58 innovative plans for marketing

Chapter 4 Market Positioning Planning (3)
(1) Discovery strategy.That is, positioning by discovering new areas of the market that do not overlap.When the enterprise evaluates and analyzes the position of competitors, the actual needs of consumers and its own product attributes, etc., it finds that there is a gap or gap in the existing market, and this gap or gap has enough consumers to serve as a potential division. exist.And the company finds that its own products are difficult to compete head-on, or finds that this potential area has more potential than the old area.In this case, a strategy of excavation and positioning can be adopted.

(2) Among the strategies.When the enterprise finds that there are many competitors in the target market, but after careful analysis, it is found that the market demand in this region has great potential, and the enterprise has the conditions to adapt to the environment of this region, the enterprise can adopt the strategy of entering the region, and stand out from the competitors. share the market.

(3) Replacement strategy.That is to drive the other party out of the current market position and replace it by the company.Adopting this strategic positioning, a company must have a clear advantage over its competitors, and must provide products that are better than the other party's, so that most consumers are willing to accept the company's products rather than competitors' products.

Practical points
Enterprises should avoid the following disadvantages in market positioning:
1. The positioning is not obvious.The positioning of some enterprises is not obvious enough, which often makes customers have only a vague image in their minds, thinking that it is no different from other enterprises.

2. Positioning is too narrow.Some companies are just the opposite, placing too much emphasis on positioning in a narrow area, making customers ignore the performance of the company in other aspects.

3. Positioning confusion.Buyers are quite confused about the company's brand image.This situation may be caused by the fact that the company promotes too many benefits for its products, or it may be that the company's brand positioning is too frequent.

4. Questionable positioning.Because the company did not pay attention to the overall image of the brand, it caused some contradictory positioning propaganda.

Scene reconstruction
1. Scenarios
"Marlboro" came out in 1924 and remained unknown until the 20s.Its gentle advertising image does not seem to leave much consideration for the interests of the ladies, because it lacks an active advertising awareness guided by long-term management and sales goals.Morris's advertising slogan "as mild as the weather in May" is too elegant, and it echoes the original powdery smell of women, which makes the majority of male smokers flinch from it.Although such an advertising positioning highlights its own brand personality, it also puts forward a special preference for a certain type of consumers (here, women), but it sets up obstacles for its future development, making its consumer range difficult. expand.Women are far less addicted to cigarettes than they are to clothes, and once they become good wives and mothers, they don't encourage their daughters to smoke!Cigarettes are a special commodity. It must form a strong consumer group. The more repeated consumption, the greater the sales revenue that the consumer group will bring to the manufacturer.Women are often worried that excessive smoking will turn their teeth yellow and affect their complexion because of their love of beauty, so they are much more restrained than male smokers when smoking. The fate of "Marlboro" is becoming bleak under the influence of the above reasons.

Feeling unwilling, Philip Morris began to consider reshaping its image.The company sent a special person to invite Leo-Burnet Advertising Company to make an advertisement plan for "Marlboro", in order to make "Marlboro" famous and marketable. "Let's forget about the women's cigarettes with rich powder and fragrance, and re-create a world-famous Marlboro cigarette full of masculinity!" ——Leo Burnett, the founder of the advertising agency, said to the helpless seekers.A new and bold plan to transform the image of "Marlboro" cigarettes was born.The quality of the product remains unchanged. The packaging adopts the first flat-opening box cover technology at that time, and the standard character (marlboro) of the name is sharpened to make it more masculine. Red is used as the main color of the outer box. "Marlboro's advertisements no longer focus on women, but on tough men."Emphasize the masculinity of "Marlboro" in the advertisement to attract all customers who like to pursue this kind of spirit.Phillips began to use coachmen, divers, farmers, etc. as male protagonists in masculine advertisements.But this ideal man finally focused on the image of the American cowboy: a heroic man with deep eyes, rough skin, and exuding roughness and heroism. In the advertisement, the sleeves are rolled up high, revealing the hairy arms With a smoking Marlboro between them.This kind of advertisement that washes away the smell of women's powder came out in 1954, and it brought huge wealth to "Marlboro".Only between 1954 and 1955, the sales volume of "Marlboro" increased by three times, and it became the tenth largest cigarette brand in the United States. In 3, its market share rose to the second place in the same industry in the United States.

Now, "Marlboro" sells 3000 billion cigarettes in the world every year, and only 5000 Boeing 707 aircraft can be used to fill them.For every 4 cigarettes smoked in the world, one of them is "Marlboro".

