Why are we still willing to go to JD.com to place orders when there are so many electronic product websites? Why are we still willing to go to IKEA or Macalline when there are so many home furnishing stores? Why are we still willing to go to BESTORE or Three Squirrels when there are so many snack stores?
JD.com, IKEA and Three Squirrels have become the category owners of their respective categories. When a customer makes a purchase choice for a specific category, they are the first thing that comes to mind.
Similarly, when we think of freshly stewed bird's nest, the first thing that comes to mind is Xiaoxian Stew or Swallow's House, when we want to buy braised chicken feet, we first think of Wang Xiaolu, when we think of natural water, Nongfu Mountain, and when we think of sauerkraut fish, we think of Taier.
Xiaoxian Stew, Wang Xiaolu and Nongfu Spring, these brands have become the category owners of their respective categories.
Once you become a category owner, you can enjoy unlimited benefits. For example, Jingdong, countless home appliance brands want to settle here and pay him entry fees and traffic fees. For example, Taier sauerkraut fish, many shopping malls want to reduce or reduce rent or even subsidize decoration for its entry.
I guess you have also found that the category owners represented by JD.com and the category owners represented by Taier seem to be a little different. The former we call the channel category, and the latter is the product category. The relationship between the two is a relationship of mutual game and symbiotic coexistence.
In the start-up period, the channel category will support the product category on its own platform to give birth to the category owner, because this will bring traffic to the channel category. Mature channel categories will limit the birth of product category owners, because that means that they bring their own traffic, so they don't need to buy traffic from themselves.
But in any case, becoming the category owner of their respective categories is a strategic focus for all brands to think about. Here are 7 ways to help you become a brand with your own traffic.
Pay attention to categories
Paying attention to categories means thinking about your strategy from the category first.
Last week, when I chatted with Huo Jiajie and Wang Bo of Dongji Positioning, I talked about the case of Feihe milk powder. Huo Jiajie said, "more suitable for Chinese babies" The effectiveness of this positioning, one way to test is to put aside the brand potential energy to look at the category:
If the potential energy of the Feihe brand is the same as that of foreign-funded milk powder, then "more suitable" is particularly convincing. However, because the potential energy of domestic brands is not enough, many people will feel that this positioning is not strong enough.
The conclusion is that if the brand potential energy is put aside to see that the category potential energy really exists, then the next work is to continue to strengthen the brand potential energy.
Category is the power behind a brand. But most people don't pay attention to the category, and one of the most obvious manifestations is that the brand name is greater than the category name in the product promotion.
For example, this catering brand: Xiaocaiyuan Anhui Cuisine, the brand name is far greater than the category name. In the minds of entrepreneurs, the brand name is more important, which is a kind of internal thinking. Customers prefer the category, then the brand. Since customers think about things this way, the category name should be as big as the brand name.
Some people say, "Is this what KFC McDonald's and Haidilao do?" They don't enlarge the category name, don't they do a good job?
This is KFC's first store in China, and it is clearly written in large letters: American fast food, KFC hometown chicken.
This is McDonald's first store in the United States, and it is very clear about its own category: burgers. Even the category name is bigger than the brand name.
Haidilao did remove its own category name. We believe this is a mistake and a sign that brands have been misled by consulting firms. Haidilao itself has fallen into internal thinking, thinking that all customers know what they do. Let's imagine what a young man in a small town would think when he first came to the city and saw this door, and did it look like a KTV.
Haidilao is not always so stupid, for example, the category name is clearly written in the store that opened in Japan.
Name the category
A category is a classification of things in a customer's perception. The key word here is the classification in customer perception, not the classification within the industry.
Many brands like to use their own technical terms to name their categories, which is a sign of falling into internal thinking. For example, white electricity experts, mood drinks, health tiles, sports leather shoes, healthy spicy strips, weight loss toothpaste, etc. are all wrong category names.
