Xie Weishan: Jiaduobao's "positioning" approach

The following is based on Xie Weishan's speech on "The Business Strategy Thought Most Influencing Chinese Entrepreneurs - Positioning Reading Club".

Some people say that the "Positioning" theory is outdated, I think he is not outdated, because "Positioning" tells us that the essence of business competition is not the struggle of products, but the struggle of cognition. This sentence does not mean that it is not important to make a product. On the contrary, it is very important to make a product well, but making a product well is only the most basic requirement for running a business and participating in competition. The highest requirement in the current business competition is to "make customers feel good about it", that is, word of mouth. Word of mouth, in fact, is to build a brand. Where is the brand built? Brands are built in the minds of customers. Since the brain is the place where the brand is established, we need to understand the "topography" of the brain and what its laws are. Only by understanding this law can we build a successful brand. So, Mr. Trout says positioning is a combination of marketing and psychology. Understand the mind, understand how the customer's brain works.

One of the positioning methods: preemptive occupancy.

Positioning is all about making your brand the first choice for customers. The most fundamental force in the market is the power of consumer choice. Lei Jun said that in the typhoon, pigs can fly. What is a typhoon outlet, and the typhoon outlet is the power of consumer choice.

So how do you really win the choice? As mentioned earlier, it is necessary to understand the laws of consumers' minds: the first thing that the mind likes, and the first thing that appears, is easy for customers to accept. Therefore, to be the first brand to be the first is to occupy the first place. Why did "Wanglaoji" become the first brand of beverages in China, it was actually just a brand leased by Jiaduobao Company at the beginning. Jiaduobao is a beverage company that has tea drinks, juice drinks, and water. They encounter a problem: when making tea, they will meet Master Kong and Uniform; when making juice, they will meet Huiyuan and many fresh oranges; when making water, they will meet Nongfu Spring, Yibao, and so on. In 2002, Jiaduobao put all its energy into herbal tea, because there is no herbal tea in the market, and Wanglaoji is the only one. Therefore, in 2002, JDB made a decision to fully promote the Wanglaoji brand.

In fact, positioning and grasping the timing is a good way to build a brand. Why is being number one so important? The secret lies in the cognition law of consumers, that is, once consumers establish cognition, it is difficult to change. Therefore, the valuable part of "Positioning" is that once your brand is recognized, there will be a huge force supporting the company to move forward. As long as you don't do bad things, it is difficult for consumers to identify you with your competitors. , This is what Buffett calls "the moat of the enterprise". Preemption will have the above two advantages of occupying the mind, so the power of preemption is very large.

Wanglaoji's brand in those days was based on the preemptive position, from 180 million to 600 million in the second year, and later exceeded 20 billion, but by May 12, 2012, China's most valuable brand was due to a After a lawsuit, Jiaduobao lost the brand, which became a competitor of Jiaduobao overnight. The most powerful weapon in competition among enterprises is the brand. The dragon-slaying knife made by myself is now in the hands of the opponent, and this battle is very difficult.

The second method of positioning: associative positioning.

The "Wanglaoji" brand that Jiaduobao has cultivated for 17 years has become a "thing in the bag" of others in an instant. How should we fight this battle? In fact, there is another way of positioning, that is, related positioning. What is Relevant Positioning? For example, there is a bookseller in the United States. He found out that a friend was a good friend with the President of the United States, so the bookseller gave the book to the President through his friend. As a courtesy, the president casually said "this book is good" when he got the book. I didn't expect this sentence to be hyped up by booksellers, "This is a book that the President of the United States said 'good'." As a result, the book made a lot of money. The second time, when the president "learned his lesson" and got the bookseller's book, he said nothing. As a result, the bookseller said in the advertising slogan: "This is a book that the president is noncommittal."

From this example, you will find that selling a book well is related to the "landmark" in consumers' brains. "related. What are consumer landmarks? It’s about connecting the brand to what the consumer already has in mind. For consumers, Jiaduobao used to be a brand completely unfamiliar to consumers. How to get into the mind of the customer? If we use the landmark "Wanglaoji", can we go in? I can go in, how can I use it? It depends on what impression Wanglaoji left on us. Afraid of getting angry, canned, herbal tea, red can, formula, authentic, taste... Then, what should be done in the advertising slogan of Jiaduobao? "For fear of getting angry, drink Jia Duo Bao now. The red canned herbal tea with the leading sales in the country has changed its name to Jia Duo Bao, and it still tastes the same as before. If you are afraid of getting angry, drink Jia Duo Bao." Impressions left in it.

The third method of positioning: repositioning.

Repositioning is repositioning your competitors. So in 2013, Jiaduobao's advertisement changed again, how did it reposition Wanglaoji? It said, "Fear of getting angry, more people drink Jia Duo Bao. For every ten cans of herbal tea sold in China, seven cans of Jia Duo Bao have an authentic formula and are of course more popular." The ad actually said: "I sell more than Good opponent."

The above mentioned three methods of positioning will ultimately win the customer's choice. To sum up, making a brand needs to adjust the existing concepts in consumers' minds and win customers' choices through it, which may be a bit like playing Tai Chi. There are three realms in Taijiquan. The first realm is to be familiar with the routines, and the second realm is to gradually comprehend the principles and why you should fight like this. Third, when you touch the opponent's hand, you will know whether the opponent's center of gravity is on the left leg or the right leg. The most important thing to do in a business is to grasp the minds of customers and how to use the power of minds to achieve their goals.