Enterprise IP Marketing Operation Guide!

Two weeks ago, a business owner asked me whether the company’s IP could generate spontaneous traffic? I said yes.

He continued to ask, then should we create a brand mascot, and then make some emoticons and small content to attract traffic? I said no.

He was confused by my answer.

I continue to say that you are actually trapped by habitual thinking , and this habitual thinking is called brand image = IPization.

Inertial thinking is:

IPization is to enhance the brand image first.

Eventually sell the product.

If creating IP is equivalent to creating brand image, it will inevitably be a long process and will not solve short-term problems. Moreover, a lot of money needs to be invested to build up the brand image first, and content marketing should be regarded as the image advertising of the new era.

I told him to use non-inertial thinking to do it——

IPization is to optimize product experience.

Sell ​​products effectively and ultimately and naturally increase brand value.

The fact is that many companies have achieved the good effect of saving money and boosting sales by using IP, which has increased product sales at low advertising costs and improved brand value...

Moreover, it is often new companies that achieve sales success through IPization without any brand accumulation, while also quickly enhancing their brand.

Based on the above, Lao Xiaoge’s point of view is——

IP can create for enterprises,

Not just a brand image,

But it is a world where brand and effect are integrated .

This may overturn the cognition of many people, because in most people's cognition: when a company creates IP, it is just an upgraded version of the brand image project. How can it be related to the integration of brand and effect?

The integration of brand and effect has always been a very difficult thing to achieve, but with the rapid development of the Internet today, everything is possible.

The key to integrating products, sales, services, promotion and branding is networking and IP.

This article will discuss them one by one.

Enterprise IP Operation Guide

1. What is the IPization of an enterprise?

The first thing to clarify is that the IPization of an enterprise does not just mean the IPization of its brand, which is far from enough under the current market structure. Enterprise IPization can actually be divided into three major modules:

Product IP

Personal IP

Brand IP

These three together constitute the enterprise's IP system. Only in this way can we play an unprecedented role in the great changes of the new era.

1. In the new era, product IPization can help achieve product differentiation, because product differentiation is not just about quality. The more special and more numerous the ways of connecting with consumers, the more obvious the product differentiation.

It is very difficult to create an original product in China. As long as you do it a little bit better, a lot of people will start to imitate and copy it. However, if we introduce IP-based emotional connections and make the product content-based, it will be impossible to truly copy or plagiarize the product.

There are many ways to make products content-oriented. Some are like M&M turning its own chocolate beans into cartoon pets, some are like Jiang Xiaobai writing mood quotes on each expression bottle; some are like Uniqlo's UT constantly launching new products in collaboration with various IPs; and some are like the new brand Panda Buzou, which turns the panda IP into a free dancing service at birthday parties, and so on...

Here, IP value is not necessarily premium value. In other words, IP-based products do not necessarily have to be more expensive, they can even be cheaper. As long as the marketing costs can be reduced through IP-based products, IP-based products can certainly be cheaper.

Therefore, the greatest manifestation of IP value is not necessarily expensive products, but establishing a unique emotional connection with users. Through different word of mouth, it greatly reduces marketing costs and forms a competitive barrier.

2. Personal IP plays a much better role in boosting sales than before (from new videos to new marketing to live streaming)

Companies can directly drive product sales through the charm of personal IP. This is very obvious in Gree's Ms. Dong Mingzhu, Xiaomi's Lei Jun, Tesla's Elon Musk, etc. It is also the latest self-rescue method for Ctrip.com and other companies (the CEOs personally appear on the scene).

In fact, a company’s personal IP is not just the boss’s. Frontline sales staff, technical developers, partners, and even customers can all be counted as personal IP. In China, it can even include local and even central leaders.

In the new Internet marketing scenario, individuals can indeed play a role far beyond the past. Therefore, personal IP must be one of the iron triangles of corporate IP.

3. Brand IP is much richer than the single image in the past

When IP thinking really enters an enterprise, what the enterprise mainly understands is that IPization is a system. Even if it is visualized, it is still a system, not a single one.

