Lining, Who Lacks &Nbsp.

You bet, Viral marketing It has many advantages such as low cost, fast dissemination, great influence, close integration with brand / product, and audience's willingness to accept. But this marketing method also has a fatal weakness. Marketing Uncertainty of process.

In November 30, 2010, a netizen named "liningf2" uploaded a video on the US "Youtube.com" website titled "Customs Harasses ManoverLi-NingShoes" (customs harassed Li Ningxie), thus unveiled the prelude to the Lining brand F2 series sneakers landing on the American market.

The main plot of the video is that a Chinese young man was troubled by customs officials when he passed the US customs, because the Lining sports shoes he carried had aroused suspicion from the other side. After the young people explained the advantages of the sneakers and let the customs officers personally try them, the shoes were appreciated and recognized by the other side. Customs officers readily released and happily said, "welcome to the United States, Lining."

Excellent Originality

In terms of video itself, it shows the courage of Lining brand to break the shackles in marketing, and provides a good reference for Chinese brands trying to attack overseas markets.

First of all, in terms of personnel selection, the roles of customs officers in videos are Donnell Rawlings and Gerry Bednob, all of which are popular dramas in the United States.

Secondly, in the plot arrangement, a large number of humorous elements were added to the video, such as the lines "I am leaning (LI-NING) towards kicking your ass" (I am inclined to beat you) by using Lining (Li-Ning) and the word leaning (homophonic) homophones, and the "cat and mouse" basketball frame falling pictures and so on, making the entire video a small humorous play.

Finally, in terms of delivery channels, Lining brand did not choose traditional TV media. Instead, it only put the video on the Internet and took the route of viral marketing, which is consistent with the transformation of Lining brand to the younger generation and the F2 product series targeting young audiences.

All these aspects reflect the efforts of localization and juvenization of Lining's brand marketing operation, and maintain a good sense of integrity and consistency in the three points of "brand product marketing program".

The video from some overseas viewers can see that this video is indeed quite successful, and it is praised by most people. Its humorous elements are especially used by audiences. It can be seen that it is quite wise for Lining brand to use the local advertising agency to create this video, thus successfully overcome the cultural differences that Chinese brands often encounter in the US market.

Failure propagation

Unfortunately, in terms of viral marketing, the excellence of video itself is not the same as the success of marketing programs. Judging from the actual effect, the marketing campaign of Lining brand can be regarded as two words of "failure".

The video was launched on Youtube in November 30th. As of December 22nd, there were more than 37 thousand hits in more than 20 days, less than 2000 of daily browsing, 83 collections and 27 visits. This level of transmission is not a virus at all, but at the very least it is a kind of culture that is used to entertain ourselves in the laboratory.

From the data provided by Youtube, we can see that the external chain of the video at other sites is quite limited. Apart from embedding on Twitter and Facebook, only 8 other sites have referenced the video, and all the personal blog with motif theme of sports equipment is playing about one thousand or two thousand. {page_break}

In addition, Youtube data show that the audience of this video is mainly male, and is distributed in the three age ranges of 25~34, 35~44 and 45~54. If this data is accurate, the actual audience will obviously deviate from the F2 series positioning with fashion cool as the selling point and the target of "post-90s" as the target group.

Uncontrollable "virus"

The idea of creating unique ideas, making elaborate videos, and putting them out are not noticed. The result is really sighing, but it also embodies the other side of the double-edged sword of "viral marketing".

As one of the most popular marketing terms in recent years, the word "virus" has made many people feel good about it at first sight. Indeed, viral marketing has many advantages such as low cost, fast dissemination, great influence, close integration with brand / product, and audience's willingness to accept. But this marketing method also has a fatal weakness, that is, the uncertainty of the whole marketing process.

This uncertainty is mainly reflected in three aspects:

The target of viral marketing is uncertain.

Unlike traditional marketing based on STP+4P analysis, viral marketing is striving for inaccuracy because it contradicts the "broad blow". As the word "virus" stands for, it's a tool that doesn't divide people's characteristics. It's hard for you to create an effective virus for a housewife who is only 25~35 years old, loves cooking and children, just like you can't make a cold that only infects this group of people.

The process of viral marketing is uncertain.

In the legend of viral marketing, there is a Longmen called "TippingPoint", which is similar to the "fuse" or "critical value". According to legend, as long as you pass this critical point, you can reach a virus level.

This is pretty good in theory, but in practice, "TippingPoint" is more like an afterthought. When everything happens, you know that in the whole process, an event becomes the critical point for the virus to break out, but before it happens, you can only be lost in the future. This uncertainty of control makes viral marketing a dispensable snack rather than an indispensable daily meal.

The result of viral marketing is uncertain.

There is a significant difference between viral marketing and word of mouth marketing. Word of mouth marketing strives to control goals, processes and outcomes, especially the results must be positive, and viral marketing totally disregards them. The purpose of the virus is to "let everyone know about this." as for knowing how to judge and act in the future, it is not in the context of virus control.

This feeling is: no matter good reputation or bad reputation, it is good to have a name.

"Stir up" for the upper part

Because of this lack of controllability of fundamental defects, in the use of viral marketing, instead of more general marketing tools to spend more thoughts, as much as possible to increase the control of the viral marketing process.

Most of the successful cases of viral marketing are induced by human beings. To speak plainly, it is "hype". If Party A does not want to spend money on water, it will have more time to do speculation, and plan the time and path of the outbreak of the virus and ensure that it will not be implemented.

In this case, there is a case of Wang Laoji's "ban Wang Laoji" in China. There are overseas YaelNaim singers who are popular with apple notebook MacbookAir advertising, not to mention the Internet topics such as Jia Junpeng, Feng Jie, Tianya Xiao Yue and so on.

These seemingly random "explosive" events are the models of viral marketing, which are artificially planned. If the Lining brand is more involved in the dissemination of video, Lining F2's advertising video can reach a wider audience, creating a great momentum for Lining's new series landing on the United States.