Worried about the "new retail" trend? See how Starbucks, Disney and McDonald's deal with it!

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Dictation | Fang Baoqing (Vice Dean of School of overseas Education, Shanghai Jiaotong University)

Tidying up | Gao Yunfeng

Five years ago, Frank came to China and we met for coffee at Starbucks. He arrived 15 minutes early. After meeting him, he surprised me and said, "Paul, Starbucks here is completely different from New York." I thought he was talking about the price, but no, he found that foreigners who drink coffee are wearing worn-out jeans and carrying a backpack, while in China, they are all wearing high heels, miniskirts and straight suits, with either Iphone or Ipad in their hands, each with more money than the other.

This was true of Starbucks in China five years ago. You will see that Chinese people have to mix English with English when they speak here. What night do you have to attend a Party? a few days later, you have to attend a Meeting. The books you read in it are all English, French, German, Japanese and Korean. And now you look at it, what you learn in it is Chinese and what you write has become Chinese characters.

What does that mean? Today, Chinese has become the world's second largest language, even surpassing English to become the first language. China has become the world's largest market, which is completely different from before. Starbucks is preparing to challenge McDonald's in the United States next year to become the world's largest restaurant brand, while China, which ranks second in the market, already has 276 stores in Beijing and 581 in Shanghai, compared with 260 in Taipei as a whole.

It has been 27 years since I came to the mainland from Taiwan, and I am shocked by the changes in competition in the Chinese market. In three months, 13 kinds of unmanned supermarkets can be opened in 8 cities. Amazon hasn't even entered China yet, and there are already a lot of counterfeiters here. Take a look at the box of Ma Xiansheng, Amoy Coffee, these unmanned supermarkets run by Jack Ma, even he is turning from online to offline. Jack Ma is not only the chairman of the board of directors of KFC, Pizza Hut and Little Sheep, but also the second largest shareholder of Shanghai Hualian supermarket.

Unmanned convenience stores blossomed everywhere overnight.

Is it scary? The biggest competitive market in the world is not elsewhere, in China.

Experiential business continues to upgrade

Amazon has reached the point where there is no one to guide shopping and no one can check out the cashier directly from the factory. Taipei is the most famous one called Shangyin Aquatic products. The most famous ones in Shanghai are Shang Ma Xiansheng, 11 in Shanghai, 2 in Beijing and 1 in Shenzhen. Even I have to eat once a week. I can't see how it comes out when I eat crayfish, but I feel relieved to see live seafood put directly into the pot.

So the market has changed, and catering requires constant research and development of new products. This market is too realistic. Egg tarts can live for one year in Taiwan and less than three months in Shanghai. Almost all the world's top six doughnut brands have been killed in Shanghai. What do they sell? the "apple orchard" in Shanghai will soon do the same, sell 3.50 yuan, and beat you to death right away. France's most famous macaron brand, so far afraid to enter Beijing and Shanghai, China, his boss told me that his macaron in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong has 12 colors, the entrance is very delicious. I said, I have a student named Yizhiduo, its macaron has 256 colors, not as delicious as you, but only sells for 16 yuan.

French macaron vs Yizhido

After hearing this, he dared not enter (China).

So what I mean is that China's IP intellectual property rights are not protected, this is a big country of counterfeiting, and it also means that you have to constantly develop, update and iterate. This is a market that foreigners do not understand. I tell you with 27 years of experience in the mainland of the motherland that anything can be counterfeited and plagiarized in China.

So what do we do? The goods are tangible, but the services are invisible, and the experience must be done well. Why do consumers visit the door for the second time? I am now working on the guidance of Disney, what is their key lesson now: secondary consumption. The most important thing in a restaurant is heavy consumption, the second, third and repeated visits, but not always new guests, especially catering as a representative of experiential consumption.

You have consumers, you have business.

In the agricultural age, if you want to own wealth, you have to fight for land, in the industrial age, you have to fight for equipment, in the information age, you have to fight for the end market, and in the new retail era, you have to fight for consumers. Even 54-year-old people like me have to go to the cinema once a week and have to understand "three generations of Peach Blossom", "Thousand bones of Flower" and "tiny Times", because they represent the tastes of young people and the direction of business. we can no longer look at current business objects in terms of our age.

Have you seen the peach blossoms for three generations and ten miles?

McDonald's Children's Strategy

Last month I held a training course at the Jiangsu Maternity and Infant Association. There were 35 owners present at the scene, with a turnover of more than 1.2 billion. I said that what you sit on the spot is not a professional pregnancy and baby service. Why? Because you can't even do the most basic movements, so I did this on the spot-- squat down.

