In the early summer of 2021, on the afternoon of a certain day, the café on the side of the city street walked into two crowds of people greeting each other.
On the one hand, the Alimama Digital Strategy team led by Ximei (General Manager of Alimama Digital Strategy Center) and on the other hand, the consulting team led by Xu Yang (Managing Director of Boston Consulting Group (BCG)). The opportunity for the two sides to "organize the bureau" comes from two consensuses in the field of marketing:
First, brand merchants need a newer set of methodologies to better understand the consumer decision-making chain and brand mental share;
Second, brand merchants need to make the understanding of consumers and brand marketing actions fit into each other.
For this "unofficial" interview, Xu Yang said with emotion: The deep chain management methodology has a very great innovative significance in China. When talking about the meaning of deep chain, Ximei said, "Behind the birth of deep chain, one of our big anxiety points is how to make it very practical. In the dialogue with Ximei, "practical" is also the most frequent word he talks about.
After working day and night behind the scenes, at the 2021 M Summit, DeepChain was pushed to the front for the first time, and Jialuo, vice president of Alibaba Group and head of Alimama's business group, officially announced three major plans such as brand upgrading, technological innovation and business reshaping, and named it "Digital And Intelligent Business Strategy".
"Let those who can hear the cannon fire call for the cannon fire", the three "behind-the-scenes promoters" in the growth process of the deep chain participated in the series of interviews, discussing the significance of the deep chain to the operation of the enterprise:
General Manager of Alimama Digital Intelligence Strategy Center - Ximei
Yang Xu, Managing Director and Global Partner of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
CEO of Hangzhou Duozhun Data Technology Co., Ltd. - Hu Luo
To some extent, they have achieved the "deep chain", but also by the "deep chain", in their narration, they can feel more three-dimensionally, more details behind the scenes of the "deep chain".
01, Ximei: deep chain, is the business management practice of the red treasure book
"From the brand, to the brand"
The interview with Ximei was held in Shanghai, after she had just attended a brand marketing-related conference, and the formal interview and shooting time was only one and a half hours, and she had to fly back to Beijing after the end. "My home is in Beijing, basically every week between Beijing and Hangzhou, and the state of being on the road all the time is a kind of vitality of life."
The original intention of deep chain:
From the brand, to the brand
In the past eight years since entering Alibaba, Ximei has spent most of its time "soaking" in the front line of brand management, dealing with brands of different categories, different stages and scales, entering factories and R&D centers, and understanding the real business operation of enterprises. When they talk about their brands, Ximei can feel the "light" in their eyes, and it feels like they are talking about their children.
After visiting many brands in different industries, Ximei also lamented the huge differences between industries and categories, "My greatest sense of achievement comes from 'hand in hand' with the brand, completing the growth stage from small to large, feeling that I am integrated with the brand", when talking about the biggest achievements in the work, Ximei frankly said, "The path to growth is arduous, looking back at the difficult experiences we have crossed together, I feel very touched in my heart." ”
Stemming from the "plunging into the game" of the operation, Ximei traces back to the original intention of the "deep chain", that is, to avoid giving a general "success study" or "general direction", but to use a specific tool to let the brand use, assist the business strategy, and then find deterministic business results in the uncertain era of contact diversification, path differentiation and accelerated change.
Therefore, the perspective of "deep chain" is the perspective of the brand, "the market is very complex, the online platform of e-commerce and offline store operation logic are different, the core advantages of the brand are also different, the 'deep chain' hopes to build a unified perspective of the brand, unify online and offline to see consumer behavior, so that each other is no longer separated", and for the figurative description of the deep chain, Ximei uses the "red treasure book of business operation practice" as an analogy.
Behind the scenes of deep chain:
"Seeking the same" to "seeking differences", the massive details are stripped of cocoons
The behind-the-scenes work of the deep chain is precisely the transformation from "seeking the same period" to "seeking the same period".
In the same period, the Alimama team and the BCG team first listed the similarities encountered in the operation process of the brand business, and designed the deep chain index system one by one for these similarities.
How to judge the similarities? Is it universal? Ximei turned its perspective to the consumer, "the basic path of the consumer is unchanged, there is commonality, so when we design the deep chain, we depict the consumer behavior path in a comprehensive and detailed way, and then go to find a standard indicator that applies to all brands."
Solve the "greatest common divisor" problem, and enter the "difference period". The deep chain follows the unified route of "common ground", gives corresponding business suggestions according to the characteristics of different industries, constantly supplements and improves the difference points, and deepens and thoroughly positions the practical positioning of the "Red Treasure Book".
