In order to enhance the brand image and consolidate the dominant position in the provincial market, Shengquan Group developed Xibao Beer, focusing on the Hefei market. Taking advantage of the opportunity of the 1998 World Cup, it spent huge sums of money to frequently launch Xibao Beer products. The TV commercial, with the slogan "The more friends the better, drink Xibao when drinking" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The brand awareness has soared rapidly, the sales volume has grown steadily, and it has gradually occupied the mid-range box wine market in Hefei.
Longjin Group is the second largest beer brand in Anhui Province. Its production scale and brand strength are second only to Shengquan. It has always adopted a challenging strategy and launched a fierce offensive in local areas with flexible marketing techniques. It is The most threatening competitor of Holy Spring. Longjin Group is located next to Hefei. It jointly established a sales company with the strongest dealers in Hefei at the time and established a strong channel network. It has a solid market foundation and a good brand image.
Faced with the hot sales of Xibao Beer, Longjin immediately launched Longjin Pure Beer with a lighter taste, directly activated the hotel terminal, deployed nearly a hundred promotional girls, and attracted hotel staff to promote sales to guests by recycling bottle caps. , and comprehensively improve the profit margins of each channel link, and mobilize the sales enthusiasm of the channel. Since these marketing strategies were the first of its kind in the beer channel competition in the Hefei market at that time, they hit the weak link in the terminal channel of Shengquan Hotel and achieved immediate results. The rapid start of Longjin Pure Hotel consumption has affected the changes in the overall market, and it has seized most of the market share of Shengquan Beer in half a year.
Shengquan immediately adopted a tit-for-tat sales policy, launching a full-scale counterattack regardless of the cost! All of a sudden, the competition for gift promotions, profit-sharing promotions, hotel buyouts, and terminal seats escalated rapidly. It was full of gunpowder and became a spectacle! Often, as soon as the product display and promotional posters of this company are put up, it turns into a competing brand in the blink of an eye; if you were dining in a hotel in Hefei, as soon as you finish it, there will be five or six salespeople selling wine to you...
“When the intensity is maximized, what needs to be searched may be the direction.”
After a hard battle, Shengquan effectively blocked its competitors and stabilized its market share. But they dare not take it easy. The two sides have formed a tug-of-war. Every increase in market share requires a huge price. Market expenses have surged, and corporate profit margins have plummeted. However, they can't stop and are struggling to support it!
In this environment, even if you defeat your competitors, it will not be conducive to the medium and long-term development of your company!
After learning from the experience, we believe that the root cause of vicious competition is the homogeneity of the marketing strategies of both parties and the lack of innovation in products.
Proposed: As a leading brand market strategy, Shengquan Group can only truly surpass its competitors by implementing a multi-brand strategy in the mid-range box wine market, establishing a market leading advantage in the mid- to high-price range, and increasing overall profit margins. Achieve sustainable operations.
How to implement a multi-brand strategy? If you simply launch new products to compete, you will directly fall into a price war and it will be difficult to get out of the predicament! We decided to turn our attention from competitors to consumers, innovate marketing ideas, implement brand research and development entirely from consumers, and create a differentiated brand marketing model!
Market research: getting closer to consumers
“Without research, there is no right to speak.”
After unifying our thinking, we immediately invited professional The market research company formulated a consumer research plan and selected three representative cities in the province. Targeting consumer groups of different ages and incomes, it adopted a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to conduct in-depth and detailed market segment research.
I reported the research plan to the headquarters with enthusiasm, but I was poured cold water on it: the product was not yet available, and the decision-makers were hesitant to spend such a high research fee.
With enthusiasm and confidence, we decided to take action first and show it to the decision-makers! The research company was also moved and was willing to try it together!
The survey results came out, and there were many unexpected findings -
It is generally believed that most young people around 25 years old, with high education and high income only use In three or four years, Tianzhijiaozi, a Huaye student from the university, became the department manager of the company. It can be said that everything is going smoothly and high-spirited. They should be the proudest, most confident and happiest group.
In fact, the research results are completely different from the speculation. They are actually the unhappiest group!
Because they have greater goals and ideals, and a stronger sense of competition and crisis, they are not satisfied with the status quo...
They are often subjected to various challenges at work. They are unable to show their talents due to restrictions and are unhappy...
They pursue perfection and are extremely demanding on themselves. They are still worried about their past mistakes caused by lack of experience and often think that if they could start over, they would do better. Good...
They hope that through their own hard work, they can have more leisure time and capital to travel around the world after the age of 35...
