KOL is a new marketing method that has appeared in recent years, and it is called KeyOpinionLeader (KOL for short). In marketing, KOL is usually defined as a person who has more and more accurate product information, is accepted or trusted by relevant groups, and has a great influence on the purchasing behavior of this group. As a conceptual term, opinion leader originated from lazarsfeld's People's Choice, and he divided communication into two stages: mass communication stage and interpersonal communication stage. Opinion leader refers to a person who is active in interpersonal communication network, often provides information, opinions or suggestions to others and exerts personal influence on others, and has the ability to influence others. In the era of social media, the rapid development of emerging tools such as big data on the Internet has enabled brands to establish connections with consumers more effectively and pertinently, and KOL has played a bridge role in guiding communication between consumers. Therefore, the role of KOL in advertising is becoming more and more obvious. They have obvious personal characteristics and a strong fan base, while giving full play to the advantages of social media in reporting and influence. They become the key for brands to occupy the marketing highland. For example, among 93 brand owners interviewed by AdMaster, 72% said they would increase their social marketing investment on 20 17, and 63% of them said they would focus on the promotion of online celebrities and KOL. Because people's consumption patterns have changed, the traditional marketing methods are struggling, and the rise of online sales and online shopping has also changed the brand's compliance with the trend, so the related publicity methods and supporting schemes of marketing have also changed. KOL can use its credible voice to help guide consumers to e-commerce websites, so that brands do not have to bear the heavy burden brought by traditional channels such as advertising. A large number of kols have been active on foreign mainstream platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and their research ideas and cooperation paths can be used as learning cases for local brands. On domestic platforms such as Xiaohongshu, a large number of brands are cooperating with kol and cooperating with small and medium-sized kol in batches. More and more brands see its value, and they are eager to apply KOL marketing to their social media promotion strategies. The basic idea of KOL marketing is to reasonably select and allocate resources, ensure the authenticity of KOL's influence, and put an end to cooperation with KOL who buys powder and falsifies data. Second, who are the traditional opinion leaders (such as stars and celebrities)? They are the earliest opinion leaders. Their image is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, accepted by the public and recognized by the public. In most cases, they represent popular culture, walk in the forefront of fashion trends, play a leading role in the trend, and the demonstration effect is more obvious. Using top KOL marketing can maximize the popularity, effectively boost the brand reputation, and stimulate consumers' desire to buy with the aura of "star effect". Non-traditional opinion leaders+minority professionals (such as platform V and network celebrities) play a more "people-friendly" role in promotion. Although the number of fans in this part of KOL is relatively small, their interaction with fans is more in-depth and professional than traditional opinion leaders. Most of the information they publish is an objective experience and evaluation, which can effectively communicate with brands and achieve the role of word-of-mouth marketing; Some are good at encouraging fans to forward, stimulating secondary communication and controlling public opinion orientation; Issuing lottery tickets and hard planting can increase exposure and topicality to a certain extent. Domain experts (such as grassroots tuba) "In the new media era, everyone can become a self-media, producing and disseminating information." Although not as good as the above opinion leaders, they also have their influence compared with ordinary people. They can have an equal dialogue with consumers, and they are also disseminators and foil of various promotional topics. They are also brand traffic builders of traditional and non-traditional leaders mentioned above. In addition, they are the KOL group with the largest number and the strongest communication effect, and they also like to engage in various promotions. No.3 —— Where is KOL going —— The verticalization of KOL platform is not only in Weibo, WeChat, but also in emerging network professional platforms (such as Tik Tok and other short video apps). First, word-of-mouth marketing, based on the experience sharing of consumers' personal use, attracts consumers; Second, a large number of kols conduct product evaluation and product recommendation on the network platform, and "deeply integrate into people's daily lives in an embedded state"; Third, network users get personalized recommendations through likes, comments, forwarding and other behaviors. In 20 17, the number of new posts on Xiaohongshu platform reached 340,000, up 68% year-on-year, with an average of 1 1000 new posts released every day. KOL's own professional and vertical micro-broadcasting (short video function marketing platform) in the annual order data of 2015-2016, the number of double micro-grassroots accounts decreased significantly, while vertical KOL showed an obvious growth trend, and the latter became the first choice for enterprises. Taking beauty as an example, it is observed that the hot words related to the amount of discussion since 20 17 include "beauty blogger", "beauty app", "beauty video" and "beauty teaching", and the original professional and vertical content exchange has attracted more and more attention. Take Weibo as an example, there are various types of beauty bloggers who advertise and market through short videos. Intensive exposure intensively covers and affects a certain type or a certain user group through different kols, then this user group will be gradually