In addition to the differences in industries and categories, Deep Chain also focuses on brand differentiation, Ximei added: "The business needs of head brands and small and medium-sized brands are different, and we will also make it richer and more solid during the 'different period', providing different solutions for brands of different sizes." ”
Although there are only four words of "seeking common ground and seeking differences", from the huge and complex and diversified consumer links, finding solutions that match different categories and different volume brands is no different from "stripping the cocoon in a large number of details" - the deep chain contains 8 indicator systems, behind which is from the huge user behavior contact value, find the law, and then summarize and classify the formation.
In the process, the Alimama team and the BCG team conducted a large number of numerical backtests, combined with specific cases, to analyze the consumer paths of different industries, so that the deep chain is close to the actual operation of the brand business, and then gradually improve the indicator range of the deep chain.
"The core advantages of the deep chain lie in two points, one is that the definition of indicators is very rigorous, returning to the basic link of consumers, to apply to different brands; second, we emphasize the actual combat and application, after doing a good job of demand and characteristic insight, it will help brand merchants to do consumer reach, communication and conversion", when talking about the core advantages of the deep chain, Ximei said: "I hope that the deep chain remains open and inclusive, and serves the business operations of brand merchants."
The value of deep chains:
To grow into a tree, and constantly extend the management power
Without concrete cases, there is no concrete perception. Ximei used a domestic milk powder head brand to broaden the category and target population width through the deep chain, and restored the application of the deep chain in the business scene.
Back to the basic disk of the category, the infant milk powder category uses the user age group, between 0 and 3 years old, the consumption age group is relatively fixed, beyond this age group, it will no longer consume the category of goods. For the brand, it has achieved the ultimate in the category of infant milk powder, so it needs to be extended in the width of the category and the width of the service population, extending from the milk powder category to the categories of complementary foods, nutritional products and other categories, and the categories form a complementary complement and radiate to a wider range of service groups.
Through the analysis of past test data, Ximei found that the brand penetration rate is very high, many consumers buy milk powder in offline stores, but when the children are more than three years old, such consumers become sleeping members. Based on this, the brand identifies this part of the sleeping members online through the deep chain system, and then combines the extended categories to wake them up, such as recommending children's milk products to this part of the consumer, and then establishing an online category extension position, and also completing the expansion of the category and the crowd.
At one end, the consumer population reaches the field, and at the other end, it is the field operation ability, which is the content linked by the deep chain, which is like the trunk of a big tree, connecting its lush branches and leaves, deep into the root system of the soil, and constantly extending the business power of brand merchants.
Digression:
Not exploding the liver is another kind of long-termism
Go to bed on time at twelve o'clock, get up early, and maintain a regular schedule, which is the daily routine of Ximei, "I don't stay up late often, but I think I should learn from young people and get close to the living habits of this part of the Internet people."
Perhaps, the state of not exploding the liver is another kind of long-term doctrine.
At the end of the interview, Ximei recommended a book called "Halo Effect", which she pushed in her colleague group, "When we look at a successful company or individual, we need to fully understand the growth process, what makes him successful? Is it because he is now successful that he is saying and doing the right things? We need to jump out of the 'halo effect' and sort out the causal logic behind success, which is very inspiring to me. ”
Perhaps the "deep chain" that goes deep into the operation is also doing a "attribution" thing, so that every input has traces to follow and counts.
02, Xu Yang: deep chain, is the enterprise digital intelligence "accelerator"
"The 'trapeze artist' in the business field also hopes to be a 'teaching craftsman'"
From entering the interview room to making up and preparing for audition auditions, Xu Yang always had a smile on his face, and a few half-joking small talk made the originally quiet interview room quickly lively. When talking about the status of daily work, Xu Yang said with a smile, "Because we serve many types of customers, I will divide the time every day to discuss different topics."
The in-depth understanding of different industries may also be the opportunity for Xu Yang to get acquainted with the deep chain.
Becoming an "accelerator" in the process of digital intelligence of Chinese enterprises
Empowering enterprises in the consulting industry is Xu Yang's greatest achievement. "In a digital and intelligent enterprise award jointly organized by Tsinghua University and Harvard Business Review, as a member of the jury, I participated in the sharing of digital intelligence cases of 100 companies, and in this process, I had a deeper understanding of the value of digital intelligence in enterprises," Xu Yang said, "To some extent, this is also my personal pride."
