How do brands formulate promotion strategies?

Each enterprise is at a different stage, so the promotion strategy cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. Some strategies for brands in the start-up stage, development stage, and mature stage should have different emphases.

1. Brand promotion strategy during the start-up period

For most start-up companies, they are actually far from being called "brands" because almost no one pays attention to them and they only have extremely low brand value at this time. At this stage, you should not be constrained. Gaining attention is the most important proposition at this stage, and the strategy should also focus on this.

In the absence of money and resources, channel strategy is the core means of entrepreneurial brands.

1. Choose innovative channels

The reality is that the channels you like have basically been chosen by mature companies. If you choose again, you either cannot afford it or cannot compete with mature brands. Innovative channels are the best way. This does not mean creating one's own channels, which is too difficult, but rather the flexible use of existing channels.

For example, a certain taxi-hailing platform noticed in the early days of its business that the high-profile advertisements at certain intersections attracted a lot of attention, but the cost of placing them was too high. In the end, it chose to hire people to hold large billboards. The effect and attention were similar, but the cost was reduced by dozens of times.

Another example is subway car advertising. In fact, if we use the traditional delivery method and the current attention it receives, it is difficult to gain attention and conversion by simply buying a few train cars. However, if the form of the material is changed, the effect may be different. For example, NetEase Cloud Music’s subway advertisements and Le Caesar’s elevator alien posters can both gain higher attention at the same cost and through the same channels.

2. Choose precise channels

A narrow channel is far better than many channels, especially for start-up brands.

Taking the travel platform that we operated before as an example, we carried out marketing to both tour guides and tourists. Take tour guides as an example. Going to travel agencies one by one to negotiate cooperation has high labor costs and limited effects. It is far less direct than opening up channels of industry associations and obtaining publicity from top to bottom.

On the tourist side, many channels such as SMO, DSP, Tik Tok, public account content marketing, and influencers can bring in customers, but the most direct way is to cooperate with large travel platforms such as Ctrip and Fliggy to become a supplier. This is the most direct way to acquire customers with lower costs. After all, there is no need to educate users and consider the issue of pure investment-output ratio.

The same applies to other industries. You need to think clearly about your brand, where your core customer base is, and what precise channels can be used to reach them.

3. Use repeat channels

Unlike mature brands, it is difficult for startups to launch omni-channel saturation attacks. At this time, repetition is the best strategy.

With the same amount of money, it is far better to choose the channel that suits you, continue to invest, constantly influence the same group of users, and continue to penetrate , rather than spending it in a dispersed manner. Don’t think it’s a waste. Even if an advertisement appears in front of the same user every day, he or she may not remember it. What you need to do is to continue showing it to the user.

Finally, in today’s era, everything is a channel, including your circle of friends, your signature, and perhaps your background picture. You must use them flexibly.

2. Brand promotion during the development period

At this point, the brand has already accumulated a certain amount of users and industry attention, and it is also the most critical stage in the development of the company. Compared with blindly speaking and spreading, it is more important to think clearly about the current focus.

The goal of a startup brand may be simple, which is to gain attention, but for companies in the development stage, market share, reputation, new product development, old user operations, etc. are all very important. As far as promotion strategies are concerned, I believe that the current focus of companies in the development stage is to enhance the brand's internal strength.

This is not an empty word. Rather, when an enterprise develops to this stage, the responsibility of communication is to be more efficient, which will provide the greatest value to the future development and valuation of the brand in the long run. At this time, enhancing the value of content and maximizing the value of channels are the most important propositions.

1. Improvement of content value

Through the accumulation in the initial stage, the company has gained a certain position in the industry and a group of loyal users. In the minds of these users, in the minds of people in the industry, and in the eyes of the media, what is the perception of the brand? Is this perception completely correct or is it what the company wants to convey to users?

If this perception is what the company wants, then the subsequent communication content should revolve around this perception and continue to deepen the impression, from users to industry insiders, from the media to employees, so that everyone recognizes it and further expands the brand influence.

If this perception is not what the brand wants to convey, then we need to figure out why the cognitive bias occurs. Find out the key points that these users are not aware of that lead them to choose your brand. This way you will know which ones are misunderstandings and which ones need further deepening and communication. Make good choices and gradually optimize subsequent communication content.

Don’t underestimate this point. At this stage, it is easiest to expand user reputation and growth by improving the value of content.

2. Enhancement of channel value

At this stage, more channel resources will be obtained, such as various industry conferences and various types of cross-industry cooperation, but not every channel can help the brand at this stage.

Brands need to focus resources and energy, choose the most suitable channels, cherish every opportunity, and maximize the communication value of each channel. For example, it is far better to choose a more important conference than to attend five award conferences. Think clearly about the value you want to gain from the conference, and carefully prepare the conference theme and disseminate related content. The effect is often better. The same is true for distribution channels. It is more valuable to continue to penetrate a certain channel and continuously improve the input-output ratio.

For brands in the development stage and at a high growth rate, cultivating internal strength is the top priority, which can double all positively correlated benefits.

3. Brand promotion in the mature stage

There are mainly two categories here, one is mature brands in the rising stage of the industry, and the other is mature brands in the declining stage of the industry. The core strategies of the two are completely different.

1. Mature brands in the rising stage of the industry should increase resource investment to ensure market share

Why put industry trends first? Because we have seen many companies that, as soon as they gain a leading position in the industry, begin to rush to expand, make changes, and even cross over to compete in unfamiliar fields. This is a typical strategic loss of focus.

For a leader in a clear upward industry trend, what needs to be done is to continue to tap into industry dividends, increase resource investment as much as possible, and ensure absolute leadership in its own advantageous market, so as to maximize the brand value.

If we observe those mature brands that we are familiar with, we will find that they all stick to their own industries and have achieved great results.

2. Mature brands in the industry's decline period, maintain reputation and look for a second growth point

Similarly, for industry leaders in a declining stage, the first thing they need to do is to maintain their existing market share, and the other key thing they need to do is to seek a second growth point.

This is a very realistic problem. Under the premise of industry stalling, being able to maintain the user loss rate and maintain a good reputation among old users is already a great success. It is difficult to rejuvenate it a second time. We can only seek a second growth point and seek more opportunities for the brand.

Here we can use a reference for the second growth point, which is to rely on the existing core user base and existing core technology to expand, and it is best not to use the existing brand name. After all, the mental perception of a mature brand is difficult to reverse.

In summary:

In the start-up phase, the core of the promotion strategy is to focus on the channel strategy, and to achieve rapid development through innovation, precision and repetitive channels;

In the process of development, the core of the promotion strategy is to improve internal strength and dig deep into the value of content and channels;

In the mature stage, strategic points should be determined based on industry trends.

We must combine the actual situation of enterprise development to create more opportunities for the brand.

Author: Lao Nie talks about brands

Source: PR Home