Brand marketing strategy: random event marketing gameplay

This kind of random event marketing method has never let me down!

When it comes to promotional activities, most of them are discounts, price cuts, discounts, buy one get one free, cash back, as well as golden egg smashing, roulette, raffles, scratch cards, etc.

Consumers are not tired of it, but I am almost vomiting.

Can we have some other ideas that will make users more eager to buy and play together?

There is a method that I feel contains huge power and can often produce amazing marketing strategies. The key is that it is very fun!

It uses random events to create selling points, which you can call "random event marketing."

Let me first tell you an interesting case. There is a surf grill bar in the United States. Its location is not very good. There is a river in front of the door, and there is a suspension bridge on the river. When a boat passes by, the suspension bridge will rise for 5-7 minutes, and the bar and the customers are separated by a river.

This was definitely disadvantageous for the bar, but his boss turned this disadvantage into an advantage, making his bar business even more popular.

They launched a game: "When the drawbridge is raised, beer in the bar only sells for 25 cents." This was a completely random event, and no one knew when a boat would come.

So, instead of leaving, the customers gathered together waiting for this accidental discount opportunity. As a result, the bar's business became better and better.

This is a random event marketing method. The "drawbridge rising" is a random event. It is full of uncertainty. It turns a simple promotional discount activity into something interesting and fun for consumers, making them willing to participate. Everyone wants to give it a try.

This method is particularly common in games . It takes advantage of the psychological mechanism of "uncertainty". If the game designer only gives certain rewards for specific behaviors of players, then the players will soon become lazy about this certainty.

However, if this reward is uncertain, players will instead be full of expectations for this "uncertainty" and even become addicted to it.

For example, when you team up to fight a big BOSS in the game, if a certain reward drops every time, it will probably become boring after a few times. But if you get uncertain random rewards by fighting monsters, then our interest will continue.

The same goes for the popular red envelope grabbing activity on WeChat . Are we more interested in the 0.5 yuan we get, or are we addicted to the uncertainty of grabbing red envelopes? It's really addictive!

The same applies to marketing. If there are only discounts, discounts for a certain amount, buy one get one free, and cash back, consumers will be very indifferent. However, if selling points are created based on such random events, consumers will be more stimulated and even have a great time!

We might as well make a bold attempt to find the random events in the marketing process of our products , which must be uncertain, and then set up marketing nodes on this basis to create selling points.

For example, a restaurant opened on the street can install a camera at the door. Through the camera, it can see people passing by the door. In this case, the people passing by are a "random event." If the next person passing by is a woman, she can enjoy half price.

There are actually many such cases, and they are very imaginative and allow you to dare to think and play!

Let’s look at another great example, this time it’s a hotel’s marketing strategy. Here’s what they did:

When you stay in this hotel, if the new guest checks in at 3 pm, you can stay until 3 pm; and if it is 5 pm, then you can stay until 5 pm.

The most exciting thing is that if you are lucky enough and there are no new guests checking in that night, you can stay another night for free.

Regardless of the rationality of this approach, just looking at the way it plays is really eye-opening and makes people want to try it out right away.

There is another classic marketing case that we must mention. There is a Ginza Gentleman's Suit Shop in Tokyo, Japan. It is the store that pioneered the "10% off" sales and once caused a sensation in Tokyo.

This is how they did it. First, they set the time for the discount sales: 10% off on the first day, 20% off on the second day, 30% off on the third and fourth days, 40% off on the fifth and sixth days, 50% off on the seventh and eighth days, 40% off on the ninth and tenth days, 30% off on the eleventh and twelfth days, 20% off on the thirteenth and fourteenth days, and 10% off on the last two days.

It seems like the last two days are the best time to buy things, and there’s no uncertainty about this, right? Surely people will go shopping in the last two days?

In fact, it is not the case at all. It happens that the seemingly regular gameplay is actually full of uncertainty. Because the goods are limited, the things you want will not last until the last two days and will be bought by others.

So the actual situation was that there were not many guests coming on the first day, and most of them left after looking for a while. Groups of customers started coming from the third day, and when the fifth day offered a 40% discount, customers came like a flood and started buying things. After that, the store was packed with customers every day, and all the goods were sold out before the 10% discount was offered.

This 10% discount is actually just a psychological tactic from beginning to end. The seemingly certain discount is actually full of uncertainty. Do you get it?

