Brand marketing: 3 ways to make your brand younger

Brand rejuvenation is one of the buzzwords in the marketing industry. However, we should not blindly follow the popularity of this idea, but rationally analyze the reasons and feasibility behind it.

In recent years, brand rejuvenation has become a hot topic. In the consumer market, there are successful examples like Li Ning, as well as declining examples like Huiyuan. There are many methodologies, but not many substantive rules.

Today I will talk about why brands need to become younger and how to do it.

1. Does brand rejuvenation mean younger people?

Many people have discussed this issue. I think brand rejuvenation does not equal youthfulness, because if this is correct, the logic is "your target customers like products similar to theirs."

If this is correct, it would be difficult to explain why so many young people like to buy Rolex, older people like Apple and Huawei, and middle-aged people drink Pepsi.

In fact, for consumer goods with social attributes, customers prefer brands that are close to their ideal personality , such as mobile phones, bags, and clothes. For pure consumer goods, customers prefer brands that are similar to themselves , such as toiletries and furniture.

A trend I have observed recently is that some categories that were originally pure consumer goods, such as SK-II, LANCOME, and LA MER in the beauty and skin care sectors, have also begun to transform themselves into customers’ ideal personalities (for example, SK-II uses Dou Jingtong as its spokesperson to emphasize individuality and freedom).

Because in daily life, the topic of this category has become a topic of conversation, and consumers discuss it more in their social lives, so it has social attributes .

This also explains why even home appliance brands like Gree and Midea need to become younger, because smart home appliances are now one of the hot topics among many consumers.

2. Which brands need to be younger?

In addition to the social attributes of the categories I mentioned above, the strategies that have supported the success of some large companies in the past also force them to become younger.

The most common explanation for this problem is that brands need to become younger because the group they originally served has grown old and is no longer the main consumer group, so they need to please the young main consumer group.

First of all, the middle-aged consumer group did not suddenly enter the elderly market in recent years . It is true that the consumer market for the silver generation in my country has been in a state of expansion, but we have not observed any special nodes where this group of middle-aged consumers suddenly switched to the elderly consumption mode.

What's more, why did the trend of brand rejuvenation not appear before 2010, but in recent years? After all, for these brands with dozens or even hundreds of years of history, ten years is just a very short period of time .

So I think the above explanation is partly correct, but not complete.

So the question is, there must be a deeper reason why many brands are so eager to become younger.

In a sense, a brand is actually a tool for products. The purpose of this tool is to attract consumers to buy it from many choices in a category.

Whether it is historical evolution or business logic, it is inseparable from the saying "To knock nails, you need to use a hammer, not an axe" - tools serve the purpose.

The reason why brand as a tool needs to change is because the purpose has changed .

Let me first state the conclusion. I think the reason why brands are becoming younger is that in the past, the purpose of branding was to facilitate distinction and identification; now, branding is to make consumers fall in love with it at first sight.

I think this is an interaction between a consumer's behavioral and ideological changes - behavioral changes of "shortening and reconstructing the consumption path" and ideological changes of "enhancing aesthetic confidence."

1. Shorten and reconstruct the consumption path

Let’s go back 10 years or even earlier, when online shopping was not yet popular. How did people shop at that time? Generally, people see what they want to buy in newspapers or TV advertisements, and then go to large supermarkets or retail stores to buy them.

It is a very long process from the time you have a certain need to the time you finally find the product in a retail channel and then pay for it. (After all, retail stores may not be right next to your home, and you may not be free to go shopping right away.)

Therefore , the first purpose of a brand in that era was to make you not forget it. So what kind of brand is most memorable? It must be the leading brand in the category. For example, if you want to buy a soft drink, you immediately think of Coca-Cola.

But as long as there is a profitable business, there will definitely be no shortage of competitors. It is difficult for latecomers in these categories to be remembered by consumers by simply associating themselves with a certain category.

The most primitive and effective memory method of our human brain is, of course, classification memory. Therefore, later competing brands achieved the purpose of classification by adding adjectives before the categories, such as Pepsi-Cola, which represents "young people + cola", and Volvo, which represents "safety + car", by occupying and amplifying the adjectives to make the target consumers remember them. (This is what we have been talking about, positioning theory)

If you think the above is too long and don’t want to read it, then you only need to remember this sentence - in the past, consumers relied on mental memory to shop, so brands either had to directly become number one in the category, or constantly differentiate themselves to make themselves remembered by consumers.

On the contrary, the biggest feature of today's consumers is that the entire consumption chain is real-time, and they can even skip the first two steps and go directly to evaluation and purchase.

The reason for this can be explained by the vividness effect (or availability cognitive bias) in psychology. This effect specifically means that due to limited cognitive resources and time, people do not think of all factors like computers before making decisions, evaluate and weight the importance of factors, and instead they will weight the factors based on their availability in the brain, with more vivid factors receiving more importance .

