I have summarized a set of brand growth plans from 0 to 100

This is the best of times. Brands have never had so many levers at their disposal. Weibo, WeChat and Douyin, performance advertising, mini programs, private domain traffic, KOC placement, live broadcast for all...

These are the worst of times. "4A is dead", "Advertising is ineffective", "Weibo, Weibo and Douyin are suspended", "Live broadcast is a waste of time", the marketing circle has become the industry that is "disrupted" the most on a daily basis.

Brands are lost in various new methods and dare not spend money even though they have large budgets. We kept expanding the platform to keep up with the trend, but the operating costs kept getting higher and higher, while sales did not improve.

Internet brands that best understand how to survive in the digital age have begun to replace marketing with the concept of "growth", which is an integrated approach aimed at improving indicator data.

For Internet products with interactive attributes, each campaign will clearly guide user behaviors such as registration, activation, payment, and sharing, gradually improving user stickiness and building their own traffic pool. Traditional brands that are not digitalized can often only be judged based on a single dimension, sales data. It is difficult for brands to fine-tune and deepen user relationships and ensure the effectiveness of their campaigns in a complex digital marketing environment.

So for traditional industries like consumer goods, how should they plan their brand growth? Due to limited space, the purpose of this article is to provide a relatively comprehensive and systematic review to help confused brands plan their own growth strategies, without involving specific implementation details.

1. Identify the North Star Indicator

The first step to growth is to set a North Star metric, which is the only important metric at this stage, such as increasing retention, new additions, and increasing average order value. Then functions such as product, operation, creativity, and technology must work together to improve this indicator.

North Star Metrics occupy limited internal resources and have the highest priority. This cross-departmental project-based approach can help companies respond flexibly to ever-changing market environments.

When setting goals, brands need to plan reasonably based on the brand’s development stage and not be too ambitious. The key is to identify the key issues that are hindering current development and find the important factors affecting the data.

Combined with Chaos University’s corporate development curve model, the growth of most brands is not stable and linear, but an S-shaped trajectory. There are two key turning points:

1. Breaking point: Market share begins to grow naturally, marketing efficiency gradually improves, and things go more and more smoothly.

2. Stalling point: The market is gradually approaching saturation, still growing but at a slower pace, and the cost of acquiring customers is increasing.

Internet products call the breaking point 1, and the specific verification method is called PMF (Product Market Fit), which means "judging whether the product meets the real needs of the target market through the retention data of new customers." Only by reaching this point can we ensure that the users we attract can be retained, become long-term users, and gradually accumulate growth.

There is no 1, only 0s follow.

For new brands, the first step is to find a precise value positioning, quickly increase brand awareness, and occupy a place in the market.

Value refers to strong product power, which is the first attachment point for new brands; precision is to find the best angle of entry and refine it according to the needs of the market environment; positioning is uniqueness, avoiding homogeneous competition with strong big brands/mainstream products.

Following this logic, I call the brand’s stall point 10, which is equivalent to the time when the brand is at its peak. At this point, the influence has penetrated the vast majority of potential people and has a stable cash flow. From stage 1 to stage 10, the marketing strategy focuses on attracting new customers and expansion, which can be implemented in terms of new customers and the number of new fans. After 10, the focus is on retention, which requires increasing user stickiness and average order value. The brand's 0~1 concept also coincides with the marketing return on investment (ROI).

In the early days, new brands have no influence and mainly rely on high cost-performance to enter the market. They also need to educate the market, provided that market investment is greater than revenue. However, if a brand finds the right marketing strategy, the ROI can reach 1, and the cost and revenue will be proportional, thus entering a positive cycle.

As the brand matures and improves, its support will become a new advantage among similar competitors, allowing ROI to continue to increase. When the ROI exceeds the market average, the brand often becomes the leader in the industry, truly possesses its own brand moat, and even becomes a cultural icon.

Next, I will briefly outline how brands can formulate and implement growth strategies at each stage from 0 to 1 to 10 to 100.

Growth loop at each stage

1. Cold start from zero: Cultivate seed communities with founder IP

At this stage, the product is still under testing and does not need too much exposure, whether it is through WeChat Moments or professional crowdfunding websites. The important thing is to attract high-quality hardcore fans and then form a seed community.