For example, in Alibaba’s big IP system, there are Taobao dolls, Tmall Genie, Double Eleven Shopping Festival, and many others.

The picture above shows Alibaba’s various IPs, which are even collectively referred to as the “Ali Zoo”.

Companies not only need to build the main brand IP, but also create long-term event IP (such as Double Eleven), and constantly change the image (just like blind boxes) to innovate, instead of using the same image as in the past.

IP image should be stable, changeable and easy at the same time. What is unchanging are values ​​and beliefs; what is changeable are images, attire and various COSPLAYs; what is easy is to make it easier for consumers to access, easier to empathize with and easier to spread.

Going further, brand IPization can be simply divided into two types: image-based and scene-based.

The image-based brands are easy to identify. They are brands with names that carry personalized and biological attributes, such as Tmall, Maoyan, Fliggy, Fan Deng Reading, Jiang Xiaobai, Zhang Junya Little Sister, Single Dog Food, etc.

The scene-based brands are actually very easy to identify, but they just don’t get much attention. They are brands that have human scene attributes, such as Bestore, Smell Library, Mafengwo, Qyer, Zhihu, Wanchai Pier, MUJI, and so on.

Taking liquor as an example, Jiugui Liquor and Jiang Xiaobai are image-oriented, while Luzhou Laoyao, Shuijingfang, etc. are scene-oriented.

The image school becomes an IP brand by highlighting the IP image, while the scene school becomes an IP brand by creating an IP situation.

Therefore, image is not the only way to become an IP brand. Many people ignore the path of scenario-based development.

In summary, product IP, personal IP, and brand IP are the three major components of corporate IP, among which product IP is the base, brand IP is the center, and personal IP is the top-level driving force. (See the picture below)

2. IP creation starts with world view design

The first thing a company does when creating an IP is often to find an original artist, designer, or advertising and marketing company to create a mascot image as quickly as possible, and then hope that everyone will love it.

The following figure shows the most common requirements for IP image creation by various companies:

It is basically impossible to succeed by forcibly twisting rational and logical corporate requirements with cute and adorable image requirements.

Therefore, 99.99% of the results will be unsatisfactory, and the result will be an image that is neither cute nor valuable, which is tantamount to useless. Because designing an image that is loved by everyone, such as HELLO KITTY, Pikachu, and Kumamon, is an extremely rare opportunity. There are only a few of them in the world, and even professional IP companies can hardly do it, let alone the image of a company.

This is a huge misunderstanding.

1. The IPization of an enterprise should start with worldview design

Only by starting from the world view can we fully accommodate product IP, personal IP and brand IP.

Traditional marketing work has extremely insufficient understanding of worldview, and even believes that worldview is just a variation of values.

In fact, worldview is more than just values.

2. Worldview is actually the ability to imagine a new world

World view design is a skill that is very commonly used in the field of culture and creativity. IP design in the fields of novels, film and television, animation, games, cultural tourism, etc. often requires a world view first.

Why are the designs of many corporate images/mascots so thin and lacking in appeal, with only a cute shell? The fundamental reason is that the designs lack a worldview.

When an enterprise has an IP-based worldview——

• Only emotional positioning can become a situation;
• Only images can become characters in the world;
• Products can become props in the world;
• Stories can become the content of the world;
• Symbols have the potential to become super cultural symbols.

Only in this way can IP form a unique world of values, allowing images, products, companies and consumers to be connected to each other in one world.

When marketers still say that IP is values ​​+ image;

IP people would say that real IP is about designing a new world based on values.

The design of IP worldview can be divided into three levels:

Unless it is a large cultural and tourism company or a large enterprise with many sub-brands, the IPization of the enterprise does not have to be a big world from the beginning.

You can start by creating a small situation, which is a combination of world view and emotional positioning.

Whether IP can be successful depends primarily on whether it can make consumers feel the "context", which determines the emotional connection with the audience.

When a company builds an IP, the first thing it does is to create a scenario. This is why it is far from enough to just design a mascot image, because without context, there will be no empathy between consumers and the IP.

