The knowledge and attitudes that senior marketing operations managers must possess!

People often say that marketing is the right brain, responsible for emotion and creativity, while operations is the left brain, responsible for rationality and management. Based on my nearly 10 years of experience in operations and marketing, I think there is some truth to this. First of all, I will get straight to the point with two cases that I have directly planned and participated in, and explain to you what operations and marketing are, and how to do operations and marketing well.

Marketing and operation success cases

1. Marketing (right brain) success stories

When it comes to anniversary promotions on e-commerce platforms, everyone thinks of things related to promotions. But how can anniversary marketing be used to increase platform and brand awareness?

I have worked on a case before, combining art and well-known brands to integrate related products on the platform, extending it to the user's life level, and combining it with art exhibitions to form an artistic atmosphere. The effect was very good in the end.

At that time, there was an Andy Hall exhibition in Shanghai. Anyone who knows a little about art knows that there were several famous paintings in it, such as Campbell's soup cans, Marilyn Monroe, etc.

I realized that our platform had never cooperated with art and internationally renowned brands like Campbell Soup, so I contacted the exhibitors of the art exhibition and the brand of Campbell Soup and held an e-commerce launch conference for an art brand on our platform. On that day, we displayed Marilyn Monroe, who had never been shown to the public before.

So what benefits does this exhibition bring to our platform? The direct benefit was that all the media including art and e-commerce focused on our platform that day, and their audiences also paid attention to our platform.

You have to know that the art media has hardly ever paid attention to us before.

Therefore, we abandoned promotions and turned to marketing for this anniversary celebration. On the surface, sales did not increase directly and rapidly, but this marketing caused a strong topic of discussion and brought a large amount of traffic and conversions later.

The most important thing is to let consumers understand our product positioning, which has a great impact on the subsequent platform and brand awareness.

Therefore, companies discover or explore the needs of potential consumers, promote and sell products by creating an overall atmosphere and their own product forms. The main thing is to dig deep into the connotation of the product and meet the needs of potential consumers, so that consumers can deeply understand and purchase the product. The most important thing is to increase users' recognition of the product.

2. Operational (left brain) success stories

Taking the two well-known categories on the platform (home and cleaning) as an example, what are the characteristics of these two categories? The average unit price of furniture products is 38 yuan, and the average customer unit price is 58 yuan, which means that a customer purchases an average of 1.5 items to complete an order. Another category is cleaning products, where an average of 6.6 items are purchased to complete one order.

Comparing the free shipping standard of 99 yuan on this platform, we can see that household users still need about 40 yuan to enjoy the free shipping service, and the difference for cleaning products is even higher.

So why not integrate the two categories into one event? So I proposed to integrate the household and cleaning categories together to expand customers' purchasing range.

When the two categories are integrated, statistics show that customers only need to spend an average of 7 yuan to enjoy free shipping service, and customers generally choose to purchase an additional 7 yuan worth of goods to complete the order. In this way, the customer fell into our "trap", the average order value increased to 92 yuan, and the sales rate also increased.

Next, we launched an event where you can get 10 yuan off when you spend 99 yuan or more, and 30 yuan off when you spend 150 yuan or more. It was then discovered that both the average order value and sales rate increased in a step-by-step manner.

• In the first stage, shipping is free for orders over 99 yuan, and the average customer order value is 92 yuan. The benefit to the operator is that it drives related sales and increases the turnover rate. The benefit to the consumer is that shipping is free for a difference of 7 yuan.
• In the second stage, 10 yuan will be discounted for purchases over 99 yuan. As long as the gross profit is not damaged, it will bring higher sales to the operators and save 10 yuan for the consumers, and both parties will benefit.
• In the third stage, customers can enjoy a 30 yuan discount on purchases over 150 yuan, and they can enjoy a 30 yuan discount on purchases of goods worth another 51 yuan. In reality, they only spend 21 yuan more, so why not?

Finally, the data showed that after category integration and discounts, the average order value increased from 34-58 yuan to 120 yuan, and the number of items per order increased to 11.5 pieces.

What is Marketing and Operations?

1. The essence of marketing and operations

The essence of marketing: a method of integrating resources to create commercial value by exploring consumer needs.

The essence of operation: When operators face consumer demands, how to integrate the company's internal resources (goods or services) into intuitive and acceptable marketing ideas, and complete the process of creating value for consumers through the operations of operators, is called operation.

2. Six elements of marketing operations

So, if we want to do a good job in marketing and operations and formulate the correct marketing and operations plan , what factors should we pay most attention to?

Operator: A good operator must first have a full understanding of all the resources within the company; he must fully understand the resources available within the company.

We have a motto called "Production makes people rich". Production refers to products; people refers to manpower, the people upstream and downstream who can provide you with support; sales refers to sales channels and marketing methods; development refers to R&D capabilities and product iteration capabilities; and wealth refers to financial support.

If you fully understand the five modules of making money for producers and sellers, then you will have a certain operational foundation, know what consumers need at what time, and how to meet this demand through resource integration.

Consumer: "If I were a customer" is my mantra, and I often discuss this issue with my team members.

When making a marketing plan, don't always think about what customers might like. Why don't you consult your customers directly, conduct user research, accumulate user information, or even conduct face-to-face interviews with customers to fully understand what customers need.

Integration: In addition to the company's internal resources, the producer and seller "Make Money" that I just mentioned can also import external BD resources and cooperate with other companies to use all the modules of the other company's "Producer and Seller Make Money".

Marketing: You should focus on market trends and customer needs, and always be aware of changes in the business situation of competing companies. Maybe the information you collect at the moment is not what you need most, but it may become the core part of your proposal in the future.

