By Yang Guangming of Shanghai Mingtai·Mingguan Dairy Marketing Consulting Co., Ltd.
As industries evolve, differentiation in brand pull, product technology, and even various marketing methods diminishes at the same product positioning level. How to extract differentiated selling points becomes a key factor in marketing success.
However, how can selling points be scientifically proposed? Are there specific models? For SMEs constantly launching new products, this is a frequent challenge.
First, based on some products in the market, inventory their selling points and summarize the main concepts they promote.
I. High-end White Milk
1. Yili Jindian Selling points: Sourced from Yili's selected pastures and forage; from high-quality Holstein cows; strict 57-step process; pure milk quality with rich flavor; product certifications; high-quality protein ≥3.3%, providing richer nutrition. Ad slogans: "A gift from heaven, for the ones you love most"; "100% from selected pastures."
2. Mengniu Telunsu Selling points: From the core area of China's dairy capital, selected high-quality forage from 12 countries; preferred purebred dairy cows, high-quality milk sources; natural milk protein content 3.3g/100g; won IDF new product award. Ad slogans: "Nutritious and delicious, good quality for peace of mind"; "Gold medal milk"; "Not all milk is called Telunsu"; "The new aristocrat of rich flavor, precious in high protein."
3. Shengmu Selling points: Based on premium milk source base, utilizing advantages of Bayannur, Inner Mongolia, self-built pastures; full-process desert-organic milk industry base, full organic milk; protein content ≥3.3%. Ad slogans: "Desert organic, healthy life"; "Shengmu good milk is grown"; "Every drop comes from Ulan Buh Desert pasture"; "Shengmu is just a glass of good milk."
4. Huishan Jiexi Selling points: High-quality milk protein ≥3.6%, exceeding national standard by 24%; only 1% of cows selected; exclusive self-owned pastures; rich in 18 amino acids, various natural vitamins and minerals; total milk solids above 14.2%, 1/4 higher than national standard; milk from Jersey cows known as the "Golden Queen of Dairy Cows." Ad slogan: "High-quality milk protein ≥3.6%, Jiexi pasture milk, only 1% of cows selected."
5. Oldenburger Selling points: New German packaging; German manufacturing craftsmanship; from German dairy giant DMK; German modern technology, international standards; consumer emotional appeal. Its selling points leverage consumers' mature perceptions of German technology and product quality, combining product selling points with familiar consumer knowledge to capture consumer minds. Ad slogan: "Unchanged German quality, new packaging, new launch."
6. Devondale Selling points: Novel packaging; quality, natural pastures, brand story; explaining cow quality through cow welfare; safety features of milk source; free-range cows; long company history. Ad slogan: "New product launch, consistent quality."
7. Anchor Selling points: New Zealand milk source; full-chain control, pasture, production and inspection standards; taste, rich high-quality protein, high calcium content; no additives; brand story; healthy lifestyle appeal; emotional appeal. Ad slogan: "Century-old Anchor, sold in over 70 countries, original and imported from New Zealand."
Summary: Main selling points include: pastures and forage; Holstein cows and milk sources; new packaging and production processes; management technology and modernization; milk quality and taste; protein content; organic concepts; national standards, European standards, world standards, and various product certifications; amino acids, vitamins, and minerals; company culture; cow rearing methods.
II. Low-temperature White Milk
1. Bright Zhiyou Selling points: Full retention of fresh milk nutrition, subverting traditional sterilization processes, rich and mellow taste. Ad slogans: "Persistent quality, Zhiyou"; "Love life, choose Zhiyou"; "Zhiyou, my choice for a refined life."
2. Sanyuan Jizhi Selling points: 3.3g protein; no added flavors or thickeners; from ecological pastures, GAP-certified modern free-range pastures; 30 dairy experts' ultimate appraisal, safe and certified. Ad slogan: "China's good milk, ultimate definition, Sanyuan adheres to good quality."
3. New Hope Qiandao Lake Pasture Selling points: Ultimate landscape, excellent quality, golden latitude pasture good milk, purest taste, advanced technology. Ad slogan: "Fresh milk, ultimate landscape."