Small situations are often from daily life, highlighting a certain emotional atmosphere.

For example, Jiang Xiaobai is continuously shaping the scenarios of small sips, small drinks, small moments, and small moods through its expression bottle products.

For example, JD.com created a warm and loving situation through the IP creation of its puppy JOY.

Also, the M&M chocolate dolls create a small scene where eating chocolate beans is like playing with the dolls.

Specifically, the IP context of an enterprise:

That is, the company brings consumers a unique and emotional little world through products + image + content.

This is both a brand and more than just a brand because it is closely related to products and services.

The context of IP is to transform the existing sales scenarios with emotions and put them into practice.

Any good IP must have a situation that makes people empathize. Even if there is no story or a grand worldview, there is still a situation.

Moreover, the situations are not necessarily warm and cute. When many companies think of creating IP images, they think of cute and silly characters. This idea must be changed.

Many brands’ IP scenarios are cool, awesome, or even sad and sexy. These are subconscious scenarios that can generate strong empathy.

NIKE's situation is cool

3. From small situations to the big world

The big world view not only has situations, it must have a meta-setting, and the world of the entire IP is generated based on the meta-setting.

Let me first list the worldviews of several famous content IPs:

"The Wandering Earth" starts from a high-concept, imaginative science fiction setting: "If the sun ages and expands rapidly, can humans escape with the Earth and find a new home in outer galaxies?" A unique future world is created, and all things, characters, and scenes are born from this.

Another example is "Folding Beijing", the entire world is based on a very imaginative setting: Beijing is folded into several completely different areas, each inhabited by people of different classes and wealth.

"Toy Story" is based on a hypothesis: What if toys have spirits and are secretly alive?

For most companies' IP process, a small scenario is enough in the early stages of growth.

However, when a company grows to a certain scale, its products and brands become increasingly diverse, and the scene experiences it provides to consumers also begin to diversify, it needs a stronger worldview.

After a small situation develops successfully (especially helping product sales succeed), the company's IP can move toward the larger world, with richer characters and scenarios and more products.

For example, brands like NIKE, UNIQLO, HELLO KITTY, etc. all have a world-class IP system.

One sentence overview——

What the enterprise wants to create is

What a unique world?

The world to be created cannot just remain at the level of values; it must be implemented and must be achievable through products. At the same time, it must be realized through the IP’s context, characters, stories, props, etc., and transformed into the IP’s cultural symbol system.

Ultimately, the company’s values ​​are not just values, but are implemented in the world.

The strength, richness, and sustainability of the worldview determine whether the IPization of an enterprise can continue to develop and advance, and even become a super IP-level enterprise...

As for the higher cosmic level, this article will not discuss it for the time being, because in an enterprise, it requires very large mergers and inclusiveness to achieve. For example, the Disney enterprise is a cosmic IP system.

In China, the corporate IPs most likely to develop into cosmic levels are probably Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance, and Meituan.

3. IP is the product, and the product is the content

Having written this far, we can talk about why it is very difficult for companies to succeed if they rashly engage in content marketing.

The simple fact is: no matter how soft a company’s content is, it still has to compete with countless professional content companies for user time.

When professional content companies create small contents, they can quickly trial and error and continuously eliminate the problems. If one fails, they will immediately give up and move on to the next one.

But this is impossible for enterprises. Once the image is determined, they can only bet once, and the success rate must be very low.

In today's world of content overload, the chance of an emoticon becoming popular is no more than one in a hundred thousand, and the chance of a cartoon being successful is no more than one in ten thousand. Short videos are slightly better, but with increased investment, the chance of becoming popular is one in a thousand.

Such a low success rate is difficult to meet the company's requirements for marketing .

What should I do? The solution is simple, inexpensive, and effective.

It starts with product innovation, turning products into content, turning products into IP, letting products speak directly and bring their own traffic.

In this way, companies do not have to spend special expenses. As long as they focus on product marketing, they can achieve good sales and IP development, and naturally realize IP brands.

