Seeing this, maybe you can't accept this view. It doesn't matter. Ok, now go to the store to buy a bottle of coke and what Mentos is doing. Now it's time to jump out of the circle of traditional marketing theory and re-recognize the value and attributes of our products:
Recently, a piece of news has attracted the attention of many media. Eating coca-cola and mentos mints together may lead to death. Adding mentos mints to Diet Coca-Cola may lead to the death of children. Because these two things can be bought everywhere, and no one usually pays attention to avoiding eating them at the same time. Isn't it dangerous? Of course, this is a rumor from South America. In fact, this is a new form of entertainment discovered by local teenagers. Finally, through the viral spread of the Internet, it became a rumor that people can kill people. Instantly become the focus of attention of people all over the world and gossip media. What is even more incredible is that consumers who saw this news did not regard it as a sensational event. On the contrary, some people actually regard it as a new form of entertainment. Many people bought Coca-Cola and mentos mints and played in the "Coke Fountain". What's more, every time they go out for an outing or get together with friends, they will inevitably bring these two treasures and show them on the spot. No one would have thought that Coca-Cola had become a toy. In short, it develops the integrated and innovative uses of Coca-Cola, and indirectly improves the sales volume and brand influence of Coca-Cola.
Of course, like Coca-Cola, in addition to vigorously promoting its main functional uses to quench thirst, have you explored the secondary utilization, comprehensive utilization, emotional utilization, potential utilization and innovative utilization of products?
Secondary use: it refers to what is the second main use of the product besides the main use. In other words, the main purpose is to meet the mainstream target market and customer groups, and the secondary purpose is to meet the secondary target market or potential target consumer groups. Just like the baby shower gel and shampoo developed by Johnson & Johnson in the 1960s, I hope mothers can use this non-irritating and gentle formula care product for their children, but unexpectedly, many young girls are also using this series of products, so Johnson & Johnson adjusted its marketing strategy, stabilized the baby skin care market, and vigorously explored the recognized market of baby products, becoming the most respected Fortune 500 enterprise for all ages. If you don't know what the secondary use of your product is, go to your customers and observe what they are doing with your baby. Perhaps, there is still a neglected big market waiting for you to develop!
Comprehensive use: refers to the new use or function of your product when it is combined with other products. In other words, the fashionable buzzword is "mix and match"! Look at the "mashups" around us. Girls pour sparkling sprite into red wine, and boys add fragrant milk and sugar cubes to coffee. The children are eating cookies and drinking happy "cool". In fact, for many consumer goods, most of them are in such a "mix and match" state. Excellent enterprises can often find a highly intimate "mix and match" relationship between their products and target customers, thus establishing an unbreakable "adhesion" and making consumers love your products forever.
Emotional use: products that simply emphasize physical functions often have a sales life of only half a year. If you add emotional wings, it may sell for 100 years. Just like the "brain platinum" that is still on sale, people on earth are tired of watching his advertisements and hope that "brain platinum" will say goodbye that day. However, few people deeply analyze why such a product is so popular. One of the core reasons is that other melatonin is selling sleep AIDS. Only "melatonin" is sold to parents and elders as a gift, which captures the cultural tradition and emotional proposition of "putting filial piety first" of China people. Combined with moderate pricing strategy and more effective product functions, it is very popular in the second and third tier markets in China, especially in rural markets such as Xinjiang and Northeast China. Of course, Gu Jing's imitation of melatonin, which appears now, has an effective feeling, because he has not carried out effective transformation on this basis. Don't forget, consumers will not only have aesthetic fatigue, but also emotional fatigue.
Potential use: refers to the hidden or undiscovered use of the product, or the use that is not allowed by law. This must attract the attention of diversified warehousing enterprises. For example, mahjong, an entertainment that ordinary people like to play, can easily become a gambling tool. However, as a manufacturer, we can't do this publicity. However, if it is suggested that my mahjong tiles are difficult to cheat, it will become a guest at the table and satisfy some gamblers' pursuit of justice. Of course, Huiren Shenbao has done a very good job in this regard. The sexual suggestion advertising language of "He is good, I am good" is undoubtedly very clever in not publishing sexual health care advertisements. It is worth noting that this potential use, rather than the use written in the product manual, can attract consumers' attention and try to buy it.
