Branson Brand Marketing Knowledge

Original title: Http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/8890.html "> Brand extension will die Terminator and brand personification of the forerunners: Branson

By understanding his legendary life, we can also understand marketing.

In an earlier article, "brand personification marketing observation," I came up with an interesting question: Who is the best person to be a spokesperson for a brand? A lot of people think that please star endorsement is the first choice, the main problem is to choose a match with the brand temperament of the star, but also is the price problem.

There are also different opinions, such as Shi Yuzhu, in the "Shi Yuzhu: My marketing experience," wrote clearly, he thought, please the star endorsement is nothing more than spending money. The point is that the user is focused on the star rather than your product.

In fact, please do not ask the star in my opinion is not the key, the key or advertising itself.

You can't, as David Ol in "Confessions of an Advertiser," always want to create some "let people remember not to forget" the classic ads, whether highlighting the stars, or highlighting your talent, which has missed the "beginner"; it's like making a movie to get a prize rather than a good story; the pros and cons of an ad, It will eventually return to being able to serve the brand's implant or product sales.

Therefore, if the star endorsement does not help your brand, and the user to establish emotional value links, it can be said that the money is white flowers.

Today, the spokesperson for a brand meaning, in fact, has already exceeded the "advertising on the head" so simple. Today, spokesmen should not only be competent for traditional advertising, but also adapt to new media and media communication. Based on these, I think a competent spokesperson should meet the following two indicators:

1, whether it is the CEO, star or ordinary people, the spokesperson must be to your brand and business itself, have a lot of recognition and love.

2, he must have the ability (continuously) in your brand and user, establish emotional contact.

In the old media age, the most important method based on marketing may be TVC TV commercials, how much can a star be forgiven for? But in the new media era, from the point of view of social media, point-to-point transmission, and longer term values, no one is more likely than the CEO of the company to accord the two standards.

Many people may be very skeptical about this, or think that the CEO can not do the spokesperson, then we look at the story of the British legend Branson:

Branson (Richard Branson) is the founder of Virgin Brand, a legendary billionaire, rebellious, bold, High-profile is his label.

Branson's 15-Year-old founder of the magazine, in the 1970s from a telephone booth size office from scratch, into the record industry, let the Rolling Stones, Janet and Collins became its singer, in the 80 's, Branson through Virgin Aviation success.

It's hard to think of anything that Branson hasn't done: He has been nude in his company's ads, himself driving a plane into Pao Baghdad to save the hostages, and he used tanks to crush Coca-Cola in New York Times Square to promote his own Virgin Cola. Richard Branson has never done anything that doesn't make anyone feel surprised.

Now, Branson's corporate kingdom has wide tentacles, Virgin brand owned Virgin Airlines, Virgin Records, Virgin Cola, Virgin Mobile phones and other companies, business across the air, clothing, soft drinks, games, telecommunications operations, financial services, records even including condoms and other industries, Branson has achieved a series of great commercial success.

Come to think of it, Branson's entrepreneurial style is indeed bold and rebellious, and contrary to common sense; "virgin" Brand in the field of marketing is very special, because generally speaking, a brand outward extension, the more easily by the consumer's perception of "diluted."

Marketing Master trout in the reorientation of the "mind will lose focus" of the discussion, he said:

"The loss of focus is entirely a result of brand extension, and companies look at their brands from an economic perspective, and they are willing to turn a highly focused brand into a brand with no focus, so that it represents a product or concept of a brand that represents two or more products." We should look at the issue of brand extension from the perspective of mind. The more Products a brand represents, the easier it is to lose focus ...

Some experts will tell you to build a broad brand, do not trust them, the result will only make a brand confusion. ”

Many companies follow the guidance of trout, when they enter a new market, they will choose a brand new, so as not to create a cognitive confusion with the original brand.

But Branson's approach is quite the opposite! His "virgin" brand extends wildly, doing things that look more than any other company on Earth! If there were only 1 jobs and 3-4 Elon Musk, Nablansen could have more than 10 or even dozens of!

Virgin's appearance let us have to reflect on whether the trout is wrong, or Branson "happened" success?

