Click the image for details Text by Liu Chunxiong / Teacher Liu's Forum (ID: liuchunxiong1964)
"Once the brand is established, products sell themselves."
This kind of talk is popular. Not because it makes sense, but because it provides an excuse for many people.
Those who say this, I can only say they are naive.
How many new companies, initially with weak brand power, later grew big and naturally became brands?
How many big brands, initially with strong brands, collapsed because they performed poorly?
01
Everything is ready, except for the east wind. If everything is not ready, try giving you the east wind?
Salespeople at well-known companies know: even with big brands, selling products is not easy.
If you don't believe it, ask the salespeople at industry giants. Their days are not easy either, and the annual turnover rate is not low.
Those well-known companies present one face to the outside world, but another face in internal meetings.
Externally, they look glamorous; internally, problems keep arising. Even Ma Yun is like this.
Those big brands do not relax at all because of their brand strength. Their other marketing work is much better than that of ordinary companies.
So, the idea that once the brand is established, products sell themselves is just a fantasy.
02
Brand first, then sales follow. Such a thing has existed temporarily.
In a society where products are scarce and consumer mindsets are immature, some illogical phenomena existed briefly, but do not assume long-term rationality because of short-term existence.
For example, due to immature mindsets, products like "XXX Shengong Yuanqi Bag" once achieved temporary success through advertising.
For example, due to information asymmetry, former "CCTV bid champions" briefly sold well because companies dared to gamble, but almost all of them disappeared except for a few that had their own foundation.
There are also illusions, such as a company with good brand work also doing other marketing work well. But because brand has the most communication effect, it creates an illusion: these companies sell well because their brand is good.
Take a recent case: Jiangxiaobai did almost everything well in marketing, but the communication result seems like Jiangxiaobai was built on expression bottles and copywriting. In fact, that is not the case at all. For example, Jiangxiaobai's requirement for distributors is: achieve a distribution rate of 70% within a time limit, with 70% in cash.
Some basic marketing work is boring and has no communication value. No communication does not mean it was not done. Media, whether traditional or self-media, always communicates what has communication value.
"Once the brand is established, products sell themselves" is largely an illusion created by media communication.
03
Besides brand, are there other paths for marketing? If no other path is found, then the only way is to walk this single-plank bridge.
This kind of topic is hard to convince with empty talk. Let me give a few examples.
Yinmai Beer, except for some consumers in Shandong and some professionals, I believe many people have not heard of this brand.
This non-famous brand that does not build brand but builds channels, in some advantageous markets of Tsingtao Beer in Shandong, beat Tsingtao Beer so badly (four words omitted here).
At that time, the marketing expert leading Yinmai's expansion was Teacher Fang Gang. Once after a little drink, Teacher Fang Gang said in my group that he felt that with this set of methods, he could conquer the world.
On the night Yinmai was acquired by Tsingtao Beer, Teacher Fang Gang and his brothers drank all the beer in the hotel.
As someone who wrote "Not a Brand but Selling Well" and "Brand Cannot Be Eaten as Food", I can understand Teacher Fang Gang's feelings at that time.
What defeats a brand is never a stronger brand, but something outside the brand.
04
Around 2000, Uni-President instant noodles began to decline in sales. Sales dropped from second in the industry to fifth. Many people may not even know who was fourth.
This decline lasted eight consecutive years. It is said that Uni-President's top management once had the idea of giving up the instant noodle business in mainland China.
When sales decline, of course, the brand is the first thing people think of. Simple attribution, brand is the first to be blamed.
To say something offensive, I doubt the marketing professionalism of those who think this way.
Since the brand has a problem, of course, we must first save the brand!
So, increased investment, various measures came out. The brand got better, but sales continued to decline. Until sales dropped to fifth, but ordinary consumers still thought Uni-President's brand was second.
Isn't that ridiculous!
It was not until 8 years later, when Liu Xinhua took office, that he rejected the idea that the brand was the problem. He launched "Laotan Sauerkraut" and stopped the decline.
However, even with Laotan Sauerkraut, the public only saw advertising, brand, and other elements, not the huge changes in Uni-President's market operation model. Many people still think Laotan Sauerkraut was a brand success.
05
The relationship between brand and sales is certainly mutually causal. But the result of media communication is mostly not.
This is like climbing stairs: two feet serve as fulcrums for each other to climb up, crossing upward, not one foot jumping up.
When brand value increases, it certainly supports sales. When sales grow, it also enhances brand value.