So it is often said that the plans written by some operations personnel are actually neither good nor bad, it’s just whether the time point is suitable for the implementation of the plan. Therefore, it is very helpful for your plan to keep an eye on market trends, customer needs, and changes in competitors.

Operation: It is a process of creating value by integrating the basic capability structure of operators and the demand structure of consumers mentioned above and making your marketing ideas acceptable to customers.

You can be a project manager of the company, or you can be responsible for the implementation and execution of a small module, which can be collectively referred to as operations.

Value: What is the value created through marketing and operations? Many people misunderstand that value means higher profits and higher performance. This is just price, not value.

In fact, value can be divided into material and spiritual aspects. For your boss, material aspects are more important. For your consumers, the reason why they choose your product is that the added value you create for them can arouse their deep inner identification.

Marketing Psychology Tactics

Just now we mentioned the essence of marketing, which is to create business value by exploring consumer needs and integrating resources. This is a rational management process.

So what are the basics that marketers need to have? In fact, there are also emotional thinking, empathy, and the use of social skills that we have known since childhood, such as observation of words and expressions.

In my work, I will definitely pay attention to the four psychological aspects of marketing:

1. User psychology

When we conduct user research, we often find that user feedback does not match the actual situation, that is, the feedback they give you is not real.

His feedback is often very "high-end", but when he goes to buy, the choice is not the product that the feedback was given. So what should we do?

In fact, we only need to put ourselves in their shoes and think: What would I do if I were the user? Use empathy from user research to understand your customers’ true psychology and reflect it in your marketing plan.

So you have to understand one thing: the user's psychology is always "a lady in appearance, a mother with great needs, and a money-slave in action". Only by hitting the deepest and real needs can you have a marketing plan that best suits the user's psychology.

2. Reciprocity

I understand and cooperate with you and I need you to understand and cooperate with me, and ultimately achieve a win-win situation. This is called reciprocity psychology.

This not only exists between consumers, but also in the internal cooperation of the company. When we are doing a marketing campaign, we may find that the product belongs to the merchant, the sales channel is controlled by the marketing department, human resources are not abundant, and so on, which are a series of situations that you cannot control. In this case, you need to strive to integrate resources with a reciprocal mentality.

Of course, this kind of reciprocity also exists in external BD cooperation. Take one of my marketing activities as an example. The company previously held an anniversary event where members received cars every day, but I did not have the budget for it. In this case, I cooperated with a car company that was interested in my members. I successfully held my event, and he attracted the members he wanted, achieving an overall win-win situation.

3. Service mentality

Fighting alone often does not lead to success. Only those who give convenience to others in specific situations can live long. In fact, this is consistent with the psychology of reciprocity.

4. Empty Bottle Psychology

The Internet has developed from a new industry to a traditional industry. As society continues to develop, individuals should continue to absorb various nutrients and benefit from it.

Marketing Methodology

Next, let’s talk about: In the face of consumer demand, how to transform a company’s internal resources (products or services) into acceptable marketing concepts?

How to integrate marketing resources to judge the situation. We have just talked about how after you understand the available resources, you need to integrate them. During the integration process, you should clearly understand which of these resources are internal resources and which are external resources.

The resources that marketers can use are as follows: advertisements placed by the marketing department, traffic (natural traffic, BD traffic, etc.), products (better product combinations negotiated from the brand and supplier sides), manpower, time, collaborative departments, etc.

After integrating various resources, you need to make a rational judgment on the current situation. The criterion for judgment is to base judgment on the current situation and use historical data as a reference. The advantages of historical data should be fully disassembled and integrated into the structure of the next goal to generate a more reasonable marketing goal.

However, judging the situation requires flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances. The organizational structure, SOP, KPI, etc. can all be adjusted as the project develops and changes.

Don’t forget that a real win is when everyone wins. Everyone gets what they want (especially what the customer wants), and they are willing to pay within the range of their psychological expectations and affordability. This is the only way to maximize benefits.

The following is a summary of the marketing plan I made for an e-commerce platform. It may not be 100% applicable to everyone’s work, but it can be used as a reference:

1. Development Model

When entering a new industry, you need to determine the development status and development model of this industry, which is the basis of marketing.

2. Industry positioning

When entering a completely new industry, you need to look for landmarks in this industry as references and find your competitors to conduct competitive product analysis .

Or if you discover a blue ocean in this industry, before entering you need to fully analyze the reasons why your competitors have not entered, and whether it is because they lack the resources, and then examine your own resource situation. If your own resources are sufficient, you can formulate a reasonable marketing plan to seize the market.

3. Category structure

I used to work in the retail industry. Category structure is the focus of attention for the retail industry. When competition in the same industry is fierce, whether the platform itself has a clear category structure can give consumers the most intuitive feeling.

4. Investment strategy

Once the product category structure is well positioned, how to attract investment will be put on the agenda. There should be a clear investment strategy in advance to support the grade of the products of the merchants being recruited, the pricing of the products, etc.

5. Content design

Consumers don’t care about the logic behind you. What they see are the most intuitive pages. Platform products, channel pages, shopping routes, etc. must be planned accordingly.

6. Marketing Planning

After the content is designed, how to create traffic plan should be planned. The main activities of each month should be planned in advance, and your activities should be promoted in advance.

Specifically, you should think about whether the marketing plan is a small promotional activity or a large-scale activity with marketing selling points and brand selling points, so as to formulate different operation plans.

7.Organizational Structure

In order to accomplish all of the above, you need a strong team. Just like the human resources mentioned above, you need to consider how to build the team's organizational structure.