Why build a brand?
The beginning of the nameless heaven and earth, the name of the mother of all things!
——? Laozi
Creating a brand is a process from scratch!
Only a brand can keep a company standing! Building a brand is to hone the heart-attracting method, and it is a process of constantly capturing the sincerity of consumers! In today's brand era, companies must either wake up and build brands, or remain a solitary sleeping beauty forever!
Brand is the middleman that establishes a trusting relationship between enterprises and consumers, and is also the spokesperson of the enterprise. It allows consumers to remember, recognize, buy and love deeply!
Building a brand is also for the company to better complete product sales. Product sales are the purpose, brand is the means! Consumers may not necessarily know the company, but consumers can rely on the brand to trust the company. To put it bluntly, the purpose of a brand is to transform consumers from buying and using with confidence to continuing to purchase!
The significance of a brand is to allow consumers to identify with it and differentiate it from other brands due to identification.
Once you identify, you will be separated. This distinction is made in the minds of consumers. The purpose of a brand is to gain consumer recognition through manufacturing concepts, thereby forming a distinction from other brands. This is the so-called differentiation!
When consumers identify with my brand concept or concept, my brand will be different from other brands in the minds of consumers! And this difference will create a differentiated feeling for consumers. Therefore, the brand is first used to create a sense of distinction for consumers, and to use consumers' distinction to realize the differentiated value of the brand. Advertising is the power to strengthen and support this kind of discrimination. The purpose of advertising is to carve the brand into the minds and hearts of consumers!
Differentiation does not necessarily mean that your product is really different from other products, but that your brand concept is different from other brands. Differentiation is what the brand implants into the minds of consumers. For example, when consumers agree that fresh food is good, then stale food will never be able to enter their lives.
The brand is a complete whole, a complete whole with flesh and blood and soul!
A brand is more than just a trademark, and a brand is more than just a logo. Brand is a complete system, which is the consistency and unity of intangible brand value and tangible products. The brand is the sublimation of the product, and the product is the expression of the brand. Just like human beings, they have a tangible body, but also have intangible spiritual beliefs and values!
Brand will eventually become an intangible asset of the enterprise. Even if the corporate entity ceases to exist one day, the brand will last forever! It's like Bruce Lee's tangible body has long since ceased to exist, but Bruce Lee's brand is still world-renowned! Bruce Lee's body is like the entity of the brand, and Bruce Lee's spirit is the intangible value of the brand! This gives us a very big inspiration, that is, all successful brands contain two parts: the tangible brand and the intangible brand. And all great brands have achieved the ultimate integration of the tangible and intangible aspects of the brand!
Several misunderstandings about branding:
1: A brand is just a set of image packaging!
Brands need a unique image system. But a brand is more than just an image system. In other words, the brand image system is just a means to interpret and convey the brand value! Just like wearing clothes to show your temperament, only the clothes that best match your temperament are the most suitable.
Too many brand owners have bought themselves a pair of expensive jewelry and clothes, but they still cannot wear them with a unique temperament and soul. The fundamental reason is that he doesn't know why he bought that dress at all. What's more, because others have it, he must have it too. If others have upgraded, he must also upgrade!
The brand image system must be the outfit that best suits you. It is not necessarily the most expensive clothing jewelry, but it must be the clothing jewelry that best expresses and sets off the temperament of its brand.
The core of brand image system construction is to express the unique value of the brand consistently. This is why we often emphasize that the image system is always the second step in building a brand.
You first need to clarify what your brand’s unique strategic value is. This is the first step!
It’s like, you always have to know what kind of life you want before you can live that kind of life. It's like a director must first have a script idea before he can fully interpret and design the entire plot! Everyone, take a closer look at those classic movies, they must accurately convey a core concept, core values, and core values ??to you! That's the fundamental reason why the movie impresses you with emotions and joys!
Don’t package for the sake of image packaging, but first find out your own brand positioning, and then design the most suitable image system for this positioning!
2: Brand is popularity!
Brands need visibility. but! It’s not the brand, it’s just the awareness.
