Brand has always been a key factor affecting consumer decisions. Especially in today's era of information explosion, brand is a good carrier that can help companies establish an effective segmentation in the minds of consumers, thereby So that traffic can flow in continuously. Therefore, more and more Chinese companies are beginning to pay attention to brands. However, due to limitations in cognition, many companies still believe that branding is just about creating a visual, doing some advertising, and publishing some news. They also believe that only when companies reach a certain scale do they need to build a brand, and they should do marketing first. ZhenFund’s survey of 68 start-up companies showed that only 7% of companies have brand departments. In fact, brand and marketing have never been independent of each other. Brand is the advanced stage of the historical development of marketing (the four development stages of marketing: product orientation, customer orientation, brand orientation, and innovation orientation). Therefore, from the beginning of its establishment, enterprises should work together from the inside out and from top to bottom to carry out point-line-face systematic brand marketing. To sum up, systematic brand marketing work should be carried out from seven aspects: strategic positioning, image system, communication system, experience system, structural relationship, value system, and management system. The most core one is strategic positioning, because strategic positioning is the goal, direction, principle and guidance of the overall follow-up work of the brand, and determines the soul of the brand. As the core of brand work, brand strategic positioning should be determined based on a large amount of market research and analysis. Judging from the content of the research and analysis, it should include analysis from multiple perspectives of the macro environment, industry, competitors, core users and potential consumers, as well as the organization itself. The macro environment refers to the policy, technology, economic and social environment; the industry refers to suppliers, buyers, potential competitors, existing competitors, substitutes, etc.; competitor analysis mainly includes brand positioning and product positioning, marketing/promotion channels, products Brand and marketing highlight design, user reputation evaluation/sales, etc.; the most important analysis of core users and potential consumers needs to be based on the user's age, occupation, region, purchasing characteristics and other social attributes, living habits and consumption behavior Expand in multiple dimensions to form user portraits. These analyzes can be completed by using models such as PEST analysis, SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces model, and STP segment market positioning. In terms of research methods, qualitative research and quantitative research should be combined. Qualitative research uses observation, interviews, data research, etc. to openly understand the real situation, and then conducts inductive research to summarize answers through reasoning and generate hypotheses to pave the way for quantitative research. Then, conduct quantitative research yourself or with the help of a third party to verify the hypothesis. After the brand strategy is formulated through the above methods, it needs to be continuously adjusted and optimized as the market and enterprise develop and change. The original strategy and the tactical results based on the original strategy must be evaluated regularly (such as every year) to provide information for strategic optimization. refer to. Brand Image System After the brand strategic positioning is determined, it is necessary to establish a brand image system, which is also a brand recognition system. A complete image system should contain three layers: concept recognition, behavior recognition and visual recognition. Among them, concept identification includes brand personality, mission, vision, values, name, slogan, etc.; behavioral identification not only includes the appearance, behavior and communication of the company itself, but also includes the appearance, behavior and communication of partners, such as agents; visual identification includes logo, Business cards and document bags also include front desk facade, employee uniforms, product App interface, company interior decoration, etc. Each part of these three layers will play a vital role in the brand, so they should be derived from full consideration and discussion based on a certain methodology, rather than a product of patting one's head on. Take the most important level of concept identification as an example. Mission, vision, and values ??must first be clearly defined: the mission is to find the meaning of the enterprise's existence, the vision is to determine the goals the enterprise wants to achieve, and the values ????are to control the behavior of collective members through consistent ideological standards. The alignment of the three ensures the development of the enterprise. Direction, achieving corporate development goals, and condensing team morale play an extremely important role. Enterprises should propose these concepts from the heart and implement them consistently, otherwise they can only exist in name only. The brand name is by no means a simple word choice, but must conform to strategic positioning, be legally registered, use less unfamiliar words, be good at association, hint at product attributes, embed development pipelines, consider local customs, and avoid waste of resources. Only in this way can the identification cost, dissemination cost and usage cost be reduced.

