Click the image for details Introduction: The Seven Laws of Buttons: You can't talk about marketing without a bit of philosophy. Around us, there are always people who seem to have "bad luck." They often share these traits: They are warm-hearted and always ready to help, rushing to assist whenever anyone asks; they are hardworking and uncomplaining, worrying about everything and staying busy all day; yet they always seem to have bad luck, encountering misfortunes, often living in poverty, with poor health, and many end up in bleak old age. There are many such examples around Lao Miao, too many to count. When I was young, I attended a training course. A "teacher" taught us about time management, dividing tasks into four quadrants based on urgency and importance: "urgent and important," "urgent but not important," "not urgent but important," and "not urgent and not important." Then he asked us what order we would do things in. Of course, even a fool knows to do "urgent and important" things first, and do "not urgent and not important" things last or not at all. What many find hard to choose is: between "urgent but not important" and "important but not urgent," which do you do first? The trainer told us to do "urgent but not important" first because it's imminent. After hearing that, Lao Miao picked up his notebook and left. I thought attending such a class was a "brainless and unimportant" thing.
Professionals often go against intuition. Most people are pushed by time and assume they should do urgent things first without calculating their value. A friend calls, saying there's a social engagement that needs your presence. You go out of politeness, chat for two hours, and eat and drink things that are hard to digest. In fact, you had planned to go to the gym or read for two hours that evening. So, you convince yourself you have no time to read or exercise. Daily reading or exercise is not urgent. Missing a couple of sessions doesn't have an obvious effect, but it's very important. If you stick with it for a year, you'll see a transformative change. A friend organizing a dinner or a mahjong game with three players is urgent, but it's not important. Although it's euphemistically called networking and building relationships, for most people, it's just a formality. This brings us to the first law: Don't do unimportant things. Don't be led by the nose by urgent but unimportant matters. This is the most important principle in time management and the most common source of misunderstanding. Now, with that foundation, let's upgrade our cognition. Among important things, there's a distinction between "key matters" and "non-key matters." For example, in a company, which of "production, supply, sales, research, personnel, finance" is unimportant? All are important. But which is key? It depends on the specific situation. Under different circumstances, the key matters differ. Chairman Mao liked to say "lift the net by the main rope," and he was a master at grasping key actions. During the War of Liberation, Mao wrote every editorial himself, while Chiang Kai-shek personally commanded every battle, even flying over the battlefield to issue specific orders. Different perceptions of key matters lead to different actions. Mao said that the victory in the War of Liberation was politically inevitable but militarily accidental. So his actions focused on the inevitable factors. Militarily, he mainly gave directions via telegraph, using 408 telegrams to direct 24 campaigns, including the three major campaigns, and specifically noted "don't ask for instructions on everything." Chiang, who attended military school and served as principal of the Whampoa Military Academy, believed more in "power comes from the barrel of a gun." He devoted most of his energy to troops, generals, factions, weapons, military supplies, and command. Mao Zedong mentioned in "On Contradiction": "In the process of development of a complex thing, there are many contradictions, among which one is necessarily the principal contradiction. Its existence and development determine or influence the existence and development of other contradictions." "In any case, at each stage of the process, there is only one principal contradiction that plays a leading role, and this is beyond doubt." "Once this principal contradiction is grasped, all problems can be readily solved." Contradictions are everywhere, and the principal contradiction is everywhere in complex matters. Key actions are the most powerful means to resolve contradictions. Similarly, there is a law in marketing: At any time, any enterprise has only one or two key actions. A slight touch on them can cause earth-shaking changes. This is the marketing button. Correctly pressing the button solves all problems. Yake Wanda, Naobaijin, and Jingjiu all succeeded by grasping the principal contradiction and adopting key actions. Ma Huateng is also a master at grasping key matters. He believes that Tencent's success hinges on product experience. Pony Ma has publicly stated several times: Whether the product experience can move people is the biggest thing, bigger than anything else. Like the basic laws of contradiction, key marketing actions are also developing and changing. Contradictions transform into each other, the nature of things changes, and the key actions of business operations also change, so the buttons that need to be pressed change accordingly. The theory of development and change is the third law of button marketing. When doing marketing standardization for Wanda, the principal contradiction was "limited money and cheap land everywhere." So Boss Wang used "Wanda speed" to rapidly expand scale and improve capital utilization. But when it became a commercial empire, the key contradiction changed. Stability and correctness outweighed everything. Then things happened that are indescribable. Dali's development is a vivid example. I remember when Dali only made baked goods, I visited Dali once. It was astonishing: the entire office building was extremely empty, with only a few managers, and reportedly only a dozen or so salespeople stationed outside. At that time, Dali's sales had already exceeded one billion yuan, and brands like Haochidian and Kebike were already famous. When Dali launched beverages in 2006, the industry was full of pessimistic predictions that were later proven wrong, such as "beverages require meticulous cultivation, Dali's extensive approach won't work" and "Dali is just tough-talking (good at advertising); they'll die in beverages." In fact, Dali's beverage business took off without a hitch. The "meticulous cultivation" that others did was only a secondary contradiction for Dali. Dali made "product communication" its key strategic action. Undoubtedly, Dali's Boss Xu is one of the best product managers in China's food industry. It's said he personally oversees even packaging design. His product concept points and communication points are highly clever and unique. From Haochidian, Gold Egg Rolls, Heqizheng to Lehu, they've shone all the way, coupled with overwhelming advertising, consumers, especially those in second-tier and below cities, are very receptive. The "main rope" of product communication lifts the "mesh" of channel management. Once the principal contradiction is solved, everything else is easily handled. However, Dali may now be entering a critical period. After listing, Dali's financial