More and more consumers with higher expenditures in the field of medical aesthetics are realizing that they have stepped on the pit of cost-effectiveness.
These consumers are mainly women over the age of 30, and they spend tens of thousands of yuan or more on medical aesthetics every year. They have a strong demand for anti-decline and are willing to continue to consume for a long time, and have high requirements for the service quality of medical aesthetic institutions, but they will also be attracted by the "cost-effective" and "low-price" publicity of some institutions. On Xiaohongshu, many medical aesthetic consumers who have had similar experiences shared the poor consumption experience brought by cost-effective items: forced sales of more ** items; The consultation is not targeted, and the doctor's professional ability is not strong; Reception capacity is limited, and the waiting time is too long......
In the past year, cost-effective programs have been particularly troubled by these high-net-worth aesthetic consumers. After surviving the epidemic for three years, many medical aesthetic institutions are ready to do a big job, but the fierce competition has involved all institutions in the first war, and large and small medical aesthetic institutions have joined the live broadcast of low-cost activities, disrupting the original first-class system. For the same service items, consumers are definitely willing to choose the most cost-effective one, but medical aesthetic institutions reduce the quality of service because of the compression of profit margins, which ultimately leads to a deterioration of the consumer experience.
Jin Xing, Chairman and CEO of Xinyang Group, mentioned a key word in the medical aesthetic industry in 2023 at the Xinyang Asia-Pacific Medical Aesthetic Industry Awards Ceremony: serious path dependence. "When many medical aesthetic institutions and new oxygen joint operation activities improve their performance, low prices have become the only way, and everyone can't think of any other way. ”
So, what is the problem in the medical aesthetic industry, which has caused a lose-lose situation for medical aesthetic institutions and consumers?
The low price confuses medical beauty institutions and also traps consumers.
All medical aesthetic institutions know that the first battle is not a long-term solution, but they have to participate in it, which is determined by the current marketing drainage model of medical aesthetic institutions.
According to the survey in iResearch's "Research Report on China's Medical Aesthetic Industry", the ratio of online channels to offline channels in the information acquisition channels of Chinese medical aesthetic users in 2022 is 3:1. Among the channels, the information sharing platform, the vertical platform of medical cosmetology, the short platform, and the local life service platform are the main sources of information obtained by users.
In fact, the rapid growth of China's medical aesthetic industry is due to the marketing drainage of Internet platforms. In the early days, the main form of Internet medical cosmetology was **, thanks to the education of consumers by standard products such as catering coupons and movie tickets, many users began to try to buy more forms of local life services such as medical cosmetology on the Internet platform. The merchant makes the service into a standard product, which means that the product tends to be homogeneous, and only by superimposing low prices can a large number of conversions be formed.
* The advantage is that it lowers the consumption threshold of medical cosmetology, and through low-cost and light medical cosmetology services, a large number of people who were not originally consumed in the medical cosmetology field will be converted into consumers in the medical cosmetology industry, so that they can have an understanding of the medical cosmetology industry - these people may continue to consume in the medical cosmetology field in the future.
But the problem is that once a medical aesthetic institution attracts a large number of consumers through low prices, other institutions must also join it, and the battle has also expanded from light medical aesthetic products to more projects with higher thresholds and higher profit margins. The end result is that the service capacity of the medical aesthetic institution is overdrawn, and the normal operation of the company can only be maintained by compressing the cost of each link, resulting in a decline in service quality.
From the perspective of consumers, most people, especially high-net-worth consumers, understand the truth of "you get what you pay for, you get what you pay for", but the war blurs the distinction between products and services, and many consumers can't find the basis for other decisions. Even high-net-worth consumers who are willing to pay a premium for higher services can only choose services that are less expensive and less beautiful in the supply that tends to be homogeneous.