And the happiest group is, on the contrary, Young people with an income of less than 600 yuan/month are mostly engaged in manual labor. Although they are tired, they are provided with free lunch boxes and the boss occasionally hands out boxes of cigarettes, which feels good.
It is generally believed that China’s market economy is not yet mature and has not yet developed into true market segmentation, especially competing brands of the same grade of fast moving consumer goods, homogeneity of products, and homogeneity of marketing techniques. ization, all consumers have a vague understanding of brand distinctions.
However, the survey found that if the brand is regarded as a person, all brands have a clear image in the minds of consumers: they think Xibao is humorous, makes friends, and can control the situation. A middle-aged man; while Long Jinchun is a simple and honest young man with a secondary education.
When consumers are asked to describe the relationship between the brand and themselves using interpersonal relationships, many consumers say in unison that Xibao is a cousin, with a good relationship but not an intimate relationship; when asked about Longjin , the consumer actually blurted out: They are brothers!
Through the investigation, we found that we are getting closer and closer to the target consumers -
Young, flamboyant and need something of their own.
High income, no pressure from family, strong purchasing power and consumption power, and sufficient market capacity.
They have more leisure time, extensive social contacts, like to party and drink with friends, and can drive market consumption
More importantly, they have expectations for the future and hope to do better …
Looking at the existing brands, Longjin Chun and Xibao are both popular brands with strong affinity but lack of individuality. They obviously cannot meet the needs of this target group and have obvious market opportunities. Therefore, the target market has Higher investment value.
High-income young consumers are our target consumer group.
Product development: fully satisfying consumer needs
The hard work pays off. After the research report came out, it was highly recognized by the decision-makers, which further strengthened our determination to continue to focus on the target consumers. Confidence in conducting brand development.
“Product naming is a key factor in brand success.”
A good product name can directly express the brand personality and make marketing more effective. We decided to start brand development with naming.
Unexpectedly, naming is a painful process. We are working intensively with the advertising company, and at the same time, we are soliciting brand names for college students with prizes. They will first be selected internally, and then go through consumer testing; round after round, more than two months have passed in the blink of an eye, and nearly ten consumer tests have been conducted. During the test, nearly a thousand brand names were eliminated, but none of them were very satisfactory! Everyone was exhausted, and they all said that they should just choose one that was more or less the same. I insist on starting over from the beginning.
Time is tight and we must not miss the best time to launch new products. I couldn't sleep at night for more than two months.
One day, I woke up at five o'clock in the morning, completely sleepless, and my mind was filled with product names. I turned on the TV and happened to be watching the Zero Point Band's concert. Suddenly, a series of words like "Zero Point Band, Return to Zero Thinking, and Start from Zero" flashed through my mind. I was overjoyed, jumped up, and wrote the words "zero beer" on the paper. At half past seven, we called everyone into the office to discuss it. Everyone was very excited!
To be prudent, we continued to test the target consumers with Lingdian Beer and some of the selected brand names, and it was highly recognized by consumers.
“A good product is a product that consumers love to drink.”
Taste is always an important factor in consumers choosing fast-moving consumer goods.
Shengquan has always been proud of its professional taste, but during market research we found that consumers increasingly dislike beers with heavier flavors. The taste of Lingzhou Beer must be innovative and adapt to consumers’ tastes. Necessary, we decided to do a taste test.
Unexpectedly, the test plan was strongly criticized by the chief technical engineer. The chief engineer has nearly 20 years of experience in the industry and is an authority in the beer industry in Anhui Province. He is a person who is very dedicated to his profession. He believes that product taste is a matter for experts. We do not understand beer production technology at all and should not be involved.
After many twists and turns, the chief engineer was finally persuaded to develop a series of samples with different textures and conduct taste tests. We mixed the samples with our own brands and best-selling brands on the market, conducted multiple rounds of blind testing, and finally selected a sample with a lighter taste and stronger fragrance that consumers liked best.
When the test results were sent to the headquarters, the chief engineer suspected that they had made a mistake and became furious! Because from an expert’s perspective, this sample is not the best beer at all! With our strong insistence and the chairman's intervention, we were able to arrange production and ensure that the zero-point beer would be put on the market with the taste of the test sample. As soon as the new product was launched, the taste was highly loved by consumers and led to the taste revolution of Anhui beer!
As an aside, later on, as more and more companies were served, I discovered that how to solve the problem of combining professional technology with market demand was definitely not a case of a certain company! We must remember that the market is always made by consumers, and experts are never superstitious.
“People rely on clothes, and packaging is the coat of the brand.”
