Learn 3 types of word-of-mouth marketing strategies from the word-of-mouth case of Dong-E E-Jiao

In the Internet era, a number of new brands continue to emerge. They can quickly become famous across the country and spend very little money on traditional TV, newspaper, and elevated building advertising, such as Xiaomi.

What is the most cost-effective marketing method? Digital marketing can be divided into six types: search marketing, online cooperation, online advertising, data marketing, new media marketing and word-of-mouth marketing . I believe that word-of-mouth marketing is the most cost-effective marketing method, but do you know how to do word-of-mouth marketing? Who should we ask to do brand word-of-mouth communication?

1. The word-of-mouth marketing story of Dong-E E-Jiao

In 2014, Qin Yufeng, CEO of Dong-E-Erhu, and I shared our respective marketing experiences at a CEIBS forum. The topic he shared that day was cultural marketing. Dong-E-Erhu has grown from a small handicraft workshop to a modern enterprise with a brand value of nearly 10 billion yuan, yet Dong-E-Erhu hardly does any advertising. So what marketing method does it rely on to maintain an annual growth rate of around 30%? After communicating with Yufeng, I felt that Dong'e was not only engaged in cultural marketing, but also in word-of-mouth marketing. I then wrote about various word-of-mouth marketing cases for Dong'e:

1. Founder's spirit: If you search for Qin Yufeng, the founder of Dong'e Ejiao, on Baidu, you will find that Baidu has collected countless reports about Qin. If you search for the founder of your company, there may be almost no reports on the Internet;

2. Reputation among dignitaries: The president of Phoenix TV, the president of China Resources Pharmaceutical, the secretary of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee and other dignitaries visited Ejiao, bringing more media attention to Ejiao.

3. Word of mouth from ancient people: In order to realize the vividness of the dissemination of donkey-hide gelatin culture, Dong'e Ejiao launched the historical spokesperson strategy based on historical materials, classified the brand stories into categories, extracted three groups of spokespersons, and summarized them into three legends: male spokespersons represented by Cao Zhi, Li Shimin and Qianlong constitute the "life legend"; expert spokespersons represented by Tao Hongjing, Sun Simiao and Li Shizhen constitute the "medical legend"; female spokespersons represented by Wu Zetian, Yang Guifei and Lady Guoguo constitute the "beauty legend".

4. Employee reputation: Dong'e Ejiao adheres to the talent concept of "talent is the first resource" and upholds the concept of "respecting people's values, developing people's potential, and sublimating people's minds". Employees who are influenced by this concept often take the initiative to promote the brand, such as registering on Weibo to promote the Dong'e Ejiao brand.

5. Word of mouth among classmates: Qin Yufeng once studied at the China Europe International Business School. His classmates at CEIBS often forwarded articles about Qin Yufeng, such as "Qin Yufeng: There is a god three feet above the ground." "How could Dong-E-Erhu increase its price 16 times in ten years and increase its value 40 times?" and other hot articles in the industry.

6. Reputation among foreign celebrities and politicians: President Qin presented donkey-hide gelatin as a national treasure to Yingluck Shinawatra, Buffett and others. It is estimated that foreign media will also report it.

7. Expert reputation: Professor Xiao Chengcong, the granddaughter of Xiao Longyou, one of the four great Chinese medicine doctors in the Republic of China and a national-level famous old Chinese medicine gynecologist and doctoral supervisor, donated the old donkey-hide gelatin that her family had collected for many years to Dong'e Ejiao. It is now collected in the China Ejiao Museum built by Dong'e Ejiao for academic research and tourists to visit.

8. Word of mouth from celebrities: If you have watched "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "The Imperial Doctress" , you will know that the characters played by Sun Li and Liu Shishi spared no effort to promote donkey-hide gelatin at any time in the TV series. Compared with hard advertising on TV, this method is cheap and effective.

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Due to time constraints, I will temporarily introduce the word-of-mouth marketing case of donkey-hide gelatin here. I believe you have already felt the charm of word-of-mouth marketing through the case. Now I will elaborate on the knowledge point of what are the three types of word-of-mouth communicators.

2. Word of mouth marketing: 3 major types of word of mouth communicators

1. Word of mouth ambassador

Word-of-mouth ambassadors include three types: high-quality old customers, founders and employees.

First of all, there are high-quality old customers. Although there are not many high-quality old customers, their contribution is huge. In the maternal and infant industry at that time, 20% of my old customers contributed 80% of the marketing revenue, and 55% of new users were recommended by old customers. Most of the new customers in the cosmetics industry, No.1 Store, Y+Yoga, etc., where I was previously responsible for business, were recommended by old customers. Instead of spending 6 million to hire a celebrity endorsement, it is better to spend 600,000 to build word-of-mouth among old users.

