In 2022, new consumer brands will face a major reshuffle. With platform dividends fading, customer acquisition costs rising, and the capital market cooling, new brands that have used traffic to create hit products and complete the 0-to-1 stage over the past few years will all face a crucial challenge this year: how to break through the original growth model that is almost purely GMV-oriented, enhance their core value, and truly embark on the path of brand building. As a non-typical brand professional with an economics education background, systematic international MBA business training, and hands-on entrepreneurial experience, I have been thinking since last year whether I could construct a set of practical brand system methods for emerging brands, distinct from the "Hua & Hua" system targeting traditional enterprises and the "European and American theory" system lacking a local perspective on the Chinese market. After nearly four months of thinking, organizing, in-depth discussions, and detailed polishing, I have finally completed version 1.0 of this method—the "Emerging Brand Value Growth Model". This is a new model different from traditional methods, and it is also a series of concise and easy-to-understand practical tools, applicable to both startups and growing new brands, as well as hollow traditional brands eager for rejuvenation. In the current challenging times, regardless of the brand's situation, I hope this model can provide strong reference and inspiration for brand managers' strategic decisions. The path of brand growth requires passing through the value gate time and again. The "Emerging Brand Value Growth Model" centers on brand value, differing from the currently popular operational and growth perspectives. It attempts to view brand growth from a higher, more long-term, and more essential strategic height, restraining behaviors that blindly increase sales but seriously damage brand value, and striving for the synergistic development of short-term growth and long-term value. The entire model runs through four stages: market opportunity, top-level architecture, product development, and interactive co-creation. Because it resembles passing through a narrow door, it is also called the "Narrow Door Model". The four stages of the "Narrow Door Model" are specifically: Market Opportunity - Find the Sweet Spot Top-Level Architecture - Ignite the Fire Product Development - Create Freshness Interactive Co-creation - Connect New Relationships As a practical model, the "Narrow Door Model" has the following three outstanding advantages: 1. Integration of Strategy and Creativity Strategy leads creativity, and creativity embodies strategy. The model includes both value management throughout and creative expression centered on the brand core, avoiding the common situation where strategic plans remain on paper and are difficult to implement. 2. Strong Applicability of the Dynamic Model The left side of the model (brand creation) and the right side (brand development) correspond to each other. It is applicable to startups and growing brands born in new environments, as well as traditional/hollow brands gradually marginalized in generational shifts. Regardless of the stage, one can return to the corresponding stage on the left for re-examination, achieving value breakthroughs repeatedly in cycles. 3. Concise and Easy to Understand The model as a whole presents a simple form of first focusing layer by layer and then continuously expanding. During construction, secondary elements that might cause unnecessary interference in practical use were trimmed, making the essence of the model intuitive and easy to understand and apply. Next, I will analyze each element of the "Narrow Door Model" one by one. Market OpportunityFind the Sweet Spot How to find your own limited possibilities from the infinite possibilities of the market? The starting point of the "Narrow Door Model" is to find the area most likely to succeed, which I call the "Sweet Spot". The term "Sweet Spot" comes from competitive sports, meaning "Don't hit every ball; only hit high-value balls". Adopting this strategy requires athletes to have extremely strong composure and a calm inner self, which is also needed by every entrepreneur with grand dreams. In the "Narrow Door Model", the "Sweet Spot" is formed by the intersection of market, trends, and capabilities. Building a brand requires understanding the current market, grasping the latest trends, and recognizing one's own capabilities to objectively assess potential opportunities. (Image: Narrow Door Model - Finding the Sweet Spot) Market Analysis: Includes understanding the industry development history, market size, competitive intensity, growth rate, cost structure, as well as research on leading brands, comparison between domestic and mature markets, etc. Trend Research: What new changes are happening in the market? What new sub-categories and new species have emerged? What new phenomena have appeared in people's consumption habits, ideology, and lifestyle? Core Capabilities: What are the company's core advantages? What unique resources exist in product, marketing, channel, and supply chain? What traits and potential does the founding team have? What advantages can be strengthened to leverage other resources? After completing the above analysis, a potential market for oneself is obtained in the overlapping area of the three. Describe this market from three dimensions: target audience, core needs, and competitive framework. Target Users: Who is the consumer group the brand aims to serve? As the initial stage of the "Narrow Door Model", the audience should not be too narrow, to avoid limiting potential market size and value, and to allow appropriate flexibility for the brand in its early stage. Further screening and focusing on more precise audiences will occur in later stages. Core Needs: What pain points or unmet needs do target users have? Needs analysis includes multi-dimensional considerations of functional attributes, emotional attributes, and social attributes, closely related to identity, class, lifestyle, ideology, and other factors. Competitive Framework: In users' minds, what competitors in which fields does the brand substitute? The