Why not market during the business saturation period?

In the eyes of many people, the epidemic prevention and control period is not a good time for marketing: first of all, at this very sensitive stage, every move of an enterprise will be magnified, and a little carelessness will damage its image; Secondly, most people cut back on going out and spending, and the demand for non-essential goods is gradually declining; Finally, many enterprises began to cut costs, and marketing expenses, as an important part of costs, were the first to cut costs.

Some people may ask: before the epidemic is over, will enterprises really not do marketing for a day? The answer is different.

Philip kotler mentioned in Marketing Revolution 3.0: Nowadays, consumers are paying more and more attention to their inner anxiety. In the chaotic and noisy business world, they try to find enterprises with a sense of mission, vision planning and values, hoping that these enterprises can meet their deep inner needs for social, economic and situational issues. Many enterprises are also looking for the balance point of communication in a special period-should they do marketing? When should I do marketing? How to do marketing? But in any case, all the choices are for the better survival of the enterprise.

Recently, we also discussed this issue with readers and fans. First of all, I will give you some important ideas and talk about the advantages and disadvantages of several common methods.

Panic marketing, find the right direction first.

Creating and solving panic is a very common marketing technique, such as Kangshifu Sour Plum Soup, which first creates the panic of "eating hot pot is oily and spicy" and then solves it with "drinking Sour Plum Soup". There is also a well-known advertisement for bright nails. They also create a panic of "getting onychomycosis, both of them are infected", and then solve it with the plan of "using bright nails immediately"

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Although every consumer has different psychological demands, such as the elderly want to live a long and healthy life, women want to be young and beautiful, and young people are afraid of loneliness, these psychological weaknesses are often the direction of manufacturing and marketing. But during the epidemic, this seemingly clear direction often has the opposite effect.

From the shortage of Radix Isatidis and vinegar to the looting of Shuanghuanglian oral liquid some time ago, more and more health care products and daily chemical enterprises began to use novel coronavirus's concept to sell medicines, health care products and hand sanitizers ... Especially the copywriting in WeChat business, as long as the names of Academician Zhong Nanshan and Academician Li Lanjuan are hanged, many consumers will believe it. What I need to emphasize is that this marketing method is absolutely unacceptable-it is not so much to create panic as to spread rumors and deceive the public, which has an immeasurable impact on enterprises and products. As I said just now, the enterprises that consumers are looking for are enterprises with a sense of mission, vision planning and values, which are essentially different from most WeChat businesses.

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The picture comes from the official account of Dr. WeChat @ Lilac

About the correct way of panic marketing, Meituan, KFC and other enterprises have made correct demonstrations. The non-contact delivery we talked about some time ago also caused the panic that "take-out may get sick", and then we used the "non-contact" scheme to contact the panic. Only by finding the right direction can panic marketing achieve the expected results.

Public welfare marketing helps the brand to establish its image.

There are also many brands that establish a good corporate image through some public welfare activities. During the Spring Festival, many platforms launched public welfare projects about "Refueling in Wuhan", and news of corporate and individual donations emerged one after another. As marketers, we know that effective public welfare communication is not a simple donation, nor is it for grandstanding and touching consumers. It is to let the audience feel the brand's attention to events and its efforts to solve problems.

Alibaba announced the establishment of a special fund for the supply of 654.38 billion medical materials, directly purchasing medical materials from home and abroad and sending them to hospitals in Wuhan and Hubei. 1688 also negotiated with 58 factories to urgently resume the production of medical materials.

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Huawei provides technical support for the full coverage of the 5G network in Vulcan Mountain and Raytheon Mountain, and Huawei Medical provides remote command, remote consultation, remote surgery and data transmission.

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Didi set up a "medical security convoy" to provide free shuttle service for medical staff in designated hospitals. At present, it has been promoted in Wuhan, Shanghai, Beijing and other places, and all the expenses are borne by Didi.

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William bernbach, a representative of the advertising literature school and a pioneer of advertising creativity, once said that public service advertising needs creativity and gives it "spirit and life". The source of this life comes from the real needs of people in need. Whether during the epidemic or other public welfare projects, more and more consumers have their own judgments on public welfare, and only by paying sincerely can they get the true feelings.

Network celebrity marketing, reaching the target audience deeply.

It must be said that the influence of online celebrities has gone beyond our cognitive scope-"Lipstick Brother" Li Jiaqi has captured thousands of girls in the beauty industry, and food blogger Li Zikai has accumulated nearly 3 billion recipes, which is known as "Oriental food lifestyle". Aauto's faster red Simba's live broadcast in South Korea set a new record for live sales and became a veritable "king of goods". ...

In addition to these online celebrities, online celebrities all over the network also have their own voices in a certain field. Compared with one-way official advertisements, their existence is easier to shorten the path between brands and audiences. Tarde, a French sociologist, once mentioned three laws of imitation in his book The Law of Imitation, namely, the law of decreasing rate, the law of geometric series and the law of first inside and then outside. These laws are also very similar to the internal logic of online celebrity marketing.

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Moreover, the seemingly rational behavior of making a purchase decision through the evaluation and recommendation of others is often dominated by emotions. During the epidemic, many people were forced to stay at home, which reduced the opportunity to go out for entertainment. Many people began to pass the time by watching live broadcasts and browsing social software. There is a natural affinity between fans and online celebrities. This kind of good mood not only helps consumers to make direct purchase decisions, but also helps niche products to get better increments.

In addition to cooperating with existing online celebrities, brands can also consider incubating more professional sales of "online celebrities" themselves (in fact, many brands are already doing this). In the traditional sales path, consumers often feel very passive and unsafe. Only by changing the mode of communication can we completely dispel this panic and give consumers a sense of security. Making good use of private domain traffic and realizing online promotion is also a "good prescription".

Warm marketing and establish long-term emotional connection

It is easy to ignore the present situation of intergenerational communication when we are doing Spring Festival marketing. Spring Festival is a time for family reunion, but more and more young people are reluctant to go home because of misunderstanding, marriage promotion, generation gap and other issues, preferring to travel and work overtime to avoid communicating with their parents. However, the sudden epidemic will keep generations who usually lack communication together and help them break the deadlock, or it will become an important breakthrough in marketing.

Among many communication activities, the micro-film Thirty of Tencent Chess is very suitable. In the short film, Beipiao's son, who is doing a live webcast, tells his father that he works in a foreign company, and the lie is inadvertently punctured, which also drops the relationship between father and son to freezing point.

Twelve o'clock in the afternoon

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Do enterprises still need to do marketing in extraordinary times?

The father wants his son to have a formal and decent job, and selling lipstick live is his son's self-pursuit. This is not so much a question of "choosing a job" as a question of the concept and cognition of two generations. It is estimated that a similar situation will occur in every family. Facing these problems, the best way is not to escape, but to face and change. In the short film, a game of 2V2 fighting landlords is the starting point for father and son to communicate.

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The film mentioned, "generation after generation, I don't forget how to communicate, I just don't know how to start." We might as well consider whether our products can be used as a lubricant for intergenerational communication-for example, food brands and cookbook apps can hold topics such as cooking for parents, and live social apps can consider family challenges and so on.

Write at the end:

The epidemic situation is a crisis for the whole market, and it also tests the response ability and contingency level of enterprises. We need to find new insights and polish more timely activities in combination with the current situation. If you really can't find any breakthrough in such an environment, you might as well practice your internal strength and actively reserve energy for the recovery of the market.

We must always believe that marketing is not selling goods, but discovering and satisfying unmet needs. Consumers will have lasting trust in the brand and give higher returns because of marketing activities. Good marketing is not only for yourself, but also for the whole society.