Santonban and Yuanqi Forest’s popular online brand methods

01Best sellers require new technologies

Technological innovation is the driving force of social progress.

General Electric originated from many inventions of Edison, and Siemens originated from the inventions of German inventor Siemens. The invention of technologies such as airplanes, automobiles, electric cars, etc. have created new categories.

Although fast-moving consumer goods do not require revolutionary technological revolutions like cars and airplanes, technological innovation and progress are still very important.

Instant coffee (such as Nestle coffee) is convenient and fast, but the taste is not as good as freshly ground coffee (such as Starbucks). Freshly ground coffee tastes good, but it is not convenient or fast enough, so you can only drink it in a coffee shop.

Luckin Coffee tried to solve this problem through model innovation: it is convenient, fast and delicious. However, the twenty minutes between production and delivery will also affect the taste.

Santonban solved this problem through technological innovation. Traditional instant coffee needs to be brewed with water (hot water at that) and then stirred, but Santonban does not need to be stirred (and does not require hot water). It can be dissolved in water and milk in three seconds. More importantly, it maintains the taste of freshly ground coffee.

This innovation is derived from the low-temperature extraction technology of freshly ground coffee and the freeze-drying technology used in the medical industry, which can ensure that the original flavor of the coffee is maintained while removing moisture. Santonban has transferred this technology to the category of instant coffee, which can take into account both convenience and taste.

Drinks that taste good usually have a high sugar content, while drinks with low sugar content don’t taste good. On the one hand, consumers enjoy the pleasure brought by sugar, but on the other hand, they feel guilty about consuming calories.

Yuanqi Forest solved this problem through technological innovation, using a plant-based sweetener, erythritol, to resolve the issue of something tasting good but unhealthy, or something healthy but not tasting good.

(0 sugar 0 fat 0 calories, also white peach flavor)

Yoga pants need to be breathable, but good breathability will also allow light to pass through. Breathability and light transmittance seem to be contradictory and cannot be taken into account at the same time.

Yoga pants also need to feel good, but a good feel is difficult to take care of and cannot be machine washed. Good feel and easy care seem to be contradictory and cannot be achieved at the same time.

Yoga pants need to have good sweat absorption properties. If they are too thin, sweat odor will be emitted. If they are too thick, it will affect breathability.

Lululemon solved these problems through technological innovation. Business observer Wu Bofan said that innovation is about building an impossible bridge.

Before smartphones, screens and keyboards were separate. Increasing the area of ​​the keyboard will occupy the area of ​​the screen. The emergence of smartphones has integrated the keyboard and screen.

02New categories need new names

The first reason why a new category needs a new name is to transform it into a concept that is cognitively acceptable.

The first match was called "striking hydrogen sulfide peroxide"; the first lie detector was called "cardiopulmonary involuntary manual recorder"; the first computer was called "electronic numerical integrator and calculator".

If we promote it according to the latter name, the cost will be much higher. The original name of smartphone was mobile intelligent terminal, and another name was personal digital assistant. These are category names that are difficult to understand.

For example, it is easier to understand if a “person-to-person used car trading platform” is named “Used Car Direct Sales Network”. When cars first appeared, they were “horseless carriages”.

After ROBAM Electric's centralized range hood processing system was named "central range hood", its transmission efficiency has been greatly improved.

The brand name should be novel and interesting, while the category name should follow the principle of simplicity and directness.

The second reason why a new category needs a new category name is to differentiate it from the original category.

The technology of iPod was copied from the products of Singapore's innovative technology company, but the product category of the Singapore company is: hard disk MP3, which is considered a part of traditional MP3. The category of iPod is: multi-functional digital multimedia player.

The category name of Santonban is premium instant coffee powder, which is not good enough. It does not reflect the biggest difference from traditional instant coffee powder: the taste of freshly ground coffee. It might be better to order freshly ground instant coffee powder.

Yuanqi Forest’s product category is sugar-free sparkling water, and Lululemon’s product category is fashionable yoga pants. Sugar-free sparkling water is not original to Yuanqi Forest, but sugar-free sparkling water is not delicious. Yuanqi Forest’s is delicious, and this obvious feature is not reflected in its category name.

The category name of Lululemon is not clearly stated, and fashionable yoga pants is the category definition we give it.