Why are you squatting? In order to be as tall as a child. Which business system do you go to, be it restaurants or other service industries, who really knows how to squat down and talk to children in the face of children?

To do adult business, you have to break into the hearts of children.

McDonald's knows how to do this, and the first job for an aunt here is to "fool" the children in this way. Squatting down to shake a small hand with the children, touch the head, praise: brother (sister) looks so cute (beautiful)! And smile. And then you give him a little present. Keep her in suspense, and then take him to the children's park behind. This body language belongs to the "child strategy" in child psychology, and this series of complete actions is called "goodwill service strategy".

Therefore, the catering industry can not only have an adult strategy, but also have children. It seems that you have told the children, but in fact, it is the adults in the eyes.

Starbucks: coffee experience is more important than coffee beans

Why can't Costa and Pacific Coffee catch up with Starbucks? Because it not only sells coffee, but also sells coffee experience. Two days ago, I just criticized my student 85 °C, it also sells coffee in the store, but the bakery sells coffee is all shining lights, how can there be any coffee flavor?

It's the same coffee. Why do you drink it at Starbucks?

Starbucks coffee flavor is black, coffee and Logo green mix, inside the light must be dim light, not white light, is yellow light, more important is the music inside, Starbucks rules to play what kind of music? There are only two choices, blues or jazz. There will be no songs by Jay Chou or Wu Bai. Why does it play blues and jazz? Like a bar, it makes you feel relaxed. Therefore, it seems easy for Starbucks to climb from No. 2 to No. 1 in the world, but the real Fortune 500 and professionals are by no means just making good coffee.

Disney: employees must be able to use more than 15 models of mobile phones and digital cameras

Do you know what Disney's first entry rule is? All on-site personnel should know how to use more than 15 smartphones and digital cameras. There are 2025 theme parks in China, and none of them knows how to do this.

Want to work at Disney? Let's get rid of the picture first.

What is the purpose of being familiar with mobile phones and digital cameras? -- take pictures of consumers. Also know how to shoot for them in the best position, the best angle and the best light. Wang Jianlin laughed at Disney before, saying that he would beat it one day. What about now? One of the key points that Wang Jianlin does not understand is that building a shopping mall is a completely different concept from cultural tourism, and it must be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Entering the mobile era, mobile phones have gradually replaced cameras and become a very important photography tool, so relatively speaking, shopping malls and scenic spots want guests to take good pictures and have a good scene.

KFC: 300 stores with different styles

I often cite KFC as an example. KFC has at least 300 different store types and styles across the country. Twenty years ago, we said that in a copy chain, all stores had to be exactly the same, but today, there is one for each store. Consumers are more prone to visual fatigue than before, and they hope that what they come today will be different from what they will go to tomorrow. The feeling, taking pictures and taking pictures are all different.

One of KFC's hobbies: theme flash

Take a look at the number one indoor block in Shanghai: the Great Yuet City, the Mofang 166 on the 8th and 9th floors under the Ferris wheel. All the stores are as if they were open outdoors. This is called a scene. You think it's easy, but it's hard to break through and do this kind of technology. So I always say that this is to have consumers and wealth, so we should always think from the perspective of consumers.

Mofang 166 theme block

Coffee can not be brought home to drink, the experience must be on the spot, e-commerce will wear out sooner or later, according to the current profits, Ma Yun's box horse Xiansheng in Shanghai Pudong Jinqiao store within a year can recover the cost, very impressive, according to this kind of convenience store, you do not open more than 500, it is impossible to return the cost, just like department stores, buy and sell short, earn a price difference but also pay labor costs and rent The price is high. So you have to have an experience. We still have to slowly change from artificial to electronic to uncontrolled mechanization, and we have to slowly achieve this step.

Eslite Bookstore is no longer called Eslite Bookstore, but Eslite Life, the book itself is lifeless, relying on salons and speeches to set off; Disney does not just rely on collecting tickets to support itself, you not only have to tell stories, you have to IP, but also have to make meals and sell around; Dayue City not only allows you to buy things, but also enjoy the outdoor scenery, not afraid of wind and rain.

Now is the era of experience economy, the feeling that consumers want must be different, the goods are tangible, the service is invisible, the experience is unforgettable. Everything can be copied and plagiarized. If you want to be unique, the only way is to innovate and develop continuously.