He built a "left Bank Cafe" that does not exist but really exists in the hearts of consumers.

/ Ye Minggui / tr. by Phil Newell)

There is a left bank cafe, ── Beauty comes from solving the most real business problems.

Is there a "left Bank Cafe" on the banks of the Seine in Paris? It doesn't matter. What matters is that consumers believe there is.

The story of the left Bank Cafe begins with a bulletin board.

Title: the Technology and Art of Brand: learning Insight and storytelling from Advertising Ghost Ye Minggui

Author: Ye Minggui

Press: published by the Times

Publication date: April 25, 2017

A glass frame is designed on the door of the conference room of Tainan Unification Company to facilitate people outside the conference room to inform people in the meeting that "someone is looking for someone" through the listing of the subtitles on the small blackboard.

On that day, I saw the words "Omeye Associate external search" hanging on the door. I came out of the unified conference room. It turned out that it was Yang Wenlong, the minister of the dairy department, looking for me. "most of the unified drinks are sold through the packaging of Tetra Pak bags, but Tetra Pak bags are expected to cost 10 yuan per pack, and no matter how high they are, they can't be sold," he said. " I thought yes, the last product I received, ──, a children's health drink containing 18 vitamins and minerals, sold for only 12 yuan a pack, but it just didn't sell well. Manager Yang then said, "now the cost of materials is getting higher and higher, but the spell that Tetra Pak can only sell for 10 yuan cannot be broken. In this way, our gross profit will not be as high as it should be, so we found a new package." Manager Yang took out a white plastic cup that looked like McDonald's and then said, "We want to put the drink in this cup and sell it for 25 yuan!" So I took on a new business and started a new task.

If you raise the price of something worth 10 yuan to 25 yuan, the task of communication is to inject a premium of 15 yuan.

This is a good example of a business project. I often get instructions on "how to expand my business?" , "achieve sales", "raise awareness", "increase goodwill" …... Wait, this is meaningless nonsense, it's not a real business issue. If any commercial organization or company industry does not know where its business should come from, basically, do not buy the shares of this company, and its marketers must not poach, because they do not even have the most basic discipline in doing business. the company has only financial goals, but no business strategy, and relies on consultants or advertising agencies to do its most basic homework. It is not only irresponsible but also impractical. However, in order to keep the business, most agents often deceive themselves to exaggerate their ability in this marketing, and call it consumer-oriented marketing thinking.

Let's sell coffee.

The left Bank Cafe product, because it started with a real and specific business topic, can focus all marketing and communication ideas and practices on the most important mission: how to put this package on the shelf, worth 25 Taiwan dollars (5 yuan)? Based on this business project, I began a series of follow-up actions. First of all, which product category should be selected and put into this cup to establish the take-off market of this package?

I thought about it: fresh milk, fruit juice, even beer, red wine, but finally chose coffee. Because alcohol cannot be strictly sealed, and the price of coffee has greater flexibility, a cup of freshly ground coffee can be sold for 20 yuan or 200 yuan. Most people are relatively weak in their ability to distinguish between good and bad coffee. As a result, coffee drinks are more likely to influence pricing because of their image.

Then we did a purposeful investigation. Most of the survey work lacks sufficient assumptions, so that at the end of the research work, there is not only no conclusion, but also difficult to find enough inspiration. But the main axis of my research is very clear: examine the impact of different product interfaces on prices, for example, what color packaging can make you feel the most advanced? I learned not white, not black, not brown, but dark blue. Unfortunately, it was not agreed by the customers at that time, who felt that coffee should be brown. In fact, the correlation derived from the use of textual logic is the most misleading. The dark blue I tested was later used by Benazon Coffee. I guess Weiquan did not use research methods to guide them in the choice of packaging color, but with an intuitive decision, guessed the most suitable packaging coffee color dark blue. Years later, Benazon's successful listing threatened the business of the left Bank Cafe, and I was bitter about not insisting on dark blue packaging.

At the same time, I also tested the prototypes of four brand stories. Which cup of coffee are you willing to give the highest value?

1. This is the signature coffee from a boutique coffee shop in Japan.

This cup of coffee comes from a banquet at the British Prime Minister's official residence.

3. This cup of coffee comes from the VIP in first class.

This cup of coffee comes from the cafe gathered by philosophers in Paris, France.

The answer is 4, the cup of coffee that many philosophers like to visit the old cafe is the most valuable from a certain place on the left bank of the Seine in France! So the brand prototype of the cafe was determined through dialogue with consumers based on a clear business topic. as for the name of "left Bank Cafe," it was heard at that time that a unified senior executive had a problem with the name of left Bank. He thought that it should be changed to "right Bank Cafe," because Taiwan is located on the right bank of the Strait, and obviously his advice was not accepted by the marketing and advertising team. It is his greatness that we are not forced to accept his opinions. I find that the charm of a first-class leader usually comes not from his ability to express, but from his ability to listen.

