Product Operation: 5 Rules for Good Products

Three elements of exponential growth: good products, good growth, and good brands.

1. Five rules for good products

1. Good product decision logic

When making decisions, entrepreneurs often cannot distinguish between three things: what they like to do, what they are good at doing, and what they should do.

What do you like to do? Things I want to do. This is a good product that the merchant considers.

What are you good at? What am I better at than others? What are my comparative advantages? What action have I taken that my opponent will definitely follow up with? This is a good product in the eyes of competitors.

What should be done? Things that rank high in the customer's importance priority. This is a good product in the eyes of customers.

Our real competitors are the ever-changing demands of our customers, so what customers think are good products and what we should do are the most difficult.

2. What merchants consider to be a good product vs. what customers consider to be a good product

A good product in the eyes of merchants: one with high user value and high commercial value. Users recognize me and are willing to pay.

We believe that customer value is high, but customers may not recognize it or be able to see it at a glance.

Customers want to be able to tell at a glance that this thing is good for them, not just what the merchant thinks is a good product.

What customers think of a good product: It is a good experience to use and can help me solve problems. It's easy to understand and remember, and easy to find it.

Products that are easy to recognize and that customers themselves feel are of high value are what customers consider to be good products.

From the customer's perspective, there are five major rules for good products. We call it the DAIDA model.

3. Five rules for good products

This model is derived from the AIDA model. AIDA is not new. It has been used in the advertising industry for many years since the 1980s. However, it is mostly used in marketing strategies and rarely in product development strategies.

Now we take customers as the core and look at our products from the customer's perspective. The corresponding product research and development is divided into 5 major rules: demand positioning rule, customer focus rule, value manifestation rule, scenario desire rule, and decision motivation rule.

1) Demand positioning rule

How to identify needs? The needs are in the minds of customers, and it is difficult to identify them accurately.

Let’s change our perspective: demand = need (need) + request (want).

Demand actually consists of two aspects: one is need and the other is demand. Need means need, ask means want.

What does need mean? If I don’t have this thing, I will feel very uncomfortable and disappointed.

For example, I need to eat three meals a day. If I didn’t eat lunch today, I would feel very uncomfortable and have no energy in the afternoon. Without this thing I feel lost.

So I can sell the things that customers need quickly, but they may not be expensive.

When developing products based on “ needs ”, what is our demand positioning? The problem must be solved.

What does it mean to ask? Asking means wanting, it is an expectation.

I want to buy a BMW because it drives well. Will I feel uncomfortable every day without a BMW? No, it doesn't affect my life at all.

If I buy a BMW, I feel like it's a reward to myself. For many years to come, you will feel a sense of spiritual pleasure during the use of it.

To ask for something means that it can be sold at a high price, but not quickly.

When we target “ demand” , we must focus on creating value. If you don’t create value, customers will not recognize you.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu says: If you are prepared for everything, you will be at a disadvantage in everything.

It would be terrible if my product had 100 selling points, as that would be equivalent to having no selling points. Therefore, after we have extracted our selling points, we need to match them precisely with the needs of our customers.

The first demand: non-sensory demand.

Suppose I think this is what customers need, but few of my target customers agree with me, then it is very likely that the product we produce will correspond to a non-sensory demand and will not sell.

The second requirement: essential requirements.

Suppose I produce a product that I think customers need, and customers understand it before I even say it, is that good? It's neither good nor bad.

What's the good thing? Public perception. Everyone knows you, and the customer recognition cost is low.

What are the disadvantages? It is very likely that products will become homogenized, and essential needs will mostly be the industry’s selling point.

These are two connections between selling points and needs.

The third need: the need for charm.

When selling points are combined with desires, attractive demands will be generated.

For example, there has never been a company in the hotpot industry that provides service like Haidilao, and no hotpot restaurant offers free manicures. But once we did it, we found that people in the queue didn’t feel annoyed during the waiting time.

The customer didn’t know about it at first. He felt nothing before using it, but after using it, he felt it was quite good.

This is called charismatic need, which is the unexpected want.

The fourth demand: expectation demand.

