Talk long enough
Time can witness quality, time can win trust.

Those high-end buyers are far from average in their requirements for quality, they spend more money, and in response, they demand higher quality.

Time is the best witness. In the face of time, everything will eventually show itself. If a brand has a long enough history, then the brand's products must be very reliable, otherwise how can it live so long.

The world's high-end brands usually have a long history. Mercedes Benz was born in 1886; BMW was born in 1916; Louis Vuitton was born in 1854; Rolex was born in 1908; Hermes was born in 1837. These high-end brands have more than 100 years of history.

Many brands create high-end brands at the beginning of their birth, if the company does not have revolutionary technology or innovation is not appropriate.

Kunlun Mountain is a bottled water brand launched by JDB Group in 2009. At the beginning of its birth, the brand positioned high-end bottled water with a price of 6 yuan/bottle, which was 3 times that of the leading brand at that time.

What was the result?

Not satisfactory. In the face of a new brand, consumers will doubt its quality and credibility, and consumers will wonder how a new brand can make products better than Nongfu Spring, not to mention the price is three times that of Nongfu Spring.

After five years of practice, in 2014, Kunlun Mountain changed its strategic positioning from "high-end mineral water" to "snow Mountain mineral water". The Kunlun Mountains need time to earn trust.

Entrepreneurs often point to Tesla as a counterexample. They will say, you see why Tesla is successful, Tesla was founded in 2003, from the beginning of the establishment of the high-end market cut, so far, Tesla has become the representative brand of high-end electric vehicles.

Tesla is undoubtedly a success. However, can your business be like Tesla? Tesla was able to get a massive infusion of capital despite losing money for 15 years in a row. Can your business do that? Does your business have Tesla's technology? Does your CEO have Musk's influence?

Which brand of pure electric vehicles in China is better developed? It is the brand that enters the market at a low price, not the premium brand.

Xiaomi's success today was achieved by cutting into low-cost smartphones.

Toyota and Honda also succeeded in entering the U.S. market by offering low prices.

If you study history, you will find that many brands in the early stage of the strategy is low price, rather than high-end.

Once again, it takes time to build a high-end brand, and the requirements of those senior buyers are very demanding. Companies must let consumers witness the quality and credibility of their products through time.

Point two Clear categories
Clear category, strong positioning.

Unclear category definition is a common practice misunderstanding of brand establishment and positioning, so is the creation of "high-end" brands. In practice, we have encountered too many enterprises that miss the opportunity to position because the category is not clear.

The decision-making idea of consumers is "to think by category, to express by brand", that is, to first consider which category of products to buy, and then choose the representative brand of this category. Positioning has little power if the category is ambiguous.

Olin started with sinks and then branched out into kitchen appliances. In 2019, the brand was repositioned as: High-end kitchen. Kitchens are a very broad category. Would any consumer even think about buying a kitchen? Obviously not.

The "high-end" positioning is built on the "kitchen" category, and the power cannot be revealed. "High-end kitchens" are difficult to enter the mind and thus cannot influence consumers' purchasing decisions.

Beverly is a new brand launched by Midea Group in 2018. Beverly was launched in response to competition from Haier's high-end home appliance brand, Casati. Casardi initially positioned itself as a high-end refrigerator and then extended to high-end home appliances. The worst thing about Beverly is the definition of the category, what is a "set of high-end water appliances"?

Only with a clear category can we have a sharp positioning. When enterprises establish high-end positioning, they first need to think about category definition, so as to plan brand positioning.

Point three Beware of market vacancy trap
We have observed that many brands fall into the practice of "there is space in the market, there is no space in the mind". Market vacancy and mental vacancy are not the same thing. Companies should focus on the mind, not the market.

Starting with the market will not lead to an effective strategy. The marketing strategy may seem to find new opportunities, it may seem very inspiring, but it is not, the marketing strategy may be leading the enterprise to the abyss.

A tale of two businesses.

In the market, there is no brand to occupy the "high-end electric vehicle", the company is desperate to bet all resources on high-end electric vehicles.

There is no brand in the market to occupy the "high-end corn oil", West King feels lucky, seize the strategic window to establish "high-end corn oil".

There are also high-end financial management, high-end English training, high-end paper towels, high-end food containers and so on. From the market point of view, enterprises divide the market into high-end market, mid-market and low-end market, and then, enterprises see the existence of "high-end" opportunities. If you look at the mind, companies don't see such opportunities.

In corn oil, electric cars and English language training, there is no high-end vacancy in the consumer mind, which is the truth.

For companies, it is tempting to create high-end brands. It is conducive to the promotion of enterprise market position, can get more loyal consumers, can get better profits, can get media attention. However, it is not easy to create a high-end brand, the process of creating a high-end brand is very difficult, it requires enterprises to invest more money and time, not only that, but also have superior quality and excellent image.

In addition, creating high-end brands is also affected by brand birth, which we call mental resources. Italian clothing is very high-end in cognition, French wine, Swiss watches, French cosmetics, German cars and so on, creating a brand with these mental resources can shorten the cycle of creating a high-end brand.

Splash cold water. In the market, many categories themselves do not have the genes to create high-end brands. So it doesn't matter how much effort companies expend.