Click to read the original article for details. In recent years, with consumption upgrades and the penetration of the internet, the brand market has been reshuffling at a faster pace. Brand owners who have been operating for years are beginning to worry whether they are suffering from aging. As a result, various miracle cures, such as packaging redesign, cross-border brand collaborations, newsjacking, and social media entertainment, have become prevalent, presenting a picture of "returning to twenty years old." However, the call of brand aging seems never to have weakened. Are brand owners taking "fake medicine"? Product Aging or Brand Aging The best-selling miracle cure for brand aging might be "external repackaging." For example, someone proposed such a case: Weilong changed its old dirty and simple packaging, put on the coat of high-end snacks, and refreshed its brand image. Xibei Youmiancun transformed its former township restaurant appearance into a shopping mall restaurant storefront, raising the brand's grade. Such statements essentially blur the concept of brand, treating product aging as brand aging, and believing that solving the product's appearance problem can make the brand look young and vibrant. But the result is only upgrading the product, replacing a donkey with a horse; the carriage company itself has not activated the brand in consumers' minds. For example, consumers might think their carriages are never late, deliver on time, or run stably and safely. If anything, it adds value to the brand by beautifying the appearance of its products, making consumers feel more comfortable. So how do you judge whether a marketing activity activates the brand or merely upgrades the product? The total value a product can bring to consumers includes product value and brand value. Product value is based on the product's own functional characteristics and is the direct benefit provided to consumers. For example, Weilong satisfies cravings, Xibei Youmiancun fills the stomach, and donkeys and horses can transport. Brand value is based on the product but independent of it, and is the indirect benefit provided to consumers. For example, Weilong is a healthy snack, reassuring to eat; Xibei Youmiancun's Northwestern cuisine is authentic, with the taste of home. Brand value is very important in some industries because brand creates premium for the enterprise on the basis of providing indirect value to consumers. A good brand can sell at a higher price, even though compared to other brands, it may not have obvious advantages in technology, craftsmanship, packaging, and service, and may even have minor disadvantages in some aspects. Cola is a category with minimal product differentiation but significant brand differentiation. Historically, many brands have tried to challenge Coca-Cola's position. There was an experiment where the first group of students tasted two colas, A and B, without logos, and the second group tasted the same colas, but A had a Coca-Cola logo. The test results showed that in the first group, the number of students who thought A tasted better was similar to those who preferred B, while in the second group, more students thought A tasted better. This is the value that brand creates that the product cannot. Simple product upgrades or rejuvenation may increase sales, but they do not necessarily increase brand equity. In addition to bringing premium, brand can also alleviate the problem of product aging and provide a buffer period for product upgrades. A good brand, even if slightly slower in product upgrades, can still gain consumer favor for a period and maintain stable sales, meaning when the product is insufficient, the brand can compensate. (Except for technology-intensive products, such as mobile phones, cars, and pharmaceuticals) Coca-Cola has been around for over a hundred years, and its product has almost never been upgraded, at most with minor adjustments in packaging and capacity, yet its sales remain the leader. This shows how powerful brand is in resisting product aging. Product aging and brand aging are two different things. Product aging is caused by the product's own issues, such as outdated technology; traditional TV giants like Changhong and Konka lack internet genes and failed to keep up with the smart home era. Or outdated design, like the uniform traditional school uniforms that fail to meet the aesthetic needs of the post-90s and post-00s generations. In short, many people worry about brand aging but actually work on preventing product aging. Although product upgrades temporarily boost sales, they fail to see the truth that "when the brand is insufficient, the product can compensate," mistakenly believing the brand has been reactivated. Once the next generation of products shows flaws or is followed by strong brands, they will quickly fall into the "brand aging" crisis again. Where Is the Path to Brand Rejuvenation? When it comes to brand aging, many people think of brands moving closer to young people. But brand aging is just an anthropomorphic term; it has no necessary relationship with whether the target consumer group is young. It depends solely on your brand strategic positioning. A more scientific explanation of brand aging might be brand stall, where after entering the mature stage, as awareness and communication intensity increase, sales growth slows or even declines, i.e., high awareness, low growth rate. (Just like when people age, they exert more effort but see little effect) Correspondingly, brand rejuvenation means brand activation, allowing the brand to re-empower the product, create premium for the enterprise, and provide indirect value beyond the product to consumers. (Just like an old person regaining youth, where effort yields considerable returns)