4. Wei Chuan No Adjustment Selling points: Retains milk's original structure and components; 0 additives, from pasture to store, giving you complete natural nutrition; pure milk source, natural and worry-free, natural taste, refreshing mouthfeel. Ad slogan: "The original taste of milk."
5. New Hope 24 Hours Selling points: 24-hour limited-time sale; natural 0 additives; excellent hygiene and physicochemical indicators; GAP-certified natural pastures. Ad slogan: "Good fresh milk defined by time."
6. Jiuwu Zhichun Selling points: No GMO ingredients, no industrial pollution, no chemical fertilizer residues, no hormones, no undesirable additives, no pesticide residues, no artificial lactation induction, no unrestricted expansion, no overnight storage of milk source. Ad slogans: "Chenguang 30 years, nutrition and health for the whole family"; "Governed by inaction, truly pure."
Summary: Selling points include: nutrition and taste; sterilization processes; pastures, milk sources, milk quality; 0 additives; lifestyle and emotional appeals; time concepts; GMO-free; pesticide and hormone pollution-free.
III. Ambient Yogurt
1. Mosilian Selling point: The secret of the longevity village. Ad slogan: "The magical secret of the longevity village."
2. Ambrosial Selling points: Authentic Greek flavor, 35% more protein, selected high-quality pasture milk source, added strain developed by Athens Agricultural University. Ad slogan: "Authentic Greek flavor, 35% more protein."
3. Chunzhen Selling points: No added flavors, no added colors, no preservatives; six-layer composite Le Li drill packaging technology; imported Danish strain fermentation; rich taste, rich nutrition, gentle at room temperature, easy to absorb, simple and pure flavor; suitable for the whole family, retaining the pure natural nutrition of yogurt. Ad slogans: "Yogurt should be pure, good taste without additives"; "Every drop is pure, so simple, Just Yoghurt"; "Pure quality, natural"; "No additives, peace of mind, easy absorption, gentle."
4. Kaifeier Selling points: Fermented with Kefir flora, 3.0% high-quality milk protein, fine nutrition for easy absorption. Ad slogan: "Making good yogurt with heart."
5. Molafeier Selling point: Specially added buffalo milk. Ad slogan: "Yogurt that doesn't need refrigeration."
Summary: Ambient yogurt selling points include: longevity village; Greek concept; no additives; strains; buffalo milk.
IV. Low-temperature Yogurt
1. Yili Changqing Selling points: Fermented from 100% pure fresh milk; each 100g contains 3 billion unique A+BB strains from world-renowned strain companies Chr. Hansen and Danisco; strict quality control from milk source to production; advanced one-step opening packaging; organic yogurt. Ad slogan: "Light life, light body."
2. Mengniu Guanyiru Selling points: Unique domestic BB crown strain (i.e., Bifidobacterium lactis BB-12) from the world's largest strain supplier, Denmark's Chr. Hansen; Guanyiru contains 10 billion BB crown strains per kilogram, with strong tolerance to gastric acid and bile, maintaining live state to reach the intestines, effectively regulating intestinal flora with continuous consumption; enhances immunity. Ad slogan: "Daily Guanyiru, enhance immunity; smooth + immune, dual health functions."
3. New Hope Alps Yogurt Selling points: 0 additives, revitalizing natural vitality; Italian patented Synbio100 probiotic strain; Qiandao Lake pasture high-quality milk source; natural fermentation with strains, no food additives. Ad slogan: "Meet a better self anew."
4. Yoplait Selling points: French-style yogurt, 100% raw milk ingredients, rich and silky. Ad slogan: "From France, 50 years of yogurt expertise."
5. Brownie Selling points: Color, texture, and taste are naturally formed, no need to add water, colors, or caramel. Ad slogan: "Brownie baked yogurt, the more it's baked, the better it tastes."
Summary: Selling points include: strain concepts and quantities; management process from milk source to production; intestinal regulation and smoothness; 0 additives; high-quality pastures; country concepts; lifestyle and emotional appeals; health appeals; organic and natural.
The above is an inventory of selling points for several major products in the market. What insights can this give enterprises? How should enterprises break through the bottleneck of product selling point extraction in new product development? What problems exist in the process? Next, let's discuss common issues faced by some SMEs.
