Tianxia Online Business Reporter Guan Lidan
After getting off work at 5:30 pm, 25-year-old Li Fang and her friends walked into the familiar "Ceating Street". Li Fang is a standard "small town youth". Except for staying in a first-tier city for 4 years when he was in college, he lived in this third-tier city for the rest of the time.
"I remember that , Mixue Bingcheng , with a per capita, and Zhengxin Chicken Chop Store with a red background, there are people queuing up in the green-carded Dicos store, and there are many people sitting in the Dicos with green cards, which is cost-effective." After eating and drinking, Li Fang will also go to cosmetics stores with the young sisters. Guerlain and Watsons are both the best choices. "Sometimes I didn't buy anything, but there is an inexplicable happiness."
In the past two years, Li Fang has had a strange perception of the town. "It seems that nothing has changed in my hometown. It is still in those streets, in those stores, and in other places, and everything has changed. Promotional activities are always launched online first. Ordering and membership in stores are digital operations. Even parents are used to going to Alipay to grab coupons and then buying things." There are many young people in the town who share the same feelings as Li Fang. With the slowdown in new traffic in first- and second-tier cities and the increasing cost of customer acquisition, the sinking market with a population of more than 900 million has begun to become the focus. How to leverage this broad market more deeply and widely has become a topic of brand thinking.
Overall consumption this spring showed a warming trend, and sinking channels have become the main force driving this round of economic growth. According to Alipay data, Zhengxin Chicken Steak, Mixue Ice City, Guerlain and Dicos, which are nicknamed "Small Town F4" by netizens, performed particularly well.
may surprise many people that in terms of store size, these "small town giants" have surpassed international brands in first- and second-tier cities. Today, the number of "Small Town F4" stores is nearly 40,000. Among them, Zhengxin Chicken Steak Store exceeds the total of KFC, , McDonald's, and Mixue Bingcheng is also far higher than Heytea, Naixue, etc. A piece of Zhengxin chicken chop in the left hand and a cup of Mixue Bingcheng in the right hand are daily portrayals of many young people in the town.
As a popular "Town F4", the secret that small town youth can firmly grasp is not only the extremely cost-effectiveness, but also updates and iterates their own playing styles and uses digital operations to make the store's gameplay more abundant, and this is the secret of their rapid growth.
Cross-border chicken steak to deliver Wuling Hongguang, which has become the "favorite brand for college students"
Valentine's Day, fried chicken, Wuling Hongguang. These nouns that are incompatible may make most people confused. But it is them that have made Zhengxin Chicken Cutlet, a "giant among the giants" in the sinking market, appear on the circle many times. Many people may not know that the number of stores in this brand has exceeded 20,000 across the country, which is more than the top brands such as KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut.
Recently, Xiaohongshu , Kuaishou and Douyin have set off a trend of Wuling Hongguang mini modification, and the memes of "not loving sports cars and mini" by white and rich beauties are popular all over the Internet.
This year on Valentine's Day, Zhengxin Chicken Steak took advantage of the opportunity to launch the #Valentine's Day Lightbulb People# interactive car pumping event on Weibo . As long as netizens post a group photo with topics on Weibo, they will have the chance to draw the strongest support car on Valentine's Day delivered by Zhongzheng Chicken Steak - Wuling Hongguang mini.
In addition, consumers can get "Single Dog Light Bulb Earrings" and "Single Dog Necklace" and other peripherals through the Zhengxin Chicken Steak Alipay Mini Program, and can also win prizes such as vouchers, gift packs and lighting. You can also order food by searching Zhengxin Chicken Steak on Alipay, and you can also draw Wuling Hongguang Mini to express, "Your hero will definitely hold Zhengxin Heart-shaped Chicken Steak and drive Wuling Hongguang Mini to marry you."
This single dog support event has aroused the enthusiastic participation of netizens. On February 14, the topic #Valentine's Day Lightbulb People# received 110 million views and 47,000 discussions. The search volume of Zhengxin Chicken Steak on Alipay has also continued to rise, ushering in a small climax of sales.
Relying on digital tools, Zhengxin Chicken Steak has a good marketing experience. In fact, the digital methods of Zhengxin Chicken Chowder, such as mobile payment, face-scanning payment, takeaway, Alipay mini-programs, and issuing consumption coupons, have been used proficiently.
In the first week of March just past, Zhengxin Chicken Prawn conducted coupon activities on the Alipay mini program, attracting 760,000 visitors, search volume soared by 204%, and daily transaction volume exceeded 70,000. College students who love fried chicken and milk tea also directly put Zhengxin chicken chops on the top of the search list for college students’ favorite brands. Fried chicken sells best in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Wenzhou , Suzhou .
Coupons over one million per week were snatched, and the " pistol leg God" wanted to be launched to attract attention
not only Zhengxin chicken chops sell fried chicken in a small town. In recent days, Dicos, the "God of Pistol Legs" has become the focus of public attention because its parent company, Dingxin Group, is rumored to be listed in Hong Kong.