Once the content-based marketing of a product is successful, it will be natural to do some external content marketing such as comics or short videos, which will be more effective and easier to continue developing based on the fan base accumulated by the product.

For example, the Panda That Doesn’t Leave that I mentioned in my article on April 15th is creating a small situation and providing customers with better birthday services by redefining the product. The emotional core of Panda Doesn't Go is very clear, which is the slogan: "Happy birthday to you." This is an emotional promise that realizes the emotional connection between product services and people.

Therefore, the core of Panda Doesn't Go is to transform the birthday scene into a situational context. This is actually the same as what Jiang Xiaobai does, and it is also the same as what companies such as Disney and Pop Mart do.

There is actually nothing mysterious or complicated about Panda Buzou and Jiang Xiaobai. They are extremely simple. The key is to use the energy of IP on the entity of product experience innovation rather than in empty terms.

This is impossible in traditional media and marketing systems. It is only possible in the new Internet era, and it requires IP injection to achieve.

This is also related to cognition. Bosses with traditional thinking cannot do it, and traditional companies in many departments cannot collaborate. Even though the e-commerce platforms and markets are so bustling now, most people are still confused and are being led astray by various means. They end up wasting their money without realizing it, and there isn't much noise.

Therefore, when companies develop IP, they should not first use IP to gradually enhance brand value and then start sales. This concept is actually wrong.

For example, do new IP companies first slowly build up brand value and then sell products? If that were the case, Jiang Xiaobai would have died when it was still a small business.

It must be that at the very beginning of IP creation, we must help sell the product, rather than building brand value first and then selling the product.

In other words, the success of an enterprise's IPization depends on whether it can help sell products directly from the beginning. Everything is centered on how to sell products and create cultural and emotional value. Enterprise value-added and sales increase are unified.

How to do it? In my article on April 15, I already had a mind map like this:

Now let me describe this thought process again -

1. Redefine the value of the product

• Dig deep into user needs to gain insight into what the product can and can do.
• Discover the pain points that previous products have not solved, ignored, or not fully met, especially emotional pain points;
• Redefine products, create unique product value based on pain points, and establish your own differentiated value;
• This will enable us to provide different products and services.

2. Create new situations

• Transform demand pain points into new scenarios through creativity;
• It is necessary to be able to place the redefined new products into the scene and make them the core props;
• Think about how to build IP elements;
• Thus, the new scene is transformed into a new situation.

Here is a reminder that new scenes can be created through technological innovation or IPization. These are two different means. The scenes created through IPization are actually situations .

Context is the scene innovation that IP can achieve.

3. IP-based solutions

• Conduct IP design based on new products and new situations, including the IP's emotional core, worldview, image (role), story (content), symbols, etc.;
• Through the combination of the above designs and products, the products are transformed into IP images, IP props, and IP rituals;
• Truly realize new scenarios, solve the pain points of user needs, and establish emotional connections with users;
• The IP product can be completed, and if it develops further, it will naturally become an IP brand.

This is a very straightforward method.

IP = Product = Solution.

For example, if a company normally spends 10 million on promotion, if it wants to create an IP, the company will think about how to get another 2 million budget and try IP visualization. This will of course cost more money. The money spent is 12 million, but it is actually difficult to increase the effect.

After spending the money, most companies will still say on the surface that they have achieved results by creating an IP, but in private, they believe that developing their own IP is difficult, tiring and lengthy.

However, every marketing work of the marketing department has KPI indicators and performance. It is difficult to achieve KPI indicators and performance when creating one's own IP image and content, especially when there is no budget and IP promotion cannot use external stars or internet celebrities. The data will definitely not look good.

This perception is not only held by the marketing department, but also by the bosses in general.

Therefore, the real IP method is——

First , turn the product into an IP. The product is the content.

If a company applies IP to its products and core cognition, it may only need to spend 8 million or even less to achieve the effect of 10 million or even better.

IPs that cannot save costs for corporate product sales are just playing rogue.

The IPization of an enterprise is actually to develop IP and products together. This will definitely have a better product-effect ratio, rather than the traditional approach of building a brand image and then promoting the product.

