Several Apple products hold up the world’s largest market value, and Moutai liquor is invincible all over the world. Their success is described in buzzwords as “explosive thinking”.
Lai Shen Tong Ling has used explosive thinking in product design very early. The “Blue Flame” cut diamond developed in 2009 had sales of 500 million yuan that year. It is still our super explosive product, contributing hundreds of millions of yuan in sales every year.
As the “Chief Product Officer” of Laishon Psychic, I personally grasped the design and production of explosive products, and went through the whole process from creating hypotheses to explosive design to market verification. My experience may be a bit exaggerated: Either become a hit or be wiped out by the hit.
Win in the most valuable place in the period
In 2017, Psychic Jewelry acquired the Belgian royal jewelry LEYSEN, which was born in 1855, and upgraded the brand, grafting LEYSEN to Psychic, and changed the original brand “Psychic Jewelry” to “Laishen Psychic”. The brand positioning is: European royal jewellery for a century.
The Lai Shen brand mainly serves the royal family and aristocrats in the European market, focusing on advanced customization. The business model is to receive orders first, then design and produce. When it enters China, we hope to serve ordinary consumers, so the style and supply chain process must be redesigned and planned to meet the needs of Chinese consumers and to empower the Chinese people with royal taste.
Therefore, “Lai Shen Tong Ling” formulated a new product design and production concept: jewelry modeling is royal or European cultural symbol; high recognition; simple style; familiar strangeness; exquisite workmanship, strong sense of existence.
Based on this concept, the Chinese-foreign team of designers designed the first product after the brand upgrade is the “Royal Carriage”.
This jewelry uses the European royal wagon wheel as its creative element. The target consumer group is positioned as a young urban consumer group between 18 and 28. The products are mainly necklaces and bracelets. The price is between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan. Non-wedding jewelry. The use scene is lovers. Time gifts, gifts for daughters by parents, holiday gifts and self-reward for white-collar workers in the workplace.
Because of the accurate product positioning, reasonable price and high recognition, the royal concept was clearly communicated. After the product was launched, the sales exceeded 50 million yuan in a few months. It is still a classic best-selling product.
The popularity of the “Royal Carriage” has brought confidence to the entire company. Through the practice of creating this group of small explosive products, it is verified that the explosive hypothesis we created (that is, the above 5 design and production concepts) is correct. Experienced the whole process of small popular products, let us find the feel of making popular products.
Since the price of non-wedding pendant products is not high and does not contribute significantly to the company’s sales, diamond wedding rings account for about 50% of our sales, and the high unit price of wedding rings has a greater impact on the brand and customers, so we There is an urgent need for a wedding flagship product of royal taste to establish the company’s strategic position.
People often ask, what is the relationship between product and strategy? In the view of Professor Zhu Xiaobin, co-founder and CEO of Lingjiaofang, the core essence of the strategy is to “win in the most valuable place in the phase.” Under the background of the staged brand upgrade of Lai Shen Tong Ling, the essence of strategy is the product.
In a word, we really need a flagship super-explosive product to win.
Focus on “Super Symbols”
Because it is a strategic product, the company attaches great importance to it. I personally lead the company’s domestic and foreign designers to design.
My first consideration is that the modeling should focus on the “super symbols” of the European royal family and European culture. “Super symbols” are generally cultural symbols that have endured for thousands of years, such as Chinese dragon totems, the Great Wall, Western crosses, crown shapes, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and Egyptian pyramids. These symbols are familiar to almost everyone in the world, can understand what they mean, and have become the matrix of culture.
Because these super symbols have gone through the ages, they are all classics handed down in a million. After thousands of years, they have experienced multiple exposures, which is equivalent to pre-made N advertisements for the product. Our products can be grafted with such super symbols, not only will be immediately accepted by customers, but also easy to love it.
My second consideration is to have a high degree of recognition. The domestic jewelry market is highly homogenized and lacks individuality. If the LOGO on the jewelry is hidden, it is impossible to identify which manufacturer is producing it. Good products have the characteristics of high recognition, such as Apple mobile phones. I hope our flagship product has such a high degree of recognition.
