Written by|Wu Xianzhi.
Edit|Wang Pan.
Late at night at the beginning of the month, Ye Guofu, founder, chairman of the board of directors and CEO of MINISO, called Liu Xiaobin, vice president of the group, to discuss whether the IP of MINISO could be more thorough.
On the one hand, it incubates its own IP, and on the other hand, it gathers the world's leading IP to achieve commercialization through product development and retail channels. Liu Xiaobin told Photon Planet that as of now, IP accounts for 26% of all SKUs in this company. Since the start of the digital process in 2020, with the help of private domain tools and KOC, MINISO has created a number of popular IPs, and MINISO has made great strides from a simple offline chain brand to IP.
For most offline chain brands, how to properly grasp the vacuum period after users leave the store is the key to continuous operation, after all, the essence of business is "repurchase". With the help of private domain tools to connect brands and members, the sports chain brand Decathlon has sold more than 10 billion yuan in China, and the marketing cost is controlled within 1%.
Many of the Decathlon clerks across the country are athletes. An employee in charge of frisbee sports in Beijing organized an annual competition at the city level and mobilized other team members to launch activities. A Wuxi clerk is a marathon god and organized the Decathlon Running Club, which usually shares the circle of friends who run marathons, attracting many people to work out or check in with him.
The case of MINISO and Decathlon does not mean that only large chains can play the private domain. Economist Xiang Shuai recently mentioned that there are several trends in the consumer market, one of which is that consumers have changed from chasing functionality to pursuing emotional value. An offline mother and baby chain brand called Ubibear has achieved rapid growth by relying on private domain and services with emotional value.
After three years of baptism, the offline industry is eager for a "second breath", and many successful cases are inseparable from the word "private domain", which people have long been familiar with, but many people do not know how to do private domain.
Private domain reshapes IP
On March 18, 2023, the "Dundun Chicken" on the shelves of a Minisoso store in Luoyang was put on the ** by the clerk, although this scene, although it seems inadvertent, just captured the curiosity of consumers and became a catalyst for brand communication. In the IP boom, the resurgence of "Dundun Chicken" is not only an accidental success, but also the embodiment of the brand strategy of "content as a product" of MINISO.
Behind this, it is not only the huge offline traffic provided by its more than 3,800 stores across the country, but also the company's digital success - since 2020, MINISO has established a private domain traffic pool of 39 million users through WeChat. This not only provides a new channel for brands to communicate with consumers, but also becomes a new battlefield for content marketing.
On WeChat, through the accurate data analysis of the private domain platform, MINISO has a clear insight into consumer needs, which directly guide product innovation and marketing strategies. In this context, each product of MINISO is not only the object of sales, but also the medium of interaction with consumers.
In this round of content creation and product promotion, 50,000 KOCs have become the secret of MINISO**. Through WeCom, MINISO has effectively integrated KOC into its brand marketing system. These KOCs are not only believers in the brand, but also the workhorses of content creation. The brand-related content they create undoubtedly strengthens the marketability and appeal of the product. In addition, these KOCs also participate in product feedback and innovation, forming a model of "user participation and co-creation".
Liu Xiaobin even believes that private domain KOC is the moat of brand marketing. And unlike FMCG brands, co-branded IP is like changing clothes, while MINISO regards IP as a long-term goal. He mentioned, "For MINISO, this is our business, and we have to sign an IP for 5 to 10 years, and then operate it for a long time." ”
However, MINISO's KOC operation was not smooth, and the content growth was slow at first, and it was difficult to break through the order of magnitude, so how to stimulate KOC's continuous creation became a top priority.
To this end, a KOC grading incentive mechanism has been introduced, as long as the relevant content means joining the organization, the next continuous creation will be advanced, and the corresponding benefits will be unlocked. If you post a popular note with more than 1,000 interactions, this kind of high-potential player can advance to advanced, not only can you get more official support, but also can join the high-level KOC community, communicate with masters, grow, and even become a professional content creator.
On July 15th, a week before the official sale of a popular doll, Mingchuang distributed a gift to KOC in advance, and this exclusive right quickly stimulated KOC's desire to create and share, or Xiaohongshu, or Douyin, or Moments, the content form covers unboxing**, fancy second creation emojis, vlogs, etc., which has warmed up the market for the new IP in disguise.
