From Meituan’s “yellow is more smart” to Ele.me’s “blue must win”, and then to JD.com’s “red will win”, behind these seemingly accidental marketing cases, there is actually hidden wisdom in deep interaction between brands and users and co-creation of value. This article will delve into the core logic of “listening to persuasion marketing”, analyze the four-step landing rule behind it, and explore how brands can achieve brand value enhancement and user loyalty by listening to user voices, exploring creative inspiration, and stimulating user participation.
In recent years, “listening to persuasion marketing” has become very popular, and the most recent well-known case occurred in the food delivery platform war some time ago.
First, Meituan takeaway co-singer Huang Ling used the Shanghainese homophonic stalk “Huang’s Gengling” to create a brand association of “Meituan = easy to use”; Immediately afterwards, under the suggestion of netizens, Ele.me officially announced that actor Lan Yingying was the “must-win official” (“Blue must win”), and also publicly thanked the two proposed netizens and generously gave away 18.8 yuan × 365 days of year-round takeaway red envelopes; Subsequently, the melon-eating masses gave advice to JD.com and proposed to invite Hui Yinghong (“Red will win”) to endorse it, and JD.com really listened to the persuasion…… Several platforms
This marketing war of netizens’ suggestions and brand persuasion presents an atmosphere of enthusiastic interaction, comings and goings, natural tacit understanding, and fun, and the marketing content of several major platforms has created hundreds of millions of communication, which can be called a textbook-level success story of “listening to persuasion marketing”.
So, what exactly is “listening to persuasion marketing”? Why should brands “listen to persuasion” and how should they “market”?
01 Why did the brand start “listening to persuasion marketing”?
“Listening to persuasion marketing” is a new marketing model that has emerged in social media and online culture in recent years, and its core lies in the fact that brands actively listen to netizens’ suggestions (“listen to persuasion”) and quickly translate them into actual brand actions or marketing strategies.
To achieve these three challenges, product managers will only continue to appreciate
Good product managers are very scarce, and product managers who understand users, business, and data are still in demand when they go out of the Internet. On the contrary, if you only do simple communication, inefficient execution, and shallow thinking, I am afraid that you will not be able to go through the torrent of the next 3-5 years.
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On the one hand, brands can get suggestions on marketing creativity, product optimization, etc., and on the other hand, they can give fans, consumers, the public and other groups a sense of participation, emotional value and identity, which can be said to be “fame and fortune” and “win-win for each other”.
1. Accurately grasp user needs: The suggestions put forward by users often reflect their real needs and pain points, and brands listen to these suggestions to adjust products, services, and marketing accordingly to better meet customer needs and improve user experience.
2. Get marketing creative inspiration: Netizens’ ideas are often wild and can bring unexpected marketing ideas to brands. The three brands in the food delivery platform war have all excavated good ideas from netizens’ proposals, opening up a new situation in brand communication.
3. Low-cost acquisition of traffic and UGC content: After users make suggestions and see brand adoption, they will spontaneously carry out more secondary creation and secondary communication, forming a “tap water” effect, and traffic and UGC content will roll in.
4. Enhance user participation and belonging: When brands value and adopt user suggestions, users will feel that their opinions are respected, they will feel a closer connection between themselves and the brand, and enhance their sense of belonging to the brand.
5. Enhance brand affinity and trust: When a brand is willing to “listen to persuasion”, users will feel that the brand “understands me” and “down-to-earth”, and this interaction is easier to establish emotional links than traditional advertising.
02 How do brands carry out “listening and persuasion marketing”?
Even if it seems to be accidental, there must be an effective basic mechanism behind any successful marketing case, and ‘listening to persuasion marketing’ is no exception.
If a brand wants to carry out successful “listening and persuasion marketing”, it needs to put down its body to “be grounded”, open its ears to “listen to the voice”, plan “good ideas” with heart, and attract users to “participate”, in order to build its set of effective mechanisms to achieve in-depth interaction with users and the improvement of brand value.
1. Put down your body and be “grounded”
Brands should truly change the traditional thinking of one-way communication, establish the awareness of listening to users’ voices, and be willing to lean down and have an equal dialogue with users. When brands no longer issue instructions or promote products in a high-ranking posture, they take the initiative to approach users’ lives and contexts as friends, partners, or even students, and understand their real needs and emotional demands.
To do this, brand communication usually needs to be more people-friendly in communication language, interaction methods and image building, such as using everyday and interesting expressions, integrating into online pop culture and meme culture, and creating a charismatic brand account to make users feel cordial rather than alienated.
At the same time, the brand’s response to users should be warm and sincere, whether it is to adopt suggestions or face criticism, it must reflect respect and attention to users, rather than a formal response, this down-to-earth communication method allows the brand to get closer to users, make the brand more real and more resonant, and lay the foundation for the subsequent hearing of users’ voices, in-depth interaction and co-creation and co-creation.
2. Open your ears to “listen to your heart”
Therefore, the establishment of a listening mechanism is the basis of “listening to persuasion marketing”, which requires the establishment of a systematic and multi-channel listening mechanism. Users’ voices are scattered in every corner, and brands can only extract valuable feedback and insights from this information by proactively capturing, organizing, and analyzing this information.
Social media is an important platform for users to express their views, and brands can track users’ discussions about brands in real time through social positions such as Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Bilibili, combined with keyword monitoring tools, and grasp public opinion dynamics and hot trends in a timely manner.
The user community is one of the core channels for brands to obtain direct feedback, whether it is WeChat groups, QQ groups, brand forums, and fan communities, which are active spaces for users to spontaneously communicate and share experiences, where brands can observe user emotions and understand real needs up close.
