Recently, the data released by the survey organization shows that nearly 30% of the consumers interviewed are willing to queue up for online celebrity drinks for two hours. There is also an endless debate about whether these are really queuing or hiring people to gather popularity. Beijing Youth Daily reporter found that hiring people to queue has long been a "primary means". online celebrity stores use the environment, products and marketing methods to make passers-by become queuing customers, which is behind the quiet change of consumers’ consumption concept.
phenomenon
"Punch in" the first online celebrity store in the New Year
Queue for an hour to buy milk tea
Liujing, who finally returned to Beijing from his hometown to work after the Spring Festival holiday, rushed to do two things before he came to tidy up his cabin — — Shooting snow scenes in the Forbidden City and punching in the online celebrity coffee shop in the Forbidden City.
Although there is "coffee" in its name, it is more like a online celebrity tea shop than a traditional coffee shop. The commodities, such as Kangxi’s favorite chocolate, milk tea with 3,000 beauties, smiling when riding a princess in the world of mortals, our palace’s delightful rolls and nourishing rolls, as well as the external packaging and the environment inside and outside the store, are the reasons why liujing, a young man, is in great demand.
In order to punch in and take photos, liujing not only braved the wind and snow to plunge into the Forbidden City from the East Fifth Ring Road, but also queued for nearly an hour in the cafe to get the unique gold-bottomed paper cups of the Forbidden City and the red cup sets with the patterns of the Forbidden City printed on them.
When liujing got the milk tea, the first thing he did was not to taste the drink in the cup, but to take a circle of photos in the store with the cup, and then go to a position where he could take a panoramic view of the turret, use this cup as a foreground and take a group of photos, and then he began to make friends circle while drinking with satisfaction.
From going out to finishing the circle of friends, after more than three hours of tossing and turning, drinking milk tea that has cooled somewhat, liujing felt glad you came. In fact, in the coffee shop in the corner building of the Forbidden City, many customers are like liujing. Although some people think that the quality of the drinks in this store is average, people who come to taste it are still in an endless stream. Some netizens called this place "the first online celebrity store in 2019".
interview
Customers take more meals than order.
Outside the store, the price of "yellow cattle" doubled
Although some netizens complained because they waited for nearly an hour to enter the "online celebrity Store" of the coffee in the corner building of the Forbidden City. But at present, no one has linked this popularity with "hiring people to queue up". But another online celebrity store was once caught in this storm. In 2018, two stores of Xicha were opened in Beijing, but they were frequently on the news and hot search because there were too many people waiting in line. Because there were too many people waiting in line, Xicha was once exposed as "hiring people to queue up". For this problem, its founder said that the store was too busy to open takeout, and Xicha wanted to solve not the number of customers, but how to improve productivity.
In order to verify whether the queue is for childcare or customers, Beijing Youth Daily reporters visited five tea shops in Beijing at different times in the past half month. In one hour, the number of drinks sold by different tea shops and at different times varies, ranging from 130 cups to 210 cups. The reporter of Beiqing Daily noticed that there were almost no people who lined up repeatedly during this period.
During the visit time of reporters of Beiqing Daily, the number of take-out in Xicha Store in the office area once exceeded the number of stores currently on sale. In the stores with large sales volume, customers waiting for meals were once more than those waiting in line.
At Joy City Store, the number of customers waiting for drinks in the surrounding area during the visit time of Beiqing Daily reporter was once twice as much as that of people waiting in line. In Changying Tianjie store, it takes less than 10 minutes to order food and more than 15 minutes to pick it up.
In addition, in the vicinity of Sanlitun stores, there are even people selling queuing places.
"It’s lined up inside. It’ll be there soon. Anything you want will do." A woman told the reporter of Beiqing Daily. A drink of more than 20 yuan, bid to 50 yuan. And she also took the small ticket that had been paid, saying that if she added some money, she could take the meal directly with this small ticket. The receipt shows a drink and a fruit tea that are the store’s signature. "Don’t worry about not selling, I want to buy a lot." When the reporter of Beiqing Daily asked how to deal with the failure to sell the meal receipt, the lady said.
Chu Xian, a marketing insider, said that hiring people to queue up is a means for some emerging small brands to create momentum, which is relatively primary and suitable for the brand’s creation period, but it can’t last long. Once the brand image is established, hiring people to queue up is not only unhelpful, but also may cause brand damage. For hi-tea and Forbidden City Corner Coffee, this relatively low-end marketing method is not needed.
interpret
Create the illusion that demand exceeds supply.
