Don't do marketing! Be 'culture': a new way for overseas brands to penetrate the minds of overseas users

Culture is in a state of constant change, and brands have tremendous opportunities to not only engage themselves in cultural conversations, but also drive change forward.

—Erin Moran, Chief Revenue Officer, Warner Music Experience

The above statement comes from the latest view of the chief revenue officer of Warner Music Group's newly established "Warner Music Experience" division last year. As the world's leading brand of music copyright and services, Warner Music Group executives' remarks officially discovered the important role of popular culture represented by music in brand marketing.

In today's article, we will combine the relevant cases of top international brands, focus on this point of view and trend, summarize the methodology of brand awareness in the new marketing environment and through the management of popular culture, and share with you.

01

In-depth hip-hop culture, Sprite deeply resonates with core user groups

One of the most typical international brands that invest deeply in a particular pop culture is "Sprite".

Sprite featured rapper Kurtis Blow in ads for the brand as early as 1986 and continued into the 1990s, featuring an "I Like the Sprite in You" campaign featuring several of the decade's top artists .

In 1994, Sprite continued to use the "Obey Your Thirst" slogan, and continued to use hip-hop stars as the protagonists of the advertisement, which was welcomed by the hip-hop culture crowd.

Enter a subcultural field → be creative with concepts and images that are compatible with that cultural circle → persevere in consolidating this impression.

Ultimately, this link will help brands develop a "symbolic" brand perception within that cultural group.

This is the first layer of Sprite's deep cultivation in hip-hop culture.

People in both mainstream and subcultural circles change over time. The same is true for hip-hop culture, the early stars are getting older, and the younger groups in the circle are starting to admire new ideas and stars.

With the theme of "Thirst For Yours" in 2019, Sprite chose young hip-hop stars as the protagonists of Sprite's new brand activities.

According to group director Aaliyah Shafiq: "Our core fan base aged 13 to 24 cares deeply about not only talented artists, but also cultural curators and arbiters who have made their mark on the world." Connection is at the heart of Desire For You, and we're focusing on the audience's relevant passion points."

Sprite represents "passion" and "desire" → the core fan group of Sprite is 13-24 years old → the new star who can stimulate the "desire" of users in this age group is the main body that the brand should cooperate with.

Sprite's investment in hip-hop culture is long-term and changing. It is based on the insight of the target group and the judgment of the brand development stage, and it is a kind of feedback to users' desires. As a result, Sprite has become an iconic drink of hip-hop culture with its new cultural marketing campaign.

02

How do overseas brands dig into and penetrate into popular culture?

A brand that wants to occupy the minds of users must be a brand linked to "culture". Through Sprite's dedication and deep cultivation of hip-hop culture, we can find that to achieve an international brand requires constant investment in a certain culture and can impress relevant people in order to be successful.

Nowadays, various subcultural circles are flourishing through the role of social media, which also gives more opportunities for brands with small budgets and small audiences to reach users through culture.

This is especially true for overseas brands. In the past, we always emphasized that overseas social media marketing should be deeply "localized", and this localization also includes local culture. Nowadays, "Guess You Like" and "ForYou Recommendation" on social media are gradually breaking the geographical restrictions on the platform. Now it is a good opportunity for overseas brands to seize the opportunity to carry out more vertical "cultural marketing". Here we have 3 suggestions for overseas brands that want to carry out cultural marketing:

1--Embrace young people

Young people are the main users of today's social media platforms, and they are also the main body of cultural leadership and consumption. Therefore, if a brand wants to explore a cultural field suitable for its deep cultivation, it can take the lead in starting from the hobbies of the young group.

2--Really understand the culture

If you want to carry out cultural marketing, if you want to go deep into the minds of users, you can't do superficial work, but deeply understand the cultural field you want to enter. Through the "Material" - "Hot Topics" function of Marketing Cloud, you can discover popular hashtags from different platforms, industries, and time periods. You can also track these tags to keep abreast of the changing trends of the popular culture and adjust policies. .

3--Monitor the effect of cultural marketing

Once you’ve targeted a cultural area, when your brand starts to market around it on social media, it’s time to start monitoring its effectiveness. Does this cultural area fit with your brand? Are fans of that culture interested in your content? What kind of content can more arouse the interaction of fans?

Through the social media data report of Marketing Cloud, you can intuitively view the social media marketing data of a single post/social homepage, daily/weekly/monthly/six months/year, and use these data to guide your next marketing.

Epilogue

Influencing users from the cultural level is a grander marketing narrative for many brands. But in practice, as long as you know enough about the cultural field and fan group when formulating your strategy, you can take this measure to bind with a certain cultural trend regardless of the size of the brand, and wait for the influence of the cultural field. burst of power. For example, outdoor products are used in camping culture, such as health drinks in fitness culture. When a certain culture becomes popular, if your brand has already occupied the minds of users, it will take advantage of the trend from the niche to the public, and quickly leap to the end. Department location.

If you are interested in the "material", "data report" and other functions of Marketing Cloud mentioned in the article, please leave your contact information, and we will arrange a special person to contact you.