For the digital and intelligent transformation of enterprises, Xu Yang outlined three core capabilities:
The first is whether the company can gain insights into customers and translate them into marketing actions;
Second, whether it can achieve marketing conversion more efficiently through AI, algorithms, platform toolkits and other technologies;
The third point is whether it can combine online and offline digital intelligence tools and corresponding management methods to change the operation and decision-making methods of enterprises; with these three core capabilities, digital intelligence can exert maximum value.
When talking about the significance of the deep chain, Xu Yang believes that the role it plays is the accelerator of enterprise digital intelligence, "The deep chain can empower the brand on the first and second points, on the one hand, the enterprise uses the alimama platform resources to re-optimize and integrate with the brand's private domain on the label to position the customer base; on the other hand, the enterprise can also use the platform toolkit in marketing actions and business decisions to achieve efficient crowd conversion." ”
Applications for deep chains:
First "cognition" and then "landing", which is a "two-way rush"
The same tool, the same path, but the results may be very different, the reason behind it, Xu Yang believes that compared to "how to do", that is, the deep chain landed, we must first understand the "why to do", that is, cognitive problems.
At the cognitive level, Xu Yang outlined two key points:
First, different enterprises, the deeper the understanding of the marketing transformation path, the more they can achieve business results through the deep chain, which is the internal homework of the enterprise, which will clarify the problems to be solved by the deep chain, and then choose the tools provided by the deep chain according to the goal;
Second, each new methodology or tool needs to have some room for fault tolerance, and enterprises need to "go in both directions" with the platform to jointly polish the deep chain, dare to trial and error, and adjust in time.
At the "landing" level, Xu Yang outlined three stages: "First, the enterprise first opens the internal label with the label of the Alimama middle office; second, it is also a more important point, to find out where the core decision points of different customers are in the marketing link, and link the marketing actions with the decision points of the corresponding customer groups; third, through the promotion of the accumulation of crowd insight, conversion link experience, and then through continuous marketing activities, to enrich the customer's cognition; through this way, you can better play the value of the deep chain." ”
For the new brand to create explosive scenes, Xu Yang added: "Through the deep chain, the new brand can capture the behavior path of the target group, and then feedback to the business decision, help the brand side recognize that there is a potential for explosive models in a certain type of product, and the subtle action of consumers may represent a huge sales growth space, which is also the value of the deep chain in the front end of the operation." ”
Three "soul tortures", with the brand's compound interest thinking
"How do you recommend deep chains to business owners?"
When asked this question, Xu Yang extended three questions for business owners:
1. Do you have a complete grasp of the customer's actions and status?
2. In addition to directly issuing promotional coupons, do you have a precise grasp of other marketing actions?
3. Can you combine customer marketing links and brand building?
Xu Yang concluded: "The combination of these three aspects is the value of the deep chain. ”
Projected in the real business, enterprises need both "short-term transformation" and "long-term growth". In the early days of the birth of the deep chain, this "contradictory community" is also summarized in the system thinking, "on the one hand, we must based on the e-commerce and marketing environment, short-term achievements in the short term, I am laying the foundation for medium- and long-term transformation; on the other hand, enterprises need to cultivate medium- and long-term brand equity, consumer minds", in an overview of the relationship between the two, Xu Yang elaborated, "Many enterprises use simple sales funnels to measure brand equity, can not be solved' The problem of long-term growth, we and Alimama jointly launched a deep chain, that is, we hope to measure the brand's brand equity through another set of indicator systems, and then take into account the short-term and long-term interests. ”
In terms of basic dimension and operation dimension, DeepChain extracts the mental dimension to reflect the comprehensive competitiveness of a brand, and guides the brand to use this KPI system to link with marketing activities.
Especially in the era of fragmentation and even powderification in China, every communication, every marketing plan, needs to re-sort out the relationship between the brand and the world, spread again and again, and superimpose people's cognition of the brand.
Be a sunny morning person
Try every possibility
"I am a relatively sunny person", when talking about the impression of myself in the eyes of others, Xu Yang replied with a smile, "Before the Winter Olympics, I also went to ski once, my personal interests and hobbies are also relatively extensive, skiing, diving have tried, may belong to the 'people's food addiction and big' type of bar."
In the impression of the outside world, people in the consulting industry are often accompanied by high-intensity work, and Xu Yang usually relaxes by running. When talking about daily routines, Xu Yang also stressed the importance of self-discipline, "I go to bed before twelve o'clock, get up on time at seven o'clock, is a typical morning person, enters the working state at eight o'clock, and allocates different time to serve different types of customers."
