Source: Blue Shark Consumption (ID: lanshaxiaofei) Blue Shark Introduction: The ultimate goal of a brand is to achieve mental pre-sale. Introduction: Many new consumer entrepreneurs regard positioning theory as the golden rule, but when it comes to application, they often find it 'easy to learn, but easy to misuse.' Wang Xiong, founder of Wang Xiaolu, is a loyal advocate of positioning theory. When reviewing the methodology behind Wang Xiaolu's rapid growth, he regards the strategy of 'focusing on key matters with 10x resources' based on positioning theory as the first principle. However, during his sharing at the 'Blue Shark · New Consumer Private Board Meeting Phase 1,' Wang Xiong repeatedly reminded everyone not to blindly believe in positioning theory, not to focus only on a few pure e-commerce brands, but to learn from FMCG brands that operate meticulously. What kind of thinking lies behind this seemingly contradictory advice? Here's the full text: When doing things, the most important thing is the underlying logic, that is, what is the first principle of this matter? Because a company's funds, team, time, etc., are all limited. How can limited resources accomplish things? Only by understanding the first principle and investing in the most important matters can you achieve better results. ****Why Learn Positioning? An open learning mindset is very important. Compared to exploring alone, continuously learning those proven and effective things is more valuable. Who to learn from? When making consumer goods, if you only focus on pure e-commerce brands every day, your vision will be very limited. When building the Wang Xiaolu brand, we believed we should learn from China's leading consumer goods companies. Many new consumer brands may be accustomed to buying traffic, but in fact, they lack reverence for the established knowledge system.
1. Wang Xiaolu's Exploration Period
Wang Xiaolu was established in April 2016. The reason for doing this was simple: I have loved braised food since childhood. At that time, I saw Zhou Hei Ya go public and realized that a duck neck could become such a big business. Theoretically, there were opportunities in braised food. We developed for over 4 months and launched pig trotters. Initially, we caught the WeChat official account dividend. Once, through Youzan's official account second article, we sold 10,000 pig trotters in one hour, which made me feel that this business had many opportunities with some good traffic support. But around 2017, the WeChat official account dividend gradually faded, and we stopped growing. From then until 2019, it was a very difficult and painful period for us. Regarding this, some suggested we learn from Juewei and Zhou Hei Ya and open physical stores. At that time, I managed e-commerce during the day and watched the store at night, spending a lot of time, but I really couldn't handle the display details well. It was like spending a lot of time on ineffective things. After more than a year, I closed the store and lost over 1 million yuan. Figure: The Triangle Model of Business In June 2018, we started making packaged products. Only then did we realize that our original business model was very poor. To do (well) a business, the underlying model is very important. We summarized it as a triangle model consisting of customer acquisition cost, gross margin, and repurchase rate (or Net Promoter Score, NPS). If you do these three aspects very well, the business won't be bad; otherwise, it will be difficult. Looking back at our business model at that time, the pig trotters had a shelf life of only 7 days, required heating, which was troublesome, and affected repurchase. We insisted on using SF Express for delivery, resulting in low gross margins. In 2018, when communicating with the founders of Xiaoxiandun and Laximian, they reminded me not to rush growth, but to look at the simplest business model and see if the product and channel were suitable. At that time, the mainstream e-commerce platform was Tmall. How could we succeed without Tmall? From then on, we began to adjust. The product changed from cooked food to snacks that can be eaten anywhere, and the channel also switched to Tmall on the Taobao system. It was from this time that we began to study positioning, and positioning became the methodology we agreed on internally.
