Recently,a popular Chinese variety show “Sister Riding the Wind and Waves” has been widely welcomed and discussed by netizens and fans in China. In addition to the exquisite production of Mango TV station itself, the outstanding topic of 30+ sisters becoming a girl group debut, the blessing of millions of clicks on copywriting, and the charm of more than 30 celebrity sisters who are 30+ years old have made them popular in the Chinese girl group market stand up, usually the age of the Chinese women’s team is around 20 years old. Each issue attracted more brand sponsorship than the previous issue.

A few days ago, I saw a question on Zhihu that why do you have no feelings for Lan Yingying in “Sister Riding the Wind and Waves”? .The answers that won the high praise are very interesting.One is that because she is boring and not suspenseful. One is that Because she will not do anything that makes people feel ‘A’ or ‘good rustle’. Because she is like a good student.

This attitude is very similar to the good guy cards we issued to most brands. You work hard, you are good, but I just have no feelings for you!

What brands and things do users like? Take a look at the following brands, you can give the answer based on the first reaction.

• Microsoft vs Apple
• Ford car vs Tesla

Our choices have the same probability. The so-called insensible things have their own shortcomings, and brands with their own magic have similarities. What did brands do right?

For differentiation, traffic is not a matter

Why did the 30+ sisters in “Sister Riding the Wind and Waves” so popular in China?The sisters have a common characteristic, that is, they stand on the opposite side of traditional Chinese values. For example, no fear of age VS girlishness; frankness VS gracefulness, ambition VS Madonna’s heart, boldness vs virtuous well-behaved, high IQ VS foolishness and so on.

Recall that when Apple first emerged, it also had a clear stand, that is, either support us and join the closed ios ecosystem, or oppose us and choose other.

The essence of differentiation means confrontation. Because of the strong cognitive contrast, it can help users make quick decisions.

Another example is the rapid rise of Chinese domestic brands in recent years. Do they rely solely on private domain traffic and e-commerce live broadcasts? Did they just catch the wave of consumption upgrades?

This wave of “consumption upgrades” has been around for 6 to 7 years. After buying all over the world, after comparing all over the world, consumers no longer rely on the price to judge whether things are good or bad. Simply put, consumers understand the product better. To gain recognition, it is necessary to clearly show differentiated propositions and drive people to make choices.

Out of the principle of consistency, when a person acts, he will persuade himself to agree more with his mentality. Not only will they enthusiastically praise its advantages, but they will also turn its disadvantages into a feature.

For example, they may think that going to the Sam’s Club in the suburbs is not a trouble, but a surprise exploration. Harley’s noise is not harsh, but wild and passionate. Choosing China’s “Perfect Diary” mask is not because it is cheap, but because it is the light of high-quality domestic products.

Choosing the camp to activate the emotions and repeat the choices, this is the three steps to develop a brand fan.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun once said that Xiaomi probably has more than 100,000 fans, but they helped me sell more than 10 million mobile phones. In comparison, traffic is a fart.

What should the brand do if the products are not differentiated?

An important method is to find answers from cultural trends and changes in consumer structure. Basically, behind every “no”, there are meaningful social issues hidden.

A very important way to build brand identity is as follows:

The first step is to find the enemy behind each “no”. For example, unreasonable but long-standing social regulations, unfair, irrational prejudice and other phenomena. They may come from cultural customs, Internet public opinion, from users’ acquaintances, such as elders, neighbors, classmates, and sometimes even from their closest family members and partners. Complicated external environments such as unfair competition will also make consumers increasingly sensitive to brand political stances, making domestic brands such as Huawei and Li Ning more attractive.

The second step is to help consumers express their opinions and gain recognition and support for the inconvenient or unexpressible needs of consumers. Consumers have all kinds of inconvenience or unexpressible aspirations. At this time, if there is a brand to help them speak, it will easily resonate. Consumers also have some inconveniences and discomforts that they did not realize. Brands hit the pain points that a large number of consumers are blind to, and it is also a signal flare to help brands discover opportunities.

Here is an example:

Using the above methods, we might as well consider a question that why hasn’t a successful entry into the elderly mobile phone brand in an aging China?

