How to stimulate user pain points in brand planning?

Introduction: The first time the practice of magnifying certain details was proposed, it was called creativity. When creativity is gradually recognized and spread, differentiation gradually forms due to the existence of information asymmetry. When the balance of the "80/20 principle" is broken and the value of differentiation is gradually lost, differentiation gradually shifts to industry services because the public demand already exists.

As the saying goes: You reap what you sow. Everything has a cause and an effect. However, the "cause and effect" in many things is not a simple "one-to-one", and there may be many reasons that affect the outcome of things.

When a butterfly flaps its wings, a storm may occur on the distant sea. Everything is connected, and one move can affect the whole body.

The same is true in today's market competition. Consumers' consumption intentions will change with changes in the market environment, but if it is reflected in each consumer's every consumption, the factors that influence their consumption choices may be a polite smile from the store owner, a romantic and warm confession from the customer who leads the table, or just a quick glance in the street crowd caused by being different. These may not have much to do with the consumption context of the overall market.

A look at the small reveals the big, and the truth can be seen in the details.

In this era of severe market homogeneity, it is difficult to make major changes in the general direction of products. In the eyes of many companies, product differentiation layout may be just a slogan. However, if we use subtle details like the "flapping of a butterfly's wings" mentioned above when positioning brand differentiation, perhaps differentiated content that attracts the attention of the public can be seen everywhere.

Therefore, in the current marketing or brand influence accumulation, relying on the audience's consumption scenarios, magnifying the details of demand, and thereby stimulating consumers' pain points and attracting their attention is the core content to be discussed in this article.

1. Examples of marketing cases that magnify brand details

The function of products is to bring convenience to our lives. Even with the development of the times, many "inconveniences" still exist. These "inconveniences" in our eyes may be huge business opportunities in the eyes of merchants.

The habit of exercising and keeping fit has become popular among many people born in the 1980s and 1990s. When they are working out, they are used to listening to music while sweating. The inconvenience of wired headphones has promoted the popularization of Bluetooth headset application scenarios; the limitation of Bluetooth headset battery life has made Bluetooth headsets equipped with charging boxes the mainstream choice for sports people today.

A simple idea or a subtle change may lead to a trend. At the beginning of the change, we might as well start by magnifying the details of the "inconvenience" for the masses.

When it comes to paying attention to details, the first word that comes to our mind is service; when it comes to service, we have to talk about Haidilao's detailed service.

Once, I interviewed my friends about their feelings about Haidilao. Many people say that Haidilao’s service is so good that it makes us feel embarrassed; our every look and every action will be noticed and responded to by their service staff. In Haidilao’s well-known reputation, we can see their “attention” and “magnified awareness” of customer details. Of course, these so-called service concepts seem rather bizarre and illusory. Next, I will briefly give some examples of specific service behaviors that Haidilao has taken from the perspective of customer "inconvenience".

Detail 1: There will be a flavor seasoning recipe next to the Haidilao self-service seasoning. Customers can easily mix the appropriate sauce according to their personal preferences.

When eating hot pot, many customers actually don’t know how to prepare the dipping sauce. Most people just prepare it casually according to their own habits. As for whether the prepared dipping sauce suits your taste, it is actually a "question mark" in your mind. Friends who have eaten hot pot know that if the dipping sauce is not well-mixed, it will affect the entire dining experience. Therefore, the simple seasoning recipe actually magnifies the detail that "the public may not know how to prepare the dipping sauce."

Detail 2: Haidilao’s self-service drinks have a variety of choices. Every time when we are about to finish the drink in the cup, they will take the initiative to bring the corresponding drink bottle to "refill" for us.

In this service, two details are magnified: details on popular taste selection and details on proactive inquiries for refills. Everyone's taste is different. Haidilao offers a variety of beverage flavors to match customers' taste habits to the greatest extent possible. In addition, when we finish the drink in the glass, many times we will not call the waiter just for "a glass of water". At this time, the waiter's proactive refilling of the cup makes the entire "refilling" process orderly and natural. Magnifying the details of the customer's choices and the details of the conversation that the customer would not actively talk about for reasons too small to make the entire service appear more impressive.

Detail three: When Haidilao wipes the table for us, they actually use three colors of towels: blue, red, and white. The blue wet towel is used to wipe off food residues on the table, the red towel is used to wipe off detergent and oil stains, and the white towel is used to wipe off water droplets on the table.

An organized and structured table-wiping process can save customers’ waiting time and psychological resistance as much as possible while ensuring that the table is clean and tidy. Because many times, when we sit in front of a table that has just been cleaned, the water marks on the table that have been wiped will psychologically affect our dining experience. At the beginning of the meal, we will consciously or unconsciously avoid contact between ourselves and the table, because in our subconscious mind, the table is not wiped clean. But in the three-step wiping process, the clean white towel at the end is the best and most direct way to dispel our concerns that the "table is not clean". White originally means cleanliness.