In addition, brands can also actively guide users to express their ideas and stimulate their enthusiasm for participation by regularly conducting opinion collection activities, such as “idea competitions”, “product naming voting”, and “spokesperson recommendations”. There is also the most overlooked but most real source of feedback: front-line customer service, which receives a large number of user suggestions and complaints every day, and by systematically summarizing and analyzing this information, brands can more accurately grasp user pain points.
Establishing such a three-dimensional listening network not only provides solid data support for “listening and persuasion marketing”, but also allows brands to always resonate with users.
3. Plan “good ideas” with your heart
“Listening to persuasion” is only the starting point, “marketing” is the key, and good “marketing” needs “good ideas”, brands must not simply and rudely copy and paste the suggestions of netizens, but should regard it as a precious “creative seed”, and organize internal and external teams to carefully plan “good ideas” that can go out on the street.
Digging deeper into the fit between user suggestions and brands is key to planning a “good idea”. For example, in the food delivery platform war, JD.com invited Hui Yinghong to endorse it, not only because “red” matches the brand color and “Huiying” is homophonic “will win”, but also takes into account Hui Yinghong’s status in the film industry, life experience and the meaning of the word “Hui” means affordable and other factors, which is highly consistent with JD.com’s concept of “how fast and good to save”, thus strengthening the connection between the brand and the spokesperson.
Combining popular culture and social hotspots is an important starting point for improving the quality of creativity. Brands should always pay attention to current popular topics, language styles, and cultural trends, and try to incorporate them into marketing campaigns to make brand content more acceptable and shared by target audiences.
In addition, the impact of innovative expression and communication channels on creative quality is also important, and traditional marketing forms and communication channels have been difficult to attract users’ attention. Brands need to constantly innovate forms of expression and use novel creative techniques, such as short videos, animations, interactive games, etc., to make marketing content more vivid, interesting and engaging. At the same time, pay attention to choosing appropriate communication channels according to different creative content and target audiences. For example, for young audiences, you can choose to spread it on short video platforms such as Douyin and Bilibili.
4. Attract users to “participate together”
It is best to allow users to change from the initial “suggestor” to a deeply involved “co-creator” and an active communication “evangelist”, so as to not only amplify the marketing effect, but also greatly enhance the user’s loyalty and sense of belonging, which requires the design of an effective participation mechanism and incentive system.
Brands should recognize proposers and reinforce their sense of participation and honor. Especially when users make suggestions, brands should attach great importance and recognition to them, such as mentioning the proposer with user consent in official announcements, social media platforms, and commercials, or clearly stating in marketing activities that “this creative inspiration comes from enthusiastic user @XX” to make the proposer’s name known to more people. This high-profile acknowledgment can make the proposer feel that their efforts have been fully recognized by the brand, and it can also inspire other users to actively make suggestions.
Design appropriate rewards to give back to incentivize “participants”, which can be material rewards such as cash, red envelopes, products, coupons, etc., or spiritual rewards. Spiritual rewards should be personalized as much as possible to make them more commemorative, such as using special materials and processes, printing user names, honorary titles, suggested content and brand thanks. You can also give certain “participation privileges” as rewards, such as visiting brand factories, participating in product design, participating in product launches, etc., which not only makes users feel appreciated and recognized, but also allows them to get a deeper brand experience.
To attract more users to participate, brands should pay attention to lowering the participation threshold and incentivizing participants. For example, try to simplify the process and activity rules, reduce the cost of participation, design a variety of interactive gameplay, and hold a lottery for participating users, so that more users have enthusiasm and ability to participate.
Brands should actively build a UGG display stage so that users’ excellent achievements can be fully displayed and disseminated. You can cooperate with public platforms such as Bilibili, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu to create brand (activity) areas or create hot topics, and you can also set up UGC areas on your own platforms such as the brand’s official website and official account to display and spread the content created by users and stimulate more secondary communication.
03 Some tips about “listening to persuasion marketing”
In the process of writing this article, I had a more in-depth exchange with many peers who have successfully carried out “listening to persuasion marketing”, and finally some tips to share with you.
In the process of carrying out “listening to persuasion marketing”, brands should maintain sincerity and avoid “routines”. If it is only a formal “listening to persuasion”, in fact, it will cause users to be disgusted by the suggestions, and the brand must let users feel their sincerity and win more user recognition and support with practical actions.
Quick response and decision-making ability are particularly important for the success of “listening to persuasion marketing”. Hot topics are fleeting, and brands need to have keen insight to capture netizens’ ideas and suggestions in a timely manner and quickly translate them into practical actions. Only in this way can the brand’s “listening to persuasion marketing” action seize the opportunity and win attention.
Additionally, balance user suggestions with your brand’s core values. While listening to the voices of users, brands must adhere to the core values of the brand and avoid falling into the dilemma of “creative fragmentation” due to over-reliance on user suggestions, or even being coerced by public opinion and deviating from the direction of brand development. Only by maintaining the stability and consistency of the brand’s core values can “listening to persuasion marketing” can help the long-term development of the brand and the accumulation of brand equity while meeting the needs of users.
epilogue
In the current era of increasing user voice, “listening to persuasion marketing” is no longer an accidental communication phenomenon, but an important strategy for brands to establish deep connections with users, achieve emotional resonance and create value. It not only reflects the brand’s respect and response to users, but also represents a user-centric brand operation philosophy.
In the future, with the further development of social platforms and the rise of Generation Z’s consumer power, users’ expectations for brands will also become higher and higher. “Listening and persuasion marketing” may be just the starting point, and future brands may move towards more advanced “empathy marketing”, “co-creation marketing” and even “symbiotic marketing”.
But in any case, brands that can hear users’ voices, understand user emotions, and respond to user expectations will eventually stand out in the fierce market competition.
So, if you’re a brand, keep one sentence in mind:
“Listening to persuasion” is not only a marketing strategy, but also a brand attitude.
