Creative formula for marketing promotion, master these 6 methods!

Starting from user-oriented thinking, this article introduces the six principles of creative marketing: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credential, Emotional, and Stories.

We often say that someone is creative or has ideas, as if creativity is just some kind of feeling and talent. However, the book "Making Creativity Stickier" proves through experiments that if you want users to remember your brand or ideas among massive amounts of information, there are methods to follow in the creative construction process.

These are the six principles we’re going to talk about today: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credential, Emotional, and Stories.

1. Simplicity: Core and refined information

For any product or communication, you need to extract the most critical information of the creativity, and then express your creativity in a concise and powerful way (refinement).

The most typical example is proverbs, short sentences distilled from rich experience, which can transcend geographical and linguistic boundaries and allow everyone to appreciate the cultural meaning behind them.

The story of sour grapes is not just about one country

For example, in military operations, practice has shown that detailed advance deployment of all orders for an army in a battle is far less useful than giving a core instruction, because plans often cannot keep up with changes, especially in war.

A core command of "protecting the flank" is often more useful than N specific instructions.

For example, when submitting movie concepts for review, many films contain new concepts. If the content is described in detail, many people will have different understandings, which may result in not getting investment and not being able to find suitable directors and actors.

Taking "Speed" as an example, if it were submitted for review, what concept would you give it?

The final submission was a concise concept called "Die Hard on the Bus". Of course, the premise is that Die Hard is clear to all reviewers, and then add a bus and the concept becomes very clear.

Taking Speed ​​as an example, Alien should be the great white shark in space.

The same is true for the brands and products we come into contact with on a daily basis. In terms of product design, remote controls in the past usually had dozens of buttons, many of which were not used. Smart TV remote controls in recent years have greatly improved this. Likewise, if the page is cluttered with features and information, users won’t be able to use your product.

The same goes for branding, which also requires streamlining and focusing on core information. Take Spring Airlines as an example. Its reputation may not be the best. After all, the seats are crowded and there are restrictions on checked baggage weight. But why do so many people still choose it? Because brands know that their core message is "focus on the lowest fare", everything else has to give way to it.

Everyone can think about their own brand and whether the information is simple and concise enough.

2. Surprises: Attracting and Maintaining Attention

The purpose of surprise is to open up the knowledge gap of users, so that they can maintain interest, curiosity and focus their attention. The plot twist we often talk about fits this point. You can guess the beginning but not the ending.

Plot twists are always a blessing

For the brand, it unexpectedly meets the excitement needs of the KANO model. When the unexpected success ferments, it surprises the users. This will increase customer satisfaction with product services and improve user awareness and loyalty.

KANO Model

For example, insurance brands often use this type of promotional method. Often in a warm and peaceful atmosphere, an accident occurs, making people feel that life is unpredictable. We should pay more attention to the protection of ourselves and our families.

For most brands, here is a case you can refer to. For example, a department store in the United States will provide additional value-added services, and these may be services that are not highly relevant. For example, they will pack goods for users, regardless of whether they are products from this mall or not; for example, service staff will warm up the users’ cars in winter, etc. Many of the value-added services here are "unexpected" because they should not appear in this type of brand at all.

Correspondingly, before the emergence of lyrics sharing on NetEase Cloud Music, we didn’t expect that listening to music could become a gathering place for literary and artistic young people; before WeChat red envelopes came out, we didn’t know that red envelopes could be snatched in this way. Therefore, exploring the potential demand for products, whether in product planning or promotion, and achieving impossible experiences are the biggest "surprise" for users.

3. Specific: Helping people remember and understand

Making concepts concrete is an important means to ensure that creativity has a consistent effect on users. For example, pictures can make people's brains perceive and remember better than words. Of course, many texts already have a sense of picture, such as celebrity proverbs, country place names, etc.