To give a simple example, you are a tourist traveling to another place, and you are originally looking for a restaurant with good reviews on Dianping.com. Suddenly, you pass by a small shop with fragrant smell and many people queuing, so you immediately decide to go to this shop.

This is reflected in scenes from everyday life where vivid examples obscure other convincing evidence in consumers’ minds.

After more than 10 years of development, domestic e-commerce has brought the characteristic of freshness to the fullest at every touchpoint. From picture detail pages, titles, to later soft copywriting, short videos, and live broadcasts, they are constantly impacting big brands that rely on consumer memory to survive.

Therefore, the key to a brand’s success becomes – a brief contact at any point of contact can make consumers immediately excited.

2. The purpose of consumption has become consumption for oneself

In previous articles, I mentioned that the consumption motivations of this generation of middle-class consumers have undergone fundamental changes. If previous consumers needed to find a suitable reason for any of their consumption (for example, buying a high-end suit for socializing), today's consumers consume to please themselves (for example, buying a high-end suit to make themselves happier on their birthday).

This change is also reflected in the fact that consumer markets that were once motivated by altruism are becoming less common.

Harvard Business School has an insight that China's luxury goods market has been highly correlated with gift-giving consumption over the past decade. In 2014, due to changes in national policies, business gift-giving consumption declined, and sales of imported high-end liquor and watches also fell. The rebound in luxury consumption in recent years is more due to consumers' own recognition of luxury brands.

In fact, it is not just luxury goods. There are also many small circles of consumption, such as the Hanfu circle, the trendy shoes circle, and the fan circle. They all follow a new logic - I think what is good is good.

Apart from other social factors, China's young consumers have greater confidence in aesthetics, and their personal aesthetics have become the biggest factor in their decision-making.

The result of the above two changes is that those brands that could have developed well by simply buying traffic (finding more famous spokespersons, sponsoring larger programs, controlling more channels, etc.) are starting to get anxious.

For example, White Rabbit Milk Candy. The success of this brand in the past was due to the demand for gifts during the Chinese New Year. Decades ago, when supplies were scarce, "seven pieces of White Rabbit Milk Candy could make a cup of milk" made it popular. At that time, it only needed to find a better channel to sell.

Similarly, large hair care brands such as Rejoice and Head & Shoulders have been able to develop in the past decade or so by simply finding big-name spokespersons, expanding more channels, and buying more prime-time television advertisements.

We see that many brands that need to become younger are mostly industry-leading mid- to high-frequency consumer products, because these consumer products are the most sensitive to consumer paths.

3. How to make the brand younger?

So based on what I said above, not all brands need to be younger.

Consumer brands that are gradually acquiring social attributes, as well as brands that can no longer develop simply by buying traffic and expanding channels, need to achieve new growth through youngerization.

Just like I said above, the core of a brand in the past was to be remembered, but now the core of a brand is to make consumers excited.

Although this idea seems simple, many people cannot get around it.

Because it is not difficult to make people remember. Many times, you just need to increase exposure and contact with consumers more often, or use very simple and repetitive information to brainwash them , and they will be remembered.

(For example, do you remember the Hengyuanxiang card machine advertisement? In the past, everyone remembered it and would naturally look for this brand when they went to the store. But now, when consumers search for this brand on Taobao, many similar sweater brands pop up, and the ones that look more attractive in pictures and have a higher cost-effectiveness are immediately attracted. This is the difference)

A brand that can attract consumers' attention, to use the words of If You Are the One, is someone who will not ignore me, has an interesting soul, and can be taken out . I think it can be shaped in three aspects:

1. Communication with feedback
2. Creating conflict
3. New elements mix

1. Communication with feedback

Cute culture is now very popular in mainstream culture, and the rapid development of Bilibili can indirectly confirm this trend.

This has given many brands the illusion that in order to get closer to young people, they have to play with cute culture and become adorable.

But in fact, the reason why "cuteness" has become mainstream culture is not because it looks good, but because of a deeper psychological need logic.

Studies have shown that being cute is about getting feedback and interaction, and is associated with new forms of social connection. For example, when we see a cute puppy or baby, we can't help but go up and tease it. This is actually the effect of cuteness.

Today’s younger generation comes into contact with strangers on the Internet every day. In order to interact with them most efficiently, cute culture becomes a very useful bridge.

So to sum up, young people like cuteness, and essentially they crave feedback in social interactions .

Similarly, if a brand can continuously provide consumers with feedback, especially personalized feedback, it can be easily accepted by young consumers.

For example, Xiaomi started out by building and operating a fan community. In the beginning, it continuously improved the operating system by interacting with MIUI users in the forum and accumulated a large group of loyal consumers.

Durex gained many customers by interacting with fans on Weibo and telling jokes. (PS. Durex has a history of more than 90 years)

The interaction between the user "Diaoxiong" created by Diao Pai on Weibo and its fans has also made many young people fall in love with this old daily chemical brand.

