Brand promotion, the underlying logic of 3 brand brainwashing!

First of all, congratulations to the students who opened this article. You have successfully surpassed 95% of operators. I think you must have two questions in your mind at this moment.

1. What is the underlying logic behind brand brainwashing?
2. How can I use brand brainwashing to turn strangers into my own people?

Don’t worry, you will find the answer after reading this article! Before we begin, let’s look at these three scenarios.

Scene 1: Flower shop

You are a flower seller and have a 10-square-meter stall in the market. Your competitors are several stalls on the same street. When people buy flowers, they either choose the one that is closer or the one that is cheaper. In order to grab business, you lowered your price, but when your competitors learned about it, they also lowered their prices, even lower than yours. In the end, you get caught in a vicious competition and no one benefits.

Scene 2: Classroom

You are an economics professor. Every time you give a lecture, many students fall asleep in the audience. As the end of the semester approaches, in order to help students pass the exams, you organize several Q&A sessions, but either not many people come or students keep complaining that they "can't concentrate on learning." After the exam, 1/3 of the students still failed.

Scene 3: Office

You have just been promoted to department director, managing 13 employees. Due to your strong business capabilities, you are often dissatisfied with the work of your subordinates. In order to get the job done, you call the employee to your office and tell him that this is how it should be done. But the employees still can't do it well. Ultimately, under your hands-on leadership, the department's performance did not improve at all.

What exactly lies behind the problem?

• Is it because you don’t sell flowers at a low enough price?
• Is it because your knowledge points are incorrect?
• Or is it because your professional ability is not enough?

In fact, whether it is flowers, courses or professional ability. There is no problem with the product itself, the problem is that the dimension of the product's selling point is too low!

What are the selling point dimensions of a product?

Before answering, let’s first look at the first underlying logic: the consumer cognition ladder.

01 Consumer Cognition Ladder

The truly effective selling point is the crushing of high dimensions over low dimensions.

This model distinguishes the different dimensions of product selling points, and the principle is that high dimensions crush low dimensions. Specifically: cognitive model determines demand thinking; demand thinking determines purchasing behavior; purchasing behavior determines transaction results.

For example: Xiaomi’s initial business model was to build a fan economy based on the Internet (cognitive model), so it launched the slogan “Born for Enthusiasts” (demand thinking) for electronic product enthusiasts. As a reflection of its brand value, Xiaomi mobile phones were crazily sought after by fans (product purchases), which ultimately resulted in Xiaomi’s annual revenue of 200 billion (transaction data).

It is worth mentioning that Xiaomi later changed its slogan to "Let everyone enjoy the fun of technology". In fact, it is to influence a wider customer base by changing the demand thinking, but the cognitive model above it has never changed. I call this cognitive model the brand gene .

For ease of understanding, I will introduce each level from bottom to top below.

Fourth level: transaction results

Objectively perceptible results.

For example: the flower shop business is not good, the test results are not good, and the department's performance is poor.

Third level: purchasing behavior

The behavior of customers purchasing your product.

For example: customers don’t buy your flowers, students don’t listen to your lessons, and employees don’t listen to your instructions.

Second level: demand thinking

The reasons why customers buy your product.

1. You have instilled in your users the idea that flowers should be cheap or of good quality, so your products can only be a reflection of this idea. When products that are cheaper or of better quality than yours appear on the market, your competitive barriers will instantly collapse.

2. You instill in your students the idea that they have to remember the knowledge points if they want to avoid failing the course, so the selling point of your course is the knowledge points themselves. However, in fact, no one is willing to remember knowledge that he subjectively does not want to accept.

3. When you instill in your employees the idea that you are a leader because your professional ability is better than theirs, then the selling point of your product is professional ability. However, no employee will really care whether his leader is professional enough, and they will not achieve good results just because you are professional.

First level: cognitive model

The process and boundaries of production thinking.

For example, the AARRR operating model has N forms of expression in any industry and position; or like the moral model, everyone has different ways of expression in the moral cognitive framework, and the so-called moral bottom line is essentially the model boundary. Therefore, it can be said that thinking can be created infinitely within the processes and boundaries set by the cognitive model.

So, do you understand?

