【Yibang Original】On November 30, at the 2023 Yibang Future Retail Annual Conference, Daniel Zhang, founder of Baixiaot, delivered a speech entitled "Brand is an Ultimate Commitment". He pointed out that to make consumer goods, we must use philosophical insights to seek principle-level solutions. Bai Xiaot's idea is to find opportunities to equate categories and brands in a very narrow field, first be unique, then be the first, and finally slowly eat the overall situation.
Daniel Zhang emphasized that the founder of consumer goods must be solving human desires, and satisfying needs at the same time is the only direction of business evolution. Therefore, what Bai Xiaot pays attention to and thinks about is "whether a white dress will be dirty".
At the same time, in Daniel Zhang's view, brands should also assume the responsibility of solving social problems, and brands are a comprehensive commitment to solving this social problem. As a result, Bai Xiaot proposed an "escort plan" to clean, disinfect and package the idle clothes of consumers and send them to Africa, exchange them for local local products by bartering, and finally send the local products back to the users who exchange clothes.
He believes that when a brand solves a social problem, it is no longer a dispensable enterprise. This also invisibly establishes the brand positioning.
Tips: This article is a preliminary review draft of shorthand, and it is edited and organized by Ebang Power on the basis of not affecting the original meaning.
The following is a transcript of the speech:
Seeing a lot of old friends, I attended a similar forum in Beijing two days ago on the topic of giving certainty to the world. How is that possible?How is it possible to talk to you today about a "foolproof strategy"?How can there be a foolproof strategy for doing business? "How Is This Possible" is the theme I bring today.
01 New cognition and new infrastructure bring "luck" to the brand
This is our data, the process of going from 0 to 1 in white t. In three years, we reached the third year of sales of more than 10200 million, an increase of 73 percent in the first half of this year over the same period last year3%, in the first half of this year, we have completed a net profit after tax of 40.65 million.
I think it's a pretty lucky thing, and I personally understand that 10% of this luck is hard work, and 90% is luck. You ask me what this luck is, it may be time, place, and person.
In the past two years, one of the ideas that will be spread in major forums is that our group of consumer goods companies with relatively less than 10 billion yuan, or enterprises, have to compete with those big industry giants. Regardless of brand influence, industry status, marketing ability, product power, chain ability, team organization ability, including the thickness of the funds on the account, we can't do it with others. In essence, only the combination of new cognition and new infrastructure may be a piece of luck.
There is the so-called new, so what is the old?Since it is a new cognition and new infrastructure, what is the "old" in terms of the "new"?The only difference is in the environment. Indeed, the current environment has changed dramatically, whether it is the first-class environment in the past, the form of creating content today, or the current recruitment environment, or the environment in which employees work in the company.
I think that from 1949 to the year I was born, until 1978, almost no one called Mr. So-and-so, and it must be called a so-and-so manufacturer. From 1978 to 2009, it was an economy with a surplus of goods, and until 2019, it was a national self-confidence economy, and after 2019, new consumer brands have sprung up in the entire Chinese market.
The per capita GDP is more than 10,000 US dollars, which is a very interesting phenomenon, and domestic brands have sprung up.
The users have also changed drastically, my brand is now worn by many people, why?In the past, these so-called offline stores may have the opportunity to reach, but there is no possibility in the traditional transaction e-commerce field, but today they are reached and converted, because of what?Because there has been a huge qualitative change in the way new users use it, I think this is also very important for new consumer brands.
Competitive environment. Don't you think that the big brands in the past were particularly nervous in the field of communication, and couldn't find a way**. Recently, many leading brands in consumer goods have been going to Bai Xiaot, and they are asking me a question, saying that I am willing to spend money, but you tell me how to spread it according to my intentions on Douyin and Kuaishou. I said that this is unrealistic, in the past, shooting an advertisement, buying a time period and the entire layout, and spending money to bid for the first place, had the prerequisites for communication. But today, no amount of money you have, you can't buy content, you can't buy algorithms, and you can't do a lot of distribution on a large scale in the way you envision.