influenced and changed, thus generating trust in kol. For example, in the recent lottery popular in Weibo, some beauty bloggers took this opportunity to spread it intensively, and launched a number of activities to forward the lottery to send cosmetics in a short time, so that online users could see the brand-related beauty products many times in a short time, deepen their impressions and achieve the purpose of intensive exposure. Through users' praise, forwarding and attention, we can expand the scope of communication and improve brand awareness, thus changing the consumption pattern of cosmetics market. KOL mode from "pyramid" to "inverted pyramid" used to be a top-down communication mode, and the communication channel was relatively simple, usually through traditional opinion leaders, mainly with mainstream traditional media; With the development of social media and the specialization of content, this structure has changed, and grassroots talents and consumers have become more and more important in the mode of communication, beginning to show an "inverted pyramid" structure. Advertisers will pay more attention to the tail opinion leaders in the process of promoting marketing. Markerly said that online public data shows that 82% of consumers are very willing to listen to the recommendations of the tail opinion leaders. No.4-KOL means-taking the beauty industry as an example-promoting on the new media platform and carrying out KOL cooperative marketing are very hot marketing methods in some industries at present. Many brands want to maximize the marketing effect on social media. Considering that the relationship between brands and KOL is mutually beneficial: when KOL provides continuous exposure (exposure promotion) for brands and products, brands should also support KOL's career (making phased promotion plans), so that KOL can have more and more brands to cooperate with KOL. What should we pay attention to in the operation of KOL? Choosing the right platform and resource allocation According to the survey, the automobile industry likes to launch small cars with less than 654.38 million fans, and individual nurses prefer to launch large cars with more than 500,000 fans than other industries. For brand owners, the main value of KOL with more than 6.5438+0 million fans is to create core content, while small and medium-sized KOL with lower fans is more to spread core content. Under the big classification of personal care industry, the small classification of beauty cosmetics has both the same characteristics and their own characteristics, forming their own unique style. For the choice of delivery platform, our choice method has the content that KOL target consumers are interested in; KOL is related to product promotion; The most popular KOL and the top KOL. But what is the KOL screening standard? How to maximize the attraction when KOL cooperates with the brand? Bian Xiao believes that the first thing is to abide by the basic principles of KOL cooperation, make reasonable plans, and it is unprofitable not to make fakes. The choice of KOL is participation, content quality and the number of fans KOL has, which is also the standard to determine the quality of KOL. But at present, KOL is more and more expensive, and ROI (Return on Investment) cannot be effectively guaranteed. Under this premise, it is necessary to allocate KOL resources reasonably in order to maximize the attractiveness of KOL. Take the beauty industry as an example. WELLDEMA Dreamworm is a Korean cosmetics company. Although it doesn't have the reputation of an old cosmetics brand, it makes full use of the advantages of the current digital age. Their choice of KOL resources is very reasonable. KOL is divided into three echelons for a platform. The first echelon is KOL with millions of fans, and the number is controlled at 10-20. These people all have considerable influence. It has also become the main force in KOL cooperation. The second echelon is KOL with100,000+fans, and the number is controlled at around 50. They have a certain fan base, which is more in line with the popularization needs of consumer groups. Finally, amateur KOL, although it doesn't have a large number of fans, is superior in quantity and low price, and it will also have a diffusion effect in KOL cooperation. Tribe-Dynamics' monthly quotations for medium-sized markets such as France, Germany, Hong Kong, Brazil, South Korea and Japan are US$ 3,000, US$ 4,500 and US$ 6,500 respectively, while those for small markets such as Canada, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Russia, Australia and Gulf countries are US$ 2,250, US$ 3,500 (regular projects) and US$ 5,500 respectively. Graded distribution can maximize the delivery effect and stabilize ROI (return on investment). Balancing scale and customization brands are developing rapidly, but they are also facing the problem of balancing scale and customization. To solve this kind of problem, "we should deal with the relationship between palliative and permanent cure." On the one hand, we need to increase the budget. The reason why promotion activities are difficult to carry out is often the lack of funds. By increasing the budget, the KOL advertising marketing model will be more large-scale, and we can develop more large-scale products to meet the needs of a large number of consumers. On the other hand, brands should formulate long-term marketing strategies and make timely and flexible adjustments according to public demand. Organize a team to conduct market research, "improve the ability of independent development", understand the needs of consumers and develop products in a targeted manner, so as to achieve the effect of tailor-made for consumers. Brands should plan to establish long-term and stable cooperation with more kols through screening, rather than promoting an activity in the short term. Part of the reason for establishing long-term cooperation is that in today's social media era, many KOLs are more or less promoted in cooperation with many brands, and the effect and exposure of a single publicity campaign will be diluted to some extent for their audience. Long-term cooperation and promotion relationship is not