Click 'Read the original text' for details. Successful enterprises cannot do without successful marketing, and Three Squirrels is such a company. Founded in February 2012, it achieved the top sales in the snack and specialty food category on November 11 of the same year in less than a year, a growth rate that is truly astonishing. Why was Three Squirrels able to achieve such results in less than a year? What is its marketing secret? Today we will dissect the marketing tactics behind these three cute little squirrels. 【Communication Deconstruction】 【Creative Deconstruction】 【Event Marketing Deconstruction】 【Human Nature Deconstruction】 【Brand Deconstruction】 1 Communication Deconstruction Weibo Communication

  1. Repost and Lottery Collaborating with certain brands or IPs, users who repost the Weibo post become eligible for a lottery draw, with a chance to win prizes. This encourages users to actively repost the Weibo post to obtain rewards, forming a communication effect. It also leverages the influence of partner brands or IPs to gain more attention for itself.
  2. Welfare Giveaways Every 3-4 days, there is a promotional activity with welfare giveaways. Within a specified time, customers who spend a certain amount (xxx yuan) can get a discount (xxx yuan), and some foods offer extra freebies for bulk purchases. This attracts users' attention, making them choose to follow continuously because they are tempted by the bargains. TV Drama Ad Placements Whether it's "Ode to Joy," "The Good Man," "Love O2O," or "A Love for Separation," you can see Three Squirrels, either as snacks or as toy dolls. The ads are always placed just right, leaving a deep impression. At the same time, these popular dramas themselves are highly eye-catching, further amplifying the communication effect of Three Squirrels. In terms of return on investment, it is beyond the reach of general hard advertising. Launching an Animated Series to Build IP In April this year, Three Squirrels launched its own 3D animated series "Three Squirrels." As of now, the view count has exceeded 100 million (based on iQiyi), showing its popularity. Three Squirrels launching its own animated series can be said to imitate Haier's "Haier Brothers." It aims to better maintain the emotional connection with users, and also to lay out Three Squirrels' IP, making the brand more entertaining and bringing more joy and laughter to users. Moreover, building the IP also brings more attention to the brand. Just from the animated series "Three Squirrels," the 100 million views bring immeasurable potential customers. It both maintains old customers and develops new ones, killing two birds with one stone. 2 Creative Deconstruction Service Creativity "Master, master, I am little mouse." Three Squirrels has opened a new path in service. Every customer service representative must communicate with customers in the tone of a squirrel, addressing them as "Master," creating a personalized service. This innovation undoubtedly enhances the customer experience, strengthens the brand image, and makes customers think of Three Squirrels when they hear the word "Master." Channel Innovation In 2012, Taobao's dividend was still present, but it was gradually shifting from free traffic to paid traffic. At that time, advertising was still cheap, but too many merchants were too comfortable with the ease of free traffic and were unwilling to spend money on advertising. Three Squirrels seized this opportunity, spending a lot of money on Taobao's Zhitongche (pay-per-click) and Diamond Booth (display ads). But as the saying goes, no pain, no gain. In the same year's Double 11, it achieved the top sales in the snack and specialty food category. Therefore, Three Squirrels' rapid rise was largely due to burning money on advertising. Packaging Creativity First, look at the outer packaging: the UI is unified, with the box and tape completely consistent, strengthening the brand image and facilitating better communication. Attached are an unboxing label and an unboxing tool featuring the Three Squirrels image, along with a cute "unboxing message": "Master, I am Mouse Tool. Quickly rescue me, I can help you open the box." This indirectly tells customers that the packaging has not been tampered with, conveying safety. It optimizes the customer experience—who doesn't love a cute image? It strengthens the brand image, enhances customers' goodwill toward the brand, and at the same time triggers customers' desire to share, forming implicit communication. Now look at the inner packaging: besides the purchased snacks, Three Squirrels can give you surprises beyond expectations, making you curious about what else is in the box. For example, the box may contain: Mouse Bag: You can throw the nut shells directly into it after eating; Mouse Napkin: You can wipe your mouth with it after eating snacks; Three Squirrels Series Card Sleeve: Similar to the Little Raccoon card game, with multiple styles, stimulating customers' collection desire, thereby increasing the motivation to buy Three Squirrels snacks; Trial Pack: Other snacks under the brand, indirectly promoting other products; Keychain: Increases emotional identification and is conducive to brand communication; Postcard: A holiday-exclusive gift, highlighting the festive atmosphere and expressing the brand's goodwill, winning customer favor; Handwritten Letter to Customers: Enhances the surprise factor, making customers recognize the brand's sincerity and craftsmanship. It also creates a communication effect, stimulating customers' desire to share. 