Brand connotation and vitality

I hope to go beyond the brand to explore the connotation and vitality of the brand, instead of simply analyzing what brands are doing well or not doing well, but focusing more on how to create a good brand, Where should managers start?

The brand must have a differentiated connotation

In layman's terms, when consumers want to buy a type of product, who is the first person they think of, this is the concept of a brand. In the market environment with more and more brands, to let others remember, first of all, it must have a differentiated connotation.

The ultimate stable state of any industry is monopolistic competition, that is, limited choices, each with its own characteristics. An industry can be divided into three layers, mainstream market, sub-mainstream market, and non-mainstream market, and each market segment can be further divided into several sub-markets. Limited choice means that brands are always targeting specific consumer groups in a submarket.

If your brand isn't in the top five - or even top three in some industries, it won't make it into consumers' memory at all. Over 80% of the products in the supermarket are things you've never consumed - pass there every day but never think to try them, why? Just because the brand doesn't give you a reason to try.

Therefore, in order to make a brand the first choice of consumers, it must rank among the monopolistic competitors, and must have its own connotation, characteristics, personality and distinctive status. What does the brand connotation include? The first is a kind of positioning and notation. Put the brand on the front, put an equal sign in the middle, and the management team think together what it equals. It can be said that the vast majority of Chinese companies have not done the math problems in this first grade. Only by answering what the brand is equal to, will the enterprise know its own positioning.

Now many companies have beautiful products, but they don't see any logos related to the company. This kind of logo is to let consumers know what identity, status, hobby, taste, or fashion can be represented by using your product. Only by clarifying these, consumers will have a sense of belonging to the brand, because he needs to strengthen his positioning through the consumption of the brand, so that he may become your loyal consumer.

There are four levels of brand perception

We divide the level of brand perception into four: awareness, preference, try rate and loyalty. Investigating these metrics can give you a general idea of the current state of your brand.

First of all, make it clear that the brand survey is conducted for the target customer group, otherwise there will be a big deviation. For example, for an industrial product, the popularity of ordinary social surveys may be only 1/1,000; and it may be 50% of the target customers. When talking about marketing, it must be based on the target market, neither for the industry nor for the big market.

Here are five different market research results. If the survey results for the four indicators are A, 30, 25, 20, and 15, it is obvious that there is a problem with visibility first. If the survey result is B, 95, 30, 30, 25, many home appliance companies in China are of this type. Changhong, TCL and other brands are well-known, but the degree of preference is very low, because consumers do not know that there is a relationship between them. what a difference. Therefore, the final result can only be that the same function, which determines the purchase intention based on price, is very likely to cause a price war. The third situation is 90, 75, 10, and 8. The problem is that the channels are not smooth, the popularity is high, and there is a desire to buy, but consumers do not know where to buy. The fourth 80, 15, 60, 12, which is the worst. Awareness, preference, and attempt rates are high, but loyalty is low. This means that the consumer needs to be stimulated through various market pulls, but after he has tried it once, he will never buy again. The last result, 90, 85, 80, 75, where a company's market share and loyalty are proportional, is the perfect result that all brands can dream of.

On the one hand, enterprises can refer to statistical reports in the society, and on the other hand, they can also obtain a general understanding of the loyalty of target customer groups through such surveys. Awareness is meaningless, only loyalty is the key to judging brand value. Some people come up with the slogan "make a brand famous overnight", which is simply not compatible with brand building. Through various advertising operations, consumers are quickly recognized, but as soon as advertising stops, sales will drop immediately. We call such a brand a "shelled brand", which has no connotation.

Brands sell ideas to some people

A very important key to marketing is to make it clear that it only serves some people. When doing customer analysis, we divide the market into three layers: mainstream, sub-mainstream, and non-mainstream. The mainstream market is the product with the widest range and the most popular; the sub-mainstream market has a certain differentiation, which is called excellent, special, and specialized; the non-mainstream market is excellent, extremely special, and extremely specialized, that is, serving the top of the pyramid very few people. First of all, it is clear which part of the people the brand serves, and then through differentiation, the product becomes the first choice of this part of the people, which achieves the highest level of victory without a fight.

From a branding perspective, there are three things that can be sold: products, services, and ideas. The real strong brands are all selling ideas without exception, that is, let consumers take a magnifying glass to see your advantages, and take a zoom lens to see your shortcomings. If you repeatedly emphasize the function and performance of the product, it is not a real brand.

Let's compare three well-known car brands. BMW's advertising demands emphasize the fun and pleasure of driving; Mercedes-Benz says that the car is a symbol of status and status; and Volvo emphasizes safety the most in all of his media advertisements. This is the brand selling ideas, that is, the brand has a gene, and all employees and supporting systems are operating around this gene.

