Marketing Should Be People-Oriented

   《長尾理論》在2006年年底發行中文版后，我就迫不及待地買來拜讀，讀后對互聯網的前景甚感激動和驚恐，激動的是互聯網的繁榮方興未艾，驚恐的是中國白酒市場在電子商務領域的落后會使得它被互聯網無情雪藏。惴惴不安中我曾苦思應用之策，終不得解。 

In May 2009, I learned that the "Long Tail Theory 2" was published again, and I thought that this "expansion and upgrading edition" must have the answer I wanted, and then I bought it quickly.

But after reading the whole book, it is difficult to conceal disappointment. The long tail theory 2 version only added 38 pages of two chapters compared to the previous edition, and elaborated the long tail history and the long tail marketing respectively.

Although the author strongly encourages the long tail not to exist in the entertainment industry in the 2 version, the mass market is still a big gap between the long tail market and the Chinese liquor market.

The long tail theory 2 reflects the trend of disintegration and individualization, and some people are happy to worry about others.

The rise of the long tail market and Luo Guanzhong's statement in the head of the romance of the Three Kingdoms, "saying the general trend of the world, separating each other from time to time, and dividing it together", seems to be that great minds think alike.

If the traditional 80/20 rule reflects the phenomenon of "popularity", and the long tail theory of the niche market reflects the phenomenon of "individualization" rising in a wide range, then from "closing" to "dividing" is just an outcome of "potential". And then we will not ask: "who is going to accomplish the" combination "after" long range customization "?

To a certain extent, the division and combination of the general trend of the world reflects the process of national integration. What is the power to open the long tail from the rise of the "popular" to the "long tail"?

The answer to economic theory is always so difficult and convincing. Even in the long tail theory 2, the author also tirelessly points out that the power to dominate the long tail comes from culture - niche culture.

And the development of culture will inevitably have its own laws. In addition to going back to the argument of "returning to the economic base and deciding the superstructure", this inevitable rule is, in my view, the rule of necessity is people-oriented.

As Anderson said, in the physics based "short head" economy, 20% of the "big hits" bring 80% economic benefits, which can certainly become one of the reasons for people to worship the "big hot". But at the same time, it is precisely because of physical constraints, information asymmetry and sharing is very common, that makes people have to face the reality of their own individual needs, and to pursue as far as possible the general sense of satisfaction, this is the "common" demand.

When the demand for individuality is hopeless, people can not limit themselves to despair, and then go back to the pursuit of "commonality".

In the 60s and 70s of last century, people often said and sang "we have common ideals, beliefs and beliefs", wearing almost uniform blue shirts, black trousers, and even hair styles are the classic bangs or middle points. This is the "fashionable" charm of the "generality" era.

This charm has been magnified and finally become a social culture, and the behavior of consumers is called "herding effect".

Under the pressure of "universal" culture, the emergence of "individuality" is often ended by tragedies condemn by public opinion. At this time, the "people" in the people-oriented group are more of the role of group people.

In the era of rich economics, the great development of productivity has brought the prosperity of the market economy. The Internet has come into being and become an infinite "shelf". Information is more open and pparent. Sharing becomes simple, feasible and trustworthy. No matter how many products you have in the series, style and type can be put on the big shelf of the Internet, consumers can easily find some absurd goods in the past by using some search engines or professional or classified websites.

In the information age, people's pursuit of "commonality" is often focused on the time when a nation or a nation faces major disasters or challenges.

"Unity is strength". It is the natural release of people at this time to show the spirit and temperament of a nation.

In daily life, more often than not, people refuse to be mediocre, do everything possible to evade popularity, and strive to pursue alternative or personal publicity. Students must seek professional skills. White collar workers must seek to be independent. Products must seek novelty and creativity, and services will seek unique experience.

In the field of consumption and entertainment, the post-1980s and even post-90s show their personality exaggerated and vivid words and deeds.

Although the "personality" or "alternative" in the current society has not yet grown into the situation of hundreds of millions of people singing together, "maintaining a healthy personality" is a consensus among the older, middle, young and younger generations.

In this niche culture, the vitality of individuation is more and more powerful. Although "ordinary ordinary" also has no harm, people have wavered in its support. Even pursuing and maintaining "normal mind" has become the realm of sage and wise men.

To put it in a nutshell, the realization of the goal of marketing from group to individual is the root cause of the rise of the long tail market, which is essentially people-oriented.

In the popular 80/20 era, marketing groups are mostly men, women, old people, young people, children, workers, peasants, northerners and southerners.

In the long tail era, the individual individuals differentiated by marketing reflect the idea of "lean" positioning. The basis of individual positioning is shared interests and hobbies. The situation that a businessman provides only goods and services for one person is no longer news. This is unimaginable in the past, and it is still unrealistic in many industries and fields. But in the end, the long tail businesses provide long tail goods and services for the long tail individual consumers.

If we grasp the essence of "people first", we can show that any industry can carry out long tail marketing in any field, because "people-oriented" exists in our economic and social life.

As far as Chinese liquor industry is concerned, though it is impossible for us to individualize the production of the only bottle of wine for every consumer, the product is not the only content of marketing.

In addition to products, we can provide consumers with one to one personalized service, establish a platform for personalized interaction and interaction with consumers, even though they sometimes can not achieve the goal of one to one, but this pursuit of personalized satisfaction marketing reflects more humanistic concern in shaping product brand image and culture, and is more easily recognized and trusted by consumers.

Similarly, if the "customer paction" in marketing is regarded as "short head", then a series of work before and after the paction is made up of the "long tail". There is no doubt that this series of "long tail" work is very important and we are not doing enough.

    長尾并不遙遠，就在我們的工作中。想到此，我也豁然開朗，那種“先天下之憂而憂”的惆悵已不復存在。我們一直在追求以人為本，現在只需向人的個性化去落實，而我們每一位營銷人員也大可以在自己的工作中體現個性化，挖掘工作的長尾。生命遺傳科學告訴我們，一個充滿個性化基因的人類社會注定具有強大的生命力，而當人類的個性化基因充分發展發達后，勢必要再次進行融合以進化為更高級的基因。這似乎又應驗了那句“合久必分，分久必合”的老話，而當長尾市場被終結之后，人類將迎來更燦爛和輝煌的明天。