In order to get customers to buy, you must first elevate the product's selling point to a higher dimension. The selling point of your product in whatever dimension you choose can achieve all transactions below this dimension.

From this, we deduce the first conclusion:

So, how do we improve the dimensions of our product’s selling points? Next, I will introduce the second underlying logic: the Golden Circle Model.

02 Golden Circle Model

The model consists of three circles, with the dimensions decreasing from the inside to the outside.

The brand cognition model (why) determines the demand thinking (how) which determines the product presentation (what). Example: Apple

• Why: Brand Operation Model
• How: Create the ultimate product that combines technology and art
• What: iPad/iPhone

Within the framework of its brand operation model, Apple came up with the idea of ​​creating the ultimate product, and thus developed the iPhone. Assume that under the same cognitive framework, we change “creating products that combine technology and art” to “creating products with idealistic sentiments”. So, the Hammer phone was born.

Next, I will use the Golden Circle Model to upgrade the above case.

Case 1: Take some time to upgrade your product to the value level

• Why: Brand operation model
• How: Use flowers to convey the concept of a better life
• What: "Take some time" public account

Within the framework of the brand operation model, Huadianshijian came up with the idea of ​​selling flowers + the values ​​of a better life, and thus opened the "Huadianshijian" public account. 500 million flowers were sold in 3 years since its launch, with a valuation of 2 billion yuan.

Case 2: Xue Zhaofeng, upgrading knowledge to cognitive level

• Why: Thinking Cognitive Model
• How: Explain life with interesting economic theories
• What: Xue Zhaofeng's Economics Lectures

Within the framework of the cognitive model of thinking, Xue Zhaofeng developed the idea of ​​applying economic knowledge to a broader field, and thus wrote "Xue Zhaofeng's Economics Lectures" which everyone can understand. The book became a bestseller as soon as it was put on the shelves, and sold hundreds of thousands of copies on the Duode APP. Xue Zhaofeng himself also became a popular internet celebrity.

Case 3: Upgrading management to the level of drawing cakes

• Why: Leadership Model
• How: Use dreams to attract talents and help yourself achieve hegemony
• What: Liu Bei established Shu Han

Within the framework of the leadership model, Liu Bei developed the mindset of leading the team by drawing pie in the sky, thus establishing the Shu Han Dynasty. Liu Bei not only gained talents such as Crouching Dragon, Phoenix and Five Tiger Generals, but at his peak, his influence covered half of China.

Let me emphasize here: When Liu Bei swore brotherhood with the three men in Peach Garden, he was just a straw sandal weaver. Facing the local tyrant Zhang Fei and the brave warrior Guan Yu, he could be said to be completely incompetent. However, Liu Bei's high-level thinking of supporting the Han Dynasty crushed the low-level thinking of Zhang Fei and Guan Yu who only wanted to join the army to serve the country. Therefore, he still won back Guan and Zhang despite his own lack of ability. This is the power of the leadership model.

After reading Liu Bei’s case, are you curious and want to build your own high-dimensional cognitive model, so that you can turn strangers you meet on the road into sworn brothers with just a few words, and follow you to create an eternal empire? You must be thinking about it, but before that, we must understand that cognitive models have always existed in our brains, and our daily work and life are inseparable from cognitive models. Therefore, the purpose of this article is not only to introduce several models to you, but also to work with you to deduce the entire model step by step from scratch, so that you can deeply understand thinking itself while enjoying the process.

(ps: You can train this ability to create new cognitive models, thereby subjectively guiding the transformation of your thinking)

Finally, we come to the third underlying logic: the brand brainwashing model.

03 Brand Brainwashing Model

The essence of brand brainwashing is to synchronize thinking with users.

If a brand wants strangers to become its die-hard fans, it needs to be in sync with its users, and the process of achieving this sync is brand brainwashing.

1. Ask questions from the perspective of consumers

Use answers to filter out those "strangers" who want to become "one of us"

For example, in order to promote its new products, a women's clothing brand placed outdoor advertisements in a business district. The picture showed a young woman in beautiful clothes, with the caption "Women, live for yourself." Obviously, this ad directly selects "female" consumers from passers-by, and the copy also answers the question that users want to ask but don't ask: "Why should I buy your product?"

