Small brands want to break through, but what they lack is not methods, but problems...

Someone left me a message before, asking if I could talk about how small brands can break through?

In fact, when I first saw this message, I thought of many methods and cases, such as:

Learn from Jiang Xiaobai and turn product packaging into valuable media;

Learn from Weilong spicy strips and make low-end products high-end (or vice versa) to create a sense of contrast;

Learn from Chen Keming's dried noodles and combine the advantages of different products (dried noodles, instant noodles);

Learn from Little Miss Matched and redefine the function of the product - sell socks in packs of three, with each pair being different and becoming a symbol for users to express their self-identity...

Well, if I summarize it a little bit, I can write another article called “N Ways for Small Brands to Break Through”…

However, less than half a minute later, I was thinking again: These so-called methods, although vivid, are too specific, and specificity is often not universal. For example, Jiang Xiaobai’s packaging, although it is well made itself, may not be effective in other industries.

In addition, they are also rather one-sided. Has Jiang Xiaobai achieved its current scale just by relying on its packaging?

Apart from anything else, I saw a similar method on Taobao several years ago, but it was not white wine, but chocolate. It also has a very personalized customized packaging and is positioned as a gift, but it hasn’t become popular yet…

Therefore, regarding the question of "how can small brands break through", I do not intend to focus on specific operating methods, but to return to a more fundamental level, that is, people's way of thinking - how to "create" these methods.

1. A good question is more valuable than a good method

I once came across this sentence in Kevin Kelly ’s “The Inevitable”: A good question is more powerful than the answer itself.

This sentence seems quite counterintuitive. After all, from childhood to adulthood, we have always been pursuing answers - the teacher gives questions and we answer them.

Including the person who left me a message before, he actually hoped to find possible answers from my article.

However, I believe you have already discovered that those so-called questions and problems can be easily found by searching online or asking a senior student, and there may be a wide variety of answers...

This also exposes a problem: in this era of information explosion, existing questions and answers are not rare, they are everywhere. In comparison, what we lack more is questions, a “good question”.

What is a “good question”?

Kevin Kelly believes:

Good questions challenge existing answers;
Good questions have nothing to do with whether they can get the right answer;
When a good question comes up, you really want to answer it as soon as you hear it, but you don’t know you care about it until the question is asked;
Good questions create new areas of thinking;
Good questions generate many other good questions;
…

Indeed, any major invention, discovery or business insight in history originated from such a “good question”.

Newton: Why do apples fall from trees?
Einstein: If you travel with light, what would you see?
Q&A site: What would happen if people were willing to share their knowledge for free?
Sharing Economy : What if one person’s property could be used by others?

Good questions come first, then good answers.

So, instead of spending too much energy on existing answers and methods, it is better to think about the problem itself.

Of course, there are many angles to think about the problem, and this article cannot cover them all at once. Therefore, we will only discuss the topic of "breakthrough of small brands".

2. Make important issues unimportant

Many companies are busy looking for solutions to existing problems, which are often important, such as:

How can fast food companies serve food faster?
How can mobile phone manufacturers make their operating systems more fluid?
How can instant noodles be made more nutritious?
How can express delivery companies make their logistics systems more efficient?

However, looking back at history, you will find an interesting phenomenon: those small brands that have successfully broken through all have one thing in common - they all make important issues become unimportant.

The so-called "important problems" are those that most people are working hard to solve, and they are usually the problems that industry leaders are best at solving.

The purpose of making important issues unimportant is to change the rules of the game in business wars and avoid homogeneous competition.

For example, what were the important issues in the industry ten years ago when it came to mobile phones?

As the former leader, Nokia believes that the most important issue is: how to improve the mobile phone's drop resistance and call quality?

But Apple doesn't think so, so it has a chance to break through successfully.

However, as mentioned above: almost all successful cases follow this rule (making important issues unimportant). So, instead of continuing to fill in cases to prove this point, it is better to think about the existing problems.

For example, in the instant noodle industry, what are the important issues in this industry at present?

The answer is readily available. If you take a walk around the supermarket, you will find that most companies are working hard to study the following questions:

How to make instant noodles more nutritious? So you will see that many instant noodles have braised eggs added to them, as if adding an egg will make them more nutritious... Some have repositioned themselves as light meal replacement products, with very small packaging, meaning that eating a little bit is not that unnutritious.

How to make instant noodles taste better? This doesn't need any more examples...

So, is it possible to make the taste and nutrition of instant noodles unimportant? (That’s a good question — it challenges existing answers and opens up new areas of thinking.)

Let's go through the ideas below:

First of all, in addition to taste and nutrition, we can also think about it from many aspects.

For example, ease of use - how to make it more convenient for people to make instant noodles? Easy Shopping – How to make it easier for people to buy? Portability - How to make instant noodles easier to carry? Insulation - How to improve the thermal insulation performance of packaging? Environmental protection - How to reduce the damage of products to the environment? Or how to reduce the impact of its smell on people around you, etc.

Of course, all of the above belong to the tangible value of the product, but in addition to tangible value, the brand also has intangible value. (PS, this is also the most easily overlooked)

For example, Starbucks . Although it is not the most authentic coffee and the price is not cheap, many people just love to drink it. For no reason, just for the "culture and connotation" that even he himself cannot clearly explain.

This is intangible value - it reflects the user's identity, values, social status, etc.

