Mengniu’s marketing leveraging the college entrance examination is super hardcore!

During the college entrance examination season, which is a hot marketing topic, Mengniu attracted public attention and heated discussions with its "College Entrance Examination Topic Prediction Milk 2.0". The author of this article analyzes Mengniu’s brand marketing strategy during the college entrance examination season, hoping it will be helpful to you.

Every year’s college entrance examination season is the focus of national attention, and everyone’s attention is focused on the topic of “college entrance examination”. For the candidates who have been preparing for twelve years, this is an important challenge in their lives, and they all look forward to submitting a satisfactory answer sheet.

Brands also face challenges, because the college entrance examination season is a popular marketing node and the main arena for major brands. Launching relevant marketing content at this time will not only allow candidates and people who have experienced the college entrance examination to relive their youthful memories of studying hard and burning the midnight oil in their senior year of high school, but also quickly establish communication with the brand. The college entrance examination topic, which brings its own traffic, will also increase exposure and attention for the brand.

Among many ways of leveraging the trend, such as making blessing posters, launching motivational TVCs, and creating theme activities, Mengniu, with its "College Entrance Examination Topic Milk 2.0" , printed mock test questions and blessings to candidates on milk cartons. Its creative gameplay brought a great sense of freshness to users, and the heartwarming blessings also made users feel the warmth of the brand. Once it was launched, it attracted public attention and heated discussions.

1. Upgrade the college entrance examination prediction milk to increase the product's good luck attribute

Last year, under the special background of the epidemic, in order to provide nutritional supplements to candidates and relieve their psychological pressure, Mengniu went deep into the question bank, carefully selected questions from various subjects, and finally launched the "College Entrance Examination Topic Milk", attracting many people to convey the brand power with Mengniu, wishing the candidates "everything Mengniu does is good, and everything you do is right."

This year, Mengniu continued its previous communication ideas and launched the 2.0 version of the topic-predicting milk. In addition to the simulated questions, it also cooperated with the Qufu Confucius Temple Scenic Area to carefully create the "Qufu Confucius Temple Blessing Hidden Packaging". The triple attributes of knowledge + nutrition + good luck have upgraded both the product and the blessing.

As the exam approaches, candidates are particularly concerned about "predicting the questions". By predicting the questions, you can fill in the gaps you have missed and get more points in the college entrance examination. Mengniu focused on the psychological demands of candidates, invited professional teachers from various subjects to set questions, and finally printed 8 questions on milk cartons. This method can not only help candidates consolidate knowledge points, but also reduce anxiety before the exam, and also convey the brand's core interest point of "nourishing your strength", which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

In addition, Mengniu has accurately grasped the communication methods of young groups and written corresponding wonderful copy for each type of milk, such as "Persist in X, and you will make progress in Y", "Efforts are like aluminum sulfide, which cannot accept any water", etc., using youthful language to enter the hearts of candidates, giving them spiritual comfort and further increasing their confidence in facing the exams. At the same time, these copywritings also evoked the memories of many graduates, who participated in the Mengniu #高考奶# topic to write down their thoughts on the college entrance examination and cheer for the candidates. The tap water-like communication effect has enabled Mengniu’s marketing content to spread further, winning sufficient voice for the brand.

It is worth mentioning that last year Mengniu came up with the slogan "Whatever Mengniu guesses is awesome, whatever you do is right" for its guessing milk. Some netizens suggested changing this slogan to "Whatever you guess is right, whatever you do is awesome" , which is more in line with the essence of guessing questions. Surprisingly, Mengniu actually adopted the netizen’s suggestion, adjusted this year’s slogan, and wrote a special thank-you letter to express its gratitude to the netizen.

The adjusted slogan is easier to read and more conducive to dissemination. This move demonstrated Mengniu's brand attitude of humble listening and its approachable brand image, which won unanimous praise from netizens , greatly improved the brand's favorability among users, and successfully narrowed the distance between the brand and users.