Innovative use: As the name implies, it is to develop the original product into a unique functional use. Haier's home appliances should be said to be done incisively and vividly The washing machine developed for Sichuan farmers to wash sweet potatoes, the pocket refrigerator developed for American boarding students to be used as desks, and the hard disk color TV developed for fans have all created their own "blue ocean market". In fact, if your product is slightly improved in some aspects, or some auxiliary materials and ingredients are added, it will often produce incredible results. A man in the United States developed a new type of food-"fried cola", which used cola, mustard and chocolate as raw materials and became the top ten most creative products in the United States in 2006. Sales exceeded $300 million. The Coca-Cola Company must be secretly counting money behind the scenes, because they have created a new use of Coke, which can not only quench thirst, but also be eaten as a snack like French fries. Oh, my God, who wouldn't pay?
In short, after reading this article, are you inspired? Coca-Cola, which has been sold for more than 65,438+000 years, can continuously break through the product life cycle and develop new uses and markets. Your product is much higher than his technical content, so think about what your product is for, who it is for, and whether it has other uses. If you want to greatly increase sales, just pick up the phone and ask your customers, what have you done with our products? Finding more uses is to satisfy customers with more value, which may be a way to get rid of price marketing and realize value marketing.
Turn the selling point of products into the focus of customers' attention.
Whoever controls the attention of consumers will control the market and development trend. In the current homogeneous market environment where supply exceeds demand, only humanized products with advanced technology and diverse functions have been developed; Highlight the selling points of products; Carry out large-scale in-depth distribution; Taking high-cost integrated marketing communication activities may not bring the expected results, because not only many competitors will immediately follow up and dilute their market share, but also receiving hundreds of thousands of commodity information every day will cause information overload and the brain will form shielding protection. The effective way is to turn the selling point of products into the buying point of consumers, and more importantly, to become the focus of consumers' attention, so as to effectively break through the cognitive threshold and attract and occupy consumers' attention.
The winter of advertising has arrived. What else can we do?
In today's chaotic and complicated society, even if you spend a lot of money on advertising, you will often get twice the result with half the effort, and the loss will outweigh the gain. In fact, more than half of the advertising expenses are wasted. In addition to product selling points, production performance level and media selection, the more important reason is that consumers are gradually rejecting and resisting advertising as a form of communication. No matter how good you say, consumers won't care. In the form of cramming advertisements, it may not work. At this time, it is necessary to find the selling point of the product itself, and combine the concerns of consumers to let consumers spread the product and obtain new development paths:
The explosion of events sublimates the selling point into the focus of customers' attention!
In fact, few enterprises succeed through large-scale advertising, and there are many ways to gain competitive advantage and market share. Nestle, the largest food multinational group in the world today, was a little-known small food processing enterprise at the beginning of last century. At that time, in Europe, many babies often died of malnutrition because of the lack of nutritious food for newborn babies. Nestle caught the attention of this consumer. Consumers are advised to give their babies Nestle cereal. It was only an accident that changed Nestle's fate. It is said that several seriously ill babies miraculously recovered after eating Nestle baby cereal. Therefore, Nestle's food is very popular in Europe. When many competitors have not fully understood it, Nestle has laid the foundation for development and become an industry leader in the food industry. Look at the low-level mistakes of Nestle milk powder today. It's really sad, because it is turning the positive focus that consumers used to pay attention to into the negative focus. In the long run, if it is not adjusted, it will have a certain impact on its own development.
Let the product speak the voice of consumers!
How does your company communicate with its target customers now? Advertising? Of course, I mean expensive means of communication such as TV or newspapers, so what do you think of the effect? Let's start with an interesting case the author experienced: if you have been to Shandong, you know that people there don't like drinking. A bottle of 55-degree liquor per catty will go up in smoke in five minutes, let alone beer. We usually count by the bottle, but Shandong people, whether women or young adults, drink by the bundle. Boy, a bundle of 6-8 bottles, see how many bundles you can drink. Wine companies are a dime a dozen.
On average, there is at least one brewery and one liquor factory in a county, with more than 300 large and small. How to stand out in such a competitive market? At that time, Laizhou, a medium-sized beer enterprise with an output of less than 65,438+10,000 tons, had 47 competitors within a distance of less than 100 km, including Japanese beer king Asahi Yantai Beer and China beer leader Tsingtao Beer. The price war has reached 50 cents a bottle of beer, which can be described as tragic. Moreover, the financial situation of this enterprise is not optimistic, with annual losses and plummeting sales, and there is no strength to advertise at all.