Slogan should also be considered "easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to remember" from three aspects: brand strategy, product features, and user insights. The brand story must be true, strengthen the brand positioning, have a vivid and touching plot, and lead to the brand mission. There should be only one brand story. Only by in-depth display and dissemination of a brand story can it help build brand awareness. Brand communication system The purpose of brand communication is to allow people to form cognition, change cognition, and reshape cognition of the brand, thereby creating a favorable impression and forming preference and loyalty. In layman's terms, it means to make consumers take action, to make those who don't know want it, to reverse their prejudices among those who don't like it, and to form loyalty among those who have already purchased it. From an implementation perspective, we should start from the three perspectives of "mind, skill and body". "Heart" means to gain insight into the voices of consumers and discover their "soul touch points". This requires the planning of soft articles, advertisements, videos and other content to enable consumers to generate emotional responses, and all content must be centered around the brand concept. consistent with the style. “Technology” refers to various media channels. This includes new media such as WeChat and Weibo, as well as traditional media such as TV and magazines, as well as offline channels such as physical stores, posters, celebrity endorsements, etc. The success of "technology" must be the result of "joint operations" of various channels, so it is necessary to learn to understand the applicable characteristics of various media. "Experience" is the personal experience of consumers, that is, the entire communication process should try to make customers participate in the experience and have a sense of experience, so that it is easier to impress consumers. The brand experience system is in the same line as the communication system. What I want to emphasize is that the consumer purchase decision-making journey centered on "attention-interest-search-compare-purchase-share" should allow consumers to communicate with the brand at all times and form a brand. Cognition contributes to the formation of the two brand functions of "premium" and "credibility". Brand experience includes five aspects: vision, hearing, taste, smell and touch. The touch points of brand experience include, in addition to the brand's own brand product design, app interface, and front-line service staff performance; the brand's own media exposure resources, official website, WeChat and Weibo accounts, fixed exhibition halls, office environment, etc.; the brand's acquisition through market actions User touch points, such as advertising, public relations reports, mobile exhibition halls for roadshows, etc. It also includes the contact point resources owned by the company’s upstream and downstream partners, brand or marketing service providers, cooperative media, and opinion leaders. As well as touch points spontaneously generated by users, such as UGC content videos uploaded by users, comments published, etc. To create a good brand experience, it is necessary to identify all the above touch points, evaluate the current performance of each touch point, and clarify the impact of each touch point on users; select key touch points by prioritizing them, and then execute and continuously optimize them. Brand architecture relationship Brand architecture is an issue that companies need to consider carefully, because a poor brand architecture will greatly restrict the company's future development. For enterprises, there are usually two issues to consider in brand architecture. One is whether the brand and product brand should be independent or unified at the beginning of the establishment of the enterprise. The other is how to deal with the problems faced by the parent company as the enterprise develops. The relationship between brands and sub-brands. As for the first question, whether to be unified or independent depends on the company's development strategy. If the company's goal is to become an industry-leading brand, it is recommended that the corporate brand and product brand be independent, because industry-leading brands may need to build product brands in different categories of the industry. And if the company's goal is to become a new independent category leading brand, then it is recommended that the corporate brand and product brand be unified. This will help the company focus on achieving one goal: to be the leader of this category and continue to improve market share and user quality. The second is the issue of brand extension strategy, which is determined by the combination of corporate strategy, product strategy and brand strategy. In order to introduce new products, brands usually conduct brand extensions. This can help sub-brands quickly enter the market, seize consumer awareness, and help the parent brand increase brand awareness. However, it may also cause the parent brand to lose its originally established brand image. , bringing a devastating blow to the enterprise. Therefore, when companies carry out brand extension strategies, they need to focus on the brand positioning, attributes and users of the parent brand to decide whether the sub-brands and the parent brand are related to each other or independent of each other. For example, Disney spans different categories, but the ultimate goal of these categories is to focus on the pleasant attributes of Disney, which are scattered but not separated. However, brand giants like Nike have tried to launch side one, a fashionable women's shoe. Casual shoes, i.e. for women, ultimately failed. Brand management system Brand management mainly refers to the management of relevant indicators according to the brand life cycle.

We can divide brand management into three stages: the early stage when the brand is just established, the middle stage when the complete brand construction is completed, and the late stage when brand assets continue to grow. The early stage refers to the goal of establishing a new brand, including brand elements such as mission, vision, values, and positioning. The management indicator at this time is "difference". Occupying users' minds is the primary task at this stage, so always ask yourself, am I different from existing brands? What's the difference? In addition, some routine brand management operations, such as trademark and name registration and other trivial matters, must be completed at this stage. The mid-term refers to the goal of developing and strengthening an established brand, including developing a strong relationship with consumers, forming a correct brand image, or increasing visibility. At this stage, what I often ask myself is, can what I do make consumers think of my brand? Do the requirements I create help consumers associate with my brand? The later stage refers to maintaining a mature brand, mainly focusing on the accumulation of brand assets, maintenance of brand image, or maintaining the growth of the brand. This means that the brand already has its own concept and positioning, and is deeply supported and loved by consumers. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the content between different communication channels is consistent, and that the content is consistent with the brand concept and other principled information. If it is inconsistent, You need to give up decisively. Brand Value System Brand value is often considered difficult to measure and calculate. In fact, brand value can be measured both financially and through a certain market evaluation system. According to the definition of brand value by InterBrand, an internationally renowned brand consulting company: "Brand value is calculated by the brand owner at a certain point in time using a method similar to the evaluation of tangible assets. If it is appropriate, or may be recognized, it appears at The amount of brand value on the balance sheet.” It can be seen that it converts the positive part of brand equity into cash value using a formula. In addition to financial evaluation, InterBrand also proposed 7 evaluation criteria: 1. Stability: mainly the brand's ability to perform long-term stability in the market. 2. Market degree: mainly refers to the brand’s share in the market. The higher the share, the higher the score. 3. Leadership: mainly refers to the brand’s pricing power and its ability to lead industry standards. 4. Updateability: mainly refers to whether the brand can adapt to the times and make immediate adjustments to ensure that the brand status/image remains unchanged. 5. Support: Mainly refers to the degree of investment within the organization in the future development of the brand, including people, money and materials. 6. Degree of protection: It mainly refers to the protection of the brand in terms of intellectual property rights, patents, and brand image. This is also related to the market environment that the brand faces. 7. Internationalization: It is not just a simple consideration of the brand’s overseas market performance, but also a consideration of the brand’s cross-cultural communication capabilities. Therefore, in the process of brand marketing, enterprises should also pay attention to work from the above aspects to ensure value realization. It can be seen from the above seven parts that brand marketing is by no means simply making a visual, doing some advertising, and publishing some news, but a systematic and huge project composed of points, lines, and surfaces, in which there are cross-correlations and links. Therefore, only by systematically carrying out brand marketing work can we truly achieve brand marketing goals and achieve the true purpose of brand marketing.