There are only two major pain points for all festivals, and we need to avoid 5 pitfalls

Taking this year's Chinese Valentine's Day as an example, I found that all festivals have only two major pain points and five pitfalls.

It’s still what Zhu Xiaolei ( marketing ) said, “Phenomena can only reflect connotations, they cannot represent anything.”

• Spring Festival - sweeping the house, staying up late, greeting each other, pasting Spring Festival couplets, setting off firecrackers, giving out lucky money, etc. Mid-Autumn Festival - admiring the moon, worshipping the moon, eating moon cakes, etc. Qixi Festival - it seems that the traditional activities of threading needles and worshipping the Weaver Girl are rare, replaced by bars, shopping, eating, watching movies , etc.

Two major pain points for people celebrating holidays

1. Reflect the connotation of the festival

Every festival is a large-scale national atmosphere-creating machine. When this machine is operating, big brands tend to further emphasize the festive atmosphere - linking the brand ; while small and medium-sized brands just follow the trend, first ensure sales and seize existing pain points . "Reflecting the connotation of the festival" is not ready-made enough.

For example: last year’s iPhone’s New Year’s version of the WeChat feed ad; and Dior’s ad for this limited edition Chinese Valentine’s Day handbag, both of which embody the meaning of the festival and hope to establish a link between the brand and the festival. It seems that people can think of it during this festival.

2. Extended festival connotation

"This is what humans do," buy ready-made. It is more important for marketers of ordinary brands to spend energy to grasp the extension of the festival’s connotation. What is the extended connotation of the festival? Brief overview: Festival A originally has a certain emotional atmosphere, but it is human nature to export the festival atmosphere as a "ready-made benefit." Whether marketers can satisfy their "ready-made benefits" becomes the key promotion point for ordinary brands.

for example:

Chinese Valentine's Day is a romantic festival, and brands/products that promote their products at this time are riding on this trend; however, consumers at this time often want a "ready-made benefit" , such as catching up with their favorite person, or making their girlfriend (boyfriend) happier and themselves happier.

The Mid-Autumn Festival has an atmosphere of reunion and happiness. Brands/products that promote products at this time are riding on this trend. The "ready-made benefits" that consumers hope for at this time are more convenient family reunions, or more convenient moon-viewing, etc.

And so on.

Suppose I am a mooncake merchant, mainly producing mooncakes for family consumption rather than as gifts, with a taste and style that are neither good nor bad. When promoting mooncakes, by providing a nationwide high-speed rail ticket-grabbing service, isn’t this solving an extension of the holiday connotation for consumers - a ready-made benefit ?

During the Chinese Valentine's Day, one " ready-made benefit" that marketers can seize is to help consumers make girls (boys) happy and feel romantic.

Diamonds have achieved scarcity value by controlling total production. "You picked up something so expensive, aren't you happy?" (As of now, there are actually quite a lot of diamond mines)

Flowers are not expensive, but they give you a dose of "genetic factors" that will make you unhappy or happy involuntarily. A report in the British journal Social Psychology pointed out that human genes determine that no matter how the times change, flowers are still the most effective way to win the hearts of girls.

Chocolate, a product that is neither rare nor "genetic", this black "local food" of the Indians, was pushed into a trend by Mary's Chocolate Company in 1958 through the campaign of "encouraging women to give chocolates to men on Valentine's Day ". Well now, chocolate can also solve a “ ready-made benefit”.

The “ready-made benefits” of Chinese Valentine’s Day – helping consumers to pursue their ideal partners, or making their girlfriends happier and themselves happier.

5 pitfalls we need to avoid

1. Why should consumers buy your product now?

In the strong festive atmosphere, a natural sense of urgency is created (mentioned in the 14th article of the non-mainstream Zhu Gong’s account). Buying today is definitely different from buying tomorrow. Extending to individual products/stores, how do you get consumers to place orders from you right now instead of thinking about it first? This is a very important point during holiday promotions. It is meaningless to create a festive atmosphere with a lot of money, "Since I'm in your store, don't I have enough festive atmosphere?"

The first XX orders will be delivered to someone, orders placed before XX o'clock will be delivered by SF Express... These are all common ways to create a sense of urgency.

2. Avoid too much self-promotion

It is of course necessary to praise yourself a bit, but it would be wrong to do so on Valentine's Day.

As mentioned in the previous article, the first pain point is to reflect the connotation of the festival. That is, the brand wants to establish a link with the festival so that people seem to think of it every time the festival comes. For small and medium-sized brands, they need to grasp the existing pain points - the extension of the festival connotation, "What ready-made and direct things can you do to help consumers?"

For example, for this ordinary brand necklace, 2/3 of the content on its poster reflects the meaning of the festival and how beautiful the product is. (Only a small piece of the poster is shown here)

In the Internet environment, consumers are increasingly able to judge whether a product is beautiful or not, not to mention that on Valentine's Day, we need to look at girls from a boy's perspective . It's the boys who are buying things at the moment.

To make the product target “existing benefits” , you can modify it like this:

"Through the delicate experience of XXX girls, we found that most women have a XX unique psychology. Based on this, we specially use XX material and technology to weave necklaces... XX touch stimulates girls' XX heart; XX configuration makes girls XXX; girls don't need a necklace, but they need someone who cares."

3. Product description order

From the narrow consumer purchase decision model , "need recognition" to "purchase decision" to "post-purchase behavior" is a conventional model. Almost all consumers follow it. Even if you find that XX seems to fall in love with a product at first sight, without going through the previous steps, it is actually because he has had a deep experience of it before. (This model is discussed in the middle of the 19th article in my official account )

The consequences of not following this model are not the expected effects.

For example, this slogan "Baby Description" is as follows:

The purchase discount is based on the evaluation results of the plan (liking the product).

4. Clarify what the product can do for consumers?

During holiday promotions, the more direct things ordinary products can do for consumers, the more likely they are to be bought by consumers. The most direct thing is to provide consumers with "ready-made benefits" and target pain point two - (extension of festival connotation).

For example, Chinese Valentine's Day. The most direct thing a product can do is to help consumers pursue their favorite objects, or make their girlfriends happier and themselves happier.
Therefore, spending a lot of effort to highlight the beauty, nobility, and scarcity of a product will not necessarily bring more sales during the Chinese Valentine's Day.

Look at chocolate and flowers, they are not particularly beautiful, noble or rare!

5. Don’t learn sentiment from big brands

Emotion is a broad thing. Many people have it, but few can get the key point. After you get the key point, you also have to encourage others to get it as well. It's difficult. Consider the two major pain points of the festival. Are you sure you can make people think of your product when the festival comes? Otherwise, pay more attention to the second pain point.

Summarize

Two major pain points of the festival:

1. Reflect the meaning of the festival
2. Extended festival connotation

Five pitfalls we need to avoid:

1. Why should consumers buy your product now?
2. Avoid too much "Wang Po selling melons"
3. Product description order
4. Clarify what the product can do for consumers?
5. Don’t learn sentiment from big brands