  • An aging brand to the enterprise is like when I was young I could lift a cauldron, but now lifting a feather feels like lifting a cauldron. (Marketing efforts have diminishing effects on sales growth)
  • An aging brand to consumers is like I know you are a good person, but I just don't love you, and I don't want anything to happen with you. (The brand cannot provide suitable purchase motivation for consumers) To explain this issue, rather than abstract discussion, it's better to analyze from a physical perspective. You can compare product sales to a pool, with an inlet at one end responsible for acquiring new customers, and an outlet at the other end responsible for retention. This leads to two causes of brand aging (stall):
  • Original consumers' purchase motivations have changed, and the brand has not kept up with their new purchase motivations—needs retention
  • The brand has not provided corresponding and sufficient purchase motivations for potential consumers—needs new customer acquisition Since the new purchase motivations of original consumers may not align with those of potential consumers, two paths for brand activation emerge: (1) Original consumers' new purchase motivations align with potential consumers' purchase motivations If the new purchase motivations of original consumers align with those of potential consumers, the brand can adopt a unified strategy to solve both at once. Xiaomi phones have always been known for high cost-performance. However, within the advantage of high cost-performance lies an inherent disadvantage: it feels low-end, for losers. Especially after Huawei's Mate series launched a flank attack and gradually occupied the high-end phone market, Xiaomi's disadvantage became more apparent, and phone sales kept declining. Original and potential consumers, concerned about their identity image, would abandon Xiaomi for the same purchase motivation, even though Xiaomi's high cost-performance indeed attracted them. Therefore, this year Xiaomi, through acquisitions and strategic restructuring, simultaneously launched four brands: Xiaomi, Redmi, Black Shark, and Meitu. Xiaomi attacks the mid-to-high end, Redmi maintains the low end, and Black Shark and Meitu respectively enter the gaming and beauty segmentation markets, to differentiate and transfer the previous disadvantage. (2) Original consumers' new purchase motivations differ from potential consumers' purchase motivations If the new purchase motivations of original consumers differ from those of potential consumers, the brand cannot adopt a unified strategy but must implement "one country, two systems." For example, for the same brand of rice cooker, for unmarried white-collar workers, it may need to emphasize speed and convenience, while for housewives, it may need to emphasize preserving the original aroma and nutrition of the rice. If consumer demand for a category changes with age, the brand can only accept the natural transition of needs across ages and focus on the type of consumers that best fit its positioning. Post-90s typically used QQ during their student days, which offered more diverse and open entertainment scenarios, such as QQ Show, QQ Space, Tencent Games icons, and QQ Pets. But after entering the workforce, this group gradually shifts to WeChat, which offers more practical life scenarios, such as work group chats and various payment functions. Essentially, this is a transition from entertainment in student days to practicality in the workplace. We hope a brand can occupy the minds of consumers of different ages long-term, meaning it can continuously follow up on original consumers' needs (retention) and provide purchase motivation for potential consumers (acquisition). But many categories do not have the characteristic of "having both fish and bear's paw," just as the age structures of QQ and WeChat users cannot overlap. (Unless it's homogeneous, resource-based standard products like gasoline or internet data) You must, after determining your brand strategic positioning, focus on the type of consumers that best fit the positioning, let go of those consumer groups whose purchase motivation diminishes with age, or introduce new brands or products to fill the gap. The Trap of Brand Rejuvenation If choosing the path of brand rejuvenation is at the strategic level, then after selecting the path, you need to find a breakthrough at the tactical level. As mentioned at the beginning, brand aging is not product aging, and it cannot be solved simply through product upgrades. Essentially, brand aging is due to providing outdated purchase motivations—although the product meets consumer needs, it cannot form a purchase motivation for consumers, meaning it remains at the "good person" stage and cannot become a "lover." For example, I used Rejoice shampoo as a child, and although I recognize its good quality and low price, I am unwilling to use it as an adult, feeling it's exclusively for mothers. (The first international shampoo brand to enter China, its domestic development age is older than the post-90s) To provide new purchase motivations, you might think of many common tactics, such as packaging redesign, cross-border brand collaborations, newsjacking, and social media entertainment. These tactics provide new stimuli for consumers, temporarily evoking purchase desire and accumulating momentum for large promotional events. Examples include Liushen floral water cocktail, Nongfu Spring Palace Museum bottle, Laoganma hoodie, and Weilong spicy strip zongzi. But most brand owners, after maintaining sales growth for a period, may return to the "aging" state, and also attract imitation and follow-up from many brands. Therefore, you can only constantly change marketing tactics, but the effect becomes increasingly worse. Because consumers gradually develop stimulus dependence and stimulus adaptation to your brand.

