How to do corporate brand planning?

There have been a lot of hot topics these days, from a NetEase employee being violently dismissed, to an internet celebrity being subjected to domestic violence, and now the death of an artist. As for whether these hot spots are suitable to follow, I have already written an article to discuss this specifically. Today, let’s focus on this: if the hot topics we are following or the events we have created really have a good screen-sweeping effect, how can we ensure that the screen-sweeping effect is maximized?

The common screen swiping can basically be summarized into three categories:

1. News media screen-sweeping, which refers to breaking news and hot events. The media that can screen-sweeping are also media or independent analysis type self-media, which is difficult to directly associate with the brand;

The second is that companies spend a lot of money to dominate the screen, such as Mafengwo, Boss Direct Hire, and various second-hand car screen-filling advertisements during the World Cup. For those who are strong and willing to spend money, dominating the screen is naturally a piece of cake. However, in the current communication environment, if you want to achieve this level of placement, you will have to spend more and more money;

The third is to take advantage of a hot event or actively plan an event to step into the center of the stage and attract everyone's attention, such as Pechoin and Vatti's winning of the French championship.

The first two are uncontrollable and not applicable to most brands. The third one needs to be discussed. Why are they the ones who are dominating the screen? How to maximize the effect?

1. Why do brands dominate the screen?

From past cases, there are several important factors:

1. The goal is clear, not just to swipe the screen for the sake of swiping the screen

Many companies, especially startups, have a deep sense of cognitive anxiety. When they have no funding, they really hope to gain user attention through hype, chasing hot topics, etc. Sometimes, screen swiping or exposure even becomes a KPI, which is obviously unhealthy. On the one hand, it is rare to hear about a brand that has dominated the screen in this way. On the other hand, even if some tricks gain some attention, in retrospect, they do not have much significance for the brand or product sales, and may even lead to some negative reputation.

Therefore, for enterprises, the most important thing is to clarify what their current goals are and what the more important tasks of the marketing team are. Because achieving the current core goal will make the means more focused, and screen swiping is generally not the most critical issue at the moment.

2. "High-quality content + suitable channels" is the core

From past successful screen-sweeping cases, we can see that many of the cases that can really cause screen-sweeping are nothing more than the perfect combination of content innovation and channel application.

In terms of content, they dig deep into the core points of products and brands, and use better and more creative content forms to interpret their own brands, such as Pechoin's long pictures, the h5 when Wu Yifan joined the army, and some of the new promotional videos on Tik Tok (of course, after the WeChat ban, more of them were circulated on the site). These are all brands that have found their own tone and used appropriate channels and presentation methods to succeed. Therefore, by continuously producing high-quality content, it will eventually explode. It may not necessarily go viral, but the effect will definitely be more valuable.

3. Seizing the opportunity is important

What is required here is the sensitivity of marketers. As I have said many times before, we must go with the flow. Opportunities under major trends are more likely to appear.

In terms of industry trends, you should choose the right industry with potential; in terms of communication trends, content and channels should be combined. For example, if H5 is easier to spread, then do H5; if comic strips are more popular, then study comic strips; if short video live streaming is good for selling goods, then try short video live streaming; if your product category is suitable for certain channel attributes, you must try it in the trend, rather than choosing a channel that has been proven to have a very low return on investment and continue to do it.

On this path, the chance of success by persisting is much lower than the chance of following the trend.

2. How to maximize the screen-swiping effect

From the perspective of communication dimension and effect, it is most appropriate to follow the time period. If preparations can be made for each node, the effect may be maximized. The possible reasons for screen-sweeping have been mentioned above. What needs more attention is the preparation before screen-sweeping and the continued influence after screen-sweeping.

Before and after swiping the screen, we must make preparations to prevent the occurrence of invalid screen swiping that I just mentioned.

Before you scroll through the screen, ask more questions to prepare your content better.

Taking Pechoin as an example, what is the core of the entire creative expression? Will the Enemy of Time have any impact on users? From the final product, we can see that the time point chosen is very consistent with the user's feelings, and it also really gains affirmation from the confrontation with time. On the one hand, it recognizes that Pechoin is an old brand that has lasted for a long time, and on the other hand, it also clarifies the core of its anti-aging products. In order for these to be successful, I believe the marketing team must have prepared a lot of questions before finally coming up with this creative idea.

Therefore, what does the brand want to say, what is the purpose of this communication, what channel to use, when and where to put it out, is there a more suitable way, whether a small amount of precise user testing can be done first, etc., these are things that must be considered before each promotion.

This point must be considered very clearly. I believe that Pechoin's marketing department has also thought this matter through, but I think it should be exposed more clearly, with more key events, and better tied to some of their key users.

After swiping the screen, continue the momentum and let the bullets fly for a while longer.

In fact, it is about the preparations before the screen-sweeping event. If you prepare carefully before the screen-sweeping event, and the creativity can indeed achieve the screen-sweeping effect, then the next step is to create all conditions to keep the heat of the screen-sweeping event going.

In fact, an inappropriate example is that sometimes when there is a fight between companies or celebrities, once the incident becomes popular, as long as it is not irreparably negative, both parties will not give up, and will tacitly return the favor, which also gives users more room for imagination. The final effect is the successful continuation of the popularity.

The same goes for screen dominating. If a brand goes viral, you must immediately follow up on subsequent matters, such as reviewing the case, why this brand is trending, or the story behind it; for example, promptly releasing some emotional points that resonate with people during the screen dominating. Everyone will be curious about why this brand is trending, what products are trending, how users’ feedback and operations interact after the product traffic, etc. Many brands lack consideration of being able to seize the peak traffic period to continue to expose information and actively convey the information they want to the outside world. In fact, if it is handled well, it is very likely to bring great benefits for a period of time after the screen-sweeping event.

Finally, to sum up, although screen-sweeping is important, the preparation before screen-sweeping and the continued dissemination after screen-sweeping are equally critical. Moreover, for brand owners, building internal strength is always the top priority. Don’t make chasing hot topics and swiping the screen your first resort.

Author: Lao Nie talks about brands

Source: PR Home