Xiaomi tells you a product logic: all the products we produce are of the best quality in the world, but sold at half the price.

If I were Xiaomi's target customer, when I was looking at a certain product, I would first go to a Xiaomi store to see if the product was available there. If not, I would go to other stores to look.

This is called expected demand, which is the expected want.

This is a highly simplified model of the positioning match between selling points and needs. There is still a lot of content that has not been included. Just help us think about how to identify needs?

After I have identified my needs in the first step, what is the second step? Grab the customer's attention.

Customer Focus Law: Customers do not need to buy your products, what they need is to solve their problems.

We merchants must not be narcissistic. Only customers can be infinitely narcissistic.

What are the huge obstacles that many technology and product-oriented startups face in their rapid growth? It's narcissism.

I want to tell customers that our functions or technologies are the best.

If you think about it carefully, there is a big difference between the cameras of Apple and Huawei phones. But do you know? Apple and Huawei have exactly the same suppliers for their cameras. One is a Sony sensor and the other is a Largan camera component. The two companies use the same suppliers, which results in different customer value perceptions to others.

What is the logic behind it?

Customers don't need to buy your product, they need to solve their problems.

If customers can't see his shadow in your product introduction, they will be indifferent to you. Customers have no attention on you.

If your product can be described in the following sentence, it is likely to capture the customer's attention.

A product is a solution to a specific need of a target customer.

If you can use this formula to your advantage, you may be able to capture the attention of your customers. We call this sentence the three elements of a product.

Target customers : Xiaomi.

For example, Xiaomi said that my product logic is: the first XX for young people. So my product range will be particularly wide. They have just entered society not long ago, are sensitive to prices and pursue cost-effectiveness.

Xiaomi produces smart hardware and large and small home appliances specifically for them, as well as other first products: I am the first mobile phone for young people; I am the first razor for young people; I am the first air purifier for young people...

This is an absolutely specific target customer group, and there are many demands surrounding this target customer group. Xiaomi can even produce ballpoint pens and sockets for them...the scope of their demand is too wide.

The target customers of some products are not very clear. We don’t even know who their target customers are, so how can their needs be accurate? How can marketing efficiency be high?

Specific needs: Popcorn.

We rarely buy a bunch of popcorn to entertain guests at home or in the office. A guest came and the waiter said: Come, let's have some popcorn. This scene does not exist.

But once it arrives at the cinema, popcorn sales soar, and it’s popular among people of all ages. So, popcorn is definitely a product that is particularly closely linked to the scene.

Solution: three and a half coffees.

Santonban Coffee mainly produces premium instant coffee, the same as Nestle and Maxwell.

Who are the target customers? Pour over coffee lover.

What is the demand? I want to drink pour-over coffee at home.

Hand-brewed coffee requires professionals to use professional equipment. It is not easy to drink at home and is usually only available in stores such as Starbucks and COSTA.

How can you drink it at home?

We provide you with a drip coffee dripping device, and the coffee brewed by this container through the drip filtering process tastes similar to the hand-brewed coffee bought in the store.

This is the product of Santonban Coffee: you can drink hand-brewed coffee at home, this is the solution.

The three elements of a product must reflect the customer’s shadow. If the customer’s shadow cannot be seen, the product is just self-satisfaction and cannot capture the customer’s attention.

Step three: If we grab the customer’s attention, what should we do next? To increase customer interest.

The customer glanced at us, but lost his attention in less than a second.

Many people think that my product is the biggest and the best, and as long as the product is good, everything is good. If customers do not approve, it is because my product is not perfect.

This sentence is actually a bit problematic.

A good product is divided into two parts: one is called customer-perceivable value, and the other is called customer-imperceivable value.

Customer value = customer perceived value + customer imperceptible value.

What is imperceptible value?

For example, more expensive components are products of imperceptible value.

In other words, customers only pay for perceived value.

2) The Law of Value Manifestation

The product is just a carrier, and the customer-perceived value is the delivery target.

Problem Solving: QB house.

In the 1990s, QB house founder Kuniyoshi Konishi went to get a haircut and couldn't stand the long waiting time.