2. Blind box model + peripheral products to increase brand differentiation

Confucius, a teacher for all ages, is a symbol of Chinese culture and an object of prayer for students from ancient times to the present. In order to get good results, many parents and candidates will choose to go to the Confucius Temple or the Confucius statue to pray before the college entrance examination to add a buff to the exam. Mengniu has insight into this phenomenon and has jointly customized the "Qufu Confucius Temple Blessing Edition" with the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong, to bring good luck to the candidates.

The Qufu Confucius Temple Prayer Edition packaging is printed with the image of Confucius, carrying the spiritual sustenance of the examinees, while also helping Mengniu's topic-setting milk to complete its upgrade and refresh. Nowadays, blind box marketing is the hottest trend. The mystery and scarcity of blind boxes are highly sought after by young people. Many brands have achieved explosive growth in a short period of time with the help of the blind box model. Mengniu seized on the young people's love of surprises and pursuit of novelty, and used blind boxes to set the Qufu Confucius Temple Prayer Model as a hidden model for limited sale, making the Topic Milk 2.0 version more attractive and thoroughly stimulating young people's enthusiasm for buying.

At the same time, Mengniu joined forces with M&G Stationery at the right time. The high-energy combination of Mengniu Confucius Temple Blessing Milk + M&G Confucius Temple Blessing Stationery created greater potential energy, further expanded the product influence, and helped the brand achieve its goal of going viral.

In addition, in order to create endless surprises for consumers, Mengniu also created a set of "nutrition supply packs" based on the image of its IP Niu Mengmeng, which includes a series of interesting and high-value peripherals such as "Q version tumbler, copy notebook of questions, kettle of easy questions, and duck pen of troubles", and successfully captured the hearts of young people.

Mengniu cleverly caters to the auspicious psychology of candidates, and sends sincere blessings to candidates through real test simulation, blessing culture, blind box model and surprise peripherals, replenishing the nutrition and good luck loaded with milk to the candidates' body and spirit. At the same time, these marketing actions give the products unique meaning and highly differentiated value, effectively helping Mengniu stand out among many competitors.

3. Animation with memes revives textbook characters and penetrates into the young group again

Interestingly, after Mengniu launched the 2.0 version of the "predicted topic milk", it once again teamed up with IP Niu Mengmeng to launch a ghost-like animated short film, and its active business attitude continued to grab users' attention.

The short film uses memes to bring famous figures in textbooks such as Lu Xun, Runtu, Zhu Ziqing, Li Bai, and Madame Curie to life. Knowledge points and popular memes go hand in hand, and young people's interest has quickly grown, and they have been looking for memes in the short film.

Whether it is the characters in the textbooks or the melodious elements in the short film, such as "What Lu Xun said", "The badger in the melon field", and "Dad buys you oranges", they can resonate with young people. Mengniu used the light-hearted and humorous short film to pay tribute to strong-willed people and wish the candidates "everything they guess is right, and everything they do is great". On the other hand, it also communicated with young people in the social context, gaining their love and injecting more youthful vitality into the brand.

4. Final Thoughts

From the initial launch of the College Entrance Examination Prediction Milk to the launch of the 2.0 upgraded version, Mengniu has continued its creative thinking, enriched the value and connotation of its products, and encouraged candidates to face the college entrance examination bravely . Throughout the whole process, Mengniu’s warm image has been deeply rooted in people’s hearts and its brand proposition of “Nourish your strength” has been strengthened.

It is foreseeable that if Mengniu insists on making the college entrance examination topic-predicting milk and strengthens the association between Mengniu and the college entrance examination, good luck and nutrition, it will definitely bring a more profound experience to users and deepen their memory and expectations of the product. When the college entrance examination approaches, the first thing users think of is Mengniu’s topic-predicting milk.

Author: Bai Yang

Source: Brand Marketing Officer