Four-dimensional model for promoting brand hot products!

Chinese companies are facing an inflection point - on one hand, with business changes, traditional companies that have been slow to "go online" have fallen into a slump, and a wave of closures has emerged; on the other hand, in the tide of consumption upgrading, the market prefers valuable, high-quality, cost-effective, and good-looking products, and focuses on experience.

This also means that the competition between companies will change from the traditional battle of channels, prices, and marketing to a battle of products and experience.

Therefore, we can currently see that many unicorn companies driven by explosive products have emerged in the market. They use products to implement the strategy of 1 billion or 10 billion brand, subvert the industry, and establish word-of-mouth communication. For example, Yuanqi Forest, which is valued at 30 billion yuan, Heytea, which leads the new trend of tea beverage consumption, and Miniso, which has counterattacked and went public in just 7 years since its establishment.

So, as a new retail company, how did MINISO create these popular products?

I have worked at MINISO for more than 10 years, from a startup employee of "Aiyaya", a leading brand in the traditional jewelry industry, to a brand operator who grew MINISO from 0 to 15 billion. I can say that I have fully witnessed and participated in the company's transition from a traditional business model to a brand business model. This also allowed me to observe and practice the marketing methods within the MINISO system firsthand.

Products are the first strategy of an enterprise

Miniso’s ability to mass-produce popular products is naturally enviable, but at the beginning of the book, I poured cold water on brands that wanted to copy Miniso’s production capabilities: copying Miniso’s business model is not easy.

The core is that MINISO is a long-term race, not a quick-money model. The super strong supply chain behind MINISO, the ultimate polishing of products, the ultimate pursuit of user experience, the restraint of greed, etc., are all the result of persisting in doing difficult but valuable things in the long term.

I have always believed that the era where channels and sales were king is a thing of the past. The second half is about products being king, and now it is about users being the center. If we skip the product and talk directly about marketing, then marketing will become a "castle in the palace". Many companies mistakenly believe that as long as there is traffic and the brand is well-known enough, it is enough. In today's era of such transparent information, traffic is indeed important, but we must know that traffic is to serve conversion.

And what does conversion rely on? It must be a hardcore product. The product is the core value of direct conversion and the foundation of value realization.

The product is the brand, the product is the medium, and the product is word of mouth. If the 1 of the product is not done well, the 0 behind the marketing will be meaningless.

In the book "Breaking Word of Mouth", I have repeatedly emphasized that "product is the company's first strategy" and is also the most core weapon.

In today's market, it is no longer an era where a brand can rise quickly simply through marketing and communication.

Ultimately, consumption upgrading is still the mainstream. Everyone is pursuing better and more valuable products and lifestyles. This is human nature and also a trend.

We will find that successful brand companies around the world all have products that have innovations and advantages at different levels, and their prices have absolute advantages. Costco in the United States, Uniqlo and Toyota in Japan, ALDI in Germany, and Miniso in China all use productism to achieve brandism. There is no second choice.

Productism is about “product is king”. As long as the product is good enough, consumers will buy it. If the product is not good, no matter how much you say, it will be meaningless.

This also means that our product thinking needs to be upgraded. The driving force for the upgrade comes from consumers’ new purchasing standards and preferences. So, how should brand people develop the mindset of creating explosive products?

Select the four-dimensional model for hot product promotion

Regarding how to create a hit product, I shared with you a "four-dimensional model" in the third chapter of the book, which you can refer to when choosing a hit product to promote:

View Products

The first step of product selection is particularly critical. For example, when MINISO wants to promote a product, it must first determine whether the product is suitable for promotion and will evaluate it from several dimensions:

1. Category Dimension

In this book, I have a different interpretation of hot-selling products from others. Those mass-produced products that can be bought in any store, that have no personality or imagination, that have no way to refine selling points and output content packaging, and even those that have no obvious functional differences from competing products, have no chance of becoming hot-selling products no matter how much marketing promotion they do.

Therefore, not all products are suitable for promotion. To create a hit product, PMF (product/market fit) is the basis, the category must have a preference, and the product must have a potential energy difference.

New products: products with unique selling points, good appearance and rigid demand

In the book, I emphasize that only a unique selling point and a personalized product are suitable. And the scarcer and more eye-catching this "point" is, the better.

