Marketing promotion based on business logic

For a long time, advertising and marketing have been separated from products and business, and have become merely creativity, filming, and exposure. Sometimes other departments don’t know what the marketing department is doing, which is very strange.

Now there are some new changes, marketing is getting closer to products and business, and has become the driving force for business growth. This is due to the maturity of the market, tightening of budgets and iteration of personnel.

When the budget is smaller, people think more.

We talked about China’s innovative brands before, and products are marketing. During the growth process of innovative brands, they usually make their own strategies. Large brands look for suppliers to execute them, while small brands connect with the executors themselves. The client's dominance means that marketing is closer to business, which is a good thing.

Marketing strategies based on business logic make marketing not just short-term communication, but also accumulate into business innovation.

Next, I will talk about three aspects: strategy, method and trend. I hope advertisers can understand a little bit about business and that marketing can be carried out according to business logic. Below, Enjoy:

Strategy: Business Innovation Lab

Marketing drives business growth, which can be summarized in two simple ways:

The first is horizontal expansion, selling the same product or service to more people, which means gaining exposure, greater exposure and increasing market share.

The second is vertical expansion, developing new products, new selling points, and new consumer power, adding incremental information to products, and the incremental information brings new consumption.

What is popular now are the first half and the second half, the second half of reform and opening up, and the second half of the Internet.

Usually the first half is the bonus period for pioneering, which is suitable for horizontal expansion to quickly fill the market. In the second half, the market tends to be saturated, and the competition is about vertical expansion capabilities, better quality, smarter, more convenient, etc. For the same product, if you have a new selling point, you will win.

The value of advertising communication is that most services expand horizontally, refine selling points, and create exposure. What is needed more now is vertical expansion marketing.

The marketing of Internet brands and new consumer brands has begun to try to grow vertically. Marketing is no longer limited to the scope of advertising, but has begun to extend to a larger scope.

For example, the TOKIT smart kitchen appliance we talked about a few days ago, is adding a camera in the oven a marketing behavior? I think it can be, the product itself can be a marketing stage.

For example, the WeChat red envelope function was originally a Spring Festival marketing idea and a node-based activity, but it unexpectedly developed into a commercial product. These are product-based brands, and marketers dare to make changes to the products based on business logic.

For example, when Alibaba creates festivals, each marketing IP is done more than once. From Double 11, 618, to marketing IPs of all sizes, they are gradually settled down and continued. For example, Tmall’s Super Brand Day and Juhuasuan’s Joyful Gathering Day were originally marketing activities, but now they have been transformed into commercial products that are continuously operated on a daily basis, becoming an important driving force for the growth of Alibaba’s e-commerce.

Product-based brands dare to change their products, and platform-based brands dare to change the platform ecology to add incremental value to business. Take a single marketing as an experiment. Once the single marketing is successful, think about whether it can be done for a long time and whether it can be accumulated into business innovation in the long term.

To sum up in one sentence: think about marketing under business logic and make marketing a laboratory for business innovation.

Methodology: From marketing events to business innovation

Next, let’s talk about methods, how to think about marketing under business logic, what the standards are, and how marketing innovation can be transformed into business innovation.

The case is Tmall Global’s 618 project. As the largest cross-border e-commerce platform, it is responsible for connecting Chinese consumers with global shelves.

In 2019, there were 300 million outbound tourists across the country, but this came to an abrupt halt in 2020, interrupting the demand for overseas shopping. As the largest cross-border e-commerce platform, Tmall Global hopes to reshape the outbound tourism ecosystem during this year's 618 and realize the goal of "reconnecting the world."

This creative idea starts from the ideas of "sharing" and "win-win", and proposes a way to reconnect with the world: invite brands and characters that are familiar with overseas customs and practices, and cooperate with multiple airlines, international travel agencies, and consulates of various countries. Let grounded flight attendants, tour guides on vacation and consuls from various countries enter Taobao's live broadcast room to promote overseas culture and Tmall International's featured imported products, and create a new economic ecosystem for cross-border e-commerce.

The communication started on June 5th to serve the live broadcast on the evening of the 8th, that is, advertising communication served the event. The live broadcast on the evening of the 8th, as a marketing event, marked the beginning of business innovation.

Let’s talk about commercial marketing based on this case. I think it should meet three criteria: creating incremental value, sustainability, and scale .

Creating incremental

To expose the original products or services is still advertising logic. The business logic is to add increments to the original service framework, and the increments in services are also increments in marketing information. The new information gives consumers new stimulation and brings new consumption growth.

Tmall International’s cross-border aviation and travel company is an incremental service.

For example, I know that French red wine is good, but the problem is that there are too many French red wines. I have no way to judge what I should buy, and I don’t know what I bought. If a tour guide who specializes in French winery tours can tell me what wines are produced in which wineries and what the approximate tastes like. Then my consumption probability will be higher.