We can see the magic of advertising in the dramatic effect change of the two styles of "Marlboro" advertisements.It is advertising that shapes the product image and adds value to the product.The "concentration" strategy is adopted to locate the target market, making "Marlboro" grow into the world's number one cigarette brand.

Question: Why was Marlboro's second market positioning successful?

2. Role simulation
Suppose you are the marketing representative of a baby skin care product company. Due to the sharp drop in the birth rate, fewer babies and unsalable products, how should you effectively position the company in the market?

3. Thinking Enlightenment
It is generally believed that in the increasingly fierce market competition, companies must differentiate their products and services in order to avoid direct competition.But you can also choose a positioning strategy that is tit-for-tat with competitors, that is, choose a market position that is close to competitors, and compete for the same target consumers with competitors.With this strategy, there is basically no difference between the company and its competitors in terms of products, prices, distribution and promotion, and they all use the fierce competition between them as the driving force for their own development and the best advertising.Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the best examples.You think about it, if your company's products are similar to Coca-Cola, what positioning strategy do you use?

4. Physical training games
Props: a piece of paper, a pen.

Number of participants: 4 people.

Method: Carry out data investigation on competitors in the same industry, mainly aiming at their product features and personalities.

Rules: Analyze and investigate, compare the product features of competitors, and know yourself and your enemy.

Purpose: Through the game, provide a basis for the company to make a product positioning.

5. Improve plan
Reference answer

1. Situational case: Accurate grasp of the psychology of male smokers highlights their individuality.

2. Role simulation answer ideas: According to the company's product and technical advantages, re-select the target group, and then re-position the market.

3. Thinking enlightenment: the answer is omitted.

Classic look back
Company B is an old-fashioned textile and garment enterprise in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Feeling the fierce competition in foreign trade in recent years, it began to consider domestic marketing and establish its own brand.However, in the domestic clothing market, there are strong national brands ranging from suits, women's clothing to casual clothing. In addition, more and more international clothing brands have entered the Chinese market, and market competition is also constantly escalating.Therefore, the enterprise dare not enter rashly.The company first arranges high-level executives to inspect markets around the world. On the one hand, they can understand new trends in textile and clothing, and on the other hand, they can broaden their horizons.In the end, the company chose swimwear as a breakthrough, and chose the mid-to-high-end swimwear industry to enter the domestic market.

Although China's clothing industry has become increasingly mature after decades of development and there are many enterprises, the development is extremely uneven.Men's wear is a relatively well-developed market for Chinese clothing. It is more mature than women's wear, casual wear and underwear in terms of brand building and channel construction. A large number of domestic famous brands such as Youngor, Romon and Shanshan have gradually formed Men's clothing brands and huge industrial clusters such as Ningbo, Wenzhou, and Quanzhou.The concentration of men's clothing brands is relatively high, and the development of industrial clusters is relatively fast. The top ten brands account for nearly 50% of the national market share, of which Youngor's overall market share exceeds 10%.Domestic women's clothing presents a situation where a hundred flowers are blooming, there are many brands, and the gap between the brands is not big, and many companies compete.However, the mid-to-high-end market for swimwear is still vacant. There are only a few limited brands such as Hosa in the domestic market, and swimwear of major international brands can only be seen in a few channels.After all, the domestic swimwear market is still under development. Compared with other sportswear, the scale potential of the swimwear market is limited, so many big-name companies are not enthusiastic about competing in this market.All these provide the possibility for enterprises to enter the domestic market more easily. The more important thing for enterprise B to enter the mid-to-high-end swimwear market is to tap the potential needs of consumers.Chinese consumers adopt the principle of temporary use and nearby purchase in swimwear consumption, are sensitive to prices, and have no concept of brand consumption.

Later, company B established its position in the industry by cutting into the mid-to-high-end swimwear market.

The actions of company B essentially include three changes: one is the change from the operation mode of order production to the operation mode of brand marketing; the other is the change from the foreign market to the domestic market; the third is the change from the upstream enterprise to the downstream extension.These three changes are intertwined, which in essence exacerbates the difficulty of the change, so the requirements for full investigation and accurate entry into the market are quite high.

