You can’t build a good brand just by focusing on ROI

This article will analyze from the perspective of human nature and psychology, the constituent elements of a brand, how to create psychological value, how to communicate a brand image, how to build a brand when the budget is insufficient, and many examples.

Not long ago, a brand called Honlife in Tmall’s cereal industry caught my attention. It made a big splash, invited Guan Xiaotong to be its spokesperson, and made large-scale investments on Douyin and Xiaohongshu. In half a year, it grew very fast. Although it could not shake the position of TOP1 Wang Baobao, it also made it feel that there are young people to be feared.

With little product differentiation, up-and-coming companies have relied on investment and the support of celebrities to quickly establish advantages in the industry and put pressure on their competitors. This situation exists not only in the cereal industry, but has become the norm in many industries. In 2020, it will only get more intense.

One can’t help but wonder, besides launching sales campaigns, how can merchants stand out better in the competition?

China's highly developed supply chain ensures the foundation for consumer product entrepreneurship. With the dividends of content channels and transparent strategies, more and more new consumer product merchants are emerging, and everyone talks about blogger screening and ROI. Today, merchants are gaining momentum with the help of advertising, and tomorrow, competitors will also gain momentum with the help of advertising. Many merchants dare not stop advertising, because if they stop, their sales will be greatly reduced.

Why?

Brand power!

The smaller the differentiation between similar products, the closer they are to homogeneity. Even if the product design, detail page, and selling points of your competitors are similar to yours, as long as the price is lower, consumers will migrate.

Because at this time, consumers use less rationality and more emotion when choosing products. It's almost the same anyway. It depends on your mood to decide who to buy and who not to buy.

The so-called sensibility is often influenced by the illusory "brand", that is, the so-called "brand power": it is formed by the synergistic effect of multiple factors such as products, culture, communication, and logo in the minds of consumers.

I have met many bosses who told me: My product is better than most competitors and will definitely defeat competitors after it is launched on the market.

But friends, doing e-commerce is not just about competing in the supply chain. The environment is no longer the same as it was 10 years ago. A good product is only the basic condition for participating in the red ocean competition. If the product is not good, it will be difficult to survive. Just like if a basketball player wants to play basketball well, height is a basic requirement. (Don't argue with me about Iverson, it's rare)

The red ocean market is not only a competition of product functions, but also a competition of brands. Only when product functions meet users’ basic needs can a brand influence consumer behavior.

Let’s get into our topic today: “Brand Power”.

1. Elements of Brand Power

There are two common misunderstandings about brands:

1. For businesses that are just starting out, there is no need to build a brand first;

2. Branding requires a large investment and is not suitable for small businesses;

A brand is very subtle and difficult to quantify. Its formation comes from all aspects and is a complete system: product quality, product packaging, customer service, after-sales, vision, product concept and other aspects.

1. What is brand power?

When people discuss brands, they will say that brand is trust. The so-called trust is based on the physical properties of the product: good.

"Good" is a very inclusive word in Chinese:

“Brand is trust” has become a bit one-sided in modern times. In the past, the supply chain was underdeveloped, and many products had a competitive barrier as long as they were of good quality. But now, the supply chains in many industries are mature and the products are excellent. Therefore, a brand is not just a quality assurance, but also includes the brand image formed by cultural information.

I think brand power should be:

Product strength: As mentioned above, a good product is the basic condition for you to participate in the red ocean competition. It is determined by the supply chain, formula, raw materials, etc.

Communication power: refers to the ability to communicate effectively, which depends on the quality of the content and the insight into the target consumers. Nowadays, we are exposed to a lot of information every day, and only those attractive and valuable contents are easy to remember.

Do many people think the content? It’s just text or video. Anyone can’t write or shoot it. After trying, I found that the effect was particularly poor, so I blamed the content marketing for being unreliable.

Content of a brand details page

Brand image: This is an important component of brand power. Brand image is the collection of all associations that consumers have with the brand.

Including the product’s user experience, product attributes, brand connotation, humanization, brand story, usage scenarios, honors, spokespersons, specific symbols, etc.