I heard a boss say the most confident sentence: Brand is the accumulation of sales. When I heard this on the spot, I had mixed feelings. This sentence is better than many brand experts. However, he may not know McKinsey's famous saying: Absolute sales produce absolute brand.
This boss is the same age as me. I went to university at 17, he entered a factory; I graduated with a master's degree at 24, he became a boss. He never studied marketing, does not understand brand theory, but now he is an industry giant.
He summarized that in the years when the company grew fastest, the company had no money to build the brand. In the years when the company invested the most in brand building, the company had the most difficult sales.
06
Is it that with a brand, products sell well, or that when products sell well, it becomes a brand? This may be a chicken-and-egg question. Arguing about such a question is not my style.
But I can be sure that both logics above are valid. There is no need to argue, but what conclusion you draw from it depends on the person.
Some will say, since with a brand, products sell well, then I will wait for you to build the brand. My poor sales are because of brand problems.
Others will say, since when products sell well, it becomes a brand, then regardless of whether it is a brand, I will find ways to sell. As long as I sell well, it will definitely become a brand.
Every sentence has believers, depending on your stance.
The dispute of views is actually a dispute of stances. Those who have a stance first are hard to change their views.
07
As a soldier, you must seize the position even without air support. As a marketer, you must make sales even without resources, and make sales even without a brand.
Find sales paths outside the brand, and the marketing road can be walked on your own. Otherwise, you will always have to rely on others' umbrellas for shade.
With sales, you gradually accumulate resources, and you can invest resources in brand building beyond sales. Of course, this statement is still vulgar enough, because sales itself is accumulating brand.
Those big companies were not born big.
Those multinational companies that entered China with the power of their brands were not brands at the beginning of their entrepreneurship. For example, Procter & Gamble, more than 170 years ago, was not a brand at all. It became a brand only after more than 60 years of entrepreneurship, thanks to the advent of radio.
Many local brands today started from scratch. Surviving is the duty, building a brand is the dream.
If the father is a rich man, the son naturally has money. If the father is an ordinary person, the son can still rise above. When the son rises, the grandson will have money.
08
Even with a brand, will products definitely sell well?
With the same brand, some regions sell poorly, and distributors are constantly eliminated. Does the brand not shine on all?
With the same brand, some employees sell poorly, and salespeople constantly leave. Does the brand not share its benefits equally?
Some without a brand later became brands; some that were brands are no longer brands.
Generally speaking, companies with good brand work also do other marketing work well. Ordinary people just see the brand, not the other work. Or, the result of all marketing work is the brand.
Treating "building the brand" as an independent task is itself a misinterpretation of the brand.
Such misinterpretations were common before, but now they are becoming fewer.
09
This article does not provide sales paths outside the brand, nor can it provide such paths, but such paths certainly exist, and there are many.
All brands are made from unknown to well-known. Therefore, the core logic of marketing is not what to do when you have a brand, but what to do when you do not have a brand.
The biggest logical error of this statement is: using the logic of the [successful] to reverse-engineer the logic of [moving toward success]. Inferring the process from the result.
Wang Jianlin can say: Set a small goal first, like 100 million. This is the logic of the already successful Wang Jianlin. Wang Jianlin in the early days of his business would not say this.
Already successful companies can apply this logic when launching new products. Because their resources are sufficient to support brand first, then sales follow, playing a [time gap] between brand and sales.
The logic of [moving toward success] is the logic of entrepreneurship. The logic of entrepreneurship is: if the venture succeeds, I will have money. Not: if I have money, I can start a venture.
Having money is not called entrepreneurship; it is called investment. Investment is money making money; entrepreneurship is catching a white wolf with empty hands.
A brand expert once said: Brand planning without an advertising budget is hooliganism.
Most companies' marketing must follow the logic of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurial marketing in relation to entrepreneurial logic is: When products sell well, it naturally becomes a brand.
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The 3rd (CFIC) China FMCG + Internet Conference will be held in Chongqing in October 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme "New Forces, New Ecology" and invite 1000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment and financing institutions to jointly explore a new chapter of cross-border integration!
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The industry's first "2017 China FMCG B2B Industry Competitiveness White Paper"
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Click the links below to review the highlights of the 1st and 2nd FMCG + Internet Conferences:
2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum 2017 (2nd) China FMCG + Internet Conference
Click the links below to review the highlights of the 1st and 2nd FMCG + Internet Conferences:
2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum
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