Brand "Influencer Promotion" Strategy

Combining the cases of Coca-Cola and Perfect Diary, we find that influencers are more than just a channel for bringing products and a way of promotion. We can also use influencers to bring products to customers and create brand impression and value, and use internet celebrities to create trends.

Online influencers selling products is undoubtedly the hottest topic in the marketing circle this year, especially after China’s first-generation online influencer Luo Yonghao started live streaming on Douyin.

Recently I discussed with a friend and I felt that the current route of influencers promoting products seems to be wrong. Most products believe that influencers are a sales channel and use discounts and promotions to sell more products. But in fact, I think that influencers should take the brand route and solve specific problems in specific scenarios.

Because of the existence of the "follow" function on social media, many influencers have formed a large fan base after a long period of operation. Many companies have naturally established a conversion funnel model to turn the influencers' fans into consumers of their products. Therefore, they are more willing to find top-notch influencers such as Li Jiaqi and Viya, and cooperate with them at super low prices.

If we analyze this move carefully, it seems that the internet celebrity has earned advertising fees, the fans have gained benefits, and the company has gained sales. But as far as I know, many companies' internet celebrities sell products at a loss, spending placement fees and sacrificing profits; while internet celebrities not only earn placement fees and sales commissions, but also use the company's products to benefit existing fans, increase stickiness, and attract more fans. It is equivalent to many companies spending money and effort to support the internet celebrities' fans. The price expectations created in users’ minds by low-price promotions are more likely to cause long-term damage to the brand.

I have explained in the paid course "10 Marketing Ideas to Help You Grow at Low Cost" in cooperation with 36kr that the word "marketing" can also be split into "ying", which corresponds to influence, and "sales", which means conversion. What’s interesting is that many companies view internet celebrities as a sales channel, just like supermarkets and e-commerce platforms, and use various promotional methods to sell more products. On the contrary, few companies are involved in the "influence" aspect.

In fact, if we remove the "Internet" and only look at "influencers", we can see that historically, many well-known brands have used celebrities to promote their products. The difference is that these brands have used celebrities to enhance their brand value, solve the problem of competitors' low-price promotions, and ultimately achieve an increase in sales. The most well-known of these are Coca-Cola and Santa Claus, which we instinctively think of when we mention "red".

01 Santa Claus brings goods? Coca-Cola’s sales strategy during the Great Depression

In the 1930s, Coca-Cola encountered internal and external troubles:

The Wall Street stock market crash that began in 1929 entered the Great Depression, and Americans' spending power plummeted. People had a special liking for low-priced goods. Pepsi, which was born in the same era as Coca-Cola, was on the verge of bankruptcy. However, after being taken over by New York businessman Charles Guth, it adopted a half-price sales strategy. At that time, Coca-Cola sold for 5 cents for 6 ounces, and Pepsi offered 12 ounces at the same price, which quickly won the favor of cola lovers.

On the other hand, the United States lifted the Prohibition Act that had been in place since 1920, and Coca-Cola has for a long time positioned itself as a substitute for alcoholic beverages. Some media even questioned, "Now that people can drink authentic beer and 'real men' whiskey, who would drink those 'non-alcoholic sodas'? The answer is both open and affirmative: Coca-Cola will soon be out of its glory days."

Without the label of an alcohol substitute, Coca-Cola may be able to maintain its sales in the summer thanks to its icy, refreshing and sweet taste, but in the winter, these advantages become disadvantages.

In fact, Coca-Cola also ran advertisements for promotion in 1929 and 1930, but the results were mediocre. In 1931, Coca-Cola decided to do something different, and they chose Santa Claus to help boost Coca-Cola's sales.

Although Christmas has a long history, the celebration of Christmas can be traced back to the early 17th century. In order to celebrate the arrival of snow, people at that time decorated their homes with evergreen plants, and gradually formed the Christmas tree culture. At that time, the main colors of Christmas were green and white, representing green plants and white snow. At that time, Santa Claus was also a tall and thin elf wearing a robe and animal skins.