He found that many people's demand for quick haircuts was not met, so he simply opened his own quick haircut shop, providing short-time, low-cost haircut services of 10 minutes for 1,000 yen.

How does QB house amplify customer perceived value?

First, optimize the overall details.

Traditional barbershops face severe homogeneous competition, have complicated processes, and are very time-consuming.

QB house selected 5 aspects for optimization to bring a new customer experience.

There will be someone standing at the door of a traditional barber shop to greet customers. When you arrive, they will open the door for you and guide you to the appropriate seat. In other words, you have to go into the store to know whether it is full. After entering, I found that the place was full and then left. It was a very bad experience.

There is a queue calling machine at the entrance of QB house that supports payment by card.

There are three lights outside the door with different meanings: green means no waiting is required, yellow means you need to wait for 5 minutes, and red means you need to wait for 10 minutes. At this time, you can judge whether to come in to get a number for a haircut based on the light.

This is the value perception point, and the customer experience is very good.

Second, despite this optimization, it still doesn’t work.

There are three major pain points in marketing:

• The first major pain point is cognitive impairment;
• The second biggest pain point is the desire to buy;
• The third pain point is behavioral habits.

We found that these three obstacles exist in the quick-cut industry. The Japanese are a nation that pays more attention to rules and craftsmanship. Suddenly a disruptive quick-cut industry emerged, which seemed to be cutting corners, and their recognition level was very low.

They found that promoting quick-cutting was not very effective, so they changed track and declared themselves to be in the time industry.

If I save you 50 minutes, it is more valuable than if I save you 5,000 yen. As soon as this sentence comes out, its target customers become very clear and concrete.

Good marketing means that when you shout out a slogan, some of your target customers will be able to sense it and feel like you are calling them as soon as they hear it.

Who would be touched by this sentence?

People who work at a particularly fast pace and those who earn a high hourly wage.

Hair cutting is a functional thing, and saving time helps you save money, which is a mental thing. QB house has moved from the product battlefield to the mind battlefield, seizing the users' minds from another track.

Objectively speaking, it is not feasible to transform hair cutting into a time industry, so heavy marketing is needed. After heavy marketing, the effect appeared immediately.

Value perception: fast delivery.

How did Shunfeng Express break through the pressure from SF Express in its early days?

When Shunfeng was first established, the coding efficiency of advertisements was very high. The three main numbers are: 1, 10, and 60.

There is a logical relationship between these three numbers. Place an order in 1 minute and pick up at your door in 10 minutes. Within the Fifth Ring Road of Beijing, delivery takes an average of less than 60 minutes. Using three digits to encode customer value has a very high conversion rate.

At that time, SF Express still provided next-day delivery, and the advantage of Shunfeng Express over SF Express was expressed so simply and efficiently.

At this time, the target customers have also become concrete, that is, they have urgent needs. The most urgent need is a low-frequency demand, so the low memory cost and high wake-up probability have become the major advantages of Shunfeng in breaking through SF Express's blockade in traffic operations.

Third, if the customer’s attention is caught and his interest is aroused, will he definitely pay for it? uncertain.

On the one hand, the product properties are different, and some products are ultra-low frequency.

For example, when I see the advertising poster for a used car, I may get excited, but sorry, I don’t have any consumption demand at the moment. It is very likely that there will be a demand to buy and sell used cars only after half a year or two years.

The second possibility is that I am interested in the information you convey to me, but just like warm water, 80℃ water is not boiled. For me to make a decision, it must reach 100℃. This purchasing desire is still a medium desire, not a high desire.

3) Scene Desire Law

Scenarios are tools to boost consumer desire and are statistical characteristics under specific circumstances.

Popcorn is a typical product that has high desire only in certain situations.

Artificial intelligence is currently in a difficult situation across the entire industry. The reason is that it is a large industry and a large scenario, and there is no standardized product yet.

Today I want to buy 100 cameras, a series of servers, and a series of sensors... Only after all these things are done can I achieve a result. This decision is a heavy one.