And what about instant noodles? This industry has been developing for more than 100 years, but most companies are still at the stage of "only focusing on tangible value".

So we can raise new questions and hypotheses: Is it possible to make a brand of instant noodles that does not focus on taste, nutrition, health, etc., but instead reflects the user's identity, image, status or state?

Just like what I wrote before: specially customized for hard-working overtime workers and entrepreneurs - I eat instant noodles not because I don't understand life, but for struggle - the name is "Overtime Noodles"; the logo uses the image of a dog; the packaging is printed with a scene of overtime; with a few chicken soup copy (maybe it can also be called "Chicken Soup Noodles"); the seasoning package is designed to avoid dirtying your hands; the heat preservation effect is better; the noodles cook faster, etc...

In short, changing the main selling point of the product makes the originally important issue (how to improve taste and nutrition) unimportant.

Of course, this idea is just an example. It may not be feasible, and it may even lead to new problems, but this is not important at the beginning (good questions have nothing to do with whether they can be answered). What is important is that you have begun to think about your business from a completely new perspective and reduced the possibility of homogeneous competition.

3. Make unimportant issues important

Making an originally unimportant issue important actually has the same purpose as mentioned above - changing the rules of the game in business wars, but it is a way of thinking in reverse.

Take the early Apple computer, for example. What unimportant issues did it make important?

The answer is obvious - excellent interactive experience and appearance design. (Even the layout of the internal wires must be carefully designed)

Of course, it’s always easy to analyze after the fact, but who could have thought of it beforehand? Talking about the interactive experience and appearance design of electronic products during that period is like talking about the efficiency and service attitude of relevant departments today - no one cares at all.

However, it is precisely because no one cares that it is an opportunity.

For example, with express delivery nowadays, people are more concerned about safe delivery and logistics efficiency, and no one seems to care about its packaging issues.

Is it possible to make “express delivery packaging” an important issue?

I believe you must have had this experience: every time you go to a store to pick up a parcel, you get lost in the vast pile of parcels. Trying to find your parcel is like going on a second Taobao...

Therefore, if a courier company has a unified, eye-catching and highly recognizable packaging (like the green checkered pattern of Chubang soy sauce, or the three stripes of Adidas , or even the color difference like shared bicycles ), people can quickly find it among the massive amount of packages.

This not only achieves differentiation, but also improves customer satisfaction and has its own advertising effect...

For example, when selling local specialties in tourist attractions, most people think that the quality of the products is not important.

The reason for this is that consumption in tourist attractions is a "one-time game" - you only buy once anyway, and even if you are not satisfied with your purchase, there will always be new people to buy...

Is it possible to make “quality of specialty products” an important issue?

It's not impossible.

If we want to make quality important, we must first turn the "one-time game" into a "repeated game" - consumers have the possibility of repeat purchases.

Now everyone is talking about " e-commerce traffic ", and isn't a scenic spot an excellent source of traffic ?

Therefore, for some brands, instead of trying hard to grab traffic on the Internet, it may be better to use offline scenic spots as the entrance to online e-commerce traffic - as long as the product is impressive, consumers can still continue to buy your products online even after the trip. (Through “sales clues” on the packaging, such as brand name and website address)

Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered a very interesting adult products store chain that also used a similar idea.

As we all know, adult product stores are usually located in relatively hidden places, with small entrances, and try to be as low-key as possible.

However, this chain store does the exact opposite - not only are the store decorations bright and eye-catching, but the stores are often located on street corners, which are the most conspicuous places.

The designer who designed the logo and store sign for this brand once told me: "I really don't know what the owner of this store is thinking. Who would dare to buy such a thing in such a conspicuous place?"

However, I think this is an idea that can be learned from - a store is not just a store, it is also a distribution center; and the reason why it is chosen on the street corner is mainly to use the sense of contrast to attract people's attention and divert traffic to its online store. (If you are embarrassed to buy offline, you can do anything online, and the delivery speed and after-sales service are guaranteed)

4. Solve problems that no one has solved before

The two ways of thinking we just talked about are actually encouraging people to constantly ask new questions and come up with new ideas and new hypotheses.

No one has ever solved these problems, and no one has ever verified these ideas, so you can only explore them on your own.

I know this is going to drive a lot of people crazy because people instinctively don’t want to change or just want ready-made answers…

However, whether you admit it or not, doing business itself is an experiment. It is a process of exploration and learning. Even for the so-called "old methods", no one can guarantee that they will still work tomorrow.

Therefore, the most important thing is not to find an absolutely feasible method before taking action, but to design a set of scientific experiments - to verify your own hypotheses with controllable trial and error costs, and continuously improve based on feedback results.

However, there is really not much to say about this part because it involves more execution-level issues.

As for the so-called execution, it is all about analyzing specific issues, there is no one-size-fits-all trick...

This is also why those who have succeeded rarely talk about how they succeeded. They can only talk about some well-known general knowledge.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to share, it’s just that the information is too boring and too proprietary—it’s only valuable to him, not to others…

For example, I saw a great cake maker before. His business was very good, but when others asked him what his secret was, even he himself couldn't explain it clearly because it involved too many specific details:

Therefore, no one can tell you a specific method on how to break through, because the problems you need to solve are problems that others have not solved.

As for this article, it is just to help you think.

So again: the most important things are what you don’t know.