What does the brand mean?

This is a mobile phone I used from 1997 to 2000. Does anyone know what brand and model it is? It is easy to recognize the brand, but it may not be easy to recognize the model. After 1997, Nokia launched its first slider phone, the 8110, which was my second phone at the time. At that time there were not many mobile phones to choose from in the market, so I usually chose three brands, namely Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola. I saw this phone in the store and I saw it was very beautiful and I bought it.

I also felt very good during the use process, no problems were found, and the body of the mobile phone has a curved shape. At that time, Siemens also launched a mobile phone endorsed by a famous violinist. It was also a slider phone. The main image at that time was a sexy image. I liked my mobile phone very much. I think this Nokia is not only sexy, but also better than Sexy is still a higher level, reaching the skinny level. From my experience, it shows that the brand has two uses, one is recognition, and the other is trust. Brands can accumulate consumer love and trust, through the quality of products, etc. In 2000, I gave this phone to another friend, and I still feel reluctant to give it up.

From 2000 to 2002, this was a lecture given by Michael Porter, a famous professor at Harvard Business School. The first case discussed was Nokia, and I was very impressed. The first sentence of the case is a quote from the CEO of Nokia at the time. The general idea of this sentence is as follows: He said that in Silicon Valley in the United States, a venture capitalist pushed open the door of his garage, and he saw ten or twenty venture capitalists waiting outside the door. But what does he see when an entrepreneur opens the door to his garage in Finland? It was a mist of white snow a few feet thick. This is about how Nokia has grown from a traditional company to a well-known innovative telecommunications company.

I was so impressed by this sentence, it resonated in my emotions, and it is equivalent to the image that Marlboro evokes in the hearts of many smokers. The third use of the brand is to establish consumers' emotional identity, love and attachment through the dissemination of stories, legends, and images. A communication can be mass communication or niche communication, it can be communicated through terminals such as advertisements, or it can be communicated through word-of-mouth communication.

In 2002, I finished studying abroad, and the first thing I did when I came back to China was to buy a mobile phone. I have been using it until now. Most people may not recognize the model of this mobile phone, including myself. , I once took it to a Nokia store to repair and the people in their store also forgot what model it was. I only remember that it started with the prefix 6. It is a style of business mobile phone. This mobile phone can be called business outside of the phone. The place is the Internet, I have never used it to surf the Internet.

Friends familiar with the mobile phone industry can recall that 2002 was a low tide for Nokia, when Nokia experienced a global low tide, because Nokia ignored the trend of consumers, especially those in Asia, who like folding mobile phones very much. The foldable mobile phone has not been launched for a long time, and it was in a backward position in the world at that time. Such a backward position still won the purchase of consumers like me, when the phone was still very expensive. But this illustrates that the fourth use of a brand is loyalty. By establishing a position in your mind and winning your trust and emotional recognition, consumers will have a loyalty to the brand and start continuous and loyal consumption.

After loyalty, there is actually another level, which is fanaticism. We know that a lot of teen-facing brands, and not-teen-facing brands, often build crazes out of loyalty, and we know about Nike sneakers, Ipods, Harley-Davidsons, and more.

Last year when I used that phone, my wife used to laugh at it, not because it didn't look good, but because I spent so much money at the time for a mediocre phone. I personally felt that my Nokia loyalty was being mocked and hurt to a certain extent, so last year I decided to buy a new phone. Instead of choosing Nokia, I bought a foreign brand known for its smartphones. But in the process of using it, I found that the performance of this phone is not stable. I don't know if it's because of the poor localization or some other reason. A very important problem is that sometimes I can't receive text messages. I will see an indicator light flashing, indicating that there are text messages coming in, but my mobile phone does not display anything. I'll call my wife at this point and ask if she's texting me? She said I was relieved without me. But if it's someone else's text message, I don't know who to call to check. What does this experience show? Explain that the brand can help build recognition and win the initial trust purchase, but also need the quality of the product to win trust, and then talk about the final emotional connection and fanaticism.

I'm thinking again, should I buy another phone? Get a new phone? The choice this time is definitely to choose Nokia, because you are used to it, you will have trust in it, including emotional connection. But I've found that not getting text messages can also be beneficial. If my wife sends me a text message to ask me to do something and I don't do it, you can say that the text message has not been received. You know there is something wrong with my mobile phone.

Liu Lan is the editor-in-chief of "CEConline" magazine.