The three Internet marketing crazes I experienced!

As someone who makes a living from management, in the past two or three years, I found myself a little out of place in the public speech space. Wave after wave of fashionable Internet youth are shouting happily and beating drums and gongs, saying that management is outdated, organizations are about to die out, there is a surplus of products in all walks of life, and you can get them for free.

I came over with a stern face and said seriously that the Internet is essentially still mainly a marketing channel and a marketing tool, which cannot change the logic of the organization and the nature of business (see my article "What the Internet Has Changed and What It Has Not Changed" written in 2014) . Don’t worry about whether others like to hear it or not, I feel a little embarrassed myself. It’s a bit like a middle school student secretly having a party during exam preparation, and being accidentally bumped into by the dean: “You are not reading for me, you are reading for yourself…” Then he starts with a lecture. Regardless of right or wrong, at least it's boring.

Unfortunately, the business world is not the entertainment industry. Iron logic and ruthless facts have always been so boring.

At that time, the tide of Internet thinking was coming in with great force, which could be roughly divided into several main lines such as Xiaomi, Internet catering, O2O (including P2P) , etc. In 2016, various negative news came from several fronts, including Internet financial fraud, the dramatic shrinkage of Xiaomi's market value, the failure of several Internet catering pioneers, etc., plus several mergers in the O2O industry, such as the merger of Didi and Uber , the merger of Meituan and Dianping, the merger of Ctrip and Qunar , etc. Most of the more sober industry observers generally tend to believe that this round of noise and commotion brought about by the mobile Internet should have come to the point of revealing the truth and paying the bill. So much investment , so much youth, so many dreams of getting rich, were all gone down the drain. When I say “I told you so” now, it is another form of inappropriateness. Let’s calm down and sort out the deeper logic.

An era of microphones

Over the past 49 years, Leninism has established a centralized, vertical, and comprehensive political, economic, and social control system in China. Its integrity, strength, and flexibility are unprecedented in China, and are probably rare in the entire history of mankind. For example, anyone with a secondary technical school education or above and who has worked in the system knows how powerful “archives” are. There are "Party, Government, Workers, Youth League and Women" at work, and "Chaoyang District People" at home. In principle, anything you do may be recorded, stamped with an official seal, and put into a mysterious brown paper bag that you can never open. Thought control is already beyond measure, not to mention the means of controlling resources such as food coupons, cloth coupons, and meat coupons, and the means of upward mobility such as regularization, promotion, and transfer, etc.

To put it simply, the reform and opening up since 1978 can almost be described as a process in which people use various means to escape from this system, this ubiquitous system. A crucial dimension of this system is the control over communication and public discourse. Before the reform and opening up, there were wireless and wired broadcasting. For example, I grew up almost entirely surrounded by the sound of various horns: every town and every larger unit at that time had its own broadcasting system, which would start broadcasting on time in the morning and evening, and there was no need for an alarm clock.

Then came the rise of television stations since the 1980s. Back then, the streets were deserted, men, women, young and old, everyone was chasing "Huo Yuanjia" and "Blood Ties" together. They were many times crazier than the online fans today. In the minds of the general public, the status of CCTV is almost second only to Zhongnanhai.

In 1997, a new thing came into being: satellite TV. Hunan Satellite TV, Zhejiang Satellite TV, Dragon TV, etc. have since entered the public eye. The Internet came a few years later, but due to limitations in bandwidth, desktop computer penetration, and content production methods, although the Internet gave birth to several portal companies, its power in communication was not fully demonstrated.

The birth of Weibo in 2009 brought a small climax and marked the beginning of mobile Internet . But the real communication tool had to wait until Tencent launched WeChat 3.0 during the National Day in 2011. At this point, Pandora's box was finally completely opened.

In just a few decades, China went from having only one microphone to having microphones everywhere, and then to everyone having a microphone (it can even be said that everyone has a camera) . When talking about mass communication and marketing in China, we must not forget this history with strong "Chinese characteristics". If the period before reform and opening up was about being paralyzed in bed, in the 1980s people were walking with the support of a wall, and today people are dancing in nightclubs all over the city; if the period before reform and opening up was about wearing Zhongshan suits and secretly tightening the waist, in the 1980s people were dresses, and today people are wearing bikinis and still complain that they are too much. Anyone who has lived through that era can understand how extreme repression brings about extreme desire, and how extreme desire brings about extreme revelry.

