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In recent years, we marketers have been quite confused. Look, retail has new retail, channels have new channels like B2B, but we in marketing have nothing. I believe that in recent years, marketing has been in a gap period: traditional methods no longer work, yet we still have to use them, while new methods haven't formed yet, so we can't use them either.

I am a very traditional marketer, having worked in traditional marketing for 25 years. I wondered if there could be breakthroughs. I did discover many companies that have made breakthroughs in marketing.

Let's first look at these companies; they are not large in scale.

First, consider Jiangxiaobai.

Many people ask me if Jiangxiaobai has reached 10 billion yuan in revenue, because its influence makes it seem that way. Jiangxiaobai is not for traditional baijiu drinkers, so most traditional drinkers say it tastes bad; it's for the new generation, the post-90s.

But it is precisely such a niche company that stands at the center of the stage. What does it use? I call it new marketing.

Let's talk about another company that many may not know: Taishan Original Beer, a beer company.

How difficult is the beer business? The big beer brands buy out stores so they only sell their beer. Taishan Original Beer is a very small company; such companies have only two paths: die or be acquired, and its scale isn't even enough to be acquired.

But what has Taishan Original Beer achieved? For example, when I go to a restaurant, I don't want to drink the restaurant's beer. Before going, I place an order with Taishan Original Beer to deliver my beer to the restaurant, and by the time I arrive, the beer has just been delivered. This also uses new marketing.

Of course, there's a prerequisite: after drinking their beer, when you drink those industrial beers, they taste like water.

That's how I feel now.

Another company I operated had been in business for 24 years without exceeding 80 million yuan in revenue, but last year it suddenly reached several hundred million.

What did it achieve with new marketing? In a county-level market, it ignited in five days and took shape in a month.

What does taking shape in a month mean? Its sales reached what previously took a year to achieve.

It's an unknown new brand.

These are all miracles created by new marketing models in the internet environment.

Yesterday, I heard President Luo say that the baby products industry also has companies exceeding 10 billion yuan, but most are small. So, how can a small company stand at the center of the stage in a new environment?

I believe it's new marketing.

Speaking of new marketing, one very important point is that the most efficient marketing tool is media. However, when we are too small, we may not be able to afford media.

What is the essence of marketing? The essence is to change consumer perception.

Why does he think you're the best? Not necessarily because you are the best, but because he thinks you are.

Why does he think you're the best? Because marketing, through communication, word-of-mouth, or other means, changes perception. This perception must come from information he receives.

And what transmits information? Media.

Why do we say media is the most efficient marketing tool? Because word-of-mouth convinces one person at a time, while media convinces a group. So, if you find the most efficient tool to convince a group, your marketing is the most efficient.

Procter & Gamble's rise was the result of the popularization of American radio in the 1920s. The earliest companies to advertise during prime radio slots were soap companies like P&G, hence the term "soap opera" for prime-time programs.

Later, PC internet emerged, but these media still had a characteristic: centralized media. Centralized media is characterized by paid communication, and the result is that whoever pays the most gets the most communication. Because traditional media is oligopolistic, small and medium enterprises are excluded from paid communication, making it a privilege of large companies. Not everyone can afford CCTV ads.

Now, although traditional media still exists, we have entered the era of social media. Social communication is not because someone paid me, but because I genuinely think the content is worth sharing. Those who spread Jiangxiaobai's message are not because Tao Shiquan paid them, but because they find it interesting and fun.

So, the characteristic of the social media era is that social sharing is the main mode of communication. This is a huge opportunity for companies to do media, allowing small companies to stand at the center of the stage.

Jiangxiaobai is a small company that has stood at the center. You'll find that on the WeChat Index, its index is much higher than that of much larger companies like Wuliangye and Fenjiu. It has become a new communication center in the decentralized era.

In the past, how did small companies do it? Differentiation.

What does differentiation mean? The leader is already on the road; if we collide with the leader, we take a side road.

So differentiation or positioning essentially makes way for the leader, which is self-marginalization. After self-marginalization, you still need to be remembered, which is extremely difficult. That's why few companies succeed with positioning. Because there's a type of person who never needs positioning: the leader. The leader doesn't need positioning; those who need it are not the leader. Or, if the leader faces a crisis, he needs to reposition to tell others he's still the leader.

In the internet age, why do we often say the logic of positioning doesn't hold? Because you don't need to self-marginalize; small companies can also stand at the center.

So, the so-called new marketing is the ability to use social platforms for communication.

In the past, we talked about the 4Ps, but 4P is an analytical tool. In practice, you'll find that although we talk about 4P, the marketing director seems unable to control the product.

What can be controlled are two departments: marketing and sales.

What is the marketing department? In large companies, it's brand-driven; in small companies, it's promotion-driven. The sales department does channel-driven. Even in large companies, brand-driven is now hard to sustain; and channel-driven, when we do deep distribution, we find it's also unsustainable.

If brand-driven is a money-sea tactic (whoever has money does it), channel-driven is a people-sea tactic. In the baby products industry, with many small companies, both tactics have problems.

When small, you don't have much money; is the people-sea tactic feasible? You'll find it's also difficult in the baby products industry. Why? Because in a county, there aren't many baby product stores. I don't know, but a normal county might have fewer than 50 baby stores.

