Hunting for "sinking market" and competing for "small town youth", how can Shangmei break through?

Author | Yi

"Surrounding the city from the countryside" has become a business model, which will inevitably bypass Pinduoduo.

The example of Pinduoduo tearing a hole outside the Fifth Ring Road and its strong rise made the whole society see the emerging purchasing power of "young people in small towns". The sinking market has thus become a new blue ocean for business, and all walks of life are scrambling to grab this freshly baked "big cake".

In the field of e-commerce, "small town youth" has contributed a lot to the annual Double Eleven Battle Report; In the offline market, Mi Xue Bing Cheng, Zheng Xin Chicken Chop, Guerlain and Dicos are even named "Small Town F4".

When the sinking market has become the knowledge of brand seeking growth, its importance is self-evident.

Especially for the wine travel industry, which was hit hard by the epidemic of black swan, sinking the market has become a new way out for the development of domestic hotel industry under the situation that the domestic economy has fully recovered and set off the trend of consumption upgrading.

In the era of hotel 3.0, everyone is robbing the sinking cake.

The hotel industry in China has experienced three development stages, namely 1.0 era, 2.0 era and 3.0 era.

This is the view of Ma, chairman and founder of Life Group, on the development stage of the hotel industry. And said that the hotel industry is now in the 3.0 era of quality development.

But as mentioned above, the sinking market has become a new way out for the development of domestic hotel industry. Even in the 3.0 era of high-quality development, the largest market in the hotel industry is sinking.

This can be seen from the gap between supply and demand.

From the supply side, although the hotels in China's first-and second-tier cities are close to saturation, there is still a lot of market share to be occupied in the sinking market, which is expected to become a new driving force for hotel growth.

According to public data, there are 300 prefecture-level cities, 2,000 counties and 40,000 townships in China. After China wins the all-round victory of getting rid of poverty in 2020, the consumption upgrade of the sinking market will be fully stimulated in the next 5- 10. The pursuit of accommodation quality and comfort will make the chain hotel market a new blue ocean of sinking market.

From the demand side, the sinking market with money and leisure has great consumption potential. The Research Report on Youth Consumption in Small Towns predicts that by 2030, the consumption of residents in third-and fourth-tier cities will reach 45 trillion yuan. At the same time, as the tourism boom in low-tier cities heats up, the sinking market is also becoming a new growth point of tourism and hotel reservation in China.

Therefore, in the market where the development space and consumption demand are sinking, hotel brands try their best to "please" the "small town youth" who have money, leisure and consumption upgrading needs.

For example, Hanting Hotel said that 60% of the new projects under construction are in third-and fourth-tier cities or even counties; Shangmei Group focuses on the mid-to high-end market of low-tier cities, and has built an art hotel for young people in small towns.

It's easier to sink than to sink.

Different from many industries, for the hotel industry, although there is a broad development space in the sinking market, the problems that need to be solved urgently are also very difficult.

There are two typical problems.

First, as the target customers of the sinking market, "small town youth" not only pays attention to the quality of hotels, but also is highly sensitive to prices.

What is the living condition of a typical "small town youth"?

Generally speaking, they have all received a certain degree of higher education. In their hometown, the income is not high, but the time is free and decent. In terms of disposable property, they are not much different from white-collar workers in first-and second-tier cities, and their spending power is even higher than that in high-tier cities.

This also directly shows that people with less pressure and more free time will be more willing to spend and their quality of life will not be too low. However, limited by the overall consumption level of the city, price is still a sensitive factor. The Portrait Report of Young People in Small Towns shows that "young people in small towns" prefer high-quality hotels, but most people use coupons every time they stay.

This means that hotel brands need to protect their own operating conditions under the dual restrictions of cost performance and consumption level, and also need to provide diversified services with a sense of value in the fierce competition situation to enhance consumption stickiness.

Secondly, in the case of intensified quality and chain competition, attacking the sinking market is not a simple copy and paste of business model, but a localization based on standardization and different characteristics of each region, so as to truly sink in the sinking market.

There has always been a view in the hotel industry that it is very easy for high-end hotels to sink into the market, because many things are difficult from low to high, and it is very easy from high to low.

