Success must conform to logic, but what conforms to logic does not necessarily succeed. A new system must first be logically self-consistent, then verified in practice. The logic of new marketing is expressed by the relationship of a set of terms: New marketing, with communication as the source. All 4Ps are communication, everything is communication, and logic arises from this.
New marketing is marketing in the context of the mobile internet. When a noun is prefixed with "new," it means that the "new" has not yet formed a systematic structure, and to distinguish it from the traditional, it can only be named with "new."
Some tools (technologies) are just ordinary tools (technologies). But the steam engine is not an ordinary tool (technology), because with it, the world moved from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization, and Britain rose accordingly. The internal combustion engine and electricity are also not ordinary tools (technologies), because with their emergence, the world moved from the first industrial revolution to the second, and the United States and Germany rose accordingly. Internet technology appeared early, but with the popularization of the mobile internet, China and the United States took the lead in entering the era of information civilization. The mobile internet is not an ordinary technology or tool, but a technology and tool that changes the world, and a technology and tool that lays the foundation for a new era of civilization. A new era of civilization is not only a change in the production system, but also a reconstruction of the consumption system, as well as the knowledge system and value system, just as productive forces determine relations of production, and the economic base determines the superstructure. The traditional knowledge system of business management reached its peak in the 1980s. Under the background of information civilization, traditional strategy, operations, and management are all challenged, even subverted. Just as after the industrial revolution, the knowledge system of agricultural civilization was challenged. The marketing knowledge system is also challenged. New marketing is marketing under the above background.
Trinity Under the background of the mobile internet, the originally separate marketing links are integrated. A typical example is the "trinity" proposed by Teacher Shi Wei—cognition, transaction, and relationship, as a trinity. The essence of marketing is information asymmetry, using information asymmetry to establish favorable cognition. Transactions and relationships are products of cognition. In the past, the three were separate; now they are integrated. Where does cognition come from? Cognition comes from communication. In the era of agricultural civilization, communication relied on word of mouth and face-to-face communication. In the era of industrial civilization, a major communication method was added, namely mass communication, the communication of mass media, such as television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. In the era of information civilization, an omnipresent medium was added—the internet. If in commercial communication, traditional mass media were basically controllable (paid communication), now in the era of self-media, internet communication often goes out of control. In the era of industrial civilization, traditional media were only responsible for communication; transactions were completed by another system, such as channels and terminals (retail), meaning cognition, transaction, and relationship were generally separate. Now it is a trinity, with the three integrated. For example, on Taobao and Tmall, the three are completed simultaneously. Taobao and Tmall are responsible for attracting traffic (building cognition), while also placing orders (transactions), and after the transaction, a more direct relationship can be established. Therefore, it must not be said that new marketing is a simple tool replacement, such as using internet communication to replace traditional media communication.
Independent Traffic In the above logic, communication and cognition are decisive. The results produced by communication and cognition are what we call traffic. Transactions and relationships are derivatives of traffic. Traffic in the internet era is divided into platform traffic and independent traffic. Alibaba's "Double 11" transaction volume is so large because Alibaba's platform traffic is large enough. This principle is the same as traditional KA. In the past, Walmart's traffic was also platform traffic, but even as the top of the Fortune 500, Walmart's traffic was small compared to internet platforms. The era of information civilization is both an era of decentralization—traditional media and traditional KA are the centers of the industrial civilization era—and an era of super-centralization. As the three major platforms, BAT: Tencent controls social traffic, Baidu controls search traffic, and Alibaba controls e-commerce traffic. Some say the pattern of the platform era is 7-2-1, meaning the leading platform occupies 70% of traffic, follower platforms occupy 20%, and others occupy 10%. Once a platform controls absolute traffic, it becomes a traffic distributor. Despite Ma Yun's dream of "making it easy to do business anywhere," despite Taobao being free in its early days, and despite Taobao initially directing a large amount of traffic to "Taobao brands," Alibaba cannot do this for all merchants, nor will it always do so. It will eventually become a traffic distributor, and whoever bids the highest will get the traffic. Without empowerment, traffic bidding under perfect competition will inevitably lead to the sum of profits of all participants being zero. This has nothing to do with business ideals. This is the inevitable pattern of platform business. Therefore, business in the internet era also needs another kind of traffic, which I call independent traffic. Relying on platform traffic will only make you a vassal of the platform.
IP, Traffic Index In traditional marketing, brand is a bargaining chip for brand owners against channel and supply chain partners. In the internet era, will brands directly convert into traffic? Marketing expert Miao Qingxian said: "IP must be a brand, but a brand is not necessarily an IP." Here, IP can be regarded as a synonym for traffic. In the internet era, what is the bargaining chip for manufacturers against platforms? It is independent traffic. What is independent traffic? It is traffic that manufacturers can control. When Jiangxiaobai was listed on an e-commerce platform in August 2016, its transaction volume ranked first in the same category on the same day. The e-commerce platform immediately paid attention. Jiangxiaobai used common e-commerce traffic diversion methods, without price cuts or promotions. So what ensured Jiangxiaobai's transaction volume? It was their control of independent traffic. For manufacturers, not having independent traffic is like not having a brand in the traditional era. Therefore, the importance attached to independent traffic should be even greater than the importance attached to brand in the traditional era. Because in the traditional era, channels could bring their own traffic, and channel driving could sometimes make brand driving ineffective. In the internet era, the driving force of channels has greatly declined, leaving only traffic driving force.
Summary New marketing is the logical relationship of the following set of terms: communication → cognition → traffic → transaction → relationship. In the internet era, cognition, transaction, and relationship are a trinity. Cognition generates traffic, traffic generates transactions, and transactions generate relationships. How is cognition generated? Cognition relies on communication. Because there is communication, there is the saying that cognition is greater than fact. The result of communication and cognition is traffic. Where does traffic come from? Either buy platform traffic and become a vassal of the platform, or create independent traffic and guide traffic autonomously. To guide traffic autonomously, you must do communication well. Tracing the source of marketing, communication is the key. What is the internet for? It is for disseminating information and symbols. The essence of marketing is information asymmetry, and the internet is precisely a natural tool for marketing communication. Therefore, the combination of the internet and marketing will give marketing wings. New marketing is marketing under the background of the internet.
Source: Teacher Liu's Forum (ID: liuchunxiong1964) Click Read Original to see more highlights of the 4th FMCG + Internet Conference... -END-