3 Event Marketing Deconstruction On February 12, 2017, Three Squirrels CEO Zhang Liaoyuan shaved his head and led the core team to smash the offline "Feeding Store" at Suzhou Jinji Commercial Center, losing over 2 million yuan. This is the store recognized as having the highest foot traffic, highest sales, and highest conversion rate among Three Squirrels' stores—the best-performing offline store. Why did Zhang Liaoyuan choose to target this best-performing store? Think about it: a well-known brand smashing its own store is already a very eye-catching topic. Adding that it smashed its best-performing store makes people curious: Why smash the store? Why smash the best store? Why? This further increases attention. From Baidu Index, it can be seen that on February 13, the incident of Zhang Liaoyuan smashing the store received widespread coverage, and the search index suddenly reached a peak. So the store-smashing incident indeed had a very good eye-catching effect, and at the same time, it showed Three Squirrels' pursuit of quality and perfection, making people more identify with the brand. Its effect can be compared to Zhang Ruimin's refrigerator-smashing incident back then. It must be said that this was a successful event marketing: sacrificing profit for fame, and then gaining profit again. Brilliant! 4 Human Nature Deconstruction Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs—Esteem Needs Everyone has the need to be respected. Three Squirrels seized this characteristic, creating personalized service, calling customers "Master," satisfying their auditory and visual enjoyment and vanity. It makes people remember the brand, gives them something to show off, and indirectly helps promote the brand. Vividness Effect With the rise of the new generation, people increasingly dislike the "great, bright, and correct" image and prefer real, warm, living people. So why did the nut-selling brand choose the name "Three Squirrels"? Because the number "three" is a number that Chinese people particularly like to use and is easier to remember. The squirrel creates a real, warm image for the brand, with a cute appearance and highly personalized language. Naturally, people remember the brand and love it. Mental Accounting People are frugal with income earned through labor but spend freely with windfall gains. Giving customers some benefits at the right time can trigger repeat purchases or panic buying. So Three Squirrels often holds welfare giveaways on Weibo and WeChat official accounts. For example: Within a specified time, spend a certain amount (xxx yuan) to get a discount (xxx yuan); Within a specified time, certain products are sold at half price... This makes customers feel they have gotten a bargain and gained real benefits, prompting them to snap up the products. 5 Brand Deconstruction Brand Market Positioning Three Squirrels positions itself as a real, warm company. All employees play the role of a cute little squirrel, must communicate with customers in the tone of a squirrel, and address them as "Master." This positioning has never been seen before, so Three Squirrels was able to stand out in the snack and specialty food category, becoming the only one and the first in its category. Brand Audience Positioning From Baidu Index, it can be seen that Three Squirrels' main consumer group is mainly concentrated between 30-39 years old. The data is quite different from what we imagined. Shouldn't snacks be the favorite of young people? Shouldn't the main consumer group be those aged 20-29? Why is it between 30-39? The only explanation is that people aged 30-39 are basically married with children, and children love snacks! So most of their purchases of Three Squirrels are for their children. Additionally, the target audience of Three Squirrels' animated series is also young children, which further confirms this explanation. Therefore, the index shows that the main purchasing group is mainly concentrated between 30-39 years old. Children do not have spending power, so adults have to consume on their behalf. Product Image Three Squirrels shapes its products as three cute little squirrels, making them instantly recognizable and memorable, saving communication costs. In terms of copywriting, it always brings a smile to people's faces, dispelling a gloomy mood. Coupled with the surprises and unexpected gifts given each time, users naturally share and post on their Moments, promoting the product. IP Image After its image was widely sought