[Li Jiaoshou] What is the most difficult product to promote for marketers?

What is the most difficult product to promote for marketers?

A day ago, Li Jiaoshou conducted a survey on the official account of marketers: "What product do you think is the most difficult to promote?"

As a result, in less than a day, we received thousands of replies from fans, and the products mentioned in the replies were countless. These products were hindered by various consumer cognitive factors during the promotion process.

So, today, Li Jiaoshou will analyze: What kind of products are the most difficult to promote?

What kind of products are the most difficult to promote?

I think all marketers have this question: Why are some products more difficult to promote than other products even though they are all “conscientious products” that don’t cheat customers?

For example, both insurance and chocolate can satisfy consumer needs. It is easy to convince consumers to try a new flavor of chocolate, but it is difficult to get them to buy insurance.

In order to study this issue, we first need to know under what circumstances consumers are more likely to accept new products . Then, by reverse reasoning, you can naturally find out the factors that hinder consumer acceptance.

So, for products that can also meet the needs, what attributes does the product have that will make it more likely to be accepted by users?

Numerous consumer behavior studies in the past have found these factors:

The cost of trying a product for the first time is low : the threshold for trying it for the first time is low - for example, buy a piece of chocolate to try it;

The product has high a priori value : you can judge its value before buying it - for example, you can tell the specifications of a mobile phone before buying it;

Products have high a posteriori value : you can judge their value after you buy them—for example, you will know whether chocolate tastes good after you eat it once.

Products bring positive image : Use can improve image - such as buying high-end products;

Low product understanding cost : The product is easy to understand - for example, more bitter chocolate is easy to understand;

Products are easy to pay attention to : consumers tend to pay attention to information about such products - such as clothing styles;

The product fits past perceptions : consumers do not need to change their perceptions—for example, a pair of jeans at an average price.

If products of the same value have more of the above attributes, it will be much easier to promote them to consumers.

Any non-compliance will become an obstacle to product promotion, resulting in difficulties in early promotion even if the product is very good and can meet the needs:

The product has a high acceptance threshold - people who use keyboards for the first time need a lot of learning, and they are not as fast as handwriting at first;

Products lack a priori value : it is often impossible to judge the quality before buying - for example, how can you know whether a new movie is good or not without watching it?

The product lacks a posteriori value : the quality cannot be judged after purchase - for example, after using antivirus software, no improvement is felt;

Products bring negative images – such as STD treatments;

The cost of product understanding is high - for example, it is difficult for an ordinary online shopper to understand what a "mobile fashion clothing customization platform" is;

Products are not easy to attract attention - we pay attention to mobile phone topics, but we don’t care what brand of batteries our friends are using;

The product does not match your perception - if you are used to buying juice at 5 yuan a bottle, why should you buy a healthy smoothie at more than 20 yuan?

Many people find it difficult to promote insurance because insurance has almost all of the above “cognitive barriers”:

The threshold for accepting insurance for the first time is high (it costs a lot of money all at once), the quality cannot be judged before acceptance (how do I know if your insurance is a scam), and the quality cannot be judged after acceptance (generally nothing will happen after buying insurance, so I don’t feel anything), the cost of understanding is high (complex ratios are hard to understand), the frequency of use is low (only one purchase), and the product is not easy to attract attention (few people discuss this topic)...

The “ cognitive barriers ” mentioned above will cause many obviously useful products to be promoted slowly in the early stages (for example, it took 15 years for the sliced ​​bread machine to be gradually promoted in the United States). As marketers, it is often difficult to change these product attributes, but we can actually prescribe the right remedy for each “cognitive barrier”.

Below, Li Jiaoshou prescribes remedies for each cognitive obstacle:

1. High acceptance threshold - negative experience products

Although many products can essentially bring convenience to users, they have a high threshold for initial acceptance and may even bring a "negative experience" to users in the beginning.

For example, this is the case with typewriters - the biggest advantage of typewriters is that they can type quickly, but when people first try to accept and learn it, typing is not as fast as handwriting, which hinders many people's first attempts (Li Jiaoshou can still recall the pain of learning to type back then).

That is to say: its initial experience is negative.

How to solve this obstacle?

Li Jiaoshou had encountered a company before that was very similar to this one.

There is an APP that helps men choose clothes. After purchasing the membership service, you can receive men's clothing selected for you by a clothing consultant through a series of processes such as measuring data.

