Since 2010, the furniture market has been weak, and the industry asserts that in 2011, the furniture industry will enter the era of low profit. Faced with this situation, large enterprises have not only made the scale of winning the competition, but also made the small and medium-sized enterprises uneasy and confused by capacity expansion, brand promotion, coordinated financing, and network expansion.
Talking about the future of China's furniture industry, people are always willing to compare with the home appliance industry. They think that after five to ten years, although the Spring and Autumn War will be mixed, it will eventually form a very small number of Warring States hegemons. The scale will play a decisive role. The larger the enterprise, the more likely it is to absorb all relevant resources at the lowest cost and the fastest speed to obtain a monopoly position.
For small and medium-sized enterprises, they persist in an infinite adjustment period and stand up under unlimited pressure. It is a top priority to hunt opportunities in a limited space and grow up in a limited time. However, blindly moving forward will only make the company more difficult, especially in the era of brand operation. How to implement brand building can better integrate with the sales and production of its own enterprises, and beneficially occupy the market and become the capital chain. Fragile and nervous SMEs are confused and have headaches. To this end, the reporter specially invited Deng Jianguo, chairman of the editorial committee of the "Furniture Store Guide Sales and Marketing Secrets", which is responsible for marketing and planning, and has rich brand packaging and promotion experience, to discuss the strategic issues of small and medium-sized enterprise brand promotion. . During the conversation, we found that the small and medium-sized enterprises have the following ten misunderstandings in the process of brand cultivation. Now, after summing up, I hope to give warnings and reminders to the company.
First, blindly expand the scope of product sales
In the process of brand growth, some companies' products are only suitable for a certain consumer group, or only meet a specific needs of consumers, but because of excessive pursuit of market share and sales volume, the sales target is extended to all consumer groups. Promote their products to all consumers. When consumers who don't need their products buy and use their products, they lose their trust in the brand and affect the target consumers. Instead, their brand's consumer groups are getting smaller and smaller, which eventually leads to the decline of the brand. For example, the “three strains†of the health care product brand that was smash hit in the past, when the market sales reached its peak, it experienced a rapid decline, and the brand disappeared in the market in a short time. One of the main reasons is the blind expansion of the brand's sales range, which led to the brand's death.
Therefore, in today's increasingly fierce market competition, market demand is diversifying. Enterprises must carefully study the characteristics of products and define the target market of enterprises. For example, what kind of consumer groups are products for consumers? demand. Brands must have a clear and stable market position, and there must be a target market strategy that remains unchanged.
Second, one-sided dependence on advertising investment
In the early stage of brand growth, a certain market effect was achieved by advertising investment. Sometimes the sales effect will be very obvious, which will give the enterprise an illusion and simply infer that the advertising investment will be proportional to the growth of sales volume, thus further Increase the investment in advertising. At this time, the advertisements began to have a negative impact on the brand, and the sales volume of the products declined. The enterprises faced huge financial risks, which eventually dragged down the enterprises and caused the brand to die. More typical such as Qin Chi, Aiduo and so on. Other companies use advertising as a catalyst for brand growth and rely on a single advertising investment to drive the brand to grow rapidly. Advertising investment greatly exceeds the ability of enterprises to gamble on the market through huge advertising investment. As a result, after huge advertising investment, the company did not achieve the expected market sales, causing the company to make ends meet.
Advertising is one of the important elements of marketing. It plays a very important role in the process of building a brand. Reasonable advertising investment can quickly increase the brand's popularity, drive the market demand for products, and promote the rapid growth of the brand. Therefore, in the process of brand growth, the brand's advertising budget should be scientifically determined according to the requirements of the company's marketing objectives and the characteristics of different stages of brand growth. Generally speaking, in the initial stage of brand growth, as the product has just entered the market, the product is in the market development stage, the brand awareness is low, and the product sales volume is small. At this time, the target task method and the affordability method can be used to determine the advertising budget, that is, according to the enterprise. Market development goals and corporate financial affordability to measure the advertising costs that enterprises need to invest; in the rapid growth stage of the brand, as the products are gradually accepted by the market, the sales volume of the products grows rapidly, and the brand awareness is on the rise. The budget, that is, the advertising expenses determined according to the estimated sales realized during the enterprise plan year; when the brand enters the mature stage, the product sales volume has been relatively stable, the brand's popularity and reputation have reached a stable level, and the brand already has a loyal consumer group. At this time, the sales cost method can be determined by the sales ratio method and the competition balance method, that is, the advertising cost of the enterprise is determined according to the sales realized by the company in the previous year and the advertising cost invested by the competitive brand. When using the sales ratio method to determine the advertising budget, the average profit rate of the industry in which the company is located should be considered, and an appropriate ratio should be determined. For example, the products in the health care products, pharmaceuticals and other industries have higher profit margins, and the advertising costs account for the highest proportion of sales. It is about 20-30%; for products such as food and home appliances, it is only about 5%.
