The key to breakthrough for marketing professionals in 2020!

The domestic marketing industry faces some major challenges during the current period – there are fewer and fewer people on the streets and no consumers are visible.

It’s not that consumers have disappeared. Many middle-aged and elderly people have shifted their consumption to mobile apps, celebrity communities or shopping WeChat groups.

The changes came too suddenly, and many advertising companies and brand companies' marketing departments were not prepared and lacked confidence; however, many people also saw a new opportunity for "counterattack".

At present, several major issues of general concern in the marketing field have gradually been answered:

(1) What should we do in terms of marketing during this period?

There is no doubt that you have to help your customers do business online - the current popular practice is to cultivate internet celebrity customer service, internet celebrity shopping guides, internet celebrity chefs... 360 industries can be internet-celebrity and socialized, turning consumers into fans.

(2) Is working from home (remote working) really reliable?

Communication and coordination are the basic abilities of marketers. “As long as there is a computer, advertisers can even work on the toilet.” If you don’t have this basic ability, it means you are not good enough.

(3) Can the advertising industry return to its past state of survival?

It is obvious that just like the rise of Alibaba in 2003 (the SARS epidemic) and the rise of JD.com in 2008 (the financial tsunami), can those small merchants go back to the past? The same is true in the advertising industry.

(4) How can marketers regain their status?

Marketing is the "early action" of a brand and needs to be ahead of the rhythm of the market and customers. Focus on the annual target framework rather than the short-term gains and losses of one city or one place.

The big ideas are already there, but we should not avoid the realistic pressures at the marketing level.

For example, creative companies have to face the suspension of projects, media companies have to face the suspension of advertising by clients, and consumers’ demand for content has become narrower and weaker (attention has been sucked away)…

Here, I would like to talk specifically about how marketers can enhance their ability to withstand stress.

01Three golden rules for survival against the wind

I would like to provide a piece of data to boost your confidence:

In 2003, due to the impact of the SARS epidemic, brand companies' willingness to place traditional advertisements was greatly reduced. On the contrary, information flow advertising had a great growth opportunity.

The number of Internet users surged from 30 million to 80 million. That year, China’s online advertising market exceeded the 1 billion mark for the first time, an increase of 112%.

The current situation is similar to that year. During this period, people will stay at home more and spend much more time online than in previous years.

Data shows that compared with previous years, about half of the people said that the time they spend online at home has increased significantly, and watching movies, listening to music and playing games have become the main choices for people to pass the time.

Therefore, the advertising demand in industries such as e-commerce, online games, and entertainment is expected to increase.

Previously, I mentioned many positive factors in the article "The 'influencer economy' and the 'home economy' are facing a new round of dividends."

What I want to say here is that even though information flow advertising may usher in opportunities, and family consumption scenarios may see the light of day due to the long-term stay-at-home economy, and even though the government has introduced preferential policies to support small and medium-sized enterprises, the prerequisite is that your own ability to withstand pressure is strong enough, especially to ensure the security of your own cash flow.

I believe that in order to effectively preserve our strength and meet future opportunities during this period, we must pay special attention to the three golden rules of development against the wind:

1. The “cash flow first” law

Is it okay to just lie down and wait passively for the industry to change? Definitely not.

You can divide 2020 into two parts, the upper part controls expenditures, optimizes cost structure, and ensures cash flow security.

We need to strategically strengthen our collection and repayment efforts, while of course taking into account our customers’ difficulties. At the same time, we are all facing the current challenges together, and this requires mutual support.

If cost control and optimization are done well enough and payment collection is effective, it will be easier for you to move forward with ease and quickly grasp future business priorities. This is an important foundation for you to become the "king of the survivors" in the future.

2. The Law of “Structure Leading”

Brand marketing faces headwinds and must consider optimizing its customer structure.

If the clients you serve are from industries that suffer the most direct losses, such as catering, tourism, movies, transportation, hotels, etc., then if people don't flock to your business, you won't have any business, and you won't have any chance to serve them.

Or, if you serve a retail client, half of the client’s income is from rent, and if they don’t make any money for two months, they will be crushed by the rent. Even those industries that rely on seasonal profits to support half of their revenue will collapse if they miss the Spring Festival…

The marketing industry is to a large extent a barometer of the macro-economy, but everyone's micro-efforts are more important. Specifically, it is to continuously optimize the customer structure.

What impact did SARS have on the marketing industry in 2003?

Ogilvy's China business fell just 10%. Because the customer structure tends to be companies like Coca-Cola, Unilever, etc., these are rigid demands. No matter what, people's lives must go on.

Therefore, from this perspective, marketers should not only target brand customers, but also end consumers.

The end consumers have rigid demands, which not only increases the business safety factor of the brand company, but you who are at the upstream will also gain a wider safety margin.

3. The Law of “Total Employee Marketing”

In times of headwinds, “full-staff marketing” can produce unexpected results.

Sales is actually a highly technical link. If all departments of the company have marketing capabilities to varying degrees, internal cohesion will be significantly enhanced.

After all, marketing is the closest link to a company's revenue.

With full-staff marketing, everyone in the company will have a common feeling: even with the best products and services, there is still a difficult last mile before customers will ultimately pay for them.

Kuaishou has a very mature "full-staff marketing" tool - factory live broadcast. Especially in the clothing industry, this model can effectively eliminate production capacity that is about to expire.

Xiaomi is an expert at factory live streaming - marketing starts from the factory.

