Is the brand really irrelevant to industrial enterprises? Famous brands at home and abroad, such as Xugong, Sany Heavy Industry, Intel, Cisco and Huawei, clearly tell us that industrial brands can also become the most powerful brands in the world. Because the field of industrial products is no longer a stagnant pool, great pressures such as technological innovation, rising costs, product similarity and desperate relationship force industrial enterprises to embark on the road of differentiated competition.
Brand is the best way to help customers identify products, services and enterprises and distinguish them from competitors. Brand is the most effective and attractive means to spread the benefits that products and services can provide. Brand is also the guarantee of quality, pedigree and performance, which can increase the perceived value of customers and reduce the risks and complexity involved in purchasing decisions, which is very important for bulk purchase or high-value industrial products.
Customers are not machines, but also ordinary people who need emotional guidance. If industrial brands contain emotion and personality, they can also capture customers' hearts and establish lasting and solid ties with customers, so as to survive the attacks of competitors and the ever-changing market.
Industrial brands not only affect a limited customer base, but also affect all stakeholders? Investors, employees, suppliers, partners, governments, industry authorities, etc. Through proper brand creation and proper brand management, industrial enterprises can gain wider recognition and support, and the premium ability of brands will be improved accordingly. There is no doubt that industrial products urgently need brand building.
Speaking of this, some bosses of industrial enterprises want to shout grievances: I also attach importance to brands, such as corporate promotional films, websites, picture albums and large-scale exhibitions. Isn't the company investing a lot of money every year just to make a brand image? In fact, this is just a communication tool to build a brand. Without systematic communication mode and combination mode, brand communication can only be fragmented and difficult to accumulate effectively. As a result, bosses found that there were brands every year, but there were no brands everywhere. There is another situation. Some bosses of industrial enterprises think that their industries are all direct selling or large-scale project bidding. As long as the team is effective and the method is proper, they can naturally take more orders. Brands are just far away from water and can't quench their thirst. However, once this typical pure sales-oriented enterprise meets a competitor with strong brand influence and effective sales, it will soon face the danger of losing staff.
Therefore, a viable brand has a great influence on enterprises, which can increase the sales of enterprises in a stable period and become a magic weapon for enterprises to reverse Gankun when they meet opponents. Brand strategy construction must not be made into bean curd residue project.
Brand positioning, optimizing strategic market segmentation
Positioning theory mainly comes from the actual experience, gains and losses of consumer goods. Based on reasonable sample size analysis and psychological insight technology of consumer psychology, it can effectively capture the potential needs of different consumer groups and establish effective brand demand and cognitive space for its own brand.
However, there are many industries and customers are very scattered, so it is difficult to sample and send for inspection at any time like consumer goods, and the real needs of customers are difficult to ponder. Often based on their own experience and some very superficial industry analysis reports, enterprises have to make a strategic choice that determines the general direction of enterprises. Summarize practical analysis and decision-making methods such as three-piece strategy of industrial enterprises to help industrial enterprises find their own position.
1, industry segmentation is the foundation.
Brand positioning is the most important part of brand strategy and the concrete application of STP market segmentation theory. Brand theory has achieved a qualitative leap from unified market coverage to selective and meticulous marketing. Theoretically, no brand can cover all product lines and maintain a considerable level of competitiveness. At the same time, customers are also selective, and it is difficult for a brand to meet everyone's needs. However, market segmentation brands can be used to better identify products, select regions and terminals, formulate clear communication strategies and implement effective promotion methods. In short, brand positioning determines the combination of marketing power. Since then, brand and marketing power have become one.
Brand positioning of consumer goods mainly studies consumer demand. Has the existing demand been well met and the potential demand been met? The situation of competitors and the whole industry is generally only understood as a background, and no in-depth and detailed research will be done. As a senior consultant of marketing power, he usually uses the means of consumer research to get a large number of data statistics and comparisons on subdivision variables such as region, age, income, psychological needs, consumption habits and values. Therefore, we can choose more attractive customer groups relative to ourselves, shape our own brand connotation and external personality, and achieve the purpose of effectively covering specific groups.
