Everything is IP, making the best-selling products have a pattern to follow

In today's era of fragmented and even powdered information, nine out of ten marketers say that marketing is becoming increasingly difficult.

Product homogeneity, personalization of marketing requirements, price competition in the market, high cost of online traffic, public distrust of communication, reduced brand loyalty... Faced with constantly emerging problems, how can marketers break through the siege, occupy users' fragmented time, form viral fission communication, and continuously create "screen-sweeping" marketing events?

The Internet is like a forest fire. Whenever it spreads to an industry, it will cause a reshuffle and reshaping of that industry. ——Xiao Daxia, founder of the “Super Topic” theory

In the era of information fragmentation, communication is a double-edged sword, which means that any information has the potential to gain attention, but it also means that any information is more likely to be drowned out.

Under the premise that everyone is a self-media, it is naturally more difficult for the content produced by marketers to "go viral" than before.

So, in today's complex and noisy market environment, how can we seize the public's attention and time, use eye-catching and heart-touching super topics to ignite brand voice and create value for the brand?

Marketing is both an art and a science. No one disagrees that good marketing requires a moment of inspiration, but before getting that inspiration, we need to deeply understand the essence of marketing, master the marketing methodology, conduct a lot of thinking training, and accumulate sufficient knowledge reserves.

2. 6P Methodology

What is shared below is the universal formula for creating super topics - the 6P methodology - which was summarized by Xiao Daxia, a leader in topic marketing and founder of Xinqi Interactive, based on classic marketing theories and nearly a decade of practical experience.

6P: Position, Parallel, Pleasure, Push, Play, Promote.

1. Positioning: Good positioning is the basis of super topics

"The key to business success is to stand out in the minds of customers. This is positioning." - Jack Trout, founder of positioning theory

Positioning theory has told us that when companies promote products and brands, they should clearly define the product positioning, target consumer positioning, and communication channel positioning.

In today's era when the consumer market is becoming increasingly segmented and the channels for receiving information are diverse and complicated, advertising without a target is no longer feasible.

However, many marketers who have accepted and are practicing positioning theory are constrained by this theory and are unable to come up with bolder and more innovative marketing ideas.

For example, some brand owners believe that if their brand positioning is to B (business-oriented), then there is no need to do to C (consumer-oriented) marketing. Or if your brand positioning is high-end, you cannot cooperate with Internet celebrities in marketing.

In today's era of fragmented communication, positioning theory must also adapt to the great changes in the market and expand.

Brand positioning is unique, but the brand’s content marketing positioning should be diverse and variable; the two are not the same.

In order to carry out effective topic marketing, you must understand the current trends in content production and dissemination.

Today, everyone is a content producer and disseminator, and everyone has the potential to create considerable influence. Social networks have no boundaries, and the same goes for communication. There is only a starting point, but no end point.

Therefore, if you want to find a positioning strategy suitable for communication, you need to break away from traditional brand positioning and position yourself more based on the target audience.

The positioning of viral creative marketing is to find the communicators who can influence users and buyers, conduct in-depth analysis of the communicators' portraits, and lock in the core circle of people who are most willing to spread the word.

Then, by utilizing the uniqueness of the information, we can hit the communication desire of the core circle of people, and use the circle of people as the base to spread the information in all directions, reaching an extremely high level of popularity in a short period of time, and then continuously expand the circle based on the popularity, ultimately creating a marketing event that has both scale and conversion potential.

This method of targeting the target audience and creating circle-based marketing hotspots is called “super topic positioning.”

2. Parallel: Make the generation of ideas as simple as addition and subtraction

"Inspiration is the reward for hard work." - Russian artist Ilya Yefimovich Repin

Most marketers may have faced, or are facing, the problem of creative exhaustion. The creative team got together for a brainstorming session, only to find that as time went by, they still hadn't produced any eye-catching ideas.

It is true that inspiration does not come at will, but it does not mean that we cannot effectively produce creativity through training and methods.

A good marketing idea is to present the core information of the brand in the most impressive way so that its target audience can see and remember it. And to achieve this, connections are needed.

Because people will more easily pay attention to content that is relevant to them and in which they can feel involved.

Therefore, if a close connection can be established between seemingly unrelated brand information elements and elements that people feel are relevant to themselves, and this connection is expressed in an interesting form, the brand will be able to break through the noise and interference and gain people's attention.

Special time periods, such as the "Two Sessions", are a factor that people can particularly feel connected to.

During the 2017 Two Sessions, Xiao Daxia's team and the new media marketing department of People's Daily jointly created a very down-to-earth WeChat H5 work - "The Two Sessions are calling you to join the group chat." After the release of this WeChat H5, it quickly became popular in the Moments of people across the country.

