Click 'Read Original' for details. Source: Li Luanqi (ID: liluanqi77) As summer approaches, the beverage market is stirring. Major brands are armed with seasonal new products, ready to bombard the market (and innocent consumers) with aggressive campaigns. As a mature market segment, competition in the beverage industry rivals that of leadership elections in the Taiwan region—no one succeeds easily. Though there are countless beverages in the world, opportunity favors the prepared. How to develop and design new products? How to market to stand out? What promotional activities can create a sales champion? How to raise prices creatively to improve profit reports? ... Here are some thoughtful tips I've compiled, hoping to provide practical guidance to beverage manufacturers.
01 Naming Brand builders have likely read and memorized the marketing bible—Positioning. For many, the biggest takeaway is: The first step to success is a cool name. Looking at the current beverage market, simple, catchy, and easy-to-remember principles no longer satisfy the growing imagination of brand development teams. Taking a different path, being unexpected, and showcasing talent are the naming principles for more new beverage brands. So, is it hard to come up with such a (hard-to-understand) name? It's not hard if you approach it from these three angles; you might even find naming fun.
1. Flip through classics This doesn't mean you need to spend lots of time reading heavy tomes; just find articles like "200 World Classics Every Teenager Should Read" or "200 Books Every Woman Should Read in Her Lifetime—Worth Collecting."
2. The X-Xiao-X rule Not only celebrities set personas; brands now act cute, proud, and moody. But setting a persona requires a name that resembles a real human. Observation shows that on average, each person's friend list has at least three friends named X-Xiao-X, indicating such names are popular and create a sense of familiarity—they've been proven! If you can't think of a better X-Xiao-X, No worries; just add a title after the name, And familiarity will immediately hit you.
3. Homophone puns Though some may roll their eyes at homophone usage, you can't stop more and more people from being amused by puns at supermarket shelves, a hundred times more than watching Happy Camp. If you're a fruit drink, you'll inevitably use puns like "banana exchange" (蕉往), "grapefruit temptation" (柚惑), "beautiful berry" (美莓)... But these may be outdated; customers' surprise threshold is rising, so consider more intense and bold ideas:
02 Packaging Design Shen Zijin said: "Buddha relies on gold plating, people rely on clothing." Contemporary product developers say: "Beverages rely on packaging." A good package can satisfy the modern need to take photos for social media. So winning the WeChat Moments battle means you're halfway to success.
1. Upgrade packaging It's said that most growth in the beverage market comes from price increases. Recognizing this, you understand the importance of upgrading packaging. This strategy suits mature brands (meaning people are tired of them); excuses are easy to come by, as no one will scrutinize your logic. Just have designers change the outer packaging, and the price can rise imperceptibly.
2. Literary creation on packaging Perhaps NetEase Cloud Music started a new chapter where Chinese people can post QQ statuses anywhere, anytime. Beverage packaging is such an exposed surface; it can't be missed. It can help those with expression barriers complete their confessions: It can deeply touch the hearts of lonely people: It can also promote the spirit of modern poetry:
3. Maximize packaging value Everyone yearns for immortality; can't a beverage bottle too? You can never predict the important role a beverage bottle might play in someone's life.
03 Flavor Development Must beverages be sweet? Not necessarily. Beverage manufacturers constantly seek change and innovation in flavor development, exhausting their minds to create a heavenly taste. Every ambitious beverage: Should have at least half the self-awareness and cultivation of tofu pudding: Half the courage and audacity of artists and influencers: And half the imagination and neuroticism of advertisers:
04 Target Audience Who drinks what? This is a major question every beverage manufacturer faces. Understanding consumption habits is nothing; only by gaining insight into deep consumer psychology can you laugh last. These groups are gods you can't avoid in the beverage industry:
1. Tech-savvy ingredient label readers Often early users of Guokr, later moving to Weibo as small influencers; though niche (with a growing trend), they have loyal followers stickier than superglue, whose hobby is studying ingredient labels and writing analysis reports of no less than 20,000 words each.
2. The refined middle class Every category needs a Hermès for the middle class to consume. Yes, every category! Toothpaste Hermès, toilet paper Hermès, and beverage Hermès are equally important. The middle class can't be like college girls, always craving high-sugar bubble tea. They have two clear requirements for what they drink: First, health, but they don't have time to read the tech-savvy's 20,000-word articles. Second, hard to buy; supermarket shelf products lack a sense of luxury. Additionally, words like fresh-squeezed, avocado, cherry, quinoa can attract this group.
3. Straight men who fantasize about being Kobe Capturing this group's needs is actually the easiest; first understand their composition: They need a beverage that provides ample energy when they're on the court, helping them complete Gordon-style dunks.
4. Sweet and innocent girls Including: Fruit girls who worship strawberries and mangoes as the ultimate taste; Japanese-style girls who can't move when they see cherry blossom series; Simple girls who think drinking yogurt makes them healthy; And girls who refuse to age, overly enthusiastic about pink packaging (and cat designs).