Brand positioning strategy, which plays an important role in consumer goods industry, can also be applied to industrial brands, but the basis of its segmentation can no longer be products, but should be industry customer groups. Because of the wide variety and different specifications of industrial products, it is difficult to study and judge a single product accurately. Moreover, many products are customized according to customer needs, and it is more difficult to directly judge the cost performance.
For industrial customers, because the decision-making centers are usually organized and scattered all over the country, it is difficult to carry out sampling work and generally unable to carry out personality psychology research. At the same time, the demand of regional variables for industrial customers is not important. Therefore, the foundation of industrial brand positioning naturally falls on industry variables.
Although customers in the same industry are different in scale, core competitiveness and region, there are many similarities in the composition of the value chain, such as upstream suppliers, industry policies, core technology applications and so on. There are many channels for industry exchanges, exhibitions, industry associations, industry alliances, etc. Suppliers and buyers have many opportunities to meet and exchange information, and the transparency among industry members is high, so the difference between * * * and personality is naturally obvious.
After industry segmentation, it is necessary to make subtle differences in customer types. According to the customer's experience of brand purchase, customers are divided into three types: direct repurchase, modified repurchase and brand-new purchase. According to their own time in the market and the different proportions of three types of customers, industrial brands create the brand value of core customer needs and formulate differentiated brand demands.
The focus of industrial brand positioning is the industry, and customer differences within the industry are only auxiliary factors. At present, the brand positioning strategy has just begun to be applied in the industrial products industry, and the occupation and position grabbing among enterprises is not obvious. Adopting the method of industry positioning can not only stand at the height of the industry, but also win a broad development stage for the enterprise from the beginning.
2. Market segmentation helps you by going up a stairs.
Brand positioning theory originated from the marketing power of consumer goods and has been proved to be equally applicable to the marketing power of industrial products. It is a statement of brand value proposition, telling customers why they choose to buy their own products and services instead of those of competitors. Positioning is a battle between customers' minds and the most important means of brand communication.
A good brand positioning must clearly answer three questions: Who is the product sold to (target market)? What do we sell (competitive structure and role)? Why do customers buy (unique benefits)? Five kinds of strategic market segmentation are the most commonly used analysis tools, which are divided into terminal application segmentation, product application segmentation, geographical location segmentation, * * same purchase factor segmentation and customer size segmentation. Moreover, because the purchasing of industrial products is usually organized, the characteristics of purchasing organizations, purchasing centers and organizational participants can also be used as substitute variables for market segmentation.
How to choose among many market segments and how to determine the variables that are most relevant to the strategy? The two-step method of industrial product market segmentation may be the simplest and most practical tool, which includes macro-segmentation and micro-segmentation. Macro-segmentation links the difference of organizational response to marketing efforts with organizational variables, which include the end use of products, the type and scale of buying scenarios, standard industry classification and geographical location. Micro-segmentation examines the individual characteristics and behaviors of purchasing center members.
Generally speaking, macro-segmentation is enough, and micro-segmentation is much more complicated. However, in the case of full competition in the industry, diverse products and huge customer base, it can help industrial enterprises to formulate more acute and meticulous marketing strategies.
Two keys to shaping: corporate brand and deep communication
Consumer brands mainly communicate with established target consumers through product brands, while industrial brands stay in the organization. Industrial products are a variable, not a constant, and the planning and design of products are dominated by the specific needs of customers. From the perspective of marketing communication of industrial products, industrial products are not only a material entity in essence, but a synthesis of economic relations, technical relations and interpersonal relations between buyers and suppliers.
The procurement of industrial products is generally organized, involving many people and levels, and a complex procurement decision-making center will be established. Moreover, the buyers and sellers of industrial products have deep cooperation in cooperation customization, technology development, supply guarantee and even market development, and there are many exchanges between institutions and a high degree of interdependence. Therefore, the focus of industrial brands is organization. In addition to product benefits, the management system, values, service ability, technical level, cooperation openness, industry influence, corporate reputation and other factors of the supplier organization are the core elements of industrial brand value, and also the key factors that determine whether the buyer buys, how much to buy and how long to buy.
