Product dilemma in brand marketing!

The acceleration of information exchange on the Internet has shortened the time to obtain various types of content, making competition in all aspects more intense.

For businesses, the proliferation of homogeneous products has intensified the cruelty of competition, making the originally narrow track even more crowded, causing many companies to be squeezed off the track and smashed to pieces.

The more popular the category and the better-selling the product, the more difficult it is to differentiate. In terms of packaging, selling points, prices, services, etc., they are becoming more and more similar.

This has led many small and medium-sized brands and emerging brands to go further and further in the direction of price wars.

With the diversification of Internet forms and marketing models, small and medium-sized brands and emerging brands have turned their attention to brands with billion-level sales.

They look at cases, learn models, engage in marketing, and track the business layout of big brands, trying to get a piece of the pie following the big brands. They believe that as long as their products have the support of traffic, they can also reach the level of big brands, easily exceed 100 million, and embark on the road to becoming a brand myth.

But this can only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.

Brands that are just starting out may reap some benefits, but as more competing brands join in, the situation will become increasingly difficult and they will return to a crowded track.

As a business operator, you cannot just focus on these superficial things, which are called "techniques". Various marketing models are not the goal, but only means and processes. We cannot rely solely on multi-channel delivery to obtain traffic, thereby neglecting the in-depth exploration and development of products.

At the same time, we must also plan from the perspective of "Tao" and incorporate the formulation of marketing strategies into corporate strategies.

The homogeneity of a large number of brands and products also means that the product positioning and selling points are also homogeneous.

Only by planning and formulating marketing strategies from the perspective of "Tao" can we effectively break out of the predicament.

• Category Opportunities
• Product selling points
• Differentiation
• Culture and empathy

1. Category Opportunities

Consumers have two motivations to buy products: demand and guidance.

1.1 Requirements

Consumers who really have real needs will choose brands and products to purchase. The purchasing process is complex and short, and there are many factors that influence purchasing decisions. These factors are what brands need to focus on. Consumer purchasing psychology: look at the brand - choose the product - compare prices - compare activities (preferential policies) - look at word of mouth - place an order to buy.

This process can be long or short, depending on whether the consumer needs it urgently.

1.2 Bootstrapping

Brands use advertising, marketing, content dissemination, events, holidays and other means to enhance the perception of their products among consumers. Thus, through a series of marketing methods and activities, consumers are guided to purchase. Consumer purchasing psychology:

• What is the product? Can the product’s selling points and promotion gain recognition?
• Am I useful? Is it needed now or will it be useful in the future?
• What are the benefits of buying now?
• What will I miss if I buy it later?

1. Multiple comparisons

There are two types of purchasing decisions. The product chosen is the brand category, which means you have to tell consumers what you are selling.

It can be seen that consumers' initial focus is on the product, that is, your category. This determines whether consumers will have a series of psychological states, whether they are willing to listen to the brand's story, and whether they will have the original intention to buy.

2. Focus on categories

At the beginning, there is no need to have many, broad, large and comprehensive categories. Start with a segmented category and look for a breakthrough. There are many subcategories, which means there is a possibility of a lack of representative brands, and it also means that small and medium-sized brands and emerging brands have more and larger room for survival.

In 2011, Great Wall Motor's sedan business accounted for more than one-third of its total sales, 40,000 more than the overall SUV sales; the momentum was good, but the advantage was not yet very obvious compared with other competitors. Coupled with the increase in independent brands/joint venture brands, competition in the sedan field became increasingly intense.

Great Wall Motors had relatively limited financial strength and resources, so it made a strategic adjustment, decisively gave up its current achievements, focused on the small-share automobile market, and poured resources into the SUV field, which accounted for less than 5% of the Chinese automobile market at the time. It is precisely because of the focus and adjustment on products that Great Wall Motors has grown over the past 10 years, with sales of less than 10 billion yuan in the past year to over 100 billion yuan now.

There are many similar examples. Instead of competing for predictable categories, it is better to turn to small-scale markets to break through. A small-scale market may not be enough for everyone, but as the first party to eat, you can definitely eat your fill.

3. Research and develop new categories (deep exploration of categories)

For most products of the same category, the differences in craftsmanship and materials are becoming smaller and smaller, and some are even similar. It is necessary to find fundamental differentiation, build a value fence for products, and reduce competition. At the beginning, Banu Hotpot targeted Haidilao and competed with Haidilao in service, but Haidilao's image of good service had already been deeply rooted in people's minds. As a latecomer, it was impossible to win by using the opponent's advantages to compete with it.

