In the marketing plans of many enterprise marketing executives, the promotion of sales volume is often blindly emphasized, and product sales volume is regarded as the biggest goal pursued by enterprises. Most of them? * * * knowledge? Doing sales is doing brand. As long as the sales volume comes up, the brand will naturally improve. This is a very wrong view.
One-sided pursuit of sales volume often leads to the neglect of other elements of the brand (brand awareness, reputation, loyalty, brand association, etc.). Harbin Pharmaceutical Group won the increase in sales through overwhelming advertisements. It is said that every time Harbin Pharmaceutical's advertising investment doubles, its sales will double. However, what is the brand image of Harbin Pharmaceutical among the public? Cover from cover? Donation? It is not difficult for us to draw a conclusion from the Hope Project incident and the questioning articles of large and small newspapers.
How much water a bucket can hold depends on the shortest board. It is certain that if Harbin Pharmaceutical continues its current strategy and does not strengthen its reputation, loyalty and brand association as soon as possible, the water in the bucket will gradually dry up.
In order to expand sales, we often promote sales, which we think is the depreciation of the brand. Regular sales promotion will give people the feeling that the price is not true. Consumers are more willing to wait until the sales promotion to buy your products. Some loyal consumers will also feel this way? Cheated? Leave you.
Advertising should achieve two purposes: one is to increase sales, the other is to enhance brand image and accumulate brand assets. If only one of the purposes is achieved, it cannot be said that it is a successful advertisement. Looking at some successful brands, they not only pay attention to sales, but also pay attention to establishing sustainable brands. Coca-Cola, Haier, Midea, etc. It has always been both immediate and long-term interests; Not only sales, but also brand accumulation. Only such a brand can gallop and last forever.
Myth 2: To be a brand is to be a famous brand.
Many enterprises think that famous brand is brand, and even regard famous brand as the highest goal of enterprise development strategy; And for the brand, always? See flowers in the fog and the moon in the water? Stage. So, what is the difference between a famous brand and a brand?
First of all, a famous brand is just a well-known brand name, which contains a lot of content, and popularity is only one aspect of the brand. The word brand comes from the old Norwegian word brandr, which means? Brand? It vividly expresses the meaning of the brand? How to leave a brand in consumers' minds is a comprehensive and complicated concept, which is the intangible sum of trademark, name, packaging, price, history, reputation, symbol and advertising style. Compared with famous brands, brands have deeper connotations and values.
Secondly, from the process of creation, famous brands can be created through high advertising fees, as long as they are constantly peddled; Building a brand is a complex and vast project, including the overall strategic planning of the brand, visual image design, determination of core concepts, application of brand symbols, brand scene design, advertising tonality and a series of work. Moreover, brand building is not a short-term project, which requires careful management by brand managers all the year round. Every product promotion and advertising operation embodies the efforts and sweat of brand managers.
A famous brand may be born in an advertising campaign, but the establishment of a strong brand will go through a long test. Coca-Cola has experienced more than 65,438+000 years of storms and created powerful brands, such as Kodak, Marlboro, Johnson & Johnson and Nestle. It is not achieved overnight, and its distinctive brand personality and strong brand assets are by no means achievable by short-term actions. Those enterprises that unilaterally pursue short-term benefits and popularity and neglect complete brand building such as product quality are often vulnerable.
Finally, in terms of their respective functions, brands are stronger, more lasting and more effective than famous brands. Simple popularity can promote sales in the short term, but it can't make more contributions to the long-term interests of products. People's brand changes depend more and more on their own spiritual feelings. A real brand is endowed with a symbolic meaning, which can convey a way of life to consumers, while a strong brand can ultimately affect people's attitudes and views on life, thus bringing long-term benefits to enterprises. There are many so-called domestic products? Famous brand? , blindly pursuing high visibility and exposure, but ultimately failed to get the added value of the brand!
Luckily, there are many in China? Famous brand? Some enterprises have realized the importance of brand building. Shanghai jahwa has successfully transformed from an enterprise focusing on product sales to an enterprise focusing on brand management, making it a loss-making enterprise. The famous brand Liushen became the second brand in the shower gel market, which not only achieved the sales target, but also successfully updated the original brand. Famous brand? An old and conservative image has created one? Famous brand? The myth of rebirth!