That is, because our terminal coverage density is too low, deep distribution is hard; the number of stores can't support many people. Remember, Kangshifu and Uni-President can support over 10,000 marketing personnel because a county might have 5,000 stores in total. With 5,000 stores, you can support one, two, or three people, but ten counties might not support one person. How can you do deep distribution?

With internet social sharing platforms, you'll find that what we couldn't do without money or people, we can now do.

For example: Xiaoshile. I personally operated this last year. We started trial and error in May, did one month in 3 counties in June, 30 counties in July, and now we've ignited 100 counties.

What do we rely on? IP-driven.

What's the difference between IP and brand? Brand is paid advertising, doing communication every day; even if a lie is repeated ten thousand times, it becomes truth.

The simplest way to form brand memory in the short term is to repeat one sentence constantly. So ten years ago, the president of Kangshifu said about brand: "What is a brand? It's spending 200 million yuan a year to make consumers remember one sentence."

That was ten years ago; now 200 million isn't enough.

We know how today's headlines are generated. For example, the recent headline was the vaccine incident. Everyone spread it, so it became a headline. The way it became a headline, we call it ignition, like a sudden explosion.

Anything ignited by internet communication, we no longer call a brand; we call it an IP.

IP is an emotional thing. Why are we so sensitive about the vaccine incident and spread it? Because it's for children; you're harming children, which stirs human emotions. So now, when we communicate, saying your product is good is useless because people don't spread it. But if there's something emotional, they will definitely spread it.

The 2018 Tencent New Media Report mentioned two keywords: the first is "circle-level," referring to social; the second is "emotional," things that can mobilize public emotions and make people spread them. So, no matter how good a product is, if it can't stir emotions, people will turn a blind eye.

For example, when selling a hawthorn drink, we don't say how good hawthorn is or how good our product is, because saying hawthorn is good is useless. So what do we say? We say, "Kids are picky eaters; hawthorn plus tangerine peel." Because when a child doesn't eat, it stirs your emotions; a child's refusal to eat stirs your emotions.

IP is emotion-driven. How to achieve ignition? High-density sharing and communication can ignite.

Just like the vaccine incident's ignition, except we ignite one county at a time, so many people may not have heard of it. That's fine, because 100 counties are enough to achieve 200 million yuan. Either ignite a county or don't do it at all.

Did we use many people? No.

Did we use much money? No.

What did we use? The attribute of internet social sharing.

Of course, we still need to do channel sales. Using the internet for channel driving, the key is "channel fan-ization."

What is a fan? We call someone who follows our official account a follower, but the concept of fan is supporter and spreader. Now, the open rate of official account followers is below 1%, so many followers are not real fans. We must find fans who support us. Recently, we visited a craft beer company in Handan, Hebei, which had only 100 loyal fans and established its channel. That's called fan channel-ization and channel fan-ization.

Is new marketing useful in our baby products industry? I think it's extremely useful. Recently, a baby products company in Chongqing brought its entire team to see our market and said, "This is very useful for us; we can all do it."

Why can everyone do it? I'm an outsider to the baby products industry, but I have several insights:

First, baby products, for children and mothers, are definitely emotional products. Emotional products are easy to stir emotions.

Second, baby products are heavily linked products with a strong tendency to share; you want to show off your child and talk about it. These exactly fit the basic elements of new marketing: make products emotional.

How can our new marketing system be implemented? From my experience, there are roughly four modules:

First, products must be new. What should our products achieve? In the past, we just said our product is good and told everyone. Good is a prerequisite; emotion is standard. Remember this sentence: Products must be tempting.

Second, new organization. Traditional organizations have marketing and sales departments. In organizations like Xiaoshile, we have two departments: IP and promotion. The original sales department is the army, fighting ground battles. Now, the promotion department means the army also takes on air force functions. What does the air force do? Communication. Being both army and air force is the requirement for new marketing personnel.

Third, new communication. In operation, it's social sharing communication. Jiangxiaobai does well; where? Every offline promotion has a communication function. Xiaoshile does well because every touchpoint is a communication point, and everyone is a fan. Its communication is not paid; the effect is good, but the cost is low.

New communication must ignite; a trickle doesn't show water. That's the characteristic of new communication. Don't do a trickle; either ignite or be a dud. Either 0 or 1. Communication without ignition is meaningless because your information is quickly covered. Ignition-style communication is like yesterday's vaccine incident; you don't want to see it, but you have to.

Fourth, new channels.

Xiaoshile summarized a routine called 128: 1 is the principle of driving sales, 2 is online-offline linkage, and 8 is eight actions, four online and four offline. This is the front-end logic, how employees operate in the market. For bosses, we need to master the back-end analysis system, which is the basic framework of new marketing: four keywords: scenario, IP, community, and communication.

4P is communication. Everything is communication; communication changes perception, perception forms impressions, and then transactions are completed. This is my understanding of the new marketing system in the internet age, with social sharing as the background.

Thank you.

Source: Zhongtong Observation. Speech by famous marketing expert Liu Chunxiong at the 2nd China Baby Products Industry Sales Promotion Ceremony.

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