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Two recent events prompted me to post this article again. First, Diao Ye’s theory of new consumption trends. I agree with this round of opportunities and respect Diao Ye’s views. Diao Ye has worked with many brands and is not just an empty talker. So how should new consumer brands go from 0 to 1? This article may provide some inspiration. Second, the two products ZAO and Oasis, which have been popular recently, were all over the screen when they first came out. However, in less than a week, ZAO was summoned for a talk and Oasis was removed from the shelves for logo plagiarism. I think it was all due to insufficient preparation and underestimation of public pressure. In the era of Internet social networks, most popular products only have one chance to succeed, and life or death is only a matter of a moment. If there is only one chance, how can we maximize our chances of success? This article may also be inspiring. Below, Enjoy: Three insights into Internet consumption Before thinking about how to build a brand, you need to first understand the current situation and gain insight before making a strategy. Next, I will briefly describe the current situation of contemporary social networks from three levels: first, the solidification of circles, second, the shortening of conversion paths, and third, the gray rhino of public opinion. The truth of contemporary life is that it is segmented and cognitively cocooned, and most people are not aware of it. They think that what they pay attention to is what the whole world pays attention to, and what they see is what the whole world sees. As long as you broaden your vision a little, you will find that your world is very barren and the real world is very vast. For example, Douyin has 500 million monthly active users. Logically, this is a very large circle and the content should be diverse. But as long as you persist for three days and spend two hours on Douyin every day, you will find that the content you see in these three days is almost the same, and there is serious homogeneity. Douyin users believe that the whole world is watching Douyin. But as long as you close TikTok and look around you, you will discover another vast world. The solidification of circles and cognitive cocoons are objective facts. They are neither positive nor negative, but a matter of personal choice. The question that marketers need to think about is how to take advantage of the solidification of circles and transform them into marketing advantages. The following strategy will mention how to effectively utilize circles. This is the first insight into the phenomenon - the solidification of circles. Shorten the conversion path I mentioned this insight when writing about product-effect integration. The current consumption path has undergone fundamental changes. In the past, from seeing an advertisement to purchasing a product, one had to walk a physical distance of hundreds of meters, kilometers, or even farther. Now, thanks to the improvement of Internet infrastructure, social networking, search, e-commerce, O2O, etc., most of our lives are concentrated on a smartphone. When I discovered that some people born after 1995 don’t even have PC computers; when I found out that I use my mobile phone screen for more than 6 hours a day, I came to a conclusion that all paths are within a small space. There is no distance, only speed. After 5G, there will not even be a concept of network speed, and everything will be instant. Therefore, the current consumer conversion path is: see - (search) - action, search can even be omitted, or search is part of the action. Today, "products" are scattered. If you see brand information anywhere and are impressed, you will immediately pick up your phone to take action. The action may be to open the App Store, Xiaohongshu, Taobao, or even place an order with one click in the live broadcast room. It is very simple and quick to complete the product-effect conversion. First, just inform the entrance. Second, there is zero delay, you can take action immediately as long as you are interested. The moment people are touched, their desire to act is the strongest. If they cannot act immediately and have to wait a while, this desire will decrease and disappear. So, I want it now. This is also the reason why live streaming can achieve such high sales volumes. The average order value is not high, orders can be placed immediately, and conversions are immediate. This is the second insight into the phenomenon - the conversion path is shortened, with almost zero attenuation from product to effect. Gray rhino of public opinion It has been difficult to find a word to describe this matter, so I can only use the term "gray rhino of public opinion." To give a typical example, in the early stages of its development, Kuaishou had no voice in public opinion and no media coverage within the Fifth Ring Road. A behemoth with over 100 million users and extremely active users remained silent, and public opinion turned a blind eye to it. Is this a gray rhino in public opinion? We need to understand the nature of public opinion. Public opinion does not necessarily exist just because there is a certain