? Famous brand? The appearance of "this word" is a specific noun and a common name in China's specific market environment. Strictly speaking, it is inaccurate and unscientific and should not be the goal of enterprise development and pursuit. Enterprises can only change their cognitive mistakes in time and establish correct norms? Brand management? Concept, make every effort to build yourself into a strong brand, in order to last forever and be invincible in the market!
Myth 3: Trademark equals brand.
Brand and trademark are very confusing concepts, and some enterprises mistakenly believe that products become brands after trademark registration. In fact, there are both connections and differences between the two.
A trademark is a part of a brand.
Trademark is the symbol and name part of the brand, which is convenient for consumers to identify. But the connotation of the brand goes far beyond this. Brand is not only an easily distinguishable name and symbol, but also a comprehensive symbol, which needs to be endowed with image, personality and life. The design of brand logo and brand name is only the first work and an essential procedure to establish a brand. However, in order to truly become a brand, we must improve it from the aspects of brand personality, brand recognition, brand positioning, brand communication and brand management. In this way, consumers' understanding of the brand will change from form to content, from sensibility to rationality, from shallow to deep, thus completing the transformation from unknown to understanding and buying, and forming customer loyalty.
Second, trademark is a legal concept, while brand is a market concept.
The legal functions of trademarks are mainly manifested in:
1. Protect the legitimate rights and interests of trademark owners through legal procedures such as establishment, transfer, dispute and arbitration of the exclusive right to use trademarks;
2. Supervise producers and operators to ensure the quality of goods and maintain the reputation of trademarks.
The market function of the brand is mainly manifested in:
(1). Brand is an invisible contract between enterprises and consumers, and it is a guarantee for consumers. Consumers trust branded products more than products without brands.
(2) Brand is the basis for consumers to choose goods. Once a consumer picks a sweet fruit from a brand tree, he is sure that another fruit is sweet. The accumulation and application of this kind of consumption experience is a meaningful thing for consumers and enterprises.
(3) Brand is a means to avoid pure price competition. Because of the unique added value of brands, consumers can pay more.
(4) Brand is the guarantee for enterprises to maximize profits, and every new product can be added with the help of the original brand.
(5) Brand is a symbol of identity and status, which is conducive to promoting product sales and establishing corporate image.
Third, trademarks are in the hands of enterprises, while brands belong to consumers.
When consumers no longer value your brand, it is worthless. Brand value is different from bank deposits, it only exists in the hearts of consumers. If the brand is in crisis and consumers' confidence in the brand declines, then the brand value will decrease.
Myth 4: Brands are created by advertisements.
At present, many domestic enterprises believe that as long as they increase advertising investment and carry out overwhelming media bombing, they can promote product sales and establish brands! So, do brands really have advertisements?
Brand awareness can be achieved in a short time, but brand association is a long-term project of brand building and an asset established in the long-term brand movement; Brand loyalty, as the main index to maintain the stability of brand sales, can not be achieved by short-term advertising. In addition to perfect brand planning and design and continuous excellent product quality, there is also the price difference effect established by the long-term consistent spread of brands in consumers' minds (how much more customers are willing to pay compared with other brands); At the same time, consumers' affirmation of brand quality is beyond the reach of advertising, which requires not only the constant quality, but also the innovative requirements of the brand in the development process. Therefore, creating a brand is not just advertising!
Myth 5: Making products is making brands.
Wearing a watch: when? Dressing style? Wear a brand?
An ordinary watch costs only tens or hundreds of yuan, while a Rolex and radar can be as high as several thousand yuan or even ten thousand yuan. 10 times the price difference is only the difference between products?