Awareness without actual sales is meaningless! Here we have to think about a core question: "Why do we need to build brand awareness?" Everyone, is the purpose of building brand awareness basically to help the brand gain better sales? Only if you understand this, your popularity will have meaning! True brand awareness is to make your brand a star with a very clear label positioning, rather than an internet celebrity who is sensationalizing! If we talk about popularity alone, celebrities and Internet celebrities are both famous. But why do stars endure? Because stars have their core internal strength!
Famousness is like the potential energy of a soldier in battle. "Shi" is an important military concept in ancient China, which means the favorable situation and powerful impact force that overwhelm the enemy formed based on the accumulation of military strength.
Sun Tzu's Art of War proposes that "the strategy is to listen to the enemy's advantage, which is to use the force to support it." After a favorable strategy has been adopted, we must also try to create a favorable situation to assist in winning the battle.
Before you want to pursue popularity, you should take a good look at your brand. Have you heard of profit-seeking? Is the plan settled?
3: Advertising is building a brand.
This is where Chinese writing is profound and profound! You ask a planner whether you need to advertise? He will definitely tell you that of course advertising is needed! At this time, you must not mistakenly think that advertising is all about branding! Advertising is the means, and branding is the purpose. Advertising is the means, sales are the goal! Never put the cart before the horse. Advertising is to convey brand value more accurately and gain sales. If the brand is a car, then advertising is the fuel.
For many companies, advertising is not the most important thing, but awareness of advertising is the most important thing.
What is advertising awareness? First of all, we must recognize the value of advertising, and secondly, we must be good at discovering and utilizing advertising media. The so-called person who is good at using soldiers is a soldier, even grass and trees! That's the truth. In the eyes of those who are good at fighting, grass and trees are soldiers, and they are also very powerful!
Those who are good at fighting, all-round marketing, and all the grass and trees are soldiers! It doesn't have to be a medium to be called advertising.
Everywhere a brand appears can actually produce a certain advertising effect. The only difference is that many brands do not pay attention to it. For example: Is your delivery truck an advertising medium? Of course it is! Are your employees a mobile advertising medium? Of course it is! If you look carefully, which one of today's takeout delivery people is not used as an advertising medium by brands? Even their hard hats were not spared!
So what I want to express is that advertising is necessary to build a brand, because only advertising can truly build brand potential. Only with strong brand potential can we drive and stimulate brand sales! Advertising always serves brand sales. Some people would say, isn’t advertising also accumulating brand equity? What is the purpose of accumulating brand equity? Isn’t it just to obtain sustainable sales? This is a thing!
Brand sales are the goal, advertising is the means! Building a brand requires advertising, but it is not just advertising!
4: Do it slowly, the wine will be fragrant no matter how deep the alley is!
The world has a huge misunderstanding of this sentence.
This sentence does not mean that brands should not advertise, but that brands should learn to do sensory advertising! This sentence represents olfactory sensory advertising!
Today we are going to redefine "the aroma of wine is not afraid of the depth of the alley"! The essence of wine is to advertise!
The aroma of wine is like an olfactory advertisement for a brand. When you say this sentence, you are actually subconsciously recognizing the value of advertising. The aroma of wine is an expression of sensory communication. If you look at Starbucks coffee, you can smell the attractive coffee aroma before you even enter the door. That's a magic weapon to seduce you! The biggest mistake brands that hold this belief make is thinking that they can succeed as long as they are good enough! There is nothing inherently wrong with this sentence. After all, so-called word-of-mouth marketing is also popular now!
But the question is,
Is the aroma of wine what you think is the aroma of wine as consumers think?
Is there any traffic in the alley?
How far can the aroma of wine travel?
Have you ever considered these three questions? I very much agree that a brand should be built slowly and with concentration, but doing it slowly does not mean that there will be no advertising or publicity. Doing things slowly does not mean not pursuing perfection!
This is like: slow life does not mean slow life, slow life is a calm life with physical and mental freedom. It does not mean living slowly like a snail, but it means living a brave and calm life! In this era, too many words and languages ??need to be subverted. Words and languages ??have created too many misunderstandings!
5: A brand is a name!
