During the 2020 China FMCG Conference, I mentioned a viewpoint: in the digital age, for brands to rebuild new connections with users, they must be able to make waves, be recommended, and continuously create value for users. In fact, the internal logic of these three words is essentially user lifecycle management. Starting from attracting users' attention, continuously providing long-term, lifelong value to users, thereby achieving continuous interaction, continuous purchase, and continuous forwarding by users. But it should be noted that this new connection model is not the inverted pyramid model of traffic thinking. Traffic thinking is a funnel, aiming to obtain as much traffic as possible, converting through a certain probability, and finally generating transactions. This brings certain problems: traffic becomes increasingly expensive, and the business is unsustainable. This model is a positive pyramid, not seeking to acquire a large number of users in a short time, but through continuous operation of users, through creative communication + quality products + continuous value provision, accumulating as many users as possible, finally forming a large group of loyal fans, continuous purchase, continuous promotion, and ultimately forming a stable business closed loop. Today we focus on the first topic: 'Making Waves' - Part 1: Communication is not PR, it's about being watched. -01- Communication has become a big problem I can never remember which ads I've seen on Douyin. I believe most people are like me: as soon as they encounter an ad on Douyin, they skip it instantly. Advertisers are not unaware that Douyin ads are ineffective; the problem is that most advertisers have no other choice. In the past, communication was easy, but transactions were difficult. Today, transactions are easy, but communication is more difficult. Back then, Chairman Mao said, "Revolution requires mastering two rods: a gun and a pen." Today, the pen may be far more important than the gun. Today, users have too many choices. Apart from Focus Media's elevator screens, there is almost no medium that can force users to watch ads. In the past, with limited media, brands could bombard users with ads, forcibly instilling brand awareness. This model was efficient and had wide coverage. Many brands, for short-term results, endlessly repeated ads, simple and crude, forcing users to remember. Instilling is not a problem; advertisers don't need users to spread the word. But today, with media fragmentation, if you don't let users spread the word, you cannot cover the majority of target consumers. Of course, you might say that current apps have thousands of user tags, and you can use smart targeting to precisely reach your target users. You might also say you can invest in KOLs or live-streaming influencers to solve the coverage problem of KOLs consistent with brand tone. If users are watching content because of the KOL, such communication is inefficient. First, the coverage breadth is not as good as CCTV or Focus Media. Second, it's still one-time communication. The KOL gives your product very little time and space. Can they genuinely love and convey value for your product? Also, isn't it expensive? Genki Forest sells well in Beijing, but actual sales are less than zero-sugar Coca-Cola. However, in today's media, everyone is discussing Genki Forest, while no one sees the efforts of zero-sugar Coke. Worse, Coca-Cola's main sales come from sugary Coke, so they cannot use zero-sugar as a selling point, which makes Coca-Cola very uncomfortable. Christensen mentioned in "Judo Strategy" that you must compete where giants cannot reach. You see, even big brands cannot avoid being suppressed by asymmetric competitors in public opinion. In today's market environment, the importance of public opinion in the FMCG industry far exceeds the importance of sales. So today, even if the voice is small, it's okay. We need users' attention, not to become the elephant in the room! The problem today is not that users don't consume you, but that users don't discuss you. -02- Communication is not equal to PR events But active discussion and passive discussion are completely different. At this year's China FMCG Conference, I proposed a viewpoint: brands must know how to make waves, but this wave is a spectacle event created by the company itself. If others lead the rhythm, it's a PR event. Communication and being communicated are fundamentally different. When being communicated, you might be praised one moment and destroyed the next. Let me ask you a question: Do you think articles like "Why XXX Brand Isn't Selling Well" affect sales? In the past two years, many media outlets, to gain traffic, have randomly published articles saying XXX brand is old, not selling well, etc. The content is similar to the Nokia and RT-Mart language: "We didn't do anything wrong, but we lost," or "I won all competitors but lost to the era." For example, Want Want has had very good growth this year, but the media and internet are full of "Want Want is declining," "Want Want is old," "Why isn't Want Want selling well," just like the public criticism of Wahaha and Jiangxiaobai in the past. I don't understand why most companies choose silence. The worst thing is not an article; if it triggers a chain of discussions, all netizens will be instilled with this subconscious. A couple of days ago, in Liu Chunxiong's marketing group, there was a heated discussion about an article from a major WeChat account: "Poor People's Takeout Tastes Like Hujiang Chili Sauce." If you look at the article's stance alone, there is no malice; it just uses Hujiang to illustrate the dullness of white-collar dining and the monotony of life. From the number of shares, a 100,000+ article may not have much impact on the market, so we saw Hujiang didn't take any action. But what I want