amount of dissemination. Let me tell you another thing. When Weibo first became popular, an old joke that had been circulating for a long time was forwarded countless times and spread widely. I also accidentally forwarded it to my Weibo and casually added the topic #XX体# (various styles were popular in those years). It was only forwarded about 2,000 times. The next day, more than a dozen city newspapers reported it. On the third day, Baidu Encyclopedia had more than 100,000 views. At the end of the year, it was counted as the annual buzzword. This illustrates the nature of public opinion very well. The amount of dissemination is not equal to public opinion. This insight into the phenomenon can be viewed in reverse. A product can accumulate users silently and spread silently without alarming public opinion. Done well, this will be a good strategic hiding period. This strategic concealment period gives the product and users enough breathing space. When it becomes a gray rhino, it will surface like an explosion. Just imagine that scene; it will be spectacular. This is the third phenomenon insight—the gray rhino of public opinion. Next, let’s talk about how we can create a new brand in the era of mobile Internet based on the above three insights and what are the steps. First, understand what a brand is. A brand is a consensus reached between Party A and consumers. It is a proposal made to consumers and when it receives enough recognition, it becomes a brand. So the question is, how can Party A gain more recognition from consumers and reach a broader consensus? In the past, when launching a new product, we would target everyone from the beginning and hope to reach a consensus with everyone from the beginning. This strategy was feasible in the early Chinese market, where there were many blank markets, media discourse power was concentrated, and consumer word-of-mouth could not be connected. Although the voice of various trends that have emerged in recent years is not as concentrated, they have still opened up some blank markets, so they are still partially effective. The only change is that consumer word-of-mouth has been connected to the Internet. In early markets or blank markets, the time window is important, and it is important to gain enough market share in a short period of time. However, for new consumer brands, or Internet products such as ZAO, most of them are not filling blank markets, but iterative brands of mature categories, or more vertically segmented brands. In this case, there is no rush to seize market share, so it is very important to reach a consensus within the circle first. Since circles are solidified, it is feasible to reach a consensus within the circle without alarming public opinion. Circle consensus is divided into two parts. By selling products or experiencing in the circle, the circle’s word-of-mouth consensus is accumulated. There are many ways to sell goods, whether it is live streaming, social networking, or private domains. As long as you find a core circle, operate it well, and let these users generate word of mouth in a timely manner, it is probably similar to Xiaomi’s early operating methods, which new consumer brands today can learn from. There are two reasons why we need to reach a consensus among circles. First, if we cannot grow naturally in the core circle and cannot achieve a 90-point brand, we need to make timely adjustments or iterations, or even terminate operations. The second is related to the consumption path. First, build a good reputation within the circle and achieve a 90-point brand. When you then promote it to the public, consumers will receive a 90-point brand rather than a blank brand without any reputation. On the contrary, if there is no consensus within the circle, and you push it to the general public right away, it is equivalent to giving everyone the right to criticize you, and public opinion is uncontrollable. For example, if Oasis and ZAO had reached a consensus within their circles first, the current setbacks might have been avoided. For example, Heytea’s first store was located on Jiuzhong Street in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province, a remote corner of China. It was followed by Dongguan, Foshan, and Huizhou. It was not until 2017 when it opened a store in Shanghai that it entered the public eye. Before entering the public eye, Heytea spent enough time in the regional market (circle market) to collect feedback and polish its products, maintaining natural growth through trial and error, and finally becoming a national brand when it entered the public eye. Imagine if Heytea’s first store was opened in Sanlitun, Beijing, would it still be the Heytea of today? Another example is Pinduoduo and Kuaishou. Before entering the public eye, they accumulated enough users underground and emerged as gray rhinos. For example, many e-commerce hot-selling products are often already hot-selling products among a niche circle before becoming popular among the general public. Therefore, it is important to reach a consensus within the circle before entering the public eye. Step 2: Setting the tone of public opinion In the past, the most important thing for a brand was positioning. Now, positioning