Wiles' Dark Rooms Fermat's Last Theorem, which had puzzled humanity for over 200 years, was solved by the Englishman Andrew Wiles. When asked about his journey, Wiles said it was like going through a series of countless dark rooms. When I entered the first dark room, I had to feel my way around the entire room to find the switch. I turned it on, and suddenly everything was clear, and I found the door to the next room. Then I opened the door to the next room, and it was pitch black again, so I had to continue feeling around, and finally, I found the switch in that room, turned it on, and saw the door to the next room... After experiencing countless such dark rooms, I finally solved Fermat's Last Theorem. Wiles vividly described the process of groping for a solution, and this experience resonates with me, much like our current exploration of micro-marketing. In the past, marketing experiences were panoramic and could be viewed from a bird's-eye perspective. You couldn't say you had complete confidence, but you could be fairly certain. You could break your plan into steps and push forward step by step. But in the era of micro-marketing, you're in a fog; you only know what problems you'll face when you reach that step. This is like executing a military plan: the commander must make judgments based on the specific situation at that moment, not entirely on the original plan. And the information you base your judgments on is chaotic. So micro-marketing is a plan that changes. So, when some micro-marketing gurus tell you how to do micro-marketing, you actually believe them? Because they haven't done it themselves; they've only gained some insights from an observer's perspective, and those insights are not real. Or they've read books by Li Wanqiang and Lei Jun and gained some insights, but they haven't truly participated. If they were good at it, they wouldn't be telling you; they'd be quietly making a fortune. They really don't know how to make money directly from micro-marketing, but they clearly know how to make money from fools! Their behavioral logic is simply the "greater fool" logic. As long as they find someone even more foolish, they can make money. They don't need to innovate themselves. So micro-marketing may not bring profits to true innovators, but it does provide opportunities for these boastful micro-marketing gurus to make money. They exploit the hype around micro-marketing to take a cut from those who flock to it. That's their real "fake marketing." Usually, we don't see their profit logic, but we see them "showing off orders," "showing off transactions," "showing off their lifestyle," "showing off rags-to-riches stories," all kinds of showing off. Fools don't believe in abstract logic; they believe in tangible, hard cash. They don't want to think. True micro-marketing, no one knows. Lei Jun and Li Wanqiang only provide a model you can reference, along with their personal insights: fans, experience, participation, word-of-mouth. But these are just the final points; if you try to start with these "results," you'll feel at a loss. To put it bluntly, even Ma Huateng and Zhang Xiaolong don't know micro-marketing. They're also conflicted. If they knew, they'd tell you. Like Taobao and Tmall, Jack Ma clearly tells you how to do it and sets the rules. If you violate them, you get fined. Ma Huateng really doesn't know; he can only give you a WeChat store and payment, but as for how to do it, you have to figure it out yourself! Otherwise, WeChat wouldn't frequently change its features and rules. You could say they're adjusting, or you could say they haven't figured it out yet. Look at how clumsy we "ancient creatures" are in the internet age. You can't say these ancient creatures can't survive. Due to the natural selection of the past era, they evolved strong hunting instincts and can still thrive in the new era. Just like dinosaurs could still hunt mammals at the end of the Cretaceous period. But with the coming of the Ice Age, dinosaurs were bound to go extinct. Or like the tiger, the king of beasts, which has become a nationally protected animal. Cheating Friends and Self This is a common trick of ancient creatures. Like pyramid schemes, they directly slaughter their friends and family to sell their products. With WeChat, they can easily use their circle of friends and family to promote their goods. This is actually the online version of Amway and insurance sales. I remember a friend who was engaged in the great cause of Amway. Every time we met, all topics eventually led to Amway's usage experience. It was too healthy and positive, but over time, everyone avoided him like the plague. With such people, you have an empirical judgment: they spread soft ads in the name of friendship. Finally, they reveal their true intentions to sell things. It's not that we're heartless, but in our judgment, they've already been heartless from the start. They've been weaving a web of ads and sales under the guise of friendship. We can buy their stuff, but it's just out of face, and we won't keep doing it forever. Each transaction reduces the friendship. If friendship is priceless, then this person's promotion of Amway has incurred a huge transaction cost. Insurance salespeople are even worse. As soon as you pay the premium, they get a commission, ranging from 10% to 30%. So your relationship is quite valuable. If you pay 10,000 yuan, they get 3,000. Friendship is valuable, so their transaction cost is relatively low. Now these practices have been moved to WeChat. Ancient creatures meet new tools and instinctively apply them directly! Making Friends and Getting Close Your circle of friends and family is limited, so to gain increment, these ancient creatures have evolved: they add people everywhere, breaking through the original friend limit. But with these new friends, the relationship isn't close, and you can't build trust, so you can't do business. You have to cultivate it slowly. But how do you know their preferences? You send