Judging from the appeal cases, magnifying the details is not as complicated as imagined. The changes that an enterprise needs to make may be just the establishment of a system or the posting of a poster. These magnified details, no matter how big or small their significance, are likely to be noticed by customers and become a topic of discussion, just like what I am discussing here today.

2. Three levels of definition to magnify brand “details”

In this environment where public attention is scarce, the purpose of magnifying details is actually to regain public attention.

What is the role of advertising? It is to let more people know and spread the product or brand. However, with the advent of the information explosion environment, people's aversion to advertising has gradually increased. If advertising is regarded as a driving force for people to remember or recognize a brand, then the company's practice of magnifying details is to attract the public to actively participate in the communication.

As the scope of use of these so-called detail adjustment contents expands, the names people use to describe the practices of grasping details are actually constantly changing. In fact, we are very familiar with these terms. In the beginning, we called the first method to solve our "inconvenience" "creativity"; when more and more people paid attention to this kind of practice and the frequency of use of creative practices increased, people called it "differentiation"; finally, when it became an integral part of the industry, it was fully called "service". So here are the three levels of definition for amplifying brand details.

1. Initial level title: Creativity

Success is often impossible to replicate, because creativity loses its “original” effectiveness and virality after being tested by time.

When people discover interesting content, they will spontaneously generate the urge to spread it. This is the original effect of creativity. The creative practices of the past may seem normal to us now, but they may have been all the rage at that time.

The basis of brand creativity is actually the process of realizing marketing and communication behaviors by grasping the "hidden needs" of the audience. Therefore, when brands explore the composition of their product selling points, they are actually magnifying the audience's detailed needs.

2. Transitional hierarchical titles: differentiation

As these discovered selling points are gradually accepted by the market, audience needs are also constantly being optimized. These settings, which are tapped by businesses to grasp the needs of their audiences, will gradually become a powerful weapon for companies in dealing with market competition. This is what we often say today: "If you want to grasp the market, the key is to create brand differentiation." The word "differentiation" is the key.

In the process of repeatedly shaping brand differentiation, companies are actually further exploring product details and audience demand details on the existing basis. Therefore, the second level of the name of "detail magnification" is "differentiation".

Many articles have discussed how companies shape the logic of differentiation. But here I want to make clear to everyone a concept that brand differentiation can be used as a reference, and those methods of creating differentiation also have their merits, but finding the items that truly differentiate their own brand ultimately requires the companies themselves to explore.

The past is already there, and there are many followers; it is too late for those who come later to catch up.

Therefore, regarding suggestions for brand differentiation planning, the author has only one sentence to say: jump out of the framework, change your perspective, and you will see a big difference.

3. Final level title: Service

What is differentiation? I have what others don’t, or I have a smaller share of the market. When high-quality differentiated content becomes popular, the adjustments made by these companies by magnifying details will gradually become the norm in the industry and be transformed into industry services.

We often say now that when the audience purchases a product, the basis for their choice is no longer limited to the product itself. Brand value, corporate services, marketing activities, etc. have all become factors that everyone considers. But in the beginning, no one paid too much attention to these contents.

For example, product services. When the first company discovered that providing good service could enhance customers' shopping experience and greatly increase repurchase rate, the details of the customer's shopping experience were magnified. The public's focus is gradually shifting from the product itself to services outside of the product.

The first one that comes up with the idea of ​​magnifying certain details is what we call creativity. When creativity is gradually recognized and spread, differentiation gradually forms based on information asymmetry. When the balance of the "80/20 principle" is broken, the value of differentiation will gradually be lost, but the core mass demand will not be lost. At this moment, differentiation is gradually shifting towards industry services. Here are the three stages that a company goes through by magnifying the details.

3. Things to note when enlarging and positioning enterprise details

The clever exploration of life "inconveniences" that customers themselves may overlook is called the detail-amplification marketing strategy. But if the amplified content itself does not have much value and cannot arouse emotional resonance among the audience, the entire process will be of no value. Therefore, when companies are magnifying details, they need to keep in mind the following points:

1. Avoid superficial presentation: that is, the company's content should be clearly stated, from magnifying the details to the corresponding actual strategy adjustments, everything should be done quickly, accurately and ruthlessly. It is difficult to hit the audience's pain points, arouse emotional resonance and attract attention at the moment of delivery.

2. Avoid self-entertainment: that is, whether the details themselves are valuable or not, you cannot use the attitude of "I don't care what you think, I only care what I think". The needs of the audience are the basis of this "change". Otherwise, the whole process is nothing more than a marketing stunt.

3. Avoid complexity: that is, the process from magnifying details to solving problems needs to be simple enough. Otherwise, the effectiveness of communication will be greatly reduced. The key point of this strategy is to solve the "inconvenience" in life scenarios in the simplest way.

Author: Xiao5

Source: PR Home