This helps men solve the problem of “being too lazy to choose clothes” and its main purpose is to “make it easier for you to buy good clothes”.

Is there any problem with this?

This is a typical problem of high acceptance threshold - I came to this platform to buy clothes more easily, but when I tried it for the first time, because I had to learn, understand, enter data, etc., it was not as easy as just shopping on Tmall.

It's like a typewriter - the first time you use it you won't be able to type as fast as you do it.

This kind of "negative first experience" seriously hinders the promotion of such products.

What should I do then?

A key approach is to shift user motivations. The product needs to solve a task that the user was unable to solve before, rather than solving a "more convenient" need.

For example, this APP should not emphasize "easy clothes selection" but "professional clothes selection" - have a person with a beautiful image constantly say that Chinese men actually don't know how to match clothes and don't even know that the shirt should be two centimeters away from the cuffs, and then say "we can help you match clothes more professionally."

In this way, more people would rather endure the trouble of submitting their physical data for the first time and try the services of this platform.

Similarly, it is the same when trying to get people to accept typing on a keyboard - if you tell someone that typing on a keyboard is faster, he may still be used to handwriting; but if you tell him that he must use formal Song font to submit a report, this person will definitely learn to type.

Because "regular Song typeface" is a task that could not be accomplished by handwriting before, this will help people overcome the threshold of the first step.

This works because the user's real motivation for continued use is generally not the same as their motivation for trying it for the first time.

For example, the reason why users continue to use electric toothbrushes is that they are quick and easy to brush your teeth and save them the trouble of moving their hands. However, when learning to use an electric toothbrush, it is actually not as convenient as using a traditional toothbrush in the past, which leads many people not to use it.

Therefore, the promotion appeal of electric toothbrushes is not that brushing teeth is convenient and labor-saving, but that they can brush places that traditional toothbrushes cannot reach, truly protecting dental health.

Therefore, for products with high initial acceptance barriers, it is best to shift motivation – provide users with a task that past products were unable to accomplish.

2. Lack of a priori value

For some products, users are unable to judge the quality or feel that there is no improvement before using them, which leads to too low a priori value and becomes an obstacle to promotion.

For example, a movie - you cannot judge the quality before watching it; for example, financial management with a higher yield may only differ by less than 1 percentage point, and you cannot feel the difference.

(1) Quality cannot be judged before use

If the problem is “quality cannot be judged before use”, the marketing solution is generally to take advantage of the herd mentality - people will observe the behavior of others to determine whether they should do it.

For example, if you don’t know whether a movie is good or not before watching it, just check out the reviews on Douban.

Before drinking a certain herbal tea, you don’t know whether it is good or not, but since it is “far ahead in national sales”, you generally won’t go wrong if you buy it.

In this regard, an important practice for many companies is to create user stories so that many consumers can see the results after purchase.

For example, industries such as beauty and training all focus on telling stories about how a few users’ lives changed after purchasing services (or participating in training). For products that lack a priori value, such stories are far more important than product attributes.

(On the contrary, it is easy to judge the value of products such as mobile phones through parameters, and it is easy to generate a priori value, so user stories are not as important as core product information)

(2) Before use, the effect was too small

If it is "before use, the improvement feels too small", then a common method is to take advantage of people's "loss aversion" - people don't pay attention to small benefits, but often pay attention to even small losses.

For example, here’s a case provided by a fan:

The rate of return only increased by 0.05% - 100,000 yuan, a difference of only 50 yuan, which makes people feel that the value is too small in advance and there is almost no motivation to try.

What should be done at this time is not to let customers understand "using Tianfu Mobile Banking" as a benefit, but to understand not being able to use the bank as a loss - for example, tell consumers:

"You wasted 5 kilograms of pork. Because you were too lazy to download the app, you didn't choose a bank with a higher interest rate, and wasted 50 yuan in interest."

"Tianfu Mobile Banking offers higher interest rates than bank counters, and all you need to do is scan the QR code."

(Of course, you can also say "You wasted a cup of Haagen-Dazs", "20 bowls of rice", etc.)

By converting gains into losses and making small gains concrete (not compared with hundreds of thousands of deposits, but with daily consumer expenditures), users' perception of value will be improved.

For example, I once encountered a website that provided e-commerce discount information. Users often forgot to check the discount information and went directly to Tmall. Li Jiaoshou suggested that they use "loss information" for marketing, such as "If you don't want to miss the 10 biggest discounts every day, just log in to XX."

