What are the first principles of a viral product?

Dali Ge and Qian Gewara, which are produced by the people. EXO, TFBOYS and The Rap of China produced in the factory. I don’t know if they can continue the IP, but I found that any popular product, especially IP products, satisfies the FOCVS rule.

In 2010, Al Ries, a great researcher on marketing for more than half a century, summarized the basic principles of marketing in a concise and easy-to-remember way - FOCVS.

“I can imagine those basic marketing laws being wrapped like a cocoon by countless examples and stories.”

one

First

Become the first brand in a category in the minds of users. This is a phrase that marketers know by heart.

1. Note the word “mind” here. It doesn’t matter whether we are the first to invent a product. What matters is that we become the first in the minds of users.

In October 1879, Edison invented the incandescent lamp, and he continued to optimize his product and bring it to market, bringing great glory to the Edison Company! Various journals and textbooks reported on it, and his incandescent lamp naturally occupied the first place in the minds of consumers.

The reality is that Joseph Swan had already invented the incandescent light bulb in 1878.

This is like Tencent's CF, LOL and other game products. None of them is a creative invention, but they have the ability to first penetrate the products into the minds of consumers.

2. Focus . This is also a cliché term. However, many small and medium-sized enterprises have a misunderstanding of “focus”. We focus in order to unleash our “superpowers” ​​and bring together all limited resources. Instead of scattering dots everywhere, it seems like there is a focus everywhere.

For example, when the sun is at its hottest, in the same open space, give two people ten sheets of 4A paper and ten ultra-small magnifying glasses each, and have them compete to see who can see through the ten sheets of paper first.

One person understands "focus" in this way: he carefully places ten A4 papers, and places 10 magnifying glasses on the A4 papers at the best angles. Focus enough! As long as the time is enough, all 10 pieces of paper will be worn through.

Another person understood "focusing" this way: put ten magnifying glasses in a pile, aim at the same point, and then put three pieces of paper in a group under the focusing point. In less than 30 seconds, all ten pieces of paper will be penetrated.

Maybe the first guy is still wondering: "Why haven't my papers been pierced at the same time?" But he knows very well that our magnifying glasses are all super small!

3. Category selection - focus on the mainstream and use the tributaries as backup. In the minds of consumers, many categories may be arranged in parallel and seem to be important.

"I want to go eat, I want to go have a cold drink."

"So should we choose the one with a better environment or the one with better taste?"

“Taste and environment are important.”

But if we stand from the company's perspective, "Safety first!" The profitable industries must be arranged from the primary industry to the tertiary industry; when the financial crisis comes, the unlucky industries must be arranged from the tertiary industry to the primary industry.

In every category in every industry, we can have strategies to occupy the first mind of consumers, but if we have the opportunity to choose, we should choose more basic industries and categories, because the further we go, the more dangerous it becomes.

There are also three levels of industries in content products . The 24-character socialist core values ​​are the "primary industry"; the content displayed by major magazines and TV stations is the "secondary industry"; "The Rap of China", Dali Ge's content, and Qian Gewara's videos belong to the "tertiary industry".

Although "The Rap of China" in the "tertiary industry" has been very popular recently, its content and ideas are "the dangers of society", "diss", "I am the best", "money, power and fame", etc., which cannot fit the enjoyment and viewing attitude of people of all ages.

Compared with "The Voice of China" produced by TV stations, although it appeared in 2012 when the Internet was not particularly developed, Baidu Index shows that within 30 days from the date of its launch, the popularity of "The Voice of China" was still far greater than "The Rap of China". The index of The Voice of China is 2.08 million, and the index of The Rap of China is 490,000.

In terms of product content, the fundamental reason is that The Voice of China is in the "secondary industry" of content products , and its content ideas are directly biased towards the "primary industry"; while The Rap of China is in the "tertiary industry" or even further behind in terms of both its coordinates and content ideas . It is difficult for it to have more audiences and the support of core media.

2. Opposite strategy

As an ordinary marketer, it is often difficult to have the materials to make your product the number one in a certain category. Even if you have the ability, the "power" may not be enough, and it will eventually be acquired or optimized (copied) by large companies. If so, let’s use the opposing strategy of the FOCVS rule!

Since the core content and ideas of music talent shows (the 24-character socialist core values) are all occupied by production teams in the "secondary industry", such as "Super Goddess", "The Voice of China", and "Masked Singer Guess Guess". It is inevitable that the production team of the "third industry" will choose the remaining backup (mainstream culture). The tributary culture is inherently thin, and it is difficult to make things happen without some "slant".

As a result, subsidiary and subsidiary cultures that are contrary to the content ideas of major media are unearthed, and users can also feel refreshed. For example, the Dali Ge, Qian Gewala, Zuimei XXX, Qvod Video, and The Rap of China mentioned above. They are consciously or unconsciously practicing opposing strategies .

For example, during World War II, China's ruling party was the Kuomintang, which represented bourgeois users and had a party-building foundation of more than 30 years. At this time, if another party came to compete for the same user group, it would obviously be futile. Therefore, our great Communist Party adopted an opposing strategy at the right time, representing the working class and peasant class users, and used the strategy of surrounding the cities with the countryside, successfully achieving great success with small efforts. Took first place in 1949!

3. Category dominance

Marketing aims at profit; marketing aims at category dominance.

If we list the products/people that are popular nowadays and in the past, we can find that almost all of them have category dominance .