If we find a small scene in a large industry and standardize it, consumer desire will increase.

In the end, the customer makes the decision, and there are quite a lot of decision points.

For example, when buying a mobile phone in the early years: Is the screen color good? Is the game running smoothly? Will it get hot after using it for a long time? How’s the battery life? Is it easy to break? etc.

There are so many hidden demands that it is difficult to make decisions.

Today’s mobile phone manufacturers are more cunning. They have forcibly shifted customer decision points from countless to a single decision point based on photography. As long as the camera is good, we will buy it.

4) Decision-making motivation law

Emotional details control the rational overall situation (Nobel Prize winner in Economics: Kahneman).

When making decisions, customers often have many hidden needs that we cannot see, and many of these hidden needs are often subconscious and emotional. Customer decision-making motivations and motivation triggers are extremely important.

There are three major pain points in sales. If you can sort out the three major pain points, your sales will definitely speed up.

Three major pain points in sales: Who are the target customers? Why buy? What are you buying?

usmile electric toothbrush

If we consider it from the product perspective, is an electric toothbrush a need or a demand?

beg. An electric toothbrush is not a necessity. It is not the case that we will feel uncomfortable if we do not use an electric toothbrush.

Who are the target customers?

If the target customers are young people, what is the decision point? Maybe it’s the appearance.

Why buy? It may be because of the appearance, but because it is in high demand, it is likely to not sell quickly.

Why has usmile developed so fast? Which wave of target customers are actively purchasing electric toothbrushes among these requests?

Let's look at it a little further. If you have children at home, you will know that it is very troublesome for children to brush their teeth.

When adults brush children's teeth, they don't know how hard they brush and it hurts the children. Children themselves are unwilling to brush their teeth and can't brush well.

At this time, if you use an electric toothbrush, the child’s first reaction is not that it is brushing well, but that it is fun and interesting. Parents whose children are still young are more willing to buy electric toothbrushes, and for them, the demand turns into a need .

Let children brush their teeth better and prevent them from having cavities. This is a need , not a request .

Therefore, the first target customer group of electric toothbrushes such as usmile is specific: young parents who are worried about their children having cavities.

Why do they buy? It is often the appearance that children like, not the function.

What are you buying?

After I bought it and used it, what else provided me with a better experience? The battery life of usmile is very long, it only needs to be charged once every six months, or twice a year.

What does this have to do with what you buy?

The most worrying thing about any small rechargeable appliance is that it suddenly runs out of power while in use. This customer experience is particularly bad.

It is charged once every six months, while other brands may charge once every three months. Customers will not have a bad experience with normal active charging. However, if the battery runs out during use, the customer experience will be poor. So in terms of customer reputation and customer recommendations, usmile wins.

These are the three major pain points in sales, and the core is decision-making motivation and motivation triggering.

2. Three methods of good growth

1. Growth Path

There are three growth paths: product growth, customer growth, and company growth.

The three stages of growth correspond to different obstacles:

1. Product growth stage: features but no product.
2. Customer growth stage: there are products but no users.
3. The company's growth stage is relatively complex, with three growth obstacles: there are customers but no revenue; there is revenue but no profit; there is profit but no market value.

Product growth stage: features but no product.

Many people would say that my product is very good, but the reason it is difficult to sell is simply because customers don’t understand me. The reason they don’t understand me may be that my marketing expenses are insufficient and I haven’t promoted it enough.

Actually, it’s not.

What is the biggest reason for product growth problems? You have not locked in customer needs, and the matching efficiency between products and needs is relatively low. This is the core issue of product growth.

Customer growth stage: there are products but no users.

What is customer growth? The process for customers to recognize your customer value is difficult and not easy to understand at first glance. What is even more troublesome is that it is very likely that the perceived value is very small, while the imperceptible value is very large. He doesn't approve of you from the bottom of his heart.

2. Two ways to grow your product

Traditional industries = product-based growth.

Traditional industries + Internet = product-based growth + growth-based products.

Product growth in traditional industries generally relies on product-based methods to expand growth.