Coca-Cola believes that Christmas is a key marketing node. Not only will the whole family gather together, but they will also share happiness with each other, which fits perfectly with the brand symbol of "happiness" that Coca-Cola has worked hard to create. So Coca-Cola contracted artist Haddon Sundblom to create an image of Santa Claus drinking Coke.

Shanbu found inspiration from the famous poem "The Night Before Christmas", which describes Santa Claus as a warm, friendly, and big man full of human radiance. At the strong request of Coca-Cola, Haydn changed the image of Santa Claus in a green robe and used the red and white iconic colors of Coca-Cola to design a red coat for Santa Claus for the first time.

Thus, the first image of Santa Claus was born in the Saturday Evening Post. It was an old man wearing a red robe, a white beard and a permanent smile. He took off his hat with one hand, raised a cup of Coca-Cola with the other hand, and read out the famous slogan launched in 1929: "The Pause That Refreshes".

In order to create a family atmosphere, Hayden Shambaugh also created a group of twin brothers and sisters and a dog for Santa Claus. He got inspiration from his neighbor's sisters. Just to balance the picture, Shambaugh painted one of the little girls as a little boy. The black dog also came from a gray poodle next door, but the gray was changed to black.

Since then, Coca-Cola advertisements have appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, National Geographic, The New Yorker and other magazines and newspapers, all of which have been very popular, and sales have doubled several times during the Christmas season. More advertising exposure has also made Santa Claus popular among the people, and red has replaced green as the main color of Christmas. However, Coca-Cola did not protect the IP of Santa Claus at that time, which led to more brands, organizations and individuals joining in the creation of Santa Claus-related products. As a result, when people mention Christmas now, they will think of the always smiling Santa Claus with a big beard and dressed in red.

02 The neglected brand value of influencers

Is Santa Claus a famous person? Of course, and it is through hundreds of years and the spread of countless stories that this celebrity has gradually become a celebrity with a specific image in people's minds.

By cooperating with this kind of influencer, many companies can choose a distinctive image of Santa Claus and then sell it for only 5 cents, or sell it for 5 cents for a limited time at an original price of $1. But Coca-Cola did not emphasize price. Instead, it continued with its previous strategy and continued to strengthen the keyword "happiness". "Happiness" is a feeling. If you just add the word "happiness" to the advertisement, it will be difficult for users to understand. However, with the help of Santa Claus, a symbol of happiness, the user's cognitive threshold is lowered, and it will gradually transform from a bottle of drink that brings pleasure to a cultural symbol that brings a happy atmosphere. It was the time of the Great Depression in the United States, and daily life was full of ups and downs. The happiness represented by Coca-Cola just happened to resolve this anxiety.

By the mid-1930s, Coca-Cola had become a national enterprise in the minds of the American people, accounting for half of the sales of carbonated soft drinks in the United States. You should know that his competitors include not only Pepsi-Cola, but also Dr. Pepper, 7-Up and other well-known beverages with a long history. It was precisely because Coca-Cola became a national enterprise of the American people that during World War II, Coca-Cola became a war necessity for the U.S. military and began its expansion around the world. It can be said that Santa Claus is a crucial part of Coca-Cola's brand building process.

A century later, the Internet replaced newspapers and magazines. Although the Internet did not really change people's needs, it shortened the distance between products and users. The so-called product experience has extended from the simple product itself to a full-scale 360° experience from the inside out. When social media first appeared, I communicated with many companies, and they preferred to release discount promotion information to achieve greater sales at a relatively low cost.

However, I have always believed that the core value of social media for enterprises lies in "relationships". It provides a simpler, faster and more in-depth communication and interaction platform, allowing enterprises to truly establish "relationships" with users. Users will have a deeper understanding of the product's design concept, product manufacturing details, product values, and the style and tone of the core team. These will subtly influence users, retain users, and turn them into veteran fans.