In the early stages of a brand, when even the product is not yet mature, the most valuable asset may be the founder himself. As a specific personified IP, the founder can endorse his own product and draw on the connections he has previously accumulated. It is also convenient to accumulate traffic on social networks and use his professional background and personality to endorse the product.

The higher the founder's cognitive expertise in the entrepreneurial field, the better the startup potential will be, making people believe that the products developed by the founder are more credible. Communication materials can start with the brand story, telling the original intention of establishing the brand and market insights.

Yang Tianzhen came to the stage to promote her new brand

Because of the endorsement of interpersonal relationships, such communities usually have more active participation and are willing to provide feedback for the early trial and error stages of the product. Products need to absorb feedback through testing and iterate quickly to produce a minimum viable product MVP to ensure quality and popularity.

After successfully polishing the MVP, this group of people are also willing to promote the products they have put a lot of effort into and establish long-term and deep connections with the brand. Brands can give the first wave of people higher privileges and benefits to increase their identity and become “friends of the brand.”

Lei Jun founded Xiaomi and operated the Mi Fan community in the early days

2. From 0 to 1: Using KOLs to Create Event Marketing

Since the public is relatively unfamiliar with new brands, marketing needs to focus on first-time product launches, creating explosive products and occupying the minds of users.

For startups with limited budgets, it is difficult to launch large-scale advertising to build momentum at this time. Instead, they should take advantage of hot topics, create events, and make the most of small investments. Creativity can be achieved by penetrating into the pain points of product application scenarios, triggering relevant public issues, and then implanting one's own brand.

Yi Er San educates the market on "clothing rental services" through controversial advertisements

In terms of channels, it is best to choose a social media with the most vertical core audience and focus on it, and combine it with traffic elements such as top KOLs to become popular, such as beauty products based on Xiaohongshu and sneakers based on Hupu.

After making your selection, you need to understand the platform ecosystem in detail and customize original creative ideas with brand recognition. Regarding how to combine platforms to plan hot spots, I have elaborated on this in the article "With the proliferation of viral videos, creating hits requires customizing creativity based on channels."

The product itself needs to have the genes of a hit in its appearance. You can start with the packaging or concept map, using clear and beautiful visual symbols to trigger spontaneous dissemination among users. The design should help users produce good-looking photos.

Evita Rose Face Cleanser

Communication can extend visual concepts into figurative nicknames, such as "little black bottle", "coconut shoes" and "aunt color". An outstanding example is L’Oréal’s “Purple Iron” eye cream, which combines the product’s appearance and function into a simple and memorable nickname, and is then spread through the introduction of celebrities and top KOLs. It quickly became a hit on Xiaohongshu and cleverly captured people’s minds.

In addition to products, creativity can start from other service touchpoints and refine the brand concept to every aspect of the product, such as customer service language, product packaging, gifts, receipts, and service staff clothing.

By creating various interest points and surprises, users can be prompted to forward the content, which in turn drives secondary UGC dissemination of the event, allowing your brand image to gradually become recognizable and memorable.

The image of the courier boy becomes a brand IP

3. From 1 to 10: Platform operation to cultivate fans

After a brand has accumulated a wave of new fans through hot topics, it needs to retain them as long-term fans and create stickiness through systematic services.

Through operational means, fans are guided to follow the official account, add customer service in the circle of friends, and follow the mini-programs. The private domain closed loop attracts each other and accumulates traffic. In order to prevent the loss of new fans, it is necessary to guide them to participate in regular membership operation activities in a timely manner, such as regular push, new product trials, fan welfare activities, etc., to form habits.

New products can be launched in a limited way, according to certain regular cycles (such as seasonality), by absorbing users' opinions and creativity in the community and launching them within an agreed time. Then, based on its performance, it will be decided whether to keep it as a regular flavor in the long term.

Benefits can be used to encourage users to creatively share their product experience, generate a large amount of UGC content, and endorse themselves. Official accounts use their personalities to interact with active users and establish emotional connections.

At this time, you can launch promotional activities for new users, make good use of live streaming to quickly acquire customers, and let those who are attracted start using the product as soon as possible.