Third, overestimate the market demand
In the process of brand growth, some companies are overly optimistic about the market prospects and have set a high sales target, which is far beyond the market demand. The company invested in marketing expenses according to the estimated sales target, especially after the huge advertising expenses, far from achieving the expected sales volume, resulting in a large backlog of products, the investment expenses can not be recovered, and the brand died.
In the process of brand growth, enterprises should carefully study the market demand situation and development trends, and make accurate predictions on the sales volume of products according to the law of brand growth. Generally speaking, with the growth of the brand, the sales volume of the product shows a process of gradual gradual change from small to large. In this process, the first is to have accurate sales forecasts when the product grows rapidly; the second is to avoid overestimation or underestimation in the period of rapid growth of product sales; the third is to avoid the product sales from the rapid growth stage to the stationary stage. If the sales growth is too high, the company will face greater operational risks if it still pursues the rapid growth of sales.
Fourth, the pursuit of popularity ignores reputation
When building a brand, some companies pay great attention to the improvement of brand awareness, but ignore the promotion of brand reputation. These companies generally believe that brand awareness has increased, and the reputation will naturally increase accordingly. This is often seen in the market, where some companies invest huge advertising costs to build brand awareness. The brand can be said to be a household name, but the brand's reputation is very low, forming some brand-specific high-profile low reputation phenomenon, resulting in the malformation of the brand, resulting in the brand's vitality is extremely fragile, in the event of unfavorable brand emergencies, It will soon die.
The formation of brand reputation is based on the premise of brand awareness, but the reputation is not equal to the popularity, the two are two completely different concepts. Some companies are keen to be brand-known, in addition to the reasons for their unclear concepts, there is also a reason to make the brand awareness method simple and effective. After the huge amount of advertising is invested, the brand's popularity can be quickly marked, such as Gaizhonggai and Qinchi. However, the reputation of the brand cannot be established by simple advertising methods, nor is it formed by brand packaging and concept hype. By virtue of the company's own behavior, the brand reputation continues to provide consumers with quality products and services, and communicates well with consumers, gradually gaining consumer recognition of the brand, and ultimately the consumer's goodwill. The establishment of brand reputation is a long-term process that requires companies to persevere. For example, Haier has been insisting on the business philosophy of serving customers sincerely for decades. The Haier brand has been carefully crafted to form the reputation of today's high brand.
Since 2010, the furniture market has been weak, and the industry asserts that in 2011, the furniture industry will enter the era of low profit. Faced with this situation, large enterprises have not only made the scale of winning the competition, but also made the small and medium-sized enterprises uneasy and confused by capacity expansion, brand promotion, coordinated financing, and network expansion.
V. Neglecting the cultivation of loyal consumer groups
In the process of brand growth, some companies are keen on brand packaging and hype. Such as the market's popular CI heat, concept heat, etc. to create a brand of false prosperity. Since the company sells products by advertising and price reduction for a long time, it rarely cultivates the brand's loyal customer group from the promotion of brand value. The brand does not have a loyal customer group. As a result, the company relies on spending a lot of money on advertising, convincing customers to buy, and customers buy. No matter what happened in the future, the brand promise was not fulfilled and the customer was disappointed. This has led to some brands seemingly powerful, and their internal physique is very weak.
Increasing the brand's popularity and reputation is the premise of building brand loyalty. Cultivating consumers' loyalty to the brand is fundamental to building a strong brand. Consumers can be attracted by higher brand awareness and good brand reputation, but the biggest opportunity to form brand loyalty is the key factor in determining customer satisfaction and brand loyalty after purchase. Therefore, while providing high-quality products and services to customers, the company must strive to create a brand personality that is attractive to consumers, form a brand culture that resonates with customers, and continuously enhance brand value.
