From a macro point of view, this is the best time. For small and medium-sized cutting-edge brands, the market environment and consumer spending power are recovering in the post-epidemic era. This is the worst time. After three years of baptism, the cooling of the capital market and the recovery of consumer confidence will take time. The era of horse racing has passed, and now the competition among small and medium-sized brands is more intense, such as sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat. From the microscopic point of view, the most obvious feature is that it is increasingly difficult to see small and medium-sized brands dare to expose and spread, and there are fewer and fewer activities with a budget of 10 million yuan. Everyone has begun to pay more and more attention to quantifiable revenue results. How to refine operations and how to reduce costs and increase efficiency has become the proposition composition of most small and medium-sized brands. So based on this background, what else can small and medium-sized brand marketing do? We visited @ Tony, a blogger in the field of brand marketing, and had an in-depth conversation with Wang Jing, manager of integrated marketing planning in Weston. We talked about the key issues of small and medium-sized brand marketing, how to do content marketing, how to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and so on. Not much to say, please welcome Xiao Dun! What is the focus of small and medium-sized brand marketing? Jing Wong: With the changes in the overall economic environment and consumer market, we have come into contact with the needs of many small and medium-sized customers. Compared with big customers, the basic situation and conditions are very different, including the differences in gameplay and strategy. What should be the focus of small and medium-sized brand marketing compared with big brands? Tony's little observation: I think there are two points that need to be paid attention to. One point is the positioning of small and medium-sized brands: what circle of people to serve, what to do and what products to sell must be focused. In recent years, almost all brands that have broken through have grasped the needs of a certain group of people and a certain scene, and the products launched have the selling point of "no one has me". Since it is the key point, from the strategic level to the tactical level, small and medium-sized brands need to focus on one or several media when formulating strategies, and match the TA they are looking for according to the user tonality of different platforms, so as to launch and operate. We also need to plan and produce in-depth content according to the selected media. Another strength is also the advantage of small and medium-sized brands: "The boat is small and easy to turn around." In the organization of small and medium-sized brands, the link from the decision-making level to the execution level is relatively short, so many attempts can be made to control trial and error within the controllable range and iterate constantly to find the right direction. The organization of big brands is excellent in resources, staffing and communication style, which will be more systematic and iterative, but the executive layer is more iterative than the direction. With the change of playing style, small and medium-sized brands are more likely to change their rhythm. On the other hand, changing the direction and rhythm of big brands means high cost and price, and most importantly, it is easy to miss opportunities. Small and medium-sized brand content marketing, should spread the net widely or focus on blasting? Jing Wong: Yes, the more flexible adjustment of small and medium-sized brands is a great advantage and brings more opportunities. In this flexible rhythm, should small and medium-sized brands explode from one platform or spread all over the network? Tony's observation: It's almost common sense for small and medium-sized brands to focus on their efforts, but I think small and medium-sized brands mainly avoid focusing on key points and laying exposure for laying exposure. For small and medium-sized brands, in the process of 0- 1, the first thing to figure out is which one, or which platforms are most suitable, and the key points of the layout of these platforms. For example, for new consumer goods, Weibo is the pr position, Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok are the main positions for front-end communication, Zhihu and Baidu are the entrances for seo and long-tail traffic, WeChat official account is the main position for brand rights users to operate, and live broadcast is an important part of e-commerce traffic, all of which are meaningful. Brands need to consider the strategic focus of each platform according to their own budget and situation. In the case of limited budget, it is not the most core and important channel for brand development at this stage, so we can temporarily leave the layout and concentrate resources on the most suitable platform. Jing Wong: The premise of concentration is to choose the right platform first. From the perspective of platform and its functional value, is it necessary for small and medium-sized brands to plant grass? Tony's observation: Now the narrow sense of "planting grass" has almost become synonymous with little red book marketing. Whether it is a small or medium-sized brand, I think it has become inevitable for big brands to plant grass. Regardless of the word "planting grass", whether it is planting grass, flowers or vegetables, the core is that the catalyst habits of the general public have changed. This is directly linked to the DAU of major platforms. When the daily life of Xiaohongshu is rising year by year, the content and media of the brand follow the flow and cost-effectiveness ratio. Xiaohongshu community and user environment can make us produce content more efficiently, get better communication and reach the target audience, so planting grass is inevitable. (Image from Xiaohongshu official) Of course, not all brands need to plant grass. As mentioned above, what media content the brand needs to serve and what media customers are used to. Jing Wong: Yes, yes, the most fundamental criterion for judging whether it is suitable for planting grass or directly loading goods should also be where the target users are. So when a small and medium-sized brand decides to do social media marketing, does the content marketing of this small and medium-sized brand do it by itself or by an agent team? Tony's little observation: At the beginning, all the internal and external content copywriting was written by the team itself. I think small and medium-sized brands are in the stage of brand 0- 1, and most companies have been established within three years. The brand understood by the market and brand team is dynamic, not static, because the brand is growing and iterating. (The picture comes from the official WeChat account at home and abroad) The iterative process itself is accompanied by constant