Traditional industries + Internet are different, it can grow at both ends. One is from product-based growth, the other is from growth-based products, and the other moves from growth to products.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu says that the best military operation is to attack the enemy's plans, the next best is to attack their alliances, the next best is to attack their troops, and the worst is to attack their cities.

There was no war at the beginning. Before fighting , many things are not directly related to fighting, but are related to strategy. The attack on diplomacy is the ecosystem, and the attack on military forces is likely to be the supply chain, channels, etc. The final siege is considered a product-level battle.

The perspective of "The Art of War" seems to be different from ours.

If it is product-based growth, it is often the case that a core product comes out first, and then it is tried in the market. If a small batch trial is okay, then we can find ways to sell it on a large scale. When large-scale sales encounter problems, we start to optimize, either by optimizing the supply chain, optimizing the channels, or optimizing the marketing methods.

It doesn’t matter when the scale is small and the competition is not fierce. After you become big, competitors will rush in and competition will become fierce. This is the time to consider competitive strategies.

What are growth products? Let’s take Pinduoduo as an example.

Growth product: Pinduoduo.

Pinduoduo first had a growth strategy, then built a competitive and cooperative ecosystem, then engaged in scenario consumption, and finally built a product matrix.

Why did Pinduoduo implement growth strategy first? What is its growth strategy?

Pinduoduo did not have a core product at the beginning and sold everything, but the results were not good.

Step one, growth strategy. Many people may not know that Pinduoduo started out as a fruit distributor and is China's largest online fruit wholesaler. In its early years, it also wanted to become a factory, but because no one trusted it, it was unable to do so. So the growth strategy is to first bring people together.

After people gathered together, its performance in the entire WeChat ecosystem was relatively good, so it reached a strategic cooperation with Tencent. Tencent has invested in Pinduoduo and is directing all traffic to it.

The second step is to create a competitive and cooperative ecosystem. The relationship between it and Tencent is actually both competitive and cooperative. Because it interferes with Tencent's social experience. Always selling products will have a detrimental effect on customer satisfaction of the social product itself.

The third step is scene consumption. There are 1 billion people on WeChat and only 560 million on Taobao. So where are the remaining 440 million people? who are they? Where do they buy? What are their consumption preferences when buying things? This is a very interesting question.

As we delve deeper into this issue, we will find that these 440 million people are mostly from small towns, perhaps from third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities, and are relatively older.

So, do they have money in WeChat?

Because WeChat Pay is promoted through red envelopes, many people grab red envelopes on WeChat during festivals and holidays, and there are a lot of WeChat coins, including 200 yuan, 100 yuan, and 50 yuan. These people have no habit of online consumption and are also worried about the risks of binding their bank cards. I have a little money in my WeChat wallet, but nowhere to spend it.

Pinduoduo seized the dividends of WeChat payment, built a product matrix around this scenario, and spent the 200 yuan in the WeChat wallet.

The first wave of promotions were all products priced at RMB 9.9 with free shipping. At that time, the purpose of capturing the minds of users was to offer free shipping for only 9.9 yuan. In fact, at that time Pinduoduo had products at 9.9 yuan, 19.9 yuan, 29.9 yuan, 3.9 yuan... they had everything, so why only offer free shipping for only 9.9 yuan?

Pinduoduo = the online traffic entrance for offline ten-yuan stores.

Now the first target customer group is more concrete: uncles and aunts in the sinking market. Easy to understand, easy to remember, and easy to recall.

In the past, they could only buy things from the few 10-yuan stores within one kilometer. Now they can buy things from 10-yuan stores in Tianjin, Hunan, Guangdong... There may be 10,000 choices in front of them.

My first batch of product matrix is ​​centered around the minds of the elderly and high-desire consumption, and this is Pinduoduo's growth product.

3. Two ways to increase customer base

Traditional industries = channels + advertising.

Traditional industries + Internet = product logic + content marketing.

The difference in customer growth

The first thing for traditional industries is to find transactional touchpoints, so why do they need to look for channels?

Because channels are transactional touchpoints with customers on a large scale, they contain a lot of traffic that can be converted.