greetings and chicken soup for the soul. Early in the morning, before breakfast, you're fed bowl after bowl of chicken soup, so greasy you can't eat. Actually, it's better to send ads! Because we're used to ads, not chicken soup. Whether it's chicken soup or holiday greetings, they're wholesale, not expensive. If you take them as genuine feelings, they've won, because with the trust foundation of feelings, they can find opportunities to sell you things. Using technology to wholesale emotions and build trust—they calculate this carefully. But it doesn't last long. Most people, like me, have poor appetites and can't stomach such greasy stuff. Once we're fed up, we block them and say goodbye. Stupid Media People Traditional media people start using WeChat, and their instinct is to make an e-magazine. Since reading on WeChat is convenient, they do the same as Amway and insurance people: they copy their past experience onto WeChat. Undeniably, these people have strong editing abilities, and the content they select is attractive, gaining many followers. And because many followers pay attention, they're more confident to continue. Gaining attention means gaining resources. WeChat also introduced a new policy: if you have over 100,000 followers, you can become a traffic owner. This further boosts media people's confidence. Traditional print media is dead, so they can resume their old business on electronic media. What a perfect seamless connection. So they think that with 100,000 followers, they can continue their old dreams. I'll tell you the truth: after information fragmentation, most people skim posts. Do you expect them to look at the ads after the post? When advertisers gradually understand this, even if you have a million followers, they won't spend money on you. Even if it's pay-per-click, they click but don't buy. There's no comparison system. Why would I suddenly accept your ad and buy something while I'm enjoying reading a post? Ads, I'd rather block them. If I have a need, I'll go to JD or Tmall to compare prices! Continuing the old dream in the new era. Zhang Xiaolong also came from the old era. He's also in a fog, and he stupidly continues the old inertia. Okay, continue your media dream! But in the internet age, aren't you adding to the chaos with all this excess information? Actually, don't be fooled by their large follower counts; they don't understand anything. They only know editing. They're just knowledge porters. They call it platformization, but in an era of information overload, isn't it annoying to have so many e-magazines? If you're original, I think it's meaningful. Like Luo Pang's "Logic Show," which is very inspiring. Many are just clickbait, and the content is terrible. I'm not against clickbait, but your content must support the headline. Over time, the information platform loses trust with readers. You can't even trust exciting headlines because you know they're liars. Some public accounts get hilarious videos from somewhere. Indeed, many people click, but what does that have to do with you? They still won't follow you after reading. Of course, you can keep collecting funny videos, like the famous "Cold Joke Selection" on Weibo, which gained many followers, but what's the point? There's no commercial value (and I'm not just emphasizing commercial value), and it's hard to sustain. Now you rarely see that "Cold Joke" account. About Alibaba and WeChat I've said it many times: Alibaba plays the "person-object" relationship. We're purely pursuing cost-effectiveness. We don't care who's selling; we don't want to know them. Our focus is on the object. In the e-commerce world, the world is flat. If the same thing is one yuan cheaper, everyone buys from you. The winner takes all. That means most Taobao and Tmall sellers are cannon fodder, making a few successful. If your product isn't differentiated, you're just running an empty truck. WeChat is about "person-person" relationships. People are interested in people. If you keep promoting products, people lose interest. Yes, I spend a lot of time on WeChat, much more than on Tmall or JD, but that doesn't mean we accept selling things directly on WeChat. When the focus is on products, JD and Tmall are more practical, with more choices and price comparison. Many micro-marketers on WeChat don't see the value of people; they see heads. Can I get one from each head? Their starting point is still the product. I hesitated, but I'll say it: the essence of WeChat marketing is playing together. It doesn't matter what you play; it matters who you play with. Like eating, eating itself isn't the issue; it's who you eat with. Rich people play golf not because golf is fun, but because playing golf lets you meet celebrities and enter a certain circle. Golf is just a topic, not the goal. Marketing on WeChat is the same: it doesn't matter what you buy; it's who you play with! The thing you buy is just a topic. If you don't buy that thing, you have no topic with everyone. So micro-marketing returns to "people," not "objects." If you're after objects, Tmall and Taobao are more cost-effective. Brother Tao is willing to make some micro-innovations, but these micro-innovations require everyone to play together, or it's a collective experiment. Participants can truly experience the ups and downs. Standing outside, you can only observe like those "fake marketing gurus." You're not a fish, so you don't know the joy of a fish in water. Brother Tao also noticed that some people are watching the excitement, even laughing. But even if I fail, it doesn't prove your success. You're just finding a scapegoat for your failure to comfort your decadent soul. Moreover, Brother Tao can't fail because there will always be successors to continue this exploration. Brother Tao's exploration lays the foundation for later generations. And that later success might be you who participated. -------------------------------------- Like this article? 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