New consumer brand marketing: 1-6 months tactics

First, let me say the golden sentence:

Cross-dimensionality is the way to survive, single-dimensionality is the way to do things: How to play traffic is not a secret, and most new brands die in the cross-dimensionality from playing traffic to playing brand. This is a two-dimensional playing style and two-dimensional approach.

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Market introduction

1) Media placement: Xiaohongshu, Weibo, Bilibili, WeChat official accounts, Douyin, video accounts, SEO, and industry public relations releases. The combination of punches is different in different stages. It depends on the foundation of the enterprise and the specific feedback on the results. The micro-physical sensation is very important. The overall situation and the stage, the whole and the part, the system and the part. If the whole system and all stages are fully activated right from the start, either this brand director is really awesome or this brand director is really an idiot. You must have a global perspective and a stage theory.

Start by focusing on one medium, running through the selling point-scenario-content paradigm, and then copying the proven effective methods to the second and third media. Considering the cost, it is recommended to start with pictures and texts and then move on to short videos, step by step.

When a new product first enters the market, the core goal is to find consumers. Where do your consumers come from? They must be converted from similar competing products, rather than expanding new users in the category. This is what category leaders do - without investigation, there is no right to speak. Study your competitors to avoid detours.

Analyze the Xiaohongshu accounts of competitors, and use data tools to conduct strategic analysis of competitors based on the dimensions of time period, content, mode, method, strategy, behavior, content, and results. The purpose of analyzing competing products is not to target the opponent, but to restore the three elements of consumer portrait: usage scenarios, user tags, and content keywords.

Starting from the publicity, activities, pictures, and titles of competitors according to the time dimension, draw a 3-6 month action breakdown diagram, focusing on organizing the content and keywords of the hot-selling content of competitors (likes, collections, comments). With the help of third-party data tools, efficiency can be improved. Now that we have the data, how to judge it is a matter of cognitive dimension. The same data may lead to different conclusions. The key to applying it lies in our hearts.

The above work is to know the enemy. Sun Tzu's Art of War says that if you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

The key to success is not to calculate competitors, but to calculate target consumers.

The purpose of knowing the enemy is to complete the target consumer portrait through competitors

The next step is to know yourself, what are the characteristics of the product's selling points, and whether there can be sufficient and perceptible differentiation in terms of craftsmanship, ingredients, raw materials, packaging and design. For example: the instant and packaging of Santonban, the tile appearance of Zhong Xuegao, and the rest of Jane Eyre. How to express differentiation with a dramatic expression, it would be best if this expression could bring out the usage scenario. A good differentiated summary should be worth ten thousand sentences.

The content of the first stage is generally centered on product functions and should highlight the product's usage functions. You can recruit experience officers and only give the direction but not the details of their content.

By observing the content and data of the first batch of experience officers, we can find the scenarios and labels that are suitable for the product's usage functions. This can be called simple content co-construction. After completing the basic notes for amateur content, select some mid-level experts to deliver guiding (rhythmic) content, focusing on functions and scenarios.

The concept of a public account as a traffic pool is different from the "flow" of Xiaohongshu's traffic. It is a medium- to long-term content construction process. The significance of accumulating public accounts is to combine them with mini programs for operations and conversions. This is a long-term and meaningful thing. Don't think about seeing results in the short term. It is a must in the long run.

Comment, draw, forward, reply to keywords. Of course, there are many ways to play with the official account. This still needs to be done in combination with the brand’s own stage and the amount of money. If you have money, you can do big things. If you don’t have money, you can do small activities, such as drinking water.

Bilibili is an interesting place. The success of a platform depends on whether it can produce many "Internet words" of subculture. Bilibili has jargon, Douyin has memes, and Kuaishou has Laotie 666. In contrast, Video Account is mediocre. The key to creating popularity is not to leave the circle, but to enter the circle. Bilibili has its own circle and more young people. By planting seeds on Xiaohongshu's content in the early stage and then going to Bilibili, the cost of trial and error can be minimized. In essence, it is not trial and error but trial and error.