In general, brand differentiation can be done at three levels, namely core, peripheral, and extension, collectively referred to as a complete product. The innermost layer is the core product, mainly to achieve functional requirements; the periphery is the service; the extension is the experience. Brand differentiation must not compete with others at the core technology level. For example, Haier's service creation won consumers with a piece of plastic sheeting and a pair of shoe covers, which is on the periphery. Of course, service is also easy to be imitated and surpassed, and the most difficult thing is the differentiation of experience, that is, how to sell ideas to customers.

Make the most of your brand's premium capabilities

When it comes to brand premium, the first thing that comes to mind is consumer premium. In fact, the consumer premium is very simple. The price of the exact same sportswear with a brand name is tens of dollars higher than that of no brand. In fact, brand premium also involves many aspects.

Supplier Premium. When I was working at HP, there was a supplier in Shanghai who negotiated the package price with HP. We said, you used to provide support for domestic companies, now do you want to provide support for the most famous companies in the world? In the future, you can tell other customers: "I can meet such strict requirements of Hewlett-Packard, the most famous company in the world, which shows that my level is high." The supplier quickly agreed to do this business for almost no money, which is another premium feature that the brand brings.

The same is true for service providers. No matter what services they provide, they are willing to provide door-to-door services as soon as I hear that they are well-known companies, and they are willing to do so at lower prices.

Employees can also get a premium. Brand-name companies can reduce the cost of human resources. College graduates all want to go to well-known big companies, it doesn't matter if the salary is lower, they can have more opportunities and learn more experience. At the same time, the brand can also better retain talents, because the employee will feel a sense of loss when they switch to a company without a brand. I personally think that the salary of a brand company can be reduced by 20% compared to a non-brand company. The same position has the same nature of work, and a brand can help companies reduce labor costs.

Use value appeal as brand communication

Brand connotation is communicated with consumers through value appeal. The connotation of a product usually means that its value appeal has been clarified before the product has been developed. So there is a tool that has been used for decades in multinational companies - FAB analysis.

F, features/fact, the features of the product; A, advantages, the advantages of the product compared to competitors; B, benefits/value, the value this advantage brings to users. If you look at a lot of advertisements now, you will find that many companies are still at the level of communication F. Yesterday on my way home I heard a radio commercial saying: "Others build buildings with cement, we build with steel". This is F, telling you what a house is like, but not telling you how steel is better than cement, and what value steel buildings can bring to consumers.

In China, every company talks, market-oriented and customer-centric, but no one actually understands the meaning of these two sentences. Customer-centric, is to stand in the customer's position to bring value to him. You help him solve the problem he cares most about, and he will definitely choose you.

The ultimate goal of marketing is to leave consumers with no choice. This sentence may be a little arrogant, but it is indeed the highest state of marketing, because all this depends on the unique value of the product. Analyze your product with a simple tool like FAB, and you will know how to communicate with your customers.

The core of brand building is product innovation

What is the most important job of brand building? Some people say that brand building is advertising. In fact, the most important brand building is product innovation. Let the product have connotation, not an empty shell. Product innovation is actually very easy, as long as you do two things well. First, visit existing consumers and ask them what three areas they are dissatisfied with with the existing product. Second, visit those customers who have potential needs and ask them why they are not consuming your product. There are also three reasons. As long as these six answers are found, companies can easily find the source of innovation.

But this requires a peaceful mind. Marketing is not just a vigorous stage performance. Celebrity endorsements and advertising promotions are all superficial efforts; if you want to endure for a long time, you rely on the preparation work in the background. This is the fundamental difference between the marketing of multinational companies and the marketing of Chinese enterprises. Multinational companies put their main force and a large amount of funds on product innovation. First, they do a lot of market research, half a year, a year, or even two or three years. Without full confidence, a product will not be born. Product innovation relies on some very systematic, very low-key underground work to find the source of innovation, turn the source of innovation into the definition of the product, and finally develop it.

How does a brand distance itself from its competitors? The first is to rely on advertising, which is the choice of most Chinese companies. But in this way, the distance is not far away, as long as the opponent spends the same money, they can catch up in a very short time.

The second is to build a complete and excellent sales channel, which may take two to three years for competitors to replicate.

The third is to deeply grasp the market, and have a deep understanding of the market, users, competition, and technology. The distance opened by these strategic designs is likely to be three to five years.

Lastly, if you rely on the differentiation of product innovation, it may take ten or eight years for your opponent to surpass you. Of course, different industries have different cycles. In short, if an enterprise wants to build a competitive advantage by relying on its brand, it cannot stay at the primary brand created by market promotion, but should gradually shift to product innovation, and finally rely on its unique product value to widen the distance from its competitors. .

Mr. Gao Jianhua is the Chairman and Chief Consultant of Beijing Huizhi Excellent Enterprise Management Consulting Company. This article is based on live recordings and has not been reviewed by the speaker himself.