is important, but setting the tone is even more important. Many brands have overlooked this step. In addition, the right to set the tone of some brands has been seized by mass media or KOLs, which has become negative, resulting in a very heavy price. Let’s talk about two examples to explain what setting the tone is. The first is Kuaishou. The biggest failure in Kuaishou’s development history is that it did not have the power to set the tone for the public in its own hands. Kuaishou came into the public eye with the article "The Cruel Story of the Lower Class: China's Rural Areas in a Video Software" by the self-media "Dr. X". It was because of this article that the tone of Kuaishou was established as low, cruel, and lower-class. It is precisely because Kuaishou is stuck in the countryside that Douyin has the opportunity. Think about it, if there had not been that article by Dr. X, and instead another image of a short video platform had been created, even if it was a neutral platform image, would TikTok have risen? A more positive example is Heytea. As a representative of new consumer brands in recent years, Heytea’s growth path has been the same. Now it has accumulated enough reputation in the circle market and gained a certain amount of attention. The turning point was the opening of the Raffles City store in Shanghai in February 2017. Like the previous stores, there were still many people queuing up, but the difference was that Shanghai is in the "within the Fifth Ring Road" public opinion circle. After that, 36Kr published two articles of interpretation and review, directly turning the regional brand of HEYTEA into a national Internet brand of HEYTEA. The second step in building a new brand is to “set the tone in public opinion.” When a product has gained a good enough reputation in the core circle and has achieved beautiful natural growth, and has become a good niche brand, it is necessary to consider how to appear in public opinion. This appearance may not necessarily be in an official form, it may be in the form of third-party public relations, but it must be handled personally by Party A. If a company like Heytea cedes the right to set the tone to the media, it would be very lucky. But once it becomes Kuaishou, it will pay a huge price, and even directly destroy a new brand. When is the right time? There are two parts here. The first is to pay close attention to public opinion. If a negative tone similar to "The Cruel Story of the Bottom" appears, either communicate with the blogger in time or make timely corrections if there is a positive tone. The other is that public opinion has not set the tone for the brand, and the rhythm can be controlled by the brand. The stage of circle consensus has been completed and natural growth has slowed down. It is time to start setting the tone for the public, break down circle barriers, and enter the mass space. The consensus of the circle is the basis for the public to set the tone. If the brand does not score 90 points within the circle, the public’s tone cannot be set. Once the public opinion is successfully set, the brand will gain attention and discussion. At this time, consumers will definitely search for the product to see whether the public opinion is true. Looking back at the search, if the brand has a very good reputation in the circle and scores 90 points, then the brand tone can basically be determined, and a new round of rapid growth will be formed, while also bringing about a broader brand consensus. At this point, a niche brand can successfully enter the public eye and have the potential to become a mass brand. The previous work is just the foundation. When a new brand is launched, if it indulges in the pleasure and achievement of being on the screen, within a month, the brand will be silent. After a while, the company may go bankrupt. Many Internet celebrity products are lessons learned. After successfully setting the tone for the masses, the next step is to build on the success and consolidate the victory. Update products, popularize, continue to innovate, and keep doing things to maintain the freshness of a new brand for a long time. Why do we need to do so much up front before we start mass communication? One is for effect conversion. The conversion path we talked about earlier has almost zero attenuation, so you can take action immediately when you see it. Now when it comes to mass communication, after consumers see something, they will search for word of mouth, read user reviews, and look at the attitudes of big Vs and the media. If they are all positive, they are likely to place an order. If there is no reputation in the circle and no public tone, users will not be able to search for anything and the possibility of placing an order will be much smaller. Second, it is for the brand. The brand is no longer the client’s wishful thinking. It is not about popularity or influence, but a consensus between the client and the user. The purpose of building consensus among the circle and setting the tone among the public is to form a brand consensus. If you understand it in a more abstract way, after completing these two steps, a complete brand with products, reputation, tone, and consensus