Then again, in addition to the excitement of uncertainty, these random event marketing methods also lure consumers into participating through the gambler mentality, as everyone wants to be the lucky one.

Therefore, some people even start gambling directly, using betting as a selling point to create random events.

Not everyone likes to gamble, but almost everyone wants to win.

Think about it, if consumers are given an opportunity to make a low-cost bet, and if they win they will get a very generous reward, and if they lose they will basically not lose anything, would they still be afraid of not getting the attention of consumers?

There is no doubt that consumers will flock to it!

The best recent example is the World Cup marketing dark horse , Vatti.

On May 31, Vatti published a full-page advertisement in Southern Metropolis Daily:

If the French national football team wins the 2018 World Cup in Russia , all consumers who purchased Vatti's "Championship Package" between 0:00 on June 1, 2018 and 22:00 on June 30, 2018 will be refunded according to the invoice amount of the purchased "Championship Package".

This type of advertising that directly promises consumers random events in the advertisement is one of the best in the industry.

With this strategy, Vatti immediately became the "headline king" of the World Cup . Every time the French team won, Vatti became the focus of discussion. Many media and self-media were reporting on it, and everyone was discussing it after dinner. The brand exposure was astonishingly large , which created enough momentum for Vatti.

While many people were saying "Vatti is panicking right now", Vatti once again released a new notice - "To celebrate the French team's entry into the quarterfinals, the 'Vatti Full Refund' event will be extended for another 3 days!"

It can be said that Vatti’s “betting” operation of random event marketing was successful on the World Cup stage.

Although it did not become a World Cup sponsor nor spent a lot of money on advertising, Vatti's random marketing gimmick had an element of "betting" that stimulated consumer participation. As a result, it not only led to screen-sweeping exposure, but also helped Vatti take the lead in World Cup marketing, driving its sales to over 1 billion yuan.

Some people say that Vatti is in a crisis of losing money, but that is not the case. It is a success no matter how you look at it.

According to their official news, during this campaign period, Vatti's total sales are expected to be about 1 billion yuan, of which 230 million yuan is a year-on-year increase, and only 79 million yuan is likely to be refunded.

On the one hand, not all Vatti products participated in the "Championship Package" event; on the other hand, many people who purchased products during the event chose to receive gifts and did not participate in the free-of-charge event; moreover, a refund is equivalent to giving the product to the consumer, and the value is only the cost price, and you cannot calculate it based on the selling price; what's more, the refund can also be in the form of various cash coupons.

So, no matter how you look at it, this marketing campaign by Vatti is a very successful case. God is helping them, and the money refunded is worth it. They are not panicking at all, but extremely happy.

Without a doubt, in the early morning of July 16, the French team successfully won the 2018 Russia World Cup! Just as Vatti promised before, they announced it immediately: France won the championship, and Vatti’s “full refund” has now officially started!

This move once again won applause and good reputation. In my opinion, they are the most successful brand in China in leveraging the momentum of this World Cup. This random free-order marketing was done so beautifully.

In general, this method of using random event marketing combined with activities is very practical, and consumers are more willing to participate. Coupled with reasonable management and control, it can achieve good results.

In my opinion, there are several points that need special attention:

1. Low threshold: The learning cost, decision-making cost, action cost, image cost, and communication cost of this kind of activity should be as low as possible, so that everyone can easily participate;
2. Interestingness: First of all, this random event should be interesting. For example, tossing a coin is also random, but it is obviously not interesting. Try to break the routine, create contrast, and be unexpected.
3. Randomness: This is the most basic criterion. First of all, the event must occur randomly, with uncertainty and uncontrollability.
4. Sense of surprise: Consumers’ impulse for uncertain things mostly comes from the pursuit of a sense of surprise, so we need to create surprises. A brand that can surprise its users is always popular.

First, our rewards need to be surprising enough, such as how desirable a full refund is. Secondly, even if you don’t win the random reward, we can still give you a little surprise. No one can resist the power of surprise.

5) It is obvious: First of all, the operation process of this random event is open and transparent and can be supervised by everyone. In addition, its results are obvious and do not require additional judgment. Lose is lose, win is win; black is black, white is white.

Finally, I have two questions for everyone. Are there such random events around your products? Can it be integrated with your marketing?

Observe carefully, you will find it.

Cats never ignore orders, but cats are always curious and will chase when tempted.

Author: Mumu Laozei, authorized to publish by Qinggua Media .

Source: Mumu Laozei (ID: mumuseo)