What young consumers are most willing to see is that their voices are reflected in the brand’s products or operations, rather than the previous kind of book-reading-style bombardment propaganda.

2. Create conflict

When we judge whether a brand can attract young people, we are essentially looking at whether it is in line with the values ​​of this era .

One of the biggest values ​​of this era is that there is no absolute right or wrong even in opposite positions , such as domestic and imported, mass and niche, familiar and unfamiliar, luxury and cost-effectiveness, retro and modern, etc. Many inherent concepts need fresh elements to break.

For example, the success of Li Ning's national trend is that he made a strong contrast between the national trend element and the world. He participated in the New York Fashion Week to show this conflict to the extreme. On a deeper level, it broke the original cultural concept that it is difficult for Chinese elements to go abroad, so it won the favor of young people.

(Similarly, Huawei's Chinese quality brand also broke the idea that Chinese products are of low quality, becoming China's black technology and gaining popularity among young people; other brands that follow this approach include Perfect Diary's National Geographic magazine series and M&G Stationery's British Museum series.)

We see that a popular saying nowadays is: building a brand requires telling a good story. The reason behind this is that conflict creates good stories .

SK-II's success in youth marketing began with its collaboration with Dou Jingtong. The conflict between a high-end brand and a young person with tattoos is the fusion of tradition and individuality. A similar example is Pechoin's advertisement "Four Beauties Are Not Happy", which spoofed the four beauties and was also a conflict between retro and modern.

In fact, it is not just a conflict in terms of time and culture, but also a conflict between generations (such as the "What is Peppa Pig" video, you read that right, Peppa Pig has been an IP for more than 15 years), and a conflict between mediocrity and dreams (Taiwan's Dazhong Bank's "Dream Knight").

A pattern we can see here is to use the brand's own tone to create contrast and conflict, so that it can become a brand that young people find interesting.

3. Mix and match new elements

If we ask young people what characteristics of the brands they would accept, I believe there is a simple but true answer - after using it, I feel that my life is pretty good .

This is a threshold that seems simple, but in fact many old brands cannot cross it because young people's aesthetic views have changed.

For example, many liquor brands, such as Harbin Beer and Snow Beer, were available in the past when materials were scarce, which was proof that the young people at that time felt they were living a good life.

But today's young people are no longer satisfied with a life of "a few bottles of beer and a plate of peanuts". If you want to live a good life, you may have to make a cup of wolfberry and put a few ginseng roots in it to chew.

So what if the brand itself no longer appeals to young people, such as unhealthy categories like beer and candy?

In fact, one company that has already tried to answer this question is Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola's sales have been declining since the beginning of the 21st century, mainly because it is a syrup drink, and high-sugar drinks are definitely unhealthy in the eyes of young people. So Coca-Cola first launched the Zero drink, but the effect was not very good.

So Coca-Cola began to turn its own brand into an IP, and jointly launched products in completely different categories such as clothing and beauty products with other brands.

Similarly, McDonald's is a fast food brand, and fast food is considered to be unhealthy food, but McDonald's has co-branded fast food handbags and beauty products. There are also White Rabbit and Vitasoy, which are the cross-border attempts that many brands are making in the process of becoming younger.

This combination of new cross-border elements will make young people feel fresh and find it fun.

But I think the real purpose of cross-border cooperation is not to increase exposure through other brands, but to dilute the connection between brand assets and original products and maintain the value of the brand. The advantage of this is that it is easier to integrate into the lives of young people .

IV. Conclusion

I think the fundamental reason for the rejuvenation of brands is that the category itself suddenly has social attributes. The change in consumer paths and the increase in their aesthetic confidence have led to a greater influence of self-values ​​on consumption decisions.

The brands most affected by these two factors are medium and high frequency consumer products. Because the previous way to play with this type of consumer goods was to use various means to make consumers remember them, but now the core is to make consumers tempted.

I think the logic that consumers use to determine their preferences is inherently consistent, whether it is for people or things. Therefore, by analogy with what kind of opposite sex people are attracted to in their daily lives, I think the rejuvenation of the brand can be achieved by increasing feedback communication, creating conflicts to tell stories and mixing new elements.

Finally, let me make a bold prediction. I believe that the most valuable thing in the future business world will be IP. Because with the advancement of technology and the improvement of supply chain networks, the actual differences between products will continue to shrink, and cost advantages will only gradually level off. Ultimately, the difference will appear in added value, which is what we call brand assets.

Therefore, it is a future trend for brands to separate themselves from their products and turn them into IPs. Some people may ask, does a brand IP still have value if it is separated from the physical object? Just like if there is no bottle of syrup, do the four words "Coca-Cola" still have meaning?

I would say this is what Harari mentioned in "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind". What really distinguishes humans from animals is our ability to imagine something meaningful out of nothingness.

Think about the various movie IPs that are popular nowadays.

Author: Mr. He

Source: Yuanwai-HE