“Distant” and “near” marketing: What do you want consumers to pay attention to in your product?

For consumers, the author of this article proposed a marketing strategy for the first time - "long-distance" and "close-distance" marketing, which can be understood in five ways: price distance, product grade distance, reality distance, time period distance, and psychological distance of benefits. This technique is also applicable to sales operators , enjoy~

In last week's "China's Got Talent", I was particularly impressed by one contestant. Anti-pickpocketing propaganda, a 27-year-old young man, Wu Yanzhong.

Two big men are randomly picked to come on stage. They can steal your things within 1 second and you won’t feel anything. During the interaction of just a few minutes, he "stole" everything in Mr. Feng's pocket and quietly put it back.

What is the key to his ability to take things from other people’s bags silently?

Wu Yanzhong replied: "People's hearts cannot be used for two purposes. Once the attention is diverted... the other side is finished."

There is also a life scene. You are in the fruit and vegetable section of the supermarket, planning to buy potatoes, tomatoes, apples, grapes...

You can often find that a price change of a few dollars can cause a huge reaction among people who are planning to buy or not. For example, the price of potatoes increased by 2 yuan per catty, and the price of apples increased by 2 yuan per catty. Consumers immediately began to complain, “This price is outrageous!”

In the red wine area, even if the price changes by a few dollars or even dozens of dollars, basically your willingness to buy will not change much. Because you won’t suddenly want to celebrate just because the price drops by a few dozen dollars; nor will you suddenly give up celebrating just because the price increases by a few dozen dollars. After all, people buy red wine for celebration and romance.

When buying potatoes, apples... a change of a few dollars is enough to change consumers. It's a very simple logic - this type of product is originally a practical substitute, the price elasticity of demand changes inversely proportionally, and the elasticity is high; and it is almost zero cost for consumers to change their purchasing choices.

When buying red wine, a change of a few dozen dollars is not likely to change consumers. This is the reverse application of the potato and apple principle mentioned above - wine has long since departed from its function of satisfying physiological needs and has become a tool for social needs, with low price elasticity of demand.

Naturally, there is a conclusion: the key to what consumers pay attention to, or what we want consumers to pay attention to, lies in - "long-distance" and "close-distance" marketing.

Just like consumers are willing to pay a high price for red wine out of "long-distance" considerations (social celebrations, emotional romance); if consumers only consider "close-range" considerations, and treat red wine as an ordinary drink, then consumers will definitely not accept an ordinary drink that costs several hundred yuan.

The author first proposed the concept of "long-distance and short-distance marketing", which is a very important principle in marketing, and no one has ever integrated and summarized it before.

Long distance and close distance, this "distance" can be understood in 5 ways:

1. The price itself is the distance;
2. Product grade distance;
3. Reality distance;
4. Time period distance;
5. Benefit psychological distance.

1. “Long-distance” and “close-distance” marketing: the distance of price itself

Take the ordinary dishes and red wine in the above case as an example. The price of potatoes, which was originally 1.5 yuan per catty, increased to 2.5 yuan per catty (the price changed by 66%, which is a particularly large change); the price of red wine, which was 500 yuan per bottle, increased to 550 yuan per bottle (the price changed by 10%, which is a relatively small change).

That is, the price itself is the distance: the ratio between the price change and the original price. The larger the ratio, the greater the distance; the smaller the ratio, the closer the distance.

The greater the change in the "price distance itself", the more sensitive consumers are.

This explains a simple common sense: when Taobao and JD.com merchants are promoting products, the original prices are displayed as particularly high.

It strongly reflects the promotion efforts. Increase the price distance and make consumers' brains sensitive. This is positive sensitivity , triggering consumers to buy under "such a big promotion". Nowadays, consumers are very careless, so it is necessary to widen the price gap like this!

The "potato price increase" in the previous case is the negative sensitivity of pushing the price distance far.

"Positive sensitivity" is also often used in website operations. For example, the price setting for users to recharge VIP:

• 7 days VIP 70 yuan
• 30 days VIP 100 yuan
• 90 days VIP 200 yuan

In the user's "preconceived" mindset, they often believe that the first price tier is the value of the product.

