My Product Is First-Rate, So Why Isn't It Selling?

Entrepreneurs across all industries have this confusion: My product is first-rate, so why isn't it selling? Actually, behind this question lies a huge change in market competition. Over the past 30 years, China's market environment has gone through three eras: the factory era, the channel era, and the mind era. Now, many industries have entered the mind era. In the mind era, the reason good products don't sell is just four words: cognitive scarcity. Why can't money solve the problem? Evergrande Spring Water once spent 4 billion yuan trying to enter the packaged water market but failed. The reason is not that the product was bad, not that the channel was bad, and certainly not that investment was insufficient, but cognitive scarcity. Actually, similar cases have occurred in China's infant formula industry: Wahaha invested heavily to launch 'Edison' infant formula, trying to enter the baby formula market, but still did not succeed. So, entering the consumer's mind requires mastering the laws and rules, not just throwing money at it. In the customer's mind, each category ultimately leaves room for only 1-2 brands. This is the cruelty of 'cognitive scarcity.' So, as a new brand, how do you build cognition and become one of the brands left in the customer's mind? Cognitive Thinking: Decisive for the Future! What is 'cognitive thinking'? To summarize in one sentence: sell value with the left brain, sell feeling with the right brain, and conquer both left and right brains simultaneously. This is the core logic of cognitive thinking. Cognitive thinking advocates: Use positioning to solve the value problem (left brain), use personality to solve the feeling problem (right brain), and then use the right brain to drive the market. In other words, the right brain drives the left brain, feeling drives value, and personality drives positioning. The biggest difference between cognitive thinking and positioning theory is that positioning theory is mind thinking, where positioning is the core, and all marketing elements must revolve around positioning; cognitive thinking is Tai Chi thinking, where positioning and personality become yin and yang, and must maintain balance. Positioning theory overemphasizes conquering the left brain, while cognitive thinking emphasizes conquering both left and right brains simultaneously. So, from category to brand, how does cognitive thinking help enterprises build brands? Here, we propose 'six levels of evolution': First Level of Evolution: Value Differentiation This solves the positioning problem. The mission of positioning is to find business opportunities. Opportunities lie in the opponent's weaknesses, in customer experiences, and in your own strengths. Therefore, we must make positioning achieve: effective differentiation, distinct feeling, and unrivaled superiority. Luckin Coffee invested 2 billion yuan to enter the coffee shop category. Can it succeed? We hope it can, but from the current situation, it's a bit dangerous because its positioning is not very clear. Since opening, their slogans have changed several times: early on it was 'Who doesn't love this cup?', later changed to 'Say hello to luck', then 'New style of professional coffee', 'Better coffee beans, lower prices, more convenient consumption', etc. So, what exactly is Luckin Coffee selling into the customer's mind? It's vague, with vague differentiation and vague feeling, and these appeals can easily be surpassed by others. So, before Luckin solves this problem, starting to open stores frantically is dangerous. The likely consequence will be: the faster they open, the faster they close! In the mind era, value differentiation must be anchored in a slogan, and the slogan must have strong sales power. Many luxury goods have set a bad example in this regard. We should not learn from them, but from BMW, Red Bull, and Wanglaoji, using a clear-cut slogan to reflect your positioning, repeat your positioning, and once the slogan is set, don't change it easily. Second Level of Evolution: Positioning Conceptualization Many enterprises have products with excellent quality and clear positioning, yet they don't sell well. A very important reason lies here: your positioning has not been conceptualized. Positioning conceptualization is a more specific and creative description of positioning, making the brand positioning easier for consumers to accept. For example, Arawana's positioning is balanced nutrition, but it uses the concept '1:1:1' to express it; Nanfu Battery's positioning is durability, but it uses the concept 'energy ring' to express it. Let's assume: if Arawana had not used the concept '1:1:1, healthier' but instead used 'balanced nutrition, better life' to attack the market, would it have succeeded? Hardly! If Nanfu Battery had not used the concept 'energy ring' but instead used 'high quality, more durable' to attack the market, would it have succeeded? Hard to say. In the mind era, when customer attention is scattered, a new brand must achieve positioning conceptualization to break through. The more novel the concept, the more prominent the difference; the more specific the concept, the clearer the cognition; the more powerful the concept, the stronger the selling point! Third Level of Evolution: Feeling Personalization In China, 90%-95% of enterprises have no concept of 'brand personality,' and some experts even confuse 'positioning' with 'personality.' But in the era of emotional consumption, customer decisions shift from the left brain to the right brain. When building a brand, we must resonate with the customer's right brain to effectively drive the value in the left brain. So, what is 'personality'? Personality is a kind of emotional cognition that your brand brings to customers, a tone that promotes memory, and a style that resonates with customers' aesthetics, emotions, feelings, and imagination. For example, Pepsi's 'anti-tradition,' Nike's 'aggressiveness,' and Apple's 'extreme simplicity' all fall under the category of 'personality.' In China, a successful case of 'feeling personalization' is Jiangxiaobai. Jiangxiaobai's brand personality is 'small drinking, small gatherings, small emotions.' They took this personality to the extreme, thus carving out a space in the fiercely competitive liquor market. Actually, from the Jiangxiaobai case, we can see the fact that 'personality drives positioning.' Because early on, Jiangxiaobai itself did not summarize its positioning. But because its personality was so distinct, people inferred a positioning from its personality: 'the erguotou for young people.' This shows that personality can not only drive positioning, but also help the brand find positioning and strengthen