01 What is Explosive Growth? Explosive growth is a matter of density. In flour production, a large amount of dust is generated. When this dust is suspended in the air and reaches a high concentration—say, 9.7 grams per cubic meter—it can ignite instantly upon contact with a spark, an arc, or an appropriate temperature, causing a violent explosion as powerful as a bomb. Here, 9.7 grams per cubic meter is the critical point for explosion. Commercial explosive growth also has a critical point, which is a matter of density (concentration, temperature). The same applies to brand explosive growth. For example, if a brand's awareness is 1%, it won't explode. Suppose awareness reaches 30%; it might then explode. Here, 30% is the critical point. Once the critical point is reached, there is a shift from quantitative to qualitative change. Accumulating quantitative change requires large investment and a long cycle. Reaching the critical point triggers explosive growth. "Explosion" means a sudden burst or eruption. It manifests as: first, short duration; second, great force; third, rapid spread. Marketing efforts are essentially about anticipating that moment of explosion. Before the explosion, it's like "filling a pit"; without the explosion, the pit seems bottomless. The explosion means the pit is filled, and everything else is profit. Explosive growth marks the end of a marketing cycle. Before it, input exceeds output; after it, output exceeds input. Any market that hasn't exploded requires continuous investment; after the explosion, you can "sustain the war with war," achieving rolling development.
02 Personalization is Low Density If explosive growth is about reaching critical density, then personalized products are precisely low-density. Yet personalization is exactly the trend. After years of turbulence, P&G has concluded: In the mass consumption era, the scarcest thing was brand; in the consumption stratification era, the scarcest thing is personality. In personalized products, "marketing density" is an unavoidable concept. Personalized products are niche, and niche products must achieve marketing density—this is a paradox. What is personalization? Personalization is not differentiation, nor is it a mass product with small sales; it is personification. Personality is synonymous with character and persona. It's not about having distinctive features, but about those features being personified. The term IP derives from anime, which is personified (even animals are personified). A product with functional differences is not personalized; it's differentiated, or a marginal mass product, also called a mass product with small sales. Equating low sales with niche and personality, or treating personality as a fringe of the mass market, is wrong. Differentiation is a material concept, a physical characteristic; personalization is a concept derived from people, a personification. In the consumption stratification era, personalized products often become the first choice. They have higher communication potential; they are the favorites of a few, and the favorites of a few are the niche. Personality doesn't mean low sales, and niche doesn't mean low sales either. If a personalized product succeeds across categories, its sales may be even larger than mass products.
03 The Marketing Path for Personalization Personalized products have a unique marketing path. Start from places where niche groups gather, and find the precise path for niche marketing. Where does the precise path for niche marketing come from? First, communities—people flock together; niche groups are formed because of similar personalities. Second, vertical platforms, such as women's platforms. Teacher Ding Ding, the initiator of the Fan Research Institute, made a rose Fenjiu (a type of liquor), which, as the name suggests, is a feminine product. Rose Fenjiu is definitely a niche product with personality. Here, two issues need observation: first, whether the product's personalization is obvious enough—if it's merely a product targeting women rather than a personalized product, it will be harder to succeed; second, if through women's platforms we find female consumers, then we can say that consumers within that platform or community are high-density. From a mass perspective, few women drink alcohol, so it's definitely low-density in the mass market. Therefore, the marketing path must find platforms or communities where niche groups gather, forming density within those circles. So, density is a relative concept.
04 How Can Personalized Products Achieve Marketing Density? Craft beer is a niche product; any craft product is usually small-scale. If you follow traditional distribution coverage, you can't achieve marketing density. A certain craft beer brand found 200 "iron fans" in a prefecture-level city. According to the "1990 principle" of fan communication, one iron fan influences 9 fans, and 9 fans influence 90 ordinary consumers. So, 200 iron fans can influence 20,000 consumers. In a prefecture-level city, that's enough density. With such density, they could set up more than 5 delivery stations and guarantee delivery of fresh beer within 5 minutes of ordering. With market density comes service density. For personalized products, if you use mass media communication, the total audience might be large, but the density within the target consumer group is not high. Therefore, personalized products must use precise communication and form sufficient density within specific target groups. First, leverage precise platforms for communication. Precise platforms include communities, self-media, vertical platforms, etc. Precise platforms must have influential communication initiators, such as self-media, key opinion leaders (KOLs), iron fans, industry IPs, and localized IPs. They have communicability. Second, there must be a sufficient number of initiators, like the 200 iron fans mentioned earlier. This is a prerequisite. Second, ensure sufficient cognitive intensity. The penetration of communication has two influencing factors: the influence of the communicator and cognitive intensity. What is the strongest cognition? It's experience, scenario, and participation. Li Du Baijiu calls their experience model "immersive experience," which produces the strongest cognition. I call it deep experience, strong cognition, and high communication. In promoting new marketing and new retail, I've defined this year as the "study tour year." There are many benchmark cases now, but people's awareness is insufficient. When we go on study tours, we "go to the scene to see, communicate with senior management, and listen to expert comments." This forms relatively strong cognition. For personalized products, cognitive intensity is even more important than cognitive density. The more personalized and high-end a product is, the more it needs to form strong cognition through experience. In the "people, goods, and place" framework, "place" is the scenario; scenario design is meant to enhance experience and generate strong cognition. Third, even within niche communities and vertical platforms, you still need to focus. In China, any niche is large enough. Can you focus on a region, further segment within the niche, form higher cognitive density, quickly penetrate an area, and create a positive cycle?
05 Intuition is the Opposite of Professionalism The concept opposite to density is dilution. Dilution means density becomes lower and lower. If a small enterprise with a personalized product tries to enter every market, eventually its resources and market will be diluted. As the market becomes more diluted, concentration decreases, and you move further from the critical point of explosion. There's a historical story. Huo Qubing, a general, defeated the Xiongnu. The emperor gave him ten jars of fine wine. But Huo had 200,000 soldiers. He came up with a clever idea: he poured the wine into a spring and drank with his soldiers. Pouring ten jars of wine into a spring is dilution. When scarce, the lower the concentration, the less wine flavor. Although this story has another meaning. Many marketing practices are processes of resource dilution. For example, if 200 iron fans are scattered across the country, there's no density. But personalized products of small and medium enterprises often enter a dilution process. Once the market is diluted, it becomes even harder to achieve marketing density. Marketing must follow professional practices. Professionalism means quickly achieving sufficient marketing density in the short term. So, the marketing density of personalized products inherently contains a paradox: personalized products have no density, but we must achieve marketing density to succeed. Source: Teacher Liu's New Marketing -END-