From the spicy snack brand Weilong’s marketing methods, it can imitate Apple’s flagship store, so what is there to be afraid of!

 Weilong "pays tribute" to Apple again, this time by learning how to open a flagship store.

Latiao opens an offline flagship store? exo me, I may need to eat a bag of spicy noodles and calm down!

On the 15th, Weilong’s official Weibo account @卫龙食品 released a nine-picture message to celebrate the opening of their flagship store. As of 15:00 on the 17th, the post had been forwarded more than 35,000 times and received more than 14,000 comments, making it one of the most popular posts since they opened their Weibo account.

From the pictures on Weibo, netizens immediately got the point: this store looks like an Apple flagship store. After the Weibo post was published, the editor once again saw this kind of screen swiping in the subscription account and circle of friends:

"My spicy noodles are awesome! Weilong has opened an Apple store!"

“Among all the designs that imitate Apple style, only Weilong spicy strips have grasped the essence!”

"Hahaha, Apple now has one spicy noodle!"

This is not the first time I’ve learned from Apple

This is not the first time that Weilong has followed the Apple style. They had already done it once more than a month ago and it also caused a sensation.

In early September, Weilong released (is it really okay to use the word "release"? Head held high) a new spicy snack, Hotstr ip 7.0. The name sounds fashionable and technological, and the poster design is minimalist, which is 90% similar to the poster of Apple's press conference, giving people a sense of confusion that "Apple actually released spicy snacks". After the release of this spicy snack, netizens were amazed and self-media were flooded with news, with unexpectedly good results.

Why do other imitators get criticized, but Weilong gets so much praise? The reason is that Weilong touched the netizens' spoof nerve.

A few days ago, a netizen photoshopped the Dove advertisement starring Li Yifeng and Angelababy into a Durex condom version, and it went viral online. Imagine Angelababy holding a Durex condom and asking, "Are they really that smooth?" It's both dirty and fun. The traditional affordable snack, spicy strips, is released in the style of a high-end Apple mobile phone. The contrast is so cute that netizens with huge imaginations will naturally not miss it and will definitely spread it widely.

After Hotstrip 7.0 became popular, Weilong’s response to people pointing out that it was imitating Apple was also remarkable. Weilong released an announcement on its official Weibo account titled "Apple took away your kidneys, so I have to take care of your stomach." The content of the announcement has a strong sense of hierarchy:

1. Weilong learns from Apple, and thanks everyone for your recognition; 2. Weilong is persistent and focused in the food field; 3. In addition to spicy strips, Weilong also has many other types of snacks. I personally think that the content of this announcement is as brilliant as its title, and I am very pleased with the PR draft.

Weilong is not the first company to follow Apple’s example, and certainly won’t be the last. However, Weilong may be the first one to package the fact of "learning from Apple" into a topic and turn every incident of imitating Apple into marketing . Whether it was the launch of the new spicy strips Hotstrip 7.0 or the opening of the flagship store, Weilong did not do much publicity on its Weibo and official accounts , but simply released information. However, netizens and self-media who heard the news instantly ignited the topic.

Some friends asked whether such topic marketing and event marketing can bring direct sales. I can’t give an accurate answer to this question, but I checked some Weilong sales data: in Weilong’s Tmall flagship store, the sales of Hotstrip 7.0’s two products, spicy strips and kissing bean skin, were 227,000+ and 143,000+ respectively. These two products have only been online for more than a month, and their sales figures rank among the top five among the 56 products in the store.

For traditional companies like Weilong, the offline product channels are very complete, and the online sales volume may not be a big deal, but the exposure and visibility gained from planning marketing events will definitely have a long-term positive impact on them.

After two years of marketing, I want to become an internet celebrity in the spicy snack industry

"Eat a bag of spicy noodles to calm your nerves."

"The other party didn't want to talk to you and threw a bag of spicy strips at you."

When talking about spicy strips, I think of Weilong. It is said that Weilong is the internet celebrity in the spicy strips world. Does anyone disagree? The editor is convinced.

After entering Tmall and JD.com and engaging in marketing, Weilong has become a different company since 2015. When Yu Feng, the PR director of Weilong, was interviewed by the media, he made it clear that Weilong wanted to become an Internet celebrity. He said: "With the help of the Internet platform, we hope to create a new consumption scene that is interesting, entertaining and unique, and promote the explosion of the entire Weilong brand."

In fact, Weilong has been planning various interesting marketing activities for nearly two years and has tried almost all the popular marketing methods.

1. Make a spoof video . Last October, Weilong’s public relations team planned a video that imitated the movie “Fight Back to School”, which was quite a spoof.

2. Hack your own online store . On the eve of Tmall's 618 Fans Festival this year, Weilong planned a marketing campaign to discredit its own online store. On that day, Weilong’s Tmall flagship store could not be opened, and the screen was filled with red letters on a black background saying “Why don’t you ship to me?” This marketing campaign directly topped Sina Weibo ’s real-time hot search list and became very popular.

3. Invite internet celebrity Zhang Quandan to do a live broadcast . In July, Weilong planned a live broadcast marketing campaign on the Taobao platform and invited internet celebrity Zhang Quandan (a contracted actor of Baozou Comics) to the production workshop for a live broadcast. On the evening of July 11, the number of viewers in the live broadcast room reached 200,000 during its peak period.

4. A joke about spicy strips is printed on the packaging . Some time ago, some netizens revealed that some jokes about spicy strips appeared on the packaging of Weilong spicy strips, such as "Actually, I should come and pack spicy strips to calm down", "Eat a pack of spicy strips to calm down", etc. This is naturally the packaging marketing played by Weilong's team.

There are many brands that tamper with their packaging. Coca-Cola is a typical example. Weiquan Daily C has also tried dialogue bottles. But it must be said that Weilong’s packaging marketing is still somewhat creative. They quickly absorbed the joke culture of the Internet, found points that matched their own brand, and implemented them quickly, which indeed achieved good communication effects.

The above marketing campaigns are not always a hit, nor do they always receive enthusiastic support from netizens, but Weilong’s marketing seems to be getting more and more on the right track. But the editor believes that as a brand that allows netizens to collectively create jokes, Weilong is definitely popular. Marketing will also have a cumulative effect. Perhaps, like Lao Gan Ma, the next enterprise to conquer the world will still be a traditional enterprise, namely Weilong.

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The author of this article @包子 Compiled and published by (APP Top Promotion), please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!