• 7 days VIP = 70 yuan, then VIP/day = 10 yuan;
• Then I only charge 100 yuan for 30 days of VIP, which is equivalent to 3.3 yuan per day.
• "I'm going to use it anyway! Just recharge for 90 days of VIP", 200 yuan, which is equivalent to VIP/day = 2.2 yuan!

The price change ratio here is very large (the price itself is pushed far apart)! With the user's "positive sensitivity", the maximum number of new VIP users can be attracted.

The smaller the price change distance, that is, the smaller the price fluctuation rate, the less sensitive consumers are.

In most product operations , we need to be cautious about the word "price increase", otherwise, we will repeat the tragic events of "Taobao's October siege" and "Shkreli's 50-fold price increase"...

Therefore, we usually increase product prices step by step, such as Tmall service fees, daily commodities, and even Chanel products (especially in the early days of Chanel)

2. “Long-distance” and “close-distance” marketing: product grade distance

Have you ever noticed that the higher the quality of the product, the less sensitive consumers are to price changes; the lower the quality of the product, the more sensitive consumers are to price changes.

This is not because consumers of high-end products are richer and therefore less sensitive to price.

For example, Formula One racing cars and Porsche coupes are at least high-end products! Porsche coupe owners may pay millions of dollars for a Porsche because of the car's comfortable driving experience and brand value. A price change of tens of thousands has almost no effect on him.

A Formula One racer (if he purchases spare parts himself) will not pay for the high prices of so-called famous brands. He will consider the cost-effectiveness. If the price of XX parts increases, he will most likely buy YY parts with better performance at the high price of XX parts, and thus give up XX.

Therefore, the essence of the impact of "product grade distance" on consumers lies in: the uniqueness of the brand or the degree of emotional sensitivity of the brand.

• The higher the brand uniqueness or brand sensibility = the farther the product grade is, the less sensitive consumers are to price changes;
  
• The lower the brand uniqueness or the brand's emotional level = the closer the product grade is, the more sensitive consumers are to price changes.

(Here we can simply understand "product grade distance" as: high product grade distance = high-end products; low product grade distance = low-end products)

For example, ordinary oranges are priced at about 7 yuan per catty, while Chu oranges are priced at around 15 yuan per catty and are still popular in the market.

Ordinary oranges do not have a unique brand, let alone an emotional preference for them; but Chu Orange has become special because of its geographical advantages and, more importantly, because of the uniqueness of Chu Shijian himself. As a result, people also have an emotional preference for Chu Orange (identifying with that spirit and admiring Chu Shijian as a person).

For example, ordinary smartphones cost about 2,500 yuan each, while iPhones cost about 5,000 yuan each and are still popular in the market.

Ordinary smartphones have the same old Android system + "powerful" hardware..., they have no uniqueness, and naturally cannot make users feel brand sentimental. However, the iPhone, with its founder, product craftsmanship, Ios unique system, and after-sales service, is praised as "the most amazing phone!", which naturally makes the brand unique and makes consumers sentimental.

The models on luxury goods posters are "ugly and weird"; the product ads are confusing; and the doors of physical stores are particularly high. As mentioned in the 21st article of the public account Non-mainstream Zhu, this is to produce a "retail rejection" effect and increase the brand premium for a small number of people.

but! Why do some practical products also create a similar "retail rejection" effect?

Shouldn’t practical products reflect practical value so that more people will buy them? Why do some ordinary home furnishing malls have signs that are particularly grand? And they just sell ordinary furniture.

After discussing the topic of “long-distance” and “close-distance” marketing today, we understand that the original purpose of “retail rejection” of ordinary products like luxury goods is to increase the distance between product grades and make consumers insensitive to prices.

The VIs of some Internet products are designed to be very high-end, but the products themselves are designed to meet the practical needs of users. Why is the VI designed to be so high-end?

For example, iQiyi VIP:

Users purchase VIP memberships in order to watch more movies and see fewer ads, but the company does not emphasize "more movies and faster experience" in its logo. Make the logo look golden and high-end - increase the grade of the product and make consumers less sensitive to price.

Of course, if you only have cost advantage, you want consumers to care about price changes. You can bring similar products closer together to make consumers price-sensitive:

For example, the No. 170 card operator (who has a natural price advantage) can use the following slogan:

"We buy mobile phone cards so that we can use them more conveniently and affordably across the country, right?"

