Brand Upgrading, New Marketing Challenges

Over the past one hundred years, marketing has targeted two categories of people: the poor and the rich. In twenty-first Century, the marketing target was redefined as two categories: the elderly and the young.

The pattern of the new marketing era has changed: who has won the new human race, who has won the initiative of marketing: super girl, Han Han, music cellphone, post-80s, post-90s...

Hilary, from a simple girl with a wide eyeglasses, became the president's wife who led the fashion trend in the United States, and then became the US presidential candidate. His personal brand has been rising frequently in different times and in different situations.

This is a story of "brand rising", which is worth learning by Chinese enterprises.

In the era of rapid growth of the brand, local enterprises are facing a new topic -- the rise of brands.

The promotion of brand includes many aspects, such as sublimating the vision of enterprise, young brand image, brand difference, building entrepreneur image, spreading brand story, inputting emotional factors, foreshadowing brand expansion foreshadowing and so on.

If the software needs to be updated at any time, the brand also needs to be promoted.

Upgrading is the strategy of constantly upgrading the brand from inside to outside through continuous self-renewal, so as to make the enterprise brand keep pace with the times, advance with consumers, adjust measures to local conditions, and continue to move towards the top of "brand Pyramid".

The function of a brand is to clarify product attributes, commitment product value, sustenance of consumer experience, consumer sentiment, and self realization.

But the function of the brand will change with the development of the economy, the change of the market environment, the growth of consumer psychology and the change of the environment.

Li Guangdou, a famous marketing expert, believes that the change of brand function has gone through four stages.

    第一階段，功能型品牌——品牌成為品類代名詞。當你想吃漢堡的時候你會想到什么？麥當勞；當你想吃火鍋的時候你會想到什么？小肥羊；當你患感冒不舒服的時候你會想到什么？康泰克……這些品牌已經成為了品類的代名詞，當消費者進行消費的時候，對某個品類的商品的需求要落實到一些特定的品牌上。這時候，能被消費者首先想起的品牌往往成為了首選的消費對象，這就是“品類優勢”，這就是“代名詞作用”，這就是“功能型品牌”的意義。 

    第二階段，形象型品牌——品牌成為身份象征。奔馳汽車和捷達汽車在“代步”、“馬力”、“速度”功能上幾近相同，在“舒適性”、“安全性”方面的差異也遠遠沒有在價格上差異的那么大。那究竟是什么原因，能夠讓中國成千上萬的老板集體選購奔馳車，甚至不惜持幣待購呢？因為“奔馳”代表了一種形象。這種形象既為汽車貼上了一個“高價、優質、安全、舒適”的標簽，又為消費者帶上一個“貴族、有錢人、有實力”的光環。形象型品牌是“消費者形象”的表征，消費者借助消費行為表達和傳遞某種意義和信息，包括其地位、身份、個性、品位、情趣和認同。此時，品牌是消費者的標簽。 

    第三階段，體驗型品牌——讓消費者成為品牌的一部分。消費者為什么會對高價咖啡產生興趣？原因在于溫暖而具有現代感的環境、輕松愉快的格調、高素質的服務員，共同營造了一個“小資聚集地”的氛圍，這就是濃重的“小資體驗”。在這個過程中，消費者的行為體驗構成了品牌核心價值中最重要的一個因素。 

The key to experiential brand is to define a desired self in the eyes of consumers, to turn the concept into a code of conduct that can be implemented, and to enable consumers to agree with this criterion, and to build their own and consumer behavior processes and emotional experiences into a part of brand guidelines.

    第四階段，情感型品牌——讓消費者愛上品牌。品牌功能的最高境界就是品牌與消費者建立牢固的私密關系，成為“相見恨晚”、“情投意合”，甚至“肝膽相照”、“兩肋插刀”的朋友；就是品牌讓消費者的消費行為變成了“自發、自愿”的行為；就是品牌成為承諾、成為偏愛、成為依賴。品牌功能的最高境界，就是“情感型的品牌”。 

The market environment is changing, consumers are changing, and competitors are making progress. The old brand will just go back and forth, or consume the brand assets.

In the face of the new marketing environment, the brand should also carry out a revolution with the times.

Li Jiacheng said: "the most valuable asset of an enterprise is that part of the assets that have not been included in the balance sheet."

This is brand value.

The brand contains the sense of quality, the brand promises to the consumer, the brand attaches a unique label to the product, the brand lets the consumer feel oneself is different, the brand condenses the consumer's sense of belonging, the brand gives the enterprise spirit.