It mainly refers to the "psychological value" of consumers to the brand, reflecting the brand's perception in consumers' memory.

Product packaging is the basis of brand image and the first impression of consumers, so packaging is very important. Packaging is not a cost, but a brand competitiveness.

Example:

What if there are two coffee shops next to your house: "Starbucks" and "Lao Wang Coffee"? What should the "Lao Wang Coffee" team do to attract consumers to shop in the store?

Is the price low?

That is still a selling mindset. Today's consumers will not accept a new product just because it is cheap, otherwise Starbucks would have been deserted long ago.

Price reduction?

Price war is not a long-term solution, because users who came with low prices will leave when you return to the original price.

First of all, we need to understand the main reason why people buy Starbucks coffee? LOGO!

I believe that the first time you try it, it’s because it’s Starbucks, not just because it’s a cup of coffee.

The taste can only be known after experiencing it, and before experiencing it, consumers will establish an impression of Starbucks in their minds through various channels: white-collar workers, refined life, and taste.

Consumers all know that Starbucks coffee is not expensive but is not cheap. They know they are spending more money but gaining "psychological value". The big LOGO on the cup can satisfy their psychological cues: cultural cues, social identity, self-recognition, consumer face, etc.

Channel power: includes communication channel power and sales channel power. This part determines the breadth of product coverage and penetration, so when you have sufficient budget, the channel power is amplified, which is very good for the brand, but the key problem is that many brands do not have such sufficient budgets.

2. What is "psychological value"?

The product value consists of both practical functional value and psychological value.

Psychological value is the psychological enjoyment, spiritual satisfaction and aesthetic pleasure that consumers get from the product, in short, it is the satisfaction of interests at the psychological and spiritual levels.

Why must the logo of luxury goods be big? Even if it is a necklace, the letters must be strung together so that everyone can see it, which is the "psychological value".

Therefore, if you want consumers to buy "Lao Wang Coffee", grand opening sales or low prices alone will not be enough to attract most consumers, because your LOGO cannot satisfy their psychological values.

3. How to create psychological value?

01. Product foundation: honor (champion barista), raw materials (North African coffee beans).

Products are the foundation. Through content, consumers can feel the product power of coffee before they even drink it.

02. Concept and story: The boss’ story (former senior executive starting a business, etc.), making coffee that best suits Chinese tastes/creating better coffee than Starbucks/national sentiment, etc., can trigger consumers’ emotional resonance or emotional identification.

A good story needs to be packaged and optimized to become good content. It is best to achieve high coverage through the support of channel power.

03. Channel power: influence more consumers through effective channels and let consumers establish brand awareness. Because coffee has social attributes, when consumers buy Lao Wang Coffee, they not only want to satisfy their own psychological values, but also want to gain recognition from others, so the breadth of channel power is very important.

04. Lower the experience threshold: It is human nature to seek profit and avoid harm. The same is true for consumers. They are always hesitant when buying goods, fearing that they will be cheated. Good product power must be experienced by consumers after they taste it.

How to lower the experience threshold:

The first cup is free, super-fast takeout, and more stores are available for purchase at any time;

Better service:

The guarantee of refund if the taste is not satisfactory will greatly increase consumers' confidence in purchasing.

In reality, there is no "Lao Wang Coffee". The above are what Luckin Coffee is doing.

So, returning to the brand, there are two core elements: product strength and brand image.

In the era of red ocean competition, portraying "brand image" is much more important than emphasizing "product functional features".

How to communicate brand image

content!

The product is 1, and channels/brand image/communication are all 0s after 1.

All understanding of brand image is based on product strength. The most important thing about product content is to highlight the product's selling points and let consumers understand the product through the content.

The brand image also includes "derivative value", "concept/story", "visual unity", etc.

Derived value: also known as "product spillover", refers to the product exceeding psychological expectations, including product appearance, packaging, cost-effectiveness, service, and even the feeling brought to consumers by touch and smell.

Good product quality only meets the basic shopping needs of users. Only "product overflow" can make consumers feel moved.