Today, social media has gradually become polarized, with one group paying attention to discounts and promotions and forwarding sweepstakes information, while the other group has gradually become veteran fans of many brands.

From the perspective of communication efficiency, live streaming goes a step further than pictures, texts, and short videos. Brand owners can communicate with users in real time and have a deeper understanding of the core value of the product. These values ​​are the driving force behind users' willingness to pay a higher cost to obtain this product.

Influencers will undoubtedly further accelerate the efficiency of this communication, lower the user's cognitive threshold, and establish a stronger relationship between the brand and the user. We can get inspiration from the fact that high-priced and high-quality Colombian coffee beat cheap Brazilian coffee in this regard.

03 Is the coffee uncle promoting the product? Colombian coffee goes global

Before World War I, the coffee Americans drank was almost all Robusta coffee beans imported from Brazil. This type of coffee beans tasted worse but was cheaper.

Colombia grows another type of coffee bean called Arabica, which is of higher quality and has a mellower flavor, but is also more expensive. Before World War I, Colombian coffee was supplied to the European market. Due to World War I, Colombian coffee could not be exported to Europe and could only be exported to the American market. However, due to price factors, Colombian Arabica coffee sells much less in the United States than Brazilian Robusta coffee. So in 1959, the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia decided to create an internet celebrity to help them sell their products.

In 1959, the Colombian National Coffee Growers Federation collaborated with the famous American advertising company DDB (Doyle Dane Bernbach) to jointly launch the image of a coffee farmer named Juan Valdez.

To add a Colombian touch, DDB also paired him with a loyal mule, Conchita. So Uncle Juan and his loyal mule, a set of completely fictional characters, became the spokespersons for Colombian coffee.

DDB found a Colombian actor living in New York, José F. Duval, to play Juan Valdés. Ten years later, Colombia invited a real coffee farmer, Carlos Sánchez, to play Juan Valdés. Carlos Sánchez wears a white straw hat, an Andean wool vest, a leather bag across his body, comfortable canvas shoes with laces, and leads his mule Conchita. He looks like an authentic Colombian coffee farmer and has appeared in various film and television dramas and variety shows. Through him, people learned about Colombia's coffee culture. Carlos Sánchez played Juan Valdés for 37 years.

In the first five months after the Juan Valdés brand was launched, the number of consumers of Colombian coffee increased by nearly 300%, and it gained excellent reputation. This success also shocked DDB, who described it as follows:

“We have never received such a quick market response. When we started, we thought it would take at least two or three years to achieve the results we have today.”

Gabriel Silva, president of the Colombian National Coffee Owners Federation, believes that Juan Valdés' creation is the most successful example in the history of the event planning industry. The Colombian government also attached great importance to Juan Valdés and solemnly awarded him the Colombian National Silver Cross Medal of Merit.

In 1981, the Colombian National Coffee Growers Federation decided to design a new logo based on the popular Juan Valdés. As a result, Juan Valdés truly became the symbol of Colombian coffee.

In 1983, Juan Valdés once again brought his mule to the screen. The federation spent $1 million to shoot a series of event planning films depicting how Juan Valdés carefully selected coffee beans in his own coffee garden high in the mountains, and then led mules along the rugged and dangerous mountain roads to transport bags of coffee beans.

The marketing campaign was also very successful, and by the 1980s the character of Juan Valdés had become popular in the United States and most of Europe. Coffee consumers' recognition of the brand has become so strong that the federation has launched a new series of television campaigns specifically designed to teach coffee knowledge to the general public.

In order to attract the young masses, Juan Valdés once wore traditional clothes of coffee bean farmers and included many dangerous and trendy sports in the event planning, such as hang gliding, surfing, snowboarding, etc. Juan Valdés also went global. In 2010, he went to China to participate in the Shanghai World Expo.

