Brand marketing strategies in the new era!

Introduction: As long as there is demand, a series of related businesses will be born.

Today's consumer era is presenting a flourishing consumer scene: the sinking market is extremely popular in the capital world, the market potential is huge, and the sinking consumption power is amazing; the "new poor" brainwashed by consumerism prefer to buy luxury goods, and contemporary young people are almost all "Huabei youth"; new and old dividends converge, and new species represented by blind boxes and e-sports are shining more brightly.

In the huge ocean of dividends from new consumption, niche consumption has gradually been "put on the agenda" by capital, and capital has been eyeing this "big fat piece of meat" of niche consumption for a long time.

In an era of material surplus, spiritual scarcity, and knowledge anxiety, people are bored and empty, with nothing to do and can only pass the time by consuming.

This is a crazy era, an era full of shopping. Life, as dull as water, becomes lively because of "shopping, buying, buying".

2019 marks the passing of mass brands and the arrival of the era of niche consumer brands. The rise of domestic products, the rise of blind boxes, the continued popularity of the sinking market, and variety shows have brought rock and hip-hop into the spotlight.

Consumers no longer purchase goods simply to meet basic needs, but are beginning to have spiritual pursuits, paying more attention to themselves and whether the products suit their needs. The "new consumption era" has thus come into being.

l Capital has been eyeing the "big fat piece of meat" of niche consumption for a long time

There is a view in economics: "How much money you have will affect your shopping values. That is, the choice of price, quality, and brand when shopping. The first thing that poor people think about is whether the price is cheap enough, ordinary people consider more about the quality of the product, and the factor that affects the consumption values ​​of rich people is the brand."

However, today's consumer era is presenting a flourishing consumer scene: the sinking market is extremely popular in the capital world, the market potential is huge, and the sinking consumption power is amazing; the "new poor" brainwashed by consumerism prefer to buy luxury goods, and contemporary young people are almost all "Huabei youth"; new and old dividends converge, and new species represented by blind boxes and e-sports are shining more brightly.

In the huge ocean of dividends from new consumption, niche consumption has gradually been "put on the agenda" by capital, and capital has been eyeing this "big fat piece of meat" of niche consumption for a long time. Niche consumption can often lead to large-scale consumer demand. In the eyes of capital, this is an emerging market and a blue ocean, hiding high profits and unpredictable human hearts.

The niche market is different from the mass market and is a segment that has significantly different values ​​from the mainstream market. However, the niche market is difficult to separate from the mass market. The niche market is a deeper division of the mass market. The niche without the majority loses the meaning of its existence. Without the comparison with the majority, there will be no niche.

The consumer market potential triggered by niche demands is enormous. The circle marketing it triggers is the light at a time when brands are in trouble, focusing on opinion leaders in niche circles in different fields.

As the saying goes, where there is demand, there is a market. Capital targets the niche market, a fertile land that has not yet been fully cultivated, creates content and topics that interest niche consumers, and uses the language of the circle to explain the brand story, the story behind the product, and the brand's marketing story.

According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, human needs from low to high are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, respect needs and self-actualization needs.

In today's materially abundant age, people no longer have to worry about what to eat tomorrow. However, after meeting basic needs, another new worry arises - spiritual hunger.

In an era of material surplus, spiritual scarcity, and knowledge anxiety, people are bored and empty, with nothing to do and can only pass the time by consuming.

l When basic needs have been met, consumption behavior is more of a spiritual comfort.

How can we resolve the inflated consumption desires of consumers in contemporary society? When you feel suffocated by the high-pressure urban life full of swords and swords, and when you are troubled by the anxiety sold by this society? How can you feel full when you are spiritually hungry?

Young people who fall into the "drain of consumerism" can throw all their hard-earned wages into the ocean of consumerism every month, even though they don't know what they want, what price they will pay for it, and whether doing so is beneficial or harmful to their long-term development.

The concept of "segmented audience" is mentioned in "The Fourth Consumer Age", which means "divided masses". How to explain this “divided masses”? The diversity of the public's emotional cognition and the gap in personal assets are reflected in consumption behavior. "People began to live according to their own emotions, likes and dislikes." As a result, the consumption of the entire society evolved from the "have era" to the "be era."

The "be era" means that while consumers are purchasing products, they are also in the process of self-evolution. Suppose that consumers give themselves a score of only 5 points in their minds. However, when consumers complete a purchase and finally buy the product they have always dreamed of, they are influenced by mainstream social values, such as the social economy driven by the aesthetics of Internet celebrities. Having the same product as Internet celebrities or stars will make consumers feel that they have not been abandoned by mainstream aesthetics. Consumers will feel that they have become more charming after purchasing this product. At this time, consumers may give themselves a score of 5.1 in their hearts.