In principle, if we have other channels, for example, if I sell very well on the Internet, I don’t need to look for offline channels or open a store on Tmall.

For example, products promoted by influencers on Douyin and Kuaishou are not sales channels in the traditional sense. Also called transactional touchpoints.

What are the non-transactional touchpoints in traditional industries? What should I do if I find that the channel’s supply is not enough and sales are almost reaching the ceiling?

Advertising on CCTV and Focus Media are non-transactional touchpoints. People will not buy goods directly on CCTV, nor will they be able to buy goods directly on Focus Media. However, if I expand my popularity, my fame will increase. Those who obtain our information from other channels will also take the initiative to come to our stores to buy things in the future.

The conventional decision point for traditional industries is often functional consumption. An unconventional decision-making point is emotional consumption. For example, if you want to eat ramen, you may choose Malan ramen.

But new consumer brands are different, they may be completely non-existent before. Hefu Lamian is called Noodles in the Study, which is totally outside the normal decision points of previous customers.

Once the Internet is added to traditional industries, transactional contacts often become a product logic .

Xiaomi said. The phones we make are the best in the world, but they only cost half the price.

Regardless of how accurate this statement is, it provides a set of product logic.

When you enter our Xiaomi store, you may not only see mobile phones, you may also see pads, air conditioners, and even TVs.

You all seem to think that Xiaopin produces the best XX in the world, but sells it at half the price.

Product logic plays a greater role in the customer's mind than channels. Because of this product logic, we can actively attract customers.

We used to think that only high-end and expensive items require us to look at the brand first and then the product. For example, for headphones priced above 1,000 yuan, we believe that we should look at the brand first and then the product. However, for headphones priced below 200 yuan, we should look at the price and product first and then the brand.

This has not been the case since Xiaomi came along. Many people who buy headphones under 200 yuan will first go to the Xiaomi store to have a look. If they find one that’s suitable, they will buy it. If it’s not suitable, they will look for other options.

This is the essential difference between having product logic and not having product logic.

The characteristics of traditional industries + the Internet are that transactional contacts are often triggered by product logic, while non-transactional contacts are triggered by content marketing.

We saw many people on Douyin and Kuaishou talking about the many ways to cook Haidilao, such as mashing the gluten, beating the eggs into it, putting it into the pot, and then scooping it out to eat. When some people see this, they will follow the trend and run to Haidilao to order the same thing. This is all content marketing, non-transactional touchpoints.

The changes in regular decision points are complex. In the past, there was functional consumption, and now brand tone has also become standard.

Unconventional decision points also increase service consumption and content consumption.

Service consumption is what the Internet does, it is called behavioral induction. Originally you didn't recognize me and had little desire to consume from me, but I pulled you over step by step.

Traditional content consumption is just watching something, what is the new content consumption? As long as it can kill time, as long as I feel at ease and it helps me kill time, it is called content consumption.

So Haidilao is both a service consumption and a content consumption. I am not annoyed at all waiting here for 15 minutes.

4. Four forms of products and content

Product + Content: Yuanqi Forest.

In the past, we promoted zero sugar, zero fat, and zero calories, but now we promote reduced sugar, reduced fat, and reduced calories. After introducing this concept, the product becomes more competitive and reaches a targeted customer group who want to drink good beverages but at the same time pay attention to their own health.

Product is content: cat claw cup.

The cat claw cup has been transformed from a functional cup into a caring product, giving the product itself a social topic and thus creating a self-propagation function.

Content is the product : Inception .

"Inception" is a movie. When you finish watching the movie, you are consuming it.

Content + Products: Disney.

After watching a Disney movie, you can continue spending time in the large amusement park they built. Disney also produces Mickey Mouse clothes, which children continue to consume, and the retail sales of these products are much greater than those of the movies.

5. Company growth: eight growth strategies

Group 1: Incremental competition and stock competition.

• Demand-oriented (incremental competition): The best competition is to stay away from competition. I will enter a new market first, and when others catch up, I will enter another new market. Incremental competition is the best competition because others are always following, while I am leading the demand.
• Competition-oriented (stock competition): This market is already a red ocean, there is nothing you can do about it. But I am better than others in some aspect, and I pass this advantage to customers, and customers will pay for it. This is called stock competition.