In this way, the authoritative brand advantages of the three traditional operators will be instantly destroyed, allowing consumers to change their brand orientation and objectively measure cost-effectiveness.

3. “Long-distance” and “close-distance” marketing — the actual distance

This is particularly easy to understand. The closer the actual distance, the more sensitive consumers are to price; the farther the actual distance, the less sensitive consumers are to price.

The left side of the word “与” is a way to shorten the “real distance”; the right side of the word “与” is a way to push the “real distance” away .

• Text: Data Expression and Literary Expression
• Pictures and videos: realistic and abstract expressions
• Physical stores: down-to-earth decoration and abstract decoration
• Sign: Low and Small and High and Big
• Customer service/shopping guide: the store owner and a third party
• Product categories: Common and uncommon products
• …

Here we explain how to change the "real distance" by switching between common products and uncommon products in the "product category".

Let’s use the example of the “selfie stick” that I have used countless times. Selfie sticks suddenly became popular in the past few years. Many small workshops with assets of only tens of thousands of yuan can also create a record of monthly sales of 100,000 pieces.

Most selfie sticks on the market cost around 20 yuan. And if you want to make a high-priced selfie stick (150 yuan +), you will find that there are almost no such expensive selfie sticks in the market.

It's very simple, because after users have established the mindset that "selfie stick = a product of about 20 yuan", if you make a selfie stick for 150 yuan, isn't that still a sky-high price?

Therefore, to solve this kind of problem – make high-priced products in low-priced categories.

The first step is to change the category, which is what I mentioned above, changing common products into uncommon products. For the user group of selfie sticks, a selfie stick is equivalent to a price of about 20 yuan. If you want them to pay for the high price, you have to change your selfie stick to an uncommon product for them (change the category) and define the 150 yuan selfie stick as a "camera support telescopic extender" instead of the original "mobile phone accessory entertainment product."

The second step is to change the channel . The 150-yuan selfie stick products are placed in flagship stores and counters selling camera equipment.

This is done by changing the "real distance - product category" to make products in low-priced categories high-priced.

Often, we push the “reality distance” further away to support high prices.

But in a wholesale market, everyone’s products are similar. I have what you have, and you also have what I have. If we still spend energy on pushing the "reality distance" further away at this time, it would be a waste of money and seem contrived.

In a wholesale market, everyone competes on price, and the strongest advantage is price (unless you can monopolize a category of products)! There is almost no decoration; all the available space is used to display the goods; there are not many shopping guides, and the owner is usually there; there is no fancy copywriting , just direct and down-to-earth descriptions...

These methods are all aimed at narrowing the "reality distance" and allowing consumers to compare prices objectively.

Because the store owner knows that if you want to retain old customers here, you have to rely more on your strength; and if you want to attract new customers, you have to make them aware first.

In addition, I would like to add one more sentence: When we are doing marketing planning, we must dare to deny big companies! Don't think that just because he does his main job well, everything else will be good.

For example, Carrefour, Walmart, XX... 90% of supermarkets only think about hanging the signs about 1m above the countertop when labeling fruits and vegetables in the fresh food section, with large fonts - reducing the "real distance" and making consumers insensitive to prices.

Besides, there are only two stupid ways:

1. Each fruit and vegetable product has a small plate with the product name and price indicated on it.
2. There is a small board corresponding to each fruit and vegetable product. The name of the product with an adjective and the price are marked on it; then the original price is XX yuan (to push away the "price itself", to be positive and sensitive, and to make consumers feel affordable)

Are these two stupid ways the style of the Fortune 500 companies?

Above the small sign, you can add a new module - use copywriting techniques to abbreviate a few dozen words, and then reduce the size of the "price" font to contrast with the copywriting font, so that consumers will subconsciously feel that "the value of fruits and vegetables is greater than the price."

(Note that the copy should be de-professional and vivid, targeting the general public, and expressing the value of fruits and vegetables and the freshness and hygiene of this batch of fruits and vegetables.)

Due to space limitations, I will stop here today. Next week, I will continue with the rest of the content:

• “Long-distance” and “close-distance” marketing—time period distance
• Long-distance and close-distance marketing: the psychological distance of benefits
• Simple application of "long-distance" and "close-distance" marketing

If you want to advance the market sharply, "long-distance" and "close-distance" marketing are what you must master in depth, not whether you choose the method or not.