3 communication methods for new brand marketing!

In the Internet era, consumer decision-making patterns have undergone profound changes, and it is difficult to determine which communication method actually led to the consumer's order.

Take Xiaoxiandun as an example. In the morning, I saw an article about Xiaoxiandun forwarded on WeChat Moments, I saw a Focus Media elevator advertisement on the way to work, I saw my colleagues eating Xiaoxiandun in the office, I saw a national trend event on the subway, and when I got home and opened Tmall, I saw an information flow advertisement. So, you place an order decisively.

This is the consumption decision-making model in the Internet era: orders are generated in e-commerce or supermarkets, but you don’t know how much of the credit for this order is contributed by communication methods such as WeChat Moments, elevator advertisements, and existing customers.

A single corporate communication or a combination of fragmented communications will be unable to cope with the complex consumer environment, and your brand information will easily fall into oblivion. Although the concept of brand-effect integration is as tempting as pie in the sky, it is actually a trap. You cannot expect to achieve brand-effect integration by betting on a single communication method.

Instead of calculating how much protein there is in the food you eat every day, it is better to combine the types of food reasonably based on their pros and cons. Integrated marketing communications have become even more important. The focus of integrated marketing communications is not to bet on the communication method with the highest ROI, but to scientifically combine the advantages and disadvantages of various communication methods. For example, in recent years, the business community has gradually developed a marketing trend of "two Weibo, one Douyin, and one Focus".

From the traditional era to the Internet era, integrated marketing communication with product-effect synergy is forming a three-stage rocket marketing model:

• Level 1: Traffic acquisition based on channel power - enterprises promote transactions through various sales channels and Internet advertising
• Level 2: Social promotion based on social power - companies spread brand information in social networks through social media and third-party personnel
• Level 3: Brand resonance based on corporate power - companies express their brand value propositions and promises to consumers through brand advertising

The three models have developed to this day and gradually formed a three-legged pattern. The company then fell into a "split personality" situation where it was difficult to achieve both product quality and effectiveness. In fact, the three-stage rocket essentially solves problems at different levels and there is no conflicting relationship between them.

The essence of traffic collection is to establish a wide range of sales channels. Whether it is online or offline channels, or performance advertising, we must strive to cover the sales area of ​​products so that consumers can reach them and take quick action.

Social promotion is essentially about creating an environment for consumers to receive information. The content carried by social media is equivalent to an extension of consumer cognition, allowing consumers to understand product information in more detail and form slow thinking.

The essence of brand resonance is to convey the brand value promise, which makes the brand value promise become the basis for consumer decision-making. Consumers rely on intuitive memory to make quick brand judgments and form quick thinking.

In the early stages of a brand’s establishment, it is necessary to build transaction infrastructure and adopt a traffic-based payment model. It is necessary to stimulate customers to think and judge in detail and adopt a social media model. However, to move into maturity and become a “taken-for-granted” brand in the minds of consumers, it is necessary to form intuitive quick thinking through brand resonance.

This article will introduce the three-stage rocket marketing model in stages to answer the following two key questions:

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the three modes of communication?
2. How do the three communication methods complement each other’s strengths?

1. Level 1: Traffic collection based on channel strength

In the early days of a company, the most scarce thing is capital, and any marketing work must first consider profitability. Therefore, the first step for a company to bring a product to market is basically to lay out sales channels and direct communication to sales targets.

Therefore, the first-stage rocket of corporate communication often relies on sales channels. Sales channels are important communication media, shortening the distance from consumer cognition to purchase, and striving to generate profits from every customer flow, that is, traffic collection.

Companies that succeed in the first stage of the rocket usually rely on the rise of new channels. This law has never changed, whether in the era of traditional channels or in the era of Internet e-commerce.

From 1990 to 2010, the focus of the home appliance channel, or the core traffic platform, has evolved from department stores, dealers, to chain retailers. Among them, Suning and Gome have risen to become the traffic overlords in the home appliance market.