This actually requires some kind of change in the company's internal organization, involving product development, sales, corporate culture, and individual leaders, rather than just being the responsibility of the marketing department.

At the same time, new and old businesses have different approaches.

If it is a new enterprise and a new product, the best way is to combine IP directly with the brand name and product image to create a differentiated situation different from the old products on the market and win the empathy and love of consumers.

If an old company launches a new product, since the cultural matrix of the company's background cannot be changed, it must find a way to create new sparks between the old and new cultures. At the same time, it is still best to directly IP the image of the new product to create a new differentiated situation.

If an old product or old brand of an old company wants to be turned into an IP, it may be very difficult, but it is also possible to create huge new surprises by combining it with the cultural matrix and utilizing the energy of new culture.

For example, Oreo directly turned its products into IPs (without even creating an image), which is actually a very powerful approach.

As early as a few years ago, Oreo had turned cookies into music boxes and DJ booths.

More recently, cookies have been turned into bricks and building blocks used to construct the Game of Thrones header or the Forbidden City.

Click here to view project details

Oreo used tens of thousands of cookies to present the magnificent scene of the Forbidden City. The majestic Forbidden City rises from the ground, the dark crust has a sense of history, and the moon is also a black and white sandwich cookie.

The snow-white filling turns into a sun, representing the four seasons of the year...

Click here to view project details

Oreo is well aware of the true essence of IP - cultural symbols. Since the black and white sandwich biscuits have become the most culturally iconic cognition, directly treating the biscuits as IP is the most direct and powerful way to IPize.

4. A new world of integrated branding and marketing

From the perspective of traditional marketing scenarios, IPization is nothing more than a variation of traditional brand personalization.

When the word IP did not exist, brand image already emphasized personalization. So, IP is nothing but——

• A better looking visual logo
• A mascot
• A set of emoticons + comics + short videos

Traditional habits are difficult to change, especially in the CP relationship of marketing department + advertising and marketing company. Doing so can achieve a seamless transfer of traditional marketing: the figurative trademark is the VI, the mascot is the brand image endorsement, and emoticons + comics + short videos are the transformation of advertisements.

In the marketing scenario of the new era, IP can play a role at almost every point——

1. Directly visualize and personalize the product to achieve a unique emotional connection with consumers

This is very obvious in M&M chocolate beans, Jiang Xiaobai, Three Squirrels, single dog food, little sister Zhang Junya, etc.

# Products can be divided into daily products and dopamine products linked to IP. In dopamine products, customers’ pleasure and excitement can be constantly stimulated, leading to active dissemination. Ultimately, own products can become the stage for IP.

This is very obvious in RIO cocktails, Scent Library perfumes, Heytea, and the national trend of Li Ning sportswear.

2. Create a different service experience and enhance product competitiveness through service IP

This is very obvious in the new popular product Panda Buzou, the old product Michelin Tire, as well as JD JOY Puppy and Tmall.

Therefore, if we ask what IP can do for enterprises, we need to look to the future from the present. IP is really an all-round penetration, including:

• Product content
• Service scenario
• Direct connection to consumers
• Live streaming combines IP image and sales
• Community Development
• Consumer IP
• …

I would like to make a special mention of live streaming sales here. Now, real people are selling goods, and companies may use their personal IP to sell goods, such as Dong Mingzhu of Gree and Liang Jianzhang of Ctrip.

In the future, live streaming can also be combined with virtual IP. Companies should create special virtual images to directly promote sales, which can solve many uncertainties of real people. This has already begun.

This brings up new requirements and challenges for the IPization of enterprises, and also requires that the enterprise IP has an overall design with a world view.

From now on to the future, new scenarios will continue to emerge in the IP era.

As mentioned earlier, the IPization of an enterprise is not just an image, but should be a world with different roles, in different scenarios, and with different functions.

That is, the IPization of an enterprise requires a brand-new combination under a worldview, while fully combining product IP, personal IP, and brand IP, each performing its own function.