But in fact, China's sinking market is too vast. For hotels that want to go deep into the local area, every time the sinking market in different regions expands, they will face different market conditions, and there is no universal standard formula.

Ma Yaoying once said: "Users in first-and second-tier cities and users in third-and fourth-tier cities are greatly influenced by geography and culture, and their consumption habits and product preferences are still different. If they copy blindly, there will be certain risks. 」

In other words, it is not difficult for hotel brands to sink, but it is not easy to really sink.

So, how should hotel brands enter the sinking market?

"I think that if you want to try to explore the sinking market, you need to have awe of users and the market and reposition yourself in a down-to-earth manner. What Ma said may be the methodology of life-long diving. This is why, according to the Qingbo Intelligent Analysis Report, Shangmei Life Insurance ranked first in the brand influence list of 202 1 China Sunken Market Hotel Group with 93 points.

How to refine the "sinking king" of hotels?

Judging from the brand influence, Shangmei Life has become a well-deserved hotel brand "the king of small towns". However, if we carefully observe the sinking steps of Shangmei's life, we will find that it is a real "sinking king".

The sinking path of Shangmei Life Insurance has certain reference significance for the whole hotel industry to enter the sinking market.

First, the focus is sinking, and multi-brand efforts are made to cover consumers in different market segments and meet the differentiated needs of different customer groups.

Shangmei Life Insurance has developed from the "Shangkeyou" budget hotel in its early days to 15 hotel brands such as "Shangkeyou", "Junyi", "Shangkeyou" and "Lan Ou", covering three grades, and subdividing the existing hotels layer by layer to meet the needs of different groups.

Even in different cities, due to different market demands, the same hotel brand owned by Shangmei Life Insurance will adopt different positioning strategies.

The advantages are also very obvious. According to the analysis report of Qingbo Intelligent, among the top ten hotel enterprises, the number of hotels that Shangmei lives in the third, fourth and fifth tier cities is as high as 3,487, with a coverage rate of 100%, and the coverage rate of the fifth tier cities is also above 90%. No matter the number of hotels or the coverage of cities, it is much higher than other brands, and the Matthew effect of the industry is obvious.

Second, anchor the quality, upgrade the service, enhance the hotel value with refined operation, and form brand potential and consumer stickiness.

There are three steps to upgrade the quality of life of Shangmei: to upgrade the existing high-quality head stores in an all-round way, so that good stores can play a greater role and provide better services and products; Introduce McDonald's breakfast, coffee and other related services to the waist shop; Launch "Tail Cutting Action" on "Tail" Store.

At the same time, Shangmei Life also improves quality and service through the innovation and upgrading of hotel product forms, and strengthens the deeper linkage with young people in the town. For example, co-branding with British Museum, tencent games, and Bili Bili will bring them better product experience satisfaction. For example, cooperate with brands such as McDonald's, Costa and small pot of tea to provide better services to users.

Third, based on hotel services, extend multi-format services, create a complete closed-loop service ecosystem, and provide users with high-value services in the sinking market.

After focusing on the main business of the hotel, Shangmei Life also explores the diversification of life services in the fields of cross-border fast loading, home retail, catering, culture and entertainment.

For example, discount KTV brand Baoledi, baking brand Aodian, new retail home brand ONE ZONE and so on. These extended life services complement each other with the hotel business, which not only improves the efficiency of the hotel's main business, but also opens up its own development space.

"The reason why it is named Shangmei Life Group instead of Shangmei Hotel Group is precisely because we have been committed to transplanting the quality life services of first-and second-tier cities to third-and fourth-tier cities, so that consumers in the sinking market can enjoy more quality services. 」

Starting from the needs of users, creating all-round products and services happens to be the most popular lifestyle at present.

Generally speaking, the hotel industry wants to sink the market deeply and polish its products and services according to local conditions, which will always be the constant king. In this way, we can really capture the favor of "small town youth" through the user experience with as much surprise as possible, thus enhancing the brand value of the hotel and finding our own correct direction in the sinking trend of the whole industry.

* The pictures in this article are all from the Internet.