By linking the special time node of the "Two Sessions" with the high-frequency usage scenario of WeChat, we have successfully sparked the public's attention to the current political topic of the "Two Sessions".

If you want to use relevance to create a super topic and play a role in marketing, there are several necessary prerequisites.

First, marketers need to have excellent online sense.

What is Internet sense?

Internet sense refers to the sensitivity to information and the perception of changes in the surrounding environment. Some people noticed that the health of middle-aged people has become a hot topic, and then they thought of the standard health care equipment for middle-aged people - a thermos cup used to soak wolfberries, so they made the thermos cup used to soak wolfberries a hot topic.

Second, you also need an IP that has its own traffic attributes.

To be more precise, if something that can generate correlation has its own traffic, then it has the potential to be built into an IP. The aforementioned WeChat and the two sessions, as well as celebrities, Apple phones, the four great classics... the so-called "everything is IP."

3. Pleasure: A solution to super topics

Fun makes the expression of creativity more interesting, and makes the topic more resonant, topical, controversial and spreadable, which helps to create super topics that have influence on users and achieve the purpose of spreading brands and products.

Regarding the fun of marketing, someone defines it as follows: "It uses a kind of affinity to make the audience feel novel and excited, and deeply moved by the visual charm and emotional charm of the work.

It allows the audience to enjoy beauty while obtaining information, and to easily and naturally receive the information conveyed by marketing communications during the process of aesthetic experience. ”

Although different people have different understandings of what is interesting, the practical experience of generations of marketers and advertisers has summarized a number of rules of interest that are common to people all over the world.

For example, conflict. Conflict implies a certain degree of opposition, a certain degree of drama, and the uncertainty of the outcome. Who doesn’t like watching a play? Used properly, conflict can attract a lot of attention.

Let me share a case of how Xishaoye Roujiamo creates customer traffic. When Xishaoye Roujiamo opened in Beijing Wangjing SOHO, it specially organized a push-up competition - Pan Shiyi versus Meng Bing, invited the crowd to watch, and provided free Roujiamo.

On the day of the event, it was said that more than 1,000 people came to watch, and the store was packed. By creating a "competition" conflict incident, Xishaoye Roujiamo became an instant hit in Wangjing SOHO.

There are other interesting rules, such as contrast, counterattack, contrast, amazing reversal, cross-border cooperation, etc. There are many kinds of interesting rules that can be used as reference.

However, it should be noted that fun is the icing on the cake of content in every aspect. Increasing fun needs to be done on the premise of satisfying product functions. There is no need to force fun just for the sake of fun.

4. Push: inject viral genes into the spread

As long as you find the right fulcrum, you can leverage the entire social network. ——Chen Hua, CEO of Changba

In this era of information explosion, even good wine is afraid of being hidden in a remote alley. If a brand doesn’t speak, or just talks to itself, it won’t be able to effectively convey its message to consumers, let alone leave any impression on them.

Through the previous three rules, brands can create a "super topic" that can effectively convey brand information. Next, the brand must accurately spread the "super topic" through effective communication strategies.

How can we be both precise and widely spread?

Brands need to find the right fit between the content they are communicating and the needs of their target audiences in order to produce content that meets the needs of their audiences. It is also necessary to understand how the audience obtains information in order to choose the appropriate media channels to reach them. This is accurate.

When it comes to media planning, remember that what fits is what matters. You need to find matching self-media and KOLs, social resources and news media based on the brand positioning and the message you want to convey. You cannot just place them indiscriminately.

In addition, with the application and promotion of 5G, video websites and mobile apps will occupy more time of users in the future, so it is also necessary to include the recommended position of video websites in media planning.

Communication is never achieved overnight. We need to make a good media plan for secondary dissemination so that the dissemination can “fly a little longer”.

How the communication ends also needs the support of media strategy. A good closing-period media strategy can enhance the overall communication effect.

High-quality content combined with precise communication enables audiences to receive information they consider valuable, which in turn generates a desire to share. Information can be spread secondary, tertiary or even more times through sharing by core audiences. This is diffusion.

Of course, when formulating actual communication strategies, there are also many techniques and methods that can enable a brand to trigger phenomenal communication in one go.

For example, leveraging the influence of KOLs, taking advantage of current hot topics, using big data for targeted publicity, etc.