No, there are differences in quality, material and style between products, but this physical difference can't be as much as 10 or 100. The value of Rolex and radar mainly lies in the brand rather than the product. Brand not only means the Excellence of products (quality, performance and style), but also psychological consumption is the real focus. At the same time, the brand is also a symbol of identity. It was an honor to own a watch more than ten years ago. It used to be the era of product strength, but now it is the era of brand strength. It is not enough to have excellent products. Few people in the street care about watches with tens or hundreds of dollars, but watches with thousands of dollars have become the strong desire and pursuit of many people. Because Rolex and radar are excellent props to experience self-worth and show superiority.
The same product, whether labeled or not, has a completely different meaning to consumers. Product competition and brand competition are completely different levels of competition, just as people sitting in Mercedes-Benz and people sitting in Li Xia are two levels of people, in many ways? Semi-passive consumption? In China, the enjoyment of things is secondary, and the brand brings him more significance than the product itself. Consumers are more willing to buy branded products and services and are willing to pay more. The brand sublimates the product. The longer the brand is made, the more it accumulates, while the product is not.
Having products and markets does not mean having strong brands.
If a brand is ahead of other competitors because of product attributes, then this brand will definitely be surpassed by other brands in the future.
Myth 6: Advertising creativity is brand.
Generally, enterprises caught in this misunderstanding know little about the concept of brand and have a little knowledge about how to create a brand. They believe that good advertising ideas can establish a brand. This has fallen into a misunderstanding of creativity for the sake of creativity, which is very dangerous.
First, divorced from the market background and the actual situation of enterprises.
A good advertising creativity should be based on a correct strategy, such as target market, brand position, competitive brands, product characteristics, target population, brand positioning, advertising purpose, appeal focus and so on. The creativity developed by following this strategy is correct and effective. Has anyone been creative for the sake of creativity and deviated from the strategy? Good idea? Besides winning the prize, it can't make an effective contribution to the brand. Recently, a TV advertisement for motorcycles, in order to catch the bait with the aircraft carrier, made a blunt version of the advertisement about aircraft carriers and motorcycles. Its brand advantages and brand positioning are not reflected, and the whole advertisement is very chaotic, and even the brand name is not remembered. Is that so? Good idea? How can we build a brand?
Second, ignore the cooperation of other links in marketing.
Every piece in brand marketing? Board of directors? Only by interlocking and close cooperation can brand marketing play its greatest role. Only relying on the board of advertising creativity and ignoring the construction and cooperation in other aspects will only get twice the result with half the effort. Is there water in the bucket? Less and less, brand creation will become? The moon in the water? Like a dream!
Third, product innovation and quality improvement are not considered.
Many enterprises believe that as long as good ideas are constantly introduced, the brand image will become more and more complete and full, and the brand will be accepted by consumers forever. But they often ignore product innovation and quality improvement. Even if sales decline, they will think that advertisements are not creative, but they will not think that their products have lost their appeal to consumers. P&G regards innovation as the most important business philosophy. It has 2500 patents in the world, which has set up one milestone after another in the daily chemical industry, thus making innovation an important part of brand identity!
So how to create a distinctive brand identity and let advertising creativity effectively invest in the brand?
First of all, strategic brand analysis should be carried out, including customer analysis, competitor analysis and private brand analysis. What needs to be noted here is brand analysis, not market analysis. Brand analysis involves brand image, brand strategy, brand inheritance, enterprise organizational value, brand strength and other aspects of the brand, which is very different from market analysis.
Secondly, on the basis of brand analysis, to establish a complete brand identification system, including basic identification and extended identification, we must create it from the following four aspects: product, enterprise, personality and symbol. Although these are four completely different concepts, the purpose is the same, that is, to use these different levels to establish a clearer, richer and more distinctive brand identity.
Then brand positioning is carried out according to the points that can provide comparative benefits in identity, and positive communication is carried out for a certain target group. In this process, advertising creativity, as the final form of communication, does play an important role, but it must also be carried out under the correct strategy, not aimlessly. Creativity for creativity's sake? . Of course, after the implementation of brand advertising, we should track the effect at any time.
As an important part of strategy, advertising creativity can make your brand shine, but if you are too superstitious about the power of advertising creativity, your brand will surely become a young child and get lost in the market trend!
