Chapter 39 Chapter 8 The Way to Win: Seven Strategies for Focus Growth

Philip Kotler, the father of marketing, pointed out in his "Principles of Marketing" that the so-called positioning strategy means that marketers can adopt a variety of product market positioning strategies, such as according to specific product attributes, use timing, user categories, desired products, etc. Satisfied needs, competitors, and different types to position. In China, there are also "three changes": not easy, changeable and simple.Sun Xianhong, a well-known Chinese marketing planner, explained it as "laws are often 'difficult', phenomena are usually 'changeable', and truth is actually the most 'simple'".Accurately and correctly position the enterprise and identify the development direction of the enterprise, so that it is possible to grasp the "three changes" and control "change" and "unchanged", "simple" and "difficult".

In 2001, the American Marketing Association selected the most influential concept in the history of the United States. The winner was neither Reeves' USP (Unique Selling Proposition), Ogilvy's brand image, nor Kotler's framework of marketing management and waves. It is not the competitive value chain theory of Iris and Trout, but the positioning theory proposed by Iris and Trout in a series of articles called "The Positioning Age" published in "Ad Age" in 1972. Indeed, no single strategy has shaped 20th-century marketing concepts more than positioning.Since the end of the 20th century, marketing theory is gradually realizing the transfer from "technology" to "people", and people feel more and more that consumers are the central link of marketing.In such a transformation process, the meaning of positioning theory is increasingly accepted by people.Because positioning theory essentially emphasizes the communication between marketing and consumer psychology, it is the only systematic marketing theory that directly faces the consumer's mind.

Iris and Trout believe that positioning is not what you do for a product itself, but what you do for the psychology of potential customers.That is to say, you have to determine a proper position for the product in the minds of potential customers: "Positioning begins with a product, a commodity, a service, a company, an institution, or even a person... ..." A company needs to develop and communicate a positioning strategy for each market segment (target market) it pursues.Therefore, product positioning is a strategic issue. The reason why it is a strategy is that it can help companies solve marketing mix problems.After the positioning strategy is determined, the 4P of marketing - product, price, channel, promotion and other tactics are also determined.

In addition, a positioning strategy directly affects how a product, brand, or business model works.Therefore, whether it is product positioning, brand positioning or corporate business model positioning, it is the core issue of corporate strategic operations and the starting point and end point of all corporate strategies. The target consumer of the product or the place where the advertisement is placed can be located in the low-end group or in the high-end group; it can be positioned in a certain market segment or in multiple market segments.If the enterprise develops to a multi-level and diversified level, the starting point of the positioning strategy must also be multi-level and diversified.

Before Galanz was born, microwave ovens were positioned as a household luxury with high prices.However, Galanz repositioned itself and positioned the microwave oven as an ordinary household appliance.Galanz obtains economies of scale by doing OEM for multinational companies, and then realizes large-scale sales through rigid price wars, making full use of production capacity and completing a closed-loop positioning of microwave ovens, enabling Galanz to successfully occupy from low-end to high-end High-end market segments. Huaqi Information uses the gourd-shaped market to analyze the current market situation in China, and divides the people who plan to buy computers or digital products into three levels: one is high-end, who need the best and most enjoyable products, and this group is called "upper gourd". The other is the middle-end market, which requires performance-price ratio. This group is called "the upper-end market of the lower gourd"; the third is the consumer group who are very sensitive to prices and dare to take quality risks to save money. This group is called "the lower end of the market". The lower end of the market for calabash”.Through market analysis, Huaqi Information has positioned its "Patriot" brand products in both the upper gourd market and the upper end of the lower gourd market. It will do both markets, but it will never set foot in the lower end market of the lower gourd.