Skillful touch
After the target market is selected, it is necessary to study how to enter the target market and choose a favorable opportunity to enter the target market.Specific analysis, including entry methods of new industries and entry methods of non-new industries.Among them, the new industry market has the characteristics of high operating risk, great market potential, high technology content and high entry cost, which determines the challenge of the entry method.And how to choose the time to enter the market is also very critical. Too early or too late timing is not good for business operations.

thinking innovation
For high-tech industries, enterprises must rely on their own technological advantages to enter the market. These technologies can be the patents of enterprises, or can be obtained through joint development with scientific research institutes and colleges and universities, so that enterprises can establish a strong image of technical strength as soon as they enter the market. , to determine the market position of the enterprise.However, if the enterprise itself has distinctive capabilities enough to fill a gap in a certain type of market, it can enter the market boldly and comprehensively.

Practical points
When enterprises enter the market, there are two effective shortcuts.

1. The enterprise enters the target market, but the knowledge of this industry is still insufficient, or it will be hindered to enter the new market through internal development. In this case, the enterprise can choose to acquire ready-made products or enterprises, This is one of the fastest ways to enter the market.

2. In order to reduce the risk of entry, enterprises can choose to cooperate with other enterprises to enter the market. It can be between a production enterprise and a production enterprise, or between a production enterprise and a sales enterprise. The cooperative enterprises support each other and complement each other in terms of technology and resources. Playing the overall combination effect can form new profitability.

Scene reconstruction
1. Scenarios
"Eastern Airlines Express" is an offensive strategy of Eastern Airlines to quickly enter the market in densely populated areas of competitors and change from passive to active.If you regard the national route network map as a game of chess, you will find that there will always be some points that the military strategists must contend for.

The three major airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have already occupied nearly 1/3 of the national civil aviation market share, and these three key points are the three major groups of Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines.It seems that there is a kind of tacit understanding, and now the Capital Airport is already the "world" of Air China, and its ticket sales agency occupies almost all the most eye-catching positions in the airport, while China Eastern Airlines is only at the 41st and 42nd window, on the contrary, China Eastern Airlines At Hongqiao Airport, it is a thriving situation.

But does being in the sphere of influence of others mean that you can do nothing?China Eastern Airlines has given a negative answer.Do it a little better, a little more attractive.You will find that even if you have not many "bases" in other people's sphere of influence, there will still be many consumers who love you.

The sense of delicacy in service and closeness in culture can cultivate some passengers' sense of loyalty to China Eastern Airlines.Taking the China Eastern Airlines Express, there is almost an hourly flight from Shanghai to Beijing. Although there are many competitors, China Eastern Airlines is frequent and can provide consumers with the greatest convenience for connecting flights and transfers. Why do they not choose China Eastern Airlines?
In view of the successful experience of the "Eastern Express Line", China Eastern Airlines has also expanded its scope, extending the "Express Line" from Shanghai to Beijing, Shanghai to Hong Kong to Shanghai to Xiamen, Fuzhou, Wenzhou, Wuhan, Ningbo and other cities. To Xi'an will also become the first "Eastern Airlines Express" not originating from Shanghai.On these express lines, the flight density of China Eastern Airlines will reach more than 5 flights per day, becoming a veritable "air bus".

Question: How did China Eastern Airlines change from passive to active?
2. Role simulation
Suppose you are the general manager of a company that produces mid-to-low-end cars and plan to enter the mid-to-high-end market, but you are not fully prepared for the market. How do you plan to enter the mid-to-high-end market?
3. Thinking Enlightenment
When an enterprise enters the target market, it must choose the appropriate method while choosing the entry method suitable for the enterprise.For example, the product trial marketing method, through small-scale trial production and trial marketing, can reduce the blindness of business operations and the resulting risks.In addition, there are also general advertising methods, planning various forms of public relations activities, interest attraction methods, authoritative person recommendation methods, etc.But at the same time, we must also pay attention to the accuracy of the cut-in time, especially for products with strong seasonality or specific consumer objects. Timely cut-in timing will get twice the result with half the effort.What is your opinion on this?
4. Practical training games
Props: a piece of paper, a pen.

Number of participants: four.

Method: Carry out a questionnaire survey on the current situation of the industry market and the company's new products, and compare and analyze.

Rules: Expand in groups, and finally compare, analyze and discuss.

Purpose: Through the game, cultivate the ability of game participants to find out effective entry ways for new products.

5. Improve plan
Reference answer

1. Situational case: To do better, to be more attractive, to quickly enter the market is the secret of China Eastern Airlines to change from passive to active.

2. Role simulation solution idea: choose the right merger and acquisition company.

3. Thinking enlightenment: the answer is omitted.

(End of this chapter)