At that time, the sales share of home appliance chain channels once reached 80%, and the profits of the home appliance industry gradually shifted towards the chain channels. Gree, Midea and Haier, which are good at managing channels and capturing new traffic, have become models of home appliance brands.

In the Internet era, the success of fast-moving consumer goods brands from 0 to 1 also follows the law of channels, that is, communication, and the traffic collection model.

Although Internet advertising is a communication medium, it is closer to the nature of a sales channel, and what you see is what you get. Internet advertising is equivalent to billboards in front of offline channels. No matter what app or web page you see the advertisement on, you can go directly to the store to consume. Therefore, Internet advertising pursues sales results rather than brand effects.

Three Squirrels, Handu Yishe, and Yu Nifang are all first-stage rockets that rely on traffic to acquire payments, and have risen with the dividends of e-commerce channels.

Many companies set brand advertising and performance advertising against each other when allocating marketing budgets. In fact, performance advertising is integrated with e-commerce channels and emphasizes sales results, so it should be attributed to channel sales expenses rather than brand communication expenses.

The well-known Internet marketing formula "Revenue = Traffic × Conversion Rate × Average Order Value" is not Internet thinking, but sales channel thinking. The term traffic originated in the offline channel era when there was no Internet.

This formula is a thinking framework for enterprises to evaluate channel profitability: traffic reflects the number of customers, conversion rate reflects sales capabilities, and average order value reflects customer purchasing power. Companies can use this formula to quantitatively and concisely determine whether a sales channel is worth operating, but it cannot guide communications for non-sales purposes, and it is even more difficult to produce a brand effect.

Because the purpose of communication is not only to directly promote sales, but also to remove consumers' cognitive and psychological barriers to the brand. If you don’t address consumers’ cognitive and psychological barriers to your brand, they will find the product expensive even if it’s free. Because consumers have to bear the additional transportation costs, storage costs, learning costs, identity image and security risks of this product.

Peter Drucker, the "father of modern management", said that "the purpose of marketing is to make sales redundant." More precisely, marketing at the communication level is to reduce the resistance to product sales in the minds of consumers.

Traffic collection seeks to get consumers to make purchases immediately, but getting consumers to buy is one thing, and getting consumers to buy actively is another. A certain consumption behavior may be caused only by the convenience of the channel or preferential conditions, rather than recognition of the brand, and it is difficult to form long-term consumption motivation.

In the traditional era, companies that adopted the traffic-based payment model often faced a game between brand and channel. Consumers want to buy Gree air conditioners, but the store only has Midea air conditioners. If consumers are willing to accept Midea air conditioners, this is the logic that channels are stronger than brands. If consumers would rather go to other stores to buy Gree air conditioners, this is the logic that brands are stronger than channels.

In the Internet era, a company’s traffic anxiety is essentially a game between brands and Internet channels, that is, whether orders come from the promotion of Internet channels or the attraction of brand power. This is exactly the same as the channel anxiety in the traditional era, but it has evolved into more advanced terms, such as brand-effect integration and private domain traffic.

In the traditional era, in order to increase their market voice, brands usually adopted a channel monopoly strategy so that consumers would see their own brands in every store. It is said that Wahaha was the only beverage brand available in rural areas of Xinjiang at that time.

After the emergence of the Internet, companies that are good at channel monopoly can no longer weave an airtight channel network. New companies emerge like fish that slip through the net with the rise of new channels. The channel traffic system is more flat and balanced for enterprises.

By acquiring traffic based on the power of channels, companies can efficiently reach customers and promote sales conversions, but they also face problems such as vague brand awareness and lack of active consumption motivation. This requires the thrust of the second and third stage rockets.

2. Second level: Social promotion based on social power

If an enterprise wants to achieve exponential growth, it is inevitable that it cannot do without the spread of social forces. At this time, the decision makers, buyers, experiencers, and communicators in the society should influence each other to form a chain effect, with one person telling ten people, ten people telling a hundred people... The Internet field calls it social fission, and direct sales companies such as Amway call it market multiplication.

