Take stock of the brand marketing methods!

"Brand Brainwashing" mentioned many popular "brainwashing" methods, such as fear, peer pressure, sexual suggestion, etc. We will always be curious about some questions, such as

Why is Coca-Cola addictive?

Why was Isatis root so popular during the SARS epidemic?

What do straight men think when they see naked men?

…

All of these are inseparable from the brand's active marketing. Today, let's talk about several promotional methods that may be most effective for conventional brands.

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1. Marketing to Children

Ogilvy once proposed the 3B principle for advertising creativity: beauty, beast, and baby. He believed that such creativity was more in line with human nature of paying attention to life and was more likely to win favor. In fact, the promotion targeting children alone has an effect that is beyond the brand's imagination.

Research shows that advertising can shape children's lasting preferences from a very young age. The younger we are when we start using a product, the more likely we are to continue using it in the future. At the same time, if a brand can make children patronize it again and again, parents will also pay attention to it.

Lego is a particularly typical case. Data shows that while Lego is gaining favor among children, its influence in the adult market is also growing. The sales of Lego among adults aged 18-34 are gradually increasing. A big part of the reason is that loyal users are growing up, but their love for Lego has not diminished.

Therefore, from the perspective of the brand’s entire life cycle, brands that can capture children’s hearts will undoubtedly have more room for imagination.

2. Fear Marketing

Many brands use fear marketing to target their target audiences.

For example, during the SARS period, there were rumors that isatis root had preventive effects. On foggy days, there were special smog masks. These were all taking advantage of consumers' fear of health threats. For example, there were dangerous advertisements targeting girls in specific scenarios, selling anti-wolf alarms. For example, insurance was sold in advance based on the life difficulties of a family after losing the male owner. These were all taking advantage of consumers' fear of safety threats. Another example is diet pills, hand washing with soap, health products, etc., all of which are promoted by taking advantage of consumers' fear of a certain scenario about themselves in the future.

The reason why this method is effective is that, on the one hand, it gains recognition by appealing to the user's consumer psychology through fear-based content; on the other hand, scientifically speaking, fear can cause a surge in people's adrenaline and may also increase purchasing behavior.

In fact, this method has penetrated into every aspect of life. Canned packaging does not make food fresher and healthier, and fish with ice in the fish market sells better, but is it definitely fresher?

Although I don’t like this promotion method, fear marketing is indeed effective for brands.

3. Sexually suggestive marketing

This is not limited to brands like Durex. In fact, many daily necessities brands are deliberately guiding users.

Taking men's daily necessities as an example, as single men live longer and longer periods of time, men's purchasing power is gradually opening up, which can be felt from the emergence of men's products sections in shopping malls or beauty stores. Among these, many brands are intentionally or unintentionally telling a story that using their own brands will make men more charming and attractive. Take a look at the advertisements for anti-dandruff shampoo, men's perfume, men's underwear, etc. Are they all creating such an atmosphere, making male users feel that if they use the brand, they may be favored and surrounded by beautiful women?

There was an interesting survey on what straight men think when they see naked men. In fact, although straight men prefer girls, for brand advertising, it is male models with good figures wearing underwear that are more likely to attract the attention and purchase of male users. Just like above, users often have a strong sense of self-substitution and compare themselves to models.

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How to use people’s primitive desires to make money is a proposition worth considering for every brand.

4. Peer Pressure Marketing

Peer pressure can be understood as the influence between peers or friends. Many times, we tend to "follow suit" based on the behavior of those around us.

For example, the popular sneakers and blind boxes among young people, in fact, the actual demand is far less. There are not so many people who need to wear so many shoes. The fundamental reason is that this is a trend of collecting and following trends. If others can get rare models, they will be the most fashionable ones in the group. Whether they are willing to admit it or not, most of them will receive envious looks from their peers.

For example, when girls buy bags, the actual frequency of use is far less than that. In particular, a survey shows that Asian women buy brand-name bags not because of the quality of the bag’s material, but simply because it is expensive and the brand is well-known. These are all influenced by self-esteem and a desire to show off, and are typical results of peer pressure.

Another typical case is the e-commerce promotion festival, Double 11, which also takes advantage of peer pressure. It is only this promotion period, and if you miss it you have to wait another year. It takes advantage of the fear of missing out if someone else takes it away.

Therefore, it is important to have a deep understanding of the brand’s target user group and to explore many conversion points of peer pressure.

5. Nostalgia Marketing

Many people have encountered nostalgia marketing, which is to awaken people's existing emotions towards certain brands.

For example, Wangzai Milk. Many years ago, there was an advertisement in which a little boy named Wang Xiaoming drank Wangzai on his way to school, which left deep memories for a generation. As a result, last year, Wangzai invited the little actor, who had grown up, back to shoot an adult version of the advertisement in which the boy drank Wangzai on his way to school, and also launched many larger-sized products in order to awaken the memories of old users.

For example, the Spring Festival Gala or certain evening parties always invite some once-popular stars to perform classic songs at fixed times, such as the Little Tigers returning to the Spring Festival Gala, etc., all in order to awaken the audience's nostalgic memories.

A survey shows that the songs you like at the age of 20 are basically fixed, and at the age of 35, you are likely to still like the songs you loved at the age of 20, and it is difficult for you to like new trends. Of course, maybe Jay Chou is an exception and always at the forefront.

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The promotional method of nostalgia requires that the brand has accumulated a certain user base.

6. Celebrity Marketing

Practice has proved that finding celebrities or experts to endorse products is effective. There was once a survey that asked users to watch brands and found that when the users' brains were scanned, when celebrities appeared in brand advertisements, they would receive much stronger brain feedback than when other unknown handsome men and beautiful women appeared.

And many times, at different stages of life, stars often mean role models and motivation. For example, when we are young, we like superheroes such as X-Men, when we are teenagers, we like sports stars such as Jordan and James, and further, we like people who are good at business or certain professions.

There is nothing wrong with this preference. After all, at many stages of life, we need role models to motivate ourselves. Of course, this also gives brands opportunities. When a brand chooses a celebrity for promotion, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a star. It can be an industry professional, a KOL, or even a company owner, depending on the specific circumstances.

In addition to the above six marketing methods, there are many other ways of brand brainwashing. The core idea is to tell you that, on the one hand, as an operator, you must understand how to do brand brainwashing, and on the other hand, as a consumer, you must avoid falling into the trap of excessive marketing of certain brands. Ultimately, consumption choices are made by ourselves, and I hope everyone can pay for brands that are truly worthy.

Author: Lao Nie talks about brands

Source: Lao Nie talks about brands