Stimulus dependence: Consumers become dependent on marketing stimuli, showing that when the stimulus disappears, they cannot form purchase motivation for the product.

Stimulus adaptation: As marketing stimuli increase, consumers become less sensitive, showing that stronger stimuli are needed to generate purchase motivation, and they become indifferent to similar stimuli. Why do these tactics act like stimulants, effective in the short term but causing "brand aging" problems in the long run? Because these purchase motivations provided to consumers are only external motivations, not internal motivations. External motivation: Consumers buy due to external stimuli unrelated to brand value, such as Liushen floral water cocktail being interesting, or a product endorsed by a young idol.

Internal motivation: Consumers buy due to recognition of the brand's unique value, such as iPhone reinforcing the identity of fashionable white-collar workers, Xibei Youmiancun providing the most authentic Northwestern cuisine, or Xiaomi becoming synonymous with high cost-performance, saving consumers selection costs. More importantly, once such external motivations habitually dominate consumer purchase behavior, the internal motivations that could originally drive sales will be squeezed out of consumers' minds, meaning brand equity is invisibly diluted. This principle is more widely known in education. More and more educators are beginning to oppose rewarding students with material goods or money for good grades. Because material goods or money, as external motivations, once they form stimulus dependence on students' learning behavior, the students' original interest in learning (internal motivation) will be encroached upon, hindering their ability to learn actively. This is the famous Aronson effect. All marketing activities, only when they propose creativity at the level of internal motivation, or transform external motivation into internal motivation, can they accumulate brand equity and achieve brand rejuvenation. Of course, if you are doing a brand-new brand and need to build awareness first, or if your marketing creativity is only to ignite social networks and "mow grass" in the traffic, you can ignore the above issues. (Because the above issues only target the activation of mature brands with high awareness and low growth rates) Bringing Brand Value into New Life Scenarios So for an aging brand, how do you provide new internal motivations to consumers, or how do you transform external motivations into internal ones? Brand positioning is the embodiment of a brand's lifelong value. Many successful brands have not changed their value proposition for decades. For example, Starbucks provides a stylish leisure space for white-collar workers who value quality of life and knowledge, and Uniqlo provides convenient, fast, and affordable clothing for urban populations. These classic brands have not become outdated because of long-term adherence to a consistent brand value proposition; instead, they have become targets for many new brands to challenge, just like martial artists a hundred years ago wanted to challenge Ip Man. A correct brand positioning can often become more deeply rooted in people's minds over time, despite different forms of expression, the unique value provided remains consistent. For example, 7-Eleven convenience stores not only sell daily necessities but also provide ATM services and utility bill payment services. Because in 7-Eleven's brand positioning, it is not a small shop but infrastructure for convenient living. These additional services continue to strengthen the brand positioning in new life scenarios; it doesn't need to launch cross-border bento boxes with Starbucks, create funny long images, or invite a young idol to walk the runway to highlight the brand's youthful vitality. Although technological and social progress has changed consumer demand habits, consumers' basic requirements for needs remain unchanged: safety, health, cheapness, quality, convenience, etc. Even if the brand is aging, there is no need to abandon the brand value proposition to cater to this change. Instead, on the basis of correct positioning, let the unique value reappear in new life scenarios. You can think about how to activate your brand based on whether the brand value proposition is reflected in new or old life scenarios. (1) Reflecting value proposition - new life scenarios: Brand rejuvenation To provide consumers with new purchase motivations, you can express the brand value proposition in life scenarios that align with current consumer demands. For example, imitating the consumption patterns of the upper class is a common purchase motivation, so some brands strive to create a high-end image, aiming to lead mass consumption. A car brand representing success and nobility might have had an advertisement in the last century showing a European gentleman in a suit ascending to the peak in the spotlight, because the common perception in China in the last century was that Western lifestyles highlighted successful