positioning. Fourth Level of Evolution: Personality Visualization Personality visualization is to output brand personality in a visual direction, forming a visual symbol that is unforgettable. The charm of visualization is immeasurable. For example, the contribution of the Eiffel Tower to Paris, the Leaning Tower of Pisa to Italy, and the Great Wall to China cannot be expressed in words. Also, Steve Jobs' black turtleneck, Mr. Bean's suit, and Zhao Benshan's hat are classic examples of personality visualization that made a generation of celebrities. So, we must understand personality visualization. Now, in China's infant formula industry, major brands have launched organic formula, but just looking at the packaging is discouraging—no brand personality, no visual impact. This is very regrettable and very dangerous. Because a new category without a brand-new visual design and without a strong visual hammer is likely to be drowned in the market ocean and die halfway. In personality visualization, one point to pay special attention to: Having visuals does not mean having a visual hammer. Visualization must avoid 'creamy' design. In this regard, most packaging of Japanese FMCG products is 'creamy' design—it looks nice but leaves no deep impression. For example, Pocky has always been troubled by consumers not remembering it. That's why Pocky recently did an event marketing campaign, removing the product LOGO from the packaging and launching blank packaging without a LOGO. As a result, it became an instant hit. Why did it become popular? The reason is simple. When all product packaging is colorful 'creamy' design, suddenly a blank packaging without a LOGO appears in the market, creating a strong visual impact and attracting attention. At the same time, their unconventional approach easily generates news and word-of-mouth, so becoming popular is natural. Fifth Level of Evolution: Cognitive Modeling A good business model can make an enterprise go from crawling to flying. From category to brand, it is actually a process of building cognition, and the business model relied upon in this process differs, leading to completely different results. In China, the 'chauffeured car' category was first done by Shenzhou Special Car, but later Didi surpassed Shenzhou. Why? It's not that Shenzhou Special Car was bad, but their business models were different. Shenzhou's early model was a typical 'B2C' model, with most vehicles from rental companies, while Didi's early model was a typical 'C2C' model, with most vehicles from individuals. No matter how many cars rental companies have, they can't compete with individual cars. This is the core reason Didi surpassed Shenzhou. So, from a model perspective, if the 'B2C' model made Shenzhou crawl, then the 'C2C' model made Didi fly. Even though Didi has had many issues over the years, Didi's market value and revenue are far greater than Shenzhou's. A good business model can defeat you without being related to you. This is even more deadly. In recent years, the instant noodle market has declined terribly. The reason is not that biscuits or snacks defeated instant noodles, but that Meituan Waimai defeated them. Because after the delivery market represented by Meituan developed, no one bought instant noodles. This is how a business model defeated a category, and it defeated you without being related to you. So, from category to brand, we must do the evolution of 'cognitive modeling' well, and we must design a good business model for our category. For new categories, the following three sentences are worth remembering: New category, old brand, die! New category, old visuals, die! New category, old model, die! Sixth Level of Evolution: Communication Resonance Communication resonance is about resonating in the customer's emotional world. In the future market, if there is resonance, there is a market; if there is no resonance, there is no market. A brand that has no resonance in the customer's emotional world is hard to succeed. This is also an important reason why many products with excellent quality and clear positioning don't sell well. Chu Shijian, Pan Shiyi, and Liu Chuanzhi all sell fruits. But only Chu Orange sells well. Why? Is it that Liu Peach and Pan Apple are not good in quality? Is there a problem with their channels? None of these. The only reason is: Chu Orange resonates in the customer's emotional world, while Liu Peach and Pan Apple do not. Today's Huawei not only does well in the customer's left brain with value, but also does brilliantly in the customer's right brain with feeling. This is the real reason Huawei is so popular. So, what did they do in the customer's right brain? I think their most successful communication is 'patriotism.' They very cleverly linked 'Huawei's technology' with 'patriotism,' and through professional and delicate event planning, pushed 'patriotism' to the extreme. Finally, the whole country formed a subtext: to be patriotic, you must buy Huawei. This is a clever move! In the early years, when I was the marketing director of Yili Milk Powder, I once planned a promotional activity: buy Yili milk powder and get a Teletubbies toy. As a result, it became an instant hit. Why? I didn't emphasize Yili's 'balanced nutrition' or 'good absorption,' so why did it become popular? The reason is still 'resonance.' Because giving Teletubbies resonated in the emotional world of mothers, creating that year's popularity. So, in communication, we must achieve the evolution of 'resonance,' deeply study customers' lifestyles, dig out sensitive consumption scenarios, and tailor brand communication activities to put the brand's positioning and personality into their hearts. In general, in the past, it was the era of big fish eating small fish; in the future, it is the era of small fish eating big fish. In such an era, to win, you must achieve 'small enterprise, big marketing department,' and through strong marketing operation capabilities, sell value to the customer's left brain and feeling to the customer's right brain, conquering both left and right brains simultaneously. Finally, cognitive thinking gives us eight words: 'seek cognition externally, seek mission internally.' These eight words are the ultimate contest in the future market. For an enterprise to go from mediocre to excellent, it must 'seek cognition externally,' and then from excellent to great, it must 'seek mission internally.' Only by achieving these two points can you win the true future! Source: Bao Enhebatu Brand Strategy (ID: baoenhebatu-g) Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once the tip is adopted. China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media Committed to FMCG manufacturer and distributor transformation and channel digital solutions