When asked, what would you most like to do without taking into account realities? Xu Yang pondered for a moment and replied: "I think people have different pursuits at different stages, and I may reach a certain stage and want to go to business school to teach and share some experiences with different young students and entrepreneurs." ”
At the end of the interview, Xu Yang recommended "Refresh" by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, which shows Microsoft's amazing "elephant turn", which is about how CEOs participate in corporate culture change and then promote greater change, which is a very good interpretation.
Similarly, for every participant in the deep chain, the deep chain is also a change in management.
03, Huluo: deep chain, is the barometer of enterprise operation
Direct, honest, fact-based, professionalist
When you first hear the name "Tiger Ray", you may have preconceived notions that this is a strong founder. But in the actual interview communication, you can feel a very comfortable sense of socialization. During the conversation, The Tiger will listen carefully to the problem, and will pause for a moment, organize in a language full of organization and logic, and express his understanding from all dimensions.
Perhaps, it is the objectivity, neutrality and rationality based on data insights that have won more respect for Hulu and Duozhun, and also allowed the deep chain to be applied to the business decisions of enterprises.
Deep Chain's role:
It is a barometer of business operations, and it is also the trend of the times
In Huluo's understanding, the deep chain is the operating barometer of brand merchants, which is the basis for business decisions. Also in the context of service providers represented by multi-standard, the deep chain cuts to the just needs of the business level.
In the initial stage, HuLu was relatively restrained about new concepts, afraid that there were too many new things and too complicated details, which would lead to communication obstacles with customers, and may also "do half the work", complex theoretical system, and cannot really improve business problems.
But when the deep chain was understood and applied, Hulu took the initiative to "Amway" to the customer. "The birth of the deep chain is the trend of the times, now the brand business challenges are more and more, the past AIPL indicators are relatively vague, we will also split many layers along the AIPL when we do analysis to customers, after the launch of the deep chain, just fit our needs, the interaction between consumers and brands, on the key nodes to do restoration, so that the behavior path becomes more clear and visible, taking into account the comprehensive and practical."
Hulu found that after the company uses the deep chain, the brand executives can intuitively see the business situation, find their own position and the problems that need to be solved, and then assist the company's business decision-making.
Be the "brain" of customers, but also be the "hands" of customers
For service providers, any methodology launched by any platform is to find growth opportunities by presenting the brand's problem points and opportunity points in different data forms.
The launch of the deep chain, for Tiger Ray, can further realize the two roles of the service provider - the brain and the hands, the former is the role of the discoverer, the latter is the role of the implementer. "On the one hand, we want to be the brains of our customers and help them dig deep into the root causes of business problems based on data representations; on the other hand, we need to have a lot of application tools to help customers grow with solutions."
Hu Lu believes that in the actual application scenario, the data needs to be presented, and the different depth levels of consumer and brand interaction have similarities and differences in business results. Through a set of methodologies and a series of application tools, DeepChain makes this causal relationship more efficient, and saves a lot of time and effort for Duozhu.
In addition, during the landing phase, customers are eager to "land immediately". Based on the deep chain, Huluo and Multi-Precision can formulate solutions in more detail, can quickly respond to customer needs, and quickly optimize iterations through data verification and efficient attribution.
Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet, find the second growth curve
"Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet", when asked about the feelings of the promotion of the deep chain process, Hu Luru outlined, "The birth of the deep chain is a natural process, this is a slow accumulation, gradual change process, in the process of promoting the deep chain, I will patiently let more brand customers to understand, accept, apply it, I believe the final result is good, but the length of time between pay and harvest is not the same, not necessarily immediately positive feedback, I also warned myself to maintain enough patience." ”
Also on the brand side, Hulu can clearly feel that between 2021 and 2022, brands will increasingly consider "how to spend money smarter". In addition to short-term conversion, brands will pay more and more attention to medium- and long-term delivery, short-term conversion and long-term brand building how to cooperate, after the deep chain comes out, it will make up for this link, and at the same time can achieve efficient landing.
For Duozhun, deep chain will enhance the effect of the brand's media strategy portfolio, which is also a business opportunity for service providers.
