Judgment on marketing trends in 2021!

The past year has been extremely magical, and I believe this is also the actual feeling of most people. Because we have experienced a market downturn, we have witnessed the separation of life and death, we have been inspired and brave in fighting the epidemic, and we have seen order begin to be restored and restarted.

Everything is still the same as before, and we are full of hope and yearning for life. Everything seems to be different from before, especially for marketers, as old answers are beginning to fall apart and new answers are still to be found.

In this context, I came up with an idea. From the perspective of a team leader and a relatively experienced marketer, I would predict the key marketing directions for 2021 or the next few years.

Without further ado, let’s get straight to the point. There’s a lot of content, so I hope you can read it patiently.

01 The penetration rate of digitalization continues to rise, which is essentially the spillover of the foundation project

The 2020 epidemic has accelerated the wave of brand digitalization. Many brands have started an "online + offline" combination model to prevent the impact of the epidemic again. In fact, this shift in the bottom-line strategy has also provided new opportunities for the growth and transformation of traditional brands.

For example, during the epidemic, many traditional brands have opened up new online channels through live streaming, content e-commerce, etc., expanding their business scale as a whole and deepening innovative business models. In particular, relatively small companies or companies that mainly engage in B-side retail have made full use of the current Internet trends and consumption trends, breaking the geographical restrictions brought about by the epidemic and achieving new business growth.

In fact, the digital transformation of traditional brands is essentially an overflow of the foundation work. Putting aside the digitalization of products and operations, for marketing, compared with the offline marketing model, the additional parts of digitalization are nothing more than new channels and platforms.

Anything involving channels and platforms must be closely related to content, and content is directly linked to the brand. Ultimately, it is still the three most basic things - brand public relations, brand fans, and brand advertising.

Brand public relations, as peripheral construction, is mainly used to compete for traffic, while brand fans are mainly users' feedback on content, which is used to build word-of-mouth.

Brand advertising is mainly used to build one’s own content and for self-construction. Therefore, digitalization ultimately comes down to building brands, and brand influence is also an important factor in obtaining positive feedback in new channels and platforms.

Of course, the new consumer brands that are currently popular are rising rapidly in the form of Internet celebrity products. For them, the accumulated brand power is not enough to compete with traditional brands on the same offline stage.

This type of brand must quickly establish its brand through other means; finding new media, communicating with new fans, and innovating in advertising and marketing are the only effective ways out.

The community’s trillion-dollar gold mine requires the collaboration of many industries to fully consume it.

02 “WeChat, Weibo, Douyin and Bilibili” still has opportunities, but it is not suitable for all companies

We mentioned digital construction earlier, so "Weibo, Douyin and Bilibili" must be an important part of digital construction. Many marketers often wonder: Is it necessary to have “WeChat, Douyin, and Bilibili”?

Although most brands either do it for the sake of doing it, or do it to follow the trend. But the answer to this question actually lies in the brand itself and its development.

I would like to make one thing clear here. The major Internet platforms have developed relatively maturely. If you want to enter these platforms now, the costs will be very high and it will take a long period of time to get obvious feedback. I think everyone has experienced this.

Secondly, let’s talk about whether it is necessary to do it.

This essentially depends on whether the brand strategy development requires such a strategy to complete or complete part of it. If there is a need, then set a goal to do it. If not, then don’t do it. The key is for the brand itself to figure out what purpose it wants to achieve.

To give a few examples, generally speaking, brands can be divided into two categories. One is mainly Internet-based brands, which are usually aimed at C-end users, and the other is mainly retail or distributor-based brands, which are mainly aimed at B-end users.

Most people see that brands that do well are usually those that are mainly Internet-type or Internet-thinking. On the one hand, this is because brands need good content to build, especially Internet products. Brand differentiation is not as perceptible as physical products. It all depends on concepts to capture user awareness, so it mainly relies on large-budget and high-traffic marketing. In this case, the level and accuracy of the content must be much more stringent.

On the other hand, the main purpose of small and medium-sized enterprises or B-side enterprises in creating self-media is to sell goods. They are too utilitarian, have no stable traffic pool, and often have no particularly outstanding highlights in content. In the long run, they will naturally fall into internal competition.

Therefore, it is particularly important to clarify the strategic purpose of the brand, and arrange the major sections according to the purpose to achieve it. From top to bottom, there should be guiding ideology, clear benchmarks, and clear strategies to guide execution and test execution, so as to achieve scientific communication.

03 New consumer brands are still the new direction for traditional brands to transform

A long-termist, good at seeking new opportunities between generations and finding a track worth long-term investment!

It has to be said that new consumer brands have particularly outstanding insights in this regard.

On the one hand, they are able to break category limitations and explore and define new categories in a track dominated by giants; on the other hand, they integrate Internet thinking, break the business model of traditional consumer categories, greatly enrich mass consumption, and activate the overall consumption upgrade of society.

For example, well-known brands such as Zhong Xue Gao and Perfect Diary. In fact, the biggest difference between so-called new consumer products and traditional consumer products is that they no longer rely on large single products, but instead conduct product research and development innovation through the Internet methodology of rapid iteration and trial and error.