Story/Concept: Brands are used to create emotions and ideas. Good brands are not willing to view the consumption process as just a transaction. They prefer to turn consumption activities into a kind of knowledge teaching to consumers, allowing consumers to understand their brand heritage, brand products, production process, product maintenance and value preservation, etc.

Humans are emotional animals. There are two convenience stores downstairs. One of the owners is familiar with you and will greet you every time. But you are not familiar with the other owner at all and you have no communication with him when you buy things. If the hardware conditions are the same, you will definitely prefer to patronize the first store. This is to make consumers emotional by creating emotions.

The story includes the founder's mental journey, original intention, brand personality that he hopes to convey to consumers, product raw materials, place of origin, product consumption scenarios, consumption concepts, etc.

country of origin:

37 degrees north latitude origin

37.1 degrees north latitude origin

Brand Story:

Scenario:

Whether it is a node scenario or a usage scenario, it is all about keeping the brand active among the target consumer groups, which is something that is very worthwhile for a merchant to do.

Product: What is the product?

It is a solution for users in specific consumption scenarios.

Scenario insights lead to products. Once a product comes out, how it will be disseminated in the future has already been determined. The product is the content, and the content is the product.

Here are two examples of product consumption scenarios:

1. Wang Xiaolu

Under the leadership of Luzhu, it has been ranked No. 1 in the chicken snack category on Tmall for more than half a year.

During this year’s New Year Goods Festival, a gift box called “Fortune Claw” was launched, which means being able to grab wealth.

I can't help but admire the imagination of their team. They combined ordinary chicken feet with wealth, which has a very good meaning and is very suitable for the Chinese New Year. Through such a scene insight, they designed the product gift box.

2. Jiang Xiaobai

By gaining insights from the drinking scene: "small gatherings, small drinks, small moments, small emotions", we launched the expression bottle, which directly meets the consumption G-spot of the target consumers.

Visual unity: It is an important means to shape the brand image through vision.

Imagine that a girl promotes herself as a sophisticated woman, so whether it is her hairstyle, makeup, clothes, shoes or bags, the overall feeling she gives to everyone should be sophisticated. If she says everywhere that she is a sophisticated woman, but wears sneakers and sportswear every day, she will not be able to establish the concept of "sophistication" in everyone's mind.

Many brands now claim to be domestic products and domestic trends, but the visual style of their store homepage and detail pages is European and American. This inconsistent visual style is simply unable to establish a brand image.

That year, Li Ning changed his slogan, came up with "Post-90s Li Ning", changed the LOGO, and advertised everywhere. He replaced several general managers but could not stop the embarrassing situation of declining sales. From 2008 to 2014, the stock price fell all the way, and at the worst time, it suffered a huge loss of 3.1 billion.

The root cause is that the problem lies with the product.

Although the concept of "Post-90s Li Ning" is intended to convey Li Ning's transformation into a younger brand to consumers, the product has not kept up. The visual appearance of the entire product gives consumers the impression of being tacky and outdated. No matter how loud the slogan is, if it is separated from the product, it will only be a way to make money.

In 2017, Li Ning transformed into a national trend brand. All of its product lines give people a bright feeling. The design is closely centered around the national trend and improves the appearance. There is no need for brands to shout slogans at the top of their lungs; the overall visual appearance of the product will give people a deep brand impression.

Huaxizi, a top domestic brand, is positioned as "using flowers to nourish makeup". In terms of overall visual design, the design of Huaxizi’s store homepage, details page, and products all give people a strong sense of national trends, and the use of hot stamping makes the overall picture look very high-end.

The Chinese style of Zhong Xue Gao ice cream is achieved through its tile-like shape to strengthen the brand image of users.

Speaking of this, we have to mention Pechoin.

As a veteran domestic brand, Pechoin continues to engage in cross-border and national trends, including a collaboration with the Forbidden City. However, the overall sales volume has not increased much. I found that some colleagues bought Mary Kay, Hua Xizi, Perfect Diary, and HFP, but I didn’t see anyone buying Pechoin. I think the reason is Pechoin’s packaging.