In the first stage, pay attention to the relationship between store sales and off-site search data changes, and do a good job of data analysis and user operations for the first batch of ordering users. If you can do a good job of user retention and operation when goods are shipped, the first batch of original users will become user assets for your future new products, promotions, and activities.

2) Scenarios and KOLs: The selling point of the product should be embedded in the scenario and brought to life through the expressiveness of the content, selling point-scenario-content. First of all, the brand must think clearly about the forms of expression from selling points to scenes to content, and what form can better stimulate consumers' pleasure. What are the keywords of the pictures and texts, and what is the form of expression of the short video.

If you are not sure, you can use AB testing in the first round. The difference between now and the past is that the distance between brands and consumers is getting closer and closer. Xiaohongshu, e-commerce, forums, and communities are the best ways for brands to reach consumers. Through AB testing, we can find the most lethal point. The data speaks for itself, which means we should judge while observing, rather than observing while judging.

Only on this basis can we choose KOL. Whether it is Xiaohongshu or Bilibili, the recommendation for KOL placement is to first invest around this type of KOL. The investment must be thorough, focusing on keywords + KOL to form a certain brand voice. The exposure must be saturated. Before the exposure reaches a certain level, don't think of any clever tricks, let alone the so-called event marketing, which is basically wishful thinking and trying to achieve a great result with a little effort.

3) User operation: Here we are mainly talking about seed users. It is always difficult to go from 0 to 1. The difficulty lies in constantly staying stupid, staying sensitive, and being open-minded. 1,000 loyal users are very important for the brand's market launch phase. Where do these users come from? The core reason is that they come from usage. For example: activities in the media and the recruitment of experience officers, the main purpose is to attract new customers, retain old customers, make them loyal customers, and feed back sales.

Store Operation

Store operation, traffic ranking weighting (search, payment, and ranking) e-commerce is a technical job. The core of the technology is to understand search and vocabulary, search and tags. The more optimized and accurate it is, the conversion can be seen at all times, and the assessment becomes single.

Generally speaking, conversion is a process of decreasing peak value. If there is no support from the brand and no brand thinking, the force for sustained conversion will be weak in the middle and late stages. You must believe that later players are always richer than you. It is important to build up the brand during high conversion times.

In addition, when promoting content outside the site, you should follow the brand’s tone and target audience, and avoid being lured into a trap by e-commerce’s precise conversions. Without the support of a wide range of people, the gradually rising traffic costs (there is a competitive relationship between brands, and a game relationship with platforms, the result is a tie, and it is a process of redistribution) will eventually be stretched to the limit.

Super head product

Super head-to-head sales have two functions, one is to attract new customers, the other is product promotion. Of course, you can edit the video of super head-to-head sales into various short videos, and smash the information flow to make conversions. If you do well, there will be conversions, and even the conversion rate can be very high.

However, the core of understanding super-headline sales lies in the above two points: attracting new customers and product promotion. As for the practice of information flow, it belongs to the reconstruction of marginal value, and a gentleman will do everything he can to achieve it. It is a must to have influencers promote products. Li Jiaqi, Viya, Luo Yonghao and other celebrities will still do it as long as they can break even. If you have to do it even if you lose some money, you just have to keep up with the conversion actions after the new traffic comes. In fact, it is a process of accounting. It depends on whether you are calculating long-term or short-term accounts, sales or brand accounts. How to calculate the accounts is a business skill.

Of course, the greater value of super-headline sales lies in choosing the right time nodes, such as 618, Double 11, and New Year’s Festival. The store’s natural search traffic will also see a significant change 3-5 days after the super-headline sales. If you are lucky enough to be number one in a category, you must promote it quickly, especially when consumers do not yet think you are number one. This is about occupying a blank mind.

The value brought by the first is not only in sales, but also in many other dimensions. So, once you get the first place, you must promote it with all your might and shout loudly: I am number one, I am number one. Public relations articles, news, and circle of friends. If you’re even more impressive, you can take a full-page advertisement in a newspaper to announce to the world: XX brand ranked first in the category during the 618 shopping festival. You’ll have to brag about this for half a year.