Although Swan Home competes in the housekeeping category, it classifies its products as "home delivery" rather than "housekeeping." This avoids consumers comparing Swan Home with other housekeeping companies.

Moutai used to produce strong-aroma and light-aroma liquors. After realizing that it could not succeed by following others, it created the sauce-aroma liquor and became the industry's number one brand by expanding its own product categories.

After realizing the advantages of the strong suction power of range hoods, ROBAM Electric renamed a new category: high-suction range hoods. It creates a clear distinction from other range hoods. In order to enhance this effect, ROBAM Electric Appliances changed the brand name to: ROBAM High-Suction Range Hood.

03New categories require new brands

Sandunban, Yuanqi Forest, and Lululemon. Fortunately, they are all new brand names.

If an old brand name is used to endorse a new product category, consumers will think that this is a product of the original brand rather than a completely new brand.

If the category of freshly ground instant coffee is endorsed by the name of Nestlé, consumers will ignore the difference between the new category and think that it is an updated version of Nestlé.

If the category of sugar-free sparkling water is endorsed by Wahaha, it will have a similar effect. Even if we use the brand names of Nike, Reebok or Puma in the category of fashionable yoga pants, it will be difficult to expand this category.

In fact, when a new product category emerges, the first reaction of leading brands is usually to launch similar products and then continue to use the original brand endorsements.

For example, after Jianyi launched marble tiles, other tile brands also launched similar tiles, but did not start new brand names.

After Xiaoxiandun started to sell fresh stewed bird’s nest, Yanziwu also launched Yanziwu fresh stewed bird’s nest. The effect is that consumers still believe that Xiaoxiandun is an expert brand of freshly stewed bird's nests, while Yanziwu only has freshly stewed bird's nest products.

Launching a new brand may seem costly and time-consuming, but extending an old brand is even more expensive. If you use the original brand Yanziwu to endorse fresh stewed bird's nest, then you need to first erase the fact that Yanziwu is equal to instant bird's nest in people's cognition, and then establish the cognition that Yanziwu is equal to fresh stewed bird's nest.

However, since old brands endorsing new product categories can only have short-term effects, and establishing new brands requires time and patience, the phenomenon of brand extension continues to emerge.

Due to the strong recognition of 58.com, no matter how well-known 58 Daojia is, it is just one of the functions of 58.com, not an independent category.

The change from 58 to swan is first of all a change from a number to an animal, which is easier to remember. More importantly, it breaks away from 58.com’s strong perception: avoiding being considered by consumers as an internal function of 58.com.

For the same reason, Ganji Haoche was renamed Guazi, 58 Suyun was renamed Kuaigou Taxi, Taobao Mall was renamed Tmall Mall, and Ali Travel was renamed Fliggy Travel.

From another perspective, the name of high-end General Motors is Cadillac, the name of high-end Mercedes-Benz is Maybach, and the name of high-end Toyota is Lexus. It is not good enough to call all high-end, mid-range and low-end Volkswagen cars Volkswagen, or to use the same logo.

The Haier brand once suffered from brand extension. Now high-end Haier appliances are called Casarte, and low-end Haier appliances are called Sacon.

04New brands need new competitors

Human nature likes new things, which makes it easy for new categories and new brands to attract more attention. Human nature lacks a sense of security, so people trust familiar things more, which causes things that are not novel to be ignored.

When personal computers first appeared, IBM launched personal computers later than other brands, but still occupied a leading position. Because people were more familiar with and trusted IBM, IBM personal computers became the leader simply because it was IBM.

Leaders often have the opportunity to copy new brands’ products because they have more money, more people, and more friends.

Amdahl was founded by a former IBM engineer and has always competed at low prices in the mainframe category. IBM's strategy is simple: lower prices. Amdahl was quickly strangled.

IBM's successful challengers - Microsoft, Apple, HP, Acer, and Intel - all launched attacks in the personal computer market, a market that IBM did not value (profits from personal computers were far lower than those from mainframes). By the time it finally valued the market, it was too late to catch up.

Under Armour grew from the highly niche category of quick-drying clothing, and Lululemon also found opportunities in the yoga pants category that Nike, Under Armour, and Adidas did not pay enough attention to.

If Santonban competes in the categories of Nestlé Coffee, Luckin Coffee, and Starbucks, it will easily be blocked by the leaders. Just like Amdahl who competed with IBM on mainframes.

