This is an era of product homogeneity, highlighting the value of the brand. And how can weak brands break through the deadlock of competition and become weak and strong? How can we stand out among many products?

Ye Maozhong, an expert in brand planning, believes that what weak brands need to change urgently is not products, but ideas. Only by changing our thinking can we find another way and stand out.

"Because in the product environment, one product is measured by another product. Customers will definitely compare Apple with Apple, but the key is not to let them compare like this. How come? If your competitor is Apple, you can change your mind and turn yourself into a peach. " Ye Maozhong said.

Be good at finding opportunities.

Choosing a product with high popularity and wide users is the same psychological orientation of every consumer, and such a choice has the least investment risk for consumers. At this point, the products of weak brands are at a disadvantage. If you want to win the recognition of consumers, you must look for the leading aspects in this product field, look for the strong aspects, lead in this field, and become a winner.

At this time, the normal marketing strategy is no longer feasible, and the rapid rise of weak brands will be "abnormal". Market segmentation and positioning strategy is a traditional marketing strategy and a vertical marketing method. This marketing strategy has indeed found a suitable survival and development space for one product and brand after another. For example, the milk market has original flavor, various fruit flavors, fruit granules, jam, low sugar, sugar-free, low fat, degreasing, high iron and calcium, and various trace elements are added. In the shampoo market, there are dandruff removal, nutrition, softness, hair care, toughness, hair loss prevention and so on.

In this way, by deepening the market, subdividing the cultivated land and finding a relatively unique market space for products and brands, it is called vertical marketing. In the primary market with ample profit space, vertical marketing is invincible, and one successful category and sub-category market has been established.

When a big market is constantly divided into countless small markets, it becomes quite difficult to find profitable market segments. As Philip kotler once pointed out in Horizontal Marketing, the constant application of market segmentation and positioning strategy will eventually lead to market saturation and extreme segmentation, although the scale has expanded. This will reduce the success rate of the product. Because of the excessive fragmentation and saturation of the market, the profit source is getting smaller and smaller, which is hardly enough to support the growth of a product and brand. Therefore, the market demand for innovation has never been as urgent and critical as it is now.

How to innovate and find new opportunities?

Only by breaking boundaries and making novel combinations can the impossible become possible.

Let's look at Einstein's theory of relativity. He didn't discover the principles of energy, mass and the speed of light. He just combined these concepts in a novel and powerful way. In this way, he observed the information that others also saw, but found something different. Einstein vaguely called this way of thinking "patchwork drama", which is essential for his creative thinking.

Look at Leonardo da Vinci again. As we can see from his notes, he suggested focusing on the best parts of many beautiful faces instead of just creating a face that you think is beautiful. The desirable portrait of Mona Lisa is the result of his observation and the combination of the most beautiful parts of many beautiful faces. This may be the reason why admirers find various expressions on this woman's face.

Transplanting this method to business, let's look at an example: a car wash owner wants to find an idea to open up new markets. He analyzed the activities of "cleaning products" and decided to start with the following four parameters: washing method, washing products, equipment used and remaining saleable products.

He listed these parameters and listed five variants of each parameter. He randomly selects one or more from each parameter item and connects them to form a new service (as shown in the figure below).

As shown in the figure, any combination of parameters (self-help, dog, brush, dryer, flusher and related products) opens up new ideas for developing new business. His new career is to bathe his pet dog by himself. Dog owners can use the bathtub here to bathe their puppies and use brushes, shampoos and other items provided by the washing shop. In addition, a series of products related to pet dogs can be sold here. The owner of a pet dog can wash the car and bathe the puppy at the same time.

In fact, in this example, five changes of each parameter can produce 3 125 different combinations. If 10% is proved to be feasible, 3 12 new ideas will be generated.

You can also find opportunities in other combinations: what is the relationship between wooden chairs and balls? How to sell flowers to consumers who can't grow flowers?

Wooden chair+ball = sofa; Since customers like flowers and worry that they can't keep them, why not rent them? This is the source of new ideas.