We have to mention fables here. The reason why Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales have been so popular is that the content is specific enough. For example, Snow White and the seven dwarfs ate the poisoned apple and were awakened by the prince’s kiss; for example, the mermaid couldn’t go ashore, otherwise she wouldn’t be able to speak; for example, Little Red Riding Hood and Grandma Wolf, there are too many details...

Just looking at the picture you can tell what the story is

In addition to helping people remember a brand, it also has a huge impact on the brand.

The branding of non-profit organizations is very representative. For example, initially many donations to charitable organizations would only be given to one category, such as how much money to donate to a certain foundation or to poor children. But when the donation title is changed to donations to a specific group of people or a specific person, the overall donation effect changes dramatically.

Donors will know the specific information of their donation and the situation of the recipient.

Of course, we won’t mention the hot events that happened some time ago that ended in nothing. After all, this change has made more people pay attention to public welfare.

4. Credibility: Make people willing to believe

Credibility is about providing users with a trusting background through details, data, and humanistic principles, so that users are more willing to trust you and make decisions.

Among them, authority is an important way to be credible. For example, many brands like to find experts to endorse them, or seek certification from certain authoritative awards. This is the reason. The hot sales of Shuanghuanglian and Lianhua Qingwen during the epidemic period were partly due to everyone's fear, but more importantly, the information came from authority.

Regarding authority, here is a very typical example. Scientists Marshall and Warren developed a method to treat gastritis. Their initial results were difficult to be recognized by the mainstream academic community until they tried the drug on themselves and proved its efficacy. Only then were they gradually recognized and won the Nobel Prize. After winning the Nobel Prize, it is discovered that certain conclusions naturally have higher credibility simply because of the added authoritative endorsement.

Regarding the credibility of details or data, there was once an experiment in the United States. For the same case, the judge's decision also affected the voting results due to different descriptions of details in the files. This is an extreme example, but if we apply it to a brand, we will see how many cups are sold and how many times they circle the earth. 7 out of 10 Chinese people are using it, and the numerous details and data promoted are all intended to increase its credibility.

5. Emotion: Make people care

Emotion is to satisfy people's emotional needs, this is already an old topic. Brands are also doing everything they can to appeal to their own needs and relate to emotions.

For example, for the donations mentioned above, it is better to explain the recipient's past information in an emotional way rather than using data; for example, for the brands or nouns we hear in daily life, it is better to introduce them in an emotional way that we understand, such as Jiang Xiaobai's "first bottle of liquor in life"; even the emoticons in our daily social software are often those that can better express our emotions.

Each emoticon represents an emotion

There is another impressive example in the book where students asked the teacher, what is the use of algebra to us?

Maybe many teachers will have their own answers. One of the answers was "Algebra is useless to most of us, but math is the heavy lifting of the mind."

This answer is very wise. On the one hand, it talks about the unexpected (the uselessness of algebra), and on the other hand, it uses emotional descriptions to explain the value of mathematics to our thinking.

6. Stories: Motivating Action

Many speakers like to tell stories to their audiences. Why is it easy to move people by telling stories?

Because stories provide imitation and inspiration, both of which inspire action.

The recent ESPN filming of Jordan's "The Last Dance" perfectly illustrates this point.

Anyone who follows basketball or even just sports will know Jordan, because his story has inspired and inspired so many people to emulate him, and they have the courage to pursue victory no matter what setbacks they face. This is why I think everyone needs a high-quality sports idol, because it can give them more self-motivation.

If we only look at it from a documentary perspective, is it worth 9.7 points?

In fact, the same is true for talent shows. The members who become popular are all contestants with sufficient stories of their own. This is both a requirement of the program and a need for communication. Because audiences like stories like this.

Shakespeare said there are four types of stories: simple comedy, simple tragedy, complex comedy, and complex tragedy. Which one does your brand belong to?

The above six principles are all based on user-oriented thinking, and what we need to do is to have empathy and come up with creative ideas that can be understood and remembered by users.

Author: Lao Nie talks about brands

Source: Lao Nie talks about brands