The difference between soft cultural marketing and hard cultural marketing

Abstract: Hard culture advertising marketing such as McDonald's I love it!; The taste of 100 rays of the sun in Victoria's soy milk; the one thing that all these advertising marketers have in common is to put their product features or images in a hard cultural mode.

Hard culture advertising marketing such as McDonald's "I love it!"; The "100 rays of Sunshine" of Victoria's Soy milk, and the advertising that the company has made for its flying silk, all of which are in common with the marketing of their product features or images to consumers in a hard cultural mode.

But they overlooked an important link: the consumer's cognitive habits are just for the things they are interested in and their own active memories of the preservation of long-term memory, and those who are not interested in things, is just a "left ear into the right ear out" of the memory of an instant memory!

Now ask a question: what is your attitude towards billboards everywhere on the street and advertisements that are broadcast every few minutes on TV?

The result of a professional investigation company is that 93.5% of people are disgusted with the hard cultural marketing ads. As we all know, the launch of a product only by the consumer knows to have a greater chance of selling, advertising marketing has become a product manufacturing and consumer buying process must be an important link. After nearly hundred years of development, this kind of hard cultural advertising reached its peak in 21st century, and accompanied by the peak of this advertising boom, consumers to their degree of disgust has reached an unprecedented peak.

The recipe for Coca-Cola and KFC

Hard Cultural marketing ads repeat the brand of the enterprise again and again, want to use repeat let consumers hear their brand to passively remember their brand. and soft culture marketing advertising refers to the use of some consumers can seize the attention of public goods or stealth ads to let consumers take the initiative to remember your brand!

Soft culture marketing and hard cultural marketing The biggest difference is: Soft cultural marketing focus on allowing consumers to voluntarily remember your brand image, and hard cultural marketing is to force consumers to remember your brand image.

Coca-Cola soft culture marketing and KFC soft culture marketing to people show this completely different brand communication ideas.

Let's take a look at Coca-Cola and the world's fast-food giant KFC is how to carry out its soft cultural marketing? After research, we found that the two big brands have one thing in common: they sell their recipes

Coca-Cola's own recipe story is:

Coca-Cola's secret is stored in the vault, the security measures are very tight, and this is difficult to imagine the world. If any person in the company wants to inquire about this "secret ingredient", then the person must first apply and the Trust Company's board of Directors is authorized to obtain the vault key. At the same time, it is also strictly stipulated that the door to open the vault must meet the following two conditions: 1. Presence of officials; 2. Open at a specified time. Thus, less than 10 people have known this recipe so far.

KFC's own recipe story is:

Colonel Sanders, who was discharged from the army in 1963 because he didn't want to live a life of nothing, took a family secret and went out to seek a partner. By the year 1964, Colonel Sanders sold the KFC recipe to a consortium of three people at a price of 2 million dollars, a recipe that was passed on to outsiders after the transfer of water. Three-person consortium one of them is Marcy, who is a financier and is therefore financially powerful. Perstedt, formerly an aerospace engineer, was responsible for compounding spices and improving a range of processes. In the seventh year after Maxi's consortium Fengfengguangguang bought KFC, Heber Ryan monopolized the brand's franchise by 287 million dollars.

These two companies say the secret is not true, we can't prove it, but there's one thing we can be sure of-their use of soft culture marketing is really good because everyone is interested in the secret, and I'm sure that as long as it's about secrets, like which male star is living with which actress, this scandal, You can never forget it. This is the soft Cultural marketing initiative brand awareness over the hard cultural brand marketing in the mystery!

The cognitive blind spot in marketing--active cognition and passive cognition

There are countless marketing stories of the soft culture that spread the brand, the brand of this "secret" or "story" happened once is inadvertently accidental marketing success, happened two times is also accidental brand marketing success, but if this marketing activity by a company used the third, the fourth time, So this is an inevitable marketing model of success!

