How should consumer products build their own traffic strategy in order to achieve sustainable sales growth?

Earlier this year, a senior traffic operator told me: "Don't make 'brand' sound so mysterious. If there is sales, there is brand. If there is no sales? It's all nonsense. And the reason behind sales is to do everything possible to obtain traffic."

This statement is both right and wrong. You are right: not talking about sales volume and only talking about brand is indeed a rogue behavior. If the brand is doing well but the sales volume is not increasing - then this statement does not constitute a causal relationship, which means: your brand is not doing well at all. What is wrong is that sales volume is just a single point word. Do you value a short-term surge in sales? Or do you hope to achieve sustainable sales growth? The sales volume was achieved by selling at bargain prices that you sold at a loss? Or do you actually have control over pricing?

Most consumer product companies aspire to achieve sustainable sales growth. So, based on this, how should we build the traffic strategy behind sales? This is what this article is about:

Sustainable growth in consumer product sales = mental traffic + content traffic + private domain traffic

In general, it takes mental traffic as the foundation, content traffic as the engine, and private traffic as the framework. Any consumer product can only achieve sustainable sales growth if it builds its own traffic strategy in this way.

1. Mental traffic: Let your brand settle in the minds of consumers

Mental traffic is to let your brand take root in the minds of consumers. Your brand is a symbol of trust in the minds of consumers. This sentence is easy to say, but how difficult is it to do? The "difficulty" here first and foremost is a kind of belief and determination . All your traffic building should revolve around branding. Because for the vast majority of consumer products, all differentiation is ultimately brand differentiation. (Whenever consumer brand founders ask me anxiously: How can I refine the differentiation of my products? This is the first thing I tell them.)

Why do you like Heytea instead of other similar milk teas? Because it is a cup of inspiration tea. Why do you love lulu lemon but not buy yoga pants made of the same nude material? Because this brand is a reflection of you; even if someone says something like "women who wear Lulu Lemon are so and so", you will still say with disdain: "What's wrong? I am just like this!"

I particularly like a picture that Xu Peijia, former vice president of Han Du Yishe, showed during a sharing session:

He said (roughly): "When we are pursuing the so-called second curve growth, have you ever thought: Has your first curve really reached its end?" What is the underlying logic behind consumer goods companies' desire for growth? When a new product is launched, we can rely on our strong promotion capabilities (which are what you often call live streaming, product promotion and other marketing tactics) to achieve a sharp increase in sales; when the traffic dividend of the channel relied on for promotion reaches its peak, we have to compete in product strength. However, consumer products are highly homogenized. Ultimately, the only thing that can enable consumer goods to achieve compound growth over time is brand power. If your brand power is strong enough, why should we open up another track and blindly look for a second curve of growth?

(Of course, we cannot mechanically understand the relationship between time and sales in this picture, that is, what force should be developed in each stage according to the first, second, and third steps? We just need to understand: what is the underlying logic of your business? What can ultimately enable you to achieve sustainable growth? )

Following Xu Peijia's sharing, I evolved this picture into the following versions:

Is Picture 1 the cheap item priced at “9.9 yuan” that you often see in live broadcast rooms? Is the product in Figure 2 a good product that you would lament about, and that will eventually disappear from our world due to lack of brand power? Look: there are N "growth and decline curves" in Figure 1 and Figure 2. Isn’t it because the product can never become a strong brand that we can only keep hearing rumors and changing products? As for Figure 3, there is no need to say more.

Therefore, I especially want to say that whoever has the traffic will win the world, but we must first be clear about: what is the underlying logic of how we build traffic?

2. Content traffic: Content is the engine, not KOL or KOC

Not long ago, an editor from a publishing house approached me to ask for a book manuscript. I said, "I have just collaborated with Tsinghua University Press on a book about 'content marketing', which is about to be published." The editor said, "The topic of content marketing will not be approved in our press. The leaders think it is out of fashion." After hearing this, I was really... Will “content”, the eternal marketing engine, ever become fashionable or unfashionable? When you promote products on platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin, aren’t you relying on high-quality content to impress consumers? (Of course, low prices are fine. But low prices that damage your own brand interests will only make you have less and less pricing power. Without pricing power, what kind of brand is there? What kind of mental traffic can you build?)

Why do so many consumer product companies seek out big-name KOLs when promoting their products on platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin, but cannot explain themselves unless they commit fraud? Why is it that so many consumer product companies follow the trend of ordinary people, only to find that what they have sold is garbage?

It’s already August 2020, so we still need to be sober: who chooses an account now and only focuses on the number of fans of the blogger? The number of fans is just a reference. It can only give you a superficial feeling: the influence of this blogger may be okay, but that’s all. As for this blogger’s content creation ability? Are you still at the peak or stable stage of content creation (in other words: is it going downhill?) Does the popular content created by this blogger match your target users and product tone? How strong is her fan stickiness? These are the dimensions that consumer product companies really need to consider when promoting their products; and all of this revolves around "content." No matter how many fans a blogger has, let’s not examine whether his number of fans is fake. If the content production has reached a bottleneck, or he cannot produce good content that matches the tone of your product at all; then, even if he has millions or tens of millions of fans, what does it have to do with you?

When it comes to finding bloggers to work with, consumer product companies must change their mindset: we are not spending money to buy the number of blogger fans marked by the platform, we want to work with bloggers to build traffic for our own brands ; and the basis of all this is to find the right blogger who can create suitable content for your products and brands; explain your purpose and do not interfere with their creation. Only in this way can the content you put on major platforms become an engine and bring you truly accurate traffic.

3. Private domain traffic: Don’t go for it blindly, really understand why it is so popular?

Private domain traffic is a relatively large topic; moreover, it must be pointed out that not every category and every brand is suitable for private domain traffic. Before officially launching private domain traffic, a comprehensive diagnosis must be conducted.

There are three reasons why private domain traffic deserves attention (note, the following three pictures are extremely valuable) :

1. It fits with the essence of the brand. I have said many times: a brand is a symbol of trust, and the essence of private domain traffic is the trust relationship between operators. Why do we always say that private domain traffic is attractive? This is because it activates customers' repurchase rate and fission rate by operating the trust relationship between people.

2. Private domain traffic is the company's global strategy. It allows us to get every penny we spend on traffic back to ourselves as much as possible.

The following picture about the global operation of private domain traffic is very important. It shows that private domain traffic is not just about operating a community or posting on WeChat Moments. Where is the source of private domain traffic? What does it have to do with public domain e-commerce? How does it reach consumers multiple times? etc.

3. Private domain traffic is an efficiency evolution of the company's organizational structure.

Private domain traffic is a systematic project, which involves talents with various capabilities such as content, sales, MarTech, etc.; generally speaking, content talents and sales talents are the most critical.

Therefore, when we talk about the growth of consumer goods, when we are crazy about traffic, we must have a traffic spectrum in mind:

Sustainable growth of consumer goods = mental traffic + content traffic + private domain traffic

It is based on mental traffic, driven by content traffic and based on private traffic.

Author: Xiaoquan Pear

Source: Small Circle Pear