Wen 丨 Nie Kai
Edited by 丨 Wang Xiaokun
"At this moment, those who like to eat coriander and those who don't like to eat coriander are silent."
This is the most ridiculed by netizens about McDonald's new product "Fragrant Coriander New Land".
As the new terrier king, coriander crossover has now become the traffic password of almost all food brands, from the coriander latte and coriander Oulei (milk tea) of Weixiang Coffee, to the coriander yogurt launched by Anmuxi, the coriander lemon tea of tea to save the planet, the coriander mille-feuille of Jufu, and the coriander lollipop of Laifen... Coriander has been associated with countless delicacies.
Fragrant coriander new land
As one of the most controversial condiments in the food industry, people who like coriander and those who don't like coriander present two extreme states, with those who like it and those who don't like it abandon it, "as if they have a strong soapy smell".
But it is precisely because of such controversy, coriander ice cream once sold, "male and female tear coriander ice cream" "coriander ice cream how top" and other topics quickly rushed to Weibo hot search, as of February 22, "coriander ice cream" WeChat index increased by 580% month-on-month, "coriander Xindi" the term in the Baidu index of the popularity of the straight rise, there is no doubt that McDonald's marketing once again successfully broke the circle.
WeChat Index
But a very interesting phenomenon is that most of the netizens who have eaten it have successively said that the taste of this ice cream coriander is not strong, "just a thin layer of dried coriander is laid on the top, and the overall taste is more of a lime base", which also makes many people call "deceived"!
So, what kind of chess game has McDonald's, which seems to be insufficient in sincerity?
Brands that prefer dark cuisine?
Counting the dark dishes created by brands, coriander ice cream is not the only one.
For example, McDonald's has previously launched a large plate of chicken wheat spicy chicken leg burger, snail powder burger, large ball burger; KFC has also launched a spicy pot chicken leg double-layer fort, salted egg yolk meat crisp; Coca-Cola's most criticized cherry blossom flavor Coke, etc., similar to spicy hot pot cake, herring cake, and Deyun Society cross-talk in the smoking and drinking hot head, large intestine stabbing and so on.
This kind of seemingly illogical and even somewhat funny food type, in fact, behind the brand's deliberate means of operation, take coriander ice cream, we can find the following characteristics:
Sophisticated choice of symbols
As mentioned earlier, although it is given the name of coriander, the taste of the ice cream itself has little to do with coriander. In this way, similar coriander, oil spicy seeds, snail powder are only a symbol, the most important thing is the symbol itself, or whether the new products matched with this symbol are topical, which is the preference of the majority of brands to choose symbols, and it is also the key to arousing the curiosity of users.
Snail powder burger
Coriander and snail powder, just like tofu brain should eat salty or sweet, the controversy over them on the Internet has never stopped, and then let them be paired with ice cream, burgers, which have long been fixed in the public perception of food, can give consumers a strong visual and cognitive stimulation, and finally achieve 1+1>2 communication effect.
And the controversy is often accompanied by the topic and heat, the public for coriander controversy is not the right or wrong, just the difference between physiology and hobbies, so the controversy no matter how fermented, will not bring negative effects to the brand, the more controversy The higher the topic heat, people in the expression of their own views at the same time, subtly accepted the mcDonald's brand effect implantation, which makes the brand successfully seize the consumer's time.
Accurately grasp the core users
For brands, precision, vertical traffic and fans are priceless. A survey shows that McDonald's main audience is between 18 and 24 years old, with the rise of Internet culture, this part of the user's curiosity is stronger, but also more willing to accept and try more novel things.
Using the combination of coriander + ice cream, McDonald's has well reached its core fan group, and this part of the fans is not only the main force of consumption, but also the main group of accepting and disseminating topics, under their efforts, "coriander ice cream" has also achieved rapid circle breaking.
The private domain drives the public domain and realizes the traffic closed loop
Nowadays, the private domain has become the main position of brand marketing, and how to do a good job in the private domain has also become the main threshold for the next round of internal rolls of various brands.
Behind the coriander ice cream is a "creative menu" specially created by McDonald's for members, each food on the menu is made of novel ingredients, and McDonald's will launch an innovative dish on the designated date of the month and sometimes return to the products with high online demand to meet the taste needs of some members.
Creative menu
It seems that this is a special means of operation for members, but under the premise of low cost of membership and extreme attention to members, the chuangyi menu has not only become a carrier for core members to maintain freshness and reduce the loss of members, but also allows the majority of non-member groups to feel that McDonald's can reduce the brand discourse power and take the initiative to meet the sincerity of consumer needs, so as to spontaneously become a member, through uninterrupted change, once again expand mcDonald's brand volume, and achieve traffic closed loop.
It's a common phenomenon that many big brands are still happily launching products like "creative menus", each of which is challenging the limits of diners' imagination. But even knowing that these new products may overturn, consumers will still be unable to suppress their curiosity to try.
For a big brand like McDonald's, sales are just a giveaway to this novelty, and whether the food on the menu is a surprise or a surprise to the consumer, it is a win-win situation for him.
Just a traffic game
On February 24, World Hate Coriander Day, and on February 25, the McDonald's Cilantro Ice Cream Sale Ends. Coriander marketing began and ended quickly, and this technique of not letting "special" become the norm also increased consumers' expectations for McDonald's next new product in disguise.
What we can expect is that marketing methods like "dark cuisine" will become more and more frequent in the future, after all, the traffic games of big brands will naturally attract many small and medium-sized brands that want to share a piece of the pie.
So, for small and medium-sized brands, can this marketing method be copied?
OK. However, due to the differences in brand history, volume, etc., imitating such marketing methods will also become a double-edged sword hanging over the heads of small and medium-sized brands.
Because big brands have formed a strong fixed cognition in the minds of consumers, and each new product is only an additional topic in the product system of big brands, whether it is overturned or not, it will not have an excessive impact on the brand image of the brand itself.
But for small and medium-sized brands, in the initial or development stage, consumers do not have a strong understanding of the brand, and even do not know what the brand has a core product, if you rush to launch a novel food at this time, it will directly change the first impression of consumers on the brand, if the new product overturned, then it is likely to directly affect the consumer's willingness to consume secondary, serious and even lead to the loss of the market.
The second is the control of traffic, the big brands themselves have a lot of traffic, and the traffic they want to absorb when they launch such dishes is only the icing on the cake. For small and medium-sized brands, although through such a method can quickly attract traffic, but how to retain traffic is the real problem, and this is limited by product quality, user reputation and a series of uncertain factors, if one of the factors is not passed, it is likely to cause traffic to regurgitate, and ultimately squeeze the brand's future development space.
The influx of huge traffic in a short period of time is a very extreme test for the brand, and it can even be called a big gamble, and the win is growing rapidly, and the loss may be stagnant.
In this traffic game, brands still need to find their own positioning, take short-term traffic and hot money as a test, and step on their own rhythm in order to have a healthier and more sustainable vitality.