The results of the first-class war in the field of Internet medical cosmetology are not consistent with the improvement of efficiency and service capabilities brought by the first-class war in the fields of e-commerce and takeaway, which is mainly determined by the particularity of medical cosmetology consumption. Jin Xing gave his research conclusion at the New Oxygen Asia-Pacific Medical Aesthetic Industry Awards Ceremony: The most painful thing for medical aesthetic institutions is not the first battle, but the first battle, but the business increase is minimal. The reason is that in the composition of Chinese medical aesthetic users, "13% of high-end medical aesthetic users account for 51% of the consumption amount of the medical aesthetic market." Whoever has insight into the needs of high-end medical aesthetic users will have half of the market share. ”
To put it more bluntly, medical aesthetic consumption is not equivalent to small daily consumption such as daily necessities and takeaways, and the final consumption amount is determined by the consumer's earning capacity. According to Deloitte's 2023 China Medical Aesthetic Industry Insight Report, people with an annual income of more than 360,000 yuan account for 63% of high-end medical aesthetic spending, while those with an annual income of less than 120,000 yuan account for only 10% of high-end medical aesthetic spending.
In a word, the problem encountered by the medical aesthetic industry in the past year is the mismatch between the target consumer group and the actual main consumer group. Medical cosmetology institutions try to attract more sensitive consumers through low prices, but the main group of medical cosmetology consumption is high-net-worth individuals who are not so sensitive.
High-quality medical aesthetic services need to be reasonable**.
It is not difficult for high-net-worth medical aesthetic consumers to accept the best that matches the value of the service, but the difficult thing is how to help these consumers match better services in the medical aesthetic industry where the war and various chaos are fraught.
The original intention of medical cosmetology institutions to try to attract more consumers to the store through the first war is not too big a problem - they try to screen the target customers from the consumers who come to the store, but the problem is that the cost of this method is too high, and a large number of consumers attracted by low prices have squeezed out the service capacity of medical cosmetology institutions, but a large proportion of consumers do not have the ability to continue to spend large amounts on medical cosmetology.
The deeper reason behind this phenomenon is that there are great differences in the consumption capacity of medical cosmetology among different consumer groups, but at present, the vast majority of medical cosmetology institutions in China do not have a clear stratification. Upward, it is difficult for medical aesthetic institutions to compare with formal hospital channels, because many projects have hard thresholds; Downward, blindly spelling low prices, it is difficult for formal medical cosmetology institutions to achieve the ** of small medical cosmetology workshops with incomplete qualifications. Formal medical aesthetic institutions are sandwiched in the middle, and there is no distinction, so they can only fight the best battle.
In fact, from the perspective of consumer groups, medical cosmetology institutions can be positioned in at least two general directions: one is to target incremental consumers, who are mainly young people, with limited spending power, and are willing to try the best medical cosmetology projects, but the population is large, and medical cosmetology institutions can survive through low profits; The other is to target high-net-worth consumers, the vast majority of whom are already medical aesthetic consumers, who are not sensitive to **, but want to get good services.
Compared with China, the stratification of medical aesthetic institutions in South Korea is relatively clear: the cheaper one is to serve students and wage earners, and you can do a medical aesthetic project for four or five hundred yuan; In the middle, it serves the middle class, and the ** of a project has increased by two or three times; At the top is the Lady Agency. Consumers know where to go and what services they can get when they want to spend money, and different tiers of medical aesthetic institutions have different service methods. For example, a cost-effective institution is similar to a medical aesthetic supermarket or an assembly line light medical aesthetics, which does not serve each consumer for a long time, which allows them to serve more people. In contrast, the middle and upper tiers put more thought into the quality of their services.
The consumer demand at any level of the domestic medical aesthetic market has not been well met. In particular, high-net-worth individuals with a high proportion of consumption used to reach medical cosmetology in the past, but the new generation of high-net-worth individuals has a very high level of cognition, and they have obtained a lot of very professional medical cosmetology information through the Internet, and they have very independent decision-making ability. In Jin Xing's view, reaching this group of consumers through the Internet is the key to high-net-worth individuals captured by direct medical aesthetic institutions in the future.
Under the new market opportunity, Xinyang, which has been deeply engaged in the field of Internet medical cosmetology for many years, has launched the new oxygen high-end business, focusing on the needs of high-end medical cosmetology users. The idea of Xinyang's high-end business is to combine the needs of C-end users for service quality and the different delivery capabilities of B-end medical aesthetic institutions, and adopt three differentiated service methods: stylized aesthetic design, customized project plan, and differentiated evaluation system, so as to help medical aesthetic institutions fundamentally get rid of the dilemma brought by homogeneous products and services.