Group 2: Operational competition and technological competition.

• Cost leadership (operational competition): For the same product, my cost is cheaper than others, so I can still make a profit if I sell it at this price, but others will go bankrupt if they sell it at this price. This is a low-price competition strategy that can only be achieved through operations.
• Solution type (technological competition): Solution type often means that you have a unique trick, a technical handle that is difficult for others to replace you, so you can sell it at a higher price.

The third group: competition for traffic and competition for users.

Traffic-driven ( traffic competition ) : The traffic cost is lower than others. Even if the conversion rate is not as high as others, the overall performance is still good.

You can roughly understand the traffic-driven model as fishing in the river. We all go to the river to fish. More and more people stand by the river, the cost of renting land becomes more and more expensive, and the traffic cost becomes higher and higher. In the end, it is possible that the river manager earns more money than you do from fishing.

User-driven ( user competition ) : I might as well raise fish myself, set up a small fish pond and slowly raise the fish fry. This fish has a life cycle. The batch that grows up first will be slaughtered first, and the rest will be raised slowly.

Competing for users is a very big trend. The so-called public domain traffic and private domain traffic on the Internet today can be roughly understood as public domain traffic is traffic competition, and private domain traffic is user competition.

Of course, there are still many differences between private domain traffic and user operations.

Group 4 : Value competition and pattern competition.

• Data-driven ( value competition ): Data must play its value. Using ERP or cloud computing both have costs. It would be great if the data can bring value and customers recognize and pay for this value. If this value is found, data becomes energy.
• Cognition-driven ( pattern competition ): When looking at the same thing, is your cognition the same as others? If you watch the same things as everyone else, you won’t make that money. If your product is different from others, you may be able to make money.

Further reading: The best competition is to stay away from competition: 8 growth strategies of traditional industries + the Internet

3. Three driving forces of a good brand

Many industries have conducted blind tests, and even those who claim to have been drinking Coke for more than 20 years may not be able to tell which is Pepsi and which is Coke.

This is a world-class problem. Without the trademark, it is difficult to distinguish the products of many brands.

How to make it easier for customers to understand is really important.

1. Difference in brand logic

The relationship between traditional consumer brands and their customers is more like a trust generated by stable and long-term transactions, like the feeling after marriage, which turns into family affection over time.

New consumer brands must build trust from the very beginning. The intensity must be strong, there must be preference, and the enthusiasm must be high, like the feeling of being in love.

In fact, the brand is targeting the circle. The first is relationship, the second is touchpoint.

Traditional consumer brands must enter the channels, and many characteristics of the products themselves, including packaging, taste, etc., are tested in the channels.

New consumer brands are different, with full media touchpoints.

Xiachufang is about teaching people how to cook, which is the life scene of the target customers. Although it is not a sales scenario, Santonban promoted the cold start development from 0 to 1 by starting from Xiachufang.

Therefore, Santonban not only has transactional contacts with customers on Tmall, but also has non-transactional contacts with customers on non-transactional platforms. Greatly shortens the startup time from 0-1.

The same goes for Ramen Says, which intercepts traffic on Tmall and does content marketing on Bilibili.

Traditional consumer brands are mainly based on sales channels. I hope you buy this time, and I hope you buy again next time. I hope to make a deal quickly every time.

New consumer brands are different. There is a difference between sales and marketing. Sales is when merchants take the initiative to find customers, while marketing is when customers take the initiative to find merchants, and they pay more attention to the customer's lifetime value.

Decision-making is also different. Traditional consumer brands often make decisions based on cost-effectiveness, while new consumer brands have strong customer value propositions.

2. Three driving forces of a good brand

Two-way demand: I love someone & someone loves me.

Merchants have demands on customers and hope that customers will be generous, so the repurchase rate is particularly high. Customers also have demands on merchants, hoping for high quality and low prices.

Two-way traffic: I look for someone & someone looks for me.