To figure this out, it's still time to go back to Branson's view of the "brand", where most companies pursue a product-based brand, and Branson has actually focused on the brand itself in a way that extends from a brand to a different product.

Branson, for example, is not blindly expanding, and he has struggled to think about what the Virgin brand means. In his view, any Virgin's new product or service must have the following attributes:

1, the best quality;

2, Creative;

3. High value of money;

4. Challenging existing alternatives;

5, can add a kind of fun or naughty feeling.

In other words, the product that meets these conditions will be created before he considers entering the field.

Branson once said: "If Virgin's name is used in any product that does not reach the brand, the reputation of the entire company will be greatly affected." So Branson stressed: "Take good care of your brand, it will be lasting." We can use our brand only if it meets or can meet the products and services that we set out to be strictly standard. ”

And more importantly, Virgin is strategically not equating a brand with a product or service, as they advertise it: "It's a lifelong relationship." "Such a definition will not limit the brand across multiple industries, on the contrary, each product extension will be the Virgin brand again" annotation.

It is valuable to think in depth on the last 2 of the 5 standards, especially the expression "challenging the existing alternatives", which is clearly not about the product, but about the Virgin brand's "relationship" with the user.

Brand definition as a lifelong relationship with the user, around the "relationship" rather than "product" to create a brand, this is Branson can carry out the first premise of brand extension.

The second important aspect, Branson, is likely to be what we can now discover, the first marketing pioneer to practice "brand personification".

Successful people are always the forerunners of the Times, in this respect, Branson put his personality traits: rebellious, full of creativity, like adventure, with a little cynical hip-hop, perfectly embedded in the Virgin brand, so as to achieve such an effect: Virgin is Branson, Branson, Virgin, So he naturally became the perfect spokesperson of his own brand.

So it's not so much Branson that created the Virgin brand, as far as Branson in the last century, it has successfully realized from the media to the successful practice from the commercial: brand definition as a lifelong relationship with the user, in fact, it also defines their own lifelong relationship with the user, do their best thing-self marketing, is a logical choice.

Branson's self marketing (or brand marketing) is colourful:

1. Very entertaining spirit

In establishing Virgin Airlines, Branson received a proposal from British aviation originator Freddie Laker: "Make sure your ads appear on the cover of a newspaper and magazine, and you have to sell yourself by all means, otherwise you won't survive in this industry." Branson sees this advice as one of the best advice he has ever had in his business career.

Earlier, Branson lost a bet so voluntarily shaved leg hair, incarnation stewardess, on the plane to provide passengers with services; Earlier, when Virgin Air announced the launch of new routes, Branson staged a wacky, bold, full of topics of astonishing action, dressed in a traditional Scottish red dress and active bright "skirt"! A similar shock-shattering move in Branson was one or two back.

Branson Entertainment Spirit, adhere to spoof themselves, entertainment, the "do not take themselves too seriously" positioning, in fact, is to reject the traditional "CEO reputation Management", it helps the Virgin brand to entertain the topic of the way, into the ordinary life of all Britons.

A journalist who asked Branson why he was so fond of show, replied, "I don't think it's too serious to be a person." Virgin now ranked one of the world's most respected five brands, it and fun to draw an equal sign, I think if you can make people laugh, even if they embarrass themselves, but also to the brand harmless. ”

2. Keen on adventure

Sometimes, Branson's behavior is far beyond the "show" to the extent! For example, he brokered the Gulf war between Britain and Iraq, and flew directly into Baghdad to take the hostages back. In 1986, his Virgin Atlantic Challenger, second, crossed the Atlantic at the fastest speed ever. A year later, the Virgin Atlantic Flyer became the first balloon to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, and in 1991 Branson drove a larger balloon from Japan across the Pacific to northern Canada, breaking all records. In 2004, he drove a James Bond-style amphibious vehicle across the English Channel within two hours, creating a new world record!

This kind of surprise, along with Branson's entertainment show's Move, let Virgin's brand to a very small cost to obtain a wide range of dissemination, and "anti-traditional, unconventional, eclectic" and other personality deeply branded in it, thus attracting "not the rules, fashion, rebel" loyal to the Virgin brand products and services.