From having only one microphone in the country to having one microphone for everyone, every time a new communication channel is opened, it will become a huge sensation. As for the business community, the person or company that gets the microphone first will inevitably earn a new wave of communication dividends in an extremely easy way, and then the public will be excited and enter a round of industry-wide marketing carnival.

The first marketing spree

The first marketing carnival was related to CCTV, especially CCTV Economic Channel.

On March 15, 1988, CCTV began to allow commercial advertisements, ushering in a golden age in which it became the de facto core of China's marketing industry. In 1991, CCTV's Economic Channel broadcast a documentary titled "Business War" about competition in Zhengzhou's retail industry, which ignited a carnival in China's marketing community. The most popular case in the business community is the Asia Mall in Zhengzhou, the most sought-after consulting company is the planner of Asia Mall, "Enbo Zhiye", and the most popular speaker is the idea king He Yang... After Deng Xiaoping's southern tour confirmed the national policy of focusing on economic development, the business community became more enthusiastic in pursuing these "idea companies" and "planning masters".

I had just graduated from Renmin University with a bachelor's degree in economics, and it was difficult to find business management books on the market. I was deeply impressed by a book about Welch's reform of GE, called "Positioning". The content was very good, but there was only the title of the book on the cover without any design. It looked a bit like an internal publication and was very inconspicuous when placed in a bookstore. The cover of Enbo Intelligence, published by Peking University Press, features a large photo of Wang Li, the founder of Enbo Intelligence, sitting on a large leather sofa, which was rare in that era, in a posture like Chairman Mao. So, for a long time, Wang Li to me was first the planning master Wang Li, then Wang Li of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, and then the famous linguist Wang Li.

The climax of this round of marketing carnival was the famous saying of the director of Shandong Qinchi Winery, which won the bid for CCTV for two consecutive years in 1995 and 1996: " We drive a Santana into CCTV every day, and drive out a luxury Audi ! " In life, failure is a test, and success is a greater test. What is scary is not success itself, but the wrong attribution after success. The top three winning bidders for CCTV, Kongfu Banquet Wine, Qinchi Wine, and Aido VCD, have either declined or gone bankrupt, and some of their founders have even been thrown in jail. This is perhaps the best portrayal of the serious consequences of this kind of misattribution.

A few months ago, when I went to Guangzhou for a meeting, I unexpectedly encountered a corporate management training event organized by Hu Zhibiao and his "Invincible" company. On the huge roll-up banner, there is still the familiar Brother Biao and his iconic smile. A group of young men in black suits stood in two rows at the door. Every time a listener came, they would shout their slogans in unison, making the voices deafening. It is true that “if you can do it, do it yourself; if you can’t do it, teach others how to do it.”

Second marketing spree

The second marketing carnival is related to the rise of local satellite TV stations.

The landmark event was the unexpected success of Hunan Satellite TV's second "Super Girl" in 2005. While the intellectual community began to fantasize about how fan voting embodied the spirit of democracy, the one who was counting money until his hands were tired and laughing in his sleep was the new dairy company from Inner Mongolia, Mengniu Niu Group. "A cow ran at the speed of a rocket!" Biographical books about Mengniu Company and its founder began to sell well. The covers were basically filled with similar large blood-red characters. Both the content and the form were very stimulating.

I was already teaching at CEIBS at the time. Insiders know that the biggest pain point for teachers in Chinese business schools is that there are few truly reliable Chinese cases available. The person in charge of the planning of Mengniu Super Girl happened to be a graduate of CEIBS. After confirmation from multiple sources, the data and facts of this case are relatively reliable. How can we not use such a reliable and vivid case? I then began to talk about the Mengniu case in class until... the melamine-tainted milk powder incident broke out in September 2008. Mengniu was mired in scandal, its products were pulled from shelves, its capital chain was strained, and its founder cried for help to the board of directors of the China Entrepreneurs Club and classmates from the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business… Finally, in 2011, Mengniu was sold to COFCO, and the national flag was covered, putting an end to it all. If you think about it carefully, it is not auspicious to say that a cow runs at the speed of a rocket: a rocket goes up fast, but comes down even faster.

