Brand Ambassador vs KOC: A Hunting or Cultivating Strategy?
Author: Height Media Team | Topic: A Marketing Management Mindset
If the market were a forest and customers the targets, the marketing director would make the most important decision: Should We Go Hunting or Stay and Cultivate?
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Hunting: This means short-term KOC bookings: each shot hits its target, generating immediate sales before moving to the next target.
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Cultivating (Farming): This means collaborating with brand ambassadors: planting seeds of trust, nurturing them daily and waiting for the rewards of loyalty and brand affinity.
Both are important, but choosing the wrong moment can leave a business without revenue or capital. Let Height Entertainment analyse these two strategies in greater depth.
1. KOC Reviews: Skilled Hunting Teams
KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) are skilled hunters on platforms such as TikTok and Shopee.
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Their tools: Short review videos, sales livestreams, exceptional deals and exclusive vouchers.
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Task: Act quickly and win quickly. The ultimate objective is Conversion into Orders.
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Advantages:
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Immediate revenue: You spend 10 million VND on a booking and could generate 30 million VND in revenue that very night.
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Easy to replace: Is this hunter ineffective? Replace them with another tomorrow. There is no emotional commitment.
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Disadvantages: Customers buy because of the KOC and the deal, but may not remember your brand's name. When the promotion ends, they may leave.
2. Brand Ambassadors: Farmers Cultivating the Brand
Brand ambassadors do not generate revenue for you tomorrow. They help generate it over the next 5 or 10 years.
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Their tools: Personal credibility, inspiring stories and sustained involvement.
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Task: Build Brand Love and Trust. They put their own reputation behind the product's quality.
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Advantages:
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Build devoted fans: When ambassadors use your products every day, their fans believe the products are genuinely good rather than exaggerated advertising.
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Increase product value: Thanks to the ambassador's premium image, you can charge higher prices while customers remain happy to buy.
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Disadvantages: This requires a large budget and patience. If you are short of cash flow, investing in an ambassador may become a burden.
3. What Stage Is Your Brand At?
To choose the right strategy, assess your financial health and market position:
Stage 1: Survival — Start-ups and New SMEs
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Situation: You need cash to fund operations, and nobody knows your name yet.
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Advice: 90% hunting (KOCs) — 10% cultivating.
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Do not focus on ambassadors just yet. First invest in multiple KOC bookings to clear stock and generate revenue to sustain the company.
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Stage 2: Growth
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Situation: Revenue is stable, but intense price competition is emerging.
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Advice: 50% hunting — 50% cultivating.
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Keep using KOCs to generate orders, but begin identifying 1-2 promising Micro-Influencers for long-term contracts of 3-6 months, making them familiar faces of the store.
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Stage 3: Leadership
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Situation: You lead your category, competitors struggle to match your pricing, and you want to elevate your position.
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Advice: 30% hunting — 70% cultivating.
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At this point, you need an A-list celebrity brand ambassador to establish your leading position. KOCs play only a supporting role.
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4. Traps to Avoid
The biggest mistake that Height Entertainment commonly sees is: Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
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Hiring an expensive brand ambassador for hundreds of millions of VND, then expecting them to meet individual order sales KPIs like a KOC.
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Conversely, booking a low-cost KOC for a few hundred thousand VND while demanding absolute loyalty and prohibiting competitor work.
Remember: KOCs sell products. Ambassadors sell the brand.
Conclusion
Neither strategy is wrong; a choice can simply be poorly timed. A good marketer knows when to hunt alongside KOCs and when to patiently cultivate the brand with ambassadors.
At Height Entertainment, we do more than provide booking services; we provide Strategic thinking. We will sit down with you, analyse your cash flow and propose the most suitable budget allocation: what percentage goes to KOCs and what percentage to ambassadors.