My third consideration is design style. The big Japanese designer Mizunogaku made a judgment: more and more people are beginning to enjoy natural and simple fashion. If civilization is developed, culture will flourish. When Canfang’s culture reaches its peak, it will begin to return to the original.
Yes, human aesthetics is a process of development from simplicity to complexity and then to simplicity. The so-called Japanese style is simple style.
European design used to be Gothic, Baroque, and Rococo, but now Scandinavian simplicity is popular all over the world, which shows the direction of style changes. Regardless of architecture, clothing, and indoor environment design, follow this rule.
The reason why the aesthetics of the Song Dynasty is one thousand years ahead of the world is because the painting, calligraphy, ceramics, furniture and other arts of the Song Dynasty advocate the style of simplicity. Foreigners like to collect Ming dynasty furniture, because the furniture at that time is simple and has the international standard of today.
The minimalist designs advocated in Europe are mostly derived from Japanese Zen and Nordic minimalist style. Jobs’ Apple products are the pinnacle of minimalist styles. As the flagship product of a century-old royal brand, simple design is of course preferred.
My fourth consideration is that the product must have a “familiar strangeness”.
American advertising master James Webb Young said: Creativity is a new combination of old elements.
The old elements make people feel familiar, and the new combinations make people feel strange. The new combination of old elements makes people both familiar and unfamiliar, so it inspires the exclamation of “It can still be like this” and spreads. Familiar strangeness is the first principle of all artistic creation. The best works of art in the world, regardless of movies, music, architecture, novels, sculptures, costumes, and even the most delicious dishes, follow the creative principle of “familiar strangeness”.
I selected the iris flower, the symbol of the European royal family, as the design element of the first flagship product “Queen’s Wedding Ring” of Lai Shen psychic. The iris flower totem has been a symbol of the King of France from a very early time. The relationship between its graphic and the King of France began when Clovis I was crowned in 496 AD. After that, he converted to Christianity and used iris oil at the baptism ceremony. Long before Iris established its relationship with the King of France, the ancient Egyptians thought it was a symbol of power, so the sphinx’s forehead and the pharaoh’s scepter have this mark. The iris flower totem is a veritable super symbol.
After the well-made iris flower totem queen series wedding ring was launched on the market, it immediately became a hot selling item. The sales reached 130 million yuan in a few months after the market, and the sales reached 300 million yuan in 2019. At the same time as the wedding ring, there are iris diamond necklaces, diamond bracelets and other supporting series products, which have become popular products.
The “Queen’s Diamond Ring” established itself as a “super symbol” in Laishan’s psychic position in one fell swoop.
Create a hot style system: let hot style products get rid of contingency
The traditional product development in the fashion and luxury industries is centered on designers. Designer-centric product development has its advantages, but its disadvantages are also particularly obvious.
The advantage is that the designer’s design style is obvious, and there are a group of loyal fans; the product is integrated into the designer’s personal experience, and the topic is strong. However, as capital is integrated into the brand, the scale of the enterprise is getting larger and larger, and the brand has entered more and more markets, and the changes in consumer demand are also accelerating.
In order to cope with such challenges, Lai Shen Tong Ling has now introduced IPD.
IPD Integrated Product Development (IPD) is a set of product development models, concepts and methods. The idea of IPD comes from the “Product and Life Cycle Optimization Law” published by PRTM, the United States. Huawei was the first to introduce it from the United States.
IPD product development is based on the research of product strategy, market information, customer feedback, competition information, technology trends, and product portfolio. Then, according to the company’s situation, it can understand the market, customer positioning, demand analysis, formulate segmentation strategies and plans, integrate, After optimizing the business plan, formally establish a project to develop the product.
The IPD product development process is clearly divided into six stages: concept, planning, development, verification, release, and life cycle, and there are clearly defined decision review points in the process. The reviews at these review points are not technical reviews, but business reviews, paying more attention to product market positioning and profitability. Decision review points have consistent measurement standards, and only when the prescribed work is completed can it move from one decision point to the next.
The core idea of IPD is to combine the external environment, overall planning, customer demand research, mobilize the company’s internal and external resources, and lead to results.
for example. In the film “Downton Abbey”, which is popular all over the world to reflect the life of the British royal family, the crowns worn by the three heroines in the play are all from the psychic of Laishan. In order to make good use of the super IP of Downton Abbey, we decided to continue to develop the “Laishan Psychic-Royal Manor” series of jewelry. Although we have super IP, the entire jewelry development process is still strictly managed in accordance with the IPD process.