For those products with strong demand, such as milk, consumers often ask "Why should I choose you?" So in order to brainwash them, you have to design a higher-dimensional answer to differentiate yourself from your competitors, such as "Tailor-made for Chinese infants and young children, with imported high-quality milk to allow babies to grow up healthily."

1. Buffer: Bring the scene into the original thinking

This is the first stage of brainwashing. You need to set up a familiar scenario for the consumer, let him get involved first, and understand your product according to his original thinking.

For example, in a soft article selling electric toothbrushes, the first paragraph describes an office worker who got up early in the morning to brush his teeth and found that the bristles of the toothbrush were split. So he continued to brush, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not clean the gaps inside his teeth. When users read this paragraph, they will naturally think about how they would handle the same situation, which might be to change to a new one or simply ignore it.

1. Bait 1: Raise the question to subvert cognition

The purpose of this bait is to use counterintuitive cognition to bring the original problem to a higher dimension, so that users are immediately attracted to you.

For example: Let’s take the electric toothbrush example again. In the second paragraph, you said, “In fact, did you know that brushing with a split-toothbrush is equivalent to not brushing at all? Moreover, every time you fail to clean the gaps between teeth, the probability of developing oral diseases will increase by 3%, and in severe cases, it may even cause cancer.”

1. Guide area: Explain the problem in high dimension and provide trust endorsement

This is the core link of brainwashing. Brands must fully instill their high-dimensional selling points into users at this stage, and use authoritative IP or official data to make users believe, thereby achieving the same frequency of thinking.

For example: You said that according to tests conducted by authoritative organizations, it was found that the number of bacteria remaining on the inner walls of teeth every day is 10 times that in the toilet. The food we consume every day will also bring various potential pathogens. An ordinary toothbrush cannot clean it thoroughly. So after actual testing on 19,831 users, our product was proven to effectively remove 99.3% of harmful bacteria on the inner wall of teeth. Most importantly, it is 10 times stronger than ordinary toothbrushes and generally does not split.

ps: This process is best completed in a question-and-answer format, allowing the user to think for himself and change his mind. He has to believe it because the conclusion is his own judgment and he cannot deny himself.

1. Bait 2: Profit-driven, reinforcing behavior

After establishing new cognition, give users a reason to drive behavior.

(1) Super value: value beyond expectations

The electric toothbrush originally priced at 599 yuan is now only 99 yuan, and buy one get one free, plus an oral care bag.

(2) Scarcity: Limited time and limited quantity

Due to limited stock, only 100 units are available for sale online while stocks last, and orders are only valid if placed within 12 hours.

1. Transformation Zone: Unified Thinking, Paradigm Output

Build high-dimensional selling points into standardized thinking and behavioral paradigms to strengthen users' sense of being "one of our own".

(1) Formulate rules

Design participation mechanisms, distribution processes, speech standards and other thinking and behavioral guidelines.

(2) Output paradigm

Use prescribed processes to guide users to complete specified actions.

For example: Xiaomi’s fans are called Mi fans, and Li Yuchun’s fans are called Yumi. And they all export their own set of thinking and behavior paradigms.

1. Answer the question: Get to know the new you

Start with: "Why should I buy your electric toothbrush?"

Last answer: "Because of your electric toothbrush, I can keep my oral health better"

Let’s give another example of the brand brainwashing cognitive model.

During the Nazi Germany period, Hitler used the cognitive model of nationalism to brainwash the Chinese people in order to realize his personal political ambitions. He upgraded the life and economic problems that people encountered in their daily lives and transformed them all into the racial advantages of the Aryan nation. In order to expand the army, he used material incentives to encourage people to join the army, and used honorary rewards to enhance the soldiers' sense of superiority. In addition, in order to strengthen this collective cognition, the state has also stipulated unified ideologies, slogans and other thinking and behavioral paradigms. The premise of this example is: How do I live as a German citizen?

The answer Hitler gave during the Nazi period was: You are not only a German citizen, but also a descendant of the great Aryans. You must represent the race and eliminate all other inferior races.

So, after reading the full text, have you found the answer to the opening question?

Author: Jerry Huang

Source: Nuclear Energy Operations (ID: huangxiaopeipeijiang)