only conducive to the establishment of KOL's own image, but also has a stable effect on the brand itself. Therefore, the actual operation of KOL is not imminent, and a systematic work is needed as a whole. If we take the beauty industry as an example, we should first have a detailed understanding of this brand, including company profile and its brands, and do a good job in brand positioning. Then, we will list some competitive brands, be sure to understand how they carry out KOL marketing, and start looking for some excellent KOL and suitable promotion platforms. Priority can be given to the promotion of beauty experts or Watsons here. On the platform, you can choose short video platforms that are hot now, such as Little Red Book and Tik Tok, and communicate with them to discuss KOL's scheme. For the promotion content and demand, it is necessary to formulate a detailed and reasonable plan (combined with the company's own strength, etc.), and also choose the appropriate promotion brands and products. After the popularization of KOL, it is also necessary to conduct ROI investigation and analyze the spread effect of KOL in time, make correct adjustments and do a good job of KOL. No.5-KOL is the representative of young consumers? Kol is a representative of young consumers? It is very important for a brand to attract a younger audience. One way to do this is to involve young people. Nearly half (45%) of teenagers often surf the Internet. With the increasing popularity of video platforms (YouTube claims to have nearly 2 billion active users every month), it is said that Generation Z (people born in the mid-1990s to 265438+early 20th century) will watch 23 hours of videos every week, so it is natural for brands to use KOL to attract young people. In 20 18, the annual income of KOL on YouTube reached six figures, up 40% compared with last year. The survey shows that KOL's ability to provide "real voice" for the brand and the verification of "third party" credibility are the main reasons why young people choose to trust KOL. Using KOL can help brands get portraits of specific people, and "increasing brand audience" is far less important to the younger generation. Therefore, it brings the credibility of the third-party perspective to the brand and conveys the real voice, which has aroused the buzz of a new generation of young people. Matching authenticity and credibility with KOL criteria is the secret of success, and then creating content that can arouse the audience. Is the employee KOL? At present, brands think that more and more company employees are KOL, and we do see a trend that large companies are realizing that their employees are one of the best brand advocates. In the future, more companies will take measures to establish internal employee advocacy plans. For example, employees are encouraged to use employee labels and participate in various activities or platforms, so that employees can share content with the community conveniently. But there are also voices that employees are people who have no influence. This view holds that employees really need to convey information. Brand ambassadors are employees, but they are also influential people. But ordinary employees are not in the sense of media relations. Once these employees leave their jobs, they will be useless to the brand, because traditional media will not touch them. Therefore, the relationship and cooperation between employees and KOL still need to pay attention to methods and further explore. Why are consumers willing to buy? Why are brands willing to pay the bill? For the recommendation of kolda people, consumers are willing to buy. Many niche or unheard-of brands can instantly become hot commodities through the KOL case. KOL is different from other marketing models in that people with goods can best grasp the psychological needs of consumers, with high fan conversion rate and strong interaction with consumers. It can better satisfy consumers' curiosity about products, thus achieving the effect of planting grass. Although KOL's time in front of the camera is very short, they are often well prepared and can describe products in the simplest and most direct language. Consumers can understand the advantages and disadvantages of products more intuitively and clearly through KOL, and have a sense of trust in KOL. Therefore, KOL itself is a "brand", and it is easier to solve the problem of consumers' trust in products. Weibo expert Zhang Taobao sold 7 million yuan on the opening day and nearly 10 million yuan in three days. It can be seen that KOL has a strong ability to convert fans' purchases, and consumers are willing to pay for it. With the development of KOL, this marketing method is not only favored by some minority brands, but also favored by some international brands. Dior and Chanel are the most successful KOL marketing brands in Weibo. KOL is cheaper and more efficient than star promotion. This marketing method is more grounded to the brand, and it is easier for consumers to have a sense of substitution than celebrity endorsement products. This is also the reason why more and more brands favor KOL as a marketing method. KOL's recommendation is more convincing and purchasing desire than hard advertising, which is the most important point of the brand. Similarly, the appearance of KOL not only witnessed the development of new media, but also achieved a new brand marketing model. KOL broke through the traditional marketing model, and original content and vertical social interaction attracted more consumers. Nowadays, KOL has developed from a new gameplay to the new normal of e-commerce, a new brand marketing model, and an indispensable traffic representative for most industries. Therefore, more and more brands have joined the KOL army and are willing to pay for it. No.6-Conclusion-At first, I didn't fully agree with this behavior of pursuing traffic, but it is not easy to completely innovate this industry that pursues traffic and speed. However, it can be seen that all parties in the industry seem to have begun to change. So the pursuit of traffic is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is always good to make some changes appropriately.