Adding product translation between goods and consumers makes consumption more humane.

Chinese consumers have limited knowledge of global products. Last year, Tmall Global launched the “Net Purple Project”, inviting international internet celebrities such as Kardashian to promote products, allowing native foreign KOLs to tell Chinese consumers what is worth buying. This year, we tried amateur flight attendants as tour guides, who also served as merchandise translators.

"Reconnecting the World" as a marketing event for 618 not only fits the current epidemic situation, but also integrates more roles in the outbound tourism ecosystem. It is "creating something out of nothing" in Alibaba's marketing standards.

Good commercial marketing must move from success to greater success.

Sustainable Operations

A necessary condition for marketing commercialization is whether it can be operated sustainably on a daily basis.

As a marketing event of 618 “Reconnecting the World”, the next question to consider is whether this model can be embedded in the business ecosystem of Tmall International. Can flight attendants and tour guides become part of cross-border e-commerce?

Of course you can. We have invited more than 300 tour guides and group leaders to join the cross-border e-commerce Taoke platform and use their understanding of the local customs and practices of the destination to help consumers make the best choice.

This is a win-win model for all three parties. The platform improves the efficiency of goods transactions, consumers shop more accurately, and tour guides earn commissions by exporting professional knowledge.

In the past, when I traveled to other places, I would bring back some local specialties as gifts. Later, I stopped carrying local specialties back with me. When I traveled to a place and found local specialties, I would ask if there was a Taobao store selling them. Then I would place an order on Taobao and have them delivered to my home.

It is the same with cross-border e-commerce. If you find a product you like in your local area, you can search for it on Tmall International, and place an order online for the same product and price. It is much more convenient than carrying it back to your country physically. During this process, tour guides and group leaders can help everyone identify which ones are authentic and which ones are scams for tourists.

When tour guides become shopping guides, the cross-border e-commerce ecosystem becomes more humane and transaction efficiency becomes higher. Therefore, this model can be operated continuously on a daily basis.

Scaling up

Sustainable operation only ensures that the business model is running smoothly. Whether it can be operated on a large scale is the final step to the success of business innovation.

Scaling does not mean investing a lot of money and resources to expand the scale. Any innovation that requires burning money to achieve big results is not called innovation.

Scaling is a process in which the business continues to grow, like a snowball.

If flight attendants and tour guides find after a few months that the job is really interesting and that they can make full use of their knowledge and earn commissions, can they introduce their colleagues to join them in doing the job?

When something can achieve a win-win situation for all parties, the snowball starts to roll, and it is only a matter of time before it is scaled up.

To summarize the process, Tmall Global’s “Reconnecting the World” project is ostensibly a live streaming sales program that took advantage of the epidemic. The business logic behind it is that it adds the role of “people” between goods and consumers to help more consumers integrate into global shelves.

At this point in time, it seems more like taking advantage of the opportunity. Tour guides, team leaders and flight attendants may not have time to cooperate with Tmall International on weekdays, but the epidemic and the 618 node have enabled this matter to be amplified through event-based marketing. The subsequent continued operation and large-scale expansion will become a natural process.

Thinking about marketing under business logic may not always lead to business innovation, but we should think in this direction when possible.

As a marketer, it is such a pride when your marketing ideas become commercial products and last forever.

Trend: Under marketing is advertising

In the operation of commercial brands, what position do marketers occupy, what should they do, and how should they position themselves?

Business innovation – marketing events – advertising communication.

Between commercial products and advertising exposure is a marketing event. Marketing events are laboratories for business innovation, and advertising communications serve marketing events.

Marketers should take a step forward from advertising, stand in the position of marketing events, make business innovation upwards and do advertising communication downwards. The core thinking is what marketing events to do, rather than advertising creativity.

Advertising serves marketing events, making information more concrete and the public more motivated to take action. For example, in the “Reconnecting the World” live broadcast, the advertising communication between Tmall Global and consumers served this live broadcast event, not directly served the Tmall Global brand. Tmall hardly runs advertisements for its main brand and mostly only runs advertisements for various marketing IPs.

There are three conditions for marketing events to become business innovations:

Incremental information: Add more increments to products or services. For example, tour guides and group leaders to cross-border e-commerce; for example, red envelopes to WeChat Pay.

Sustainable operation: What is done only once is a marketing event, what can be done multiple times is a marketing IP, and what can be accumulated into daily operations is called business innovation.

Large-scale expansion: Establish a win-win business mechanism for all parties, let it roll like a snowball and grow on its own.

The greater ambition of marketing is to use marketing innovation to achieve business innovation, so that creativity is no longer a short-term behavior, but can be retained and used forever.

I wish you success.

Author: Yang Buhuai

Source: Yang Buhuai ( yangbuhuai01)

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