NetEase marches into the brick-and-mortar coffee shop industry: whether to be unprofessional or conform to the trend

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How many people do the first thing every day is to turn on NetEase news and browse hot spots, and how many gamers have been addicted to Onmyoji and Fantasy Journey to the West day and night? But in recent years, NetEase, regarded by the outside world as a "traditional portal" and a "game company", has made frequent moves in the field of "eating", first NetEase black pig, then strict selection of tea. now it has opened a coffee shop in Guangzhou-Yi Jian Cafe.

As an Internet company with a history of 20 years, what is the strategy behind NetEase's entry into the physical coffee shop industry? The new store business study club visited the easy room coffee shop, and its person in charge, Mr. Hong Shuo, also expressed the original intention of opening the easy room coffee shop.

From the game, but higher than the game

NetEase as a duopoly in the game industry, opening a coffee shop is based on insight into the needs of gamers. NetEase gamers have been offline ownership needs. The coffee shop has always been synonymous with exquisite and elegant way of life, and it is also a symbol of taste, fashion and cozy life.

Such a comfortable space is a gift prepared by NetEase for the vast number of NetEase gamers. It is intended to extend the game social from online to offline, so that gamers can better feel the NetEase game brand, exchange and share games and life, and enhance the sense of belonging and honor.

As Hong Shuo, the person in charge of NetEase Yi, said: "to be exact, it is not NetEase's game that chose the coffee industry, but NetEase's game users who chose the coffee industry." When playing games, many NetEase players are no longer limited to traditional Internet cafes and Internet cafes, but are gradually pursuing a better and more comfortable environment, so NetEase decided to make a cafe brand. "

"A little more" is the core of the brand concept.

Yi Jian Cafe is born for game lovers, which naturally continues NetEase's ingenuity in making game products. The core idea of Yi Jian is "a little more". That is to say, in every link of production, environment and operation, we should insist on thinking more and doing more, so as to provide consumers with a high-quality living space and produce some emotional resonance.

Hong Shuo said that this brand concept is passed on to consumers through details. "when spending in the Yi room, consumers can naturally feel our intention from every detail and every corner of the room." Continue the "NetEase product, must be a boutique" brand gene, but also doomed that this will be a coffee shop worth visiting.

Although it comes from games, the consumer layer of Yi Jian is not only satisfied with gamers. In addition to NetEase players, Yi Jian also takes into account the needs of mass consumers, providing a boutique coffee service and a quality living space for exchanges and gatherings.

Yi's hardware does not use the game elements that many people speculate. In terms of environment, we still choose simplicity and comfort as the design concept. From the internal structure to the environmental design, Yi Jian not only has the intensive research and supervision of the industry masters, but also integrates the elements of the virtual game with the enjoyment of the real world in its space design, further sublimating the popular leisure and entertainment of the game.

Starting from the relevance of the game, NetEase's game itself is an IP, and it can attract players to carry out offline activities in Yi. And the literary style of Yi also allows ordinary consumers to find a reason to visit the store.

It is not difficult to imagine that in the future, if players want to know the latest information about NetEase's games, they can go to Yijian to experience new games, while non-players can listen to cloud music and open cloud notes on a lazy afternoon. Tasting coffee and refreshments, leisurely looking out of the window.

In the production, Yi Jian invited international coffee masters to prepare boutique and creative coffee, coffee beans are strictly selected around the world in this season, using imported healthy ingredients.

All the meals in the store are made by the store, advocating simplicity, balance, moderation, nature, no burden, strict selection and handling of every ingredient without the use of semi-finished products. Choose and buy safe and high quality imported raw materials. Invite five-star chefs to join us to develop various types of healthy meals to make all products healthy without losing the unique flavor of the ingredients.

The ideal relationship between games and life is reciprocity. Apart from loving life, we also like games. The two can exist independently or indistinguishable from each other. In such a comfortable environment, players and non-players can take what they need and find their own space respectively. A cup of coffee, a delicacy and a game is what life should be like.

Although Yi Jian is a derivative of NetEase's game, such derivatives really touch the essence of life. Perhaps, "one space, how many emotions" is the ultimate presentation of diversity and tolerance.

No interaction, no business.

Ding Lei once said: "what is the real mission of being an enterprise?" It is through your innovation and service that you can gain the recognition of consumers. " The essence of retail competition is customer competition, which is the competition of passenger flow management ability.

Therefore, whose store is more fun and interesting, whose goods are more innovative, whose services are more strange and distinctive, and whose activities are more participatory and experience better. Whoever can attract customers for more and longer time will have more chances to win.

When it comes to how to interact with customers, Hong Shuo said that Yi Jian gives customers experience space mainly through these four aspects.

1, hand coffee with a sense of ritual, every action, the treatment of beans and water, all this is a performance of intensive farming. There is a hand-brewing coffee area in the easy room, where customers can experience the fine coffee made by famous baristas.

2. The store is equipped with soft equipment such as coffee derivatives display wall, game term number plate and so on. Many coffee lovers and gamers can use it to share content.

3. 163 stories will be collected and shared on a regular basis. Collect everyone's stories and share them for free for coffee customers.

4. Yi Jian will also hold irregularly activities such as sharing salon and NetEase IP with the participation of famous guests.

In the context of universal entertainment, coffee shops simply sell coffee, which cannot meet the needs of consumers. Especially under the increasing pressure of e-commerce, in order to arouse the interest of consumers, interactive experience may be the best choice for today's physical business, and this model has gradually become a lever to pry sales. Consumers feel the product effect in the process of interaction will naturally produce consumption impulse, so as to enhance the stickiness between consumers and brands, a good interaction model can also form a good consumer word-of-mouth marketing.

Become an important bridge between products and users.

Yijian first store opened in Guangzhou for a month, has been sought after by the majority of users, has become an online celebrity brand. But in fact, catering network celebrity brands do not necessarily represent superficiality. An online celebrity brand that continues to be popular, without solid internal protection, Ta will not be successful.

Hong Shuo believes that the cafe is a new field for NetEase, and Yi Jian is a stepping stone, which makes us lucky to enter this field. Chain coffee market is in the stage of development in China, and we hope that by constantly learning from peer experience, we will slowly explore a physical road suitable for NetEase. "the continuous emergence of boutique coffee shops and online celebrity shops in recent years is a good sign that consumers have more knowledge and choices about coffee."

But becoming a popular online celebrity coffee shop is obviously not the goal of Yi Jian. With the big cultural label of NetEase, the hard power and soft power reflected in all aspects of Yi tell us that the brand not only reflects NetEase's feelings, but also reflects its pattern-to develop in the direction of chain coffee market!