The spread of social forces will increase the credibility of brand information because of the involvement of third-party opinions, and social relationship networks can create a consumer environment where information and emotions are intertwined, forming the potential for brand communication, namely social momentum. Gladwell calls this the Law of Environmental Power in his book The Tipping Point.

Social media marketing has achieved rapid development in the mobile Internet era. From Weibo, WeChat, Zhihu to Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Kuaishou, an industrial-grade standard communication method has been formed. Every innovation and iteration of a social platform will generate social traffic dividends.

According to AdMaster statistics, the volume of e-commerce comments on Xiaohongshu increased by about 719% from January to November 2018. New domestic brands such as Perfect Diary and Huaxizi have emerged in large numbers and are rising in popularity.

In addition to choosing the right social platform, social media promotion also requires the right source of communication.

In its early days, Xiaoxiandun relied on social media such as Xiaohongshu and live streaming, and received recommendations from many celebrities. Chen Shu, Cecilia Cheung, Zhang Yuqi, Jing Tian and others were all early users of Xiaoxiandun. Xiaoxiandun has been recommended by more than 2 million people on Xiaohongshu.

Zhang Yuqi, Jing Tian, ​​and Cecilia Cheung recommended Xiaoxiandun on Xiaohongshu

At the same time, Xiaoxiandun also reaped the benefits of early live streaming sales. In the cooperation with Wei Ya and Zhang Dayi, Xiaoxiandun received a lot of positive feedback from users with its brushed and chewy visual effects of bird's nest.

Social campaigns also have inherent problems. Faced with a complex information environment, social media lacks focus on the dissemination of brand value, making it difficult for consumers to form clear value perceptions and memories, and therefore unable to make quick decisions. This limits the brand’s ability to grow explosively.

Xiaoxiandun, the bird's nest brand most recommended on Xiaohongshu, had sales of only 200 million in 2018. In 2019, Xiaoxiandun used Focus Media elevator advertising to launch the third-stage rocket of brand resonance, established brand awareness of fresh stewed bird's nest, and successfully exceeded 800 million in sales. In 2020, sales reached 2 billion.

In addition, the communication environment of social media lacks control, and brand information can easily become ineffective or even distorted.

Most internet celebrity brands die in this situation: the brand is widely circulated in society, but consumers do not know what unique value the brand has. Brands that were once popular on the Internet, such as Huang Taiji, Diaoye Beef Brisket, Instant Noodle Hero, and Miss Zhao’s No Waiting, have all suffered the same fate.

Whether brand communication is effective or not, it is not enough to just look at the exposure and popularity, but also whether consumers remember the valuable brand information. It’s one thing to make consumers remember you, and another to make them remember you for the right reasons.

Every year, brand research institutions such as Interbrand and BrandZ release brand value lists. The calculation of brand value has a variety of dimensions, and popularity is only the most basic dimension. You should look beyond superficial metrics like name recognition and research how consumers perceive your brand’s value. Your brand positioning is only effective when consumers’ perception of your brand value is consistent with your brand value proposition.

Based on social momentum created by social forces, companies can quickly penetrate brand information into social relationship networks, but they also face the problem of brand information being too fragmented and lacking effective recognition. This requires the thrust of the third-stage rocket.

3. The third level: brand resonance based on corporate power

Philip Kotler, the "father of modern marketing", defines marketing as the process by which companies understand, create, communicate and deliver customer value. Communicating customer value is the task of brand communication. The brand value proposition reflects the core of the brand and is the reason why consumers choose you instead of others.

To communicate based on corporate power, we must stand on the company's standpoint and clearly express the brand value proposition. When the brand value you promised is fulfilled, you will win the recognition of consumers and form a long-term consumer relationship, which is brand resonance.

