Do you want to know the 6 key principles of brand operation?

What? Is there such a magical job as brand operation in the big family of operations ? ? ! Today in the office, I was talking about operations with my boss. When he mentioned this term, my heart tightened. How come I had never heard of it before? As a knowledge planet person who is determined to fight in the operation pit for a lifetime, of course I can't stop learning for a moment, so I secretly decided to unveil the veil of the brand operation girl and see her beauty.

1. What is brand operation?

1.1 Brand

The operations position is a unique existence in the Internet world, forming a three-legged tripod with programmers and product managers . We all know that operations can be divided into product operations , user operations , content operations , new media operations , etc., but what is brand operation? Is it a combination of brand marketing + product operations?

The answer is obviously not that simple. To answer this question, we may need to start with the word "brand".

So the question is, what is a “brand”?

Dr. Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing , defined it in Marketing:

A brand is a name, term, mark, symbol or pattern, or a combination of them, used to identify the products or services provided by a company to a certain consumer or group of consumers and to distinguish them from the products or services of competitors.

David Orwig, known as the Pope of Advertising, believes:

A brand is a complex symbol that is the intangible sum of its attributes, name, packaging, price, history, reputation and advertising. A brand is also defined by consumers' impressions of its use and their own experiences.

Theory is gray, but the tree of life is evergreen. The masters are worthy of being masters. Both of them have profound definitions of brands, but they are a bit obscure, so let’s look at specific brand cases.

Without further ado, here are the pictures. Please take a look:

After reading this, please tell me immediately, instantly and without hesitation what products or companies these two pictures represent?

I believe everyone will quickly blurt out " Pepsi " and "Apple" without any hesitation. When you see the red, white and blue round logo, you know it is Pepsi. When you see the white apple and glass wall in the picture above, you know it is Apple’s offline store.

The reason why we can recognize Pepsi and Apple at a glance here is that these two brands have firmly occupied the minds of consumers, so they can react immediately when they see their brand logos or names.

In this test, Pepsi and Apple are brands, and usually the most intuitive and effective way for consumers to identify brands is to look at the brand logo or name. A brand logo refers to the part of a brand that is recognizable and easy to remember, but cannot be described in words, including symbols, patterns, or obvious colors and fonts. The brand name is the part of the brand that can be called by words, including words, letters, numbers and their combinations, such as: pepsi (Pepsi-Cola).

However, a brand is more than just a brand name and logo. It also includes all tangible or intangible assets that can distinguish it from other companies in the minds of consumers. For example, product packaging, after-sales service, corporate values, etc. are all components of a brand. A brand is a perception or impression people have of the tangible or intangible assets such as the products, services, and values ​​provided by a company.

1.2 Brand Operation

After clarifying the meaning of "brand", let's go back and answer what brand operation is. Brand operation is actually a series of comprehensive planning made by the enterprise with brand as the core. It is a complex system project that involves many aspects such as corporate strategy, activities, advertising, media, public relations and charity.

2. How to operate a brand?

After understanding what brand operation is, you may still want to know how to do brand operation. Here, we provide you with six common ways of brand operation:

2.1 Storytelling

Nian Gao Mama's Entrepreneurship Story

The brand is spread by packaging the founder or company's product development process into a touching story, and then constantly telling this story to the audience. Usually, stories with big contrasts, such as a founder who becomes a loser and makes a comeback, or a returnee who studies abroad and gives up his billions of dollars to start a business in China, are the most eye-catching. Also, stories about the nitpicking and pursuit of details in the product development process are good topics.

We often see many bosses appearing on various shows and telling their sad entrepreneurial stories, all for the sake of their company’s brand.

2.2 Riding on the Hotspot

Durex's Hot Marketing in 2016 Double Eleven

In this era of mobile Internet , everyone is addicted to mobile phones, and hot social events can usually stir everyone's heartstrings in a very short time. Riding on the wave of popularity has become an important way for corporate brand operations, and the best at it is undoubtedly the godly Durex, no doubt about it! For example: Durex’s hot marketing campaign on the eve of Double Eleven in 2016, a poster consisting of an alarm clock frozen at 11:59 and the copy “The only way to stop her from shopping at this moment” coupled with Durex condoms, is simply a classic.

2.3 Post soft articles

Soft articles, also known as soft advertisements, are paid text advertisements published by companies in promotional media such as newspapers, magazines or the Internet. It has the effect of moistening things silently and transforming things like spring breeze. It can achieve the goal of enhancing the brand image and popularity of the enterprise with very small advertising cost, so it is quite popular.

For example, many small and medium-sized enterprises will choose some media to place soft articles on Baidu search , and the fees range from 5 to 1,000 yuan depending on the qualifications of the media.

2.4 Organizing activities

36Kr 's First Internet Fan Festival in 2017: I didn't expect an amusement park

The activities here refer to brand activities , which are slightly different from the activities done by event operations . The most obvious difference is that brand activities are generally larger in scale, with greater capital investment, duration, and influence. For example: 36Kr Internet Fan Festival, Tmall Double Eleven , Honor of Kings E-sports, Zhihu Salt Club, Baidu World Conference, Chinajoy Game Show and other brand activities.

The 36Kr Fan Festival, which I personally experienced, rented an entire amusement park in Shijingshan, Beijing. It lasted for two days and attracted 12,000 participants on the first day, with over 120 million topics on Weibo.

2.5 Advertising

The most common, simplest and most brutal way to build a brand is to spend money on advertising, which is generally effective but relatively expensive. Nowadays, Internet advertising has surpassed traditional TV advertising, outdoor advertising, etc. to become the favorite form of business owners. According to different trigger mechanisms, it can be divided into two categories: search advertising and social advertising. The former includes Baidu search advertising, and the latter includes WeChat Moments advertising .

2.6 Doing charity

Charity activities to endorse brands, that is, promoting their own brands by doing good deeds, has become one of the most common means for companies. Some companies will set up professional charity departments to carry out charity activities from time to time. These activities include charity donations, launching charity products, funding poor students, and donating to build Hope Primary Schools.

3. Conclusion

This article is the first part of unveiling the veil of brand operation girl, which consists of two parts:

• The first part starts with the concept of "brand" and answers the question of what brand operation is. It believes that brand operation is actually a series of comprehensive planning made by the enterprise with brand as the core. It is a complex system project that involves many aspects such as corporate strategy, activities, advertising, media, public relations and charity.
• The second part introduces six common ways of brand operation: storytelling, riding on hot topics, publishing soft articles, organizing events, advertising, and doing charity, and is accompanied by vivid case analysis.

Stay tuned for the next article!