The original market can't stand segmentation, so why circle it? Why not go to a wider space to grab the development of the survival map? Break the boundaries, you can have other choices.

You can even use the opposite situation to stimulate creativity, for example, linking smoking with non-smoking. There was an example: a tobacco company in a certain country sent a salesman to the Gulf tourist area to promote the company's Crown brand cigarettes. However, the cigarette market in this area has been occupied by brands of other companies. The salesman was puzzled and accidentally inspired by the "No Smoking" sign. He made many large billboards with the words "No Smoking" written on them, and added a line below: Crown brand is no exception. The result greatly aroused the interest of tourists and rushed to buy Crown brand cigarettes, which opened up an outlet for the company.

These examples are enough to show that although your products are at a disadvantage in the brand, as long as you are good at discovering and using some innovative thinking methods, you will definitely create advantages that others do not have.

concentrate superior forces

After using innovative thinking methods such as lateral thinking to find their own differences, weak brands should also be good at promoting themselves. As the British advertising expert S Britt famously said, "If a product is not good at advertising, it is tantamount to punching the girl you love in the dark." And due to lack of funds, how can we break through?

"What we do in the market is to spend the least money and do the best thing. Even if the funds are insufficient, we must rely on limited funds to create a huge market. This is our task and our responsibility. " Ye Maozhong said. How can we spend less money and get the expected results? Ye Maozhong's favorite example is: When you are short of funds but eager to get a big market, it's like a boy asking a beautiful girl out on the street with a budget of only 1 1,000 yuan. How can you impress that girl? The normal way is to have a meal, watch a play, buy a small gift and send a bunch of roses. But this is an ineffective practice. Men all over the world do this every day. The most practical way is to buy all the roses at 1000 yuan-1000 yuan flowers can be bought at the wholesale price, and maybe a car can be delivered to your door! This kind of action can make girls remember you for life.

Because of weak strength, only by concentrating all the advantages can we stand out. Fujian Yake Food Company was originally a medium-sized food company with a little-known name and a weak brand. Since 2003, due to the concentrated efforts in brand promotion, good results have been achieved.

The first is brand concentration. Yake used to have dozens of brands, such as fantastic, party time and sports chocolate. Because there are many brands, each brand may invest, advertise and promote, such as chocolate and toffee, and there are several brands respectively. Some brands have also found some stars as spokespersons. In fact, this is a great waste of resources. Later, I accepted Ye Maozhong's suggestion and unified the Yake brand, and the product line segmentation required by other categories was completed by sub-brands.

The second is variety concentration. In the past, there were more than 800 varieties of Yake, but they did not form a strong category. Like a team without a star. "Why do women all over the world like to watch football when Beckham plays football? As we all know, stars are the attraction of a market. Therefore, a team without star players and an enterprise without strong categories are unsuccessful. If there is no suitable strong category, we must create it. Weak brands must be product innovation and brand building at the same time, and the chances of success are great. Because when any category is born, a category leader will be born. When it is really impossible to carry out product innovation, we must also carry out conceptual innovation of products. " Ye Maozhong said.

After market research and analysis, Yake vitamins were selected as candy in more than 800 varieties, named Yake V9, and 9 vitamins were added to every two tablets of V9. At that time, after SARS, vitamin supplementation was basically the common sense of the whole country, and everyone knew that vitamin supplementation was necessary. At this time, everyone is selling the concept of vitamins, and there is no need to do too much guidance, because weak brands have no power to educate and guide consumers, and all they can do is cater to consumers. Under this trend, people can have one more choice, that is, Yake's vitamin candy. Through the vigorous promotion of Yake V9, I hope it will become the first brand of vitamin candy, and launch Yake brand with this variety to drive the sales of other series products.

The third is media concentration. In the case of weak economic strength, focus on firepower and choose media with leadership temperament. Who is the most attractive media? CCTV, of course. In the past, Yake also advertised, but it was scattered, and satellite TV was also doing it in various prefecture-level cities. Now put all the money into CCTV advertising.

