Re-understand the brand’s “differentiation”!

Creating "differentiation" has become a cliché in the brand marketing circle. But in today's market, the proportion of "differentiation" in users' consumption decisions is often not as high as imagined .

Just like when we order takeout, we seldom consider the difference between Meituan and Ele.me, but are more determined by price and consumption habits; when we need to buy tickets, we choose Ctrip or Fliggy without considering the difference; when we buy milk, we choose Mengniu or Yili based on our own preferences...

When I ask you what are the "differentiations" between the above-mentioned benchmark brands, I believe many people will not be able to answer them.

Faced with today's market with serious product homogeneity, brands are constantly creating differentiated product features, but for the user market, many brands' products have not established real differentiation. The reason is that many brands still have many misunderstandings about "differentiation".

Today, let’s talk about “differentiation” in detail. From now on, let’s re-understand “differentiation”:

1. Where does brand differentiation come from?

Before we correctly understand "differentiation", we must first figure out where the differentiation comes from.

From a marketing definition, differentiation is to enable users to remember you and differentiate you from competing products, to quickly identify you from similar products, and to link your actively perceived differentiation points with your products or brands. This will enable you to better capture users in a market context with severe homogeneity.

Among these, how to make users actively perceive the differentiated characteristics of the brand is the real key.

Take Coca-Cola and Pepsi for example. Coca-Cola’s brand positioning is “traditional, classic, and historic cola,” while Pepsi’s positioning is “young people’s cola.” One is history and the other is youth. There is a very obvious difference in the positioning of the two.

But in the user's perception, can they clearly feel the difference between the two? Obviously not.

The idea of ​​expecting users to feel the "history" or "youth" contained in Coke by tasting it is obviously unrealistic, and such a label is not concrete enough.

Let’s compare iOS and Android. As software operating systems, they are invisible to users, but users can clearly feel the difference between them. Where does this difference come from? It comes from the user's experience and the different performance feedback between the two during user use.

The former is a tangible product, while the latter is an invisible software system. However, the latter can make users feel the difference clearly. What is the difference between them? What are the factors that influence user perception?

First, let’s look at Coca-Cola and Pepsi. As beverages, what users can perceive about them are actually elements such as “taste, packaging, and price.” Can these elements become the carriers of brand culture? It is difficult, so it is difficult for users to perceive it clearly.

As for iOS and Android, although the two are not visible, the core of their differentiation is the operating performance of the system, which can be easily felt when users use the product. Therefore, the production alienation between the two appears so clear.

If you want to establish a "differentiation" perception in the minds of users, you must allow users to truly feel the brand's differentiated characteristics.

The core of creating a differentiated brand image comes from the user's inner perception of the brand image.

The core reason why many brands’ differentiation performance is not clear is that they fail to do this.

2. Cognitive Misunderstandings about Brand Differentiation

When brands convey differentiation to users, perception often falls into misunderstandings, which results in users being unable to truly feel the brand's differentiated characteristics.

The most common cognitive misunderstandings include the following:

1. Don’t just talk about yourself

As we said before, allowing users to actively perceive the differentiated characteristics of a brand is the key to creating brand differentiation.

The core is user active perception, so brands should avoid talking to themselves.

Just like many KOLs and content brands now like to define themselves - "focus on xx field", "focus on xx industry", "focus on xx market"... Such a definition is undoubtedly establishing a "label" for themselves to differentiate themselves from other brands.

But can these labels alone establish a differentiated image in the minds of users? Obviously not. Whether it is "xx field" or "xx industry", they are relatively broad nouns.

For KOLs and content brands, what really creates engagement with users? It's the content. Only by integrating your own labels into the content and continuously outputting them can you establish true differentiation in the minds of users.

Just like the top KOLs in various content fields today, their differentiated image is not established through an introduction or a label, but is built up bit by bit through the output of content one after another.

2. Labels lack perception

When we talked about Coca-Cola and Pepsi earlier, we said that the main reason why the two failed to form a clear differentiation was that their differentiation labels were not specific enough.