02 Brand is an integrated commitment
I have always felt that when making consumer goods, we must use philosophical insights to seek principle-level solutions. Philosophy is to ask, to ask the essence of the question, Bai Xiao T and other clothing companies look different, all our thinking paths are completely different from those companies, our judgment and discovery of consumer insight is whether this white dress will be dirty. Bai Xiaot sold 10 million pieces with a short sleeve, and of course there are many new discoveries in the follow-up, which are all based on insight.
Therefore, we hope that our company will become infinitely smaller, and be a small and beautiful company in a very small field and a very narrow field. We want our company to be the only one first, then the first, and then slowly eat up the global company. In 2024, there will be many sub-brands in addition to Bai Xiaot. Without exception, these sub-brands are because there are no equivalent brands in these categories. I feel like this is our chance.
I have always emphasized that the founders of consumer goods must be solving our human desires. Solving desires is the only driving force for human progress, and satisfying needs is the only direction of business evolution. All technological innovations and iterations, including inventions, are to solve the problem of laziness, no matter which field of clothing, food, housing and transportation is solving the problem of laziness. Therefore, solving desires is the only driving force for human progress, and satisfying needs is the only direction of business evolution.
The meaning and value of the existence of an enterprise like ours is not much more than a small white T, and a lot less is a small white T. It doesn't change to you whether it appears or doesn't. I have always believed that the value of a company's existence must be to solve a social problem. The size of the enterprise is matched by the size of the enterprise that can be solved. If this is not the case, even if you are a 100-billion-level company, you are a businessman, you have solved social problems, you have 1 million, and you are also an entrepreneur.
In my mind, brand is the social problem you want to solve. You make a comprehensive commitment to the public to do so. This includes products, packaging, advertising, tonality, after-sales, service, culture, employees, founders, and even your aunt who cleans the floor. Especially after the brand has problems, can you still deliver on and fulfill the promises you made to the public back then? Isn't it because I believe in you that companies buy branded goods?Because of this extra cost, the brand is a comprehensive commitment.
03 Positioning brings differentiation and competitiveness to the brand
What is positioning?In my opinion, positioning is actually what you can do that others can't do, and what you can do that others can't do. So, what is the social significance and value of Bai Xiaot's existence?
When you wake up every morning and open your closet, 80% of the clothes you don't wear. When we see the environmental protection garbage in the ocean, so much garbage and non-environmental protection things are thrown in the ocean, fishermen go out one by one, bundles of mineral water bottles, a large number of plastic bags, worn-out fishing nets, all white garbage. Africans spend money to import a large number of second-hand clothes from Europe, America, Japan and South Korea, including China.
So this main dish, secondary dish, and side dishes are all in front of me, I want to be a chef, organic stir-fry together, can you change the clothes that you don't use at home with me. What was exchanged for?Melt the ocean's environmental garbage into plastic, spray it wet, make yarn and fabric, and clean the clothes that have been exchanged, disinfect and package them and send them to Africa.
It's not food to be eaten, it's barter. We don't want to be called political economy by Europeans and Americans, so we exchange their souvenirs with the African people, and then give the things back to the users who exchange clothes with us, and complete the whole chain. We call it "If the clothes have life, I will accompany you for life". This plan is called the escort plan, so that in the future, Bai Xiaot will not be a dispensable enterprise, but to solve a certain social problem, and at the same time, this must be carbon neutrality, this must be environmentally friendly earth.
The impermanence of the saint and the heart of the people are not for his selflessness, so he can become his selfishness." I boldly think that our era is really an era when there is no so-called enterprise, there is really only an enterprise of the era. Thank you!
About this meeting::
The 2023 Ebang Future Retail Conference is one of the theme conferences of the 2023 Ebang Annual Meeting, which was held on November 29 at Pudong Shangri-La Hotel, Shanghai.
The 2023 Ebang Annual Meeting is hosted by Ebang Power, co-organized by Horseshoe Club and Ebang Think Tank, with the theme of "Perfect Strategy for the Shift Period". For the first time, the agenda of the annual meeting covers the whole cycle of enterprise digitalization: domestic e-commerce, brand globalization, and industrial digitalization. Through the traction of the theme of "Perfect Strategy", 64 heavyweight guests conducted in-depth research on 54 hot topics, actively sought responses to a series of key issues in 2023, and jointly explored the way of growth based on short-term reality and adhering to long-termism.