2. Why Learn Positioning?
Why do many traffic brands eventually fail? Because they have no retention, they don't live in consumers' minds, and they only buy when ads reach them. But when you walk to the shelf, when you want to buy a cola or sunflower seeds, you will most likely choose Coca-Cola and Chacha. Most people make purchasing decisions based on such mental patterns. Because the latter has formed a mental interference with consumers. This leads to a concept proposed by Mr. Feng Weidong (Managing Partner of Tiantu Capital), namely mental pre-sale. Before reaching the shelf, you have already locked in Coca-Cola in your mind and won't buy other colas. So, what is the ultimate goal of branding? To influence consumers' subconscious, interfere with their purchasing decisions, and achieve mental pre-sale. How do those leading consumer goods companies achieve mental pre-sale? We studied many cases, which gave us great inspiration. Many times, the scenarios we face are exactly the same as theirs. Great Wall Motors is a very interesting company. Before 2008, its best-selling models were not SUVs, but sedans and pickups. At that time, they found Ries, who, based on the development of foreign cars and basic user research data, found that Chinese people prefer larger, off-road-capable multi-purpose vehicles, so they proposed the strategy of all-in on SUVs. From then on, Great Wall Motors mobilized all resources to SUVs, which led to its achievements today. Feihe Milk Powder's slogan is more like a stroke of genius, which made me admire it. At that time, the domestic high-end milk powder market was monopolized by imported brands. In consumers' minds, domestic milk powder was unsafe, and the pastures were not as beautiful as foreign ones. How could they win? They surprisingly found the logic of 'one side's water and soil nurtures one side's people,' and from user psychology, they found the slogan 'more suitable for Chinese babies' constitution.' They invited Zhang Ziyi, a Chinese mother image, to upgrade the trust certificate, and priced it higher than imports. This is the deepest understanding of human nature. TATA Wooden Doors is a hidden and very powerful company. We often say that when investing in hard advertising, we should learn from TATA Wooden Doors. They focus their advertising very much, only talking about soundproofing, and have done so for 10 years. There are many similar cases, such as Wang Laoji, Guazi Used Cars, Lao Xiang Ji, Bosideng, and Xiaoxiandun around us. At that time, I began to discover that these companies all had the shadow of positioning theory behind them. It turned out that positioning theory had served so many companies. So, I started to study positioning frantically. At high-speed rail stations, I often stood looking at those billboards, analyzing which companies had positioning and which didn't.
3. Is Positioning Theory Outdated?
Today, people often say that positioning theory is outdated. But we can see successful cases based on positioning right in front of us. If you know consulting companies, you'll find that positioning companies charge the most. If it really didn't work, why would so many people pay tens of millions to learn it? After thinking this through, I wished I could read positioning-related websites, books, and articles 10 times. Why do many people oppose positioning? Because they don't truly understand positioning. To learn positioning, you must be able to explain your difference in one sentence and imprint it in consumers' minds. Why is positioning theory still effective? This is due to four mental laws: 1) Mental capacity is limited; only simple, top-of-mind brands are remembered Everyone can remember: the first person in space, the first person on the moon, the first female astronaut, but they can't remember the sixth. It's not that the latter aren't great, but because mental capacity is limited. No matter what you do, if you can't become the first in a subcategory, you'll find your momentum decays very quickly. People's mental capacity simply can't remember that much. This is a cruel thing. 2) The mind seeks safety; branded products are more secure Everyone has a safety boundary in their minds. For example, when buying sunflower seeds, if you buy an unknown brand, you might worry about quality issues, but if you buy Chacha, you probably won't worry because it has been sold for many years. 3) The mind seeks status; brands highlight value For example, with bird's nest, some brands are cheaper, some are more expensive. People will think the more expensive ones are better. At this time, if you give another brand, a cheaper brand, others might wonder why you don't eat the expensive one. 4) The mind seeks efficiency; brands allow simple, quick decisions The word 'brand' comes from Europe, the English word 'brand,' meaning to burn a mark on an animal. Branding is about finding differences in commonalities and imprinting them. If you can't say your difference in one sentence, you can't become a brand, and it's very inefficient. For example, if there are 10 unknown tiger-skin chicken feet on the shelf, users find it hard to choose, but with Wang Xiaolu, the choice becomes simple. ****How to Understand Positioning Theory?
