In August 2023, Wu Sheng proposed the new concept of "Dialogue Era" in his speech "New Species Explosion·Wu Sheng Business Method Release 2023" at the beginning of autumn.

In the first month, fans of "Barbie" became popular first, then Heytea XFENDI's "Joy Yellow" came out of the circle, and then Luckin

Two months ago, starting from "Dopamine Outfits", "Dopamine Green Coffee/Tea Drinks/Juice"... Dopamine is found everywhere, and everything can contain dopamine.

Going forward, in February 2023, Wunderman Intelligence Think Tank pointed out in the "2023 Global Top 100 Trends Report" that people are determined to fight the continued difficulties with vitality, strength and an uplifting spirit: Pantone launches "Extraordinary Magenta" , Benjamin Moore has "raspberry red", and luxury brands also light up the show with various "bright colors".

1. This is a big era that requires "dialogue"

We are entering an "dialogue era", and HE Tuber scene brands show new characteristics of depth, equality, and presence. This screen-full of case explosions, whether murmuring to themselves or making noise, is not only the life and consumption landscape of this era, but also a business spectacle. ——Wu Sheng

Wu Sheng believes that after connection, "dialogue" is the best choice in this era. And gave 6 dialogue clues: new overseas is a dialogue of values, new intelligence is a dialogue of scenes, new sinking is a real-time dialogue, new aesthetics is a dialogue of concepts, new communities are a micro dialogue, and new efficiency is a dialogue of creativity.

After sorting it out, Brand Ape believes that the following four concepts need to be specially anchored:

Concept 1: Build a conversational interface and invent your own era

From "discover yourself" you have entered the stage of "invent yourself". We should prompt words more accurately like GPT and learn to build a "dialogue interface".

Concept 2: Continuous dialogue is more important than accurate connection

New businesses in recent years, such as membership-based warehouse supermarkets, social group shopping, DTC brands, autonomous driving subscriptions, content platform subscriptions... these new models are all pointing to the conclusion that the essence of new social business is a collection of "real relationships."

Concept 3: Dialogue with AI is a dialogue with the future

AI is a work companion, not a tool - Work with you, not for you. This sentence is simple and important.

Brand Ape also wants to expand the “dialogue” pattern a little further:

Idea 4: Asking questions is more important than solving them

Business generally creates wealth by "finding problems" and "solving problems."

In the past, there were many problems in society, which determined that the bottleneck of business scale was the "problem solving" link; however, this bottleneck relationship is being reversed in the AI ​​era, that is, it has become "scarcity of problems" and "excessive solving capabilities" .

views in "The New Age of Humanity":

The real reason why Japan is in trouble (stagnation of innovation) is "the scarcity of problems."

In this day and age, good questions are more important than innovative approaches.

We should envision the future rather than predict it.

Zoom in a little more. Socrates was named "the midwifery of knowledge" for his heuristic talks; Schumpeter advocated the "open door theory" (if you ask a question, I give you the answer and put a full stop, which is equivalent to me closing the door for you) .

When Elon Musk was 12 years old, he began to ask about the meaning of life, and realized from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy": Any answer (answer) is absurd, only the question behind the answer (answer) is meaningful.

Therefore, Professor Li Shanyou concluded comprehensively: The meaning of life lies in your "questions"!

The meaning of life does not lie in a specific answer at all, but in the depth and height of the questions you can ask, which determines the meaning of your life. ——Li Shanyou

This may be the real value that "dialogue" gives to this era.

2. In the era of dialogue, the "emotional track" that running enters has the expected "emotional value" in the future.

Let’s return to new consumer phenomena, branding and marketing innovation.

In the past, if you created a positioning, proposed a concept, promoted a lifestyle, and created an Internet celebrity, consumers would flock to it; what about today? It’s hard to attract a crowd without “emotion”.

The logic of "Zibo BBQ", "Special Forces Tour", and "Village BA Village Supermarket" is the "emotional expedition" in the fireworks of the world;

"Tiezi", "City wark", and "dopamine" are based on people's "emotional resonance" based on companionship and conversational abilities;

"APP captures the neighborhood", "street coffee/tavern", and "fired tea" are expressed as "emotional companionship".

The starting point of all these phenomena can be attributed to "emotion". It breaks out of class/product/circle/interest group and becomes a certain "emotion".

