiate across the country.
3. "One group of people": Targeting China's petty bourgeoisie and light luxury middle-class people, advocating an environmentally friendly, healthy, fashionable and tasteful lifestyle.
4. "One scene": choosing a niche boutique coffee shop to make the new coffee concept of "oatmeal latte" come out of nowhere and reach its peak as soon as it debuted.
5. "One selling point": Through the large-scale promotion by KOLs on social media such as Xiaohongshu, Bilibili, Weibo, and live broadcast, and deep bundling of keywords: low-fat, environmentally friendly, and the same oatmeal latte as Starbucks, the oatmeal milk category has become a new representative of healthy diet for the middle class.

In this case, you may have done 10 things, but you only need to tell others that there are 4 or 5. Keep some for consumers to explore, interact with, and play with you. Don't deprive them of their fun. This is very important.

Therefore, the brand should be focused on a "point", then presented in the most extreme form, and then widely disseminated after entering public opinion. Only when the brand is fully displayed can consumers get a more three-dimensional brand recognition.

4. Repeat, repeat, repeat

In his book Conflict, Mr. Ye Maozhong mentioned the “four steps” to building a brand path:

1. Extract the core value of the brand
2. Express core values ​​with the right strategy and outstanding creativity
3. Repeated accumulation again and again
4. Form a one-to-one brand association in the minds of consumers

The essence of brand communication is repetition. Doing simple things repeatedly is the brand effect.

But spend your money where you can see it.

The visible places here refer to the visible products and visible content . These are the places for investment, not marketing.

For example, Jane Eyre yogurt. When other yogurt brands were promoting their additive-free products, Jane Eyre chose "ultimate purity" as the main concept for its products. Different from the ordinary "additive-free" terms (such as sugar-free, flavor-free, and colorant-free) on the market, Jane Eyre's "additive-free" is transformed into: [raw milk, sugar, lactic acid bacteria, nothing else].

Throughout the whole process, around the theme of "nothing else", Jane Eyre Yogurt has created a readable, recognizable and spreadable product system through the three product matrices of Jane Eyre, Father's Love Formula and Body Knowledge.

In terms of brand packaging, slogan, and external publicity, nothing else is the core value of Jane Eyre’s brand. The brand content is highly focused and mass communication is widely covered.

There is also Ma Liuji hot and sour noodles, which was recently popularized by Zhang Lan's live broadcast. Before Ma Liuji, what brand can you think of when you mention hot and sour noodles?

(Picture from Xiaohongshu)

A while ago, a piece of gossip about a 720-degree turn and reversal made Ma Liuji appear out of nowhere in front of netizens. They thought they had eaten some entertainment gossip, but unexpectedly, they ended up eating the hot and sour noodles of capital.

Now, hot and sour noodles = Ma Liuji. The reason behind Ma Liuji's brand endorsement of the hot and sour noodles category is also the result of repeated publicity: doing the same thing again and again - gossip + quarreling + asking you to buy hot and sour noodles.

Zhan Lanbenlan can be said to have a firm control over the traffic.

So if you want consumers to know you, understand you, trust you, use you, and keep using you, you need to repeat your brand, your appeal, and your symbol obsessively.

This strategic repetition is like a sphere, 360°, and there will be feedback no matter what angle you apply force to it.

Above, let’s review the key points to seize the right to speak in the category:

• Positioning bundling: You need to clearly tell consumers: What are you? How are you different? Why do you think so? Continue to promote it and amplify it, and seize a competitive position that is beneficial to you in the minds of consumers.
• Single product breakthrough: When there is no category awareness in the market, single product entry, occupation of key areas, and gathering of target groups through scenes.
• Focus on the point and surface: Focus the core of the brand on the "point", show it in the most extreme form, and then spread it on a large scale. This will make it more spreadable and have a chance to be seen and accepted.
• Repeated communication: Repetition is a means of communication, which requires us to persist and not be tempted by the outside world, but the prerequisite must be our clear insight.

Author: Sister Mulan

Source public account: Mulanjie (ID: mulanjie-)