The Hard Way to Change Brand Image: Case Study of Momo

First launched in July, 2011, Momo is Chinses social network app for people to meet strangers based on their location. Although the app claims that it means to help people to know make friends based on their interests, in fact it becomes the most popular flirting app for those who want to find casual sex, and was “renowned” as the most effective one-night-stand app for a long period. With more than 72 million monthly active users, Momo have become the third popular instant messaging app in China.

Reasons  to change brand image

Usually changing brand image happens when facing changing market, for brand repositioning or to change bad image, but Momo had a series of concerns. There are three main reasons for Momo to change the brand image. First, in 2014, Chinese government initiated “Internet Anti-Pornography Campaign of 2014”, (“扫黄打非·净网2014”) in which Qvod (快播), a popular video player that provided pornography contents, was punished. Momo worried about the potential risks of being influenced by the campaign for allowed or even encouraged people to find sexual partners. And later in 2015 campaign, Momo was punished for “spreading pornographic contents”. The second reason is that Momo filed IPO in the US in 2014, and that was why it would like to build a more positive image among the public and investors. The third reason is that the creators of Momo realized that the demand of meeting strangers is limited, and may restrict the development of the product, as Momo COO said in 2014, “陌生人交友的概念比较狭隘，让人有一种不信任的感觉，而且把方向定得较死，产品也会越做越窄”.

Momo launched a series of campaign to change its brand image since 2014, hoping to getting rid of the image of one-night-stand app. In the campaign, Momo adopted a straightforward way to deny the flirting app image, and empathize on the function of meeting interesting people nearby. This campaign integrated multipole communication channels, including newspapers, outdoor ads and weibo, arousing heated discussion. In 2015, Momo invited Chinese director Jia Zhangke (贾樟柯) and launched several heartwarming TVC, with the slogan “陌生并不存在”.

Challenges and problems of changing brand image

However, changing the brand image is extremely difficult, and it should begin internally, and then moves outward, but Momo did it the opposite way. Some doubted that Momo’s brand transformation only focus on the exterior. Despite spending a huge amount of money on advertising, it did not do anything to change user behaviors. For example, at the beginning stage of brand transformation, a male user would still see the homepage filled with photos of sexy female, indicating the fact that the product was still with strong sex implication. Some criticized that Momo changed the brand image just want to make the existing users feel less embarrassed when caught using the app. At least, they can claim that they are trying to “meet someone interesting”, as the new slogan of Momo, rather than just seeking one-night stand.

To get rid of bad reputation, changing the product itself is more effective than relying on advertising. Not until May 2015 when Momo launched its version 6.0, did users feel their determination to make a change. The homepage of Momo became message board (留言板), and instead of showing sexy users, it began to show people such as alumni, neighbors, people with similar occupation, or share the same interests. The point is that Momo tried to weaken the function of having one-on-one chatting with strangers, and strengthen the functions of meeting and sharing thoughts with people that have certain connections. However, this may hurt the feeling of the early users, because, as many analyzed, the success of Momo heavily relies on users who just need flirting or having causal sex. The new strategy of Momo will increase the risks of making them exposed to friends or colleagues, and the situation became contradictory. 

Momo 6.0 tries to link people based on their hometown, schools and occupations

In the past few years, Momo was still struggling to get rid of the bad reputation, but it is hard to tell whether it was successful, because there are still many think it as one-night stand app.

The latest news of Momo is that it launched live streaming function, which contributed to 70% of its.  income, attracting more new users and increasing revenue. Through live streaming, Momo is encouraging content consuming, which may be a more effective way to change the image of one-night stand app. 

Despite all the efforts of changing brand image, we can still find a lot searching results that links Momo with one-night stand apps

Zhang Zhixin

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References:

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