Xiaomi once used the phrase "the artistic journey of a piece of steel plate" to describe the processing procedure of the metal frame of its new product - this "steel plate" has to go through 40 processes and 193 operations, including 8 times of grinding on CNC machine tools - using artistic visual impact to impress consumers. This is the most trustworthy form of presentation to consumers, better than any advertising copy.

2. Predicting marketing trends: Focusing on family consumption scenarios

In the current period, most people stay at home with their families, and the time for family reunion has been extended to the maximum extent.

At the same time, Chinese families are achieving "full connection" on the Internet, and consumer decisions are changing from individual decisions to family decisions. "Full-family marketing" will have a great development opportunity.

It does not mean that a person is online only when he has an Internet account. Rather, as long as there is someone in the family who can access the Internet, the family is connected to the Internet, at least in terms of economic activities.

The current inverted triangle family structure of "421" (4 elderly people, 2 adults, and 1 child) has greatly extended the "decision-making chain" for living consumption.

For example, in family consumption, children often dominate consumption decisions.

There is an empirical data about warehouse supermarkets such as Costco and Sam's Club: if parents bring their children, they will spend an average of up to $12 more. Because children are very active in choosing products, and this directly translates into family consumption expenditure.

For example, Guo Guangchang, an investor of Babytree, clearly pointed out that "the most important asset in the future is family customer assets."

Unlike personal consumption, the core of family consumption is mother, followed by babies and children, then the elderly, then pets, and finally father.

Taking tourism consumption as an example, business travel is decided by oneself, while personal travel focuses on some of the special characteristics of the family.

The marketing strategy targeting family consumption scenarios is definitely not an emergency measure in the current period. More importantly, it is a way to accumulate brand potential before a major reversal in the consumer market.

I have a few ideas on how to help brand customers discover the benefits of "family marketing" at the marketing level:

1. Target key family members and engage in emotional interaction

There are often groups of "nanny dads" in American movies, which is not uncommon in real Chinese society. They not only take on more responsibilities for taking care of the family, but also wash diapers, take care of children, cook, do shopping, etc.

To target this group, China has even created a vertical social platform called “NetEase Cloud Dad” to serve new fathers, which specifically provides information that new fathers need to know, such as how to make their babies happy, how to identify their children’s emotions, and so on.

2. Targeting “small moments in life” and launching family-wide marketing

Domestic e-commerce platforms now attach great importance to "full-staff marketing" to the family through social networks, rather than just single-point marketing to adults or children.

The specific approach is to pay more attention to impressing users with details of life and to explore various "little moments in life" to establish emotional connections with consumers.

For example, Amazon has launched a family sharing wish list feature. When it recommends toys to children, it may target young fathers as the main target, as men always reveal their childishness inadvertently. When it recommends cosmetics to young girls, it may target their mothers as the main target, as they are getting older but still have a girlish heart. This kind of "detail marketing" targets the emotional resonance of family members.

Not everyone will express what they really want, but if you can cleverly touch their potential psychological needs in other ways, you will gain their trust, and family relationships provide such clues.

3. Promote social marketing on multiple platforms

Family members have their own media preferences, and to achieve perfect penetration, effective integration of multimedia is required.

For example, the advantage of TikTok is that it helps people share interesting experiences around them; Xiaohongshu, as a gathering place for various fashion and beauty bloggers, mainly uses content as a shopping guide; Babytree has gathered a large number of moms and dads, who exchange parenting experiences, share their shopping tips, and cooking ideas... These are all important entry points into family marketing, but they have not been opened up.

As personalized commercial traffic centers, celebrities have the best chance to integrate discrete and inefficient household consumption scenarios.

Therefore, how to utilize the opinion leadership role of celebrities and big Vs to focus on life experience and reconstruct family consumption scenarios will be an opportunity window for the domestic advertising industry .

American sociologist Duncan gave a wonderful description in his book "It's a Small World": The way to continuously connect different individuals in different groups is the scene. Different individuals in different groups are connected by scenes. The unique value created by this connection will shape experience, promote consumption and even create meaning for individual survival.

3. Summary

Right now, the marketing industry is facing an irresistible black swan event, but in a few months, social and business activities will regain vitality, and a certain degree of consumption rebound will be a high probability event.

Users and consumers will not disappear, that is very certain.

But consumers' needs and habits will change due to the stay-at-home economy during this period. The marketing industry needs to have insight into this and make long-term preparations.

At this time of headwind, large-scale exhibitions and offline activities have been cancelled, catering and offline experience services have been greatly reduced, and the "traffic" of offline advertising is nowhere to be found...

This is an ideal time to upgrade digital infrastructure such as apps, mini-programs, e-commerce platforms, and celebrity communities and increase their activity.

Marketing professionals rarely take the time to calm down and rethink how to provide refined services to customers and operate their teams meticulously as they do now.

In particular, strengthen communication with the important customers you serve, understand their difficulties, predicaments and situations, help your customers think more and help more. Don’t worry about whether these are within the scope of the service. Only when your customers are well, you will be well.

Now is also a good time to try out new ideas. Why not try out things that you have always wanted to do but didn’t have time to do, and train yourself for the future.

All moments of adversity are good opportunities to develop beyond the norm and leave your competitors behind. Good companies are more likely to succeed in adversity, and great trees grow in adversity.

Author: Li Meng

Source: Li Meng (ID: imslimeng)