First, it is necessary to clarify the positioning of the “Royal Manor”, find the target consumption scene and the portrait of the crowd, clarify the aesthetic needs, price needs, scene needs, and even psychological needs of the target population, and formulate a “development plan” based on this, and carry out product development in a targeted manner.
During the development process, the pre-drawings and samples have iterative links, allowing the end sales consultants and target customers to participate and make selection suggestions. Through this kind of funnel filtering, it is ensured that what is left is the product most in line with the favorite of the target population.
In July 2020, the “Laishen Psychic-Royal Manor” series of jewelry entered the new product pre-sale and trial sales links. After the trial sales were actually passed, the product was verified by the market, and the results were better than the listing standards, the product was officially released in omni-channel, and it was truly put into consumption. The market, so as to ensure that the product will become a hot product once it comes out.
This is the charm of IPD, based on a set of professional processes, to eliminate the contingency of explosive products. The essence of the explosive product is actually the phrase “your product is exactly what consumers really want”. What IPD provides is a set of 360-degree hypotheses and verification methods to ensure that your products can be “chosen by birds and screens” instead of “guns and birds”.
The underlying logic of the explosion
Show again the market-proven Laishan psychic version of the explosive doorway.
Fewer but
the traditional product development is to win, the pursuit of small but efficient thinking explosion models, each resource must be the head. Every blockbuster film in Hollywood uses this principle when it starts with a billion dollars in the box office.
To make a product into an IP
traditional product management is to let the product fend for itself after it becomes popular, and then find the next hot spot. The explosive thinking is that after the product has been verified by the market, further investment in the product is made to make the product itself an IP. For example, Laishan’s psychic “Blue Flame” cut diamonds have been sold for more than ten years, and they are still hot-selling products. The Hollywood blockbuster “Spider-Man” and “Avengers” not only became popular, but also developed numerous peripheral products based on the movie’s IP.
Explosive models are generally company strategic products. If strategic products are built into IP, tactical products, extended products, and improved products can be developed based on strategic products.
Good product is out of the game
has a lot of video explosion models every day vibrato, these are not hard-launch explosion models, but out of the race. If a Douyin user creates a work, the Douyin background will give you two hundred traffic. If the open rate and completion rate of these two hundred traffic are both high, Douyin will give you two thousand traffic. The rate and completion rate are still very high, and the background will give you 20,000 or even 200,000 traffic, and the resources will always be given to the leader.
Many of the popular products of Lai Shen Tong Ling are also produced by the competition, such as Blue Flame and Queen’s Wedding Ring. They all discover the potential after testing sales and then invest again to continue to grow bigger.
Many excellent companies rank the performance of their employees on 2/7/1. The essence is to cultivate “explosive employees”.
That product media
explosion models of thinking in the products not only to reflect the brand strategy, but also a high degree of recognition. Even if Apple mobile phones and Moutai are among many similar products, customers can immediately recognize them. The appearance design of all Apple products can reflect Jobs’ strategy of simplicity. Laishan’s psychic “Queen-Iris Wedding Ring” is not only unforgettable, the diamond ring seems to be telling a “royal story.”
The high degree of recognition in the product design and the values that reflect the brand strategy, making the product media, not only brings customers a sense of belonging, but also has great communication itself, which can save a lot of advertising costs.
The design that reflects the brand strategy and the high degree of recognition make it difficult for competitors to clone. For example, the “Queen-Iris Wedding Ring” of Laishan Psychic Jewelry, although there are many copycats, consumers know that this is a Laishan psychic product, and most decent consumers with identity are still willing to buy genuine products. .
Today’s society is a “popular society”, regardless of entertainment products, household appliances, network content, tourist attractions, and even Internet celebrities such as Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya, etc. are all popular. Explosive models are not mysterious, as long as they find the know-how and use the Internet, everyone can create their own explosive products.
In the “explosive society”, from the perspective of the operator, you will either become a hit or be wiped out by the hit.