For example, MINISO has a sky series pillow notebook with cloud and rainbow patterns that is very girly. Its biggest selling point is that in addition to being used for taking notes, because of its inflatable airbag design on the cover, the notebook can be used as a mobile pillow when folded. It is also an office artifact, a "mouse wrist rest" with a very soft feel, which breaks the public's impression of notebooks and provides everyone with a novel and interesting feeling.

Therefore, when promoting, MINISO bundled multiple scenarios, such as a sleep aid for lunch breaks, an office artifact, and a good product for students. It magnified the selling point that was different from other ordinary notebooks to carry out differentiated promotion. Finally, with the help of Viya’s promotion, it immediately became popular on social platforms.

So, focus on one point and fight until it explodes. This is a typical operation method of using unique selling points to market products.

Products that can be micro-innovated

Based on existing products, create "planting points" that can meet users' itch needs.

In the book, I suggest that everyone should make micro-innovations rather than disruptive changes. Because disruptive products can easily cause barriers to consumer acceptance and awareness of the product, this will inevitably reduce sales volume.

Micro-innovation refers to a "micro-innovation product" that is created to meet a specific need or highlight within the product range known to consumers, such as:

① Make creative designs on product packaging

② Create derivative products through cross-border and IP forms

③ Create differentiated product usage scenarios

④Invite celebrities or KOLs to endorse products to increase added value

⑤ Personalized customization of products

These methods will greatly reduce consumers' cognitive costs and quickly facilitate conversion purchases.

MINISO has a constellation perfume. Although its price is extremely cost-effective compared to many perfumes on the market at only 10 yuan, the sales of this product in stores have always been not so ideal.

So the question that needs to be answered in this project is why consumers would choose a perfume that looks ordinary?

Finally, MINISO collaborated with the famous zodiac blogger Tongdao Dashu, who has tens of millions of fans, and redefined it from "an ordinary 12-zodiac perfume" to "the first zodiac perfume customized for you", upgrading it from product significance to consumer significance.

Consumers may not necessarily be loyal to a brand, but they will definitely be loyal to the social signals they send to themselves. When consumers choose a product, apart from factors such as usability and functionality, they also choose a label for themselves in society, as well as signals from various aspects such as aesthetics and attitude.

And great brands have never simply sold products, but rather sold their values ​​and labels, linking any product with the wonderful lifestyle that consumers aspire for, thus forming a concept that allows consumers to live a wonderful life by purchasing this product.

It was precisely by grasping this point that MINISO finally upgraded the design of this perfume from a very ordinary glass bottle to a special form that consumers can place anywhere in the room. It immediately became a hit in the store. This is the superimposed effect brought about by micro-innovation.

Products that are backed by technology, endorsed by big-name supply chains, authoritatively certified, or have won industry awards.

Like the MINISO "Water Cube" series of water cups that were once reported by CCTV's Financial and Economic Channel, MINISO would emphasize during the promotion process that they had won the iF Award, which to a certain extent increased the added value of the products and elevated the product's style.

2. Price Dimension

Price is the core and sometimes greatly influences consumers' purchasing decisions, so it is necessary to understand consumers' payment threshold.

Generally speaking, products with high cost-performance ratio are more likely to guide consumers to make impulse purchases, and their conversion rate will be relatively high.

In addition, some products with high unit prices but technological support are also very suitable for promotion.

The book cites the example of a Dyson hair dryer.

How expensive is Dyson? A hair dryer that costs about a hundred yuan is sold by Dyson for more than 3,000 yuan, a desk lamp that costs a few dozen yuan or even 9.9 yuan with free shipping is sold by Dyson for 4,500 yuan, and a curling iron that costs a few hundred yuan is sold by Dyson for more than 4,000 yuan.

As for the high price, someone once asked James Dyson: "Why can Dyson sell the same product at 10 times the market price?"

His answer was: How much is a pain point that makes you unable to stop worth?

A further extension of this question is how many people are willing to spend 10 times more to solve this pain point. Judging from the results, there are many consumers who vote with their feet.

Therefore, product promotion does not mean selling cheaper products, but finding the price threshold that consumers are willing to pay based on the value the product brings to society and users.

3. Hotspot Dimension

The hot topic dimension refers to the topicality of the product itself and whether the product can arouse consumers' discussion. Sister Mulan divides it into two major rules:

First, natural traffic

The book defines natural traffic as products that consumers are very willing to buy even when the brand has not done any promotional marketing. Another type of traffic is products that have been recommended by many KOLs.

Because such products have a traffic base, they will greatly reduce the cost of educating and recommending consumers, making them easier to promote.