competitive framework is closely related to sub-categories but not identical. New brands can compete within existing categories, or create new frameworks that make dominant players lose their advantage (e.g., Apple phones), enter scenarios with greater mind-share value (e.g., Heytea), or strike from a higher dimension (e.g., big-brand sub-lines). After completing the preliminary definition of the Sweet Spot through the above three dimensions, you can proceed to the next stage of the "Narrow Door Model" - Top-Level Architecture. Top-Level Architecture Ignite the Fire In a market with extremely abundant products, countless brands, and intense competition, launching a new brand must be seen from the start as a unique and complete brand with top-level architecture. If treated merely as an innovative product, it will quickly fade among countless imitators. The most well-known aspect of top-level architecture is brand identity, but whether it's the logo, graphics, appearance, or style, they all stem from the brand's core essence. A brand must first know what its essence is before it can construct an external expression system. Therefore, the first step in establishing top-level architecture is to find the common consensus of the target audience from the "Sweet Spot Triangle", and then transform that consensus into a brand value system to explain the reason for its existence among many brands—a brand that cannot offer any value proposition cannot represent anyone. However, having a value system is only the starting point of top-level architecture. Even the most distinct values and propositions need to be conveyed to target consumers through powerful and inspiring expressions. Through text, visuals, and other elements, consumers should strongly feel the brand's deep inner passion; otherwise, it easily becomes empty, grandiose, or morally self-indulgent. How to externalize the value system into a unique and attractive expression system inevitably requires borrowing some external "sparks". The most capable of igniting people's passion and evoking emotional resonance are cultural elements, which I define as "Cultural Sparks" in the "Narrow Door Model". Based on case studies and cultural insights, I have excavated and refined six major "Cultural Sparks" suitable for contemporary Chinese brands: Cultural Change: New ideologies brought by changing times, such as the feminism of "Neiwai" Cultural Renewal: Modern interpretations of traditional culture, such as the Eastern modernity of "To Summer" Cultural Downward Penetration: The downward penetration of elite culture, such as the specialty coffee culture of "Saturnbird" Cultural Appropriation: Use of symbols from other fields, such as the tech language of "Banana In" Cultural Expansion: The spread of niche subcultures to the masses, such as various streetwear and street culture Cultural Tracing: Tracing the roots of local/indigenous culture, such as the trendy Chinese pastry trend in recent years By igniting the "Value System" through "Cultural Sparks" and constructing the brand's unique "Expression System" at the creative level, it is more directional and constrained than conventional brand creativity, avoiding ineffective creativity driven solely by aesthetics, sophistication, trendiness, or vague "vibes". Using appropriate cultural materials to design a series of infectious textual narratives and sensory experiences, including naming, stories, slogans, VI, imagery, and space—this entire systematic work conveys every important element consumers encounter with the brand in this unique way. Naming: Brand naming, product naming, event theme naming, etc. Stories: Brand stories, product stories, marketing content, etc. Slogans: Brand slogans, product slogans, advertising slogans, etc. VI: The most easily understood brand identity system, including logo, colors, graphics, etc. Imagery: Brand TVCs, advertising films, creative videos, etc. Space: Store spaces, pop-up stores, shop-in-shops, offline markets, etc. In the top-level architecture, determine the core framework and set an example. In continuous operations, follow this framework and continuously extend and accumulate during business expansion, gradually forming a cultural system with depth and breadth, allowing the brand's life fire to burn without extinguishing. Product Development Create Freshness Users do not buy a brand or a product; they buy a product of a certain brand. What unifies all products under a brand is not just the trademark symbol, but more importantly, the vision, philosophy, and value propositions these products collectively embody. Therefore, product development must be considered from two levels: 1. The brand's top-down transmission, making products carry and embody the brand's value and expression systems. 2. Planning the product's unique functions, experiences, identity, and communication, creating freshness through new combinations of various elements. Based on the above, I have constructed a product development pyramid in the "Narrow Door Model" to ensure consistency from brand to product level, as well as the necessary attractiveness of the product itself. In practical application, it should be noted that although the product development pyramid framework is the same, the resource intensity invested in flagship products that embody the brand essence and ordinary products that only represent a limited part of the brand may differ greatly. In a highly competitive market, this is a completely normal choice. Brand: Integrate the brand's top-level value and expression systems into the product, including why this product can be placed under the brand, what philosophy guides its development, and how the brand's textual style and visual symbols are applied to the product. Function: The actual innovative benefits and value points the product brings to consumers are the most basic purchase reason. Whether it's more comfortable underwear or better-tasting milk tea, the practical function provided by the product is the most intuitive perception for consumers. Identity: The unique shape, packaging, graphics, color scheme, and other elements exclusive to this product create differentiated features that allow users to distinguish and