1. To Understand Positioning, You Need to Know 5 Core Concepts
To understand positioning, you first need to know 5 core concepts. Here, we use Wang Xiaolu as an example. 1) Category is the final classification when consumers purchase goods From a business perspective, only things that can be bought back are called categories. For example, if I ask you to buy a pair of shoes, you'll ask if I mean slippers or sports shoes. If sports shoes, basketball shoes or football shoes. Similarly, if buying braised food, you'll ask if I mean chicken feet or duck neck. Things that can't be bought back are not categories. Shoes and braised food are not categories. In fact, a category is the final classification when consumers purchase goods. Brands are inherently unequal. How to choose a category? Categories come from consumers' real needs, and differences in needs make categories inherently unequal. Big companies always do things in big tracks. If the category ceiling is low, occupying that position is worthless. 2) Brand is the representative of a category and its characteristics We agree with Mr. Feng Weidong's view that a brand either defines a category or defines a characteristic. Take Huaxizi as an example. You might think it doesn't define a category, but it continuously conveys a characteristic: Chinese-style (guochao) makeup. So, despite the severe involution in online makeup this year, Huaxizi's financial report is still good, and it doesn't need financing. Many lipsticks, after removing the packaging and trademark, you can't tell whose they are, but Huaxizi is unique. 3) Positioning is a meaningful competitive difference that customers understand and recognize You need to find a differentiated selling point. Especially when starting up, you must explain this clearly. Otherwise, how can you compete with leading brands that have better supply chains, more resources for advertising, and more trust certificates? I've never heard of a company surpassing a leading brand by copying and pasting. What is a competitive difference? It's a difference you propose that users recognize and that can break through user psychology. Otherwise, it's not a real difference. How to find a difference? Business is always competitive. If you live in your own world and don't study who you're competing with for this market, you can't create meaningful positioning. For example, many people are now making sauce-flavored liquor. If you can't explain the valuable point to users, it's hard to impress them and beat competitors. Not all differences are valuable; only differences recognized by users are positioning. 4) Trust certificate: facts that make positioning credible Common trust certificates include No.1 in sales, expert recommendation, celebrity endorsement, which are facts that make positioning credible. For example, why can Wang Xiaolu represent tiger-skin chicken feet? Because it's No.1 in sales (Tmall chicken snacks), has celebrity endorsement, won first place in Li Jiaqi's live stream snack festival, and made product innovations (flavor innovation and removing nails). We combine these trust certificates to show that Wang Xiaolu is the expert in tiger-skin chicken feet. Trust certificates are not static; they must be upgraded with competition. Take Guazi Used Cars as an example. Initially, it used 'no middleman to earn the difference' as a selling point. When competitors also said this, it upgraded its trust certificate to 'transaction volume is far ahead.' 5) Fit: all operational activities that drive occupying the positioning The term 'fit' comes from strategy expert Porter, corresponding to the English word 'fit.' It emphasizes that A and B are compatible.
2. To Learn Positioning, You Must Learn to Draw a Mental Map
and a Brand Positioning Pyramid Structure Chart
If we want to do positioning, it's best to understand two charts: one is the mental map, and the other is the brand positioning pyramid structure chart (here, using Wang Xiaolu as an example). Mental Map The brands listed here refer to who we are placed with on the shelf, that is, to identify your competitors. The size of the circle does not represent sales scale, but brand awareness, that is, how many consumers know what this brand does. On Tmall, we are compared with Zhou Hei Ya. If we do a market survey and ask how many people have heard of Zhou Hei Ya and how many have heard of Wang Xiaolu, it's obvious that their brand awareness is higher, so their circles are bigger than ours. This is the current situation. Also appearing on the same shelf with us is Weilong, which firmly occupies the spicy strips category. If we made spicy strips, we would be drowned out. Brand Positioning Pyramid Structure Chart The brand positioning pyramid structure consists of brand, category, positioning, promotional slogan, and trust certificate. I think brand positioning is a combination of punches. Brand, product, trust certificate, etc., all elements must be twisted together to quickly break out.
3. The Goal of Learning Positioning Is to Achieve Mental Pre-sale
Sometimes why do we buy traffic? Because we haven't achieved pre-sale, and we still need to promote on the shelf. For example, Milkground (Miaokelanduo) initially wasn't a brand yet. At that time, Breguet was stronger, so it had to send people to do tastings. Today, does it need to do that? No. Now children who have seen Milkground's ads will say, 'Mom, I want to eat Milkground,' which is equivalent to 'cheese, eat Milkground.' It can already influence users' decisions, which continuously brings various cost savings. So if you look at its financial report, you'll find its profits are continuously growing. The reason behind it is its continuous investment in brand promotion. We are in the same state. We use the money we earn to pay brand taxes, continuously investing in brand building. Therefore, the ultimate goal of learning positioning is to achieve mental pre-sale, allowing consumers to buy by name.