However, the product value that consumers expect cannot reach 10 points, because human desires are endless. Desire sometimes cannot fill the void of consumer desire, but instead becomes an outlet to stimulate consumer desire. After a consumption behavior occurs, the consumer's desire to consume is stimulated, and more consumption behaviors will be generated. Just like buying a nice piece of clothing, you also need to buy a nice skirt and trendy boots to match it.

"Freaky Consumerism" - the crazy consumption era has created crazy consumers.

Similarly, for those behaviors of poisoning pets and releasing animals that seem incomprehensible to us, they hope that this shopping behavior will bring more spiritual comfort. Just like religious believers, they seek salvation for their souls.

Of course, this redemption can also come with a price tag. A poisonous pet lover spent half a million yuan to build an exclusive castle for his poison dart frog, which is less than two centimeters long - a giant landscape tank.

Is it desire that gives birth to consumption, or does it guide us to release desire?

"As long as you have money, you can bring nature home." But this only satisfies the personal selfishness of consumers. For venomous pets, even a large simulated natural space is not as good as a real natural space.

Many consumer behaviors occur more often to satisfy consumers' personal selfish desires . When giving gifts to family and friends, there is often an interesting phenomenon, that is, the person giving the gift will give the gift that he or she thinks is most suitable for the other person. Giving your family and friends your favorite gifts subconsciously makes them believe that this gift can make the other person become the person you like, and the person giving the gift gets a sense of comfort in the process of giving.

In the second episode of the documentary "Crazy Consumption Era" "Behind the Release of Animals", Dang Qiu Wangmu is a staff member of a release-of-animals group. She spends tens of thousands of yuan every time she goes to the seafood market. Dang Qiu Wangmu is not a wealthy woman who spends money lavishly. She just wants to save lives in the seafood market.

When Qiu Wangmu stood in front of the fishmonger and chanted, "Put down your butcher knife and become a Buddha right now," the fishmongering master did not put down his knife but chanted, "Amitabha."

The narration reveals the desire of the releasing team in one sentence: "Watching these creatures return to the rivers and seas, the people who release the creatures seem to get a kind of comfort."

For Dangqiu Wangmu and her release team, they may not really want to save the lives in the seafood market, they just want to save their own souls.

Zhang, a fisherman who followed the releasers, said: "Some people like to release fish, and some like to catch fish. It seems that there are farmers, fishermen, workers, and white-collar workers. They release theirs, and I catch mine. Only when the quality of life improves can I have money to release fish."

The last sentence, "Only when the quality of life improves can we have money to spend," seems casual, but it reveals the Matthew effect that is prevalent in contemporary society - the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It also reveals the truth about anxious consumption. Consumers are satisfying their own spiritual needs. Releasing animals is not that great. For the divided masses in the “be era” of consumption, their consumption behaviors are ultimately intended to guide themselves to become the better selves they think they are.

After all, releasing animals is still a business. You choose to release the animals, and I choose to catch the goods that fell into the rivers in the name of releasing them, and then conduct a secondary sale.

Both parties get what they need, and this link has never deviated from the commodity attributes from the beginning to the end. The short-term monetary transaction between the organizer and the releaser, and the conflict of interests between the releaser and the fishermen, will eventually be repeated in the near future.

It is more accurate to say that it is self-rescue rather than releasing animals. Those who release animals use money to exchange for a new life and peace of mind, while those who catch fish use their labor to exchange for money and a chance to survive. Everyone is taking what they need and looking for the right way to save themselves.

"Releasing animals has become a social phenomenon. Seeing these creatures return to the rivers and seas, people who release animals seem to get a sense of comfort because their kindness has helped them escape the slaughter and continue to live."

Some people commented on the release-of-animals team organized by Dang Qiu Wangmu as "indulging one's own desires in the name of Buddha."

On the one hand, they say they want to help the weak and spend a lot of money to buy fish and seafood from the stalls and release them, and use this to blame and stop those who they think are the strong "fishermen", blaming the seafood vendors for their deep sins and having blood on their hands; on the other hand, they turn a blind eye to the real strong ones and do not interfere with the vendors and factories that buy and sell seafood. Maybe it's not that they turn a blind eye, but pretend to turn a blind eye, because the real strong forces are too powerful. So Qiu Wangmu and her organization can only stand on the moral high ground and evaluate those "cruel executioners" and "obstructors of release", but turn a blind eye to the real executioners.

The world is bustling with people seeking profit, and the world is bustling with people seeking profit.

Religious believers who hold the banner of releasing animals seem to have found the courage to live only in this group. As it was said in the movie "The Crowd": "Once a person is in a group, his IQ will be seriously reduced. In order to gain recognition, the individual is willing to abandon right and wrong and exchange his IQ for a sense of belonging that makes people feel safe." After entering the group, it seems that everyone is not responsible for their own behavior.