Within the category, they may compete with each other, but if they go "outside" and compete with people/products outside the category, their fighting power may rise to 10,000 points.

1. People, representing the category of "boys with pure personalities and innocent and handsome looks", such as TFboys, Luhan , Yi Yangqianxi, Yang Yang, etc. Compared with Wu Xiubo, who represents the "gentlemanly masculinity", don't they each have their own strong dominance? Compared with the rappers who represent "money, power, fame, and I'm the best", don't they also have their own strong dominance?

Therefore, another group of friends who have no looks, no education, no resources, and no talents can only dominate the "social cub" category.

【Cheaping Gewara Video】http://www.bilibili.com/video/av13340487/

For example, the most beautiful campus beauty in China may be considered "very ordinary" by some people, but among the campus students, she is the most beautiful; the most handsome traffic policeman in China may not be that handsome, but among the traffic police group, he is the most handsome.

Category-dominant performance determines whether they are popular or not, and how long they will be popular depends on the background of the times.

2. Product. Six years ago, Al Ries told such a case. If you ask a marketing manager, Sony or Nintendo , which company has a stronger product? The managers would answer Sony, no doubt and not surprisingly. In the market, super large enterprises with multiple product lines are fighting against medium-sized enterprises with high brand focus. As a result, medium-sized enterprises with high brand focus usually win.

Sony's brand includes televisions, cassette players, digital cameras, personal computers, camcorders, mobile phones, DVD players, semiconductors, batteries, and more. Where does its category dominance lie?

Nintendo has firmly occupied the video game console category and is known as the "founder of the modern video game industry."

At that time, there was a ten-year statistical data, Sony's total operating revenue reached 681.6 billion US dollars, net profit was 9.5 billion US dollars, and net profit margin was 1.4%; Nintendo's total operating revenue was 75.3 billion US dollars, net profit was 11.5 billion US dollars, and net profit margin was 15.3%.

A medium-sized enterprise defeated an international giant .

3. "Category dominance" from a personal perspective . I know a self-media account about "marketing" that regularly produces some high-quality content . Its self-media positioning is "the most professional marketing writer born after 1995 in China."

Do you think there is any problem with the positioning of this category?

Looking back at the above, whether it is occupying the first position in the mind or dominating the category .

We all need to examine from the perspective of user needs. Can our first or dominant position really provide something valuable?

Lu Han and Yang Yang are positioned as "boys with pure personalities and innocent and handsome looks", and they occupy the first position and dominate the category in the eyes of users! And what they offer is a sense of pure emotion .

Like Wu Xiubo, who is positioned as "the most gentlemanly and manly star", the valuable thing he provides to users is the feeling of "masculine gentleness" under emotional resonance .

If you ignore user needs in order to gain the first position and dominate the category.

Then Lu Han’s possible positioning would be “the young male idol who changes his hairstyle the least”/“the only one who has been to police among the boys with a kind personality and a simple and handsome appearance”.

Wu Xiubo may be positioned as "among the celebrities with a gentlemanly air, the male star with the most beard" / "among the celebrities with a gentlemanly air, the only male star with the lowest filming fee"

What’s the point of the position we occupy and the categories we dominate if they have little to do with user needs, or even contradict their positioning?

Having said that, this friend who produces practical marketing information positions his own media as “the most professional marketing writer born after 1995 in China.” It is essentially divorced from user needs.

For users who need XX valuable articles, they mainly focus on XX content products. Their essence is to improve themselves by reading content. "Learning" is the main motivation.

Isn’t this friend’s positioning obviously inconsistent with user needs? The term “post-95s” represents “youth without restraint”. If I were a user, I might need someone more powerful rather than someone “without restraint”.

Maybe this friend wants to position himself as the most professional media in China for marketing to the post-95 generation.

4. Verbal nail, Visual hammer

With the previous “becoming first in the minds of consumers”, “opposition strategy” and “category dominance”. There are only two things to do next for a viral product. First, turn the language into a "nail" and visualize the content into a "hammer"

This is especially evident in today's short videos . The year before, we might still be using emoticons to post "nails and hammers", and the next year, short videos appeared.

In ancient times, "nails and hammers" could only be expressed with words and various rhetorical techniques. For example: Xishi tofu, Wu Dalang sesame seed cake, swords that can cut hair, weapons so sharp that they can cut iron like mud...

There is a related case in the 18th article of the Non-mainstream Zhu official account .

5. Second brand

"In the boardrooms of American companies, you rarely hear the word 'focus'. The word you hear most is 'expansion'. How can you expand the brand to more categories and gain more profits?"

The answers include expanding sales channels . Al Ries' answer to this problem is "second brand".

This "second brand" has two directions:

1. Establishing associated brands: Like Internet celebrities opening food stores with the same name, celebrities opening companies with the same name, Han Han opening a Weibo account for his dog...
2. Establish parent-child brands: For example, Procter & Gamble has more than 300 brands, and it can produce 9 brands of laundry detergent alone.

Okay, let me just talk a little bit about this “s”, after all, it’s what happened after the product became a hit.

Summarize

Maybe you also have many ways and ideas to create a product with the potential to become a hit. But among the 10,000 ways, I think they all conform to this first principle - the FOCVS marketing law.

That is, F- "become the first in the minds of consumers"

O- "Opposition Strategy"

C-“Category Dominance”

V-"Language nail, visual hammer"

And the S-"second brand" after the popularity