4. Several Misunderstandings in Learning Positioning
Misunderstanding 1: Positioning means a big single product, only doing a single category. A big single product is the best way to start a consumer goods business, but positioning does not mean you only do a single category. If you haven't created a super single product, your brand efficiency is very poor. Here, a super single product refers to accounting for more than 80% of sales share. But if you say positioning is a big single product and only doing a single category, that's definitely wrong. You can focus on a single product like Wang Xiaolu and Xiaoxiandun, or you can position by characteristics like Huaxizi, positioning as oriental makeup. Characteristics are important, and through characteristics, you can do many things. Misunderstanding 2: Positioning means big advertising investment Big advertising investment is one of the most important ways to build a brand, but PR and channel battles are also important. Big advertising investment is often one of the most important ways to build a brand; otherwise, you can't form a subconscious impression in users' minds. Therefore, several major new consumer brands are now doing hard advertising. If you treat this brand-building money as a brand tax, I think it's fine. But it doesn't mean positioning necessarily requires big advertising investment. Some companies can start up through channels. In vertical channels, make overwhelming investments in the supply chain. After establishing advantages, even without advertising, you can build a brand and generate premium. PR channels are also important. Communication is a three-dimensional thing. We are also studying and reflecting on our own channels and fit. We found that emphasizing PR can hedge against some uncertainties. For example, some brands sometimes face negative reports. When dealing with these uncertainties or negative things, first, strengthen your own supply chain quality control; at the same time, you can use positive things or reports to reduce negative impact. To some extent, PR is also a form of advertising. The logic of advertising is to say it yourself; the logic of PR is to let others say it. For example, with the revival of national trend, if only the brand owner says it, people may not feel it, but if the media all talk about it, people will feel that those domestic brands seem more fashionable. Moreover, the most important thing in positioning is whether your basic cognition, brand name, slogan, interface-level fit (brand operational activities that directly contact users and can be directly perceived by users), and the entire brand strategy are all focused on one point. In addition, from the development stage perspective, don't do hard advertising in the early stage. I think you should do the single product well, focus on breaking out, and then invest in the brand. This logic is correct. Misunderstanding 3: Positioning is just a slogan The slogan is important, but not everything. Many people say that spending tens of millions on positioning consulting companies is just to buy a slogan. Indeed, the slogan is very important, but positioning is definitely not just a slogan. Reading positioning-related books, you'll see visual hammers, or super symbols proposed by Hua and Hua, all emphasizing visual differentiation. Misunderstanding 4: Positioning means talking about leader, pioneer Early positioning theory liked to talk about leader, pioneer, far ahead, etc. Today, such positioning is still applicable in some scenarios. For example, for some expert-type B2B brands, talking about leader is still valuable. But if you rigidly learn and use this, I think you haven't truly mastered the first principle of positioning. For example, 'far ahead' is a bit outdated. Therefore, although our positioning is tiger-skin chicken feet expert, we don't use this word in external communication. Instead, we talk about sales volume and ranking.