How to increase sales and stabilize sales? How to draw a gun from a competitor? According to the observation of the market, in addition to adjusting the product line, price, business personnel and channels of enterprises, after in-depth investigation, it is found that the "narcissism complex" of Shandong people is very serious. Loyalty, trustworthiness and boldness are the overall impressions of Shandong people, and these images are similar to those of Northeast people. Then, when the products are completely homogenized, we can form differences in communication and create controversial topics. On some BBS forums in Shandong, a blockbuster was released-"Who is more generous, Shandong or Northeast?". This article suddenly attracted the attention of many "Shandong Heroes". In just a few days, the number of hits exceeded 30,000, and more than 500 replies were received. The characters of Northeastern and Shandong people were also discussed in the society. So at the same time, the company basically didn't spend any advertising fees, and put forward a distinctive brand appeal of "spelling out the lofty sentiments of our Jiaodong people" on product packaging and posters, and attached a preferential publicity card for selecting the top ten lofty sentiments of Jiaodong with the packaging. As a result, it changed the situation of declining sales in the past and became a landmark product that Shandong people thought was "very bold and loyal", which made the product express the wishes of local consumers and became its spokesperson. So as to create good social and economic benefits.
Let employees become the focus of consumers' attention
Nowadays, many of our enterprises think that marketing communication is spread through media advertisements, which just ignores the influence of internal communication. Your employees may be the best publicity props and word-of-mouth communicators for your products. For example, there is a small enterprise that produces women's underwear in China, and it has no strength to advertise its brand image like Triumph. They engage in internal marketing and communication, and give each female employee ten sets of different types of underwear, so that they can invite relatives and friends to have an "underwear show" at home in their spare time. As a result, more than 100 female employees have driven more than 1000 people to experience and buy. They became indirect spokesmen for products, and as a result, sales nearly doubled in just three months. Many dealers also ordered products from this company after hearing the news. It can be seen that their employees are their best consumers and word-of-mouth communicators. Making good use of them can not only let more consumers know about the company's characteristics and product information. It is also the embodiment of the lowest cost of interactive marketing to produce brand effect.
For another example, when I was serving Kendia flooring, I found that the sales of this brand in Wuhan, Hubei Province have been among the best. Therefore, during the investigation, I found that the operation of the local dealers was eclectic. In addition to the store layout and terminal materials are carefully designed, his employees are even more impressive. Most salespeople in the general building materials industry have found some laid-off women workers as the main force to work hard in the front line, but this dealer has recruited college students majoring in art as his salespeople. These girls are not only young and beautiful, but also very friendly. The key point is that they don't sell floors for the sake of selling floors, but provide customers with a whole set of home decoration schemes, help customers choose various building materials and household appliances, and guide customers to choose what style and color are more suitable for their rooms. The result is very popular, and the turnover rate can reach over 60%. See if your employees are just salespeople? Can't we introduce talents with characteristics to contribute to the development of the topic?
The terminal perceived stimulus is better than the advertising fee of 654.38+0 million.
Nowadays, many enterprises attach great importance to terminal construction, and try their best to make the terminal vivid and display innovative products. However, the operation method is similar, except that there are several piles, including flags, posters, jumping cards, Yi Labao, TV feature films and promotional videos, and the effect is not obvious. Why is this happening? Because anyone can do what you do, maybe your competitors do it better than you. There is only one solution. Personalized terminal design must be based on the business circle where the local terminal is located and the purchase behavior of consumers, rather than one in the whole city. Vividness is the foundation, just for consumers to see. The key is that the terminal perceives the stimulus, which arouses consumers' attention and interest. For example, there are more than 20 brands of olive oil sold in supermarkets now, and consumers are picky on the shelves and don't know which one to choose. There was once a brand of olive oil that prevented many green and fresh olives from piling up under its own pile. This small terminal has stimulated improvement, and its sales volume is the best in that store.
Of course, in many cases, the operating space on the terminal frame is limited. And then promote it in different places. Making a breakthrough near or at the door of a store, of course, is more than just showing products or letting consumers participate in the experience. The key is to stimulate consumers' buying impulse. A company producing glue made a live demonstration at the terminal, splicing broken glass piece by piece with glue, and other competing products followed suit. Later, they asked customers to break the glass with a hammer and stick it on themselves. Friends will reward whoever runs fast. As a result, people followed suit. What should they do? They smashed the broken glass again and reassembled it. Now, customers are dumbfounded and scrambling to watch.
For another example, when I was serving Violet Home Textiles, I found that the company has been emphasizing that its embroidery technology has reached 6,543,800 stitches, but this selling point has not been transformed into a buying point for consumers and will not become the focus of customers' attention. Therefore, it is suggested that all customers who enter the Violet Store be given a magnifying glass with a magnification of 20 times, so that consumers can use this special display to stimulate and feel the beauty and exquisiteness brought by 654.38+00,000 needles. So, is your enterprise strong enough to stimulate consumers' perception at the terminal?
In short, no matter what products, means of dissemination and promotion. It is necessary to turn the selling point of products into the focus of customers' attention, and effectively stimulate and pay attention to consumers' brains with a lot of information under the limited time, space and environment, which will add icing on the cake for the promotion of sales.
