How to make a product go viral as soon as it is promoted?

We have all been deceived by Lei Jun... A pig standing on the wind may not be able to fly, but it will definitely fall to death!

In the years of doing operations, I have discovered an interesting phenomenon: some people standing at the same vantage point soar to the sky; some fly lower and lower; some even fall to their death...

• Don't believe it? Please look at Meizu and Xiaomi in the mobile phone industry. The former started earlier and has stronger potential, but it is Xiaomi that survived now.
• Let’s take a look at Liangxing and Usmile in the electric toothbrush industry. The former had unrivaled sales before 2017, while Usmile was struggling on the edge of survival. However, now Usmile has become the No. 1 brand in China, while Liangxing has long since lost its shine.

Why is it that among people standing at the same vantage point, some fly up and head towards a wider sky; some fly up but fly lower and lower; and some fall to death while flying?

The answer is obvious: relying solely on the growth opportunities brought by industrial dividends is not enough for a company to take off. It must also sharpen its product advantages and leverage the advantages of new media to move towards a broader sky.

This is going to be important, so don't leave...

First of all, "industry dividends" and "product advantages" are interdependent. If you have read my previous article "Are you still promoting hot-selling products? Hot products are the future! A top-secret operating plan is made public for the first time, it is worth collecting and you will understand.

Simply put, product prices in the early stages of an industry are generally high, which is a business rule; if in the early stages of an industry, some businesses make their products better than others (high-tech, high-value, high cost-effectiveness), and sell their products at prices close to cost, then they will gain an absolute price advantage for a period of time.

For example, more than 20 years ago, the Chinese microwave oven market was dominated by foreign brands, and the unit price was as high as 5,000 yuan, a veritable luxury product. Later, Galanz entered this market, exchanged scale for cost, and directly lowered the price to around 500 yuan. With a price 10 times lower, it quickly seized most of the Chinese market, and the boss of Galanz also "won" the title of price butcher. But this is not important. What is important is that Galanz entered the Chinese home appliance market with microwave ovens and has now become a famous Chinese brand.

Another example is Xiaomi. When smartphones first became popular, the prices of mainstream brands' phones were generally around three thousand or five thousand yuan. However, when Xiaomi entered the market, phones with the same or even higher performance configurations were priced at only 1999. The price was nearly three times lower, which immediately exploded the entire market and the Chinese people went crazy for it. Of course, in addition to this advantage, Xiaomi also took advantage of a new media dividend, that is, early forums and Weibo, which will be discussed in detail later.

Therefore, in addition to benefiting from the population growth dividend, early products in the industry can also seize absolute price advantages for a period of time .

Next, we will focus on how to leverage the advantages of new media to move towards a broader sky.

Generally speaking, in the early stages of a new industry, although there are few businesses, there will never be only one or two businesses. There will be several or even dozens of businesses competing. In other words, businesses in the early stages of a new industry do not have the competitive advantages they have in the early stages of the industry, because everyone starts from a very similar starting point.

At this time, it depends on the product advantages and comprehensive strength of each merchant, but most merchants ignore the new media dividend channel.

It can be said that for businesses in the early stages of the industry, the new media dividend is the leverage of the merchants. By making good use of this new media dividend, they can soar into a broader sky .

For example, the "usmile" brand mentioned earlier entered this market in 2017. According to a friend, when the company was in trouble, it had only more than 100,000 yuan on its account and was almost bankrupt; but later it seized the then-hot "community economy", coupled with its exquisite product design, it turned the situation around in about a year and is now firmly established as the No. 1 brand in the domestic industry.

So in terms of the current market environment, what is the overall situation of new media now? This is very important. New media is a traffic pool. Where there is traffic, there is business.

Below I use a binary coordinate analysis, as shown below:

Image source: my good friend Dai Sheng, in which I added a soul traffic depression

• X-axis (user growth): The faster the user growth rate, the more traffic;
• Y-axis (degree of commercialization): The higher the degree of commercialization, the greater the competition among merchants and the higher the cost.

From the above picture, we can see that the new media channels most worth investing in are Video Account, Tiktok and Soul.

However, based on the information I have currently, although the video account has started commercial payment, it is still in the internal trial and invitation-oriented stage. As for when it will be fully open, it is not yet known.

Tiktok is the international version of TikTok. Its global user base has exceeded 2 billion, but there are only more than 200,000 content creators, and the dou+ function has only been launched recently. It still has great potential and is a veritable new media super bonus channel. Whether it is to raise creator funds or sell goods, it is an ideal choice.

Finally, there is Soul, a social software based on the soul. Its current daily active users have reached tens of millions, and the traffic in the square is very large; especially for beautiful girls with pictures, there are unlimited business opportunities here, but as far as I know, there is no third-party commercialization yet.

As for short video apps such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu e-commerce, they have been recognized as super traffic pools, and the degree of commercialization is already relatively high. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth investing in, it’s just that the cost will be higher.

If the investment-output ratio can be achieved without loss, then large-scale deployment can be carried out. Moreover, there are many ways to market these apps. If one way loses money, another may not, and this is also closely related to the product category. This requires merchants to constantly trial and error and optimize the delivery path.

Based on the above understanding (if you have read my previous article), you will have a very clear operational idea.

To sum it up simply: choose early products in the industry → create competitive advantages (absolute cost-effectiveness advantages in the early stages) → choose profitable new media channels → create “explosive products” with sales of hundreds of thousands or even millions → form a market effect → traditional e-commerce platforms (Tmall, JD.com) take over traffic for conversion → e-commerce platforms promote sales .

For example, the category of "electric towel rack" that I mentioned as an example in the previous article is an early product in the industry. At present, my company has completed the first and second steps, that is, creating an early absolute cost-effective competitive advantage.

Then the next step is to choose a new media channel with super bonuses. Before choosing, I divided the operation into two lines. The main reason is short-term profit and medium-term investment. In the final analysis, most small and medium-sized enterprises face the problem of survival and development.

Since this involves a lot of directional thinking, environmental conditions, and operational details, the article will be a bit long, so I plan to write it later when I have time.

This article mainly writes that even a pig standing on the vent of the wind may not be able to fly. It needs the help of new media channels with super bonuses to soar into the sky. At the same time, it analyzes the current traffic depression situation of new media through binary coordinates. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Author: Zhi Zhuojian

Source: Zhizhuojian