The copywriting of Tuniu Travel Network, "As long as there is sand in your heart, everywhere is Maldives", coupled with the photo of Beach Guy lying on the street in Chengdu, became popular quickly and sparked heated discussions. The reason is that in addition to the touching content itself, it is also because it has been reposted by celebrities such as Zhang Xinyi and Sha Yi, and even investment circle tycoon Mr. Kai-Fu Lee, making the entire work more widely disseminated.

But in general, creating phenomenal communication does not rely on luck, but on systematic, scientific communication strategies and down-to-earth execution.

6. Play: Stimulate secondary dissemination and make dissemination more effective

"The core of Internet thinking is word of mouth is king, and the essence of word of mouth is user thinking, which is to make users feel involved." - Li Wanqiang, co-founder of Xiaomi

People's consumption concepts are changing, from the initial "function-oriented" consumption, to "brand-oriented" consumption, and then to "experiential" consumption, and now have entered the "participatory" consumption era.

Correspondingly, the marketing concept has also evolved from the early product-oriented to today's participatory marketing.

Brand owners have found that if consumers can participate in the process of brand building and product creation, they will have stronger loyalty and satisfaction with the brand and will be more likely to recommend the brand to others.

Moreover, through participatory marketing, brands can also understand users' ideas and needs, and maintain close, timely and continuous interaction with users, so as to better improve and develop better products based on user needs.

Encouraging and guiding UGC (user-generated content) is one of the most commonly used participatory marketing methods. Through test-type interactions, imitations, challenges and other forms, users can be effectively stimulated to spread the message secondary and create greater voice for the brand.

Take the marketing hit song "Little Apple" from the movie "Old Boy: Way of the Dragon" as an example. "Little Apple" is one of the most successful hits created in recent years.

At that time, in addition to shooting the "Little Apple" MV, the production team also planned to remake 48 videos imitating "Little Apple". For 16 consecutive days after the song was released, they maintained a frequency of 3 videos online every day and recommended them on the Youku homepage to ensure that different types of groups were covered.

These "imitation" videos include the EXO version of "Little Apple" by the popular idol group (fans used EXO's MV to match the music of "Little Apple"), as well as the square dance auntie version.

In addition, there were also various cover and remake versions uploaded by users themselves, which together with the official video pushed the popularity of "Little Apple" to a climax.

According to the latest statistics, the original MV of "Little Apple" has been played 1.1 million times, while the total number of views of all remakes has reached 1.2 billion. This is what user engagement can achieve.

There are many forms of participatory marketing, and no one type is suitable for all brands. The most important thing for a brand is to truly listen to users’ opinions and actively provide feedback on their needs, so that users can feel involved and be willing to speak up for the brand.

Accumulating the potential energy of loyal users is the key to super topics achieving low investment and high output.

7. Promote: Set promotion goals to make the promotion more targeted

No matter how powerful the communication is, it is meaningless if it cannot ultimately lead to conversion. As the benefits of Internet social networking disappear, brand owners are increasingly paying attention to the conversion effects of marketing activities, hoping that every penny can be spent wisely to achieve the highest conversion rate.

Conversion includes but is not limited to completing registration, downloading, purchasing, etc. When talking about conversion, we have to mention traffic. Brand traffic is the basis for achieving conversion.

But this does not mean that more traffic will necessarily lead to more conversions.

Therefore, marketers must first understand the source and form of brand traffic. Establish communications goals and direct all marketing activities toward these conversion goals.

Baidu Index, WeChat/Weibo Index, downloads, and sales are all quantifiable units of communication goals.

In topic dissemination, creating attractive landing pages, embedding QR codes in appropriate places, and designing clear and simple conversion action guidelines (such as button design) can all help trigger user actions more effectively.

For those who do marketing, only through continuous learning and imitation, and continuous summarization and accumulation of experience through experiments and experiences, can they know what kind of marketing model is suitable for the brands and products they are facing.

At the same time, in addition to mastering core marketing theories and underlying logic, marketers must also cultivate a keen sense of the society in which they live and pay close attention to hot current events and new things, so as to provide a constant source of creativity for the implementation of marketing strategies.

Xiao Daxia, the founder of Xinqi Interactive, is not a marketing theorist, but he is a top operator who has fought his way through the fierce competition in this new media marketing environment.

In the book "Super Topics", Xiao Daxia combines marketing theories with nearly ten years of practical experience, and reveals the secrets of success of his many classic marketing cases to create the universal formula for super topics - the 6P methodology.

In addition to explaining the underlying logic and practical application methods of this methodology, this book also sorts out and summarizes the current marketing and communication environment to help marketers see the battlefield they are in.

When you get this book and start your own marketing thinking training according to this book, you will feel that you are not alone in the pursuit of better creativity.

Author: Xiao Daxia

Source: Noteman