With the support of the brand’s popularity, live streaming is more about showcasing the brand culture and product value. Don’t blindly use low-price strategies that will cause your brand to depreciate. (For products with high repurchase rates, you can try new customer discounts).

4. From 10 to 100: Breaking the circle through peripheral content

At this stage, the brand already has a considerable number of loyal fans and relatively stable cash flow, and can develop more peripheral services and products based on the product usage scenarios of the existing population.

For example, food can be extended to kitchenware, cosmetics to hairdressing, leading a lifestyle based on values. Brands can try to cross over with fashion and clothing, turning the brand logo into a cultural symbol on trendy cards and making it a spiritual totem for young people.

At this stage, you can also leverage your own brand image and meaning to collaborate with brands and IPs in other fields that have the same audience, such as cross-border co-branding and joint product launches. Use this method to expand channels, replace traffic, and achieve breakthroughs in circle and fan acquisition.

Through IP activities, the current brand culture can be sublimated and the brand can become a public service, such as offline flagship stores, interactive installations, CSR charity activities, variety show content, etc.

These brand contents with unclear commercial purposes can attract larger traffic, and then integrate popular products through giveaways, coupons, and sweepstakes. When a product becomes a "welfare" recognized by the public, it establishes the brand's leading position in the field.

Hold large-scale public events at key points of brand renewal, such as brand annual meetings, make your own brand events an annual industry cultural event, and invite relevant people in the field to participate and celebrate the brand culture together.

At this stage, you can carry out tiered operations based on existing users to cultivate brand loyalty. For example, based on consumption points, highly active KOCs can be identified and given the status of user spokespersons, representing ordinary users in participating in the novel experiences provided by the above brands.

Dianping’s annual meeting is only open to the highest level users

Start the second curve

A favorite saying of many entrepreneurs is “We are always only 90 days away from bankruptcy.” Many brands that have reached 100, although they have large advertising budgets, are complacent and are restricted by their scale. It is difficult to adjust to the trend, reaching the limit point and then retreating step by step.

Due to the fierce competition and technological innovation in the current market, brands are updating at an increasingly faster pace, and the person who ultimately defeats you may come from another track and use a completely different approach. When companies identify the stall point, they should prepare for it, use their financial advantages during the rising period to prepare for the next growth business, and the brand should also make corresponding adjustments.

Many large and established groups only have fame and scale; they have not gone through the 0-1-10-100 test of the digital age, and lack a true brand culture and user community, so their influence is waning. It is necessary to lay a solid foundation, use growth to reconstruct its marketing system, and solve the problem of brand aging.

At the same time, the fragmentation process of the era is irreversible, and Generation Z is notoriously fickle, and their loyalty to brands is becoming weaker and weaker. Mass brands need to carry out refined operations and even split their own brand lines to target their target audience more accurately.

For example, even Apple, which has the highest B-level status, has suffered from a lack of innovation and its growth has gradually slowed down. So Cook separated out the "SE series" that focuses on cost-effectiveness to compete with the Android market, and at the same time used the X series to continue the original "black technology" brand culture.

Will this new branch affect the original brand culture? Does the new branch need to start from scratch? Will it overturn the previous concept? Brands need to use growth strategies to establish differentiation for each branch while continuing the tone of the main brand.

Vivo's mobile phone business has 7 series

Although the title mentions that this solution is applicable to all brands, each company’s investment and growth rate at each stage are different. When applying it specifically, it is necessary to make refinements and choices based on product characteristics and industry environment.

In terms of execution, the specific implementation of all the above-mentioned playing methods requires professional creative talents. From a single line of copy or a live broadcast process to the design of an entire IP event, all materials need to implement the brand’s philosophy and fully understand the current North Star indicators to serve the goal.

Brands that follow the trend will never become the leaders. Only by accurately judging the stage and ensuring deep synergy between creativity and strategy can a unique growth plan be found. As a creative person who understands growth strategies, I will continue to output "growth creativity" content and discuss in detail the specific methods of the above operations. Please pay attention.

I hope that brands will stop being anxious, clarify their goals, do the right things at the right times, and find their own breakthrough points as soon as possible!

Author: Jiugu

Source: Jiugu