will be there, but the scope is relatively small. When doing mass communication at this time, what people see is a brand, not a product. If mass communication is carried out at this time, the brand's expansion speed will be explosive and rapid growth can be achieved. But for a company like Heytea, which only has more than 100 stores to date, it is very restrained because it wants to ensure product quality. But for a retail product like Perfect Diary, explosive growth is not an exaggeration at all. How to do mass communication? Want to advertise? New consumer brands seem indifferent to traditional advertising. The expansion of brand awareness mainly consists of two parts. One is the expansion of public opinion . We talked about the tone of public opinion earlier. There are media outlets constantly interpreting your brand, and the brand is constantly being talked about, like Heytea and Perfect Diary now. This will form a consensus at the public opinion level. The second is the expansion of word-of-mouth , which is now also called grass-planting. Nowadays, people trust ordinary pretty young ladies more. The effect of their selfies with a cup of HEYTEA and a pretty face is far greater than that of advertisements. Therefore, mass communication is about operating two consensuses: one is the consensus of top-level media public opinion, and the other is the consensus of bottom-level user word of mouth. What we talked about today is complicated and simple at the same time. Let me try to summarize it. Everyone must have seen a funnel logic before. The top level is attention and seeing, then interest, then desire, and finally purchase, and then conversion to word of mouth and so on. This is a crowd screening principle. When we make a product and push it to the mass market, we advertise it as widely as possible, tell everyone, and then screen the people who are interested in it in the big funnel. Maybe 100 million people saw it, and finally 100,000 of them became consumers. The usual logic is this. The current environment is different. First, all consumers are Internet users. If 100 million people see a product and 2 million people buy it, then if 100,000 people complain about it on the Internet because they don't like it, the rest of the people may not buy it after seeing these 100,000 people complaining about it. Today’s consumer word-of-mouth is networked, with timely feedback, and public opinion is uncontrollable. A brand only has one chance to act, and once the tone is set, it is difficult to reverse it. Second, the dissolution of authority. In the past, we believed in authoritative media such as CCTV, but now the public only believes in the public, or even only believes in the small groups around them. Therefore, exposing 100 million people at the beginning without a mass base will result in an extremely low conversion rate and is very likely to lead to a negative tone, which is somewhat dangerous. Therefore, when launching a new brand, don’t rush into the public right away and don’t give everyone the opportunity to criticize you. This is very dangerous. First try, modify, trial and error in the core circle, polish it into a 90-point niche brand, and reach a brand consensus with users in the core circle. Then the public will set the tone. The right to set the tone should best be in the hands of Party A. Do not let the media or KOLs take the lead, because once this tone is recognized by the public, it will affect the brand image for a long time. Think about the price Kuaishou paid. Finally, it will be disseminated to the public. After the public has successfully set the tone, it will usher in a period of rapid growth. However, this explosive stage is the most dangerous, as it is easy for the product to suddenly become outdated. Therefore, it is necessary to strike while the iron is hot and carry out mass communication to maintain the brand freshness for a long time until the brand has leapt over this round of rapid growth and entered a period of stable and normalized growth. At this time, the tone and growth rate of a new brand have tended to stabilize, and it is considered to have passed the death zone and is ready to get on the table. The above is some insight from the marketing perspective. Whether it is a new consumer brand or an Internet product, sustainable product strength is the core. Marketing is only to control the rhythm of communication and user expectations, and to combat possible risks that may arise during the brand growth process. Only when product strength is guaranteed can the brand grow and consensus become more solid. Related reading: 1. Online marketing promotion: How to use H5 activities for brand promotion! 2. Brand promotion and marketing丨How to make users remember your brand? 3. Brand promotion: How to lay out the content marketing matrix? 4. Brand promotion: Brainwash advertising has no effect at all! 5. Brand promotion, how to formulate a brand portfolio strategy? 6. A collection of phenomenal marketing and promotion cases in the first half of 2019! 7. Marketing promotion strategy: How to make good advertising? 8. How to plan a public relations article that is natural and has “traffic”? Author: Yang Buhuai Source: Yang Buhuai |