In the Internet age, word-of-mouth ambassadors cannot forget the founders. In 2015, there was an article on CEO.com in the United States titled "Every CEO must become an entrepreneur internet celebrity ." Lei Jun , Zhou Hongyi, and Luo Yonghao often give speeches. Think about it, did the founders of Huang Taiji and Diaoye Beef Noodles, who were once very popular, quickly make their brands famous nationwide through this founder internet celebrity method? Here, I suggest not the founder becoming an internet celebrity, but the "founder spirit". The founder has the most foresight to formulate the company's mission, vision, and values, and can also have insight into industry development trends and define a user experience that is different from that of competitors.

In today's era, the founders of companies must take the lead in promoting their companies. On the one hand, through the Internet, more people can be informed of the unique advantages of the company and its products in a timely manner, thus cultivating brand awareness and reputation. On the other hand, occasions attended by the founders are often more likely to attract media coverage , which can undoubtedly save the brand a lot of advertising costs. When users recognize the values ​​of the founder and corporate culture, they are likely to support new products through actions.

Of course, employees are also word-of-mouth ambassadors . The measure of whether a company has a future is how many employees are proud to actively share their products. If even the company's own employees do not participate, even if the company spends huge amounts of money on marketing, the effect can be imagined.

2. Authoritative person

Authoritative people mainly include three types: professionals, celebrities and salespeople.

Professionals are people who are qualified to authoritatively evaluate products and services . They are opinion leaders in their professional fields, such as dentists, nutritionists, and reviewers. Everyone trusts them. This is why Crest uses dentists to promote its brand and why Xiaomi uses mobile phone enthusiasts for mobile phone marketing.

As for celebrities, they are well-known in the mass media and attract attention in all their public and private actions , such as actors, artists, singers, writers, athletes, etc. Celebrities like Jackie Chan, Fan Bingbing, Liu Xiang, Mo Yan, etc. It is easy to judge celebrities, that is, those who need to wear masks and goggles when they go out; their recognition and following of a certain product will affect a large number of supporters and fans;

Authoritative persons also include front-line sales personnel who have professional knowledge of this product, such as front-line salesmen , financial planners, etc. The watch butler system of Henry Shengshi Watch Shop enables 6,000 front-line employees across the country to open their own shopping malls on their mobile phones. The group supplies the goods, employees are free to select goods and put them on the shelves, customers place orders, and the clerks earn commissions.

3. Team influencers

Team influencers mainly refer to people who have strong influence in teams such as the workplace, school, and community, and who respond to new information in the initial stage . They mainly include friends and relatives, netizens with similar experiences such as commentators among consumers, community group owners such as WeChat group owners, forum moderators, influencers, parenting, travel and other interest group hosts, third-party alliances, etc.

Think about the positive reviews from netizens when you choose restaurants on Dianping.com and shop on Tmall . Can you still ignore these team influencers? They have certain authority or quite good insights in a certain field, and the products they recommend often bring a lot of traffic and conversion rates to corporate brands.

Some of them are journalists and editors, some have opened their own public accounts , Weibo or blogs, some hang out in well-known forums such as Zhihu, and some appear on live video platforms such as Inke and Miaopai . The content they post is generally based on their own expertise, interests and personal insights, such as cooking, photography, travel or professional Internet articles. They often have a strong sense of identification with certain brands. With the development of social media, there will be more and more such people. They are a group of influencers who show their personalities in a living way. These people are good communicators of corporate brands.

3. Summary and reflection

The reason why word-of-mouth marketing is the most cost-effective is that it can solve the two most important indicators in marketing: repeat purchases by old users and recommendations by new users . However, few people in the industry are currently researching how word-of-mouth marketing should be done. Instead, more people are researching so-called event marketing , hoping to gain sales through short-term hype. Facts have proven that only word of mouth can ensure long-term success. To learn word-of-mouth marketing, you first need to improve your internal skills, so that your students will naturally spread the word and many people will spread the word.

The column will also communicate with you about other knowledge points about word-of-mouth marketing. If you need professional word-of-mouth communication, you can also contact me for in-depth communication.

Note: Some chapters of the online courses on “ Word-of-Mouth Marketing ” have been authorized to be developed by China’s top online course institution, “ CEIBS Business Online ”.

Extraction of Lao Guan's golden sentences

Marketing has shifted from “I am the best” to “You are the best”, and word-of-mouth marketing is the most cost-effective marketing model;

In the digital age, founders must stand up and have the courage to promote the "founder spirit" in front of the public, win the hearts of the people for the brand, and reduce ineffective marketing costs for the company;

Don’t just randomly look for celebrities to endorse your products. The truly powerful communicators should be those who can truly influence others to take action, rather than just attracting attention. Don't believe it? Think about the fate of the brands endorsed by Jackie Chan over the years!

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As long as you have the will, the world is your classroom. Let us come together and walk together in the future. I hope you can take fewer detours and then change and influence others.