Turn imitation into innovation
Imitation with the wind is ubiquitous in all walks of life and is now widely questioned. The media seems to regard it as a scourge, holding high the sword of "innovation" and beating it to pieces. It's time to calm down and follow up the relationship between imitation and innovation dialectically and objectively:
First of all, the follow-up imitation is far from what we imagined. It will be simpler and easier than innovation, without too much cost and may consume more resources. Because a successful business model, advanced technology, effective management model and sound mechanism are all formed through the organic integration of some people in a specific time, space and region, they can be copied and copied, which not only requires high resources and capabilities, but also fully understands various elements and conditions. Otherwise, you can only draw a tiger instead of a dog, just like letting Nanchang Aircraft Factory imitate the United States. If possible, what conditions are needed? For another example, in the past, many enterprises learned from Sziher. Why didn't they learn enough to become the second Haier? Therefore, following the trend of imitation itself is a need to temper and change oneself, otherwise it is difficult to achieve effective imitation and follow the trend. The author believes that imitation should be staged and innovation should be staged. It must be adapted to the time, suit local conditions and vary from person to person, which can be roughly divided into four stages:
1, following suit is adaptive innovation!
Generally speaking, people's consciousness thinks that innovation is invention and creation, but for an organization, it is far more than that. The "independent innovation" that the media has been emphasizing now seems to include not only the technical level, but also ideological innovation, management innovation, system innovation and cultural innovation. Of course, for the vast majority of enterprises in China, these statements are just scratching their boots, that is to say, it is not easy for them to be alive today in 2008. Their strength and scale are mostly measured by the so-called world top 500 standards, which is like ants shaking elephants. There is no comparability. There is no doubt that it is of little value to give the innovative models of those large enterprises to these enterprises.
Just like a 1 year-old baby, she babbles under the guidance of her mother and learns to walk in Handan. At this time, you expect him to soar across the world record like Liu Xiang, which often violates the objective law of development. This practice may be effective in the short term, but because of slow development and lack of calcium and zinc, it may be an important reason why the average life span of Chinese enterprises is only three years. In fact, for the baby, it is the key to be able to walk faster and more steadily step by step. For a baby, this is an adaptive innovation process in itself, because everything is strange to him and the external environment is changing at any time. Changes in the market can be quickly adjusted. At this stage, it is basically plagiarism to ensure product quality. This is also the operation mode of many workshop-style processing enterprises in China. Of course, for enterprises that have already stepped out of the initial stage of growth, it is another matter to follow the baby's path and not seek a breakthrough.
2, first imitation is innovation!
For small and medium-sized enterprises with a certain scale and strength, taking the lead in imitation is innovation, and launching an effective preemptive imitation movement under the conditions of asymmetric technology, information, consumption and time and space is innovation! At this stage, there is no need to invest too much R&D expenses or develop its own management system. If you find the benchmark enterprise that has the most reference significance for you and take the lead in imitation, you can gain the market leading edge at a certain stage. Such an enterprise does not necessarily have its own R&D department, but it must have its own market intelligence analysis system, which can study relevant formats and find the object to imitate first.
Of course, the companies that choose to be imitated may not necessarily come from their own industries, and related industries may be more instructive. In addition, cross-industry imitation may bring better development, but they lack understanding of the background and characteristics of the industry and must be distinguished. For example, a clothing enterprise that used to do processing trade once went to France to find the embroidery technology of clothing and the imitation of socks style, and took the lead in launching a 40% off all-black dress with embroidery technology in China. Because of its novel style and aesthetic standards suitable for middle-aged and elderly women, it is very popular in Northeast China and Southeast Asia, especially in Islamic countries. Sales immediately increased from 3 million to more than 40 million. Therefore, it is important to find the key imitators. It is worth mentioning that the object of imitation may not refer to the top large enterprises, but to find their own suitable enterprises that can be imitated as examples.
Choosing the timing of imitation and follow-up is also crucial. The right time, get twice the result with half the effort. Just as Xintian wine was far from mature in the domestic wine market, it took the lead in copying the foreign model of "selling wine as beer" and adopted a low-price strategy to promote the "wine popularization movement". As a result, the company spent 400 million yuan and its headquarters moved back to Xinjiang from Pudong, Shanghai. As we all know, the foreign wine market has been cultivated for hundreds of years, and China has just begun. At an inappropriate time and place, it is just a paving stone for others to mechanically copy other people's routines.
Of course, seize the opportunity, sometimes it is unnecessary to imitate 100%. Peters said: "If the efforts made for the integrity of the final 1% product may lead to the loss of the market, it will not be worth the loss."