After the content growth created by KOC entered the fast lane, MINISO began to pay attention to the quality of content again.
The official noticed that in order to draw a more valuable MINISO blind box, some users used the method of weighing, so the official introduced it into the blind box drawing strategy and distributed the idea to KOC. As a result, the content was posted and exploded, which aroused KOC's enthusiasm for creation. In addition, the official will share high-quality cases with KOC, so as to form a demonstration effect and accelerate the dissemination. The latest data shows that KOC content has exceeded 3 million, and the total number of KOC content has exceeded 1 billion.
In order to continue to stimulate the creation of both quantitative and qualitative private domain KOC, MINISO uses WeCom and adopts the management mechanism of social crowdsourcing and centralized operation to explore a set of efficient marketing system adapted to the characteristics of the industry.
With the help of WeCom, MINISO has established a complete set of KOC operators**: first, invite KOC to become a new product experience officer by issuing new product benefitsSubsequently, high-quality creative materials are distributed to KOCs through Qiwei, which makes it easier to make the content a hitAfter the explosion of the KOC level, unlock new gifts and benefits.
With the help of KOC operation, MINISO continues to deliver new products, activities, ** and fun things to consumers, so as to enhance users to repurchase in stores.
The private domain has brought two very intuitive benefits to MINISO: a large increase in customer unit value and a significant reduction in marketing costs.
According to Liu Xiaobin, as of November, the average sales of private domain users were 19717 yuan, 1 higher than **per capita87 times. The average unit price of new customers in stores is 37 yuan, and the unit price of new customers in the private domain exceeds 92 yuan, which is 24 times. The frequency of repurchase has also increased significantly, with 28. For private domain users, it is as high as 48。
After two years of accumulation, 4 million pieces of content, 1.7 billion **, according to Mingchuang accounting, according to the CPM reverse deduction on the Xiaohongshu and Douyin platforms, the private domain operation is equivalent to saving 40 million yuan in marketing costs for MINISO.
Hobby operations are becoming the starting point for business
In 2021, Decathlon cooperated with its own company to start digital transformation.
Xiao Lu, Executive Vice President of Decathlon China, believes that digital transformation mainly includes three aspects, namely the transformation of the internal value chain of the enterprise, the transformation of the external growth factors of the enterprise and the transformation of the growth capacity. Among them, the focus of the transformation of enterprises' external growth factors is connection, which includes not only the private domain connected by WeCom, but also the construction of small programs.
"We're always thinking about how to keep our customers excited about sports in their daily lives after they've left the store, which is crucial for our business," he said. "When reviewing the layout of the private domain this year, the common challenges of offline business were highlighted. Like sports products, the frequency of user purchases is far from comparable to three meals a day, and the experience is highly positively correlated with conversion rate.
Decathlon has surveyed the same product, and the difference between the purchase rate of customers who have experienced it and those who have not experienced it is as high as 5 times, which shows that the key part of business is to provide product experience.
In order to solve the problem that it is difficult for brands to reach the user experience after leaving the store, Decathlon has divided it into three parts, namely interest stimulation, user operation, and employee efficiency.
The first is to use private domain tools to awaken users' interest and use interest to stimulate motivation. In a Decathlon cycling group, users will spontaneously share how to maintain the bicycle they have bought, what is the correct riding position, and of course, the brand will also release new information from time to time.
For most enterprise operations, information bombardment starts after gathering users, resulting in a lack of willingness to interact with users, and eventually becoming an advertising distribution center. Decathlon realized that gathering users is only the first step, and it also needs to make users really interact.
The group underwent a top-down organizational realignment to accommodate the private domain. On the headquarters side, the CRM team (customer relationship management) is responsible for the production and operation of fine content, as well as the planning and implementation of the activity cycle. The store side is based on the existing business unit, and a dedicated person is responsible for regional operations.
From the perspective of store staff, in each Decathlon interest group, a store assistant will be arranged as the group owner. These clerks are often elite athletes or coaches, hence the nickname "sports masters". They use WeCom as a tool to promote sports in their respective regions, organize regular group activities, and do a good job of logistical support, such as recording the wonderful moments in the sports and sharing them with the group.