Since entering China in 1994, Dicos has been adhering to the strategic route of "surrounding the city in the countryside". Not only did it promote localization first, it developed products such as "rice burgers" that cater to the tastes of Chinese people, but it also launched a series of sales strategies that fit small town consumers, such as playing promotional cards, launching membership card preferential rights, opening up individual franchise, etc. After a series of actions by
, Dicos is known as the first "foreign fast food" for young people in small towns in China. With its "dominant position" in third- and fourth-tier cities, it competes with KFC and McDonald's.
In 2016, Dicos made another decision to change his brand career: digital transformation, and take the access to the Alipay ecosystem as an important part. Many young people in small towns like Li Fang have begun to enjoy the convenience of digital ordering.
In terms of Alipay and reputation, Dicos launched a mini program with ordering and coupon functions, opened up the member center, established a life account, and distributed a wave of promotional activities and member rights from time to time.
Through cooperation with word of mouth, Dicos achieved a triple-digit year-on-year growth in sales on Double 11 and Double 12 in 2019, conquering cities in the sinking market, and even began to counterattack first- and second-tier cities.
In Alipay's "March Start" promotion, Dicos launched a series of rights such as 1 yuan chicken wings. In a week, netizens grabbed more than 1.04 million consumption coupons, and Alipay's search volume increased by 51%.
Dicos' digital transformation is still on the way. After the news of its listing came out, Dicos said that it "will continue to increase its digital pace."
One big promotion, the transaction volume soared 70%
transformation into digitalization, which is the same choice for "Small Town F4" in the past few years.
"After graduating from college, returning to his hometown, high school has undergone great changes," Wang Jing wrote in his circle of friends, "But when he saw Guerlain at the school gate, he seemed to have returned to his girlhood all at once." Guerlain, who opened in second- and third-tier cities, is a common memory of many girls. This cosmetics store, founded in 2005, is headquartered in Guangzhou. It has now opened more than 2,000 stores across the country. It is the largest cosmetics chain among local brands.
But Wang Jing may not have expected that Guerlain, whose appearance has not changed much, has already changed inside.
In the past few years, Guerlain has cooperated with Alipay, Ele.me, word of mouth and other business lines, and more than 2,000 stores have achieved cash register and marketing links, including Alipay mini-programs, which has realized the connection between the entire platform and consumption scenarios.
With the help of Alipay digitalization, Guerlain discovered a new world of marketing. In the past, the operation of cosmetics stores often relied on offline promotions and event text messages to drive them. Now, with the help of Alipay's consumption coupons, mini programs and other activities, stores can obtain more user resources through platform promotions.
"In the first week of March alone, our Alipay issued more than 250,000 consumption coupons, and the transaction volume increased by 70%. "Guerlain revealed that Chongqing, Xi'an, Chengdu and other regions were the best sellers. Because of the 3.8 yuan hot coupon, toothpaste, cleanser, facial mask and other items were also rushed to buy.
There are many similar marketing: 717, Double Twelve, Five Blessings and 38 activities... Guerlain is constantly exploring on the road of digitalization.
Use a fulcrum to leverage the hearts of "small town youth"
Overall consumption has shown a warming trend this spring, and sinking channels have become the main force driving this round of economic growth. Alipay's March consumption data showed that in third-tier and below cities, the search volume of Dicos, Zhengxin Chicken Cutlets, Mixue Ice City, and Guerlain has already taken the lead in the industry.
The huge traffic and consumption potential of third-tier and below cities has also made brands that dig deep into sinking channels the focus of capital pursuit this year. According to media reports, Dicos is considering listing its mainland business in Hong Kong, while Mixue Bingcheng completed a financing of 2 billion yuan in January this year and plans to list on the A-share market within the year.
not only Zhengxin Chicken Steak, Guerlain and Dicos, with the rise of purchasing power in the sinking market, more and more brands are overtaking with the help of digital tools. Mixue Ice City, Wallace... and other small town brands are increasingly aware of the importance of digitalization in customer acquisition and sales.
In the process of enterprise digitalization, Alipay has become an important tool, and tools such as mini programs, searches, consumption coupons and other tools are the key to brand explosion.
Last year on Double 12, nearly 9 million physical merchants launched "cloud promotion" on Alipay to provide consumers with preferential subsidies such as consumption coupons, with a total value of 10 billion.
2021 "Celebrating the New Year at Home" during the Spring Festival has also given many businesses the opportunity. Business district department stores including Intime Department Store and Hainan Sanya International Duty Free City have chosen to move the mall to their mobile phones. During the Spring Festival, young people in small towns receive coupons and place orders online mini-programs, and then they can receive packages from direct mail to the mall.
Ant Group CEO Hu Xiaoming once said at the 2020 Alipay Partner Conference that in the next three years, Alipay will work with 50,000 service providers to help 40 million service industry merchants complete digital upgrades. Today, Alipay digital tools are being used more and more widely by brand merchants, creating one "small town brand giant".
Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes once said, give me a fulcrum and I can pry the earth. For brands, the fulcrum of digitalization is the best tool to leverage the "small town youth".
Edit Xu Yiting