Otherwise, companies will always want to use one image, and have to solve the problems of cuteness, corporate spirit endorsement, and traffic diversion. This will conflict with each other and cannot be achieved.

The key here is to develop with products and services as the center.

Therefore, the real IPization of an enterprise is like this:

• 1. It is not only the business of the marketing department, but also the innovation of the product and sales departments;
• 2. First, product experience innovation to achieve IP incubation from the inside out;
• 3. Then there is channel innovation, allowing IP to directly bring goods and directly connect with consumption;
• 4. Because of the above three points, IPization is not just about brand image, but about the integration of product and effect.

Corporate added value (increased reputation, increased premium value) and sales increase are integrated. This is the new world of product and effect integration enabled by IP.

5. What exactly is an IP-based enterprise?

IP-based companies have a broader and more universal space for development. Regardless of the size of the company or even the studio on the platform, they can achieve very good development with the help of IP.

From tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises to super large enterprises and century-old brands, from design studios to individual internet celebrities, all can bring better business returns through IPization and contribute rich cultural value to society .

For example, Apple, GOOGLE, Tesla, PORNHUB, NIKE, VIRGIN, Uniqlo, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Michelin, Starbucks, Harley, Oreo, SONY, MUJI, etc., all have strong IP corporate attributes. Among the Fortune 500 companies, at least one-third have strong IP attributes, especially in the consumer goods and Internet industries, which account for more than half.

In China, large companies with a long history such as Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei, Xiaomi, Gree, Bilibili, JD.com, Moutai, Wahaha, Master Kong, Wangzai, and Li Ning, as well as emerging companies such as Haidilao, Heytea, Three Squirrels, Jiang Xiaobai, Pop Mart, RIO, Smell Library, and Zhong Xigao, also have strong IP attributes, which make the companies extremely emotional and culturally attractive.

There are also companies like HELLO KITTY, LINE FRIENDS, KAKAO, KAWS, APES, Toussaint, and the domestic Devil Cat, which are essentially IP companies rather than cultural and creative content IPs, and have also created huge cultural value and market returns.

1. What exactly is an IP-based enterprise?

All roads lead to IP, and the key indicators of becoming an IP-based enterprise are:

Form a unique emotional connection with consumers;

Reach a unique cultural consensus with consumers.

For example, although GOOGLE does not have an IP image, the logo on its homepage is ever-changing and has been used to perform countless IP cultural activities; Coca-Cola bottles and Oreo cookies have become IPs; Apple, NIKE, VIRGIN, Harley, MUJI and others all have their own powerful subcultures; Uniqlo's UT has become a classic stage for IP collaboration.

Therefore, not all IP-based companies have IP images, but they become IP-based companies by virtue of their cultural appeal or by becoming a stage for various IPs.

As stated in "The Principles of Super IP Incubation", the empowerment of IP is actually the dual empowerment of culture and emotion. The energy of IP is actually cultural energy + emotional energy.

Any company with cultural charm and emotional resonance can be called an IP company.

But so far, there are not many companies that truly have IP attributes. The difference is that one is fake and the other is real.

Those companies that pretend to be IP-based are often half-hearted and unable to continuously accumulate cultural heritage, and naturally cannot make consumers truly love them and establish spiritual connections.

Those truly IP-based companies must persist in doing IP-related things from the bottom of their hearts, so that they can combine cultural energy, emotional energy with products and business in the long term.

6. Lao Xiaoge’s final summary

1. Enterprise IPization is a system composed of product IP, personal IP and brand IP. This is the only way to avoid IPization from becoming virtual and make it more and more real.

2. The creation of an IP-based enterprise should start with world view design rather than just creating an image.

3. Create the context of the IP through the combination of world view and emotional positioning. Only when the context is truly created can the IP be successful.

4. Based on the situation, create IP characters, turn innovative products into props, and turn innovative services into scenes.

5. Enterprise IP is to combine cultural energy and emotional energy with products and operations to create a new world of integrated product and effect.

Author: IP Fried Rice

Source: IP Fried Rice (IPCOOK)