5. Qualified Positioning Indicators for Consumer Brands (Non-Channel Brands)
People often say positioning is about marketing. In fact, positioning is supported by competition in three areas: product, channel, and media. First, you can explain your uniqueness in one sentence. At the same time, you must win in these three battlefields to truly establish this positioning. 1) Positioning advertising investment intensity is much higher than the market (media fit). Most companies learning positioning now accompany big advertising investment, continuously strengthening brand positioning through brand ads, seizing the opportunity to become the category king. Positioning ads are not static; they must be continuously adjusted and upgraded according to the battlefield situation. Take Guazi Used Cars as an example. Initially, it broke through with 'no middleman to earn the difference.' When competitors also used this statement, its trust certificate changed, emphasizing 'transaction volume is far ahead.' 2) Product repurchase/NPS is much better than competitors (product fit). Only when the product is better than others can repurchase occur. This is a positive cycle because trust certificates can be continuously accumulated. Most users still like to buy more popular products, thinking that selling more means better. 3) Channel terminal count is higher than competitors (channel fit). This is also different from pure e-commerce brands. There are opportunities offline. We believe convenience stores are currently the biggest offline dividend. Their users are consistent with our grass-planting crowd. Moreover, when online momentum rises, distributors are enthusiastic to invest resources, do displays, and shelf arrangements, and the whole sell-through rises, leading to rapid growth. Offline also feeds back to online. The mental share formed by channel dividends is not stable. Offline penetration and exposure can strengthen the brand image. This is a three-dimensional channel strategy. 4) 'Brand word' and 'category + characteristic word' mental capacity are equivalent. Earlier, I said that when we initially positioned as tiger-skin chicken feet, investors didn't recognize this logic, thinking the entire Tmall chicken snack track was only that big. So, as an expert brand in a category, you bear the mission of growing the category. If the category scale doesn't rise, the brand can't grow either. ****The Logic of Starting a New Consumer Brand Based on Positioning Theory In April 2019, after adjusting our product and channel, the company entered a period of rapid growth. How did we start up? If I have a start-up path in mind, it must be: first create a big single product, then extract the characteristic of 'I am an expert' from the big single product, first break out on e-commerce, then expand channels, and invest in brand advertising.
1. Big Single Product Is the Best Way to Start a New Consumer Brand
When summarizing Wang Xiaolu's methodology, the first point is called 'focus on key matters, 10x resources.' To accomplish this, what is the most important thing? Find that thing and invest 10x resources. We have two logics in brand focus: one is physical, the other is spiritual. The physical logic is at the product level. Focus on chicken feet, continuously develop new flavors, and all communication revolves around tiger-skin chicken feet until the brand's penetration rate reaches a certain limit, then develop a second curve. Spiritually, continuously convey a fun, interesting, and silly brand image to users, allowing consumers to have a spiritual connection with Wang Xiaolu, making them willing to support and follow the brand. Why do a big single product? Because if you don't have a super single product (accounting for more than 80% of sales), your brand efficiency is very poor. Using a big single product to repeatedly reach users can faster establish brand awareness. All in on tiger-skin chicken feet. At the end of 2018, when we adjusted our category, we looked at Tmall's business advisor data and found that in braised snacks, 'chicken feet' and 'boneless chicken feet' were the most searched terms, so we thought chicken feet had opportunities. Sometimes, people's understanding of data is a reflection of past demand, not a judgment of the future. At that time, investors didn't recognize this logic. They said, how big can a single product be? The entire Tmall chicken snack market might be only 200 million yuan. But today, our single product can exceed the total of the entire Tmall chicken snack market two years ago. From the competitive environment, in chicken feet, pickled pepper chicken feet already had brands, so we chose tiger-skin chicken feet. At that time, the snack track already had channel brands like Three Squirrels and Bestore that were big and comprehensive. We believed that an extreme single-product brand with meticulous cultivation had more opportunities. Back to the category, why does tiger-skin chicken feet have opportunities? Categories with high repurchase rates have mild addictiveness, like the currently hot coffee track. Tiger-skin chicken feet also have mild addictiveness and a sense of operation at the physical level. Why not pig trotters? Because pig trotters are filling and have few consumption scenarios, so no brand has emerged yet. The bottom layer of consumer goods should be making products well; good products can be recognized by the market faster. Many founders like to study traffic dividends, but when it comes to products, they may have nothing to say. In fact, I think products are the hardest. If we didn't have the tiger-skin chicken feet product, we couldn't have started up. We have been exploring how many improvements can be made in the process of braised snacks. Many people may think that tiger-skin chicken feet is just a process, and it's easy to make various flavors. But actually, it took 10 months from thirteen-spice to hot pot flavor, and a year from hot pot flavor to numbing spice flavor. We continuously test and polish, and only launch if the pass rate exceeds 80%. Every once in a while, our Tmall store will eliminate some products with low retention rates. In 2019, the first thing I did every day at work was to look at user reviews. Now, every time we launch a new product, I still look at reviews. If feedback is bad, we adjust; if feedback is good, we increase promotion. Always talking about products may make some people think we're being high-sounding. In my view, this is exactly where this wave of new consumer brands differs from old brands. Some say Genki Forest started with advertising, but in fact, Genki Forest's products are continuously tested and iterated. This is a positive cycle because good products bring repurchase, and repurchase brings continuous accumulation of trust certificates.
