How do new brands start from 0 to 1?

I feel that PMPM has been quite popular recently, and many colleagues have talked about this brand. Today I will analyze this brand for you in terms of brand positioning, product concept, investment, and selling points . Read a case and understand the essence of the brand.

PMPM was launched on Tmall’s flagship store in March this year. Its founder is from Procter & Gamble. According to public information, its monthly sales exceeded 1 million after only one month online.

For new brands, being able to achieve high GMV in a short period of time is basically inseparable from investment. However, in the process of analyzing PMPM, it does well not only because it has money to invest, but also because it does well at the brand level.

01Brand Positioning

PMPM's brand positioning is "explore the world and bring back energy to the skin." After all, in most people's impressions, the words "global," "overseas," and "foreign" are equivalent to good product quality. Through brand positioning, PMPM hopes to give consumers the feeling that it selects the best ingredients from around the world.

The earliest hit product, “Glowing Dough”, featured the extract of baobab seeds from faraway Madagascar. The main feature of Sea Sugar Emulsion is sea fennel from Brittany.

Only the characteristics and differentiation of brands and products can bring breakthroughs for subsequent content marketing.

PS: I think my knowledge of novel plants comes from the education of cosmetics brands.

Brand perception and reinforcement

The brand positioning is there, but it is just a cold word after all. It is very important to strengthen the minds of consumers and let consumers perceive the brand positioning through all aspects.

Brand perception is the subjective feeling of consumers, which is the overall feeling of consumers towards a brand, including the product characteristics, performance, quality, after-sales service, vision, etc. given by the brand.

Judging people by their appearance is a perception of status. In everyone's perception, those who drive Audi are richer than those who drive Alto.

Taking offline restaurants as an example, regional cuisines such as hot pot, Thai cuisine, and Yunnan cuisine will simulate local architectural forms and customs through decoration, with the aim of strengthening consumers' mind about the restaurant.

So how does PMPM do it?

Strengthen through product copywriting

（Store Home Page）

Strengthening by wrapping

PMPM's express package is a retro travel suitcase.

Enhanced by Package Card

The express box contains a refrigerator magnet and a postcard.

The express delivery with a strong travel flavor is like receiving a gift from a friend who is traveling for every user. It strengthens consumers' mindset of "exploring the world" and also triggers many consumers to spread it spontaneously on platforms such as Xiaohongshu.

Innovative brand concept (concretized concept)

When it comes to cosmetics, words like "the world's top ingredients/star ingredients/international technology" have been used so many times by many brands that consumers have long become numb to them and find it difficult to remember them.

However, PMPM innovatively integrates these three together in the form of a formula and proposes the product concept of X+Y+Z. Echo the brand positioning by concretizing product concepts. It can be regarded as the first brand in the industry to come up with a global formula. Let consumers' understanding of the product become concrete immediately.

When you see this, do you feel a sense of déjà vu?

That is golden arowana 1:1:1.

Golden Dragon Fish once developed a blended oil that was a mixture of peanut oil, rapeseed oil and salad oil. In order to build a strong brand, it promoted the slogan "Healthy Life Golden Dragon Fish". Although the investment was huge, the vague brand concept did not trigger consumers' associations with product quality except for making them remember the name Golden Dragon Fish. In addition, people were still not clear about what was good about the blended oil. Because Chinese people subconsciously think that peanut oil is good.

In 2002, in order to respond to the "healthy" concept of Luhua Peanut Oil, Golden Dragon Fish created a new "1:1:1" balanced nutritional edible oil concept: saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids are most beneficial to health when they reach a ratio of 1:1:1. The promotion of the "1:1:1" golden formula not only vividly conveys the characteristics of Golden Arowana that is a blend of three oils, but also makes consumers feel that only the "1:1:1" Golden Arowana is the healthy oil with a good proportion.

To this day, consumers may not know what 1:1:1 specifically is, but they can all remember 1:1:1 and think that this ratio is very good.

What’s even more amazing about the concrete product concept is that the brand was the first to propose such a concept and directly define the function of the category. What is the global formula? X+Y+Z. What is scientifically balanced good oil? 1:1:1.

Brand positioning and product concepts targeting target users are the core of a brand.

First, analyze the advantages of your own products and brands. The shaping of brand power should be based on its strongest and differentiated parts and refine them.

Secondly, clearly identify the target consumer group; one brand cannot cater to all users. The consumer group is becoming increasingly segmented. It is important to identify the target group and clarify their demands for the product.

The combination of the two is the core of a brand. Subsequent brand activities, investments and content are all based on the above.

