How to Maintain Brand Vitality? A Practical Guide

A popular song from ten years ago, "Wind Up the Clockwork," sang that the pace of love must not slacken, for once it slackens it will not succeed. Over these years, in our country's ever-growing agricultural produce market, quite a few agricultural product brands have risen to fame only to fall like meteors, truly a case of "one exits the stage as another enters," while those able to stand at center stage for several years or even a dozen-plus years and keep consumers' focus are pitifully few. Yet Coca-Cola, Sunkist and others from abroad have endured and stayed fresh in international markets including China, and a handful of domestic brands have also won consumers' "love" for a dozen years or even longer. The successful practices of some enterprises at home and abroad show that the "pace" of building an agricultural product brand "must not slacken" at any stage, and the key is to "grasp both aspects, and grasp both firmly": on one hand, keep a firm grip on product quality and service without slackening, raise the "taste" and "temperament" of agricultural products, and enhance the index of charm for consumers - this is the "internal skill"; on the other hand, keep a close eye on the trends of the times, consumption habits, and the market environment without slackening, act in line with the trend, move with the wind, and continuously inject vitality into the brand. Otherwise, no matter how famous a brand is, it will cause consumers "visual fatigue" and thus be unable to escape the fate of being eliminated by the market.

First, consumers can be guided to increase frequency of use. One year, I attended a course at a high-level training institution, and not long after arriving I noticed an interesting phenomenon: the breakfast buffet every morning was very rich, yet a certain well-known brand of honey placed next to an equally well-known brand of fresh milk was seldom touched. One morning at breakfast, a classmate saw me mixing milk and honey together to drink and asked with doubt: can honey and milk be eaten together, won't they produce a chemical reaction?! So I began to deliberately spread the benefits of honey plus milk: the molecular structures of the two will not resist each other, but can combine like blood dissolving in water, effectively increasing the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin, producing enzymes to break down harmful bacteria in the body, strengthening immunity, and prolonging life... And every morning at breakfast I paid attention to observing how the milk and honey were taken. About a month later, I was surprised to find that through such word of mouth, "milk + honey" had become a consumption habit for many classmates. This made me realize that if brand honey, in addition to explaining its basic functions of "clearing heat and detoxifying, moistening the lungs and stopping cough, moistening dryness, and tonifying the middle," merely added a little explanation of the benefits of eating it with milk, it could greatly increase consumers' frequency of consumption, and purchase volume would naturally increase accordingly. In fact, there are all kinds of ways to help consumers increase frequency of use; for example, one can add suggestive consumption guides; change packaging to make eating more convenient and more elegant; establish a membership system so that consumption is continually incentivized and a sense of closeness is gained; change product positioning, gradually solidifying many people's "eat it only when I think of it" attitude toward honey into "eat a little every morning at breakfast"... all of these may produce unexpected effects on "keeping the brand fresh." To accurately grasp this point, before formulating an action plan one must repeatedly ask: which factors are influencing the consumption behavior of target customers, and why is this brand of agricultural product not used with high frequency?

Second, one can try recommending new ways of consumption. If you accidentally scrape your skin at home, you can just break off a piece of aloe leaf and use it to reduce inflammation; mint can not only be placed at home as a green plant, but can also be served from time to time as a cold dish to cool and reduce internal heat. In fact, if we observe carefully, or simply conduct a dedicated market survey, we can often discover multiple ways of consuming and application areas for agricultural products, and such virgin territory, not yet widely noticed and used, may become a source that stimulates brand vitality. Of course, to open up new brand territory through new ways of consumption, a little spark of thought is not enough; scientific evaluation and calculation must also be carried out, including: how large is the potential and growth of this new consumer market, what is the size of the user group and its consumption level; how feasible and costly is it to develop and promote the new way of consumption; what reaction competitors are expected to have and what the competitive advantage is, and so on.

Third, one can actively tap new segmented markets. At present, our country's agricultural product market is entering a stage of fierce competition and gradual differentiation. Factors such as the improvement of people's consumption level, the strengthening of health awareness, and changes in lifestyle are at every moment generating round after round of shockwaves in the agricultural product market, while also opening up territory for segmented markets. Age brackets, income levels, living habits, consumption purposes and so on provide perspectives for tapping segmented markets from different angles. Therefore, if the segmentation and definition are done properly, and means such as brand positioning and brand extension are used well, it is possible to find a richly rewarding market opportunity.

Fourth, one can develop valuable new services. Theodore Levitt, one of the founders of modern marketing, believed that there is no such thing as a mass-market commodity in the world; differentiation - anything is possible. If an enterprise tries to understand products from the angle of what problems users are solving, then the space for product differentiation will be greatly expanded. When developing this space, the factor of service must be taken into account. When core quality is at the same level as competing products, an enterprise may as well consider how to help users better solve problems; even if it focuses on an innovation in a tiny detail, attentive customers will be able to feel it. Do not underestimate this seemingly simple feeling, for it will, to a large extent, establish a close relationship between customers and the product. To achieve this effect, an important path is to let target customers participate early in the design of products and services, because we should believe that "customers know best what products and services customers want." Therefore, through different categories of user follow-up visits, user experiences and other means, one can capture and analyze target customers' expectations for products and services, and then learn to develop new service items from the consumer's perspective. This method can be called "satisfaction in advance."