On August 26th, 2003, Yake V9 was broadcast on CCTV 1 Five days after the advertisement was broadcast, at the first investment promotion meeting of Yake V9, the contracted amount of this product reached more than 230 million, and the dealer advanced 67 million. Candy is not a big industry, and this scale of investment promotion is unique in China candy industry.

Win quickly

Ye Maozhong believes that in immature industries and industries without brand monopoly, weak brands also have opportunities. In the face of the maturity of the strong, when the resources of the enterprise are not as good as others, it is only faster.

In today's increasingly fierce market competition, the speed of response to the market is more and more obviously affecting the chances of success. In the SARS storm in 2003, many enterprises found the huge market demand of Radix Isatidis and antiviral oral liquid, but in the end only a few enterprises gained considerable profits from it. Why? This is because these enterprises act faster than their competitors. As a weak brand, if you don't cheer up and act and attack faster than your competitors, the opportunity may be fleeting. And if you miss the opportunity, it means that your competitors have seized the opportunity and made it stronger.

In 2003, Jacques spent more than 20 million on CCTV. After more than a year, it will cost at least 50 million yuan to achieve the same advertising effect. Not only advertising costs, but also the construction costs of other brands are skyrocketing. If the business owners who earn the first bucket of gold always hesitate to stay out of the door of the brand, they may not realize that their reserve capital is only a fraction of the brand cost until they find themselves far ahead of the original enterprise.

After such a long period of market "tempering", consumer psychology has also undergone tremendous changes. The biggest difference is that it will become more and more difficult for products to motivate him, and he will become more and more picky about products. Young people used to like to try new things, but now middle-aged and elderly people are also willing to try new things. Because everyone has a tendency to be afraid of old age, there is a hidden feeling that no consumer is willing to be abandoned by the times, which shows that more and more innovative products will be accepted in product selection.

As a result, the life cycle of some products is getting shorter and shorter, which requires enterprises to develop new products faster. The life cycle of products is getting shorter and shorter, which is a manifestation of world development and will be seized by many discerning small and medium-sized enterprises to create opportunities for self-growth.

Therefore, Ye Maozhong appealed: Don't be fooled by the argument of systematic war. In the China market, most industries have not yet entered the decisive battle stage. For small and medium-sized enterprises, time waits for no one, the system must be done, but it is more important to play their best cards. Grab territory and practice internal skills simultaneously.

How do weak brands compete with strong brands?

The market competition in China's household appliances industry has always been called the most representative and marketized field of marketing means. With the further maturity of the home appliance market and the decline of profit rate. The home appliance giants who attacked from all sides suddenly turned around and found that profits were declining, and the competition was in the small household appliance market. Huge market space and huge profits have become the great driving force of the market. Domestic home appliance giants play a game with international home appliance giants and small household appliance professional manufacturers in the small household appliance market. Fight for the last piece of cake. A higher level of competition has begun. How to grasp and deal with the weak brands of small household appliances in an unexpected situation?

1. Promote product differentiation marketing

Products are always the core competitiveness of enterprises. With the maturity of the industry, product differentiation has become one of the most important ways to segment the market. It is more important for weak brands with weak brand driving force. After the enterprise establishes a new product, the market planner actively follows up and participates in new product development. Determine product positioning and core selling points according to competing products. Strictly follow the ISO900 1 international quality management system to create differentiated products with high standards and high added value. Such as "Haier's electric water heater with anti-electric wall", "Chuangerte's infrared gas water heater, large window gas water heater". And many domestic enterprises often like to develop products first. Then product positioning and selling point refining are carried out according to the product. Such a selling point is often either not competitive or a pure concept without the support of core technology.

2. Implement the strategy of encircling cities from rural areas, establish revolutionary base areas and create a strong regional market.

1. Identify the target market

Weak brand resources are limited, so we can concentrate resources on targeted marketing. Firstly, the market with marketable products is defined as the access market (such as South China and Central South China), the market that the existing marketing power of enterprises can set foot in is defined as the preferred market (such as Central South China), and the regional market that may create local advantages in the preferred market is defined as the target strategic market (such as Hunan market).