Who should I contact when I go for sales? Where to find it? Under what circumstances do customers actively approach me? Who are the people looking for me?

Two-way value: I thank someone & someone thanks me.

Who should I thank? I will thank whoever pays and buys my things.

Who will thank me? If you have social value, someone will definitely thank you.

A great company is not meant to do business or sell goods to make money, but to solve social problems. Solving social problems will create social value and will definitely attract customers. Thank you sincerely.

A good brand is one that constantly interacts in these three directions, constantly finds value points, and constantly spirals upward.

Real Kung Fu Case

1) Two-way demand

In the early years, Zhen Gongfu wanted to make fast food mainly based on steamed dishes. Steamed dishes are a niche consumption in the country and do not have such a large consumer market share. It doesn't seem so easy to open up the situation at the demand level.

2) Bidirectional traffic

Among the eight traditional cuisines, few people will approach you using the keyword steamed dishes. What to do if the traffic is not large? We need to coin another word.

We are Chinese nutritious fast food, and the focus of Chinese nutritious fast food is nutrition.

The focus cannot be on steamed dishes. Steamed dishes are a phenomenon. Behind steamed dishes is nutrition or Chinese nutritious fast food. If you are willing to eat nutritious fast food, you are more likely to find me.

This is a reverse traffic, why are you talking about steamed dishes and Chinese nutritious fast food. Here we have a simple ruler.

How to test whether a brand has brand power? Let’s look at the following three dimensions:

1. When customers think of this brand, what keywords do they think of?
2. When customers think of which keywords, they can associate it with this brand?
3. Can these keywords promote customer decision-making?

This is one of the underlying logics of a good brand.

Therefore, brands need to build a keyword matrix . These keyword matrices will affect the customer’s mind, affect the natural traffic of customers coming to me, and affect whether customers have made a decision before coming?

Even at this point it still doesn’t work. Chinese nutritious fast food is still not popular enough, so its market share and mind share are not large. What should we do? At this time, we look for it in the two-way value.

3) Two-way value

Customer value is the consideration for the transaction. I sell things to you, and you pay me the money, and you can feel at ease, knowing that you are buying genuine goods.

Social value is the customer value proposition.

My steamed vegetables are fast food 2.0.

Who is 1.0 and who are you going to replace? 1.0 Fast food is fried.

Fried easily leads to obesity, leading to three highs, and is not good for children. We want to use steamed dishes to help our teenagers grow healthier.

Because their studies are very hard, they may be far away from school in the morning, so they can only rush to eat fast food on the road and rush to the school.

We are considering the health of young people in China, and we have suddenly raised the company incidents to surpass industry incidents and to the level of social incidents.

Customer value propositions are different from customer value. They are either to solve social problems or to lead a social need, which exceeds the customer value of this business transaction relationship.

Great enterprise, focusing on solving social problems.

Top brands are all good at speaking a set of brand philosophy.

IV. Summary

There are three factors for exponential growth: good products, good growth, and good brands.

What is the essence of a good product?

From the customer's perspective, solve the problem of customer " needs " + create the value that customers " demands " and the customer can understand it at a glance without heavy explanation.

We often have misunderstandings that it is not that customers have needs and products have functions that can be sold.

Three other methods are needed: high attention, high interest, and high desire to make customers' heavy decisions, reduce dimensions to mild decisions, and even make decisions on the spot.

What is the essence of good growth?

Find a series of dynamic balance points of ambition and ability.

How to find it?

Using Internet thinking to find products, customers and business content is to go hand in hand and work together, and it is indispensable.

What is the essence of a good brand?

Good brands are accumulated through long-term interaction and natural precipitation, and they cannot be effective immediately if they spend a lot of money.

A good brand means that customers know what they are buying before buying, and what behaviors will likely occur after buying.

Exponential growth is hard to come by. The basic skill is to do high-probability events in high-value ranges, adhere to long-term value, and realize chemical reactions.

A soldier is endless every day, and he will never give up his achievements and end up in the sea.

Author: Cao Sheng

Source: Grayscale Cognitive Society