How to advertise a new brand?

As the traffic dividend gradually disappears, relying solely on performance advertising/traffic advertising is clearly not a long-term solution. Many brands have gradually realized the importance of brand advertising . During their development, they have continuously adjusted the investment ratio of performance advertising and brand advertising. While increasing sales, they are also constantly improving their own brand power.

The essence of advertising is information dissemination. How can we combine the "new groups", "new channels" and "new brands" of new consumption to carry out brand advertising?

When does a new brand start advertising?

Jiang Nanchun, founder of Focus Media, once summarized the delivery paths of traffic advertising and brand advertising for emerging brands, which are roughly as follows:

New brands with annual revenue below 500 million yuan mainly rely on traffic advertising and social media promotion;

Revenue of 500 million to 1 billion: 30% brand advertising + 70% traffic advertising;

Revenue over 1 billion: 70% brand advertising + 30% traffic advertising.

The strength of a brand is inseparable from advertising. Whether it is brand advertising or traffic advertising, before placing an advertisement, we must first trace the essence of the advertisement in order to win this marketing campaign.

01. Tracing the essence of brand advertising

The essence of advertising is information dissemination.

Information dissemination consists of three elements: source (advertiser), channel (media), and destination (consumer).

1. Source (advertiser): the origin of information

The source refers to the origin of the information, which can be understood as the brand itself.

Now when we talk about new consumption, a very important point is the "new" brand. These brands seize the dividends of communication channels and achieve from 0 to 1.

Some other brands have opened up new horizons in a certain niche, that is, they have created a new product category. The most typical examples include Zihaiguo, Yuanqi Forest, Xiaoxiandun, etc.

The demands of these sources (brands) for brand advertising are constantly upgrading, including: transparent and measurable channels, optimization of communication strategies, and continuously improving ROI.

2. Channel (media): the passage that transmits information

China has the most competitive media market in the world.

Traditional communication channels include: live TV, radio, print media, outdoor (elevator media/movie screens/bus stop advertising, etc.), and the Internet.

According to public data, in 2019 there were 2,609 TV stations, 2,825 public broadcasting programs, 10,130 periodicals, more than 3.3 million elevator media, and 5.33 million networks.

New consumption, the second "new" is reflected in the new communication channels. Advertising channels are no longer limited to traditional channels.

In the Internet age, social/community and media/content apps have rapidly become popular, occupying a large amount of users' leisure time and significantly shifting users' attention online.

Communication channels have gradually formed a multi-touchpoint, open, flat and decentralized media communication structure.

The traffic dividend is gradually disappearing, and brands are entering an era of stock game. There is no more low-cost traffic.

3. Destination (Consumer): The Owner of Information Dissemination

When we do brand advertising, consumers are the destination of our information dissemination. Everything starts with consumers and ends with consumers.

Each generation has its own brand.

Consumers are “new”, which is the third major feature of new consumption.

The new consumer group is younger, and when it becomes easier to obtain information, our target consumers are becoming lazier and more picky about brand advertising.

The overall reaction of the group to advertisements is characterized by lack of patience, aesthetic fatigue, and easy forgetfulness.

To capture this generation of young people, brand advertising needs to reinvest energy in both content and communication channels.

▲The growth rate of each media spending

4. Importance of brand advertising

Brand advertising is a method of highlighting and communicating the brand's position in the minds of consumers with the direct purpose of establishing a brand image and increasing the brand's market share.

First, through brand advertising, continuously build awareness and enhance the reputation of the product.

Secondly, through brand advertising, a sense of trust is established in the minds of consumers so that consumers can know about the product and understand the product.

Finally, the dissemination of brand advertising can build consumer loyalty and make consumers understand that this product is unique in the market and that they will earn money if they buy it.

02. Sales volume = number of people who purchased * number of purchases

Combining the three “new” aspects of new consumption, we understand the essence of advertising – the three major elements of information dissemination. Let’s take a look at the current status of brand advertising in the market.

1. Current status of brand advertising

Judging from the portrait of the people reached by brand advertisements, the gender distribution is relatively balanced, with males accounting for 52.2% and females accounting for 47.8%.