There are many Chinese mobile phone brands, and there are even explosive mobile phones specially developed for countries such as Africa. But why has there never been a successful old mobile phone? Is this because the consumption power of the silver-haired group is too low? Or would their children not want to buy high-priced mobile phones for their parents? It seems neither.

When you search on Taobao, you will find that a large number of elderly phones are cheap phones with only basic call functions. Merchants believe that as long as the functions such as Internet access are castrated, the sound and fonts are increased.

In essence, they treat the elderly as rubbish. But in fact, the elderly also have a strong desire to keep pace with this society. After discovering this unreasonable routine, writing copy becomes very simple.

1) You can directly challenge unreasonable routines

2) Point out that the operating system is not friendly to the elderly

3) Help them express what they are inconvenient to say

Compared with the rapid social and economic development, the cultural system is slow to update. Under the misplaced pace, a lot of conflicting values have arisen. Such as women should have children. Polytechnic men with a slightly lower aesthetic have “straight male cancer.” The aunt is either pulling the silk scarf or dancing the square dance… All the above stereotypes are torn, and Domatters calls them the fracture zone of value.

“All consumer products are worth redoing.” On the value fracture zone, all social issues are worth subverting again. Maintaining keen insight is the daily homework of every brand marketer.

Why do some sensual copywriting roll over?

Once, Alipay’s copywriting was overwhelmed.

The ad copy of a real estate in China was overturned because it was too mundane: “The distance between you and your mother-in-law is only one house. You can only call her aunt if you don’t buy a house.”

Victoria’s Secret uses a textbook failure to mark the point of the rollover. “No girl has the confidence to wear the sexy of a supermodel superstar.” So every time Victoria Secret appears, it is a dimensionality reduction blow to women. So upset! What to do? Faced with brand copywriting such as Alipay and Victoria’s Secret, consumers will resist them.

Overturned brands have greatly reduced consumers’ “sense of power”, and when self-esteem and self-confidence are hit hard, they don’t give the antidote. Therefore, the brand with a sense must stand on the side of consumers and help them gain a positive sense of control and self-efficacy. How to do it? There are two ways.

1) The first one is to help consumers realize their ideal self

If a thin boy wants to be MAN like Dashi Johnson, he can work hard, or spray cologne, grow a beard, etc. The first fitness method may be effective but very slow. In the second method, he does not have a muscle, but he will reap the pleasure of instant gratification and approach a more manly ideal self.

More importantly, the sense of accomplishment he experienced was no different from truly reaching the goal. This phenomenon is called “symbolic self-actualization” in psychology.

Similarly, a person who is caught in knowledge anxiety may buy a lot of books and pile them there. When he did the act of buying a book, he had achieved symbolic self-realization and felt that he had improved again.

2) The second one is to enhance self-efficacy

Facing the most difficult graduation season in history in 2020, Tmall launched the “I am a white shirt” brand campaign to help graduates rekindle their confidence and gain a sense of self-efficacy that “I can complete tasks and achieve goals”. This wave of propaganda has won numerous praises from taps.

3) Help consumers regain self-esteem and rebuild confidence

Today, the global economic growth is slowing down, most people lack confidence in the future, tightening their wallets and tightening consumption has become the mainstream. In this situation, helping consumers regain their self-esteem and rebuild confidence will become one of the breaking points for brand marketing.

Brands with a sense of touch must have excellent performance, but only with easy-to-use, cost-effective, convenient and easy-to-use performance, the brand cannot be magical. Adrian Slevorski once used a formula to clearly state: M=F×E (brand magic M=excellent function F × powerful emotional appeal).

There are more than three powerful emotional appeals. Due to space limitations, this article only discusses the more applicable universal path at the moment:

1) Create a sense of subversiveness and present differentiation with contrast and contrast

On the Volkswagen circuit, the brand must be as distinctive as a tattoo, focusing on the core and driving people to make choices.

2) Stimulate a sense of identity, help consumers express themselves and win social recognition.

On the value fault zone, all unreasonable social issues are worth redefining.

3) Empower them to control and help them realize their ideal self.

During the post-epidemic period, it is vital to help consumers improve their self-esteem and confidence, and gain a sense of control and satisfaction.