Essential circle marketing guide for brands

Nowadays, with the continuous development of the times and the continuous enrichment of Internet content, more types of circles have emerged, so brands also need to carry out marketing in different types of circles. So how can brands ultimately break through the circles? The author of this article shares a guide to essential circle marketing for brands. Let’s take a look at it together.

We have to admit that as there are more and more channels and traffic is no longer concentrated, circle penetration becomes increasingly important for brand communication.

This is the inevitable result of the transition from traditional advertising to the digital age and then to the hypermedia age.

Looking at the development of business from 1.0 to 6.0, you will find that everything done at each stage is essentially doing one thing, that is, improving the efficiency of information flow. The processing of information efficiency in the business field itself is the underlying logic or core DNA of the brand.

Therefore, when people are broken up according to different fields and channels, the efficiency of information processing and management will be reduced. The key strategy to efficiently integrate all of this is to deliver information through channels and to penetrate and guide through circles.

In fact, circle marketing can no longer be generally defined as a certain area of ​​interest, because it can be an aggregation of content, a community with the same purpose, or a community based on geographical location, all of which can be collectively referred to as circle marketing.

So with so many different types and methods of circles, how can brands penetrate into them to influence them, gain their recognition, and even break through the circle with their help?

01 Re-understanding the circles

When launching brand communication, circles are often only used as a channel, and when talking about circles, everyone also generally specifies a certain direction. However, when it comes to the specific characteristics of the circles, it is often difficult to find the right direction on how to better disseminate content and guide public opinion within the circles.

To put it bluntly, for this kind of advertising, brand suppliers basically just find a few KOLs to make a simple investment, and then use the expression method that they think they know the circle very well. The final communication effect can be imagined.

In fact, there are only four points to understand about circles: cultural carriers, expression systems, communication fields and power systems.

Cultural carriers usually refer to the transformation of abstract concepts into specific styles/behaviors/objects. For example, fine arts are divided into graphic design, illustrations and other categories, and illustrations are divided into children's illustrations, American comics, Q versions, original paintings and other styles.

The expression system is the language system, visual symbol system, etc. of the circle. The most representative ones here are fan circles and the two-dimensional world. One is based on idols as the discourse system, and the other is based on visual style and personality as the core communication system.

The communication field is what brands call their communication channels, including online and offline. The power system refers to the opinion leaders and member levels of this circle, including the standards for entering the circle, etc. In fact, brands understand and apply these two points relatively more.

In essence, it is a channel, a KOL or KOC, but the cultural carrier and expression system are often overlooked by brands from a content perspective, especially when the previous strategies and creativity have been decided, and people think that the channel is just about finding an account to post, but the effects are actually very different.

Because to put it bluntly, a cultural carrier must understand the culture of this circle. It is not enough to just gain recognition. It is better to be able to play with it. If a brand just keeps clapping and cheering on the sidelines without getting involved, it will not actually win the recognition of this group of people.

There is also an expression system. The expression system cannot interpret the culture and views of a circle with just a few social buzzwords or passionate attitudes. Therefore, if a brand wants to achieve a breakthrough in circle communication, in addition to the channel-level expansion and the voices of circle leaders, it also needs to play with the target group to win their recognition.

02 Finding resonance among the group

The core penetration strategy for a single circle is for a brand to enter the market and then dig deep. For example, during the World Cup some time ago, many beer brands, when creating content and promoting it, would only recommend beer and snacks to accompany you while watching the World Cup late at night. This kind of promotion was actually just applauding from the sidelines, and failed to get deeper into participation and interaction.

The simplest example is the "France wins the championship, Vatti refunds full payment" campaign a few years ago. This is actually a form of deep interaction because it subconsciously guides users to "bet on football."

Another direction is to focus on players or analyze events. If a brand can achieve such depth, it will be no problem to win the recognition of fans.

Of course, if a brand wants to spread across circles, it will be difficult to have a big impact if the content is too vertical, unless it is a social news event, but this kind of event is too sensitive for the brand, so cross-circle content must be based on the masses.

The role of circles is to find discussion points within the circle based on public resonance. The discussion angles are different, but they are all aimed at the same event. The so-called harmony in difference is one of the interpretations.

Compared to simply creating mass content events, which either involve hard advertising to create exposure or using PR articles to infiltrate the outside world, the concept of "harmony but difference" is actually a higher-dimensional idea. In big events, different circles create "different" opinions, which then detonate the public opinion field and infiltrate the public.

For example, Kuaishou’s "Lovely China" has content that is basically universal topics that resonate with the general public. So if you want to achieve the so-called breaking the circle, whether in terms of content or dissemination, if you can achieve "harmony but difference", the final effect will be good.

03 Establish connections between circles

In addition to finding group resonance on major topics and guiding circles to express different opinions, are there some consensus or differences between circles to help brands better integrate?

As we said before, cultural carriers and expression systems are the core, channels and KOLs are the fuse of external traffic, so the compatibility of cultural tone or scenes between circles is also the relevant core connection points.

Because circle users themselves are complex, they can be participatory consumers, practitioners with emotional expressions beyond daily life, and members of the public who participate in public practices and public expressions.

When cultural carriers or scenes become relevant to them, the two circles will have corresponding connections. To put it simply, it is to find the common points between the two circles, which can be cultural relevance or relevance of application scenarios.

For example, the same community is a circle based on geographical location. The correlation may include community systems, community services, etc. For brands, making full use of offline media that focus on the community, such as Xinchao Media, can also enhance the correlation between circles and make the disseminated content a topic of social media discussion.

Another angle is PK. Of course, this is not a way of quarreling and fighting, but a pure PK strategy. For example, KFC’s advertisement invited two popular young actors, Chen Kun and Ko Chen-tung, to create the gimmick of "Who can represent KFC?" The two represented original chicken and crispy chicken respectively, and the voting method was used to allow the fans of the two stars to interact with each other.

After all, in addition to cooperation between circles, PK is also an idea, and if the gimmick is big enough, it is very likely to go beyond the circle.

The third idea is actually the secondary creation of fans based on the same event. It can be an interactive topic between circles, or it can be a topic outside the circle, but what really spreads is the content re-creation of circle users.

The most classic one is the recent Mixue Bingcheng and Watsons love for 105-degree distilled water. Although these two are somewhat metaphysical, they are a good idea for penetration and dissemination among circles.

Finally, I want to tell brands that the value of circle marketing is far more than just being used as a channel for marketing. Instead, they should be aware of its underlying logic and even apply this logic to building their own brands.

For example, the cultural carrier is the brand's values, product concepts, and market concepts; the expression system is the brand's IP, business, etc. By understanding and introspection, we can gain a deeper understanding of users, optimize products and services, and thus stand out through better iterations and optimizations.

Author: Community Marketing Research Institute

Source: Community Marketing Research Institute