Brand name is very important, it is the core brand asset that accompanies the brand throughout its life!
However, a brand is not just a name. A name is just a condensed expression of the brand’s unique value. The brand name is a core asset of the brand! A brand needs a name, just like a child needs a name! But you never say a name is everything to your child!
A good brand name can minimize the cost of remembering the brand by consumers. In other words, when creating a brand name, companies should first think from the perspective of communication costs, rather than the meaning of the brand name. Unless you have prepared enough funds to invest in advertising.
6: Marketing is promotion!
This is a misunderstanding that many brands still have!
Not only is marketing not promotion, one of the purposes of marketing is to eliminate promotion!
The purpose of marketing is to protect your own profits and build brand awareness! Which of these two points can promotion achieve? No way! So when it comes to marketing, it’s just promotion!
I never recommend that brands often do large-scale promotions! Compared to promotions, sometimes free is more valuable! Because free is the most expensive!
Free is to allow consumers to experience the product first and form an experience! The ultimate goal of free is for consumers to purchase products at regular prices! This is the beauty of free marketing!
Don’t be wishful thinking in trying to get love by being a licker. You will lick a dog until you have nothing! She will not thank you, she will only feel that she is attractive! He will think that you are willing to succumb to her pomegranate skirt!
Four purposes of branding:
1: I am different! Buy me, don’t buy him!
I am different. To be a successful brand, you must first find the practical meaning of the brand's existence.
The fundamental thing is to think clearly, who does the brand exist for? Then find the unique value that satisfies the target consumers, and inform consumers of this unique value through creative advertising techniques. Get consumers interested and take action to purchase! At the same time, you also need to let consumers truly experience your unique value. Because a good value experience will help the brand build goodwill in the hearts of consumers to the greatest extent!
Distinctive and unique value is also a means to achieve market competition.
Although the core purpose of competition is to win profits rather than kill opponents.
But when entering the market, it is still necessary to have insight into the target opponents. Especially if you enter the market later than your competitors, you need to find the point of difference between you and them.
Otherwise, why would consumers not buy a familiar brand but instead buy an emerging brand? After all, there is a hidden cost of trying! Unless you do a free trial, there is a trial cost for consumers. The reason is very simple. Consumers will think in their minds, "What if something happens?"
So where do you find this unique point?
Take advantage of your opponent’s strongest value.
Where competitors are stronger, competitors are also weaker. The perception that Xiangpiaopiao equals milk tea in a cup is very strong, but in the end, wasn’t it also cup milk tea that turned Xiangpiaopiao into a tragedy? Because cup milk tea is equal to unhealthy, this is the weakness contained in strength.
This kind of thinking is actually Chinese philosophical thinking. Everything is binary opposition. Everything is a combination of yin and yang, where there is yang there is yin, where there is day there is night, and where there is no day there is night. Black and white are relative. So when I wrote this, I suddenly thought of Chairman Mao's words: "What the enemy supports, we will oppose; what the enemy opposes, we will support!" I also thought of Sun Tzu's profound operational wisdom in the Art of War: "Avoid the truth and attack the fictitious"! Avoid the enemy's strong areas, attack the enemy's weak areas instead, wait until the enemy's military morale is disrupted, and then turn around and attack the enemy's strong areas. Sun Tzu's Art of War states that "to take the enemy by surprise, attack him where he is unprepared", I think there is no better way to catch the enemy by surprise than to see his weakness where he is strong! In fact, this is also human nature. People always relax their vigilance where they are strong, and people always make mistakes where they are strong. Forcefully creates an invincible illusion and hallucination of oneself. Once indulged in it, danger will ensue! This is why successful entrepreneurs always have a deep sense of crisis. Successful entrepreneurs never wait for others to revolutionize their lives, but constantly revolutionize themselves through innovation!
2: Recognize and remember my image!
A unique image system is an external weapon that carries and interprets the unique value of the brand! Image is the unique value that helps consumers remember the brand more quickly and better.
This is easy to understand. We all read comic books when we were children. The image system is like the comics in the comic book. What is it used for? It is used to help us remember the plot of the story. So I would say that a brand's logo symbol is actually the smallest memory unit of the brand. The value of a logo symbol lies in trying to condense the unique value of the brand.