Myth 7: misinterpreting the brand concept
Objectively speaking, enterprises now pay more and more attention to brands, but few people really understand the connotation of brands, and brands are often talked about by enterprises. Many principles in the brand can help enterprises succeed faster and more permanently, and they are the source of brand strength.
Brand is the whole experience of consumers related to products. Brand is not a product, product is only one aspect. Brand positioning is not to promote products, but to explore the concept of specific products.
A brand is not an enterprise, but an enterprise is an investor and a brand operator. It is the brand that truly faces and contacts consumers. An enterprise can make products with completely different concepts, make two completely different products into two different brands, or make two similar products into different brands. A brand-compatible product must follow the core values of the brand, and any extension or operation that goes against the brand spirit will hurt the brand image and weaken the brand assets.
The primary and basic task of brand building is to clarify the core value of the brand.
The core value of a brand refers to the idea that it can be compatible with many products, such as Ponzi: Never lie to us. If there is anything that can make us more beautiful, Ponzi will definitely do it; Core value can describe the value of products, the value of consumers themselves and the interactive relationship between brands and consumers. Jaguar, for example, disdains imitation. Just like its owner, Jaguar is different from other cars not in its appearance and manufacturing process, but in its soul, emotion and not following its footsteps.
The second basic task of brand building is to clarify the role relationship of the brand.
Main brand: represents the main expectation that consumers get from buying, and the value represented by the main brand is the main core that affects the purchase decision and use experience. Sub-brand: brand is used to distinguish a certain part of the product line in the brand system.
Endorsed brand: assure consumers that these products will bring the promised functional advantages, because the company behind this brand is a substantial and successful organization, which can only produce excellent products, such as Procter & Gamble. Brand spokesperson: It is the same as endorsement brand, but the difference is that endorsement brand is an enterprise and a brand, while brand spokesperson is a person, which can be an entrepreneur such as Bill of Microsoft. Gates can also be an image spokesperson, such as Jordan of Nike.
The third basic work of brand building is to attach importance to the design of brand recognition.
What drives the ultimate realization of brand equity is consumers' impressions and opinions on the brand, but consumers consider the brand in many ways. In brand building, what matters is not only what you say to consumers, but what you really prepare for consumers. Brand identification is the careful setting of the brand, including all-round brand contents such as products, enterprises, personalities and symbols. After the brand identity spread, it was recognized by consumers. The summary of brand impression is brand image. To put it bluntly, what does brand image mean? What do consumers think of you? What does brand identity mean? What do you expect others to think of you? . Here, what if the brand identity is set by the enterprise? Internal cause? So the brand image is naturally acquired by consumers? And the result? .
Myth 8: The brand image is constantly changing.
Brand image refers to how consumers look at your brand, reflecting the feelings of the current brand.
Adhering to a unified brand image is the only way for some international brands to succeed. Coca-cola, which has been brilliant for a hundred years, emphasizes a hundred years. Delicious and happy? , never changed. From 1886 to now, Coca-Cola has used more than 100 representative advertising slogans, such as: delicious and fresh, enjoy a happy drink, a symbol of good taste, a good time for Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola forever and so on. And has never deviated from the established track, thus establishing a distinct and strong brand image. Marlboro, too, has been sticking to the image of a country cowboy for 50 years; Lux has always insisted on using international movie stars as image spokespersons to interpret. Beautiful? Commitment, 70 years.
Lee, a famous brand of denim clothing, was in trouble because he changed his image halfway. Li's original slogan was: the nearest cowboy. Should I say promote? Leading the trend, high taste, the most beautiful? Our jeans market has its own unique personality. However, shortly after the advertisement was broadcast, it was opposed by middlemen, especially retailers. They think that consumers want to buy fashion and should publicize the fashion and taste of products, but Lee avoids fashion propaganda, which is too rational and outdated. Lee accepted the idea and changed his strategy. Two years later, Li was in trouble. On the basis of summing up experience and lessons, Kai-fu Lee returned to his original position: the closest cowboy. After constant publicity until today, Lee finally gained a firm foothold in the powerful denim clothing market. Closest? The image of.