This is not the end of the story, most enterprises often rudely set various targets for attracting users, conversion, and distribution when using tools like WeCom. On the contrary, Decathlon has set up a very flexible assessment on the basis of the SOP process, and has sunk to the shopping guide of each offline store.
Through WeCom's built-in efficiency content tool, Sports Ambassadors can receive daily tasks, and they have the right to choose whether to participate or not, or they can customize themselves. The performance appraisal of these tasks is reflected in the dashboard, and the store manager adjusts the business goals by tracking the participation rate and various indicators.
This year alone, Decathlon has operated more than 50,000 events across the country, with an average of more than 100 events per day, with more than 400,000 consumers participating. This set of data reflects that Decathlon has entered a new stage in terms of frequency and depth of contact with users.
For offline stores, the clerk is the face. Due to the increase in private domain operation tasks, the operation burden of store staff will be increased, so the group has established a micro database for each sports master, which is connected to marketing tools such as sports content material library and poster template library, and the sports ambassadors of each store can customize marketing plans according to the current popular actions in the region.
It is precisely by relying on the enterprise micro database that Decathlon will step on each node without landing. During the marathon held in Wuxi, the marathon equipment exploded. At the same time, Shenyang is promoting fishing, Hainan ambassadors are leading users to surf, and Harbin has reached a good time for skiing. The content pushed by the community and circle of friends that users see is actually ready-made materials provided by the headquarters.
Doing business like a neighborhood with "sincerity" requires precise tools
In 2023, most of those companies that can turn around will realize the need for fine operation.
In fact, Qiwei is also constantly adjusting product functions to guide merchants to work intensively, such as limiting the frequency of information push. Li Zhifeng, vice president of WeCom, mentioned that the traditional ** is actually a kind of broadcast-style "reach", rather than the private domain "interaction" that WeCom thinks.
From a number of successful cases, it can be found that although many businesses have begun to try centralized operations, it still needs to be clear that the private domain operation method cannot be copied, and needs to be tailored according to the scenario. MINISO borrowed KOC and IP-based instead of broadcast-style reach, while Decathlon found interest and movement.
In addition to these two big brands, Ubibear, a maternal and child chain brand from Foshan, also has a deep feeling for the private domain. As a brand rooted in the regional market, Ubibear has grown to the private domain with "emotional connection" due to the particularity of the maternal and infant category, and has achieved a steady performance improvement. And this is quite worthy of reference for small and medium-sized businesses.
Huang Fengjuan, the founder of Ubibear, believes that the team is not doing simple "publicity", so she attaches great importance to service and emotional connection. She was very impressed when she was delivering milk powder to a mother, and she happened to meet the mother who was worrying about bathing the baby. "It used to be washed by the nanny, but the nanny was not at home that day. So the staff who delivered the milk powder helped, and taught the mother how to bathe the child.
How to let employees interact with users accurately and appropriately has been bothering all businesses that do private domain operations. Huang Fengjuan's solution is to add keyword tags to user cards in the background of WeCom. For example, mark the last purchase of milk powder brand, baby's gender, age and other information, employees can target from the card keywords and provide effective services.
It is worth mentioning that the employee turnover succession function enables new employees to quickly enter into decision-making after taking over, so as to ensure the consistency and continuity of service.
Lu Qingwei, vice president of WeCom, made an interesting comparison. "Ubibear said that all the mothers in the community are friends, not just customers. Compared with merchants who only scan codes and send advertisements, the repurchase rate of WeCom merchants with private domain operations is 2-3 times higher. ”
The integration of online and offline is not an illusory thing, and through the above-mentioned businesses, it can be seen that the offline economy is mining the increment from the private domain with the help of digital tools such as Qiwei.
Among them, they not only use enterprises and micro-groups to manage KOC, and then plant grass in Xiaohongshu and Douyin to create IP, but also use the community management and employee background of Qiwei group to integrate brand concepts into daily life. Even the start-up Ubibear is aware of the role of the private domain as an emotional bond in the community economy.
Economist Xiang Shuai believes that as an important change in the economic trend in 2023, the community economy is quietly emerging, and young "digital natives" have a strong need to "return to the real world", which will inject a boost into the offline economy.
If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools, and finding a suitable and effective "private domain" tool will determine the height of the ceiling of offline business in the new environment.