This can be seen frequently in today's market. Many brands like to talk about "high-end". Bestore calls itself a "high-end snack", Baishuishan calls itself the "noble of water", many teas like to call themselves "high-end teas", and many liquors also like to call themselves "high-end liquors"...

But what exactly is “high-end”? How to define “high-end”? These are difficult to measure.

Moreover, as a food, the taste is the most direct contact with users. So, compared with Sanzhisong, where is the “high-end” aspect of Bestore, a high-end snack brand? Compared with Baishuishan, the aristocrat among waters, and Nongfu Spring, what are the differences between them?

These vague concepts make it difficult for users to have a deep understanding of the brand, and it is also difficult to truly establish a differentiated image.

3. Tags lack defensive barriers

Many brands like to turn their own highlights into differentiated labels, but rarely consider whether this label has defensive barriers.

You should know that creating a differentiated label is not something that can be achieved overnight. It requires continuous strengthening of the brand to truly take root in the minds of users.

At this time, the existence of defensive barriers becomes very important.

For example, there have been many "explosive products" on the Internet. They all have extremely eye-catching characteristics, but they quickly disappear after being popular for a period of time. The reason is that the characteristics that made it so popular do not have any defensive barriers, and it was quickly imitated and followed by other competing brands.

Let’s take Nongfu Spring as an example. Everyone has heard the slogan of Nongfu Spring: “Nongfu Spring, a little sweet.” "A little sweet" was a differentiation label that Nongfu Spring used in its early days, but the simple change in taste is easy to imitate, so Nongfu Spring began to export brand labels such as "We don't produce water, we are just nature's porters" and "Natural water source", continuously strengthening the brand's differentiation characteristics and defensive barriers.

When brands create differentiated labels, "talking to themselves", "labels are difficult to perceive", and "lack of defensive barriers" are all important reasons why it is difficult to establish differentiated labels.

3. How to correctly create brand differentiation?

At the end of the article, let’s summarize what is the correct approach for brands to create “differentiation”:

1. Analyze user perception points

Before a brand decides to create differentiation, it needs to find out where the direct contact points between the brand and users are. Take Coca-Cola for example, the elements of the product such as "taste, packaging, and price" that have the most direct contact with users must be.

If a brand can combine differentiated labels with it and use these elements to showcase its own differentiated characteristics, it will definitely be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort and make it easier for information to reach users.

2. Create concrete label recognition

The differentiated labels chosen by a brand must be as concrete as possible, so that they can be easier for users to recognize and remember.

If it is a conceptual label, then some means can be used to make it as concrete as possible. Just like the conceptual words "high-end" and "aristocratic" that we mentioned earlier, it is difficult to form a clear measurement standard for them, but we can help users remember by adding some other elements.

Just like Xiaoguan Tea, in order to reflect the high-end nature of the product, it launched the slogan "Xiaoguan Tea, a masterpiece by a master", and invited eight tea-making masters to endorse the brand. In this way, with the help of the master's image and background, it is well conveyed to users where the so-called "high-end" comes from.

Another example is the “Fast Charging” label created by OPPO. How fast is fast charging? Users have no way to perceive it specifically, so OPPO launched the slogan "Charge for five minutes, talk for two hours", giving users a more concrete understanding of "fast charging".

3. Find the competitive advantages of your brand and competitors

Another way is to find the advantages and disadvantages of yourself and compare them with your competitors, and present your own differentiated characteristics through comparison.

This is very common in "commercial spoofing", just like Apple often posts ads to "spoof" the smoothness of Android phones, thereby strengthening its own product advantages; Samsung posts ads to "spoof" Apple's notch screen, thereby amplifying users' resistance and strengthening its own competitive advantage...

This approach is to use one's own strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses, which can easily reflect one's own product advantages and establish a differentiated image.

Author: Advertising and Marketing Industry

Source: Advertising and Marketing Industry (iyxcom)

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