Huaqi's positioning strategy has been successful.Taking MP3 as an example, Patriot is the first in the market, with a market share of 24.9%, leading the way, followed by Lenovo (15.2%), Zarva (6.5%), and Samsung, which Huaqi regards as its main competitor. Only 9.6%. In recent years, the biggest change in Chinese society is the rapid formation and rise of the urban middle class (with a monthly income of 3,000 to 10,000 yuan), and the rapid expansion and rejuvenation of the wealthy class (with a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan).The biggest change that class division has brought to the Chinese market in recent years is market segmentation and product segmentation, which has brought about the trend of media segmentation.From the perspective of the development of global marketing, the transformation trend from mass marketing to focus marketing is unstoppable.

The strength of Focus Group in its initial stage of growth determines that it is impossible to cover everything in the advertising market, and Jiang Nanchun's new business model "limits" the development of Focus Group to a certain segment of the market.Jiang Nanchun clearly knows that positioning is a strategic choice, not a word game.No matter what kind of growth direction Focus Media chooses, it must have a series of supporting positioning measures to assist, otherwise the concept of development will become a castle in the air, just "self-entertainment" like self-deception.Therefore, the growth of Focus Group requires the guidance and support of positioning strategies, and concentrates all possible energy on "doing something" for specific market groups, while temporarily "doing nothing" for other markets and group shares.

Therefore, the in-building TV created by Focus focuses on the middle- and high-income groups that traditional media cannot fully cover, and positions itself as a new media for middle- and high-income groups.Its core concept is to target a specific group with clear characteristics, and this group is precisely the main consumer or heavy consumer group of certain commodities and brands. Through Focus Media, advertisers can allow advertisements to hit the target audience most accurately and effectively, and in this way achieve the principle of minimizing media budget waste and support actual sales growth.

"Focus is to distinguish audiences. Focus media is to face a specific audience group, and this group can be clearly described and defined. This group happens to be the leading consumer group or heavy consumer group of certain products or brands." Jiang Nanchun This is how he explained his concept of focus. In fact, Focus Media has indeed insisted on focusing on mid-to-high-end office buildings since 2002. By 2004, it focused on office buildings and followed the life trajectory of other mid-to-high-end people, implanting LCD TVs in shopping malls, In hotels, airports and entertainment and leisure places.

It must be emphasized that Focus's positioning of the audience as "leading consumer groups or heavy consumer groups" is not just wishful thinking by Jiang Nanchun.If the positioning is only based on the imagination of the planners, it will lead to mistakes in the opposite direction. Unicom's CDMA mobile phone began to issue numbers in January 2002, positioning it in the middle and high-end market.China Unicom's wishful thinking is this: in the GSM business, firmly occupy the low-end market with a 20% lower than China Mobile's call charges; at the same time, use the upgraded CDMA network to compete for the high-end customer base of China Mobile's GSM business and obtain this user The huge profits of the group.One attack, one defense, and develop 7 million users within a year, thus completely changing the market situation that lags behind China Mobile.However, China Unicom's CDMA does not provide any real product advantages. It only has two selling points: green low radiation and clear voice. Since these two selling points are not attractive enough, the product positioning based on these two selling points also deviates from the target. The actual needs of market consumers.Since China Mobile's middle and high-end users are business people and social people with high call bills, they use their mobile phones very frequently, and the cost of changing numbers is too high.The "green" concept of China Unicom's CDMA and "clearer" voice are very attractive, but they are still far from enough to attract high-end market consumer groups.