Although the grass green packaging is highly consistent with Pechoin’s positioning as a “herbal skin care product”, it is out of touch with the target users’ aesthetic preferences. The overall visual appearance of this design is not high-end and is a bit tacky, which cannot win the favor of young people.

3. Is telling a story enough?

After reading the above, many merchants might be secretly delighted, as if branding is all about telling stories? So simple? Can even making up stories become a brand?

Of course not!

Branding is a systematic project, which is similar to a merchant’s off-site advertising. Can you generate sales with just one account? There must be breadth, with enough single points to form scale to support brand power, and there must also be continuity over time. If you are lucky and the content becomes popular, that will be icing on the cake.

Example: Volvo

In 1903, the company was the first in the world to invent the three-point seat belt. But consumers think it is safe not only because of the seat belts, but also because it has successively invented sensor wipers, Bluetooth hands-free phone, airbags, anti-collision steel plates, and reversing image radar. Multiple points support customers' perception that Volvo equals safety.

The same principle applies to brand building. Storytelling is just one point in the system. To establish brand barriers and recognition, it is necessary to form a broad range of consumer awareness and weave a diversified consumer cognitive network for the brand. It is unrealistic to capture the user's mind by relying on just one point. And it also cannot be separated from the help of time as a catalyst.

Let’s take a look at what systematic engineering is by taking a very common product as an example:

HEYTEA and milk tea/tea drinks are everywhere in the streets and alleys of every city and are no strangers to everyone. It is such an ordinary category that has given rise to new brands such as Heytea, Nayuki Tea, and Lelecha. Then let’s take a look at Heytea’s brand building.

01. Products:

There is nothing to say about Heytea’s products. Solid product strength is the foundation of Heytea’s success.

02. Derivative value:

Heytea has many flavors to meet the diverse needs of users;

According to the seasons, we create seasonal limited edition fruit teas, such as cheese mango, cheese berry, etc., so that consumers can have different experiences in different seasons.

Appearance: Heytea's products are very beautiful, and the rich milk cap makes people look particularly satisfied.

03. Concept and story:

What is HEYTEA’s brand positioning? One word: cool.

Since "cool" is a very abstract concept, HEYTEA has embodied it as "inspiration" and "Zen". Original intention: HEYTEA aims to make tea drinks younger rather than upgrading milk tea.

Raw materials: All HEYTEA teas are customized at their place of origin, such as oolong tea in Taiwan, black tea in India and Sri Lanka, matcha in Japan, etc.

Concept: New tea culture

HEYTEA keeps crossing borders, making imaginative products, spreading them through interesting content, and building an interesting and playful brand image. For example, launching stinky tofu ice cream in Changsha and roujiamo in Xi'an are both long-term behaviors to enhance the brand core, rather than just a marketing behavior.

04. Visual unity:

Official accounts, store homepages, and detail pages are all very important, as they are the online part of the brand.

The design style, pattern and font of each article on Heytea’s official account closely follow the product image, ensuring simplicity and beauty, and the language also uses young people’s expressions.

Store:

Each HEYTEA store has a different style. The main visual colors of a standard store are white and gray, and the overall decoration style is minimalist. Various theme stores shine brightly, including the cool black and gold store, the cute PINK store, the dreamy DP store, etc., with more prominent design sense and more diverse styles. Although the forms of expression are different, the core is to highlight HEYTEA’s “cool” and “inspiring” brand image.

What to do if the merchant has a small budget?

After reading this, many merchants will have an idea in their minds: our brand has a small budget, and we have to be frugal when hiring bloggers for advertising. The content presented is all about product performance to encourage buying, and there is no way to present stories, values, and concepts?

If your product quality is average and you just want to make a quick buck, then forget about building a brand.

If you really don’t have much money and want to turn your own logo into a brand with psychological value to consumers, it is indeed very difficult. But some basic work must be done:

1. Vision

If your product is decent and has the basic conditions to compete with your competitors, then you should work hard on the visuals, especially the packaging of the product. However, packaging does not mean putting in effort just because the design is exquisite and good-looking. Instead, you should design based on your own brand/product positioning and the preferences of target consumers, including the use of elements, style settings, etc.

