Hot-selling products and brands, which one to choose?

So far this year, three consumer product entrepreneurs have talked to me about a "common distress": they rushed into consumer product entrepreneurship and had a good start: they had hot products that sold well on platforms such as Tmall and Douyin; but, a year later, they suddenly felt: How did the consumer product entrepreneurship fall into the vortex of "starting a business for the sake of starting a business" and "doing it for the sake of doing it". The specific symptoms are: checking the data of major platforms such as Taobao and Douyin every day, scraping the data, and producing what is in hot demand.

The benefit of this approach is, of course, that the company has sales volume to survive from the start (which is really important!). However, the confusion that follows is: digging into data every day and being led by the data. Where will this brand eventually go? What should I do next? (Continue to look at and extract data) What exactly are we doing as entrepreneurs? Is it just to take advantage of the consumer product entrepreneurship trend and make quick money by taking advantage of traffic dividends?

Why do founders of consumer products whose sales are still growing have such confusion? Ultimately, it’s because the starting point of their entrepreneurship is: hit products, not brands! They started a business to create a brand, or even to say it was a "private label" business, rather than a brand. (Note: I am not disparaging the “starting point of a hit product”. A hit product? Or a brand? This is a multiple-choice question, there is no right or wrong. What did you choose? You will bear and enjoy the difficulties and benefits that option brings you.)

The underlying logic of a hit product

Let’s first look at the underlying logic behind the hit products. Nowadays, the reason why so many people are breaking into the consumer product entrepreneurship track is largely because of the market advocacy of "consumer product entrepreneurship (seems) easy!" Why is it easy? Because there is a universal formula for consumer product entrepreneurship, which can also be called the three-piece set of consumer product entrepreneurship:

Consumer product entrepreneurship = category × traffic platform × supply chain

This is the underlying logic behind the birth of a hit product. Just add such an adjective before each element of this universal formula and a hit product will be born!

Consumer product entrepreneurship = entering a rapidly growing category × being able to operate a certain traffic platform × having a mature supply chain at your fingertips

Everyone is flocking to start a consumer product business following this universal formula, thinking they are starting a brand business, and have all the brand slogans and brand concepts (having a brand slogan is not a brand; what’s more, many people can’t tell the difference between a brand slogan and an advertising slogan?); in fact, they are still creating hit products!

The good thing about making a hit product according to this underlying logic is of course: sales! The company can survive and even thrive. However, a typical result that follows is: serious product homogeneity! Why? Because as long as they are products of the same category (for example, functional foods), the target users of all brands "look the same", and the user insights are all the same: "post-95s, Generation Z", hedonism, self-centeredness, lazy collection, love of staying up late, etc.; all brands are trying to take advantage of some aesthetic bonus, but the packaging is similar, just look at the "small cans" everywhere on the street; all the selling points are also similar: what you have, I have too, and it's not necessarily much better than you; what you can't do, I can't do either...

Let me reiterate: there is nothing right or wrong in making a hit product, it is just a business choice. If you choose to make a hit product, you have to face the pros and cons brought by the above-mentioned hit products. So, if the starting point is to build a brand, what is its underlying logic?

The underlying logic of the brand

First, we need to understand "what is a brand?" There are at least two levels to understand a brand:

First level: A brand is at least a symbol of trust in quality.

The second level: A brand should have the ability to create demand rather than blindly follow so-called demand. Because the purpose of a brand is to provide people with solutions for a better life. A brand must be able to export values ​​and lifestyles.

If your starting point is truly to build a brand, you must at least achieve the first level of the brand. But this is the world where “knowing it is common sense, but still going against it”. I have seen too many companies that have not even done the "first layer" well and their product quality does not meet the standards. For example, functional foods have no functions, and the founders like to talk about their beautiful feelings to attract outside attention.

If you can only do the first level but not the second level, I think it doesn’t matter. At least you have the principles and determination to make good products, and you are taking building a brand seriously. After all, how can there be a great brand without a great product? If you don’t even have the energy to do the first layer well, then you’d better stop building a brand and just focus on making hit products.

In addition, the things to consider when building a brand are far more complicated than those when creating a hit product. As mentioned before, a brand is not a slogan, nor is it an advertising slogan, nor is it a brand concept, nor is it just brand elements such as design specifications presented in a brand manual; a brand is a set of values ​​- this view was put forward by Hu Yuefei, CEO of my current company: Shangcheng Tongli Topline. Having worked with him for so many years, when he recently talked to us about his understanding of brands, his point of view not only made me agree with it, but also moved me deeply.

Yes, a brand is a set of consumer-centric value systems. Brand strategy must serve business strategy. The relationship between brand and business is: you have what I don’t have and I have you. However, the "hot product idea" often has no strategy at all, it is just "doing it for the sake of doing it" or "making a certain product just for the sake of making a certain product." But the questions that a brand value system needs to answer are far more essential and diverse, such as: Why does your brand exist? What differentiated value can it bring to users? What are brand boundaries? What is the brand architecture? etc.

When you really take "building a brand" as your starting point, you have to face the above-mentioned systematic and complex problems. So, you will see: Why did Zhong Xue Gao launch another different brand of the same category: Li Daju? Why did HEYTEA launch HEYXiaocha? Santonban is a boutique instant coffee. How does it launch high-end products in this niche segment? etc. These are the problems that brands need to solve.

Lin Sheng, the founder of Zhong Xue Gao, once said: "When a product becomes a hit, Zhong Xue Gao must immediately withdraw the product. Because Zhong Xue Gao wants to build a brand, and must never let consumers regard the hit as a brand. People love to buy Starbucks coffee, not a certain type of Starbucks coffee." What I want to say is: If you want to build a brand, the hit must have its meaning in the entire brand structure, but it is ultimately a relationship between "part and whole." The part cannot replace the whole, and it is even less likely to be stronger than the whole.

Finally, I want to say: of course, hot products are important, they at least solve the problem of "keeping the company alive". But before "surviving", there is a fundamental question that you need to think about clearly: Why did you create this product? How do you want to raise it?

Author: Xiaoquan Pear

Source: Small Circle Pear