In order to make the left bank cafe "very French", so as to satisfy the high-priced image of individuals because of their worship of France, we specially sponsor the "French National Day charity bazaar" organized by French representatives in Taiwan. In the lobby of five-star hotels, you can see the bazaar stalls of various sponsors, including French perfume, French cosmetics, French clothing, French trade, Air France, all French goods. There was only one Le cafe that the French had never heard of. However, the guests at the scene did not doubt him and could only blame themselves for not being knowledgeable and knowledgeable enough. It is said that on the day of the French National Day, we also put radio advertisements on the International Radio to celebrate the French National Day, and we also co-organized several French film exhibitions with the French business consul. In short, the left Bank Cafe needs French ancestry and French DNA to bless our high prices.

Left Bank Cafe Marketing copywriter.

Make it a brand platform.

The left Bank Cafe is a platform with brand concept, which should be the most advanced communication idea at that time. At that time, I particularly emphasized that the left Bank Cafe was a coffee "shop" rather than a coffee product. We used the concept platform of coffee "shop". A more accurate description is a coffee shop gathered by literati on the left bank of the Seine, France, using this conceptual platform to build a brand. And through this conceptual platform to extend all our ideas in contact with consumption, not only advertising but all-round marketing communication. In the past two years, digital media has gradually replaced traditional mass media. In response to this trend, the whole world is keen to promote the so-called "platform Idea". For me, it has long been the first to practice it, but there are not so many technical terms that have been packaged at that time.

Since the platform of the brand is a coffee shop, I planned the future product extension of the left bank cafe according to the coffee shop at that time, and the menu of the coffee shop is the best reference. Generally speaking, the drinks and snacks sold in French cafes are the products that can be produced by left bank cafes. I suggest to Uni-President: with the successful listing of the left Bank Cafe, we should launch the left Bank Cheese Cake, Brownie, left Bank Ice Cream and left Bank Tea series one after another, so that the left Bank Cafe can become an inter-departmental brand. Let the unified bread, unified ice products, unified beverage department jointly own this brand, jointly invest the advertising budget to increase the volume of the left bank cafe, and expand the brand influence of the left bank cafe. My proposal was approved by Yan Boming, Vice President of Unified Executive, and later Cream Caramel and light cheese cakes were produced at the left Bank Cafe.

With the brand concept platform, it can also give us inspiration in marketing. I suggest that Yan Boming can set up a mini refrigerator in the supermarket and become a special refrigerator for the left bank cafe. The refrigerator will be aesthetically decorated into the concept of a small shop. Coffee, milk tea, cheesecake, frozen pudding and even ice cream from the left bank cafe are all placed in this mini refrigerator. On the one hand, it increases access to channels, and on the other hand, it also strengthens the brand stories authorized by cafes on the left bank of France to sell in Taiwan.

The platform design of this cafe is also the best presentation in my experience to help creative partners come up with ideas. I said to my creative team, "We are not selling coffee now, we are running a coffee shop." So the creative space when thinking as a whole is not only a different space, but also a larger creative space, which makes the whole process of work more interesting and meaningful.

In order to make the left Bank Cafe very French, I once had a fake idea: to register an official website account in France, so that I had a URL ending with fr. When you enter the official website of xxxx.com.fr, you will see a whole page of French that you can't understand. There is only two words in the corner that you can understand, with the word "Chinese" written on it. Press Chinese to return to the official website of a normal left Bank Cafe, introducing the brand stories and product lines of the left Bank Cafe, as well as various travel notes and guides for visiting Paris. If you have doubts or do not give up to look up the French content on the home page, you will understand that the French on the front page is an apology notice informing this official website that it is being revised. To build a brand, we must go all out and don't let go of any details.

A product injected into the soul

After the successful launch of left Bank Coffee, we did several focus interviews on brand testing. Eight or nine loyal left Bank users gathered in one room to share their love for left Bank Cafe. The last question of the forum was asked: "do you believe there is such a left bank cafe in the world?" All the interviewees were stunned by this sudden question for a few seconds, wondering if they didn't. Smart consumers still realized that it was a marketing story, and one of the interviewees finally opened her mouth and said, "I hope so!"

Do you believe that there is really Santa Claus in the world? I hope so, because if there is no Santa Claus in this world, then how much less happiness will be lost in this world, and the world will not be perfect. The left Bank Cafe is also an ideal cafe in people's minds. People enjoy loneliness and loneliness in this readily accessible fantasy.

Advertising can inject the soul into the product, so that people can imagine more when they enjoy the product, add more enjoyment, and increase the value of the product, which is the value of the brand, which is the principle that the same product may sell for higher value.

● article is excerpted from "Brand Technology and Art: learning Insight and storytelling from Advertising Ghost Ye Minggui" published by the Times.

Brief introduction of the author: Ye Minggui

Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Vice Chairman and Strategy Director of Ogilvy & Mather Group, graduated from Fairfield University of Connecticut (Fairfield University) with a master's degree in communication. At present, he is both the advertising operator (vice chairman) and the creator (long strategy) of Ogilvy. Joined Cathay Pacific Construction Advertising (the predecessor of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising) in 1984, started from business planning, and has been promoted to one of Taiwan's top decision makers for more than 30 years. It has created numerous popular image advertisements and brand awareness for many well-known enterprises, and has operated more than 200 customers and brands, including Maxwell Coffee and left Bank Coffee that impresses all Taiwanese. And the recent Chaliwang, Quan Lian and high-speed rail. He has won numerous awards, and the advertisements he has handled can be said to be a history of Taiwan advertising and can be called a genius in Taiwan's advertising industry.

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