changes and updates. The founder's understanding of the brand needs to be passed on to the brand and marketing team in a very timely manner. So, is the team that gets along with each other better able to understand the values conveyed by the brand, or is it better understood by external institutions? The answer is obvious. But what if agency doesn't have a chance? Not exactly. From the agent's point of view, in fact, there are many agents with talents, ideas or resources in the whole industrial chain, many of whom are in the form of creative hot shops. Perhaps the creative personnel in the agents also come from freelancers who do sideline business in Party A. The big budget campaign, the standard and high threshold of bidding keep some small and medium-sized creative institutions out. How do these agencies survive in the market? They will pay attention to potential small and medium-sized brands. In order to serve small and medium-sized brands and reliable agents, the external brain may bring more objective rather than self-satisfied user insight and more user-oriented and scenario-oriented creativity. This may be impossible for Party A's marketing and brand team. How to reduce costs and increase efficiency in small and medium-sized brand marketing? Jing Wong: It seems that we should consider this matter comprehensively according to the development stage of the brand and the positioning of the agent. But no matter who does it, at the marketing level, small and medium-sized brands will tend to be small and wide. What is the basis and idea for small and medium-sized brands to try to produce explosive products under limited budget? Tony's observation: I think the reason why explosive products are explosive products is that marketing and communication are icing on the cake, and the core selling point that became an instant hit is the foundation of explosive products. If the product strength is not enough, this kind of explosive products may become epiphyllum and have a short life. For example, it's like a drink that was popular last year: a whole one. "Punk health care" just hit the pain point of modern urban youth. The unique packaging itself endowed the product with social value, so the whole book was widely spread on major social platforms and the shelves were sold out one after another. However, after drying the bottle in the social circle, the whole flow did not last long after consumers lost their freshness, and it could not become a classic of the bottle. Therefore, in the end, we have to return to the product itself. Because of the word-of-mouth and wind reviews of products, brands can't make communication into a series of actions. Jing Wong: Yes, product strength is the cornerstone and foundation of all subsequent marketing of the brand. Then, on the basis of the product, there will also be cases of planting grass and not seeing immediate results. What should I do? Tony's observation: many founders of small and medium-sized brands are from e-commerce. With the platform and tools, it is inevitable that these bosses will calculate ROI, CPE and CPM when doing brand marketing, content and delivery. But the fact is that most brands' business, 70% comes from long-tail content spreading, and 30% comes from short-term promotion. How to quantitatively evaluate the work value of brand people is a problem that almost all small and medium-sized brand marketers and bosses will encounter. If exposure is the emotional value of Party B's work to Party A, it really means how many users have paid attention to us, how many users have interacted with our content (like, comment and collect), how many have settled in the private domain, how many have left the capital and how many have become members. The data of each layer under the funnel can prove the work value of marketers. For the transformation effect, the brand needs to give a rational evaluation cycle. (Image from Xiaohongshu official) If we plant grass, but the effect is not good, as Party A, in addition to analyzing the data, we can see the gap between the actual CPE and the expected value, and more importantly, we should optimize the Brief we gave to Daren, and then check whether the implementation level of Daren's planting grass is far from our demand for Daren. Jing Wong: Implementation depends on details, and details determine success or failure. How should the selling points of small and medium-sized brand products communicate with users? Tony's little observation: I read the tweet of the empty-handed teacher before, which systematically introduced the refinement of product selling points, which was very useful. In my opinion, the selling point of products and the communication of users are divided into three dimensions, from shallow to deep. In fact, knowing people is the same logic as becoming a partner. The first dimension: people are profit-seeking. If you want to make friends with me (the consumer), you (the brand) must be a tool first, so that I can know what problems you can help me solve. The second element: You should give me a sense of security and let me choose to look for you instead of others when I need it. The third dimension: you should know me and my circle, my life. Besides having you when I am in trouble, I can also mention your name in my life in other scenes. Small and medium-sized brand marketing to reduce costs and increase efficiency, we must first find the right point of strength, not afraid of trial and error (the biggest advantage of small and medium-sized brands is not afraid of trial and error). In order to obtain better marketing effect, small and medium-sized brands can find a reliable agency, choose the most suitable media platform according to the budget, use content marketing to produce explosive products and promote transformation. Secondly, what really affects brand power is consumers' preferences. Don't worry about the length of the effect conversion link. Every link in the marketing funnel is an intangible asset precipitated by the brand. Thanks again for sharing the observation of guest @ Tony in this issue. In this issue, we discussed the marketing of small and medium-sized brands. I'm sure you've gained a lot. If you have more questions or different opinions, please add them in the comments area and leave a message in private. Let's communicate together. Xiao Dun invited a special column to ask questions about the most concerned issues or pain points of the brand in marketing activities. Experts, scholars, marketing bloggers, talented users and other insiders give answers and gather them into articles, hoping to bring long-term help to the brand. Next, we will disassemble the topic of "brand marketing" from many angles, and the column "Little Dun Please" is updated every month! Professionals from all walks of life are also welcome to write privately in the background and actively sign up for sharing. (The above interview only represents the personal views of the interviewee. If you have different opinions, please leave a comment and discuss it together! )