4 elements to create a popular brand!

The market environment is now facing four major changes: the rise of niche, emotional consumption, circle economy, and intelligent revolution. These four major changes have led to earth-shaking changes in our market environment. So, in such a changing environment, facing such a new era, how should we define our brand? How to understand brand strategy? In this article, the author gives four major elements for building a strong brand.

1. What exactly is a brand?

This issue has been discussed for twenty or thirty years. In different eras, people have different understandings of brands.

Brand and trademark theory: From the 1980s to the mid-1990s, it was believed that a brand was a trademark.
Brand and famous brand theory: From the mid-1990s to 2000, it was believed that a brand should be well-known.
Brand promise theory: A brand is not just a name, but also a promise it makes to consumers (Haier slogan: Haier is sincere forever)
Brand quality theory: Brand should be synonymous with quality, and only good products can be called brands (Haier slogan: Haier, made in China)

We are moving from the Internet Age to the Mind Age. So what exactly is a brand in the Age of Mind? My point is that brands in the age of mind must be cognition. What kind of perception your brand occupies in the minds of customers is the foundation for the long-term development of your brand.

——Because in the market environment, future cognition is the most scarce resource. If you can get the most powerful resource among the scarcest resources, it will be very beneficial to you. It can support the long-term, healthy and strong development of your business. So from this perspective, a brand should be a kind of cognition, it is an indelible mark left in the minds of customers .

2. Why is brand a kind of cognition?

Long ago, Mr. Al Lees and Mr. Jack Trout, the founders of positioning theory, put forward similar views:

A brand occupies a place in the minds of customers.

Although they did not propose the concept of "cognition" at the time, this view had already been confirmed in a consumer test of PepsiCo. In order to compare which one tastes better, Pepsi or Coca-Cola, Pepsi conducted a test with consumers. The testing process is divided into two rounds:

In the first round, Pepsi and Coca-Cola were poured into a white paper cup without any symbols, and consumers were asked to taste them. After tasting the drinks, consumers were asked to write down on a piece of paper whether cup No. 1 or cup No. 2 tasted better. The test results show that more than 70% of people think Pepsi tastes good.

At this point, the conclusion seems to have been reached - it is basically certain that Pepsi tastes better than Coca-Cola.

However, Pepsi did another test:

In the second round, they put the logos of Pepsi and Coca-Cola on two cups respectively, then poured the corresponding cola into the cups and let consumers taste it. After tasting, they were also asked to make a judgment on which cola tasted better.

At this time, a disappointing result occurred: more than 70% of people thought Coca-Cola tasted good.

This completely opposite result made Pepsi realize that the market is dominated by perception rather than reality - no matter how powerful your reality is, it may be worthless in the minds of customers; but if customers think that this thing is good, even if it is not good, it will become a good thing.

People may think that KFC and McDonald's are junk food and label them as junk food. But for those who like to eat them, these junk foods are their treasures and their delicacies - this is a problem of cognition. Ultimately, brand is a kind of cognition .

For a business, your ability lies in whether you can deeply embed this cognition into the minds of customers.

There are also cases in China where perception outweighs reality, such as WeChat and Alipay.

In everyone's perception, what is the difference between them?

Everyone must think that WeChat is a chat tool and Alipay is a payment tool.

But is this really the case?

The fact is: WeChat can also be used for payment, Alipay can also be used for chatting, and Alipay’s chatting function may be even more powerful than WeChat.

If you are interested, you can try Alipay.

Find the private message function in the chat dialog box. In private messages, the pictures, texts, and voice messages you send are all encrypted, and disappear instantly after the other party has read them - this is a feature that WeChat has not had until now.

In the cognitive world, the perception that Alipay is a payment tool is already deeply rooted, so their chat function is difficult to develop.

People will say: If you have anything to say, send me a WeChat message. Few people would say: If you have something to say, send it to me via Alipay.

If you say that, the other party will probably be shocked and wonder if you want me to pay? Are you borrowing money from me? This is cognition at work. Therefore, we firmly believe that a brand is to establish a cognition in the minds of customers. The stronger this cognition is, the better your life will be.