5. Health enthusiasts who are always 'on fire' This group differs from the tech-savvy; their health theories are more mystical. They attribute 80% of physical discomfort to "shanghuo" (internal heat).
05 Advertising Slogans An extremely important step, Remember three principles:
1. Short principle The most widely used advertising tactic in China, and the most deserving of a noise pollution complaint. Follow the 4-3 rule—two short phrases, first with 4 characters, second with 3. Put it on TV and in elevators for relentless bombardment, and people will store you in their minds while cursing you. For example, fill-in-the-blank questions:
2. Long principle Long slogans should follow the principle: "sounds shocking at first, makes some sense on reflection, but ultimately seems incredible and worth pondering."
3. High-end vocabulary principle As everyone knows, car ads love to invent high-end words, like "dazzling debut" (耀世? Is Sogou input method not smart enough?), "extraordinary on the road" (sounds like promoting off-shoulder tops), etc. Our little beverages should also learn to create premium space for ourselves.
06 Endorsements An endorser can turn a brand from a pheasant to a phoenix, or from a domestic chicken to a wild one. So endorsement isn't about who's hottest; it's about who fits best. There are three common approaches:
1. Traffic star endorsement Stars with built-in traffic can boost a brand's development, as once the ad is released, discussion may break human limits: Fanatical and wealthy fans might build a warehouse bigger than the brand's own to help their idol drive conversions.
2. Non-famous artist endorsement What if you're short on money? Choose lesser-known artists with looks above 8/10 and fresh temperament, creating a brand spirit that's unconventional and not solely traffic-driven. Though there won't be crazy ordering fans, artistic youths will flock.
3. Team endorsement Spend big, shoot an ad with the grandeur of a New Year film, turning your ad into a barometer of a star's popularity. Invite all the hot stars; those not invited are considered not popular (or past their prime).
07 Distribution Channels Once the ad plan is set and produced, it's time to launch it at the public. If you've spent big on a traffic star, consider app splash screens to give consumers the highest emotional peak of the day when they open their phones—either scared to death or charmed to death: TV drama product placement is now outdated; wilder placement is emerging, like sponsoring any variety show with a live audience, then without any logical setup, cutting to audience members drinking your product, delivering a sudden shock to viewers on TV or phones: Also require the host to do a 5x speed ad read, even if viewers can't understand a word: Everyone in the show must carry the KPI of adding drama for the brand: Of course, you can also choose trailer ads for TV dramas and movies, focusing on 'repeated shouting' to drive viewers to frantically search for the volume button, or in a dark cinema with no escape—that's success.
08 Topic Marketing So-called topic marketing is about labeling your product. A product without a label is a failure; a brand without a pretentious label (and not buying hot searches) is clearly not trying hard. With so many carbonated drinks, why is only Coca-Cola the spokesperson for happiness? With so many lemon teas, why is only Vita Lemon Tea the bomb? Because: We must understand that being a slash (multi-label) is hopeless. Of course, there's a lowbrow tactic—sexualizing milky white liquids. For example, "drink from A to D" (referring to cup sizes), implying that in a world run by vulgar straight men, everything can be sexualized. We won't elaborate here. Yuck.
09 Scarcity Marketing Capitalizing on the Chinese consumer psychology of "what you can't get must be good," any brand now dares to launch limited editions (with doubled prices) and even shamelessly implement allocation systems. (Note: allocation means, for example, to buy product A, the salesperson says you must buy B first; common in luxury brands, but recently some small brands try this too.) Our beverage industry should follow suit!
10 Cross-industry Marketing There are three major cross-industry enthusiasts in the world (I suspect they're Sagittarius): Condoms, hoodies, and the Forbidden City. The core of cross-industry = graphic designers and illustrators, Just hybridize the packaging design, and you've crossed over. Cross-industry has many benefits; it can stir up topics (discussion might break human limits): It can bring small thrills and ripples to consumers' overly plain lives: The 'limited edition' concept essential in cross-industry marketing also helps eliminate the emptiness felt by those at the peak of life—"there's nothing left to conquer."
11 Promotional Activities For FMCG, offline channels are king; the highest visibility in supermarket shopping carts is the true winner. So, how to win the battle in the fiercely competitive peak season? Promotions! Everyone is familiar with this; it's about who's bolder. Discounts must be thorough! Have courage! Don't leave any retreat for yourself (or customers)! Give back to the gods completely: To avoid being seen as clearing inventory, you can also offer hardcore value packs (so consumers can't find where it's not discounted): Yes, every bottle of beverage has undergone countless trials to reach us. Please leave a comment #Your favorite or most-purchased beverage# I want to see which demon wins the popularity award. This article is reposted from the public account: Li Luanqi (ID: liluanqi77), an observer of urban life.