Branding and Marketing

Source and verification limitations (2026-11-02): The original article was narrated by Jiang Nanchun, edited by Ye Kaifu, and published by Zhenghe Island. It includes Focus Media's marketing claims. Brand sales figures and cross-company comparisons lack consistent years, entity definitions, and channel scopes. Figures including 1.2 billion, 2.5 billion, and 25 billion have not each been independently verified. Retaining the original text does not confirm advertising effectiveness or financial figures. Sources and reference links (see the explanation above for the scope of verification): https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/rZrUh7Kg1AF7Au_hGVPZUw ---- The product is excellent. Why won't it sell? You have built a good product and established distribution channels, yet it still will not sell. That is because you are still managing matters inside the company, while the real purchase decision happens outside it—in the consumer's mind. If your product advantage does not become an advantage in consumer perception, it will not sell. Without a distinct brand perception in consumers' minds that sets you apart from competitors, price wars, promotion wars, and traffic wars are only a matter of time. ------- Is brand advertising all cost, with results hard to see? That is because you have not found the switch in the consumer's mind. An excellent brand strategy expresses your product's advantage, your major difference from competing products, and a consumer pain point. That is how it attracts attention and resonates with consumers. For example, “Wanglaoji herbal tea” was once a regional product that sold only one or two hundred million a year for many years. Research in Shanghai found that locals thought liangcha meant tea left overnight; in Beijing, people thought it was tea that caused stomachaches. Nationwide success seemed impossible. But it was then positioned as “Worried about “internal heat” (shanghuo)? Drink Wanglaoji,” followed by a saturation campaign. Nationwide sales reached 1.2 billion in the first year and 2.5 billion in the second; more than a decade later, annual sales reached 25 billion. Coca-Cola sold 10 billion in China and Nongfu Spring 17 billion, yet a canned herbal tea that hardly quenches thirst sold 25 billion. How does that make sense? The key was finding the switch in the consumer's mind. Many people treat brand advertising as a cost item because they are not doing advertising right. The essence of advertising is making money. If your advertising does not make money, you are not doing it right. ------ Does brand-building take too long, compared with the quicker results of promotions and traffic acquisition? Traffic acquisition and promotions deliver short-term results, but cannot solve your long-term business development needs. Brand advertising does not produce results in a week or two, or even a month. Even correctly positioned advertising goes through a process in which accumulated quantity becomes a qualitative change. The turning point sometimes takes two or three months, and sometimes six months to a year. Many people claim that traffic is the essence of every business. I believe winning people's hearts through a brand is the foundation. Traffic is simply the result of that. We must avoid putting the cart before the horse. --------- Only a brand deeply rooted in people's minds can provide a continuing stream of free traffic. Brand strength improves conversion, and brand momentum enables premium pricing. --------- Brand advertising is brand advertising; performance advertising is performance advertising. The two can work together, but do not necessarily become one. Brand advertising works over the long term, building recognition in consumers' minds. Take Guazi Used Cars' claim that there is no middleman taking a cut. Consumers remember it, though they may not have a used car right now. But if any of you had one to sell today, who would you turn to? Your mind would immediately say Guazi Used Cars! This shows how advertising creates a very clear conditioned response in the consumer's mind. That is a brand. Branding works over the long term, while performance advertising often works over the short term. I therefore think it is difficult to combine the two into one. They should work together, and we should shorten the time it takes for brand advertising and performance advertising to have an effect. -------- Every business starts small. A small company cannot spend 200 million on nationwide advertising. Find the model region where your point-of-sale coverage is strongest. Start with a saturation campaign in one province or city. If Shanghai is beyond reach, try Suzhou. If the budget is still too small, thoroughly cover just one district of Suzhou. Create a local breakthrough and build up that model region first. Another situation is wanting nationwide reach but having a limited audience. You can advertise through precise targeting. Some home furnishing and building-material brands, for instance, mainly sell to property developers and renovation companies. We give them a solution: identify which office buildings across China house property companies, renovation companies, and design firms. Those may be the people you want to reach, and they might occupy only 5% of all our buildings. Advertise precisely in that 5%. Precision can effectively lower the cost of creating a breakthrough. ------- The essence of advertising is repetition; the essence of audiences is forgetting. Repeated exposure creates a clear impression in consumers' minds. Elevators in residential apartments and office buildings are places mainstream urban consumers pass through every day. Focus Media's elevator media can deliver frequent, unavoidable, effective exposure, making consumers more likely to develop a strong awareness of the advertisements it carries. I think mature brands are suited to entertainment properties (IP), content, and entertainment-led marketing, because their awareness is already high; they need excitement and freshness. For new brands, I recommend first establishing clear positioning, then using core media such as Focus Media to launch the brand. Through frequent saturation campaigns, first make people remember your name and the differentiated value you represent, rather than creating an IP-based entertainment program. In recent years, I have basically not seen a new brand break through by sponsoring an IP-based program. ------ The consumer market will polarize faster, and companies will diverge faster too. Businesses still thinking daily about price wars and battling in the middle and low ends of the market will see profits decline faster and business become harder every year. Those that target middle- and higher-income consumers, create differentiated value through craftsmanship and innovative ideas, seize the window to launch their brands, and lead trends will certainly change the market landscape, gain pricing power, and shape market standards and market share. An opportunity for everyone is no opportunity; a crisis for everyone is no crisis. Truly competitive companies should step on the accelerator in a crisis, not the brake. Original: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/rZrUh7Kg1AF7Au_hGVPZUw