3. Lack of a posteriori value

Some products simply lack a priori value - your value cannot be felt or your quality cannot be judged before use. And many products even lack a posteriori value - after users have used them, they cannot feel their quality or value.

For example, some cases provided by fans - insurance, anti-virus software, strategic consulting services, health products, health foods, etc., after using them, either they feel "no feeling" (nonsense, if nothing goes wrong after buying insurance, no one will feel anything), or "cannot judge the quality" (for example, after the strategic consulting is done, how can I know whether it is done well, there is no strategic KPI).

Yes, if I eat a piece of chocolate, I know whether it tastes good or not, but if I eat expensive health food, how can I know whether it is good or not?

How do we resolve this obstacle caused by the lack of a posteriori value?

Generally speaking, there are two common methods:

(1) Improving the perceived value

For this type of product, you can find ways to let people experience the "difference after use", even if this difference may not be your core value.

For example, toothpaste that cleans the mouth "lacks a posteriori value" in itself, and it is difficult to immediately feel that the mouth has become healthier after using it. Therefore, fresheners are added to toothpaste to make us feel refreshed every time we brush our teeth, and our oral cavity feels healthier all of a sudden.

Even though this refreshing feeling has nothing to do with oral health, it can make us feel like we are “healthier” after brushing our teeth.

(PS. This is also the reason why fragrances are added to shampoos, shower gels, etc. to improve perception)

For example, the effect of antivirus software itself is difficult to perceive, but information such as "defeat XX friend after turning on the computer" increases the perception of this value.

Similarly, a similar approach can be used for insurance products.

The essence of insurance is "investment for the future", and a large number of psychological studies have found that when people feel that the future is more realistic and positive, they will increase their investment in the future.

One study found that if consumers are shown a happy life with limited vacation time in old age, they will be more willing to put money into a retirement fund, but if they are shown how lonely they will be in old age, they will be more inclined to spend the money directly - the future will be tragic anyway, so it is better to enjoy the present.

(ps. This is also why the more war or economic crisis a country faces, the more people like to indulge in singing and dancing, because they foresee a pessimistic future)

Similarly, in order to sell future products such as insurance, it is necessary to enhance consumers' perception of a positive and beautiful life in the future - if a 25-year-old can realistically feel that life will still be good when he is 70, he will be more inclined to buy insurance for future investment.

(2) Improving the psychological value of product use

If the direct perceived value of a product is very low (for example, you do not feel any benefit after buying the insurance), you can promote it by enhancing other psychological values ​​of the insurance - such as the value of image building.

“Buy child insurance and enjoy a safe life” – doesn’t seem very powerful.

But it would be much better if we activated the buyer's image awareness:

"Use the money you save for a cup of coffee every day to buy a protection for your child." (It makes people feel that buying insurance for children is a symbol of being a "responsible and good father").

4. The product brings a negative image

Some products are valuable but have high barriers to promotion because the use of the product itself will bring about a negative image. For example, using a cost-effective mobile phone will bring about a negative image of being “poor”.

The key method at this time is to help consumers find reasonable reasons to buy products .

For example, many Momo users are embarrassed to use it because they are worried that people will think they are using Momo to hook up.

At this time, Momo launched a series of posters called " Just Live Like This ", providing users with a reasonable reason to use Momo:

"I use Momo not for hooking up, but because I am not content to just hang out with people I know, and because I love challenges."

For example, when disposable diapers were first introduced in the United States, the main promotional slogan was “a convenient choice for mothers” (because they saved the trouble of washing diapers). However, the promotion was slow because it gave mothers a negative impression of “I am too lazy to wash diapers, so I use disposable diapers.”

Later, the company promoted selling points such as "protecting children's skin" and became very popular. This provided mothers with a reasonable and image-friendly reason to buy diapers - "I buy diapers not because I'm lazy, but because they are good for my child's skin."

Also, Vancl reversed the negative image of wearing cheap clothes through the copywriting "I am Vancl" - I wear cheap clothes not because I have no money, but because I have an ordinary heart and do not pursue face. I am Vancl, just like Han Han.

Therefore, if "negative image" is an obstacle to product promotion, you need to find rationalization reasons for your consumers through marketing to reduce this obstacle.

5. The product is complex and difficult to understand

If a product is complex, it will be a huge barrier to initial user acceptance - users are unlikely to buy a product they cannot directly understand.