2. Seize Traffic Opportunities and Quickly Break Out on E-commerce Platforms
Regarding traffic, each stage has its own opportunities and pains. In 2019, we switched our main channel to Tmall. Before doing Tmall, I thought e-commerce was mysterious. I kept thinking: what is the first principle of e-commerce? Later, I found that the first principle of e-commerce is that products that sell well become even more popular. So, my first goal at that time was to sell a single product to 30,000+ units. How to achieve 30,000+? Use live streaming. We first found a host with high discussion at that time, Chen Jie Kiki. She could sell about 150,000-200,000 (orders) per month. When she started selling 500,000 (orders), we began to combine Weibo grass-planting to promote this category. In fact, we also caught a little opportunity on Weibo; at that time, bloggers on Weibo were not as expensive as now. We found that sales volume, conversion rate, and ROI have a superimposed double-rising logic: the higher the sales, the higher the conversion rate, and the higher the ROI. In the early stage of the brand, because you haven't achieved mental pre-sale, you need to buy traffic, so we also spent money on Zhitongche (Tmall's paid search). Our operations also tested various keywords. This way, 'basic sales + Zhitongche + free traffic' became a positive cycle. High repurchase rate is another start-up technique. At that time, our single product's de-duplicated retention rate within three months was close to 30%. Repurchase and retention help the platform judge it as a high-quality product, leading to more traffic tilt. To quickly increase volume, our operations, promotion, R&D, and design all revolved around tiger-skin chicken feet. To expand the brand scale of 'tiger-skin chicken feet,' our promotional slogan at that time emphasized 'fried first, then braised, tastes better.' When we got the No.1 in sales on Tmall in this category, we immediately shouted out this trust certificate. The real turning point was entering Li Jiaqi's live stream. In December 2019, we first appeared in Li Jiaqi's live stream. We found that the goods prepared for the New Year's goods festival were sold out in one day, and the momentum was very rapid. After Li Jiaqi's recommendation, brand awareness also rose. Then we invested in Douyin. When this momentum rises, the whole brand feels like it's breaking through. Now, if you go to the Sugar and Wine Fair, you'll find that tiger-skin chicken feet has become a phenomenal category. Today, the competitive environment has changed dramatically, and the start-up path will also change.
3. Expand Channels, Subvert the Internet Celebrity Image,
Be a Meticulous FMCG Brand
During the brand start-up period, choose a single origin channel with more category opportunities. After breaking through that channel, upgrade the channel, seize the opportunity, and become an advantageous brand. Why does Wang Xiaolu expand offline? Because Wang Xiaolu aims to be not an e-commerce brand, but an FMCG brand. What makes us different from the new consumer brands commonly understood is that we now have layouts in most regions across the country. Offline channels, including KA supermarkets, convenience stores, and local chain supermarkets, we have all entered. Now, our offline volume has exceeded the total online volume. As Wang Xiaolu's development enters a new stage, we are also gradually subverting the concept of internet celebrity brands.