Adhere to the unity of brand image, and work in the same direction, so that every brand behavior contributes to the accumulation of brand assets, and every communication action becomes the accumulation and precipitation of brand assets.
Horizontal unification: in a period, all marketing links and a series of brand behaviors of products, packaging, communication and promotion revolve around the same theme.
Vertical unification: 1 year, 2 years, 10 year, 20 years, the same theme, the same style, the performance of unification in different years.
Myth 9: The brand lacks integration planning.
China enterprises have made a lot of efforts in the process of brand management, but they often do whatever they want. There is no comprehensive and systematic brand planning, but only some one-sided efforts. Wherever there is a problem, they go there and keep fighting for it. It seems endless and busy, but in the end they still haven't built a successful brand, because they understand the brand unilaterally and are busy, and they only do one aspect, one part, or advertising, or packaging, or brand channels. Every enterprise emphasizes self-importance, but few enterprises do all aspects of the brand. China enterprises' awareness of brand integration is relatively weak, and their brand efforts only stay in one aspect.
But in fact, brand is not a single aspect, brand is a comprehensive concept. Brand is not a, not b, not c, not d, brand is the sum of all factors. Therefore, only good products, good packaging and good concepts, or only good advertisements and good channels are not enough. Brand is the sum total of product experience in consumers' cognition: from product performance, quality, packaging and price to sales environment, from product display, sales advertisement and store atmosphere to sales rhetoric, service attitude and employee behavior, from corporate word of mouth, media opinion and public word of mouth to advertising temperament and design style, these small details will affect consumers' understanding of brand, thus affecting their purchase decisions. Because consumers have too many choices, once they find some shortcomings, they may abandon you. If you want to succeed faster and longer, you must pay attention to all-round brand building like all successful international brands and do your best in every detail.
Misunderstanding 10: Research is dispensable.
China enterprises often ignore market research in brand building, and blindly launch new products without doing research. In order to find or verify an idea, large international companies are used to conducting large-scale market research, while China enterprises are more inclined to make decisions on their own. ? The idea of getting rich is clearly in front of you. Why invest a lot of time and money in research? They always doubt whether it is worthwhile to invest a lot of money to make a research report hundreds of pages thick.
Leaving research means leaving the market and consumers. Brand building without market research is like a castle in the air, and the market is unstable. This is the fatal wound of China enterprises.
Take it for granted to be a China market, let alone a China brand, even an international brand will fail. The Red Bull brand just doesn't take the psychology of prospective China people into consideration. The high price makes consumers flinch and puts them in a very embarrassing position. If Red Bull is not positioned as a beverage, the situation may be completely different. Yang Sen's anti-dandruff music is just a kind of shampoo abroad, and it sells well in domestic pharmacies. Its success lies in accurately grasping the psychology of consumers in China: pharmacies are more trustworthy. It's as simple as that, but it all comes from market research.
P&G is famous for attaching importance to research. Every big move is based on research, and almost every new product is the result of research. P&G is not cost-conscious? Does P&G have no vision and determination? No. P&G is so concerned about research because P&G has learned a painful lesson. Self-righteous? Loss.
? Ankapulin? It is an analgesic that does not hurt the stomach. With the new technology of timed release, the drug can pass through the stomach before dissolution. This painkiller is a good choice for people who often use it? But you must take it every four hours. In fact, most people only take painkillers when they are in pain, hoping to get immediate results. Procter & Gamble is intoxicated with the unique technology of products, ignores consumers' ideas, skips normal market tests and sells directly on a large scale. As a result, P&G's wishful thinking was defeated? Ankapulin? It was a tragic death. Now P&G pays great attention to testing. If a brand fails the test, it is not allowed to go public.
What enterprises fear most is turbulence and mistakes. Sometimes, just one failure is enough to bring down an enterprise, or at least it is painful. To experiment directly with the market is to bet on the life of the enterprise, which is the most taboo in modern enterprise management. Business operation is like driving a car, safety comes first. If your life is at stake, what's the point of being quick? International brands such as Procter & Gamble and Janssen attach importance to research because it greatly improves the safety factor of brand success.