Every brand that enters the market is like David challenging Goliath. You cannot compete on the giant's advantages (height, strength). Instead, you can attack from the giant's weaknesses (slow reaction, slow turn) and your own advantages (fast and odd jobs): use a slingshot to hit his head.

There is a kind of chicken soup for the soul in the business world: as long as you make good products with your heart and treat your users sincerely, you can achieve commercial success. Investors like Duan Yongping of Vivo and Oppo always say that marketing is not important and products are the most important. Lei Jun also likes to shape his image as a productist.

This kind of commercial chicken soup is essentially a marketing method to show the quality of one's own products. But many people drink chicken soup as a tonic and really believe what Lei Jun and others say.

Products are of course important, and emphasizing competition does not mean ignoring consumers. But being obsessed with one's own productism, even pretending that there are no competitors in the market, is a lack of intelligence.

Lei Jun and others always like to talk about their products, essentially to create topics, trigger dissemination, and shape the high value of their own brand.

Duan Yongping would not be so foolish as to say that OPPO and vivo avoided the encirclement of Huawei, Samsung and iPhone by sinking their channels, and Lei Jun would not say that Xiaomi saved costs through online sales and was able to maintain low prices.

What we see and hear is most likely what they want us to know. To actually be them and beat them, but also to see how they did it and think about why they wanted us to know that.

05New brands need new products

‍If we look at Yuanqi Forest’s design alone, we can only see its special font of “气”. But put her in the channel and you'll find that she's easy to spot among the colorful drinks.

Product design must also follow the principle of competition. If Yuanqi Forest was green or other colors, it would be classified as one of many beverages.

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‍‍Santonban’s unique appearance is even more obvious, completely different from the bar packaging of instant coffee. There are even businesses on Taobao that specialize in selling three-and-a-half-ton packages.

One of the criteria for a unique product appearance is that it can be recognized even when the logo is covered. The checkered shape of Barber, the three stripes of Adidas, and the curved bottle shape of Coca-Cola all have this effect.

Lululemon's products lack this kind of design thinking.

The product of the Singapore technology innovation company is named Hard Drive MP3, and its appearance is similar to a traditional MP3. But the iPod not only redefined the category name, its appearance was also significantly different from that of MP3.

(Singapore Innovation Technology Hard Drive MP3)

（iPod）

06New brands need new scenarios

New brands need to find their original target audience and then appear in scenes that are familiar to them. There are two key points for new scenes: one is that they need to be scenario-based, and the other is that they need to be new.

"Subway has 7 sandwiches for you to choose from with less than 6 grams of fat," this is Subway's slogan. But there is no scenario.

"Follow Subway's diet every day and lose 100 pounds in 3 months" is a scenario-based design. We need to transform a product from an internal perspective into a scenario that customers can understand. Because customers are very familiar with the scene and understand it as soon as they hear it. I don't feel the technical description of the product.

The second point is new.

Because the existing channels and most people have already been occupied by leading brands, there are opportunities only on the edge of the market.

Red Bull developed from gas stations and truck drivers, while Wanglaoji achieved breakthroughs through catering channels and population. Yuanqi Forest’s target audience is young women who are particularly sensitive to sugar, fat and calories, and want their drinks to be both delicious and healthy.

Yuanqi Forest made efforts on Xiaohongshu, where young women gather, and only went to the general public after gaining recognition from the original crowd; Santonban also started with the professional coffee crowd. Their recommendations on social media triggered a spontaneous dissemination effect, and then exploded on Tmall; Lululemon focused on urban yoga studios and invited yoga instructors in the region to be their spokespeople.

New brands emerge from the periphery because the core areas are already occupied by strong brands. The birth of a new brand is particularly like the emergence of a new nation: it invades the center from the periphery and then becomes the new center. After a while, a new ethnic group emerges from the periphery and dominates again.

The Germanic people in Germany were once barbarians, and the Mongols, Manchus, Xianbei, and Qin people who ruled the Central Plains all rose from the marginal areas.

The rise of the periphery and becoming the center may be a manifestation of a certain world spirit. Yangming's philosophy of mind, Schopenhauer's philosophy of world will, Austrian economics and other theories have all been ignored, ridiculed and even regarded as heresy, but have all risen from the margins to become new centers.

Author: Zhang Zhiyu

Source: Zhiyu Brand Positioning