In 2005, a US research team conducted a nationwide survey of important American figures, which aimed to investigate who the most famous and important people in American public life were. Surveys show that 80% to 90% of Americans can recognize Juan Valdés. This figure is almost 100% in the UK. More importantly, more than 50% of respondents were able to immediately associate Juan Valdés, and his inseparable mule Conchita, with Colombian coffee.

In the same year, Juan Valdés won the Best Event Planning Image Award jointly awarded by Yahoo and USA Today, and was honored to leave his footprint on Madison Avenue in New York.

Very similar to the "happiness" value of Coca-Cola, it is difficult for users to understand that the quality is better from the advertisement. However, the image of Uncle Juan, a simple coffee bean farmer, creates more emotional communication with users, lowers their cognitive threshold, and subtly helps them understand the value of Colombian coffee.

From the 1960s, when Uncle Juan appeared in newspapers and magazines, to the 1970s, when he appeared in film and television programs, to the 1980s, when he made his own coffee, and later when he participated in the avant-garde movement, each exposure was an enhancement of the brand's value. Juan Valdés coffee gradually generated greater brand potential, from Colombia to the United States and then to the world.

From this perspective, Li Jiaqi, a shopping guide at a lipstick counter, has spent more than three years, with nearly 400 beauty live broadcasts each year, helping female users who love beauty and have certain purchasing power to purchase beauty products, thereby gaining a large user group of young female users, which led to the story of Li Jiaqi selling goods.

From newspapers and magazines to movies and television and nowadays live short videos, companies can also create their own "Uncle Juan", start live broadcasts, shoot videos, enter Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, connect with Wei Ya, and communicate with users. On the other hand, they can use a large number of celebrities to achieve the possibility of rapid popularity.

04 Use Internet celebrities to create trends

At the end of August 2019, the WeChat public account Growthbox published a popular article titled "Through data mining, we studied Perfect Diary's two major growth strategies" [1]. The article studied Perfect Diary's advertising campaigns in major platforms with a concentrated female user group of 18-28 years old, such as Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Weibo. The ratios of celebrities (certified, such as Zhu Zhengting), well-known KOLs (certified with V, such as Li Jiaqi), top influencers (number of fans > 500,000), mid-level influencers (50,000 < number of fans < 500,000), junior influencers (5,000 < number of fans < 50,000), and amateurs (300 < number of fans < 5,000) were 1:1:3:46:100:150. Perfect Diary did not blindly seek endorsements from big-name celebrities, but instead widely deployed niche KOLs below the mid-level.

In my article “Why there is no Snapchat in China”, I mentioned that the key to making something popular is to get “people around you” to use it, and then take advantage of human nature to imitate and make it popular. This process of influence needs to comply with the "Internet 1:9:90 Rule":

After studying the similarities between users' use of Yahoo Groups, photo-sharing site Flickr (acquired by Yahoo in 2005), and Wikipedia, Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo's vice president of development strategy, found that they basically conform to the 1:9:90 rule, with 1% of users creating content, 9% of users participating in discussions, and 90% passively accepting. It can also be said that 90% of users are influenced by 10% of users, and 90% of these 10% of users are influenced by 10% of users. According to this rule, as long as you influence the top 1% of your core users first, you can influence the other imitators.

The Internet's 1:9:90 rule is more obvious in social media. Because of the number of fans, social media can be divided into top accounts, mid-level accounts, and ordinary accounts. As long as the principle of imitation is utilized, first influencing the top accounts, then the mid-level accounts, and then the ordinary users, trends can be created.

Perfect Diary uses the principle of "imitation" by first cooperating with celebrities and well-known KOLs, then influencing top influencers, mid-level influencers, and junior influencers, and then influencing ordinary users, eventually achieving the momentum of users of platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and Douyin discussing Perfect Diary together.

Compared with many companies that blindly invite top KOLs to promote products at high prices based on the number of fans, allocating budgets reasonably and finding more mid-level and junior influencers is undoubtedly a more cost-effective way of promotion. The detailed logic of creating popularity with low cost will be gradually analyzed in future articles.

Author: Yang Ze

Source: Yang Ze