after, Three Squirrels took the opportunity to turn it into an IP, launching various peripheral products, including dolls, masks, pillows, and other products featuring the Three Squirrels image. In April this year, it also launched the 3D animated series "Three Squirrels" to further consolidate the IP image and make its spread more extensive. Why does Three Squirrels spend a lot of time and money building its IP image? This is because, in addition to the quality of the product itself, users care more about the emotional experience. The IP image exactly fills this gap, satisfying customers emotionally. Furthermore, the IP image itself has great communication value, enabling wider dissemination of the product and allowing people to see the image of Three Squirrels everywhere. According to the mere exposure effect, when people frequently see something, they become deeply impressed and gradually develop a liking for it, thus increasing the probability of repeat purchases. Founder Image Three Squirrels founder Zhang Liaoyuan is an interesting person. After the company grew, he announced internally that he would step down as CEO and focus on being the "Chief Brainwashing Officer and Founder." He sleeps until he naturally wakes up every day, and his main job is to play cards, chat, drink with employees, and "brainwash" them. But it must be admitted that Three Squirrels was built up by Zhang Liaoyuan. He innovated the existing service model, making Three Squirrels stand out among similar products; At the budding stage of paid advertising on Taobao, he seized the opportunity and burned money on advertising on a large scale, enabling Three Squirrels to rise in the shortest time; When the company faced a crisis, he stepped forward, proactively smashed the store—the best one—bringing the brand widespread attention again, making people trust the brand more, and executing a successful event marketing. This is Zhang Liaoyuan: interesting and substantial. He is Three Squirrels, and Three Squirrels is him. Summary: Three Squirrels' success is inseparable from its positioning, its innovation, its large-scale spending on advertising, and its capture of Taobao's dividend. These four factors combined, so Three Squirrels succeeded. At the same time, we can also see Three Squirrels' meticulous observation of customer psychology: knowing that people crave respect, so they call customers "Master"; knowing that people like surprises, so they give customers different gifts every time; knowing that people like real, living people, so they created the image of Three Squirrels. So why deconstruct Three Squirrels? We need to learn from its marketing thinking and see which methods we can use for ourselves. Deconstructing cases is not for the sake of deconstruction itself, but to deconstruct others' thinking and tactics, and use what is useful for ourselves. Source: Xinmo Marketing (xinmoyingxiao) From August 22 to 24, the "2018 China Digital Innovation Conference (2018FDIC)" with the theme "Finding New Engines for Growth" will be held in Shanghai, hosted by the China FMCG Industry Association and organized by New Distribution. The conference will last 3 days, focusing on two main themes: marketing and supply chain, with six parallel forums on brand, channel, communication, B2B, same-city logistics, and innovative retail. We will invite industry leaders, CEOs, and brand executives to deeply interpret the trends and drivers of digital transformation in the FMCG industry. We will invite more than 500 executives from FMCG companies, 200+ CEOs from the B2B industry, and 1000+ major distributors in the FMCG industry to gather and discuss how the FMCG industry can use digital tools to achieve its own rapid growth again in the context of the digital era. This conference will build a bridge for brand owners, distributors, retail enterprises, and marketing agencies, helping FMCG manufacturers obtain the latest information, understand best practices, and master more practical skills for transformation. Proposed Invited Companies Conference Time August 22-24, 2018 Conference Venue Shanghai Baohua Marriott Hotel Conference Content August 22: Full-day check-in Afternoon 14:00-17:30 Parallel Forum on Distributor Same-City Logistics Evening 18:30-21:00 New Distribution Night Gala Dinner August 23: Theme: Marketing Digital Innovation Morning 9:00-12:00 Main Forum on Marketing Digital Innovation Afternoon 14:00-17:30 Parallel Forums on Brand, Channel, and Communication August 24: Theme: FMCG Supply Chain Digital Upgrade Full day: FMCG Supply Chain Conference Registration Method The registration channel is now open. Long press the QR code below or click "Read the original text" to register. Limited-time special group purchase prices are hotly available! Registration Consultation Ticket Inquiries: Media Cooperation Inquiries: Highlights of New Distribution's Previous Conferences Click the links below to review the highlights of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th FMCG + Internet Conferences: -END-