Later, Banu Hotpot focused on tripe and changed its name to "Banu Tripe Hotpot", making a breakthrough with the single product of tripe and creating the "tripe hotpot" category. New fields, new raw materials, new processes and new technologies can all serve as breakthroughs for new product categories.

When choosing categories, you need to pay attention to the following: new categories must be consistent with consumers’ cognition, avoid falling into the emotional blind spot of thinking that my product is excellent and there must be a market for it, and don’t fall into self-satisfaction. In today's market, it is no longer an era where consumers accept whatever brands give them. Instead, it depends on what consumers want and what ideal state they expect.

Innovation in product categories is basically accompanied by product transformation, and product transformation is closely related to the supply chain, team research and development, and time cycle. It can be said that one move affects the entire body, and the cost of trial and error is also very high. So if you can’t change the product category, how can you break the impasse?

2. Product selling points (brand selling points)

I have mentioned in previous articles that the selling point of a product is not its merits and advantages. The selling point of a product is the consumer's demand point, which gives consumers a reason to buy and make them willing to pay for it.

An embarrassing dilemma of homogeneous product categories is that the selling points are not unique, the content is similar to that of competing products, the delivery efficiency is not high, and then the brand falls into anxiety.

Yuanqi Forest’s main features: 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories.

Except for coffee and milk tea, most beverages are fat-free. It’s just Yuanqi Forest that pointed out this point.

Many brands like to talk about all the advantages, functions and features of their products, wanting consumers to realize how good and excellent their products are.

It turns out that consumers won’t pay for it. Why?

Because your competing brands’ products also have these features and advantages, and some may even be better than yours.

Therefore, the selling point, like the category, needs to be focused on one point and strengthened so that consumers can focus on this point.

The creation of all content, including marketing, activities, publicity, etc., interprets this point from different angles and deepens this selling point.

"Kalanchoe golden embryo corn oil, 12 production processes, physical pressing."

Focusing on the process, in fact, the pressing of edible oils is similar. The Kalanchoe Peanut Oil breaks down the process, which will make it easier for consumers to trust and favor it.

"Luhua peanut oil only extracts the first peanut juice."

"Nongfu Spring is a little sweet", focusing on the sweetness.

There are many similar cases.

3. Differentiation

1. Differentiated positioning

Hua Xizi, "Oriental cosmetics, using flowers to nourish makeup" is Hua Xizi's brand concept. In terms of packaging, it adheres to the ancient oriental characteristics and stands out with the makeup features of traditional Chinese ink painting, which has set off a trend of national beauty makeup.

Hua Zhixiao cosmetics, which is positioned as "girly makeup" with a two-dimensional style, has also become popular among the niche range.

2. Scenario differentiation

The most famous one should be “Drink Wanglaoji if you are afraid of getting a sore throat”! "Eating hot pot can easily cause getting inflamed, so just drink Chinese herbal tea Heqi Zheng" and "Drink Red Bull when you are tired and sleepy." PWU's hair care products mainly highlight the word "fragrance", "perfume-grade, long-lasting fragrance", combining the usage scenarios with the daily scenes of couples to create a sense of resonance. So if you look at their Taobao store, the reviews for the products are basically that they are very fragrant, smell good, and have a long-lasting scent.

Allowing consumers to associate with the brand in specific scenarios makes it easier to establish self-propagation of the brand among consumer groups.

3. Packaging differentiation

In terms of packaging, the design should focus on selling points, continuously output selling points, and enhance consumer awareness and recognition.

Work hard on packaging, provide more guidance, and enhance recognition.

Packaging also needs to be recognized by consumers.

4. Culture and empathy (emotional identification)

A brand must establish connections with consumers. Whether it is occupying the minds of consumers, shaping brand value, or consumer experience, all need to be established simultaneously.

Therefore, in addition to marketing around the product itself, it is important to do a good job in operations, services, and emotional identification with consumers.

In the dissemination of brand culture, useful and inspiring value information is needed to influence consumers' lives, encourage consumers to actively flock to and spread it, make it a way of life, and allow brand culture and products to reach a state of empathy with consumers.

When everyone thinks there is no way out, there will always be a group of people who emerge suddenly, successfully find a breakthrough point, successfully occupy the high ground and win applause.

Therefore, in terms of marketing, there is no universal marketing strategy, but only a marketing plan that is suitable for the current development and status of the enterprise.

Author: Luo Song

Source: Luo Song