How can we speed up users’ understanding of new products with complex attributes and unfamiliar feeling?

An important method is to utilize users' known concepts.

For example, when the car was first invented, in order to make it easier for people to understand, it was simply called a horseless-carriage, because a horse-drawn carriage is a known concept in the minds of users.

To users, your new products and new technologies are meaningless unless you can connect them with their existing needs and cognition.

For example, when jelly was first invented, its promotion was very slow - users did not understand the product at all, nor did they know why they needed to buy it.

In order to solve this problem, the founder of Jell-O took the initiative to look for existing concepts and needs in users' lives, and eventually discovered this pain point - housewives often complained about the trouble of making desserts.

Then, they distributed dessert-making guides to a large number of housewives for free, and then told them the simplest way to make dessert: just pour Jell-O jelly over light cream, and a delicious dessert will be ready in 1 minute.

This allowed Jelly to quickly solve the "user understanding problem" because "making desserts" is an existing concept that users can easily accept.

So, what if jelly is promoted in China? After all, Chinese people don’t have the habit of making desserts.

In fact, you can also take advantage of the "existing concepts in the minds of Chinese people" and just say "Americans' favorite snacks." Chinese people themselves tend to imitate American trends, so foreign trends are an existing concept.

6. Products that lack attention

We pay attention to products such as mobile phones, clothing, and food on a daily basis, which makes these products easy to trigger discussions and recommendations, so we can leverage the power of consumers to promote them, greatly speeding up the promotion process.

But there are some products that are beyond the scope of our attention and discussion. What should we do?

For example, batteries, gas stoves, purified water, etc.

An important method is to bind these products with the content that users themselves need to pay attention to.

For example, range hoods themselves are a category that lacks attention, but last year, through a series of advertisements, FOTILE tied range hoods to topics that users are concerned about, which triggered a lot of discussion and attention.

The ads discuss topics such as beauty and filial piety to parents, and then say that buying good cosmetics is not as good as buying a good range hood, and buying cough medicine for parents is not as good as buying a range hood, etc. - cosmetics are a category that is more easily noticed, and being tied to this category will also increase attention to range hoods.

For example, a fan submitted a comment and asked, what should we do if users don’t care about shampoos that are low-priced and easy to use?

In fact, it can also be bound to topics that users care about in their daily lives. For example, I saw this paragraph some time ago:

"Let's not meet up. Washing hair is tiring and shampoo is expensive." (Associate cheap and convenient shampoo with a date with a goddess)

Also, a fan left a message saying that he had a "tire pressure monitoring system", which was difficult to attract attention. Then you can think about this: What topics do users like to discuss that are relevant to me?

For example, "What is a real veteran driver" (bound to the topic of veteran drivers).

In short, many products are outside the user's scope of concern (unlike mobile phones and clothing). What you need to do at this time is to bind this product with topics within the scope of concern.

7. Products that do not conform to past perceptions

The emergence of many products has broken our existing habits, which makes it difficult to promote the products.

An important method is to convert users' classification of the product.

For example, a fruit smoothie product that costs more than 20 yuan a bottle is obviously considered too expensive by people - regular fruit juice is only 5 yuan, why should I buy a bottle that costs more than 20 yuan?

At this time, simply persuading users is often useless - it is difficult to change users' habits and get them to buy something that is four times the price.

However, if this smoothie is positioned as a " light meal replacement " and placed in the salad, sandwich and other meal replacement food areas of convenience stores, users will not feel that it is so expensive - because the budget for a meal is 30 yuan, and a 20 yuan smoothie does not seem too expensive in comparison.

For example, there was a fan submission saying that the online school promotion for middle school students was not effective. No matter how they talked about the advantages of offline classes, parents still tended to send their children to offline tutoring classes - many parents thought that surfing the Internet was just for fun.

At this time, the problem can actually be solved by shifting the classification - since parents think that surfing the Internet is just for fun, just let online schools compete with the Internet instead of competing with offline courses.

The target should not be "people who go to offline courses", but "people who stay at home instead of going to offline courses because of inconvenience, laziness, etc.". At this time, we can tell parents: It is better to listen to classes on the computer than to stay at home and surf the Internet.

This makes it easier to accept.

Conclusion

What is the most difficult product to promote for marketers? It seems that it is really difficult to promote it. There is either this obstacle or that obstacle.

Therefore, marketing is really not easy. If you have someone who is engaged in marketing around you, please cherish him/her.

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