Judging from the age group released, the main age group is 18-40 years old, among which users aged 25-34 account for the largest proportion of 45%, and the overall reach is mainly young people.

In terms of urban distribution, new first-tier cities account for the highest proportion, reaching 26.5%.

In terms of mobile application preferences, brand advertising users have a higher preference for mobile video applications, with a coverage rate of 95.5%, among which short video and comprehensive online video applications have a higher coverage rate.

In terms of category activity, mobile game applications have the highest activity rate and their potential is yet to be explored.

The marketing budgets spent by major brands on brand advertising are rising steadily, and 80% of advertisers choose to increase their marketing budgets or keep them unchanged in 2021.

The importance of brand advertising to new consumer brands is self-evident. In the context of increasingly expensive traffic, how do we strike a balance between reaching precise users and tapping into more potential buyers?

2. Sales volume = number of people who purchased * number of times purchased

Here is a formula: Sales volume = number of people who purchased * number of times purchased.

Theoretically, the market sales volume achieved by "100 people buying a brand once" and "50 people buying a brand twice" is the same.

But in the book "Honw Brands Grow", it is pointed out that real research results show that sales contribution mainly comes from more people buying.

First, the growth in market share does not come from loyal customers but from the growth in brand popularity, that is, gaining more new customers.

Especially for fast-moving consumer goods brands, there are actually no so-called loyal customers. Most people are light consumers and buy products mostly by chance.

Second, the difference between brands does not lie in their segmented positioning but in their popularity.

How do you understand it?

To give the simplest example, there are many sodas on the market that claim to have “0 sugar”. The products themselves are not very different. The difference lies in their popularity. Popular brands gain a larger market share. For example, Yuanqi Forest’s products sell much better than some small brands.

Third, the competition and growth between brands mainly depends on whether they can build two types of brand marketing capital: functional availability and spiritual resonance.

Brands with higher market share are often those that are easier to purchase and have a more diverse channel layout.

Brands that only pursue product innovation and niche market positioning are easily imitated by competitors, leading to serious homogeneity.

Therefore, the task facing brand managers is: on the one hand, to significantly enhance brand power, and on the other hand, to continuously acquire the most light customers with the least investment.

The marketing strategy for fast-moving consumer goods is: find more potential consumers and influence more consumers.

▲Brand advertising crowd release

03. Fight a "saturation attack" war

When we determined the goal of consumer brand advertising planning, that is, to find more potential consumers and influence more consumers.

Next, you need to consider how to maximize the coverage of more potential customers.

Our strategy is: saturation attack.

1. What is a “saturation attack”?

"Saturation attack" is a military strategy that uses surface ships, submarines and combat aircraft to carry anti-ship missiles, adopts a high-density, continuous attack penetration method, and launches missiles that exceed the enemy's anti-strike capability from different directions and levels in the air, surface and underwater at the same target in a short period of time, making it difficult for the enemy to resist and ultimately achieving the goal of destroying the target.

The shopping mall is like a battlefield, and we apply this strategy to brand advertising and marketing.

In short, it can be understood as a multi-level and multi-dimensional operation approach to implant the same goal (brand) into the minds of consumers and influence their purchasing decisions in the long term.

2. Why choose “saturation attack”

MIT researchers found that the time decay of public attention (group memory) is manifested as a double exponential curve, that is, collective memory and attention continue to decay over time.

In brand marketing, how to slow down the decay of consumers' collective memory has become a common problem in the consumer industry.

After the emergence of many new consumer brands, they can easily attract consumers' attention in a short period of time due to the overwhelming influence of advertising. However, after two or three months, consumers' memory begins to fade, and when asked whether they still have an impression of a certain brand, many consumers will not remember it.

This also shows that most consumer brands cannot form effective consumer memories, indicating that the current saturation of the consumer industry is far from enough.

Taking car advertising as an example, the survey found that in the "most impressive car advertising memories", no car brand advertising had a total mention rate of more than 4%.