Six, do not pay attention to enterprise product innovation
In the process of brand growth, some companies are keen on advertising warfare, price wars, and do not pay attention to product innovation. Compared with competing products, there is no differentiation in the market, and the market is getting old and aging, resulting in lack of vitality of the brand, and the market competitiveness is declining. The market has been eliminated, and many brands in the early home appliance market are taking this path. Product innovation is the source of vitality and continuous development of the brand.
Seven, relax product and service quality requirements
At the beginning of brand growth, due to the pressure of market and competition, companies pay great attention to improving product quality and service quality. When the brand has a certain reputation and reputation, and after obtaining a certain market foundation, the requirements for the quality of products and services begin to relax at the same time. At the same time, as the production scale of the enterprise continues to increase, the market scope continues to expand, and the internal management and market of the enterprise The increased number of vulnerabilities in management has led to a gradual decline in the products and services of the company, which has a negative impact on the brand, and the image of the brand continues to suffer. The “Toyota†car recall in Japan is the best example.
To ensure the healthy and stable growth of the brand, the company must establish a business philosophy of always serving customers in good faith, continuously improve its product quality and service level, and create greater value for customers. This is the most basic work for enterprises to build brands. The core content, such as Haier's ability to become a well-known brand in the domestic appliance industry, is inseparable from its long-term commitment to providing users with quality products and services.
Eight, no target single price war
Excessive price wars not only drastically reduce corporate profits, but also lose the ability of enterprises to develop themselves. At the same time, they also have a great negative impact on the brand image, increasing consumers' sensitivity to product prices, and creating continuous price reduction expectations. Establish brand loyalty.
Price competition is an important way of market competition. Moderate price competition is conducive to the active market to enhance the competitiveness of the brand. But companies should avoid excessive price competition. Enterprises should pay attention to the use of non-price competition means to improve product value as the fundamental point of competition, comprehensively use technology, products, service innovation and other means to participate in market competition and enhance the brand's competitiveness.
Nine, blindly extend brand coverage
In the process of brand growth, some companies in order to explore the market potential of the brand as much as possible, do not follow the rules of brand extension, arbitrarily carry out brand extension, where there is an opportunity, the brand will extend to which industry, such as the brand of drugs to food extension, high-end The brand of the product extends to low-end products and so on. The field of brand extension is either irrelevant to the original field or conflicts with the original field. This will not only help the launch of new products, but also cause serious damage to the brand image.
As the strength of the company grows, the company must continuously expand new business areas and develop new products. If the new products are related to the original products, such as similar product attributes and the same target customer group, the brand extension strategy can be adopted. That is, the new product uses the existing product brand, or uses the resources of the existing brand to develop the market. For example, in the furniture industry, the sofa manufacturing enterprise can extend the bedroom products to form a one-stop service for home consumers. For example, Shenzhen Tellai Furniture Co., Ltd., at the 11th International Furniture Fair in Chengdu in July 2010, launched a soft bed and a European-style post-modern product, which not only realized product upgrade but also enriched the product line. . Of course, companies should also do brand maintenance work to avoid damage to new brands. If new products have nothing to do with the original products, or conflict with each other, different brand strategies should be adopted.
Ten, free to change the corporate brand image
Each brand will have its own unique image. A brand with no fixed and unique image is difficult to leave a deep and indelible impression on the public. When a famous brand was established and widely accepted by generations, the brand has gone beyond just being a commodity. It has become a symbol and symbol that has become a part of culture. When people see a brand, they will think of something other than the goods it represents, such as status, dignity, tradition, and memories of past events. When consumers consume a brand, he consumes not only the value of the goods, but also confidence, status, and even vanity. In many cases, the use of value becomes a secondary thing. So when a traditional brand is still full of vitality, changing the image of the brand at will, it may be opposed by consumers, and ultimately will not be worth the candle.
Once a brand forms a stable image, its limitations will be formed, and its product categories and consumer groups will have a relatively stable range. It is dangerous to break through the limits of this range and to open up new areas. This kind of risk lies in the possibility of losing the original market, and whether it is possible to obtain a new market is an unknown. Like Parker, the consumer group of Parker pen is a person with more status and wealth in society. When Parker tried to fight for the low-end pen market, the traditional image of Parker pen was changed and lost the original customer, and finally fell into the end of the acquisition. This tells us that when a company wants to open up new markets, it is best not to take risks with famous brands that have already been established, especially when the original brand image has some conflicts with the new market. New brands go to occupy new markets. Of course, when the image of the company itself has been fixed, attempts to create a new brand may also be difficult. In this case, companies should consider trying to achieve higher sales and profits in other areas.
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