Let consumers "wait reasonably"
"It’s all here. I just want to try it. Anyway, it’s nothing." In the interview of the reporter of Beiqing Daily, this statement has the highest "voice".
Customers who have this idea are also the means of "hunger marketing" by businesses. Marketers say that waiting in line is the time cost consumers pay for their favorite drinks. How to enlarge this time cost within a reasonable range and create a scene of "demand exceeds supply" requires the planning of merchants.
In the eyes of some marketers, these tea shops in online celebrity are full of hints that "it is worthwhile to pay time and cost" to dilute the purpose of "hunger marketing". Take 1: 00 as an example. As a representative of the street tea shop, 1: 00 doesn’t have any place to sit in the shop, but the operating cabinet area in the shop is bigger and longer than that of the ordinary street tea shop. The clerk always needs to take materials from one end of the counter and then run to the other end to seal them, in order to complete the production of all milk tea. This lengthens the time of making milk tea, objectively makes customers wait longer, leading to queuing, but also makes the waiting customers clearly see the whole process of making milk tea. This technique has also been imitated by many online celebrity stores and carried forward.
Marketers said that although they couldn’t feel the service of online celebrity store in the queue, these value-added experiences weakened the attribute of "manufacturing" and emphasized the store service, with Xixian tea featuring strong brand and strong operation and Naixue tea focusing on social scenes as typical representatives.
Among the online celebrity stores that have survived for more than one year, hi-tea is quite the essence of this method. Not only the production area is fully displayed, but also a large number of people make it inside. On the one hand, this move improves efficiency, on the other hand, it is to highlight the value of its products and make consumers feel that "it makes sense to wait". In addition, hi-tea, Naixue-の tea and inWE-flavored tea leave a large number of seats in the store and decorate the store in a high-end and fashionable way, at the expense of the business area in the store to increase decoration.
Wang Hao, a food and beverage analyst at Mintel, said that opening a online celebrity tea shop with exquisite decoration and novel layout in the shopping center can help improve the consumption experience and relieve the anxiety of consumers waiting in line for a long time.
However, the queuing or full situation in the store makes passers-by curious about going to online celebrity store, which leads to concerns and potential customers. In an interview with reporters of Beiqing Daily, nearly 60% of those who didn’t take part in the queue said that if online celebrity stores didn’t queue up, they would like to buy their products and try them. There are also a few customers who hold the attitude of "optimistic about many people buying and wanting to taste how delicious it is".
observe
The rise of "scene consumption"
Customers are willing to pay for added value.
"For a cup of milk tea, as for this queue?" This may be a question that many consumers who pass through Sanlitun Xicha feel when they look at the customers who are lined up in sections.
The data survey reflects customers’ tolerant attitude towards online celebrity stores. Mintel, a research organization, recently released a report saying that its research shows that 28% of consumers think it is worthwhile to queue up for two hours to buy online celebrity tea. In the report of another survey agency, Ai Media Consulting, 74.5% of consumers surveyed can accept queuing for milk tea for less than half an hour.
According to Mintel data, the market growth of tea shops in China reached its peak in 2017-2018, with a compound annual growth rate of 14% increasing to 48.5 billion yuan. In some shopping centers in Beijing, the number of tea shops even exceeds the number of fast food restaurants. With so many choices, many consumers are still willing to queue up for a cup of milk tea for about half an hour. Analysts say and the change of consumption concept — — The transition from experience consumption to scene consumption is closely related.
Zhu Danpeng, a food industry analyst in China, said that people are demanding higher and higher quality of life. Eating is not only for satiety, but also for freshness, health, feeling and even personality. In online celebrity restaurants, there are not only novel products, but also scene consumption, with more services and brand added value. Consumers are willing to pay for this part of the scene, not just for the goods themselves, or even pay a high premium or time cost, which is itself a manifestation of consumption upgrading. This is just like some white-collar workers were more willing to go to Starbucks for consumption. In fact, they didn’t just like drinking coffee, but more recognized the lifestyle represented by Starbucks. Today’s online celebrity store also represents a lifestyle and consumption values recognized by young people, and is a vivid annotation of the new trend of consumption.
Text/reporter zhangxin