Building cognition is not just about grabbing a cognition and forcing it on customers. Whether there is a chance for a cognition to be established requires research. The customer’s mind is not a sponge wall, but a firewall that can only be penetrated by someone with a certain level of penetrability. Moreover, whether you can grasp some good insights often depends on your opponent, that is, whether your opponent allows you to do it. For example, Alipay can do the chat function, but WeChat does not allow it to do this.

3. The left brain sells value, the right brain sells feelings

The human brain has rationality and sensibility, and can also be divided into the left brain and the right brain. The left brain is rational, and many logical and numerical things are in the left brain; the right brain is emotional, and many visual things, musical things, emotional things, and imaginative things are in the right brain.

The left brain and the right brain perceive something differently.

At this time, when we build a brand, we also need to consider what we can do in the customer’s left brain? What to do in the customer’s right brain? So the first point of cognitive thinking came out, which is called Yin-Yang balance. We call it the brand Yin-Yang theory .

The brand yin and yang theory is easy to understand. If we regard the customer’s brain as a yin and yang structure, then our brand should also configure the brain with yin and yang functions. The left brain is rational. If the value you sell to the left brain is not accepted by the customer, it will be difficult for you to do business with this customer. Because he won't buy it.

The right brain cannot be ignored either.

If it was 20 years ago, when material things were scarce and being able to buy this thing was already a good thing, you could ignore the right brain. However, in this era of consumption upgrading and emotional consumption where choices have exploded and consumer aesthetics have risen, you will suffer if you ignore the customer's right brain.

Many bosses of small and medium-sized enterprises asked me, are my products bad? The product is really good, and there is nothing to complain about its quality and functionality. However, when I looked at their packaging, their brand name, and their visual logo, I became discouraged. In this era, if your product leaves a blank in the customer’s right brain, you won’t be able to sell your product. We must sell feelings into the customer's right brain.

The left brain sells value and the right brain sells feelings. We form it into a quadrant, and when superimposed, it becomes two dimensions. From this we can know what is a strong brand and what is a weak brand.

A strong brand is one that has both value and feeling, and the value is irresistible to customers, and the feeling is exciting to customers;
A weak brand is one that has neither value nor feeling;

In addition to strong brands and weak brands, there are also brands on the diagonal line.

A problem brand is one that has value but no feeling. Have you encountered many such brands in your life? It is valuable to you, its value is unique, and it makes you never forget it, but the product looks boring to you, without any passion in it;
A bubble brand is a brand that has a lot of feeling but little value. To you, this thing is useless, it looks good but is not practical, the product functions are not ultimate, and the quality is not ultimate, but it just looks good, and the other party’s brand is well made. This kind of brand is likely to be short-lived and then decline. Brands that are very popular in the market for one or two years and then decline basically belong to this type.

Take the world-renowned automobile brands as an example to illustrate strong brands:

Among luxury cars, BMW is a strong brand, and its value lies in pure driving pleasure. This is the best handling car in the world, which is a consensus among many car enthusiasts. In terms of feeling, does BMW have any feeling? It feels great. BMW is a rare brand among many automobile brands that possesses two major visual hammers.
1) The blue sky and white clouds propeller logo is a very powerful visual hammer with high recognition;
2) Double kidney type air intake fan.
So BMW is truly a strong brand.
——BMW’s sales volume also proves this point. Basically, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are on par with each other in the world.

Take Jaguar as an example of foam branding:

The Jaguar logo is indeed very cool and really gives people a unique feeling about this brand.
But what values does Jaguar represent?
Does it represent control? Is it better than BMW?
Does it represent the ride, is it more comfortable than a Mercedes?
It stands for safety, but is it safer than a Volvo?
Does it represent technology? Has it, like Tesla, invested the most advanced scientific and intelligent technology into its car?
...It seems like there is none.
You can see these features on Jaguar to some extent, but none of them are extreme. Therefore, its value is relatively vague in the minds and left brains of customers. This is why Jaguar's sales have not been very good.

4. Four elements to build a strong brand

Feeling and value are the yin and yang of our brand, and are also the source of the development of our theoretical system of cognitive thinking. Our theoretical system starts from the customer's brain, distinguishes yin and yang, and then develops value and feeling. However, value and feeling are very abstract. How can value be put into a tangible place? How can the feeling be further crystallized? At this time, we developed four major elements based on these two points. These four major elements are:

Category;
position;
personality;
vitality.