Lack of overall product planning: Undeniably, a good product concept and selling point can leave a positive impression on consumers. As consumer awareness evolves, attention to health, happiness, leisure, and entertainment intensifies. Many enterprises are indeed exploring consumers' real needs from these angles.
However, some enterprises do not conduct an overall analysis and planning for specific products. Even if a few do, they don't integrate well with consumer cognitive conflicts.
More SMEs launch a new product without knowing its selling points or concept. Instead, just before launch, a few people brainstorm or briefly look at other products' selling points, draw simple conclusions, and push the new product onto the market stage.
Imagine how such a product will perform in terms of sales, consumer response, and market cycle? Under intense market competition, it's likely to stumble.
Lack of enterprise care for products: Products are like people; going down one path may succeed, but taking multiple paths reduces the chance of success. This is especially true for new product development.
Some SMEs, under current conditions, rush to launch multiple products within a few months—ambient, low-temperature, imported, etc. Continuously launching new products can bring market benefits, fill gaps, and enhance competitiveness. However, whether a new product performs well, its sales situation, and consumer response are the most critical issues for success.
If a new product quickly shows weakness at the terminal, with sales unable to break through, enterprises should pay special attention, shifting focus to terminal sales, consumer research, and distributor interviews. Timely problem identification and resolution are better than focusing on developing other new products, which often leads to losses.
Blindness in product naming: Along with selling points comes the wave of product naming, a difficult process enterprises must face when launching new products. A name can sometimes take months, often delaying product launch.
Brainstorming names consumes significant time and manpower, with ideas ranging from historical cities, historical figures, European styles, Chinese styles, etc. These often involve emotional factors, like a boss or a few executives falling in love with a name at first sight. The biggest issue is that the name may not necessarily appeal to market consumers.
Brainstorming and word-combining methods may generate hundreds or even thousands of names, and the probability of selecting a satisfactory one is very low, sometimes one in tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands—a result of blind naming.
Selling point extraction is evidence-based: Before launching a new product, the most important task is to define its selling points. A new, attractive concept is more likely to win consumers.
How to uncover a product concept? It's not that difficult; the problem is that some enterprises deviate in their methods. A correct, appropriate concept requires continuous testing, analysis, and reasoning, with rigorous logical judgment, achieved naturally, not through temporary brainstorming.
Without rigorous preliminary evidence, conclusions are hard to sustain. Only through rigorous market research, consumer analysis, and logical deduction can real, effective conclusions be drawn, especially for product concepts and selling points.
There aren't many selling points or concepts for a product category because in a homogeneous market, followers are many, and innovation is weak. In this fast-changing market, proposing a new concept requires not only strong market research and analysis but also the courage to innovate, as new things always carry high risk—a reason many enterprises avoid innovation in selling point extraction.
What causes this? Without supporting evidence, it's indeed difficult, like solving a math proof without initial rigorous analysis and steps; even if you stumble upon the correct answer, you lack confidence in its sustainability.
Summary: How to extract selling points for mature products? The most brilliant approach is to start from the product itself. Currently, foreign brands generally do this; the product's technical content is the strongest selling point. Only by listening to consumers' voices can you find the perfect selling point.
Whether extracting rational or emotional selling points, it cannot be done without investigation and planning, nor can it be achieved through a few people's brainstorming.
Enterprises need overall product planning, research on existing market products, and research on mainstream consumer attitudes. Only by mastering these can they gradually approach the market selling points.
Most SMEs should consider why large enterprises can find good selling points. It's a natural process, derived from rigorous analysis and judgment of the market, consumers, and their own products, with strict logic. This process can be defined as a strict mathematical proof, with preliminary assumptions, data collection to verify assumptions, and finally determining the selling point.
Product attributes and characteristics are prerequisites for production, and they are also the basis for selling point extraction. It can be considered that selling point extraction and production occur at the same stage, or even that selling point extraction precedes production. However, many SMEs experience severe disconnect, entering the selling point extraction stage only when the product is about to launch.
In conclusion, combine existing market products, mainstream consumer characteristics, and enterprise status to find a model for new product selling point extraction, rather than relying on a few people's brainstorming.
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