reports were extremely impressive, with 2017 performance reaching 19.8 billion yuan. But in recent years, sales growth has come more from finer distribution and a surge in the number of distributors. Last year's major new product "Doubendou" received poor terminal feedback, with many distributors saying "a large amount of product is stuck in warehouses." For Dali, if the "main rope" of product communication is not lifted, the performance driven by more distributors' stocking and pressure will ultimately be a mirage. The theory of contradiction most opposes metaphysical balance and equilibrium. This balance and equilibrium also have a big market in marketing practice, confusing many people and harming many enterprises. "Marketing is a system; it's not enough to just make a good product." "Marketing is a system; it's not as simple as advertising." "Marketing requires integration; just attracting investment (brand) can't solve all problems." ... These statements are correct abstractly, but in specific contexts, they are harmful: Because when you face a specific problem, at that moment, you may most need a product breakthrough, or a way to increase awareness, or a sound sales channel. At this time, you need to invest all your resources in the most critical action for you to accurately press your marketing button. Opposing marketing system theory and balance theory is the fourth law of buttons. Previously, Mr. Ye (Ye Maozhong) talked about "three ones": one main visual, one slogan, one TVC. Huayu Company has the concept "super symbol is super creativity." Often, making your brand leave a different impression on consumers and breaking through people's cognitive threshold with pure creativity is a strategy that requires you to concentrate all your strength to break through. In a complex environment, discovering the principal contradiction and the key marketing action is not easy. Because "traps" always disguise themselves as "pies" waiting for you, while opportunities always seem like "traps" and pass you by. Not everyone has such insight. The "pie trap theory" is the fifth law of buttons. Those who advocate marketing balance or system theory won't grasp the principal contradiction, nor do they know how to adopt key actions. Instead, they hope to sit at home and devise a foolproof and comprehensive marketing plan, seeking low risk and fearing loss, which caters to many bosses' psychology. They don't realize that the biggest risk for an enterprise is hoping to be foolproof. There are many key matters, but you can't do twenty things at once. "Cutting off one finger is better than injuring ten." The safest marketing for an enterprise is to invest 100% of marketing resources into 5% of key matters. This is the sixth law of buttons. Of course, Lao Miao has also mentioned before that many marketing balance theorists don't know how to discover the key marketing actions of an enterprise, nor do they know how to press the marketing button. So they like to blur the plan into a grand system. Once a problem arises, we tend to attribute it to a powerful factor beyond our control, which reduces our stress. This phenomenon is very common in marketing management. Our solutions habitually face a huge, non-specific thing rather than one or two key actions. So, we often see plans that are just "collections of marketing plan tools" or "lists of various marketing elements," but they lack specific actions: what to do, who does it, when, what standards, and what resource allocation? Speaking of specific actions, we should also pour cold water on those who hope to find a button and easily handle marketing. An enterprise's key action is not a single idea, not a simple action like "enlarge the toothpaste opening by double." The implementation of marketing buttons is complex. This is the seventh law of buttons. To fully implement the action and achieve results requires the concentration of various enterprise resources, coordinated pace, and thorough execution. This is not easy. We all know "hit the snake at its seven inches," but for someone unfamiliar with snakes, hitting the seven inches is not easy. Take the example above: In the battle against the Kuomintang's attack on Shandong, Chen and Su discovered that the key action to win the war was to eliminate the 74th Division, not to fully confront the KMT's 400,000 troops. But eliminating the elite 74th Division was no easy task. Troop deployment, main attack, reinforcement interception, terrain, logistics, mobilization—if any link failed, the entire campaign would collapse. Speaking of Yake, when they decided to use "star products" to launch the brand, creating star products became their key marketing action. But behind creating a star product are many actions: the selection of V9 product, the "three ones" creativity, the investment conference, media placement, and large-scale sampling. The implementation of these actions ensured the success of the key action of "creating star products." This article has a lot of methodology. Let's summarize: Button Law 1: Don't do unimportant things. Don't be led by the nose by urgent but unimportant matters.
Button Law 2: At any time, any enterprise has only one or two key actions. A slight touch on them can cause earth-shaking changes. This is the marketing button. Correctly pressing the button solves all problems.
Button Law 3: Contradictions transform into each other, the nature of things changes, and the key actions of business operations also change, so the buttons that need to be pressed change accordingly.
Button Law 4: The theory of contradiction most opposes metaphysical balance and equilibrium. In marketing practice, this manifests as metaphysical balance and system theory, which is the most deceptive and what we should oppose most.
Button Law 5: "Traps" always disguise themselves as "pies" waiting for you, while opportunities always seem like "traps" and pass you by.
Button Law 6: The safest marketing for an enterprise is to invest 100% of marketing resources into 5% of key matters.
Button Law 7: The implementation of marketing buttons is complex. To fully implement the action and achieve results requires the concentration of various enterprise resources, coordinated pace, and thorough execution. Author: Miao Qingxian, Chief Consultant of Shanghai Yihe Marketing Agency. Brand and marketing expert. Professional media person. Source: Lao Miao Tears Marketing (ID: yiheyingxiao) New Distribution will hold the 2019 (5th) FMCG + Internet Conference during the Chengdu Spring Sugar and Wine Fair from March 16 to March 18. This conference will focus on the topic "Breakthrough" and conduct in-depth discussions with numerous brand owners, supply chain service providers, distributors, retailers, and others. Compared to previous conferences, this summit will be fully upgraded. In addition to original topics like channel innovation, city distribution logistics, and distributor transformation, it will add multiple parallel forums on new marketing cases, IP + FMCG empowerment, community group buying, and innovative retail. Through three days of ten high-density, high-quality expert sharing sessions, we believe every brand owner and distributor can learn the latest business models, expert opinions, and practical methods, finding new tools and methods for their own breakthrough in 2019 and returning to the track of rapid growth. Review of Previous Conferences -END-