These four elements also answer the four major questions of brand strategy:

Who are you?
What's the difference?
What style?
How strong are you?

If you can answer these four questions clearly, your brand will definitely be a strong brand.

Therefore, if we want to define a brand, this architecture diagram will tell you very clearly: a brand is composed of value and feeling. Value is composed of categories and positioning, and feeling is composed of personality and vitality.

If you do these four components well enough: category, positioning, personality and vitality, you can create a very powerful brand.

So, what level should you achieve in these four major elements?

First, it represents the category;
Second, clear positioning;
Third, distinct personality;
Fourth, full of vitality.

This is the definition of a truly strong brand.

5. Representative categories

The first thing is the concept of category, and we need to answer the question "Who am I?" What does it mean for brands? It means an identity.

A brand must have an identity in the minds of customers. If you don’t have an identity, you are like a foreigner without a passport. Therefore, when we are building a brand, we must have this concept in mind: what is your identity, what is the definition of your category, and what category are you going to represent?

Taking Gree as an example, it is very clear that Gree represents air conditioners, but if Haier is compared with Gree, it is not particularly clear, because Haier sells too many things under the brand, so Haier can only be said to be a home appliance. If air conditioners and home appliances are compared together, air conditioners are a category, but home appliances are actually a pseudo-category and do not constitute a specific category. Therefore, from this perspective, Gree's identity may be clearer.

Let’s take a look at Wanglaoji. Wanglaoji is a herbal tea, but Bawang also has a herbal tea. But in the minds of customers, Bawang has become a symbol of shampoo, and it is an anti-hair loss shampoo. After this cognition has been established, customers will not be able to accept the idea of making herbal tea, which is why Bawang Herbal Tea did not sell well. At that time, Overlord invited Donnie Yen to be its spokesperson. Donnie Yen was also a very popular star at the time, but this market still did not take off. This is the importance of identity.

If you don’t establish a clear identity in the minds of your customers, it will be difficult for your product to be recognized by consumers.

Let’s take a look at two cars, one is BMW’s I8, which is a hybrid car, and the other is Tesla, which is a pure electric car.

In the minds of customers, if we talk about it from the perspective of categories, which category would people be more willing to regard as a new category, hybrid vehicles or pure electric vehicles? Obviously, pure electric vehicles can become a new category, but hybrid electric vehicles are a pseudo category, so up to now, the sales of A8 are still very flat and it is not selling at all. Because your category is a pseudo-category, you cannot find a foothold in the new category because your identity is problematic.

Category is the brand’s identity and lifeline. If the category dies, the brand will die with it. Many companies are not convinced by this conclusion. They are unwilling to give up the brand they have worked hard for hundreds of years. Because the category is declining, we have no choice but to give up. For example, when the film market was declining, Kodak started to make digital cameras, but when digital cameras declined, the brand also declined.

When a category declines, should we revive a brand or a business? Our view is that you should revive a business, not a brand. Just let it die along with the demise of the category. But your business must survive, you must create a new category, use a new brand to do this category, and develop another world.

This is the first level, who am I? You must find a very suitable identity for your brand, and this identity must be acceptable in the minds of customers. There is no need to force it on customers. If you force it on customers, they will not accept it.

6. Clear positioning

The second question is the issue of positioning, which is what is the difference? Differentiation is the key. What is positioning? According to the logic and pulse of the cognitive thinking theory system, positioning is the unique value that occupies the customer's left brain. Returning to the value level, positioning occupies unique value in the customer's left brain. The more unique this value is, the easier it is to sell your brand and the easier it is for your brand to stand out. If this value is not unique, you will be in danger.

The famous Chinese painter Qi Baishi once said:

Those who learn from me will live, those who imitate me will die.

What's the meaning?

If you learn painting from me, learn methods and concepts, and then develop your own unique style, you will win.

If what you draw is very similar to what I draw, you are doomed to fail - because there is only one Qi Baishi in the world, not a second Qi Baishi.

——This is also a very classic interpretation of positioning theory.

Take smartphone brands as an example:

1. Clear positioning

Apple's positioning: the creator of smartphones and the number one brand of smartphones.