Marketers like to talk about soft articles and soft advertisements, but many times, soft articles and soft advertisements are inefficient because they lack clear and specific brand value propositions.

Soft articles and soft advertisements that are implicit and even witty are naturally "silent and subtle", making them popular with consumers, but the result is often "water passing through the ground wets the ground", leaving no valuable perception for consumers.

Although brand advertising carries commercial intentions that consumers may resist, it also plays the role of a brand value promise. Placing brand advertisements on CCTV, Focus Media, airports and other media is itself a way of expressing the brand value commitment at a financial cost. Brands that don’t have the power to deliver on their promises will fail to resonate with consumers, and advertising dollars will be wasted.

Brand resonance simplifies the consumer decision-making process to a certain extent. Although consumers do not like to watch advertisements, they need advertising information to evaluate various brands. If all the advertisements in the world disappeared tonight, then tomorrow every time we make a purchase we would need a lot of time to read product instructions or listen to the recommendations of shopping guides.

Brand advertising subtly shapes quick thinking and unconsciously influences consumers’ decision-making.

In the era of television media, Procter & Gamble has set an example for Chinese brands. If you want smoothness, choose Rejoice; if you want dandruff removal, choose Head & Shoulders; if you want nourishment, choose Sassoon...

To date, the communication method of brand resonance has expanded to a wider range of living space media.

In February 2019, Meiji Landou cheese sticks were launched in targeted elevator advertisements in first- and second-tier cities. The advertisement was adapted from the popular children's song "Two Tigers" and won the attention and love of many children and their parents.

With the help of three months of saturation brand advertising, Meiji Landou surpassed well-known brands such as Anchor and Bel for the first time during the 618 promotion season and won the double crown of the cheese category on JD.com and Tmall. In 2019, Meiji Landou achieved operating income of 1.744 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.32%, and net profit increased by 80.72% year-on-year.

Brand resonance is a sign that a brand is moving from the start-up phase to the mature phase. New domestic brands that are thriving on the Internet, such as Huaxizi, Winona, and Perfect Diary, have recently launched brand advertising and infiltrated various scenarios in consumers' daily lives. This is the only way for a brand to break into the market and grow from small to large.

Through brand resonance based on corporate power, companies can clarify and unify consumers’ perception of the brand and promote long-term consumer relationships. However, this model often requires the use of high-threshold communication media to reflect the solemnity and credibility of the value commitment.

At the same time, this method of communication has a threshold effect. The impact on consumer cognition and behavior is not obvious enough in the initial stage of communication. It takes a period of repeated exposure to produce long-term and stable effects. This requires the thrust of the first and second stage rockets.

4. Three-stage rocket of product-effect synergy

As the development progresses, companies must continuously upgrade their marketing capabilities and switch external motivation to internal motivation. The three-stage rocket marketing model, on the one hand, reflects the changes in the marketing environment in the past 20 years, and on the other hand foreshadows the systematic marketing capabilities that future companies will need to grow from 0 to 1 and then to 100.

Level 1: Traffic acquisition based on channel power, emphasizing instant sales conversion in channels and relatively ignoring the fit between consumer cognition and brand value;

Level 2: Social promotion based on social forces, emphasizing the use of third parties to create a consumer information environment, while relatively ignoring the communication of the brand's core information;

Level 3: Brand resonance based on corporate power, which emphasizes increasing consumer trust and favor through brand value commitments and simplifying decision-making, while relatively ignoring short-term sales effects.

Just like the two sides of a coin, any advantage will be accompanied by inherent disadvantages. You cannot expect to enjoy the advantages while abandoning the disadvantages. But you can use a variety of methods to complement each other's strengths and continuously upgrade the momentum needed for growth.

In 2021, with the development of the three-stage rocket marketing model, new consumer companies are bound to usher in a new industry landscape.

Author: Grant Zheng

Source: Zheng Guangtao Grant (ID: Grant-Insight)