For example, a nine-grid eye shadow product produced by MINISO is very popular on grass-growing platforms such as Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, and has accumulated a lot of recommendations from consumers and bloggers. MINISO then created momentum on its own promotion channels by creating a "List of Hidden Goodies Only Insiders Know About", which was then distributed to different grass-growing platforms, and it was easily sold out in stores.

Second, there is content gene

The saying goes “good products speak for themselves”, but in fact it is not the products themselves that can speak, but rather the “content gene” is injected into the product when it is conceived, that is, “marketing is injected from the beginning of product research and development”, so that the product comes with content marketing.

This includes:

Product visibility (use effect, packaging appearance, cross-border cooperation)

Product knowledge (demand insight, technological support, xx same model)

Product perceptibility (conformity to promise, user's five senses, service experience)

Products can be transmitted (selfies for you, social currency, emotional needs)

Product performance (unboxing experience, evaluation, scene interpretation)

I call this the contentization of products. If a brand wants to tell consumers how good its product is through social media marketing, it must first have a product story. Innovative product strength means that the product has a story to tell, and it can also find an output point when it comes to dissemination and promotion, providing consumers with social currency.

In the Internet age, consumers live on the Internet. If our products are not worth "showing off", we will lose the opportunity for secondary exposure.

Therefore, the product must provide a kind of "social currency" (topic for conversation) so that potential consumers and even strangers will take photos of your product, post them on WeChat Moments, and discuss your product as soon as they see it.

The book gives the example of Huaxizi lipstick's strategy to break out of the circle, which is a good application of this idea.

Hua Xizi's lipstick is inspired by China's carving technology. It innovatively incorporates Chinese style elements such as "carving" and "relief" into the product to create this new domestic carved lipstick. The oriental aesthetic design gives people a refreshing feeling.

In the customization of content scenes, Hua Xizi continues to integrate various new elements to redefine the national style. From the "pink" themed Chinese style products they initially launched, targeting the young girls in the Chinese style circle, "pink Chinese style" sounds like the name of a top-notch hit; "Starry Dome Lipstick" has a unique visual sense of "adding sparkles" in addition to the color.

At the same time, by choosing Li Jiaqi to endorse and Du Juan to be the spokesperson, Hua Xizi elevates the product's style and increases consumers' trust in the product by bundling celebrity endorsements.

On social media platforms, in addition to being "extremely beautiful" and "the pride of domestic products", "affordable cosmetics" and "a must-have for students" have also become keywords for Huaxizi lipstick.

The most important point is that the super beautiful gift box created by Hua Xizi + rich colors + extremely high cost performance = comes with its own content gene, making consumers willing to take photos of it and post them on WeChat Moments.

View User

I believe that the starting point of brand marketing work must be to start from the user, discover needs, create value and spread value, rather than coming up with all kinds of creative ideas right away.

You must have heard: What users want is never a drill with a diameter of 5 mm, but a hole with a diameter of 5 mm.

——This is a very interesting sentence. The metaphor behind it is the user’s superficial pseudo-needs and invisible real needs.

Here is a simple example:

The founder of Ford Motor Company once said: "If you ask consumers what they want, they will tell you that they want a carriage that runs faster!"

In fact, what consumers really want is not a horse-drawn carriage, but faster and faster. Therefore, cars came into being to meet their real needs.

For marketing, it is about finding out the real needs of users, and then using more effective channels and more convincing methods to make consumers believe that you can meet their needs and solve their pain points.

This sentence may seem like a cliché or very ordinary, but in my opinion, it actually makes the difference between a good product and a bad product. Everyone understands that users are important, but not many products truly put user value first.

Therefore, after each product promotion project of MINISO is launched, she will ask the team to go to the front end, listen to the real demands of consumers, and become an observer and executor.

Before some new products are launched on the market, stores will conduct trial sales to listen to consumers’ opinions and market feedback, and then improve MINISO’s products. Because sometimes we overlook the essence of things, that is, what consumers really need, so Sister Mulan puts demand insight as an important part of product promotion.

At the same time, I believe that brands should go beyond the narrow product perspective when promoting their products and redefine the value they bring to users:

Who are my target consumers?

What do consumers need?

Why is there such a need?

How to meet their needs?

What value can my product create for consumers?

We must think carefully and discuss these five soul-searching questions repeatedly.

Look at the opponent

In any industry that focuses on a certain type of consumer demand, there are thousands and thousands of homogeneous products.