The shaping of enterprise brand, starting from enterprise concept, forms unique humanistic value, which is the source of enterprise brand differentiation. Through VI enterprise identification system, the image of production and office environment is integrated with the paper communication of enterprise brand. The corporate film vividly tells the values and ideas of the enterprise by using the creativity and visual language of the film. Enterprise website is the information terminal for potential customers to visit enterprises virtually, and 4S center is the experience terminal for customers to deeply understand products and enterprises.
The mode of corporate brand communication emphasizes specialization and depth, which is different from the extensiveness and shallowness of product brands. Brand communication of industrial products is not only to attract the attention of potential customers, but also to meet the comprehensive needs of customers to some extent and eliminate the psychological risk of customers' purchase. Especially for new customers, they lack relevant purchasing experience and need sellers to provide them with general education and other purchasing needs.
The communication carriers of corporate brands are mainly focus media, interpersonal communication means and communication. For small and medium-sized industrial enterprises, Focus Media mainly includes trade magazines, newspapers and websites, while enterprises with a certain scale have already publicized in high-end financial magazines, weekly magazines and even influential quasi-mass media. The main ways of interpersonal communication are exhibitions, technical promotion meetings, industry reports and expert appraisal meetings. People talk directly and have in-depth exchanges and interactions. Public relations communication is no longer the patent of large consumer goods enterprises, and many industrial enterprises have begun to actively participate in social welfare activities and shape social influence.
Enterprise brand is the beginning of industrial brand, and then develops into industrial brand and social brand. In-depth communication requires relatively limited communication objects, relatively few communication frequencies and relatively far-reaching communication effects. Corporate brand combined with deep communication can win the attention of more potential customers, enhance customers' purchasing trust and reduce the risk of purchasing perception, which is a weapon for the rapid growth of industrial enterprises.
Brands often? Physical examination? Live forever.
Fortunately, many industrial enterprises, especially excellent private enterprises, have begun to look at brand building from the perspective of business strategy, and have taken a big step in capital investment, counterpart management of departments or personnel, and external consulting companies. However, brand building, such as planting trees, needs a certain maturity, so the strategic height of the starting point and the monitoring and evaluation measures of the process are very important. Even if the brand building is a small success, it can't be taken lightly, otherwise it will become an unfinished project.
Therefore, while building, enterprises need to make continuous diagnosis and evaluation to ensure that the brand building strategy is correct and the effect is remarkable. Brand diagnosis is mainly composed of three elements: brand value transmission, brand market performance and brand competition prospect, also known as brand diagnosis triangle model.
The value that the brand conveys to customers is the most fundamental meaning of the brand. It is mainly judged from three aspects: whether the brand meets the most basic needs of customers, the price-performance ratio of the brand and the communication effect of brand value.
Brand market performance is to examine the intuitive performance of the brand in the market, which mainly consists of five parts: brand awareness, awareness, reputation, market share and market growth rate.
Brand competition prospect is an overall evaluation of a brand's growth, which is mainly analyzed from three aspects: brand loyalty, the correlation between brand and customer's business strategy and brand difference.
When serving related customers, we use mature evaluation models and tools to make a rational and systematic comprehensive evaluation of the brand of customer enterprises and formulate the strategic direction and path of brand growth. In addition to the brand diagnosis triangle, the commonly used models mainly include market capacity growth curve, product structure histogram, market evolution three-stage model, key success factor analysis, brand competition model, brand SWOT analysis and so on.
At present, the brand building of many industrial enterprises is still in its infancy. Enterprises should not only correctly understand the significance of brand strategy, but also do a good job in brand building in a planned and step-by-step manner, positioning, shaping and diagnosing, both of which are indispensable, and all of them must be slow and steady to ensure the overall energy efficiency of brand strategy. Never regard the brand as a vase for corporate propaganda, fool others and fool yourself. We believe that a strong brand effect will surely lead more industrial enterprises to the road of healthy and rapid development.