social status, as ordinary people had never even seen foreigners. Today's advertisement is more likely to show a mature man driving with a beautiful woman to explore the polar regions, because now only successful people have the time and capital to go on polar expeditions; ordinary people can only join group tours to popular scenic spots during legal holidays. (Didn't business tycoons recently start a craze for climbing Mount Everest?) The difference between these two advertisements is placing the same brand positioning in two different life scenarios, old and new, maintaining the brand value proposition while providing new purchase motivations for consumers. Similarly, a female phone brand representing youth and fashion might have had an advertisement a decade ago showing a young white-collar worker displaying a phone with exquisite and colorful shells, because smartphones were not yet widespread, and phones were still in the stage of differentiation through shell changes. Today's advertisement is more likely to show a young girl taking selfies against a beautiful scenery, or adding a smart voice interaction segment. Discovering new life scenarios that align with the present and re-expressing your brand value will provide consumers with trendy yet timeless purchase motivations. (2) Reflecting value proposition - old life scenarios: Brand classicization Some brands have good products but feel "aging" because the life scenarios their brand relies on are outdated, forming outdated purchase motivations. For example, TV commercials for some shampoo brands almost always show a beautiful woman flicking her hair at the camera, with a handsome man beside her being enchanted. Some brands use old, culturally rooted life scenarios to shape a classic brand image. For example, Coca-Cola often creates scenes of family joy and sometimes brings out Santa Claus. Although Pepsi attacks with youthful vitality, it has not dismantled Coca-Cola's "classic cola" brand position. In 2017, Baijia's "1931" was a hit; the copywriting team used a long image to tell an interesting Republican-era spy story. This low-budget advertisement conveyed that Baijia was born in 1931 and is a classic national brand, not a sudden internet celebrity newcomer. Although this advertisement did not directly reflect Baijia's herbal skincare brand positioning, it strengthened the classic brand image at a very low cost. All marketing activities, only those related to the brand and capable of being accumulated and added value, form brand equity. Those internet hotspots that are forgotten after the moment are just ashes of marketing. (3) Hiding value proposition - new life scenarios: Brand traffic-ization The biggest misconception in brand activation is mistaking igniting traffic for igniting the brand. So "arms races" like packaging redesign, cross-border brand collaborations, newsjacking, and social media entertainment are prevalent on the internet. In recent years, there have been countless bizarre cases, such as Juewei Duck Neck's vulgar "tender and juicy" advertisement, Durex and Heytea's failed copywriting, and Ma Yinglong's lipstick launch. Some of these methods do provide new life scenarios for consumers and add novel elements, but they often lack brand value proposition. As a result, although they may harvest profits from traffic, brand equity is also backwashed by traffic, and they even develop traffic dependence. (Consumers are only interested in hot traffic, but cannot form purchase motivation for the brand itself) Another common practice of brand traffic-ization is self-congratulatory advertisements with 100 points for creative design and 0 points for brand value. These ads are commonly called lacking "sales power," with interesting meanings widely spread, but the brand positioning is unclear. (4) Hiding value proposition - old life scenarios: Brand chaos-ization This problem is using life scenarios that do not align with the present (or not applying life scenarios at all), and not reflecting the brand value proposition. It can basically be understood as "wasting youth marketing." (Better not to do it) Such brands usually have been around for a few years, maintaining a state of "not starving to death," without clear brand positioning, and even less awareness of which life scenarios align with the brand positioning. Marketing is just directly spreading advertisements, boasting about selling points, as if time has returned to the last century when materials were scarce and demand exceeded supply, directly calling out whatever you have. (I've seen this in my WeChat Moments) Summary of This Issue In summary, brand aging is not equal to product aging; brand aging is due to providing outdated purchase motivations. What you need to do is, after clarifying brand positioning, convey the value proposition to consumers' new life scenarios. No matter what trendy tactics you adopt, marketing activities that truly activate the brand are those that form brand equity. And any asset must be accumulated. There is probably no miracle cure for brand aging.