With the endorsement of Chaotou, mid-level anchors can engage in distribution and it will be easy to talk about it. You see, Chaotou has achieved good sales recently. It would be much more interesting if we could try out some creative short video products from amateurs at this time. Use the head-end voice, the mid-end sales to make up for the loss, have amateurs act as witnesses, and then put up a splash screen ad. If an agent mobilizes other agents to "fan the flames", this combination of punches will be enough to make the difference of 70 points.

Brand co-branding, event marketing

Brand collaboration and event marketing. After the promotion is successful, the store is set up, and the products are sold by the top sellers, the next step is to engage in brand collaboration and event marketing. The purpose of brand collaboration is to attract new customers. The more cross-border and contrasting it is, the more interesting it is. Sales volume is the second consideration. The first consideration is to increase the volume. Zhong Xue Gao and Ramen Say have both had some good collaborations, and Jane Eyre and Heytea have also done it together.

Several foundations for thinking: contrast, anti-common sense, anti-cognition

New brands need to collaborate with old brands to create a contrast

It is possible to do something that is completely unrelated to you. It goes against common sense.

The more impossible it is, the more fun it is, anti-cognition

At this stage, it can be said that it is the stage of building a brand in a broad sense. In "The Three-Body Problem", Ye Wenjie sends a signal to the sun, which is amplified by the sun and then sent out into the universe. The signal is strong enough that the Three-Body System in Centaurus can receive it. Building a brand is also about sending a signal. It needs to be strong, big, broad and long-lasting.

The signal must be strong: If you can choose high-potential media, don’t use low-potential media. Traditional media has low credibility.

Going beyond the circle is a subculture, seeding relies on deep content digging, short videos are co-creation, and live broadcasting is about attracting new users and covering a wide range:

We cannot just focus on precision strikes, we must also cover all consumer roles: information collectors, decision makers, buyers, users, disseminators, and disposers.

The scope should be large: if you want to do business nationwide, you can’t just advertise in the county.

It takes a long time: Don’t rush to launch, but plan and schedule, so that you can have more than enough every year.

Tactics

1-6 months

Without investigation, there is no right to speak, and preparation is all the work. The first step is the analysis of category data. Sun Tzu's Art of War talks about knowing yourself and knowing your enemy. The premise of knowing yourself is to know your enemy. Knowing your enemy means not just knowing your competitors, but more importantly, category data. Judgment should be based on data. Before selecting a product, Tmall’s big data is used to collect data on consumer consumption labels in the category and form a preliminary judgment.

The more intense the market competition, the finer the granularity of the traders' perception is required

For example: the age group and regional attributes of category consumers, and especially the types of products purchased with high frequency. Through the basic data of the category, we can further identify the main products, existing product line layout, product series, and product price segments of competitors in the category.

This includes the brand’s keywords, product selling points, ingredients, pricing, and distribution channels. If you want to go into more detail, you can also focus on the product’s e-commerce reviews to see how consumers evaluate the product, how they use the product (posting pictures), and even how they share the product (Little Red Book).

Tmall's big data can achieve a data matching accuracy of about 60-70%. Combined with some basic industry experience and consumer insights, a trader can basically complete the preliminary work of product selection.

The preliminary work results are reflected in four aspects:

Clear target consumer portrait

Identify the differentiated selling points of product functionality

Define the product’s niche and pricing strategy

Know the media and content that users reach at the origin

It is the basis to achieve these four points. As a trader, you must know the whole picture and the overall situation, and even know the decisive point and the winner before the war starts - victory can be known, but cannot be achieved.

By studying category data and key competitor products, we complete the product selection work, thus completing two of the 4Ps: product and price. The next step is channel and promotion, that is, the question of where the traffic comes from. In fact, no one can launch a full-area, full-channel, and full-media campaign right from the start. First, we must take into account the limited nature of resources, and second, the effectiveness of funds, and it must be carried out in stages.

Normally it will take 1-4 months or 6 months. Of course, it depends on the specific category and the specific resource situation, and each case needs to be discussed separately and each product needs its own policy.

