Should brands still advertise?

Whether or not to advertise is probably a question on the minds of many brand marketers. After all, in the current era of traffic involution, not only is traffic expensive, but it is also difficult to say that every penny spent will achieve the same effect.

Therefore, compared with advertising that appeals to the brand’s mind, brands today seem to be more willing to engage in e-commerce sales and performance advertising, and are more inclined to actual conversions.

However, they will find a contradiction, that is, why many small and medium-sized brands are pursuing ROI, while many big brands have already become the leaders in the industry, but are still constantly making various creative advertisements. Regardless of the category, the more leading the brand is, the higher the quality and frequency of their brand advertising .

Therefore, many small and medium-sized brands will be confused. If they do brand advertising, it may not have much effect and the cost will be relatively high. If they do not do brand advertising, the series of operations of the top brands will put a lot of pressure on the lower-level brand system. How should they develop to better empower the brand?

01. Basic consensus: Advertising cannot solve all business problems

The first and most basic point is that brands must recognize that advertising cannot solve all business problems. Here I will analyze from two dimensions: 0 to 1 and from 1 to 10.

From 0 to 1 is often the stage of wild growth for a brand, during which the core goal of the brand is to survive. The means used by Internet brands at this stage is often to build up their voice through a large amount of media placement. In essence, it is still performance-based advertising, and the core relies on a large amount of exposure and profit stimulation to achieve growth in the number of users.

Like many physical industries, from the 0 to 1 stage, they are essentially doing two things. One thing is generally the creation and optimization of the supply chain , which is generally biased towards traditional industries. The other thing is to rely on sales to build channels across the country.

In these two links, to be honest, there is very little room for brand advertising. Because from stage 0 to stage 1, the core is still to focus on building a business model and accumulating core audiences. It’s not that brand advertising is not important, but from a practical point of view, it is not cost-effective to do brand advertising.

Some people may argue that brands like Heytea have accumulated a certain amount of experience to obtain financing, and their opening is the accumulation of brand potential. However, many people actually overlook the fact that Heytea’s predecessor, Royal Tea, has already completed the iteration from 0 to 1.

Here is another example, which is Dangeche. Although it is an Internet brand, it spent a large budget on brand advertising when it first came out. Although it had a certain voice and brand potential, it overlooked the fact that cars and fast-moving consumer goods are actually very similar. So it subsidized the brand while burning the budget, and in the end it could only be hastily completed.

The stage from 1 to 10 means that the brand has accumulated a certain number of users in the early stage and the business model is becoming clearer. Then the brand can make some brand advertisements as needed to promote brand values.

For example, Bananain’s “New Bottom Line Declaration of Domestic Products” and NEIWAI’s “NO BODY IS NOBODY” are both brand emotional cards played by brands of a certain size in order to differentiate themselves in the industry.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that from 1 to 10 is the process of shooting a brand commercial. It still depends on the needs of the brand itself. It can be when the brand is upgraded, when the core product is released, or when celebrating an anniversary. It can all be used to strengthen user awareness from the brand dimension and convey the core concept of the brand. The key is to have a high latitude and focus on the strategic level.

02. Why do big brands advertise frequently?

As for why big brands advertise frequently, in fact, different categories have different demands. Of course, the most direct benefit point is that big brands need to strengthen their own brand status and professionalism through advertising, thereby influencing users more deeply and widely.

Here we give a few examples. First, let’s look at the fast food category. KFC is considered a first-tier brand. Looking at KFC’s advertisements, we can see that regardless of spring, summer, autumn or winter, not only are various social advertisements spread across major social media, but the stores are also constantly launching new products and organizing activities.

It is already a leading brand, why does KFC still do this?

On the one hand, the threshold for entering the catering industry is extremely low, and the level of competition is unimaginable; on the other hand, users’ loyalty to food is always Schrödinger’s loyalty, and what they eat depends entirely on their mood. Therefore, there is an inherent principle behind the promotion every three days and campaign every two days for categories like fast-moving consumer goods and catering.

Let’s look at the gaming industry again, Honor of Kings, a national-level game. Why does Honor of Kings continue to use hot topics to advertise on trending searches?

The core reason is that when the number of users grows to a certain level, the growth indicator will be converted into an emotional indicator. For example, the core purpose of the "Where there is group, there is gathering" advertisement of Honor of Kings is to connect with reality and make the culture of Honor of Kings a daily topic. On the basis of game social interaction, discussions on real topics can be established, and then the game can become a tool for everyone to connect with each other and consolidate relationships.

Including the 3C industry, why do they have to advertise continuously? Because core technology has the characteristic of periodically returning to zero. For large fast-moving consumer goods categories, such as liquor, many times they are actually made for the channels to see.

Each category has its own attributes and characteristics. The development stages are different, the demands are different, and the market reactions are also different. Therefore, in addition to clarifying the core issues to be solved at this stage, small and medium-sized brands should also pay attention to the market reactions of the leading brands in the vertical category, and then eliminate the dross, retain the essence, and achieve virtuous iteration.

03. How to advertise effectively? How to do effective advertising?

Finally, let’s talk about effective advertising and how to do effective advertising. These two concepts are different.

Let’s first talk about how to advertise effectively. Here, I personally agree with Mr. Xiaoma Song’s point of view, that is, this brand will eventually succeed even if it does not advertise.

Why do I say this? Because the core of effective advertising is not the advertisement itself, but what purpose the brand wants to achieve. At this time, advertising is just a means. The brand needs to understand the strategy, figure out the direction, and then move towards the goal. What advertising can do is just icing on the cake, and it is difficult for advertising to provide timely assistance.

Anyone who talks about great cases is either a scammer or a fraud. After all, many great cases are great only in the cases themselves and have not really changed the current state of the business, such as Apple's "1984."

So how can brands advertise effectively? In fact, the current situation can be divided into three major areas: Social events, creative events, and PR.

Social events can be understood as topic hype based on social media, which then arouses public discussion. It is often a small-for-big operation and is lightweight and short-lived. For example, the popularity of Mixue Bingcheng is a social event, but it was triggered by UGC.

Creative events are more important than social events. They are well planned and laid out by agencies in the early stages, have a long execution time and fermentation cycle, and are generally more influential. Compared with social communication effects, they are more guaranteed, such as "The Next Wave", "Into the Sea" and "Happy Encounter".

As for public relations, this is quite common. The most frequent one is the hype in the entertainment industry. Its topics are often more extreme. Generally, brands tend to have more official announcement-oriented content, such as new product launches, fashion weeks, etc.

This is a brief overview of the three types of communication. Brands only need to choose the appropriate method based on their own needs and communication characteristics. Of course, if there is sufficient budget, they can be coordinated and promoted. After all, communication is essentially a probability issue. The greater the probability, the more successful the entire campaign will be.

To summarize, brands do not need to pay attention to whether competitors or other brands are advertising. The key is to focus on the brand’s current problems and determine whether they can be solved through advertising. At the same time, they should also pay attention to the development path and market response of leading brands, extract the essence, and retain them as needed.

Under the premise of a clear development strategy, choosing the right combination of punches can achieve a greater probability of effective advancement in brand development.

Author: Community Marketing Research Institute

Source: Community Marketing Research Institute