For example, liquid-cooled electric vehicles are the wrong category name, and customers can't understand what liquid-cooled is. Sneakers can be understood by customers, but no one will wear leather shoes when exercising, which is also the wrong category naming.
Another well-known misnamed village is Xibei Noodle Village. Except for the people of the Northwest, few others know about this category.
What is a correct category name? First of all, customers can understand, and the customers here refer to general customers, or social customers, not to expert customers who are very familiar with you. You have to have the ability to abstract everyone into one person, and define your own category from the perspective of this level of customers.
The first is to treat everyone as a person and define the category from the underlying logic of the mind. Then start from the abstract concept and find a potential origin group to promote the brand.
Create a category
Generally speaking, the categories you are optimistic about are already occupied. For example, in the cola category, the category owner is Coca-Cola. In the category of pure water, the main category is Cestbon. In the bird's nest category, the main category is the house of swallows. In the hot pot category, the main category is Haidilao.
At this time, the category word "coke" is difficult to be occupied by latecomers. At this time, the way is to create a category, for example, Wang Lao Guitar actually created the category of anti-fire cola. For example, Nongfu Spring pioneered the category of natural water. Small Fresh Stew is a category that has created a category of freshly stewed bird's nest in the bird's nest category.
What we appreciate more is the model of Jianyi, which is not to subdivide in the original category, but to re-switch the track from the ceramic tile category to the marble category.
This brand philosophy, we think, is a combination of Mike Porter's competitive strategy, Drucker's thinking, and positioning theory. Porter mentions that competitors can also come from outside the category, and positioning theory mentions that competitors are defined in terms of customer perceptions.
Drucker often asks entrepreneurs the question: what are the customers really buying.
In the category of marble tiles to create. The first question to ask is: what is the customer really buying? Is the customer buying tiles or marble? No, the customer is buying the floor decoration plan. This scheme can be tiles, marble, or something else.
Start with Drucker-esque thinking and think about what the customer is buying. Then, starting from the positioning theory, think about which categories customers are choosing, and then refer to Porter's inspiration to think about what competitors and opportunities there are in addition to the ceramic tile category.
So, when you don't know how to do it, you might as well go back to the beginning. Ask yourself a Drucker-esque question: What are customers really buying?
For example, Stanley, a thermos mug brand, has repositioned the category as a fashion item.
The greatest value that consulting companies can give to enterprises is to determine which category has the most opportunities. For example, Langjiu Group once thought that the biggest opportunity was in the strong flavor liquor, and invested huge resources in the Honghualang brand, but with the help of a consulting company, it found that the biggest opportunity was in the Qinghualang sauce liquor category.
Maybe the question of Langjiu Group is how to make a big fragrant red flower lang, but the answer given by the consulting company is to make a big sauce flavor type of blue and white lang.
Bighorn deer is a more conventional way to create a category, and it continues to subdivide the category created by Jian Yi to make wear-resistant marble tiles.
One of the hardest aspects of creating a category is focusing on the strongest features. First of all, you have to determine which feature is the strongest, and secondly, you have to discard the other non-core features.
For example, the smart meter air purifier focuses on one feature: removing PM2.5. The function of removing formaldehyde and odor is abandoned. Focusing on the strongest features can reduce manufacturing costs and achieve the best price/performance ratio. For example, the Xiaomi sweeper only sweeps the floor without mopping the floor, and does not install a camera.
For example, the boss large suction range hood focuses on the large suction. Abandon the characteristics of silence and power saving.
Evolve the category
Another brand that has created a very successful category is the Robam large suction range hood.
After Fotile Kitchen Appliances created high-end kitchen appliances that are more suitable for Chinese kitchens, Robam Appliances continues to create range hoods that are more suitable for Chinese kitchens along this category: high-suction range hoods.
After creating a category, what we need to continue to do is to continue to evolve the category. Continuously inject new potential energy into the category.