In addition to packaging, stores, detail pages, etc. are also very important.

2. Product selling points

It takes time to refine a good product selling point.

3. Focus on delivery

Advertising is currently the most important way for brands to reach consumers.

When people use advertising, they usually combine product selling point description + scenario + price reduction + coupons to stimulate orders. Most of the lost users can’t even remember the name of your brand, which is the integration of investment and effect.

The product that integrates product and effect refers to the brand. In addition to the integration of product and effect, what we should think about is that we should also make the lost consumers have an impression of the brand. This impression is the ingredient party, niacinamide for HFP, gift-giving for Melatonin, carvings for Huaxizi lipstick, 0 sugar, 0 fat, 0 calories for Yuanqi Forest, and fear of getting a sore throat for Wong Lo Kat, etc.

Give users an initial impression through visual presentation, oral expression, scene description, etc., and then consolidate it through repeated presentation of expert content.

Some brands will choose to cooperate with lifestyle influencers, which can not only achieve the purpose of selling products, but also shape the brand image.

Honlife has cooperated with an influencer, a 70-year-old grandmother. The image she created on Douyin is more refined than that of a girl in her 20s. She is not a food blogger and does not promote product features. Through her image, Honlife is linked to refined life.

If a brand wants to impress consumers, it must give them the feeling of being above “me”. It is to change "I" into "not I", for example, to give a feeling of a good life. This is not functional satisfaction for "me", but social and psychological satisfaction.

Of course, it’s not enough to just release this kind of video. It must be released together with videos that promote content to maximize the effect.

4. User focus and then break the circle

It is difficult to have a broad measurement standard for brands. How much influence does a brand have? Is it the one that is famous throughout the country and the world? Of course not.

If it is not a mass consumer product, it will not be able to attract all users. However, as long as you focus on the most accurate target users in the early stage and build brand power among this group, it can also be a successful brand.

Then, you can use the power of capital, media, and celebrity artists to break the circle, expand the breadth of target users, and at the same time form a broader brand impression.

5. Good at using channels and word of mouth

Channels include self-media, detail pages, etc. Not all brands have media coverage, but all brands can register their own self-media accounts to speak out and can transmit content on the product details page.

In the past, people believed that word of mouth among consumers was the dissemination of product power. In fact, word of mouth among consumers is the dissemination of the entire brand. Moreover, when a product has more diversified "points" remembered by consumers, the dissemination power of word of mouth among consumers will be greater.

I like to drink craft beer, and my friends will recommend various niche craft beers to me. However, in addition to the taste, if they can mention the craftsmanship, founder, and raw materials when recommending, it will increase my desire to place an order. This is the “point” of greater diversity.

In addition, continuous user operations, KOL delivery models, regular product updates including product portfolio and pricing strategies are all very important and will not be elaborated here.

IV. Conclusion

Building a brand is actually the process of establishing a psychological barrier for consumers. What is indispensable is the brand owner's mental, energy and financial resources. If the barrier can be easily established, it is not called a barrier.

The founder of a company cannot always focus on ROI and turn himself into an investment expert. Instead, he must stand at the height of corporate development and consider the overall development of the brand. Investment is only a part of brand development.

Although the effect of branding cannot be seen immediately like advertising, we must have a long-term vision and start planning and implementing it little by little in the daily life.

Doing a little bit of brand-related work every day is better than doing nothing.

China currently has 300 million new middle-class people, 378 million Generation Z, 500 million young people from small towns, 200 million elderly people, 300 million mothers and babies, and 150 million pets.

If China's GDP reaches 100 trillion in 2022, compared with 82 trillion in 2017, and consumer expenditure accounts for 60%, compared with 52% in 2017, the consumer market will be a 60 trillion market, including an incremental market of 16 trillion. Therefore, this is the best era, and the great era of consumption is irreversible.

The future is promising. In the new year, I wish everyone can find a bright and smooth path to capture consumers’ “psychological value”.

Author: Marketing Lao Wang

Source: Marketing Lao Wang