Psychological cognition is divided into active cognition and passive cognition, we all know that in our primary school, do not want to recite the teacher forced us to recite certain things, such as Tang poetry, prose and so on, but the teacher is forcing us to remember, they will say to us: "You must recite this poem, must put this sentence back, Don't remember!

In this kind of passive cognitive situation, even if we recite 10 times, repeatedly copied 10 times, we will find that we still do not remember, then why exactly?

The fundamental reason is that we are not interested in what we remember, and we do not want to remember the rubbish. Just teacher let us remember, our brain is in the passive cognitive stage, rather than we voluntarily remember, we are forced to remember, so, even if repeated read 10 times, copied 10 times, we still can't remember. This is just like enterprises in the hard cultural advertising, although spent a huge amount of money, but it is very little effect!

But when we are particularly interested in something, it is obvious that the pros and cons of active and passive cognition are evident when we think that the story that someone is telling us is especially interesting, and we just have to listen to it without having to memorize it. The passive cognitive effect of hard culture marketing and the psychological memory of the consumer's active cognitive principle of soft culture marketing are here.

The model of soft culture marketing--Procter and Gamble

We often hear the marketing advertisements of Procter and Gamble:

"Do you wash your hair?" I'll show you how to wash it! "

"Do you wash well?" said the man. "Let me teach you how to wash better!"

Everyone notices, here, whether or not the use of hard cultural advertising, "Our products are good, everyone to use our products?"

Have you ever said, "Our products are cheaper than others, come and buy our products?"

No, no! It is a kind of soft cultural marketing with less investment and greater results.

When a company's hard cultural advertising to reach the climax, and can not make the product's impression to make consumers more profound, may wish to try soft cultural marketing!

When consumers take an active mindset and remember how to wash their heads better, and how to brush their teeth more scientifically, the company's image also goes into the memory with a "story drama Plot".

And this brand impression memory is far more than the passive, rote memorization of the brand cognitive memory is much longer!

This kind of commonweal soft cultural marketing is more than the pure hard cultural marketing income, also more easily in the public's mind to establish friends and caring corporate image, so that customers feel you more like his friends, not businesses.

When you see your friend's product in the store, do you prefer to buy the product you know?

What can soft cultural marketing bring to us?

Now let's look at the power of soft cultural marketing.

December 2006, China's private enterprises spring and autumn airlines because of the sale of 1 yuan low price tickets, by the price bureau fined 150,000 yuan, through the planning of the full soft cultural marketing, now let us look at spring and Autumn airlines in the brand recognition strategy gained.

Spring and Autumn Airlines brand awareness and recognition of the rise of 45.9%, and a common brand to achieve the same effect, it will cost millions or tens of thousands of hard cultural advertising costs, and Spring Airlines spent how much money? 150,000!

The soft cultural marketing incident, consumers on the initiative to the spring and Autumn airlines made a perfect positioning-spring and autumn air fares low, this perfect positioning and spring and autumn airlines, the positioning of their own precisely coincide.

From the above case, we are not difficult to find the advantages of soft cultural marketing-42 dial, with very little input to obtain a huge brand awareness and indirect economic benefits.

Spring Airlines did not play hard cultural marketing ads to consumers said: "Our low fares, to take our plane!" No!

Have you said: "Our airlines are good, please come to our airlines?" Not at all.

Because Spring airlines know a little, want to make their own brand in the consumer memory storehouse occupies a place, the best shortcut is the use of soft cultural marketing mode!

Soft culture marketing and hard cultural marketing is the biggest difference lies in the soft culture marketing so that customers in the psychological spontaneous, actively identify with your product image. and hard culture marketing is brand manufacturers use high-frequency advertising to force customers to identify with your product image.

There is a "law of familiarity" in psychology, which means that when a stranger borrows money from a friend who is familiar to you, and you can only lend one of them, you are more likely to lend it to someone you know first. Similarly, the brand marketing of the product is the same, when a product brand that you don't know much about, and a product brand that has already produced deep imprinting in your brain, which do you prefer?