The target consumer group of Lingdian Beer is a person with a flamboyant personality. Its packaging can only break the rules, highlight differentiation, and differentiate itself from competition. A brand can resonate with consumers and form market competitiveness.
The first is the 500ML beer that breaks the conventional packaging capacity. At that time, the capacity of ordinary bottled beer was basically 640ML. We designed a 500ML special-shaped bottle. Not only did the bottle look more beautiful, but it also reduced the pressure on consumers to drink more, increased market consumption, and at the same time reduced product costs, improving product quality in disguise. The price can be described as killing three birds with one stone!
Then use a dark blue background as the main color of the trademark. At that time, beer packaging was greatly influenced by foreign countries, and almost all trademarks were red, green, and gold. Lingdian Beer boldly chooses dark blue as the base color, with white snowflakes sprinkled on it to form an "O"-shaped circle. The blue and white are very prominent.
After the product was packaged, we went to Shanghai and Nanjing to inspect the market. We bought some imported beer products that were not common in the Anhui market and put them together with the snack beer for product packaging testing. As a result, Lingdian Beer's packaging ranks first in terms of recognizability, memorability and preference!
Marketing promotion: Carry out differentiation to the end
“Establishing a good quality impression is the foundation for the success of a new brand.”
A good quality impression is the key to brand building and the basis of development. Therefore, for a brand new brand, it is crucial to find its unique selling point, and Zero Point Beer is no exception! Zero-point beer, zero-proof storage, removing unpalatable DB ingredients to ensure the beer is more refreshing, is the main line we have organized to establish the quality impression of zero-point beer.
Zero-degree storage is integrated with the quality of zero-point beer and gives consumers a cold feeling.
By utilizing unique product trademarks, unified brand communication themes, and low communication costs, Lingdian Beer can quickly establish a differentiated and high-quality impression.
In fact, the main production processes of beer are saccharification, fermentation, filtration, filling and sterilization. Before filtration, it must be stored at sub-zero temperatures to precipitate protein and facilitate filtration. But precisely because this is an extremely common production process, many beer companies did not spread it. Lingdian Beer took the lead and took advantage of the situation to establish its own quality foundation. During the communication, considering that protein may cause misunderstanding among consumers, it was changed to the so-called DB ingredient.
Here we summarize the three major principles of brand communication: if you have selling points that others don’t have, you must say it; if you have selling points that others have, you must say it first; when everyone is talking, the voice must be loud enough!
“The emotional resonance is the reason why consumers rely on the brand.”
The most important task of Lingdian Beer brand communication is to seize the mental space of target consumers and connect with consumption. The person screams.
Lingdian’s brand proposition is: Youth is capital, forget yesterday, no matter it is success or failure, as long as you are always full of confidence and passion, every day is a new beginning, and you can constantly challenge yourself and surpass yourself. , create a better tomorrow...
Advertising slogans are the eyes of brand communication, and appropriate advertising slogans can clearly communicate the brand theme. During the creative communication meeting for the advertising slogan, we remembered the words of consumers, "If I start over, I will do better." Zero Point is not only a beginning, but also an expectation, a kind of thinking about returning to one's position, "a new beginning." , right at zero point", who else besides it?
We also invited the Lingdian band to be the brand spokesperson. The song "Believe in Yourself" in the commercial film, the Lingdian band's passionate and confident singing, made "a new beginning, at Lingdian" more vivid. After that, Lingdian Beer made full use of Lingdian Band's rising influence, sponsored Lingdian Band's concert tour, launched a promotional campaign in which drinking Lingdian Beer got Lingdian Band concert tickets, and implemented the strategic layout of occupying East China and entering the national market, driving the company to become stronger and stronger. big.
“We call all extraordinary things: miracles.”
It has only been three months since Zero Point Beer was introduced to the market, and there has not yet been a large number of TV advertisements. It became popular throughout the province. During the peak sales period, Hefei City sold nearly 20 trucks a day!
The unit price of Lingdian Beer is 1.5 times that of Xibao Beer, and the market investment is less than one-fifth of Xibao Beer, while the sales volume is more than three times that of Xibao Beer, and its profit margin is as high as that of Shengquan Group. All-time high!
The Anhui liquor market has always been known for following trends, and Lingdian Beer has not been effectively imitated by any competing brand! Although they have similar product names and similar packaging, they have quietly withdrawn from the market. Because the real differentiation comes from the mental space of consumers! .
According to the marketing plan, the two major brands Lingdian Beer and Xibao Beer completely dominate the mid-range and above box wine market in Anhui Province, leaving their competitors far behind and completing the company's capital accumulation.