Many brands envy others’ growth paths, looking at what accounts they have invested in and what bloggers they have cooperated with, but ignore their underlying core.

02Delivery​

The delivery of PMPM mainly includes channels such as Xiaohongshu, WeChat, and Douyin. Here we briefly analyze the WeChat and Xiaohongshu delivery accounts. This part of content analysis is shared in the community, and Taobao live broadcast is not included in this analysis.

WeChat

As can be seen from the bar chart, during the period from April to August, the public accounts with the most PMPM placements were fashion-related accounts, followed by emotional accounts.

The reading volume of the fashion public accounts is concentrated between 10,000 and 20,000. Most of the articles with a count of 0-5000 are UGC and Taobao articles, so they are not included in the delivery statistics for the time being.

Little Red Book

Xiaohongshu is an important place for PMPM. From the delivery from March to August, we can see that the delivery volume of PMPM was 300+ in the first few months, and it soared to 700+ in July. (These data do not represent all self-delivered content. Users may actively submit UGC, so they are for reference only.)

(Data from Qiangua Data)

PMPM not only has a large number of posts on Xiaohongshu, but also has many popular articles. Taking the hot article on March 31 as an example, it received over 30,000 likes and nearly 30,000 collections.

On April 22, another viral article came out, with 27,500 likes and 28,300 likes.

Here, the focus of PMPM’s promotion is on analyzing PMPM black tea mask’s promotion on Xiaohongshu for one month.

(From Bulgaria)

(Data from Qiangua Data)

The main force of the investment is the middle and lower KOLs with fans between 10,000 and 50,000, followed by amateurs with 0-10,000 fans.

For analysis and marketing techniques for rapidly rising brands, you can refer to the historical articles I have written; the strategies are similar. Whether it is WeChat or Xiaohongshu, the main force of PMPM delivery is also mid- and low-level bloggers, with a small number of mid- and top-level bloggers.

03Product selling points

For the launch, choosing a good account is one aspect. As mentioned before, PMPM is very good at refining the selling points of the product before the launch, and sets up different scenarios in conjunction with the channels for content marketing to maximize the effect.

Many people cannot distinguish between selling points, functional points, and product advantages. Especially in the eyes of many brands, every part of their product is a selling point. Most of the time, the refined selling point must be the core selling point.

Here we take the popular glowing dough as an example: the main selling point is: "Apply for 10 minutes and your face will glow"

The first time I saw this selling point, I almost laughed out loud. I have to say, it is very vivid. Instead of using adjectives related to whitening, tenderness, etc. directly, a concrete picture is used to create consumer perception.

Only a very fair and clean face can glow. These five short words allow consumers to imagine very rich effects. (However, many consumers also complained that it was difficult to wash off the paste on the face)

It is not just a selling point. When marketing, creating imagination for consumers is far more convincing than dry adjectives.

PROYA's "Thirst Quenching Mask" "quenches the skin's thirst quickly, leaving it tender and hydrated". Similar principles are used to create the image of "drinking water when thirsty" to make consumers perceive the effect of the product - the skin is also gulping down water.

Zhong Xue Gao and Wahaha AD calcium milk jointly launched the ice cream "Minor Ice Cream", with a strong AD calcium milk flavor and fruit puree filling. Why is it called "Minor Ice Cream"? When consumers eat this ice cream, they feel relaxed and as if they have returned to the happy times of their childhood.

In addition to the glowing dough, all of PMPM's products have a refined selling point that allows consumers to quickly understand the product.

Each selling point is clearly presented on the main picture, but many brands make mistakes and are reluctant to put only one selling point. In the eyes of the brand, their products are omnipotent and they list many selling points.

04 Conclusion

Many brands have a dream of rapid growth, and are very envious of those brands that grow rapidly. However, different brands, different products, different stages of development, and different bonus periods are difficult to copy and paste. The thinking logic behind the brand and products will be more meaningful for reference and learning.

Brand growth is a systematic project. Don’t think that you can rise to prominence by simply investing in your brand, but there is no problem in making some quick money. Traffic is important, but it is not everything. For the rise of new brands, channel dividends are only a part of it, and more is about the products and brands themselves.

Many brands will encounter some live streaming organizations that guarantee ROI without even knowing what you are selling, and then ask me if I am reliable? Basically don't believe it. You may have never won a lottery ticket worth 2 dollars, but why do you expect a pie to fall from the sky every day?

Looking at other people’s cases is like looking at reference answers in school. It requires thinking. Otherwise, no matter how many reference answers you understand, you still won’t be able to solve the problem.

Author: Marketing Lao Wang

Source: Marketing Lao Wang