associate. For example, in the beauty and fragrance field, unique bottle shapes have almost become a standard configuration. Communication: As a new element in the social media era, embedding content topics that may trigger consumer discussion, sharing, and dissemination during product development is undoubtedly beneficial for improving the efficiency of subsequent marketing activities. Experience: Sensory experiences such as hearing, smell, and touch that enhance user favorability, more convenient and interesting opening methods, and the pleasure and satisfaction brought by beautiful and creative packaging copy. After product development is completed and the product is launched to the market, the brand truly begins its first intimate contact with consumers. How to establish real connections with them leads to the next stage of the "Narrow Door Model". Interactive Co-creation Connect New Relationships For a long time, the identities between brands and consumers have been unequal. However, today, the internet has made all information extremely transparent. Consumers, who now hold power, have long been familiar with participatory and interactive communication with brands. Connecting with consumers through products is the most basic brand value transmission. However, beyond advertising that promotes direct purchases, interacting with consumers and endowing the brand with the value generated from that interaction, deepening two-way connections, and activating social networks have become new trends. As consumers increasingly participate in the brand value creation process, brand building that fails to trigger interaction will be ineffective. Consumers only care about things related to themselves, so brands must find creative ideas of mutual interest to connect with consumers. In the "Narrow Door Model", I call such activities "Experience Co-creation Programs", which means three things: 1. Consumer participation in co-creation 2. Clear activity themes 3. Longer duration. The most typical representative among emerging brands is Saturnbird's "Return Plan". "Experience Co-creation Programs" use consumers' lifestyles, interests, values, etc., as entry points, combined with product or brand planning, and continuously expand the brand's influence in core circles through sustained operation. In this process, influential opinion leaders play a decisive role, while participating fans deepen their meaningful connection with the brand through activities, sparking more social media sharing content, influencing and attracting a broader audience. The value created by this connection is far beyond what product-driven mass marketing can achieve. Consumers are increasingly immune to overwhelming advertising. "Experience Co-creation Programs" that start from consumers' own lives are not only suitable for startups; big brands also need them. Layer by Layer Focusing Passing Through the Narrow Door Reviewing the left four stages of the "Narrow Door Model", starting from a target market of considerable size, filtering consumer groups through value propositions to build the brand's top-level architecture, then landing the top-level architecture on sellable products, and finally achieving interactive co-creation with several core circles—this is a process of layer-by-layer focusing. Focusing is to better pass through the narrow door of early brand success. But brands with dreams do not stop there; they continue to move to the right side of the model, releasing the preset potential value layer by layer, continuing to break through circles step by step, continuously innovating, leading the times, and ultimately growing into evergreen brands that transcend cycles. For classic brands that once passed through the narrow door but have now lost vitality, whether their products have lost appeal or the brand is no longer loved by consumers, they can also return to the left side of the model, examine themselves with the eyes of a new brand, and make changes. Brands that are temporarily in trouble but have value accumulation have every opportunity to shine again. Now, using the "Narrow Door Model" as a framework, I re-examine emerging brands in the market and find that there are three common types of problems: The first type starts from Stage 3, entering the market with an innovative product but lacking in other aspects, including a low market ceiling, missing top-level brand design, and failure to connect with users. Although they achieve a certain scale through traffic operations and channel expansion, their actual brand value is not significant. The second type starts from the large market of Stage 1, skipping top-level design and going directly to product development, then skipping interactive co-creation and directly entering category expansion on the right side. They continuously launch new products, quickly achieving large scale and high visibility. Due to the neglect of top-level design and the lack of core brand value, their connection with users is insufficient, brand value is limited, and it is difficult to continue advancing to the right side to become a super brand leading the times. The third type also starts from Stage 1, with fairly complete top-level design, but has been unable to break through in product development, failing to create a highly popular iconic flagship product. Many small brands are in this situation, remaining at a very small scale and circle, until a hit product appears to have the opportunity to lead the brand to the next stage. Among the typical cases I have studied and the brand clients I have consulted, the above three situations are quite common. Under the era dividends of the past, all problems were masked by ultra-high-speed growth. Since last year, many brands have begun to become aware and are starting to correct and upgrade. For new brands with limited resources, taking detours is the biggest problem. In such a competitive environment, it is also easy to lose first-mover advantages and be overtaken by latecomers. The "Narrow Door Model" cannot guarantee brand success, but following its logic can maximize the avoidance of the huge waste caused by backtracking, or even irreparable decision-making mistakes. Source: Eva Column (ID: evazhuanlan) -END-