When making products, the most important things are user insight and the ability to integrate and transform technology. Therefore, quick response and user insight are the key factors that dominate new consumer products, not just product factors.

Similar to the rise of new consumer goods is the rejuvenation of time-honored brands. In today's Chinese market, brand aging is not an isolated case. For example, many leading brands such as Wahaha, Lenovo, L'Oreal, Semir, etc. are experiencing the trouble of brand aging.

However, it is gratifying that there are also many domestic brands, such as China Li Ning, Pechoin, Weilong, Want Want, etc., which have successfully achieved youthfulness and renewed vitality through trendy celebrity endorsements, product innovation, new channels, new gameplay, new cross-border, new design, and reshaping of values.

For example, in order to make friends with young people, Luzhou Laojiao released a co-branded perfume with the Smell Library; and jointly with the ice cream brand Zhong Xuegao launched a white wine flavored ice cream called "Duanpian". During the Spring Festival of 2021, Luzhou Laojiao entered the young people's cultural community Bilibili and released its first official work.

You should know that young people actually account for a small proportion of Luzhou Laojiao's current main user group, but it still strives to break the circle and integrate into it. One has to sigh that time-honored brands such as Luzhou Laojiao and Wufangzhai are becoming more and more fun.

Many people may think that anything related to the Internet must involve capital, but this is not the case. In the new consumption field, brands can grow independently into unicorns without relying on any capital, or they can continue to cultivate a specific user group to form a strong moat that is strong enough to resist the entry of giants.

For example, Huaxizi did not accept external financing, and the same is true for many hidden champions in vertical categories. Their own businesses already have very good cash flow and do not have much demand for financing.

In the final analysis, it is essentially about using Internet methodology to transform the consumer goods industry. It is a change in thinking. After all, the Internet has entered old age, while new consumption is still young.

04 Long-term and in-depth cooperation between brand marketing departments and an advertising company has become a trend

To this day, Chinese brands are still very weak, have short lifespans, poor premium capabilities, and love to engage in price wars. They are in great need of excellent advertisers to design, package, position, plan, write beautiful copy, and shoot good-looking advertisements.

This demand is also being met by some first-line brands who are recruiting advertisers by merging them. Gradually, the staff in brand marketing departments are becoming more and more professional, and advertising companies are also constantly iterating and innovating under pressure to form their own unique style. The two are deeply combined to achieve a companion-style win-win situation.

In addition to helping Chinese brands go global, in fact, it is the vast number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Chinese market that are most in need of systematic theory and scientific communication.

Although the overall national GDP is increasing and many small and medium-sized enterprises are making a lot of money, does high profit really mean building a brand? Can it really be like Nike, Mercedes-Benz and other brands that survive long product cycles and the impact of turbulent market environment and still be followed, expected and yearned for by people?

The current situation is that we can see that most Chinese companies are more concerned about real vested interests when doing communication. Of course, this is understandable. Each company is at a different level and has different goals at different stages.

But in fact, many companies' promotions cannot generate profits. Instead, they will reduce the brand's premium ability. Because advertising that helps brand premium is called brand value, and advertising that helps brands clear inventory can only be regarded as survival necessity.

After all, there are fewer advertisements describing beautiful scenes of the brand and more advertisements that only talk about functions, which will really have a counter-effect on the shaping of brand emotions.

Ultimately, what we feel more is that the marketing of small and medium-sized enterprises in the current Chinese market either has no scientific strategy and relies heavily on media without a systematic communication framework, or it goes back and forth in traditional advertising theories and is unable to iterate quickly to keep up with the current mainstream communication methods.

On the basis of brand profitability, I think the most wonderful thing about marketing is not to achieve sales with a business mission, but that a brand works so hard just to gain recognition from a group of people.

They are happy when the brand is at its peak, and they will come out to explain and defend it when it faces negative effects. Even if a brand like Xiami Music was wiped out by capital, this group of people still stood up and said, "I can continue to recharge, why should it stop? I am still holding on."

Especially in the current era of social communication, the effect of word-of-mouth can be infinitely amplified through viral transmission. Good reviews can make a brand rise rapidly, and the brand marketing department of advertising companies will infinitely amplify this effect.

Brands will no longer be a single social role. They can integrate products, operations, technology, and advertising into a business model that systematizes the entire sales chain. Advertising companies, as a part of it, can also introduce cooperation between clients, link resources, expand business models, and thus create greater influence.

05 Brands must have their own traffic pool. This is feasible and effective in any era.

Back to the issue of starting to build brand self-media, many marketers asked themselves at the beginning, is self-media really effective? Private domain may be a direct and effective answer.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, most brands suspended their offline channels. However, those brands that had accumulated and operated effectively in the early stages basically converted their fans into private domain traffic. For example, Perfect Diary, Yuanfudao and some new consumer brands have achieved great growth in both brand building and sales through online private domain methods.

For all of this, brand self-media is the key channel for this transformation.