Evaluation: With a clear positioning, Apple has been doing well so far, ranking first in the list of the world's most valuable brands for many years in a row.

Huawei's positioning: technological leadership.

Comment: We don't buy Apple phones but Huawei phones for two reasons:

Huawei’s technology is good;
It's patriotism.

This is where Huawei is very smart. It implanted a concept in the right brain. This concept may not have been actively planned and implanted by Huawei, but it happened to coincide with this era and played a huge role. There is a concept in the cognitive theory system called right brain drive. Huawei has used right brain drive to the extreme, so it is also a strong brand.

Xiaomi’s positioning: ultimate value for money.

Evaluation: In the minds of Xiaomi users, Xiaomi is the best value for money mobile phone. This awareness has been established, so Xiaomi is actually doing well.

From a long-term perspective, the positioning of being the number one brand will definitely have a strong competitive advantage. Secondly, if you occupy an important characteristic, like Huawei has the characteristic of "technological leadership", you will live a good life. The ultimate cost-effectiveness can be called a positioning, but in comparison, it is slightly weaker. So from a long-term perspective, Xiaomi's survival status may be slightly weaker than Apple and Huawei.

2. Those with unclear positioning: Meizu, Hammer, Lenovo…

If you ask their bosses or their employees, they can probably tell you very clearly what their position is. However, it doesn’t matter what you think your brand is positioned to be.

What is positioning? Positioning is the perception you establish in the minds of customers, and this perception is kept in the hearts of customers. From this perspective, these three brands cannot be compared with the previous three brands. Clear positioning and unique value are crucial to the survival of a brand.

What should we do during the positioning process? Good positioning requires the ability to leverage resources. In my book "Brand Conquest", I once summarized the essence like this:

The essence of positioning is leveraging power.

Especially some of our small and medium-sized enterprises, when positioning a new brand, they must be able to leverage their strengths. You need to use all the resources and strength you can to build awareness for your brand. Take Langjiu as an example. In its early days, its market performance was actually very average.

The early advertising slogan of Langjiu was:

The Chinese man is in high spirits.

This is obviously an advertising slogan drawn up by a marketing beginner or someone who doesn't understand marketing. Because what exactly are you delivering to consumers? Consumers simply don’t understand. The four words "spirited and high-spirited" are difficult to remember. Even if you remember them, what benefits do they bring to Langjiu and what difference do they illustrate? No one can tell the difference. Later, Langjiu must have received guidance from an expert and had a clear definition method:

Qinghualang is one of the two major sauce-flavored liquors in China.

Think about it, who does it rely on for support? Of course, it is to borrow strength from Moutai. But the Advertising Law couldn't do anything to him by leveraging the power in this way, because I was just describing the facts. He managed to leverage the power and then very cleverly circumvented the prohibitions of the Advertising Law. This is a very typical way of leveraging power. Once you have formed your value differentiation at the positioning level, you must press on to seize the opportunity. Otherwise your entire battle fortress may become loose and have problems.

Take Jiang Xiaobai as an example. Jiang Xiaobai has achieved a good result in a category that is highly competitive and even a bit of a sunset industry by positioning itself as a small-bottle liquor. When Jiang Xiaobai developed the market, many brands began to follow suit. One of the brands was Langjiu, which also launched its small-bottle liquor.

What is Langjiu’s advertisement?

Xiaolang Liquor, a small-bottle liquor that is popular across the country.

It occupied the concept of hot sales and attacked Jiang Xiaobai from the side. Among other means, it also proposed that Xiaolangjiu was the king of taste. Langjiu spreads its brand through word of mouth, social networks, and article reviews, creating the concept that it is the king of best-selling flavors.

At this time, Jiang Xiaobai should have taken advantage of the victory, but unfortunately, Jiang Xiaobai did not do so. On the contrary, Jiang Xiaobai has developed many large-bottle liquors and launched many sub-brands to produce other liquors. This has provided the Xiaolangjiu brand with a space for rapid growth, which is a pity.

Therefore, once we have established a firm foothold in a certain position, we must press on to pursue our victory and prevent other opponents from attacking us from the side. We must fight back! If you don't see this and can't do it, you may face a bad outcome.

Is it OK with positioning? No. You must conceptualize your positioning. What is Positioning Conceptualization? A more specific and creative description of positioning.