Early 1-2 months: Xiaohongshu (main page) + official account + flagship store

Mid-term 2-4 months: Xiaohongshu + Video Account + Live Streaming (Main)

Later 4-6 months: Xiaohongshu + Bilibili (main) + Douyin

1-2 months

For the cold start, it chose a media with a long-tail effect. The reason for choosing Xiaohongshu is that the cost of the launch is relatively low, the format is mainly pictures and texts, and the traffic diversion to Taobao and Tmall is relatively accurate. The core tasks completed at this stage are:

The screening and selection of KOL/C is a meticulous job.

At least 1-3 hot-selling notes should be published, and the search popularity conversion should be observed through hot-selling notes.

Of course, there is a certain element of luck at this stage. After all, Xiaohongshu is also a data metaphysics. In the second month of making beige rice wine, the author unexpectedly welcomed a hit note, which received 33,000 likes, 23,000 collections, and 282 comments. This unexpected hit was directly reflected in the growth of natural search volume on Tmall store.

——Afterwards we realized very clearly that this popular note had a lot to do with luck.

However, luck is based on the accumulation of quantity, at least 10-15 notes a day. Of course, it depends on what category you are doing. As the saying goes, each product has its own strategy and each matter has its own discussion. There is no quality without quantity, so the essence to focus on is quantity, and to create quality based on quantity.

After this hit, there were moderate hit notes on Xiaohongshu in every following month. This means that in the KOL/C placement, the direction has basically been found in terms of note content and product keywords.

2-4 months

The direct result of Xiaohongshu's popular notes is an increase in the store's sales. With the targeted delivery of off-site traffic and on-site traffic, the store's ranking has stabilized at 3-4th place, which has also gained a large amount of white traffic. The key action to enter the second stage of cold start is live streaming and selling goods. The top anchors’ live streaming does not only sell goods, but also includes a part of the brand value.

From a branding perspective, the top internet celebrities’ live streaming sales and subsequent user conversion are a loss-making business. One to two weeks after Luo Yonghao started promoting the brand (beige rice wine), we could see a noticeable increase in organic searches for the brand. If your store does a good job in attracting and converting traffic, there is no reason to lose money.

Of course, here I am assuming that your store traffic conversion has reached a basic level, because this is the work of a cold start for 1-2 months.

After the top anchors have sold products, it becomes much easier for brands to negotiate distribution with other mid-level anchors (there are endorsements, data, and profit margins).

For this reason, after the top anchors start selling products, we need to accelerate the improvement of BD of other mid-level anchors on Douyin. What needs to be noted here is that you must provide the mid-level anchors with standard scripts (scripts that can sell goods) and video templates, and go through all the mid-level target KOLs. The most important thing is to have organized human resource matching.

The core of the words that can sell goods:

To understand the interests and aesthetic logic of short videos

Talk more about products, less about feelings, combine scenarios, and explain the selling points thoroughly

15-30 seconds short video + live broadcast

The goal at this stage is simple: to be number one in the category, because only being number one can bring about a greater brand effect. In general, if you can create hot-selling notes on Xiaohongshu in January and February, and sell 2-4 of them in the top and mid-level sections on Douyin, your store efficiency should be ranked second if not first.

After the first phase, we achieved the No.1 in both store and product.

Tmall's beige rice wine sales data is a very good start in the second phase

Brand word searches have not dropped in the past 30 days, and off-site seeding is effective

4-6 months

Xiaohongshu is a long-tail grass-growing app, and Douyin is a hit-selling app, especially the short video apps. After watching a video once, there will basically be no natural traffic to watch it a second time, unless the user searches for it himself. After taking first place in the category, we should gradually start to make some investments in brand potential and product promotion on Bilibili.

The attributes of Bilibili: strong fan stickiness, younger users, and the most prominent feature is that Bilibili has jargon and a prominent subculture. To this end, after a brand has completed the store category and single product ranking first, it should gradually launch ads on Bilibili. The cost will be high, but once the campaign feels right, the effect will be doubled.

END

Author: New Consumer Brand Research Society

Source: New Consumer Brand Research Institute