The boss large suction range hood is first of all focused on the category of range hood in kitchen appliances, and secondly, it focuses on large suction power in the three characteristics of silence, power saving and large suction. What's more, it clearly created and named a new category: high-suction range hoods.
The strategy of the boss's big suction is to discover the positioning, occupy the positioning, and make the positioning bigger. After discovering the positioning of the large suction range hood, it clearly defined the category and seized the cognition, becoming the representative brand of this category.
What's more important is to continue to evolve the category. After the boss focused on the large suction range hood, it continued to upgrade this category, and launched the 6th generation product and then launched the double-cavity large suction range hood. The brand proposition is also very clear: double cavity and double suction, 1 second tobacco control.
The boss's suction and continuous self-attack is the best defense. Accumulating technology and cognition in the category of large suction range hoods is the moat of the brand.
Differentiation of categories
Categories will continue to diverge.
The category of sports shoes is constantly divided into basketball shoes, football shoes, tennis shoes, running shoes, badminton shoes and so on. The category of social software is constantly divided into social software for strangers, social software for sexual minorities, social software for hobby groups, and so on.
The category of drinking water is constantly differentiated into pure water, mineral water, natural water, cool white water, mineral water and so on. The beverage category is constantly being divided into cola, sprite, orange juice, herbal tea, and so on. Even tea drinks are constantly differentiating into black tea, green tea, iced tea, oolong tea, and so on.
At first, baijiu only had a light fragrance and a strong fragrance, and later it was divided into categories such as sauce flavor, rice fragrance, and aroma. The first trick that small and medium-sized enterprises can learn from Moutai is to create a category of their own.
One of the most astonishing feats in the history of contemporary baijiu is that it has changed the criteria for evaluating the quality of baijiu for hundreds of years – from tasting taste to tasting aroma.
In the "Moutai Pilot" work in 1964, Moutai people discovered three typical types of Moutai, and then defined "sauce aroma" as the most fundamental feature of Moutai.
In 1979, at the 3rd National Wine Appraisal, China's liquor industry for the first time distinguished the major famous liquors by their aroma types, first proposing four major flavor types: sauce aroma, light fragrance, strong aroma and rice fragrance, and then gradually distinguishing them into 12 major flavor types. Since then, the liquor industry has entered the era of "one fragrance determines the world". ("The Legend of Moutai")
Another example of category differentiation is General Motors, which argues that the 1920's American auto market trend had changed: customers needed not fast transportation, but identity tags.
I speculate that this insight came from Drucker, who wrote "The Concept of the Company" on a research tour at General Motors. In "Effective Managers", it is said that when a customer buys a Cadillac, he is not buying transportation, but buying prestige.
Based on this insight, General Motors CEO Sloan divided its brands into: Cadillac, General Motors, Pontiac and Chevrolet. Each brand is sold to a different class and maintains a large price range with each other.
In fact, each brand represents a category.
Even in 1920, when Ford had a 42 percent market share, GM had only 11 percent of the market. GM insists that Ford's philosophy is out of date.
GM believes that in the new era, the car is no longer a simple means of transportation, but a prop that represents the identity, status and taste of consumers. Consumers still focus on functionality, but they also value appearance, design, comfort, and driving experience.
GM offers different brands for different classes of consumers: Cadillac, GM, Chevrolet, Pontiac. It turned out that GM's philosophy was right, and the times were on GM's side.
In 1927, GM surpassed Ford to become the number one auto industry in the United States. (General Knowledge of Brand Positioning)
Convergence categories
Al Rees himself is against category convergence, but we believe that convergence is also one of the ways to create categories.
Mr. Rees used the evolutionary theory as an example of the fact that the process of biological evolution is constantly differentiated, and so is the category of the business world, and he concluded that differentiation is the way to create categories. He and Jack Trout are both against Swiss Army knife products, arguing that products that combine multiple functions will ultimately fail.