For example, Nanfu’s energy ring concept is actually a concrete description of Nanfu’s positioning. As everyone knows, Nanfu battery is a very durable battery. Its positioning as the number one brand of alkaline batteries in China is very clear. But what kind of concept does this positioning rest on? Nanfu proposed the energy-gathering ring, which is the red piece under the battery.

Someone once questioned:

“Is your film so magical?”

But Nanfu has always adhered to this concept, and not only insisted on it, but also upgraded it later. This is a very smart approach.

7. Distinctive personality

The third element that constitutes a brand is personality. Definition of Brand Personality:

Personality is the unique feeling that a brand creates in the customer's right brain, which is consistent with positioning.

If positioning is the unique value that occupies the customer's left brain, then personality is the unique feeling created in the customer's right brain. It's a feeling, but it must be a very unique feeling.

What is the difference between positioning and personality?

Positioning is the reason why you have to buy it, and personality is your irresistible charm. Now it is clear: one is a reason to buy, the other is an attraction that makes your heart beat. You have to convince me on the value level, give me a reason to buy; you also have to convince me on the feeling level, give me the urge to choose you. Therefore, cognitive thinking puts forward the concept of right brain drive.

1. What is the concept of right brain drive?

Starting from the feelings in the right brain of the customer, using feelings to drive value, personality to drive positioning, pleasure to drive functions, and creativity to drive sales, this is the concept of right brain drive, which covers four levels: Tao, Fa, Shu, and Qi:

The level of Tao. Feeling drives value at the level of Tao. When going up, the top is Tai Chi, below Tai Chi are Liang Yi, and Liang Yi is Yin and Yang. The yin and yang in our cognitive thinking are value and feeling, so feeling-driven value is the level of Tao;
The legal level. Personality-driven positioning is the legal level. Brand personality should drive your brand positioning;
The technical level is the pleasure-driven function;
The level of the device is very simple, it is creativity that drives sales.

This is right brain drive.

When you want to launch a market, you must have such a logical relationship to launch your market, only then will it really get off the ground.

In terms of brand personality, there is one movie that must be mentioned, and that is "Nezha". After this movie was released in 2019, it created a box office miracle. Why was it so popular? Because it created a completely different Nezha in people's minds. The concept of individuality is taken to the extreme.

Nezha's appearance, personality, and the values he upholds are all different from before, and they have a great impact on everyone. When the feeling is different, social public opinion will arise. When public opinion arises, everyone will have a desire to watch it, and when this desire arises, your box office will naturally increase. This is a very typical case of right brain drive.

2. How to create a brand personality

We proposed three changes:

Personalization;
Visualization;
Ideological.

As a brand, it must have a distinct personality, a distinct vision, and a distinct ideological system. These three combined together form a complete brand personality.

3. Six Quadrants of Brand Personality

The quadrants are vitality, confidence, competence, caring, universality, and worry-free.

Vitality quadrant: active, athletic, and strong!

Take cars as an example: personalized off-road.

Confident quadrant: They are more cool and pursue simplicity in aesthetics.

Take cars as an example: Tesla pickup truck is designed completely differently from traditional cars and is a very typical personality of the confident quadrant.

Ability quadrant: emphasizes practicality. It doesn’t matter whether your product looks good or not, but it must be practical.

Take a car, for example: a station wagon.

Caring quadrant: little bird, timid, cute, and innocent.

Take the car, for example: the Beetle.

Universal Quadrant: Great philanthropist, especially concerned about the country and the people! Considerate of others, very kind and amiable, and particularly nostalgic.

Take cars as an example: Hongqi sedan.

Worry-free quadrant: carefree, hedonistic, and humorous.

Take a car, for example: a convertible.

Brand quadrant division:

Nike, Marlboro, Red Bull – Vitality Quadrant;
BMW, Tesla, Apple – Confident Quadrant;
Jiang Xiaobai, Rolex, MUJI - capability quadrant;
Safeguard, Johnson & Johnson, and DOOV mobile phones – Caring quadrant;
KFC, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola – Universal Quadrant;
Corona beer, Disney, Swatch watches—the worry-free quadrant.

