Breaking the circle to make emotional links, Pizza Hut provides us with a "template" for cross-border marketing

Cross-border marketing is popular. Teacher He Jiu mentioned in the book "Food Marketing Power" that cross-border marketing allows originally unrelated elements to penetrate and merge with each other, thereby giving the brand a sense of three-dimensionality and depth, so as to achieve the activation of the brand image. Expansion of consumer groups and other purposes.

There is no shortage of crossover masters in the catering industry, such as Pizza Hut. Cross-border Forbidden City to make "Imperial Afternoon Tea", embracing classic feelings; team up with Lele Tea to push buttermilk cover pizza, use a "smooth" pizza to inspire young people's novel world; cooperate with Kugou, open with music Communication channel with customers...

A few days ago, Pizza Hut another wave of cross-border marketing detonated online and offline at the same time. This time, Pizza Hut "brained", no longer cooperating with a certain brand or organization, but stepping into a specific "circle"-the world of cute pets.

A "cute pet wind" is blowing more and more fiercely at Pizza Hut.

ONE

Comes with "cute (burst) point"

Pizza Hut takes aim at the cute pet circle this time

According to the "White Paper on China's Pet Consumption Trends in 2021" jointly released by iResearch and JD.com, the compound growth rate of my country's pet industry in the next three years will be 14.2%. By 2023, pet consumption will reach 445.6 billion yuan.

"Raising pets" has become a trend, breaking into the lives of young people. Facing the cute pet market showing a strong increase, many companies have begun to "break the circle" to explore the exquisite life of pet families. Aiming at the cute pet circle, in May, Pizza Hut's online and offline linkage will start the cute pet mode.

Offline, 12 cute pet themed stores are quietly launched in 12 cities including Shanghai, Xi'an, and Changsha. Three of the theme stores have invited 6 B-station cute pet UP owners to spread out in different stores to serve as one-day cute pet store managers. On May 20th, Pizza Hut also launched a pet-friendly event with the theme of "520 Pet Day" in its stores across the country.

Online, the topic of "A Sheng said" exploded at station B. For the first time, a number of cute pet UP main focused on visiting the shop to check in and sharing, and various cute pet stories under the topic of "A Sheng said" are also wonderful. Under the leadership of UP, the "tap water" people have pushed the topic heat to a new height. In the same period, the new "Salted Egg Yolk Hualun Zhixin Pizza" with cute pet ears was fully launched and sold nationwide.

TWO

These techniques,

Double the marketing effect

Nowadays, cross-border marketing is not uncommon in the catering industry. More and more companies hope to empower enterprises through cross-border marketing, but not all cross-border marketing can achieve the expected results. There are many reasons for failure, but successful cases always have something in common. Taking Pizza Hut’s crossover as a case, let’s take a look at the crossover techniques that will double the marketing effect.

1. Push themed storefronts and themed products

Themed storefront is a scene that focuses on the event experience. It integrates event information while strengthening the brand image; themed products play a role in enhancing consumer stickiness and promoting value conversion.

Pizza Hut chose to use the "store + product" approach to promote the event this time. The 12 cute pet themed stores not only have corresponding cute pet decorations in the store, but also the outside area can also be used for cute pets to interact with their owners happily, fully highlighting the pet-friendly atmosphere. At the same time, the new salted egg yolk Hualun Zhixin pizza sold across the country is in line with the theme of cute pets through the "ear"-like edge of the cake.

Themed storefronts and co-branded products are a carrier of content output for cross-border marketing and a bridge between users' brand and consumption. For the store, the product, or the service, always choose one of them. Otherwise, the marketing content cannot be implemented, and the effect will be greatly reduced.

2. Simultaneous linkage between offline and online

There is no offline traffic and no online experience. The best output method for cross-border marketing is to link offline and online at the same time, creating an experience atmosphere offline, detonating traffic online, and complementing each other.

Pizza Hut does just that. In this event, Pizza Hut invited well-known online "UP owners" to offline to be one-day cute pet store managers, attracting more UP owners to check in stores and actively embrace online traffic with offline experience. This is the time An important part of the event. At the same time, the “Asheng Talk”, which has strong participation and interactivity, has been further channeled online in the form of topics, and continued to expand the influence of activities through “tap water” to drive store consumption. Many well-known up hosts and "Tap Water" actively contributed articles. The event was only online for 5 days and the exposure exceeded 20 million.

Today, when online marketing has become the mainstream, from traffic to "reserve", brands need to open a channel for two-way flow of traffic online and offline to complete the effective conversion from online to offline.