2. Develop a reasonable product line

Too single product line will lead to an increase in business risks. At the same time, it is not conducive to enhancing brand influence. Nowadays, consumers like to buy products of the same brand for similar products, which is more holistic and convenient to buy. For example, kitchen and bathroom products (cookers, water heaters, range hoods and disinfection cabinets) and ice washing products (refrigerators and washing machines). A reasonable product line is more conducive to the overall promotion, product display, cost sharing and bundled sales of enterprises.

3. Formulate a reasonable price system

What enterprises and agents need is sustainable development and reasonable profit space. Price represents the brand positioning and product life cycle of an enterprise. What agents care about is whether the products sell well and how much profit they make. Too high a price needs a strong brand as a carrier. Without the advantages of cost and scale, it is not suitable for price war. Too low a price will shorten the product life cycle and reduce the market development cost. The most reasonable thing for weak brands is to take the overall price as the industry average level, and formulate special price machines, ordinary machines and high-end machines according to market conditions. Cheap machines are used as a market entry point to attack competitors. High-end machines establish brand image and balance profits. Remember not to make one-step pricing and let agents operate the market? Hey? Change the speed of the bass?

4. Reasonable design of channel structure

Target strategic market is of great strategic significance to the whole market, which can guide and radiate the surrounding markets and even play a key role in driving. Therefore, we must intensively cultivate strategic market channels, change the traditional pyramid structure, flatten the channel structure, implement the small regional agency system (taking prefecture-level cities as units), and cancel the provincial agency.

5. Do a good job in attracting investment and identify the market entry point.

The primary market has huge consumption capacity, and now strong brands generally take the primary market as the first attack market. With the development of Gome, Suning and other household appliances channels, the market development expenses leading to the primary market have increased sharply. Therefore, it is difficult for weak brands to become bigger and stronger in the primary market in the short term. The secondary and tertiary markets are characterized by relatively low brand concentration, relatively low consumer awareness of brands and relatively low market development costs. It is the best entry point for weak brands. Enterprises can publish investment information through professional magazines such as Household Appliances Market and Modern Household Appliances, and choose customers with consistent business philosophy, strong brand awareness and high loyalty for cooperation. Vigorously support the development of such customers, use the characteristics of short, flat and fast wholesale channels to quickly open the market, at the same time increase the intensive cultivation of channels, make full use of various emerging channels, such as building materials market, community direct sales, etc., and expand brand influence. For mainstream stores in the secondary market, as long as the cost accounting of a single store does not break through the critical point of loss, they can enter, pay attention to the construction of terminal image, and improve brand awareness and market share.

6. Seize the opportunity and make an all-round attack

When the external market is consolidated, we can carry out appropriate advertising through local mainstream TV media to further enhance brand awareness. You can choose a primary market with strong financial strength and good relationship with stores, and you can cooperate with the company for a long time to develop customers. Concentrate resources on the primary market? ビ s awake? Star? Hey? Miscellaneous interpretation? Hello once? Hey? Noisy condyle. ? Hey? Why don't you wake up and kill your competitor v? Suffering from it? What's wrong with shaking m? Times? No? Ping Jing? Why not give me a reward? Hey? What's the matter with you?

7. Do a good job in the training of shopping guides

The shopping guide is the first-line soldier in the sales team. Today, when the terminal is king, the quality of shopping guide is directly related to the sales performance of each terminal. Therefore, it is necessary to take the training of shopping guides as a long-term work to improve the product knowledge, sales skills and comprehensive quality of shopping guides.

8. Build a marketing team that can fight well.

No matter which battle you want to win, you can't do it without an army that can fight well, and so can marketing. The combat effectiveness of the marketing team is directly related to the sales performance of the enterprise. Without a marketing team that can fight well, no matter how good the marketing strategy is. Enterprises should start with the formation of marketing team, comprehensively assess marketing personnel, and cultivate a learning team with excellent style and comprehensive quality.