4. Value Brand Advertising and Invest in Brand Building
1) Why value brand advertising? Because advertising can have a long-term impact on users' subconscious, and its effect will eventually be reflected on the shelf, achieving brand pre-sale. Some people invest in advertising always want to get ROI. In fact, no matter which media, almost all traffic advertising cannot be accounted for. We don't calculate the account for brand advertising. I recently agree with a concept by Hua Shan, founder of Hua and Hua: brand tax, if you don't pay it, you'll be punished. In Junzhi's words, if you don't add a brand fee to your profit, your profit has no moat. This is also the value of our funny short film type of advertising. They don't generate sales immediately, but slowly you'll find they work. After we made the first set of ads in January, in March, our offline sales were sold out. The reflection arc is very long. Tmall's customer service recently posted a WeChat Moments about our sales of 14 million yuan in Li Jiaqi's live stream. At the end, he said that everyone is doing live streaming, but Wang Xiaolu can get the No.1 in this category because behind it is the company's insistence on doing many things in product and brand. 2) Seize the opportunity to become the category king After we became the No.1 in this category on Tmall, we didn't stop at that point, but raised financing and increased advertising. If you are overly obsessed with current profits and miss the opportunity to become the category king, then when multiple brands compete for a category, A brand says I want to shrink and control advertising costs, and is surpassed by B brand. A brand then invests in advertising again. Head-on bidding is very cruel, leading to a decline in advertising efficiency, and even users don't buy it. They don't know who to buy from. The worst situation is that users may not want to buy this category at all. If you first use money for continuous growth, form a relative competitive difference with competitors, continuously advertise and expand channels, you'll find you become more and more advantageous. 3) How to do advertising? When we visited some well-known advertising companies, they gave us some inspiration. They said that when investing in different media, you should design based on different media. If you do a hard ad, how to break out in the elevator? You must highlight the selling point and repeatedly strengthen it. After tiger-skin chicken feet became a phenomenal category, competition is fierce. At this time, we must strengthen the mindset that Wang Xiaolu equals tiger-skin chicken feet. So, now all our online and offline ads only talk about chicken feet. All hard ads follow one standard: spokesperson, slogan, and trust certificate. Saying 'big and meaty' every day is too stiff, and users will resist and dislike it. So we made some innovations. Use language contexts and memes that users like and are willing to spread to communicate with users. When we do this, users will feel that our company is interesting and develop an extra, spiritual liking for us. We shoot ads that pay tribute to classics or are spoofs, which is actually making friends with time. These ads have nothing to do with current things and never go out of style. If our company produces 5 such ads every year, and if we can make 100 such films in the future, after 10 years, users' perception of us may be different, and even have some spiritual impact. Just like they view Apple, they will think we are not just making products, but an interesting company they are willing to support and follow.
5. Don't Blindly Believe in Positioning Theory
We have been learning positioning theory. Positioning has had a great impact on me, and it is also the methodology we agree on internally. If our company hadn't learned positioning, I think we wouldn't have developed as we have, so I am very grateful for this methodology. But now we have entered a new stage, to do offline FMCG. Many times, positioning can only solve brand or strategic problems, while the offline system is very complex and detailed, requiring meticulous cultivation. At the same time, enterprise construction is a complex system. A company consists of two parts: organization and strategy. Don't blindly believe in positioning theory, thinking that learning positioning theory is enough, or learning from someone is enough. If our strategy is very strong but our organization is very poor, we can't build a brand either. So, we are continuously learning from companies like Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Weilong, learning how to be a meticulous FMCG company, not just a pure e-commerce brand. Only then can we ultimately make this brand a national brand. *Some images are from the internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete. 【New Distribution's live streaming column 'Lun Dao' is now on air!】 Theme: 'Exploration and Practice Sharing of BC Integration' Time: December 1st (Wednesday) 20:00 Guests: Zhao Bo, founder of New Distribution; Lin Feng, CEO of Beijing Lianyi Lian Network Technology Co., Ltd. Introduction:
- Traditional enterprises are gradually entering the C-era. How to adhere to innovation in the wave of digital development and achieve new industry formats?
- The essence of BC integration lies in using digital tools to reshape the manufacturer's 'marketing, sales, and management' system, solving the problem of full user touchpoints from channel digitalization to marketing digitalization, connecting the trinity of manufacturer, distributor, and store, forming an industrialized organization with digital links, thereby strengthening service capabilities for users.
- As the empowerment revolution sweeps offline scenarios, how to achieve BC linkage through digital activities like 'buy wine, get food' in restaurants? How to use private domain traffic of tobacco and alcohol stores and community convenience stores for social fission to achieve BC linkage? How to use Guangdiantong WeChat Moments targeted placement to drive traffic to offline physical stores? How to interact with consumers through a combination of online and offline live streaming to achieve both brand and effect? Click the video account below to reserve the live stream! Are you 'watching' me?