The reason for our disagreement also comes from evolutionary theory. In the evolution of nature, many transitional species have emerged.
Land animals evolved from fish, but there was also an amphibian in the middle, which had the characteristics of both fish and land animals.
Fish characteristics: a small dorsal fin along the edge of the tail, a series of bony fins on the tail, a short snout, a pregill operculum on the cheeks, and many small scales on the body.
Amphibian characteristics: Typical early amphibians have limbs (each with 8 toes) and limb bands, no gills (this species is thought to breathe only with lungs) and powerful flippers with labyrinthine teeth.
In the business world, there are also many species that are integrated to create categories, such as extended-range new energy vehicles that integrate electric and fuel technology, such as music restaurants that integrate music live in restaurants, and smartphones that integrate touch screen technology, photography and music playback technology.
It is true that smartphones evolved from personal computers, but they have become what they are today by incorporating digital cameras (tablets) and telecommunications mobile phones.
For example, Haval Motors, he is the owner of the SUV category in the era of fuel vehicles, and he can also integrate new energy technology to be the owner of the SUV category in the new era. If the Haval brand can realize that category integration is also a way to create categories, it will not miss the opportunity of the era of new energy vehicles.
Expand the category
There are two directions for expanding categories, one is potential energy, and the other is the scene.
Taking Bosideng as an example, it can improve its potential energy by using aerospace technology, associating with luxury brands, international fashion catwalks, co-branding design masters, upgrading channel image, and so on.
The application of the Long March 5's aerospace temperature control materials to down jacket products has upgraded customers' perception of the brand a lot.
In terms of cold-proof technology, it is compared with Archaeopteryx and Canada Goose, so that customers feel that the cold-proof technology is more powerful, and at the same time, they also feel that Bosideng is a brand of the same level as Arc'teryx.
Frequent appearances in places like London and New York where fashion brands walk the catwalk are also effective tactics to enhance the brand's potential energy.
These methods are summarized in the "General Knowledge of Brand Positioning" as: Battles detonate people's hearts. At its core, it is based on the continuous shaping of high potential energy around customer feelings.
It is also easy to understand that to expand the scene is to expand the category market in the application of time and space.
For example, Red Bull first entered the market among long-distance train drivers, and its advertisement was that the car was going to be refueled, and I wanted to drink Red Bull. After gaining a foothold in this channel, I began to make big scenes, and added the scenes of overtime work in the office to replenish energy.
For example, Lulu Lemon was originally a professional yoga pants brand, but it will also incorporate daily wear scenes. The scene has become larger, and the sales have become higher.
In particular, we want to emphasize that it is easy to understand and easy to do in a big scene, but more importantly, it is important to create high potential energy. Expanding the scene can see the effect in the short term, while shaping potential energy requires long-term investment. The latter is often not taken seriously because it cannot be quantified and measured.
This also shows that branding is a long-term strategic behavior of the enterprise, and cannot be regarded as a promotional action or marketing action.
In a word:
Becoming a category owner with its own traffic is the ultimate goal of all brands. We've summarized 7 ways to become a category owner: focus on categories, name categories, create categories, evolve categories, differentiate categories, integrate categories, and expand categories.
First of all, you need to understand that behind the brand is the power of the category, and the category name is just as important as the brand name. Customers choose the category first, and then the brand, so whether it is the channel door, product packaging or brand poster, the category name must be placed in an important position.
Secondly, to create a category according to trend changes and the competitive environment, the core key is to find a strong enough feature, which corresponds to a painful enough pain point in the customer experience. After creating a category, we must continue to evolve and upgrade this category to lead the evolution of the category.
For small and medium-sized enterprises, it is enough to expand a category with a popular model. For large enterprises, it is also necessary to actively differentiate and integrate categories, and constantly shape new category owners. For example, General Motors has created four categories with four brands, and Coca-Cola, Mengniu, and Nongfu Spring also have many brands.