3. What does writing bring?

If we think that Branson's personal marketing is limited to adventure and show, it will inevitably make our understanding of him only superficial. In fact, in Branson's personality tag, in addition to "businessman", "adventurer", "industry subversive" and "Hip hop capitalists", there is a very important identity: "writer."

Branson's energy is admirable, he is a hard-working and prolific columnist, I have long been in the domestic financial magazine to pay attention to his column. In addition, he is the author of many best-selling books such as "All industries are creative", "Business Naked", "when the business of good governance", "Branson autobiography", "Flying legend: The story of human exploration flying" and so on.

For a "solar" CEO who wants to live a brand personification and inspire people with a strong personal charisma, there is no simpler, cheaper and more cost-effective way to help you achieve your goals than writing. In the past you just needed a pen and paper, and now a computer without WiFi can help you. This is not what Branson said, it's my personal opinion.

From the writing of this matter, Branson has long been diligent, and proficient in the way of content marketing, his open mind, rich language, know how to embed themselves perfectly in the story that can bring readers value. Writing helped Branson successfully extend the emotional connection with the user, making it more likely that he would have a "lifelong relationship" with the user that he expected. I suspect that (there is no full evidence), such as Zhou in the country, is likely to be inspired by a similar approach in Branson.

4, a "free" coach

Many people do not know that Branson is a teenager with dyslexia, and still has a serious stuttering today. Instead of speaking less, he was more passionate about speaking and communicating with people, and he was even a "Ted speaker."

Chat to establish emotional contact with users, Branson also has a very pragmatic approach: free to entrepreneurs and young people as mentors!

This is similar to the current popular domestic so-called "internet thinking": To attract users in a free way, the next service to obtain value.

Branson once said: "One way to promote the feelings of the younger generation is to volunteer to be their mentor." Many young people experience unfairness in their first venture, so we set up the Branson Business center in South Africa and the Caribbean, and we set up virgin Media pioneers in the UK. We have benefited a lot from these young entrepreneurs who have a unique idea and a transformative ability. ”

One might ask, what's the point of doing this? How do you make money? In fact, the answer is already in Branson's first sentence, the emotional link with the younger generation is in itself the greatest value, they are most likely to be brand supporters and consumers!

5, beyond the business to pay attention to

I have written in the "brand personification marketing observation" that any business, at the initial, is narrow, focused, focused on a certain aspect, it can not be the full picture of life, otherwise difficult to succeed.

But the marketing requirements are in contrast, the spokesperson must have the ability to create a relationship between their business and the world of all the people, which often requires the spokesperson itself is a "fun, have material, a kind of" person.

If the "entertaining spirit" has made Branson's "fun", writing to make his "material" more widely known, that adventurous, and "Save the hostages," "protect the Shark" and other beyond the scope of business, some of the cultural feelings of the move, but also strengthened his personal charm, simply said that he looked--very "kind!" ”

A person's heart is bigger, the influence ability is bigger, the corresponding blessing newspaper also only then can be big. What I want to say is that a marketer who knows "to pay attention to the business" is more likely to be a successful marketer.

6, marketing unknown

Observe the legendary life of Branson, will find that he is indeed an outstanding marketing genius, he is familiar with marketing is "unexpected, beyond the expectations of" the truth, doing, all people from the big surprise, to a refreshing. Including the spacecraft program, Branson's life is passionate about exploring the unknown, we will never know, this year has been the "old man", the next step will be made what kind of subversive cognitive action.

To sum up, Branson is not only "brand extension will die" the end of the marketing curse, he is "brand personification" and "personal marketing", "content marketing" of the leading practitioners, he is my heart of the perfect brand spokesperson typical.

It must also be said that Branson's hands-on practice should testify to my understanding of marketing: marketing is an uncertain way to deal with the uncertain world, and it does not belong to any previous established program that is effective in the past and may not work in the future. Marketing always needs to change constantly, break through the routine, it belongs to subversion, belong to innovation, from the essence belong to "future" and "unknown".

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I am Wang, this article synchronization from the personal micro-letter public number Yu See (micro-letter Id:yujianyingxiao), the media reproduced please specify the source.