How Shi Yuzhu made a comeback
"This year's festival does not receive gifts, only brain platinum", "brain platinum, young, healthy products".
Brain platinum advertisements are so loud that they have been written into the textbooks of successful advertising cases. From 1998 to the present, it has sold well for 23 years, and it has also been questioned for 23 years, and the brain platinum of "research and development" time is only one year, is it an IQ tax?
In 1997, Shi Yuzhu started by selling M-6405 Hanka, and the capital chain was broken because of the construction of the "Giant Building". Borrowed 500,000 yuan from a friend in distress and came to Wuxi Jiangyin with a team of only 20 people to try to start a business again.
With a borrowed 500,000, only a team of 20 people, life is not familiar, if it is what you will do to make a comeback?
The pain points in our lives are all hard and rigid, as long as they are just needed, it must be profitable. Selling health to the elderly is definitely a good business, and Shi Yuzhu, who is well versed in this way, chose to do the health care products industry.
They live in the worst hotel in Jiangyin, relying on crowded buses and eating the cheapest roadside box lunches. Brain Platinum was "developed" in such a difficult environment, the research and development time is about 1 year, whether it has undergone clinical trials in animals and humans is still unknown.
In order to get feedback results, they gave away the brain platinum for free to the local elderly, and went deep into neighborhood committees, pharmacies, and rural areas to do research. And invite them to hold a symposium to ask how effective the results are, the feedback results are not unexpected, very good!
In May 1998, Brain Platinum was officially put on sale, and Shi Yuzhu used all the remaining money for advertising. The next month, Brain Platinum began to make a profit in Jiangyin, and Shi Yuzhu immediately promoted the product to the Wuxi market, and immediately earned more than 100,000 yuan.
In the following year, brain platinum sales spread across the country, with monthly sales soaring to about 100 million and gross profits as high as 45 million. As of 2000, Brain Platinum has used less than 2 years, and its sales have successfully exceeded 1 billion.
However, it was not until December 2004 that Brain Platinum completed human clinical trials in accordance with the new drug research method.
"Brainwashing" marketing
After the profit, brain platinum began "brainwashing" marketing, and the prime time and sub-prime time of TV programs were filled with advertisements. The three advertising versions of thematic, efficacy and gift-giving complement each other, forming a trend of wild bombardment, overwhelming and pervasive.
Brain Platinum's initial advertising expenditure exceeded 100 million, and after increasing year by year, it exceeded 1.5 billion in 2019, covering more than 1.3 billion people. The output ratio of advertising reaches between 1:5 and 10, that is, for every 1 yuan of advertising cost invested, it can produce sales of 5 to 10 yuan.
The life cycle of health care products is generally not long, but brain platinum is undoubtedly an exception, as Shi Yuzhu said: "Our brain platinum may be the most controversial, I eat brain platinum every day, because I think it is a good thing!" ”
In order to seek high profits, some distributors make a big noise for brain platinum, and wantonly boast that brain platinum has the health care effect of delaying aging, enhancing immunity and improving sexual function, but in fact, it is an irresponsible misleading consumer behavior.
After being questioned by both the medical community and consumers, how did Brain Platinum operate and successfully reverse the trend of public opinion?
After the trust and reputation of Brain Platinum continued to decline, it continued to use interview programs to demonstrate its efficacy and dispel consumers' doubts. And once launched for more than 20 years, consumers' ears have heard cocoons, which can also be regarded as creating a record in the history of Chinese advertising.
In this way, coupled with the brain platinum, the psychology and needs of consumers are clearly studied, and the effect of "brainwashing" is almost achieved.
Can eating walnuts supplement the brain?
Whether a company's product effect is good or not, the proportion of research and development and sales expenses is a very important indicator. The gross profit margin of health care products is generally more than 70%, and most of the expenditure costs are advertising expenses and sales bonuses.
In other words, the cost of health care products that can be used for research and development and production is less than 30%. Consumers buy health care products, most of which are paid for advertising costs and psychological comfort, as for the health effect on the body, even less nutritious than stewing an old hen.
Similarly, the active ingredient of brain platinum is just what we usually call melatonin (Meatonin), aka pineal voxel.
It is a hormone secreted by the pineal glands in the human brain or animal brain, when the human body lacks this hormone, there will be poor sleep, and appropriate supplementation of melatonin can indeed play a role in improving sleep.
However, it is a drug three-point poison, melatonin as a biological hormone, its toxic side effects are not less than the antidote drug.
The price of 120 pieces of melatonin on the Internet is only 91 yuan, which is about 0.76 yuan / piece. And because it contains harmful substances in the human body, adolescents, pregnant women, patients with autoimmune diseases, and high-risk workers need to take it with caution.
Many people are obsessed with walnuts can supplement the brain, a certain rhizome-like plant can be aphrodisiac, Chinese believe in "complementing the shape". If someone says that an invasive alien species, scavengers have the effect of nourishing yin and aphrodisiac, I am afraid that they will also be eaten to extinction.
It turns out that filial piety can also be sold
A health care product that has been selling well for more than 20 years, with cumulative sales of more than 10 billion, will brain platinum be an IQ tax?
As Shi Yuzhu said in his book "My Marketing Experience": "In order to find out the psychological consumption needs of middle-aged and elderly people, I went to the park to chat with them, and found that they wanted this product, but they were not willing to spend money to buy it themselves."
So Brain Platinum packaged itself as a good gift for the New Year in the marketing advertisement.
Spending money for parents, buying brain platinum to send to parents and relatives has become a way to reflect filial piety, and parents and children are happy. As for the effect of brain platinum, it is secondary, spending money to buy parents happy, which filial piety child will not want it?
Shi Yuzhu's thoughts on consumers can be described as a pinch of scores, and it is not too much to be called a marketing genius.
However, with the development of the Internet and big data, "information difference" will be less and less, and any marketing gimmicks will be hidden. A company that only markets without technical background and thinks about making quick money all day long will be spurned by the public sooner or later.
At the same time, every day when dang, when the time is not the same, as a consumer we must open our eyes and constantly improve our cognition.
"If you don't deserve the throne, there will be disasters," and the same is true of wealth. If your cognition and wealth do not match, even if you win 5 million in the lottery, there will be various scythes to harvest your wealth until your wealth matches your cognition.