The broadcasting dividends of local satellite TV stations are disappearing very quickly. Not only did talent shows all over the world such as "Come On Good Man" and "China's Got Talent" fail to replicate the marketing miracle of Super Girl, even Super Girl itself was unable to replicate the success of its second season. After ten years, the only truly influential one was the second session in 2005. It seems that Li Yuchun is the only person in China who has embarked on a decent career path thanks to talent shows. Hunan Satellite TV has worked very hard to invite me to give lectures, and I also hope to help them. Unfortunately, some objective laws cannot be changed by us.

The end of this round of marketing carnival may be the recent predicament of Jiaduobao Herbal Tea, which became popular all over the country by leveraging Zhejiang Satellite TV's "The Voice of China". After rounds of lawsuits and hype, news came out that many of Jiaduobao’s senior executives had resigned and several of its branches had ceased production. Although it is difficult to tell the truth from the false at the moment, it is highly likely that a brand that rises quickly by seizing marketing opportunities rather than relying on the company's comprehensive capabilities will fall even faster.

The third marketing spree

The third marketing carnival was represented by the rise of Youku and WeChat.

Compared with the traditional Internet, the differences of mobile Internet are: voice, pictures and images replace text; self-media replaces editor-dominant; general entertainment and fragmented talk replace deep thinking. Originally everyone was queuing seriously in front of a window, and suddenly a new window opened next to it, and everyone was singing and dancing, looking very happy. The first few people who discovered it and rushed over were naturally ecstatic, but soon, within a few seconds, the line in front of the new window was as long as the one at the old window, if not longer. The mobile Internet is not that magical. The initial dissemination dividend does look a bit thrilling, and even the most determined people will inevitably be distracted.

But after a while, everyone will slowly realize that after the initial dissemination dividends are divided up, the final competition still depends on the comprehensive and integrated capabilities of the enterprise. Therefore, for most mainstream companies, the rise of mobile Internet is nothing more than an additional marketing channel.

Of course, this time is a little different. In the era of CCTV and local satellite TV, China's consumer market was basically in an era where "big heads" were king. It was the mobile Internet that truly brought China into the "long tail" era.

To put it another way, in addition to mainstream culture (the big head) , mobile Internet has enabled various subculture groups (the long tail) in Chinese society to truly take shape. Young people scattered in every corner of society have formed a real subculture group for the first time through the mobile Internet (WeChat, Weibo, live broadcast , etc.) . They use this group (or idols representing this group) to confirm their self-identity, express themselves, and even place the meaning of life on it. Members of a subculture group identify highly with each other and, driven by a real or virtual sense of superiority, declare together, consume together, show off together, and even conquer other countries together. Representative events of the rise of this subculture include the popularity of the "Tiny Times" movie series, the prevalence of two-dimensional culture, the "Emperor Bar Expedition" of Li Yi Bar (the origin of the term "diaosi") , the challenges and competitions among various online game organizations (the so-called "guilds") in the virtual world, and the tone-deaf "rap king" on the live broadcast platform who earns tens of millions a year.

Subculture is one of the most basic concepts in sociology. Some Internet experts have created concepts such as " community economy", "circle economy", " fan economy ", etc., which attract people's attention, but they do not grasp the essence of the problem better than the concept of subculture. The real Chinese characteristics are: just as the suppression of Chinese people’s property ownership for half a century has brought about China’s current “house-buying cancer”, the suppression of any horizontal social communication mechanism in Chinese society for half a century is the deep-seated reason behind the volcanic eruption of young people’s passion for subculture today. This overreaction of post-totalitarian society has caused the intensity of our subcultures to even surpass that of Western societies with a long tradition of association, to the point that many observers are dazzled and think that there are huge revolutionary business opportunities hidden in them.

But a subculture, no matter how powerful it may seem, has several fatal problems.

First, subcultures are changeable, unstable, and unpredictable. One or two key events may cause a subculture group to cease to exist.

