Brand marketing methods in 2020!

In this fragmented era, in the context of decentralization, people have fewer and fewer intersections in their daily lives, especially the communication on the emotional level is becoming increasingly shallow. What we need to do at this time is to start from the product, from the user, from the value, and plant the seeds of the brand in the hearts of users.

Under the epidemic, many companies have launched "public welfare" live classes. This kind of "public welfare" live class looks the same, with almost uniform courses and routines - "What should XXX do during the epidemic", "XXX self-help guide during the epidemic", "What are the XX opportunities after the epidemic"...

Just like the post-disaster reconstruction of micro-businesses that experienced a cliff-like decline, it is nothing more than first provoking your anxiety, then helping you analyze your current predicament, and finally prescribing some universal and effective prescriptions.

It’s hard to say whether these live classes will have a good effect (maybe there will be a problem after listening to them), but what surprises me is that many companies are now using this kind of live class as a winning magic weapon for brand marketing in the next few months.

I understand the anxiety of managers. At this moment, it seems that there is nothing we can do except online live streaming. Offline activities and exhibitions are still a long way off. Compared with the short-term economic shutdown, where the "brand" will go in 2020 is even more worrying.

Should we stop updating "WeChat, Weibo and Douyin"?

At the beginning of last year, an article titled "Stop Updating 'WeChat, Weibo and Douyin'" caused a strong response among practitioners. The author questioned at the beginning, "How much value does the daily operation and communication of brands on Weibo, Weibo and Douyin have?", and then gave the answer, "Daily operation is not about accumulation, but consumption. The vast majority of official brand accounts cannot play a positive role, and a large part of them even play a negative role."

Like many people, I disagreed with this answer, and the facts proved that it was indeed the case - at least the WeChat official account was retained.

Should “Weibo, Weibo and Douyin” really stop updating? My opinion is that Weibo and TikTok can stop updating or reduce the frequency of updates, but public accounts, as an important channel for companies to express their opinions, should not only not be stopped, but more financial and human resources should be invested in them.

There are several considerations for this idea:

1. Although Toutiao and Douyin are gaining momentum, public accounts are still the most important channel for the public to obtain information;
2. At a time when advertising is ineffective and customer acquisition costs are rising, WeChat official accounts are currently the only relatively fair platform (except for Douyin/Kuaishou and other shopping platforms) that can gather high-quality users, enhance brand communication, and have the highest conversion rate;
3. Douyin is very popular, but it has nothing to do with many companies, especially 2B companies. Without a high-quality content production and operation team, they will become cannon fodder even if they are launched soon.
4. Attracting fans on Weibo is a thing of the past. As for brand exposure, if you don’t have more than 100,000 fans, the exposure can be ignored (the exposure I understand is not those fake reading numbers, but the real interaction rate).

Perhaps you are puzzled as to why we have to stop updating Douyin. Friends who have operated Douyin know that it takes more than one or two people to do a good job of Douyin. From topic selection, script creation, shooting and editing to post-operation, this is a very long industrial assembly line. Once the machine is started, it cannot be stopped. Activities like "Koi Contest" and "Cloud Disco" are something that most companies can handle.

The era of value marketing is coming

The era of screen-sweeping is over, the hit articles with 100,000+ views have begun to fall from the altar, fission distribution has become immune, and aesthetic fatigue has appeared in H5 and comic strips. We are beginning to move from an era of hot marketing to an era of value marketing.

When our "view" is completely occupied by advertisements, it means that the world today is irreversibly entering an advertising-free era. Because you can't remember anything, the condition for remembering is that it must appear in front of you at a higher cost and higher frequency.

In the past, as long as the product was good and all channels were covered where consumers could see it, there was no need to worry about the product not selling well. Today, even if more channels are deployed and the exposure volume reaches tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, the conversion rate may not necessarily show explosive growth.

John Wanamaker, the father of the department store industry, once said, "I know that half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half."

For many companies, advertising is ineffective. When a brand is no longer driven by advertising results, but instead continues to deepen people's impressions through social media, what should marketers do? How to carry out value marketing? What comes to my mind is the integration of brand and effect.

In my opinion, brand-effect integration means that companies use the lowest cost to deliver brand value while efficiently harvesting potential users.

How to determine whether brand-effect integration has been achieved? There are several dimensions:

• Whether it integrates the brand’s tone;
• What value is delivered to users?
• Is the ROI (return on investment) proportional?

Good value marketing should be the integration of brand and effect. How to achieve the integration of brand and effect?

Starting from products, services and content forms, we attract users through high-quality products, thoughtful services and content that fits the brand's values.

To elaborate, it means focusing on the special effects and benefits of the product, focusing on a powerful product function, carrying out conceptual packaging, leaving a vivid impression on users, and establishing competitive barriers; providing a complete pre-sales and after-sales service system to break out of homogeneous competition.

The focus is on emphasizing how to maximize value by integrating brand and effect starting from the form of content. Content output companies can build their own marketing systems from "text", "image", "video and audio" and "interactive" categories.

The details are as follows:

1. Text: official websites, self-media platforms, press releases, case studies, consumer responses, rankings, honorary awards, news and current affairs commentaries, media reports, white papers, online briefings, research surveys, book publishing, magazines, annual reports, etc.
2. Image category: news photos, event photos, cartoons, etc.
3. Video and audio: corporate videos, TVCs, music, songs, audio, podcasts, etc.
4. Interactive: keynote speeches, events, webinars, brand content marketing tools (material packages, ppt courseware downloads), APP, Weibo topic interactions, H5, games, etc.

Product is content, content is value.

Live marketing cannot be ignored

Many companies have lost their way in brand marketing. We get so caught up in best practice examples that we fail to treat others in a humane way.

In a sense, live streaming marketing is an event marketing in the current context. In addition to its own advertising effect, the news effect of live content is often more obvious and more explosive. An event or a topic can be spread and attract attention more easily.

No matter you are the CEO, CTO, CGO or CMO, you should step out from behind the scenes and step to the front. Don’t trust KOLs too much, and don’t rely on KOCs. Employees are the best spokespersons for the corporate brand, so give full play to the power of the individual.

Live streaming marketing does not mean live streaming sales. I prefer to think of it as online communication or online gathering. At a specific time, you can "report" the current work progress, operational experience, marketing experience, etc. to your fans and customers. Treat fans, consumers and customers as friends and understand each individual.

In this fragmented era, in the context of decentralization, people have fewer and fewer intersections in their daily lives, especially the communication on the emotional level is becoming increasingly shallow. Live streaming, a form of content broadcasting with a sense of ritual, can bring together a group of people with similar interests, focus on common hobbies, infect each other with emotions, and achieve a high point in the emotional atmosphere.

Forget about screen swiping, forget about 10W+, forget about the false prosperity on Weibo and WeChat Moments, start from the product, start from the user, start from the value, and plant the seeds of the brand in the hearts of users.

Author: Chu Wei

Source: Chu Wei (chuwei2016)