So I concluded in the book that when building a product, we must give priority to several issues:

What is the core function of my product?

Are there similar products on the market?

Compared with existing similar products, what new "micro-innovations" are there in my functions?

Marketing means letting consumers choose you from among many competitors.

So how can you make your product stand out from the many competitors and alternatives? The answer given in the book is:

Find the differentiation.

For example, in the shampoo category, Rejoice occupies the "softness" feature, Pantene occupies the "hair nourishment" feature, and Head & Shoulders occupies the "dandruff removal" feature...

The purpose of refining the brand's differentiated characteristics in the product category is to help consumers make effective choices among many competing brands and reduce decision-making costs.

Mango sago, known as a "post-modern dessert", is a classic Hong Kong dessert, but it can be found in many milk tea brands, and many innovative versions have been derived: some add mango ice cream, some use fresh cream instead of coconut milk, and a lot of effort is put into the decorative plating. However, only one brand has made differentiated improvements in the dessert cup packaging, and that brand is 7fensweet.

Xie Huancheng, the founder of 7fentian, is a man with very strong insight. He found that most desserts in dessert shops are served in bowls, which cannot be eaten in the restaurant or on the go, and are not convenient enough. The cup format of milk tea shops can make up for this shortcoming, so he thought of improving the bowl desserts into cups that are easier to carry, creating a highly differentiated demand feature.

At the same time, 7fensweet's "drinkable desserts" focused on the "mango drink" sub-category and launched the super single-item cup of mango sago, which occupies a unique position in the minds of consumers and makes mango drink = 7fensweet.

By innovating new product features, consumers will naturally think of 70% sweet when talking about mango sago. This also allowed 7fentian to break out among strong tea brands such as Heytea and Nayuki’s Tea!

Highlight the product’s “super good” value!

Every product has its "value". This value is not what the brand says is super good, but the value that consumers can feel.

Therefore, we need to have insight into consumer psychology, even to the point of satisfying some of the hidden needs of customers:

① Appearance consumption (paying for good-looking things) ;

② Social consumption (taking photos is more important than eating) ;

③ Emotional consumption (expressing emotions through products) .

It’s like a cup of milk tea. You’re going for a heartfelt healing experience, while others are selling an ordinary bowl of pearl milk tea with a lot of sugar, but you’re selling taste, appearance, story, and psychological satisfaction. Consumers may bargain after buying the former, but they may be satisfied after buying the latter, feeling that the brand understands them.

This is the relationship between "feeling" and "knowing", which is a very core part of user experience. In fact, the role of user "feeling" is far greater than the role of user "knowing".

Especially in the consumer goods industry where the threshold for purchasing decisions is low, there are too many functional alternative products. Those that can truly gain continuous recognition from consumers are often those that magnify the perceived value of the product and reduce the perceived purchase cost of the product.

See the trend

Finally, I also mentioned the importance of “market trends” in my book.

Against the backdrop of ever-shortening product life cycles, if we can stand at the forefront of the times and promote products that tap into and change consumers’ lifestyles and consumption concepts, they will be more popular with consumers and thus have great potential to become hit products.

The case described in the book is Elvis Presley.

As a non-essential product, the successful rise of Elvis is largely due to its ability to meet consumers' consumption preferences for "design" and "cultural core" in the era of consumption upgrading.

Through big data, Mao Wang discovered that 75% of his users were girls, so he thought about what girls would like and what young people like. In principle, small and mini products are definitely cute. This is actually the default view in everyone's mind, so young people will definitely like such products.

Therefore, Elvis' Little Prince OTR product series has a single factor maximization principle, which is to do the best in the points that users are concerned about. The first is that it must look good, the second is that it must be of good quality, the third is that it must have good craftsmanship and exquisite workmanship, and the fourth is that it must be able to be a gift.

Finally, as we can see, the Elvis Little Prince OTR series sells 50,000 to 60,000 units per month, and it quickly became something that young people like to use to show off their status, forming a "standard posture" - after buying it, take a photo and post it on WeChat Moments, and then listen to it.

Cha Yan Yue Se also narrows the distance with consumers by magnifying the advantages of its cultural heritage.

Now consumers' memory and positioning of Cha Yan Yue Se have far exceeded the level of selling milk tea: it is a brand, a culture, and now it has become a landmark in Changsha. When you go to Changsha, you must eat stinky tofu and crayfish, and you must also drink a cup of Orchid Latte.

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