to express is that even if someone is truly poor, I wouldn't want to be called poor. Many comments seem harmless, but the article and comments can subconsciously make you stay away from Hujiang. Once the label "poor people eat Hujiang" is attached, it's really troublesome. This is the problem: an uncontrollable PR communication event can often have disastrous consequences. Communication is not equal to PR events. PR events can be communicated, but the event must ultimately be controllable by the brand, unified with brand value, and in the same direction. -03- But communication must be a spectacle event For representative cases of communication in 2020, I think it can be summarized in one sentence: Huawei's posters and Laoxiangji's meeting. The whole country knows Trump is suppressing Huawei. Huawei could have used this patriotic sentiment, but they didn't. Instead, they used two posters to tell everyone what Huawei should do. Huawei conveyed its values through posters, making everyone feel sympathy and admiration, earning countless likes and active shares. Everyone watched Trump suppress Huawei, but what they forwarded was Huawei's consistent values. Can you say this is not a perfect communication event? After the pandemic outbreak, the catering industry suffered heavy losses. Companies like Xibei and Grandma's Home publicly stated they couldn't survive three months, planned layoffs, and called for government preferential policies. But Laoxiangji's chairman, Shu Congxuan, tore up an employee joint letter, which exploded on WeChat and Douyin: Laoxiangji has many stores in Wuhan and lost over 500 million yuan during the pandemic. Employees spontaneously wrote a joint letter offering to take pay cuts to help the company through the crisis. But in the video posted on February 8, Shu Congxuan tore up the letter, scolded employees for being confused, and clearly stated that the company would neither lay off nor cut salaries. He affirmed employees' efforts during the pandemic and clearly expressed the responsibility and courage an entrepreneur should bear. Shortly after the pandemic ended, before the heat of the previous event had faded, Laoxiangji conveniently held a 200-yuan press conference: This seemingly simple press conference not only reported to the nation the story of Laoxiangji's founding 30 years ago and its achievement as the number one Chinese fast-food brand, but also mentioned plans for national expansion. With a budget of 200 yuan, they made the whole country know that Laoxiangji was coming. Under the WeChat video article "2020 Laoxiangji Strategic Press Conference," Yue Yunpeng commented: "Shu, I think you can come to Deyun Society!" Unexpectedly, on August 24, Shu Congxuan actually performed a "reporting dish names" routine. Yue Yunpeng quickly responded, calling duck soup chicken and @Shu Congxuan, "How about my chicken soup?" Yue Yunpeng's act of calling duck chicken quickly became a hot search. Then the two exchanged messages on Weibo, gaining a lot of attention. Until the afternoon of the 27th, when the event had fermented enough, Shu Congxuan publicly called on Yue Yunpeng to be the spokesperson. Summarizing these three events, it's hard to define whether they are PR events or communication events. But whether PR or communication, in summary: correct values, eye-catching. This series of operations is perfect. It's definitely a textbook-level spectacle communication event. You might say there's a master planner behind the company. But I think these operations are not complicated; the key is how you understand what "spectacle" means. Zihaiguo's business boomed during the pandemic, with various live streams and influencer带货 selling out. Actually, offline was not idle either. While everyone was discussing live streaming, Zihaiguo moved its live studio directly into stores in many remote counties. This caused a stir in small counties, with countless on-site communication and sales. The key is they didn't spend much money. Stores were willing to provide space for Zihaiguo to do this. Mr. Shi told me that in one live stream, in a store in a small county in Guizhou with a population of less than 400,000, sales ranged from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand yuan. Huawei conveyed values, Laoxiangji created social media spectacles, and Zihaiguo created shopping scene visits. Although the forms are different, the underlying logic is the same: they are all making waves! What is making waves? Making waves is using people's curiosity, by creating spectacle events, distributing social currency to gossipy crowds, and letting them spread the word for the brand. Let's return to the opening issue of skipping ads on Douyin. The information Douyin provides is based on algorithms tailored to your preferences, so the content is mostly what you like. Receiving such a large amount of information in a short time, we call it content explosion. The direct reaction of users is a state called content shock. So-called content shock refers to a state where users only click numbly but cannot remember the content recommended to you on Douyin. So, the dilemma all brands face today is that when you try to persuade users through ads, what users most need to hear is not the information you provide, but whether there is something in the information that makes them feel trustworthy. In a sense, what these three brands did was to tell a very special story in three different forms, using people's curiosity. A brand is an imagined community built between the enterprise and users, and the form that carries this community is a good story. In the next part, we will discuss how brands can tell a story that users will remember. If you want to communicate with the author, you can long-press the QR code to add WeChat. If you provide a tip, we will pay 400-2000 yuan once adopted.