Many people think that it is just a public account, a Weibo post, a short video, or a sales group on Taobao, which does not have much influence or cannot be directly monetized.

However, from a brand perspective, if the brand power is strong enough, these different media platforms are effective communication channels for the brand. In addition to brand promotion, they can also interact and communicate with users on a daily basis, promote products, and receive product feedback.

Even if the brand power is not strong enough, you can still build a traffic pool by relying on interesting content. As long as the brand treats every piece of content seriously and attentively, fans can really sense it and have enough judgment to evaluate the brand's sincerity. Even if it cannot be 100% monetized, doesn’t it save the brand a lot of advertising costs in terms of the distribution channels?

At present, fans around the world are transforming from mere "idol supporters" into a powerful force with their own "rights". They are no longer just followers and consumers of pop culture, but are becoming creators and amplifiers of idols.

In short, fans have become an independent community, and brands that choose to integrate with this group will also gain their own loyal fans.

For example, many brands nowadays are keen on "youth" and getting along with young people. On the one hand, it is because the main users of social media are young people, who create voice and help to spread the brand and accumulate word-of-mouth. On the other hand, they are also the main force of consumption, and they want to try and experience anything new, fun, and unique.

After all, China has been an oversupply market for many years, with oversupply of everything. So why do people pay for it? At least no longer paying for necessities, they are more willing to pay for their own better life and experience.

In 2021, the only constant is "change". We can look at the trends around us. Users' interests and communication methods are changing, communication platforms are changing and gradually shifting, and the application and acceleration of innovative technologies are also changing.

And the most important point is that traffic has peaked and is expensive, the platform has a lot of say, and users are scattered and difficult to reach, which makes brands more passive. The best solution is to keep the traffic in their own hands. No matter how the outside world changes, the brand has a certain amount of room and trial and error space to adjust.

06 IP may become the core tool for small and medium-sized brands to leapfrog

Content has always been king, and there is no doubt about that. The current content explosion is either a challenge or an opportunity for brands.

For example, the national snack brand Three Squirrels has taken the "Squirrel IP" to the extreme. Three Squirrels has expanded from nuts to dried fruits, tea, braised food, and even film and television, animation, theme parks, etc.

Its axis has always been the "Squirrel IP", and the virtual "Squirrel Kingdom" built on this basis has become an integrator of brand extension, greatly enhancing the brand's scalability.

Although IP is just a strategy of content marketing, I believe that future marketing will definitely be content marketing, and IP will definitely be the core tool for the leapfrog development of small and medium-sized brands.

Although IP creation has certain risks both in terms of cost and execution, it is bound to be explosive, sustainable and scalable.

As Yang Buhuai said: "If a mature brand does not have representative marketing IP or sustainable projects, it is likely to fail."

I also agree with the answer he gave. Brand operations should be responsible for daily maintenance and communication, and the marketing department should be responsible for marketing IP and major projects. In essence, marketing is about projects, short-term, high-intensity communication, and it is best to communicate through sustainable marketing IP.

Here is a super successful case: Bilibili’s New Year’s Eve Party.

In many people's minds, New Year's Eve parties are festive and lively, with magic, sketches, solo performances, etc. However, Bilibili's New Year's Eve party has changed the format of traditional parties and integrated current popular hot spots and various IPs, giving classic IPs a new generation's interpretation method and allowing young people to begin to like opera, Chinese style, traditional folk customs, etc.

For example, the evening party included performances of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy", "Warcraft", "Game of Thrones", "Harry Potter", "Detective Conan", "New Century Warriors", etc., which directly beat the New Year's Eve Galas of major satellite TV stations.

At the same time, users who watched it will also brush resonant words in the barrage such as "My youth is back", "Funds are burning", "Bilibili Mining Co., Ltd." and "Small broken station".

Moreover, they not only do not mind the quality of brand marketing content, but also comment and co-create as participants. Even if a UP host or blogger reads the name of a brand, they will say in the barrage "Remember to donate to brand XX."

If you bosses, CEOs, and heads of marketing have time, I really hope that you can take two or three hours to watch the B station party, see the really good content, and see what today's young people like, love, and pay attention to.

07 Summary and Thoughts

In summary, if corporate resources are limited, especially in the early stages of development from 0 to 1, concentrating superior forces and "focusing" on advantageous businesses can form strategic sharpness and most effectively drive business growth.

At this time, the brand’s key task is to reach the top of the industry in this field and forge its own core advantages, rather than rushing to diversify.

If brands want to develop breakthroughs, the current innovation curve is becoming increasingly steeper, and the possibility of innovation and the ability of category explosion are becoming stronger and stronger. At the same time, "experience economy, beautiful explosion".

Therefore, brands should use "user insight + rapid iteration + scientific marketing" as their three axes, and continue to delve deeply into products, operations, and communications, perform meticulous operations, and control each link to form a precise, efficient, and complete closed-loop chain, thereby maximizing the integration of product and effect.

Author: Community Marketing Research Institute

Source: Community Marketing Research Institute