The success of the brand is first and foremost the success of the category, which is beyond doubt. If we don't have a place in the category, of course, the road to the brand will be farther away. Throughout some famous brands at home and abroad, they have first occupied the leading position of a certain category, and gradually realized their brand status, such as: in the soft drink market, Coca-Cola is the overlord of carbonated drinks, Wang Laoji is the ancestor of herbal tea; In the market, Maotai is the leading brand of sauce, and Wuliangye is the king of aroma.
Strategically speaking, the category is attached to the brand. The positioning of the brand is first of all the positioning of the category. This is like a pair of eyes. Without a category strategy, his brand seems to have lost its soul. Similarly, from the perspective of consumers, the target group's perception of the brand begins with the contact of the category. Therefore, in the corporate brand strategy, the category strategy is the primary and has an important component.
On the other hand, many companies nowadays not only lack systematic planning in terms of brand strategy, but also perform extensively in terms of category strategy, and even have a vague positioning. Here, the author talks a little about how to consider brand building from the perspective of category strategy.
The pioneer needs strategic precautions: If you are a category pioneer in an industry, you must establish your own "pioneer status" and "leadership image" from the beginning. This is not only to consider the follow-up of competitors from the strategic defense aspect, but also to effectively enhance the awareness of the target group and gradually establish their brand consumption awareness. In the "convenient fans", industry people know that Sichuan "Guangyou" is earlier, but many consumers think it is "white home"; this is mainly due to "light friend" earlier in the brand image System planning and dissemination and promotion, especially for the creation of categories. Similarly, the French bun "Sanhui Maifeng" was earlier, but it was robbed of the "Pan Pan". The phrase "French small bread, still hopeful" was sent first. In Sichuan, many mushroom companies have been involved in the development of deep processing products for fungi in recent years. In the process of contact with the author, many people have said that they are earlier, but in the field of deep processing of edible fungi, consumers are at the root of it. It is not clear who is earlier, better! The scale of the whole industry is small, marketing is extensive, products are low, and there is a lack of leading brands.
Followers need brand segmentation: a category area, after all, there are very few pioneers, and more are followers. Followers can't say that they are older, but they definitely have a chance to say that they are better. In reality, we have many examples of seeing followers go beyond the founders. But how to transcend in following, this is learning. "Scented fluttering" is not the initiator of milk tea, but "fragrance fluttering" through the technical innovation of this category of milk tea, through the "milk tea will be fragrant fluttering" precision appeal, leap ahead.
Here, the author believes that: follow-up enterprises must first rationally determine their own status, you must have the strength and strategy to do before you want to do it, even if it is not a bad thing. In addition, in the process of follow-up, our company must not be unique in order to over-segment the market of this category, the key is to find out the right location and positioning strategy. Taking herbal tea as an example: Consumers' conception of herbal tea has not yet reached the level of “categoryâ€. We cannot prematurely cut this market and create its own subdivided categories. The "warm source" of "Jinshayuan" lies in the fact that it is clearly following the "herbal tea" market, but it is necessary to come to a "light bamboo leaf herbal tea", and the selling point of "going to your greasy" is difficult to land. So the market is not optimistic.