(Author: Cang Shi 20 10 September 20th)
According to relevant industry data, by the end of 2009, the annual consumption of household paper in China was about 4.2 million tons, and the per capita consumption exceeded 3kg. In the next few years, the average annual growth rate will still be around 8%, and it is estimated that the consumption will reach about 4.5 million tons in 20 10.
According to Ogut's brand marketing consulting experts, due to the fierce competition of roll paper at present, the profit margin of roll paper is also very low, and the product structure of brand manufacturers has basically adjusted the proportion of facial tissue and handkerchief paper. For example, 80% of Hengan's sales mainly come from facial tissues and handkerchief products. Based on the research of East China market, Ogut conducted a comprehensive survey in early 20 10, and visited 20 large and medium-sized cities in northwest, north and northeast China 12 provinces and cities. More than 10 national and local KA, supermarket chains and county wholesale markets. Conduct in-depth interviews with dealers of different brands to obtain the latest market information and sales data.
With the improvement of consumers' living standards and the change of usage habits, the consumption proportion of facial tissue and handkerchief paper has also increased year by year. At present, the total amount of tissue paper and handkerchief paper in China accounts for about 30% of the whole household paper market, which is still far from the global proportion of 46%, which also shows that the growth of tissue paper and handkerchief paper still has great potential.
Oget International (Shanghai) brand consulting agency believes that:
First, the in-depth research and development of products must be guided by the core values of brands.
Product development is of course important. In the short term, perhaps a new selling point of a product can quickly increase sales, but product research and development and brand promotion are two concepts. Being a product does not mean being a brand. Only by focusing on the core value of the brand, meeting the needs of consumers, taking the market as the guide and developing new products under the guidance of the brand can the brand value be enhanced. Product development that violates this principle is bound to break away from the degree of association with the brand, and of course it will not bring value enhancement to the brand.
The birth of a brand is bound to be accompanied by the birth of a product. The rational value of brand needs the support of product functional characteristics, and the perceptual value needs the visualization of product packaging and advertising language. The product is an important carrier of the brand, so the core positioning of the brand must be clear when the product is deeply developed.
If brand creation and product marketing can cooperate effectively, brand influence can be enhanced in the process of successful promotion, and the difficulty and cost of product promotion can be minimized after brand development and upgrading. On the contrary, it wastes the marketing resources of enterprises.
In other words, brand equity creation and product marketing are complementary and closely linked. Therefore, Ogut experts suggest that enterprises should be good at grasping the different stages of brand equity creation and use product development and promotion to enhance brand value.
Second, the concept of brand equity and product level.
(A) the concept of brand equity
Brand equity refers to the unique image of the brand in the eyes of customers for a long time. Brand equity can be divided into shallow brand equity and deep brand equity according to the difficulty of its establishment and whether it can be quickly surpassed. Shallow brand equity generally refers to brand awareness and quality recognition, while deep brand equity refers to rich brand association, brand reputation and brand loyalty.
(B) product hierarchy theory:
From the perspective of product theory, there are three levels of division and five levels of division, which are almost the same. It is divided into three levels: one is the basic level, which is the main use of the product. For example, the basic level of facial tissue is to wipe the face; The second is the physical product level, which is divided into quality, function, technology and packaging. The third is the additional level, that is, the additional use of the product, the service provided by the product, and the emotional requirements that the product meets.
Third, in different stages of brand equity creation, product development should cooperate with different strategies.
Generally speaking, in the initial stage of brand creation, products should be used to drive the development of brands. At this time, we should focus on promoting products, and at the same time, promote brand influence (usually to form brand awareness and quality recognition). When consumers have a good recognition of the brand and the brand has shallow assets, it is necessary to continuously enhance the brand connotation, form the brand's role in promoting product promotion, and continuously enhance the brand's deep assets, thus paving the way for launching more successful new products.
(A) brand shallow asset creation period, with products to promote the rapid development of the brand.
Everything needs a process, and consumers' cognition, acceptance and recognition of new brands also need a process of continuous experience, satisfaction and recognition. For a new brand, consumers must first recognize its products, and then accept the construction of brand connotation on the basis of product cognition.
In the initial stage of brand, product marketing is the key to brand development. Judging from the history of many successful brands, every brand has a successful product at the beginning, and the success of product promotion can enhance the overall influence of the brand.
Such as soulmate, Qingfeng, Nipiao and Vida, they all established their own product brands through the success of a particular product, and then achieved their own corporate brands through the success of several product brands. Imagine that if these brands only focused on a single product at the beginning of their establishment, instead of focusing on product brands or even considering corporate brands, can they become the best in their respective industries today? Therefore, the brand should consciously plan the brand in the early stage, and then scientifically position the product, which can not only meet the needs of consumers, but also ensure that the product positioning can reflect or upgrade to the core value of the brand in the future.
When promoting, focus resources on product positioning, and the promotion of brand connotation is only subsidiary (if the 20/80 principle is used, 80% of resources are concentrated on product promotion and 20% on brand promotion). This operation can ensure that after the product is successful in the market, it will naturally bring out the brand core, personality and other connotations. Even if the brand personality or connotation that consumers need is not reflected in the product positioning, it can be effectively promoted on the basis of product positioning after the product popularity and recognition reach a certain level, so as to deepen the core differences of brands in consumers' hearts with the help of the successful promotion of old products and new products.
To coordinate the relationship between brand and product in the initial stage of brand, it should be noted that product positioning and the direction of brand core differences should be highly consistent.
(b) The stage of creating deep brand assets and upgrading and activating brands through product innovation.
When the brand establishes cognition in consumers' minds and owns shallow brand assets, it will inevitably build deep brand assets.
Then at this time, it is necessary to upgrade the brand connotation, upgrade the brand connotation that originally stayed at the rational level to the perceptual level, and let the new brand connotation contain more products, laying the foundation for the marketing of new products.
Many people may think that the sales of high-end imaging products may not even reach 20%. What is the value of spending so much effort to develop and popularize them? This view is very common in China, which is also an important reason why many domestic household paper brands lack competitiveness and have short life. This is also an important reason why many enterprises in China are caught in the price war and are dying in the Red Sea. Jack Trout, a master of brand positioning, believes that marketing is not a product battle, but a cognitive battle! The significance of product innovation is not how much sales you can achieve with this innovative product, but whether you can improve the overall reputation of the brand, improve consumers' good cognition of the brand and improve the overall sales and market share of the brand through the innovation and promotion of this product. For example, the soul mate passed the "soft, comfortable and in a good mood" for the first time! Our emotional marketing has won the hearts of consumers, and brand positioning revolves around consumers' emotional needs. After the success of the product, we lost no time in developing new products such as Jimmy and Tea Language, which enhanced our brand image and achieved good results. But in the development of soft leather series, ice mint series and other products, the demand has returned to the functional level. Due to the lack of main products, it has neither increased sales nor achieved the effect of enhancing the brand power of mutual affinity.
Similarly, Qingfeng's super-textured products have enhanced the brand's image as an expert in tissue paper, and the development of Vida sports products has also deepened the image of "health and vitality" in consumers' hearts. Jierou has improved the image of its high-end brand through the development of "face" products.
At this stage, the brand will continue to launch its new products, especially the household paper brand which belongs to fast-moving consumer goods. The continuous success of new products in the market can not only make enterprises gain profits, but also enhance brand image and increase brand vitality.
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