Specifically, Xinyang Gaoding can help institutions show differentiation, first guide consumers to pay attention to the screening of aesthetic styles, rather than **, and at the same time help doctors shape IP through operation, user evaluation, etc., so that their personal strengths and abilities can be seen by more people. All of these methods can make it easier for consumers to find institutions and doctors that meet their needs.
At the same time, Xinyang Gaoding also provides standard products, professional consultants and AI tools for offline aesthetic design. This service model is no longer a simple customer service, but can combine the characteristics of consumers themselves and fully explore their needs. Jin Xing said that the difference in customer unit price between users who transfer stores through aesthetic design is more than ten times.
Xinyang Gaoding e-commerce business was launched on January 10, and some institutions have achieved initial results. For example, after Chongqing Xingrong Plastic Surgery, Sichuan Meilai Medical Aesthetic Hospital, Shanghai Weilin Medical Aesthetic Hospital and other medical aesthetic institutions settled in, and reached 770,000** through 40 high-quality cases, the monthly lead volume increased by 139%.
This new operating model has made many medical aesthetic institutions in the predicament of the first war see a turning point.
After the pain, medical aesthetics still has room for imagination.
In the half month since the launch of Xinyang's high-end e-commerce business, a group of medical aesthetic doctors have received dividends.
In order to help doctors shape IP, the new oxygen high-end platform provides a dynamic upload function for doctors, and doctors can upload some medical aesthetic science or participate in activities to show their personal style. At the same time, all compliant doctors can associate with the case through comment claim in the comment area.
Some doctors have obtained a large number of ** and business opportunity clues through personal style display and case claim: consumers can learn which doctor can better match their needs through the doctor's past cases. Under the original model, the personalized needs of some high-net-worth consumers can only be found by constantly going to various medical aesthetic institutions.
It can be said that through the matching efficiency of medical aesthetic institutions and high-net-worth consumers, the new oxygen high-end platform allows consumers to get a better consumption experience, and also allows medical aesthetic institutions to accurately attract target consumers with their own service capabilities, rather than just low prices. Under this new model, many medical aesthetic institutions have gained a new wave of dividends and have seen the potential for future growth.
From the perspective of the entire medical aesthetic industry, the new oxygen high-end platform is equivalent to providing an external force to help institutions that are unable to solve the low-price dilemma to come out and return their operations to normal. Only when the medical aesthetic institutions at the core of the industrial chain can operate normally, can the entire medical aesthetic industry develop in a positive cycle, and upstream merchants and downstream consumers can get what they want. It can be said that the new oxygen high-end platform has helped the medical aesthetic industry to get rid of the low-price dilemma, and it is also the most important step.
From the perspective of consumers, the new oxygen high-end platform provides a new idea for how to serve high-net-worth consumers, that is, starting from the needs of consumers, giving full play to the differentiated capabilities of institutions to provide better services. Under this idea, medical aesthetic institutions can also combine their own product and service capabilities to exert more initiative, explore and develop more new models and new services to match user needs, and no longer compete in the same homogeneity as before. Many of the individual needs of consumers can be better met, and institutions allow consumers to enjoy more and better services without compressing profit margins.
In the past, the development idea of the medical aesthetic industry was to attract more consumers through low prices and eat growth dividends. Nowadays, under the guidance of the Internet medical aesthetic platform represented by Xinyang, some medical aesthetic institutions have turned to refined operations and enjoyed the dividends of in-depth operation.
According to Deloitte's 2023 China Medical Aesthetic Industry Insight Report**, China's medical aesthetic market is expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of about 15% over the next four years. The development of refinement and professional capabilities have become the second curve driving the growth of the organization. This means that the pain experienced by the medical aesthetic industry in 2023 is only the only way for the industry to transform from a backward model to an advanced model. The short-term pain does not mean that the medical aesthetic industry has entered a downward period, and the medical aesthetic industry still has a large space for imagination in the future.
In a fast-changing market, players who can adapt to change and accurately meet consumer needs will eventually remain.