In fact, after two years, there were only 800,000 CDMA users, including 440,000 users transferred from the Great Wall Network, and only 360,000 new users.Compared with the goal of developing 7 million users for the whole year, this number is really insignificant, and China Unicom's market positioning has proved to be a wishful failure. On the contrary, Focus has worked hard on positioning from the very beginning, carefully studying the differences in consumer needs. In fact, Jiang Nanchun, who is himself a member of the high-income group, feels the boredom of waiting for the elevator.The investment of Softbank Yu Wei after actual observation and market forecast has verified the accuracy of its positioning. Taking the initiative to accept the attraction of advertisements in the boredom of waiting, Focus Media has grasped the psychology of its target audience, firmly grasped the "eyeballs", and played the advantages of the building TV advertising platform.In the "combination of affection" between the two parties, Focus has found a stable profit model, Jiang Nanchun's positioning has been a great success, and all kinds of doubts about this have disappeared.In the subsequent development, under the core concept of "divided audience communication", the business form of Focus Media has been expanded and updated, and the business model is far more than just "capturing boredom". In this over-communicated society, after determining the positioning, we must stick to it.As Ellis and Trout said in the book "Positioning": "Positioning is a cumulative concept, an idea that focuses on the long-term characteristics of advertising." But persistence is not blindly unchanged.Change and invariance require a perfect grasp of quantity and quality. The positioning strategy has the characteristics of short-term stability and long-term adaptability. In the short term, the positioning should remain basically stable; but in the long term, it must be revised to adapt to new changes in the internal and external environment.But a common mistake in positioning is: stay the same when it needs to be adjusted, and change rashly when it should remain stable. FAW Group made a similar mistake when it changed the brand positioning of Hongqi sedan. It repositioned a high-end car in the eyes of Chinese people as a "car for section chiefs", and the brand value was completely lost.In contrast, the multinational Parmalat made the opposite mistake.Parmalat comes from a relatively mature and stable market. It is very stable and persistent in its positioning, and is out of touch with the rapid changes in the Chinese market. This makes us amazed at the flexibility and adaptability in the positioning of the Jiangnan Equinox, and the strategy in the actual operation of the change and invariance in the positioning. If Focus Media wants to continue to develop, it must find new creative models and segment new audience groups. Therefore, its positioning needs to be adjusted accordingly.Change and invariance are the embodiment of wisdom, rather than relying on the recklessness and arbitrariness of "a body full of guts". The success of Focus lies in accurately grasping the speed and timing of change and change. Focusing on middle and high-income groups is Focus's persistent positioning goal.When this market is gradually consolidating, Focus boldly expands its target audience to ordinary shoppers, and enters supermarkets and stores, but still insists on the concept of "Focus Communication". "Focus Media's store network uses 17-inch LCD and 42-inch PDP, and it is placed in the whole process from the escalator at the entrance to the shelves and passages of various cleaning products, cosmetics, edibles, frozen foods, fresh-keeping foods, etc., and then to the cash register. It covers the purchasing process of consumers, directly stimulates consumers' desire to purchase in the shopping state, and affects consumers' purchasing decisions." Under the guidance of the principle of accurate positioning, Focus Media acquired Kaiwei Dianbao, and developed a fixed-point mobile advertising delivery model that is accurate to people. The mobile phone, a private media platform, has made advertising bearers infinitely favored. In March 2007, after the acquisition of Allyes, Focus Online Advertising has maintained a strong growth momentum. According to the financial report data, the operating income of the Focus Internet segment in the third quarter was 340 million yuan, and the entire Internet revenue increased by 64.8% compared with the previous quarter. excess growth.Whether it is precisely positioned advertisements, video advertisements, the combination of AdExchange and CPA, or implanted advertisements in online games, they all show the characteristics of precise positioning. To find a unique position, one must abandon traditional logical thinking.Traditional logical thinking thinks that you have to find your ideas in yourself or your products, while positioning requires you to find them in the minds of prospective customers.Whether it is aimed at white-collar workers in the "knowledge era" or shoppers who are hesitant to buy, Focus has firmly grasped the concept of "Focus communication", and has continuously pushed the segmentation and precision to a deeper level. "Divide target groups and gather mainstream influence." Focus Media who has mastered the positioning strategy "plays" well has more than just a place in the target market?The three wings of wireless advertising, Internet advertising and digital out-of-home have enabled Focus Media to go further on the road of more accurate, more interactive and more vivid media development, and its vision of a digital media group is becoming a reality.Professor Huang Shengmin, dean of the School of Advertising, Communication University of China, believes that digital media is relatively more expressive. At the same time, it has made great breakthroughs in interactivity, precision and space-time constraints. It is a media form that is more suitable for the future communication model. The media caters to the needs of the Chinese advertising industry for technology, expressiveness and delivery accuracy, and its integrated marketing method will leverage a new growth point for Chinese advertising.