3. Focus on hot topics in society

Searching for "Meng Chong" on the social platform where young people gather, Xiaohongshu shows that there are 770,000+ notes; Weibo topics with "100 million" readings occupy the entire screen; B station about cute pets You can't finish the video no matter how you watch it...The expansion of the pet population, the growth of the cute pet economy, and the stray cats and dogs, each one is a hot topic in society.

"Chasing hot spots" has always been an important marketing technique, and common holiday marketing is a way of "chasing hot spots". In this event, apart from focusing on the topic of cute pets, Pizza Hut will mainly promote the limited product "Long Ears" Salted Egg Yolk Hualun Zhixin Pizza and cute pet activities at festivals, which will be promoted in conjunction with the hot spots of the festival. For example, on the day of 520, Pizza Hut launched a "Doting" campaign to carry out the "hot spot drainage" approach to the end. Pizza Hut received 50 million+ views on Weibo related topics.

Regarding "chasing hot spots", Starbucks also has a very classic case-"Starbucks Atmosphere Group". When the "atmosphere group" became a hot topic on the Internet, netizens ridiculed that those workers who were busy at Starbucks with their notebooks were the Starbucks atmosphere group. It was a ridicule with a little negative sentiment. After the "mysterious operation" of Starbucks' online recruitment atmosphere group, it turned into a successful marketing campaign. The Weibo related topics of the Starbucks Atmosphere Group received 33.43 million views.

 Hotspot marketing is also a kind of marketing by taking advantage of the situation. The main purpose is to use the advantages of hotspot public opinion to help attract traffic. It has a similar logic to cross-border marketing, both of which are related to each other, complementing resources to achieve the effect of superimposing traffic and expanding user groups.

4. Emotional sublimation

The highest cost of an enterprise is not the production cost, but the user's cognitive cost; the most sticky user's cognition does not come from the product, but from the emotion.

Pizza Hut sets the "end point" of this event on the emotional communication between the pet and the owner, emphasizing the "two-way love" between the pet and the owner. While the owner is paying for the pet, the pet is also expressing it in various ways Dependence and love for the owner. This "two-way love" triggers a wide range of emotional resonance, and also sublimates the activity from the fun level to a deeper emotional level.

These methods of Pizza Hut also coincide with the three principles of cross-border marketing put forward by Mr. He Jiu in "Food Marketing Power". The first is the principle of resource matching, that is, when the cross-industry parties have commonality and reciprocity, the synergy effect can be better exerted; the second is the principle of consistent brand concept, which can drive the corresponding matching resources to maximize the use; third is the brand The principle of superposition of effects, complementary advantages, and the same target audience can drive the real sharing of IP traffic between the two parties.

THREE

These details

Make the spread effect full

If creativity is the "standard configuration" that determines the success of marketing, then the golden combination of "creative + detail" is the "high configuration" that drives marketing beyond expectations. With the creativity of the cross-border cute pet world, a series of detailed performances of Pizza Hut in this event are also worthy of reference for catering people.

1. Anthropomorphic language

The cute pet is nicknamed "A Sheng". "A Sheng said" is a scene specially created by Pizza Hut for pets that "speaks the heart and pours bitterness", expressing the warm and funny world of cute pets in the tone of cute pets. The owner saw that the pet broke another shoe, but "A Sheng" said, I just miss you too much; the owner "dislikes" the cute pet always rubbing around, "A Sheng" said, I just I want you to hug me... This kind of anthropomorphic marketing language instantly turns the event into love and warmth, and conveys the warmth of a brand.

2. Precision channels

Pizza Hut's main communication position for this event is at station B. The reason is simple. There are many pet users at station B and there is an incremental trend. The users of station B themselves and Pizza Hut’s customer groups are also matched. Therefore, Pizza Hut will choose to conduct centralized dissemination at station B in order to maximize the value of traffic. .

3. Empathy content

Attract "tap water" through the influence of the UP master. Under the topic of "Asheng", a series of funny or sensational stories from the real experience of ordinary netizens from "Tap Water" are mostly simple and simple, but they are more touching in the form of down-to-earth expression.

It is not difficult to see from Pizza Hut’s cross-border marketing that the essence of cross-border marketing is not store or product marketing, but content marketing. Attracting another group through creative content, and then channeling into the brand traffic pool through a series of methods. In the final analysis, cross-border marketing is a way for the brand to break through the barriers of the circle through content, find new user groups, and give the brand new vitality. marketing techniques.