1. Past “emotional marketing”

Effective marketing always talks to choice and the emotional brain! Because your emotions never lie to you. ——"Emotion Driven" Javier, former vice president of marketing at Coca-Cola

In fact, "emotional marketing" has been around for a long time, and has repeatedly become the magic weapon for popular products to break out of the industry.

McDonald's and Coca-Cola, which dominate the world with emotional marketing; Jiang Xiaobai's expression bottle that dominates with emotional expressions; "Escape from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou" that breaks out of the industry by escaping emotions; "Wolf Warrior 2" that relies on the confidence of a big country to break the box office miracle; and the company that relies on selling surprises to go public Bubble Mart blind box; there are also "nostalgic" emotions, "healing" emotions, "good luck" emotions...

There is always a wave of "emotions" on the way.

It is easy to understand that "emotional marketing" can sweep the screen: ① Emotions between people are highly contagious; ② Strong emotions can easily lead to spread; ③ The boost of social networks, especially in that era of lack of content.

Although "emotional marketing" in the past was remarkable, most of it can be attributed to "insight into society → drive/sell → you and me", but today's "emotional track" is different - its logic is "go deep into life → Companionship and dialogue → us”.

2. The current “emotional track”

Looking back at the various nodes and cross-border marketing in 2023, we will find that more and more brands are "dialogue" with every user with a straight perspective, equal attitude and sincere emotions.

For example, node marketing that uses the characteristics of nodes to create new product emotions and "responds" to the specific emotions of each festival; such as going beyond the 1.0 of creating topics through joint names and the 2.0 of surrounding products, and starting to explore the 3.0 of emotional dialogue; and another example is healing emotions 2.0, which is not simply Waves of poster copywriting, film and television killing, but accompanying users to actually do something.

Brutalism echoes Mother's Day and integrates the love from "a tadpole looking for its mother" into new product designs; Jiaoxia integrates the vitality of Jingzhe into all-terrain outdoor shoes;

Sandun and a half teamed up with Tidal to launch "Sound of Journey" to help consumers relax with music; ubras collaborated with Creative Shelter to launch a sleep therapy experience; Lingyin Temple for children and career, Faxi Temple for marriage focused on a placebo mood .

▲"SocialBeta 2023 Top 10 Digital Marketing Trends"

The gameplay is ever-changing, but one thing is the same: they understand that people’s emotions need to be accompanied, supported, transferred, resolved and exported, and through multi-dimensional dialogue, expression and action, they become the beneficiaries of this round of marketing innovation.

3. Future “emotional value”

In the second half of 2023, we will find that the "emotional value" evolved from the "emotional track" has a new life - with new values ​​​​and new lifestyles as common denominators, with "dialogue" as the starting point, and with "accompaniment" "As the original intention, we continue to promote the development and release of personalization and diversity of the smallest emotional unit.

The simple understanding is:

Go deep into the user's "life" and gain insight into the subtle/tiny emotions related to life;

Find a certain emotion and "respond positively";

Equal dialogue: look down rather than look down, guide rather than drive, create value rather than sell emotions;

Continuous dialogue: focusing on one companion (long-termism).

From "Wukong" to the spirit of Populus euphratica, from "heroes have suffered many hardships since ancient times" to "a light boat has passed thousands of mountains" and "restless power", "emotion" has become a part of Huawei's brand.

▲Pictures from the Internet

For brands that are determined to make a difference in today's unstable, uncertain and complex world, whoever can grasp the "emotional power" will have the initiative in the new track; whoever knows how to release "emotional value" through "dialogue" ", whoever can establish long-lasting connections with more users who are closely dependent on each other and trust each other; whoever can find the "meaning" of themselves and their users in the "dialogue", may gain new momentum for the brand's continued growth, and step forward. A new starting point for the future.

In a sense, communicating with users (brand marketing) has never been so "difficult" and "easy".

3. Four methods of new emotional dialogue: meaning, companionship, scene, and co-creation

Dialogue is the best art. ——Xu Zhiyuan's "Thirteen Invitations"

As we all know, every era has questions to answer, every generation has its own feelings, every place has different emotions, and every stage has different emotions. In other words, people's "emotions" are always Changing and flowing.

