Heng Yuanxiang's advertisement changed its face

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Editor's note: After Heng Yuanxiang became the sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Games, he changed the phrase "Yang Yang Yang", which is almost a household name, to "Niu Niu Niu". It claims the move is aimed at tackling aging brands to attract more younger consumers.

Should Heng Yuanxiang's slogan be changed? Can the advertisement of "Niu Niu Niu" inject new connotation into Hengyuanxiang's brand and attract young consumers? What should Hengyuanxiang do to better achieve brand continuation and innovation? We specially invited Mr. Liu Yongju, a well-known practical marketing expert in China, to conduct analysis.

Members of the CEConlines website also had an excellent discussion of this case, please click here for details.

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Hengyuanxiang owns the intellectual property rights of the brand, only operates the brand and advertises its own brand. Under the high awareness of the brand, there are hundreds of processing enterprises below. Only operating the brand is equivalent to making money from the brand.

In addition to OEM production, Hengyuanxiang is also developing its own main body, such as socks industry. But most of it is still done in the form of OEM. Then, it must manage its brand. To operate a brand is to shape the brand first, and then operate it. If you don't shape, or operate in a reasonable and orderly manner, those companies will not come to use your brand.

However, it did not fully shape the brand in the shaping process, but only achieved a high degree of recognition. Under this condition, it began to operate. One side is management, and the other side is high awareness. In fact, it is doing repeated recognition, lacking the concept of the brand. What kind of phenomenon will this repeated recognition cause? It's just that you've had to be doing high-awareness advertising for years. If the intensity of your advertising or the way of advertising changes, the market will question your brand and then forget it because your idea has not been made.

Playing brand memory advertisements

Heng Yuanxiang's promotion behavior at the beginning was recognized by the entire consumer group. Hengyuanxiang brand has several elements, which are remembered by everyone, one of which is the element of "sheep, sheep, sheep". Another is the three words "Hengyuanxiang". In Chinese traditional culture, these elements give the impression of a traditional time-honored concept, so it is easy to be remembered by others. The three words "Hengyuanxiang" did not have this store or brand after the liberation of Shanghai, but it existed in the history of Shanghai. Therefore, Hengyuanxiang borrowed the concept of a time-honored brand that everyone agrees with.

As early as 1993, Hengyuanxiang's advertising awareness was "sheep, sheep, sheep, wool sweater". It is played several times in a commercial film in a row, which belongs to memory advertising, which is called brand memory advertising. We also call it cognitive advertising, that is, let everyone know you first, and then let everyone know you. The result of this advertisement is that the cognition speed is very fast. Generally, when cognition is used, there is a repetition frequency in an advertisement, so that consumers are like memorizing the text. Repeated frequently, it is easy to remember. The frequency of playing several time periods in a day, and then repeating several times in a commercial, forms multiple repetitions. This type of advertising belongs to memory and cognitive advertising, which is to let others remember and recognize you.

What changed is the brand symbol

Heng Yuanxiang changed "Yangyangyang" to "Niu Niu Niu", but changed the identification symbol. Maybe Heng Yuanxiang felt that the image that everyone knew was too old, so he changed it The image has the concept of changing the dynasty.

Some people think that Heng Yuanxiang is creating a topic, but how can he say that he will change his clothes so that no one knows me? Everyone has to know me before creating other topics. If you understand me, you can also create a lot of topics, each of which is generated under one condition, either to create a topic of how to know me, or to create a topic of how to know me. You can't create a topic that lets everyone know me when you already know it. It's as if two old acquaintances meet but create a scene that they have just recognized, and they have to hand over business cards when they come up. In terms of marketing behavior, that is to say, the market has already reached a mature stage, and you have to educate from the introduction stage to hype an unnecessary concept and get a new understanding. And this result was not needed.

I think it should not be deliberately creating a topic, but trying to break through its brand concept, but there may be some problems in its approach.

No need to change the symbol Heng Yuanxiang advertises every year, in fact, there is no need to change the symbol. The symbol doesn't do it much harm, not that it's old enough to change the visual symbol. Changing the visual symbol is an infringement on the old consumers, because when the old consumers recognize you, they only know your name, not who you are and what you convey, that is to say, it will Lose a large portion of consumers -- a portion of consumers who were previously educated.

The phenomenon of the transformation of "sheep" and "cow" advertisements reflects that Hengyuanxiang did not realize that its brand concept did not come out, rather than that its visual symbols did not come out. So it tries to change the idea, but in fact "Yang Yang Yang", or "Niu Niu Niu", does not represent the idea, because you say it yourself. For products we can impose a concept on consumers, but brands cannot. It also, like other marketing, imposes a concept on the brand for you to slowly accept, but this is impossible, the brand does not do this.

Hengyuanxiang is a brand, and "sheep, sheep, sheep" is just a brand symbol. Just like when we see a person, you can remember him because he has a certain hairstyle or always wears a certain hat, so he has a symbol. Now Hengyuanxiang has changed the symbols, the memory elements, not the connotations. His connotation has not changed from "sheep and sheep" to "niu Niu Niu".

The key lies in the connotation. I think Hengyuanxiang has not conveyed his brand connotation until now, but just repeats his memory symbols to consumers. Because Hengyuanxiang has been around for more than ten years, basically all its marketing behaviors do not revolve around a brand connotation. To do it, it's just conveying its symbol.

Without connotation, consumers cannot rely on brands, because consumers are emotionally dependent. Wearing yours today and wearing yours next is emotional dependence. The Hengyuanxiang brand cannot achieve emotional dependence, and has not achieved it for more than ten years. This shows that he has a problem in the emotional part, but he has done a good job in this part of cognition. Everyone knows Hengyuanxiang, but You can't always do cognition, do cognition every day, and still do cognition after more than ten years, and spend so much money, because the time for cognition is very short, it is easy to be recognized by everyone, and the rest of the time All understand.

In our life, we have met many friends, colleagues, and contact with many people, all from cognition to development to friendship. You can't say that I know everything well. In the end, you may not know anyone. It lacks This is it. So I think it's "Niu Niu Niu", it just changed a symbol, an accepted image symbol. But in terms of this symbol, should it be changed in this way? If you change in this way, you are trying to make others recognize you again, which creates a kind of doubt. So I think what Hengyuan Xiang lacks is not the identification symbol. You can use this identification symbol to make a century-old store, and it will be fine for a hundred years. Why? Because consumers are always new, today 18-year-olds are educated, and ten years from now, they will be 28, but you are still 18-year-olds, and you can’t follow people’s age.

The most important thing for Heng Yuanxiang now is the need for connotation. As for the advertising slogan, I think many people have come up with a lot of ideas. The key is that connotation cannot be expressed in one sentence, it needs a series of activities to embody it. I don't think it is necessary to change its identification symbol, which is a bit incomprehensible.

Make brand connotation

What is the connotation of Hengyuanxiang? It seems that no one can tell. Enterprises can definitely have their own opinions, and the market's recognition is only a symbol. When it comes to the connotation of the brand, it cannot be easily changed, because the connotation of the brand is not in your company. The connotation of the brand is what the company makes consumers feel through a series of activities. For example, if this person is cultivated, but he crosses his legs when he eats, slaps his mouth when he drinks water, etc., then his behavior makes people unable to perceive his inner meaning, so this inner meaning is not what he said, it must be felt by others. A well-bred person, his words and deeds in life, his behavior in dealing with people, etc., and all other aspects, are all reflected in one point, that is, condensed on a connotation point, such as elegance, quietness, boldness, etc. .