Second, most subculture groups are made up of young people with excess hormones, but young people always have to grow up. Once most subculture group members start working, get married, and have children, they will quickly become more mainstream than the mainstream.

Third, from a commercial perspective, what is even more troublesome is that the influence of a subculture can only be limited to a small circle. Once it breaks through, it will go to its opposite and will no longer be a subculture.

The pinnacle of subculture is cults. In human history, cults are indeed the fastest way to make money, but the biggest problem with cults is that they are cults. The leaders brainwash, control, and exploit believers instead of making real efforts to use their products and services to improve the well-being of every individual in the group. Therefore, cults basically cannot last forever. Creating a sub-language group can indeed earn some dissemination dividends, but no one dares to be too optimistic about the extent to which a serious enterprise's business model and long-term stability can be built on the basis of such a quicksand-like sub-culture group.

Don't be fooled by the whistling sound

The sound emitted from the microphone is transmitted back to the microphone, where it is amplified again. After the sound overlaps, the microphone will emit an extremely sharp and harsh howling sound. In the era of mobile Internet where everyone has a microphone, the world is filled with all kinds of self-righteous, self-indulgent and self-hypnotic howling. The first thing we need to do is not to be confused by this howling sound and not to think that we can make such a loud sound; secondly, we should not be disturbed by the howling of others. The fact is boring: the voices made by 99% of people on the Internet are not worthy of our attention and are not worthy of our careful listening.

The Internet greatly improves the efficiency of an economy by integrating corporate marketing on a unified information platform. Alibaba has created amazing business value by building an online business infrastructure to make up for China's weak offline business infrastructure; Tencent has created amazing social and business value by building an online social infrastructure to make up for China's even weaker offline social infrastructure; Baidu could have also created an empire of similar level by building an online data infrastructure, but unfortunately they seem to be gradually losing this opportunity. There are basically only three infrastructure platforms for the entire industry: business, social, and data. So, those entrepreneurs who want to copy Jack Ma at the slightest disagreement should just forget about it.

In addition to the three industry-wide infrastructure platforms of commerce, social networking, and data, there are also a number of Internet companies that provide infrastructure platforms for a certain industry (hotel and air ticket booking, taxi-hailing, legal services, second-hand goods trading, etc.) and infrastructure platforms for a certain group of people (beauty pictures, menstrual management, maternal and child services, white-collar workers, migrant workers, etc.) . It seems that there are many opportunities, but because they are all platform companies, the winner takes all, and in the end only one company can survive. The competition is actually very bloody and cruel, especially in the second half, and the Internet companies that have not yet dominated the market are mentally prepared.

As for other non-Internet companies, they can just use the Internet as a marketing tool , and the focus should still be on making tofu (Ren Zhengfei said: Huawei has only done one thing for 28 years - making tofu) . The biggest advantage of the existence of an Internet marketing platform is that good wine needs no bush, as long as your tofu is better than others, there are people who will volunteer to help you with publicity and advertising (think about your circle of friends, how many times have you seen the photo of Ren Zhengfei at the airport) , wholeheartedly develop the comprehensive and integrated capabilities of the enterprise, wholeheartedly create value for customers, continuously create value, and create unique value that others cannot create. There has been only one way to Huashan since ancient times, and all great enterprises are like this. Marketing is important, but no matter how wonderful it sounds, marketing is only one aspect of a company's capabilities. Moreover, it is the capability that is most easily copied by competitors. A minute on stage is the result of ten years of hard work off stage. To do your job well is the eternal duty of any serious businessman.

The three marketing carnivals have confused and bewildered everyone, delaying many things and many people. Only by understanding China's past history can we understand the disproportionate enthusiasm of the Chinese people and the Chinese business community for marketing, planning, and speaking through microphones. Most people, who listened to too many loudspeakers in the early years, are indeed envious of those prominent figures who hold the microphone, have the right to speak, and whose words are decisive and can determine the fate of the country. No matter how envious you are, times have changed and you must not get too involved in the drama. For example, Freud believed that it was normal for girls aged 3-5 to have some penis envy. But if you continue to be obsessed with it after you grow up and it develops into an obsession, then you may be in big trouble.