For example, in the process of serving a beverage brand, with the help of a deep chain methodology, Duozhu helped it establish brand potential and image. Hu Lu further analyzed: "Through the deep chain, I can stand on the brand perspective to see what effective interactions consumers have with the brand, what are the characteristics of the people who cannot be converted, why they can't impress such people; for the people who have converted and continue to repurchase, how to maintain their brand preferences and regularly present the brand image." ”
Deep Chain Scene:
Double 11 promotion water storage is also the main battlefield of the deep chain
If last September was the debut of the deep chain, then the double 11 and the early storage of water, it is the deep chain to the main battlefield.
When it comes to the significance of the deep chain for the double 11 promotion of water storage, Hulu analyzed it from two dimensions: First, the deep chain can be split through many indicators, so that the brand can see the operating state, and according to the personal value of the consumer, predict the current demand situation for the business support, how much can be achieved, and then plan the rhythm of water storage; second, the deep chain can assist in the establishment of an appreciation system, and determine whether its own investment has reached the industry "water level", if it is not reached, it needs to continue to invest.
"The brand is more and more concerned about the promotion of water storage, before our double 11 review, generally only need one month, and last year's double 11 review, we did two months, there are many brands have not finished the review, the reason is that the business challenges faced by brand merchants have become stronger", Hu Lu sighed, "The brand hopes that we can adjust some essential actions, water storage in advance is an important part, temporary holding the Buddha's feet is not OK, the brand is also tilting the budget on the daily."
In addition, within the enterprise, there is a certain degree of estrangement between the e-commerce department and the marketing department. The e-commerce department got a short-term budget, can not do long-term investment, which is not enough support for the business, Hu Lu said, "this set of methodology of the deep chain, it helps the e-commerce department to better get involved in the attention of the market department, because it is not only for the e-commerce department to see the indicator system, but also for the boss to see, the boss after reading to know to spend money in front, the market department's long-term budget, invested in daily delivery, to ensure the business objectives of double 11."
Become a rational optimist and believe in professionalists
Compared with Leader's main focus on the general direction, Tiger Luo also looks at the specific business more and more carefully, and can provide suggestions and improvement directions on specific issues, perhaps which is in line with its "rational optimist" temperament.
"I myself contain the characteristics of rationality and optimism, but I will not blindly emphasize this slogan, this is not my favorite style, I hope to bring this point to more accurate through my own words and deeds", when talking about the daily work status, Hu Lu said, "I maintain fact-based in communication, interdepartmental play ball is meaningless, I will let everyone talk more about the facts, less about the point of view, in front of the customer, I also adhere to the objective and fair, help the customer to do a lot of advice, uphold professionalism, rather than pleasing the customer." ”
When talking about the biggest achievement, Hulu constantly emphasizes the attitude of "grasping the present", "When you open the deep chain, you can see some essential changes, I have always felt that I am on the right path, gradually stripped away the sense of ambiguity, came to a more clear area, through the data to help brands to study the market, consumers, understand their own problems and opportunities, this is my biggest achievement, is what Duo zhu is currently doing, but also the valuable work I am looking for." ”
In life, Hu Lu also exuded a sense of happiness, "The biggest achievement in my life is to have a harmonious family, and the family supports each other, both me and my husband, and the mutual support between my children and me, which is a very good state." ”
Perhaps for Hu Luo, the ideal is in the present, so she will not fall into anxiety. In the daily routine, Tiger Lu also tries not to take the initiative to stay up late, preferring a more regular life.
In recommending the book list, Hu Lu recommends textbooks of professional systems, such as "Microeconomics", "Consumer Behavior", "Statistics" and "Marketing", compared to fragmented learning, textbooks can present the most comprehensive knowledge system, "if there are too few people reading textbooks, everyone is easy to be 'brainwashed' by some hot concepts, in fact, many hot concepts are just some fragments extracted from textbooks", Hu Lu added.
04 Deep chain, the dividend of brave operators
In addition to scale, there are some things in this world that are still valuable, and not every company is lucky to enter the big category and make an eternal industry. For what the remaining enterprises should do, it should find a compound interest curve and model that is in line with the operation of the enterprise, first make the track to the extreme, and then continuously broaden the growth boundary.
Based on the deep chain business methodology, Alimama is encouraging the next wave of the main wave, representing the "business growth platform", constantly upgrading the business model in adaptation to change, evolving from "big exposure" to "business growth", upgrading from "short-term transformation" to "long-term operation", and finding the essence of sustainable growth.
For those who promote the deep chain to land in the enterprise operation, they are all brave people, and there are more brave people who are hearing the echo of the operation through the deep chain.