If you chase or passively respond to every emotion, you will lose more than you gain, like a monkey fishing for the moon. If you want to make good use of "dialogue value" and become the brand's new driving force and potential, you need to inject different "emotions" and start the dialogue from the following four aspects: "meaningful", "accompanying", "having scenes", "There is co-creation."

1. Meaningful exploratory “dialogue”

"The challenge we face today is to find meaning in the daily lives of each individual." - History Professor Gil Troy

Xu Zhiyuan has a wonderful statement, "Our current society is not actually a scarcity of materials, but a scarcity of meaning. The vast majority of consumption is actually meaning consumption and status consumption." From this, Luo Zhenyu launched the definition of "new consumerism" - with Consumption solves the problem of lack of meaning.

In other words, we live in an era of great leap forward from consumption sovereignty to life sovereignty, and the "individual" is obviously more important; this is also an era of saturated materials and depleted meanings, and "power" is the greatest energy in modern society.

At this time, "meaningfulness" will be the antidote to individual and social consumer sentiment.

New consumer brands can explore through three levels and find "meaning" in conversations.

Exploration 1 - Dialogue with individual life and find new meaning

When their upward life is interrupted by external forces, many people turn to inner spiritual exploration. People no longer expect a common life, but instead desire to see the stories of other individuals and draw new life inspiration and experience from them.

The following should be required courses for future brands:

First, dialogue with individuals, explore inner spiritual and emotional resonance, and use each individual’s small narrative to help the group discover new meaning in daily life.

Second, while talking to individuals, brands need to go into the group, observe and listen to the common needs of the group, and find common values ​​to improve the efficiency of dialogue.

Third, this dialogue process is two-way. Not only to help users grow, but also to learn new things from users.

In addition, brands can explore more valuable meanings through dialogue with real intellectuals and scholars. Beichen Youth, Youth Chronicles, Youth Power Center, Thirteen Invitations, I Study on the Island, etc. are all outstanding leaders in this exploration.

▲Pictures from the Internet

Compared to the past, these conversations were conducted on an equal footing, with no pointing, but sharing.

Exploration 2 - Talk to yourself and explore the meaning of entrepreneurship and "meaning innovation"

There is a kind of innovation and entrepreneurship that starts from one's own love and desire. This model has become a key factor for many DTC brands and new consumer brands to ride the waves. This kind of innovation is also called "meaning innovation."

What is "meaning innovation"? —A new vision that redefines problems worth solving. Not just in new ways, but for new reasons.

If you think of "meaningfulness" as a "gift" to the world and entrepreneurs, everything will be easy to understand:

It is an act of taking responsibility, through "gifts" we have the opportunity to create a more meaningful world, it is our way of contributing to human life.

This is a pleasurable act because if we enjoy the gift, we will also feel pleasure while doing it.

Of course, you will also be pleasantly surprised to find that business success comes naturally because: ① people love things with "meaning"; ② "meaning innovation" is true value innovation; ③ "meaning" cannot be copied!

Exploration 3 - Dialogue with the times/society/nature, there is always the meaning of your existence

In today's and future marketing, the brand mission is not only to "create customers (Drucker)", but also to solve or influence some social problems by creating customers to create value.

This will be the "necessary transition" for every new consumer brand.

Different from the past, New Dialogue does not need to engage in grand issues, such as public welfare, charity care, business for good, environmental protection, etc., but to find specific "little things" that suit you, produce tangible results, and act together.

"Common benefit": For example, a more in-depth discussion of the balance between business and public welfare and the implementation of "common benefit".

"Micro": If we dismantle "co-benefit" from a microscopic perspective and subdivide it into each link of the production chain and each role in the ecological environment, we can gather together the daily bits and pieces to create a good or sustainable future.

"Looking for your own unique "partner"": Deluxe's ​​desert management; Xiaohongshu's ocean protection; Fauvism focuses on wild Asian elephants; babycare focuses on painless delivery; Shulai helps girls in remote mountainous areas break the "menstrual dilemma"...

The essence of the new "era" of dialogue is to build a bridge between business, life and meaning, in order to save and resurrect something that lasts in everyone's heart.

What emotion to inject: "Love"

The illusory "love" is actually extremely powerful in business. As Starbucks founder Schultz said, "No matter how large a business empire is, it will eventually be defeated by love and kindness."