In such a consumer age, nothing can not be measured by money. Behind all kinds of bizarre buying and selling behaviors are the clearly visible human characteristics in Pandora's box.

l How can niche brands stand out?

If niche brands want to gain recognition in the mass market, the core value of the brand will inevitably be diluted by the mainstream market. However, it is precisely because they are "niche" enough, "individual" enough, and not "follow the crowd" enough that they can break through the shackles of niche brands and move towards the mass market with their own niche personality, becoming a unique brand that meets the specific needs of consumers, can meet the needs of niche consumers, and can also hit the pain points of mass consumers.

1. Occupy category demand and occupy user minds

The "positioning theory" believes that a brand is the representative of a certain category, and to achieve brand dominance in a category, it must become the first in the category.

When consumers think of consuming a certain category, they immediately think of you, which is what truly builds a brand.

The real consumption upgrade occurs in the hearts of consumers. Consumers need to constantly search in their hearts for "who they are", "what they really need", "what kind of products should resonate with them", and "what kind of brand can resonate with their own temperament".

Therefore, brands should directly face the hearts of consumers, express themselves bravely, occupy the minds of consumers, and capture the needs of niche markets. The clearer the advertisement is expressed, the more delicate it will be in the user's mind, and the more impressions consumers will retain.

When the demand for this category increases and the base of the population continues to expand, user demand will drive the improvement of the category and the development of the market. When the demand for niche categories increases, the consumption power of niche demands will be awakened, and user demand will directly drive the development of categories and bring niche brands into the mass market.

2. Manufacturing brand differentiation

The core of creating differentiation for a brand is “I have what others don’t, and I am better than others”. In essence, this is also what consumers demand of brands: I have needs, and you provide my needs. When supply exceeds demand, the seller's market can choose the best seller's market.

"Pets Are Poisonous" is just because the ordinary pet market in Guangzhou Huadiwan is close to saturation, so the unpopular poisonous pet market is full of business opportunities.

Where there is demand, there is a market. Some people enjoy raising poisonous pets, which naturally gives rise to a corresponding market; some people need to release animals into the wild to save themselves, which naturally gives rise to the business of releasing animals into the wild.

In the book "Freakonomics", there is such an example:

Let’s do a multiple-choice question first. Below are annual advertisements from The Economist magazine. Which one would you choose?

A. Order the electronic version for USD 59

B. Single print order: $125

C. Printing and electronic version package: $125

The author conducted an experiment at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Out of 100 students, 16 chose A and the remaining 84 all chose C.

At the same price, everyone knows the advantages of C, so no one chooses B. What if B is removed?

It would appear that options that no one chooses should have no impact, but this is not the case. When there were only two choices, A and C, the number of people who chose A increased from 16 to 68, and the number of people who chose C was reduced to 32.

In fact, when we buy things, we will have two pains, one is the price, and the other is which one to buy.

Although the price of C is high, it seems much more cost-effective when compared with B. But without B, C can only be compared with A, which obviously has no advantage in price.

So, option B is a "bait" here, which reduces the price and the pain of choice at the same time, making us willingly choose option C, which seems to be more cost-effective but is actually more expensive.

The above examples fully illustrate that in economics there is no discrimination without comparison. This example also indirectly illustrates that the core of creating differentiation for a brand is "I have what others don't, and I am better than others."

3. Try to explore your niche characteristics

Niche brands are trying to move into the mass market with their niche characteristics, while mass brands are working hard to explore their own niche characteristics.

adidas Originals' Double Eleven marketing campaign was unconventional. It invited opinion leaders from five different niche circles, including program producers, e-sports, rap, street dance, and DJ, who are KOLs loved by niche groups.

In the session of cooperation with the program producer, adidas Originals invited Jiang Sidas to interpret a different Chinese style and interpret the Chinese style in Jiang Sida's eyes.

The idea that adidas Originals wants to convey is that no one needs to be afraid of being "unusual" or "stealing the spotlight", and there is no need to be overly cautious in the face of trends. Just do what you want to do, wear what you want to wear, and don't care about other people's opinions. Chinese style cannot even be defined, let alone life?

• Conclusion•

Although the niche market is small, it can leverage the big market.

Circle culture provides more possibilities for brand building. Just like the sinking market, when the claws of capital have not touched the niche market, the niche market is just a niche market. When capital is ready to "sharpen its knife" to attack the niche market, the niche market becomes the mass market. Not only is "the largest market below", "the largest market is also in niche demands".

In an era of weak marketing, consumers are upgrading but consumption is downgrading, and market competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Brands can continue to dig deep into niche demands, develop niche markets, establish circle positions, and become a "pig" standing on the cusp of the trend.

Author | Clockwork Brown

Text | PR Home