When you think of Haier, you will think of two boys wearing underpants! The two children wearing underpants are the brand symbol of Haier! So why is it said that image is a system? Because the brand image is a whole, it not only includes the brand symbol, but also includes the main color of the brand, the brand's packaging and all the tangible things of the brand. So why is it called a system? Because a simple brand image does not have much meaning. It is best for the brand image to express the unique value of the brand vividly or express the unique temperament of the brand! Brand image is not image for the sake of image. Brand image must have a chemical interaction with the value of the brand itself.
We are looking at the symbol of Ma Lele. What further processing have we done based on the old elements of horse?
We have linked the category characteristics of emotional intelligence education and its brand’s unique temperament value. We chose the well-known allusion of "A Thousand Mile Horse Meets Bole" to interpret the brand! That’s why we have this horse that everyone loves! On this basis, a happy expression is grafted on! Is this expression very familiar to you, someone has done it to you, or you are doing it to someone else.
The ultimate effect of this is that no matter which angle you look at it, it smiles at you! What is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence is the art of making yourself happy and making others happy!
3: I am trustworthy!
I often say that the purpose of building a brand is to find more consumers to supervise yourself!
Would anyone say that this is not seeking death? NO! In fact, building a brand is a process of consumer empowerment! A well-known brand is like a star. Where does a star get the nutrients to grow? Celebrities get nourishment from public attention. The more people pay attention to them, the more energy they absorb! Do you still remember the "heart-absorbing method" of Ren Woxing from Swordsman? That’s right, the process of building a brand is the process of using the heart-attracting method. Successful brands are well aware of this truth! Otherwise, why create one so-called event marketing after another? Isn’t the purpose of event marketing to attract consumers’ attention to the brand? The key to attracting attention from a brand is to gain the trust of consumers!
Only by building a brand can we continue to gain the trust of consumers. Only trust is the cornerstone of continued transactions! Without trust, there is no deal!
Building a complete brand is also a huge adjustment and improvement for the company itself. Companies can improve their own companies in the process of building a brand. This kind of improvement and progress cannot be bought by companies with money. This is actual combat experience. There is no way to buy actual combat experience with money, unless you go to actual combat yourself, that's the truth! Brand is the bridge between enterprises and consumers to establish trusting relationships. Brands help enterprises speak out and become the spokesperson of the enterprise! And the brand is a complete whole. From the time the consumer does not purchase to the time when the consumer completes the purchase experience, the value of the brand is included! This will be even more true in the future, as it will become increasingly difficult to gain consumer recognition. I often joke that in the past many people could still rely on favors when doing business. Doing business in the future can only rely on character. How can young consumers have so much time to do favors with you? You either gain his trust or disappear from his life!
Some marketing books suggest that to gain trust, you need to find a letter of trust to endorse your brand. Similar to: Good milk that Yang Liwei is drinking! Best-selling in 72 countries! Michelin restaurant! etc. Use this to support the strength of the brand and gain consumer recognition! I think this works! However, the usage will change in the future, from simply informing consumers to the company integrating knowledge and action so that consumers can perceive it! In other words, you can’t just talk! What’s more important is to deduce the sense of trust in actual behavior! Go deep into the business operations!
4: Get popular and make profits!
Brand power determines sales power! Brand power determines profitability! Strong brands have all the advantages in the world!
A strong brand can not only ask for profits from its upstream suppliers, it can also ask for profits from its downstream consumers! This is called "overflow of opinions from above"! Strong brands have the ability to “overflow”! You said that if you go up and down, won't the profits overflow?
Strong brands can even create profits by extending product categories infinitely. Not only does Starbucks sell good coffee, but Starbucks water cups also contribute huge profits.
A strong brand itself is a strong competitive barrier. Strength represents the backbone. The stronger you are, the harder the backbone is!
In the past, people’s wallets were open to strong brands. Now, people’s wallets are open to strong brands. In the future, people will still open their wallets to strong brands!
Remember, consumers will only follow the lead of strong brands!