That’s all we have to say about the personification of brand personality. As for visualization, I think a good brand personality must be expressed visually. Visualization is critical to brand building. When we talk about visualization, there is a concept called visual hammer, and some experts call it super symbol, which are actually the same thing.

Having vision does not mean having a visual hammer. There are requirements for a visual hammer. It should be unforgettable, even unforgettable for a lifetime. This is called a visual hammer. New product categories must have a brand new design, so that you will have enough opportunities to be recognized and accepted by consumers.

Why is it so difficult for China's small and medium-sized enterprises, especially private enterprises, to establish their brands? The reason is that we know nothing about the brand, including the product packaging, the design of your brand's logo, and auxiliary graphics. We have no idea how to do each small step.

If you are strong in the four elements we talked about today, plus the support of capital, you may rise quickly. Here are three sentences for you:

New categories and old brands equal death;
New categories and old vision equal death;
New categories and old models mean death.

So we must have this concept: as long as you are doing a new product category, everything must be new.

Some netizens asked, what should big brands do in the era of the rise of niche brands? I suggested two methods to him:

Acquire some small brands that are doing well;
To create new categories. Use a new brand and a new team, or set up a new business unit to do it. Never use the old team to create a new brand. In fact, the principle is the same.

8. Vitality

When a brand appears in front of customers, it must be full of vitality. Consumers will not choose a brand that conveys a feeling of crumbling and dying. Even if your product category, positioning, and personality are good, but it lacks vitality, it will not sell!

Today, through such a framework, we want to tell you that everything will not be fine once the positioning problem, the personality problem and the category problem are solved. You also need to carry out many activities to make your brand vibrant.

How does the cognitive theory system define vitality? Vitality is a way of showing up in your customers' lives. The essence of vitality lies in: creative cognition, repeated cognition, and occupied cognition.

1. Repetition

At the dynamic level, we must know how to repeat. Strategic slogans and visuals must be repeated, such as the Red Bull advertisement:

“Drink Red Bull when you feel sleepy or tired.”

Wang Laoji’s advertisement:

"If you don't want to get angry, drink Wanglaoji."

Such slogans must be repeated.

2. Promote progress

At the same time, you also need to always announce your progress and occupy an advantageous position in mental succession.

In the past two years, there is a very active milk powder brand called Jun Le. Its slogan is "EU double certification, leading in national sales." What does this mean? In fact, he is announcing his progress to his customers.

In any case, we must announce your progress to your customers and the public at all times. This is a very important way to keep your brand vibrant.

3. Resonance

It’s not enough to just announce progress; you have to resonate with your customers emotionally. Take Chu Orange as an example. There are many slogans on the packaging of Chu Orange that capture people’s hearts, such as:

"I'm fine, take care of yourself too."

How do you feel when you open the package and see this sentence? There will definitely be a warm current coming up. This warm current has nothing to do with the quality of Chu Orange, but it can add points to the brand, which is why we emphasize right-brain drive.

We must create a resonance in the customer's right brain. This resonance may be a visual resonance, an emotional resonance, a mood resonance, or a resonance of thoughts!

4. Sense of ritual

Life needs a sense of ritual, and brands also need a sense of ritual. The sense of ritual makes the experience great. This experience itself is your profit and your competitiveness. Therefore, a sense of ritual is very necessary. Where does the sense of ritual come from? It's about lifestyle. Lifestyle, scenes and sense of ritual are closely related. Scenes separated from lifestyle are meaningless. There is one sentence that everyone must remember:

The scene lacks a sense of ceremony and is abandoned halfway

We talk about brand vitality, which is the way you appear in the lives of your customers, but can this approach be quantified, can it be measured, can it be expressed in percentages? Yes, you can.

We have summarized 4 indicators for the brand vitality index:

Exposure;
Attention;
Satisfaction;
Recommended degree.

The highest level of a brand is to make your customers your salesmen. So a brand is dynamic, it’s alive and well, it’s measurable. You can look at its exposure, its attention, its satisfaction, and the things it recommends. All of these can be done through market research.

Therefore, the strength of a brand depends on its value and feeling. How are you doing? It determines your strength, value and feeling. If we need to distinguish, there are four major elements of a brand: category, positioning, personality and vitality. The level of your performance in these four elements and the image you create in the minds of customers determine the strength of your brand.