It can be seen that how to achieve high advertising volume to bring high brand awareness is a problem that all brands need to solve.

3. How to conduct a “saturation attack”

On the one hand, consumers are most impressed by multi-dimensional, saturated (multiple times, multiple locations), and highly creative advertisements.

When consumers see the same advertisement in multiple scenarios and locations, it will produce good psychological and behavioral effects.

There are also significant differences in the frequency of advertising among different brands. Advertisers need to set different goals and budgets at different times and locations.

To develop a reasonable and effective frequency, you can refer to the "3 times effective" strategy:

First, large-screen TV, full-screen advertising; second, video format, 15/30 second advertising; third, targeting one specific audience three times.

On the other hand, ads that are good-looking and have rich and interesting content are more attractive to consumers.

Research shows that when consumers see advertisements with the same content, more consumers think that advertisements with multiple scenarios, forms, and versions make them feel better.

For example, Nongfu Spring has a wide range of scene choices for its product positioning as "Nature's Porter", such as going to the place of origin - Qiandao Lake in Zhejiang for live broadcasts.

▲The more brand advertising is invested, the more searches there are

04. Brand advertising vs performance advertising

In the entire decision-making chain, it is not enough to cover more potential customers. Brands also need to combine brand advertising and performance advertising to shorten the consumer decision-making chain on the one hand and increase repurchase rates on the other.

From the time consumers are exposed to advertisements to the time they make a purchase, their psychology goes through roughly five stages: attracting attention, generating interest, cultivating desire, forming memory, and taking purchasing action.

Brand advertising mainly plays a role in the first four stages and is the basis for consumers to form cognition, while performance advertising focuses on the last link - the promotion of purchasing actions.

1. Brand advertising and performance advertising are both the direction of business development

As an emerging advertising model, performance advertising is in a period of rapid growth, and the feedback on the effectiveness of its advertising is immediate.

Performance advertising focuses more on short-term sales growth and maximizing product exposure, which is a good strategy for creating popular products.

The problem is that there is a lack of continuity. Once the performance advertising is stopped, sales may drop significantly.

In contrast, brand advertising has the attribute of accumulation. Once a product establishes a strong brand and enters the minds of consumers, it will have strong continuity. If it is combined with the drainage of performance advertising at this time, it will have a higher conversion rate than its peers.

Performance advertising and brand advertising are both directions of business development. Brands need to constantly adjust the ratio of advertising at different stages of development. The two promote each other and help the brand develop together.

2. Traffic costs surge, reducing the input-output ratio of performance advertising

If performance advertising wants to improve the accuracy of its target audience, it will need to continuously invest money, which will reduce the input-output ratio of pure performance advertising.

Taking game advertising as an example, sales expenses have continued to rise in recent years, while the ROI of advertising has continued to decline.

Bidding is the main operating model of performance advertising. If consumers do not make plans to purchase products, traffic will become more and more expensive due to bidding.

For new brands, in a market where traffic is becoming increasingly expensive, relying solely on performance-based advertising will erode profits, resulting in meager gross margins, which is not conducive to the long-term development of the brand.

3. Brand advertising has a leverage effect

Jiang Nanchun, founder of Focus Media, said: "The most advanced algorithm is to accurately calculate people's hearts and firmly establish the brand in the minds of consumers."

Brand advertising is a long-term construction, not a one-time "purchasing action" stimulus. Brand advertising establishes the brand image and stays in the minds of consumers for a long time.

Feihe Milk Powder is a representative of companies that focus on brand advertising. From 2015 to 2019, more than 70% of its budget was invested in brand advertising, with building media being the main channel.

Through several years of investment in brand advertising, Feihe milk powder has also generated economic benefits. Sales expenses began to decline in 2019, showing a leverage effect and leveraging more and more product sales.

It takes a long time for brand advertising to change from quantitative change to qualitative change. It may take several months or even years, and it requires long-term persistence from the brand.

In an era when traffic dividends are disappearing, it is time for brands to consider the importance of brand advertising and make arrangements as early as possible.

Author: Consumer Industry

Source: Consumer Industry