New Guide to Life: Ayana and the Library of Loneliness

(1) Overview of the case

The name "Aranya" is taken from the Sanskrit "Alanruo", which means a quiet place, far away from the bustle of the world. It is located in the central area of ??the Gold Coast, Changli County, Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province. It is a first-line cultural tourism resort community and player resort in North China close to the sea. The project has complete vacation and business facilities and is developed in four phases. It aims to follow the brand slogan of "Life can be more beautiful" and core values ??to create a 220-hectare seaside community.

In addition to the basic property type products, Aranya Town is also equipped with a seaside links golf course, a mysterious and literary lonely library, China's first seaside church, and China's first seaside Jockey Club - AranyaHorse Club , Araya Ecological Farm, ClubMed Mediterranean Club, owner's restaurant, etc.

(2) Highlights of the project

Aranya’s current success stems from the great charm of the project itself and the forward-looking ideas of the project leader, which breaks out of the products and marketing of traditional real estate projects. Thoughts, more emphasis on one's own feelings and temperature.

1. About customer positioning - active selection and precise positioning

In the process of exploring and targeting target consumer groups, the Aranya project development team changed the inherent thinking mode based on market demand and used its own initiative. To select customers and give a basic positioning to the selection of consumer groups: only select groups that agree with Aranya’s values, and compress the scope of customer groups to a small and refined level. The accuracy shows that the characteristics of this group can be clearly depicted: Beijingers, aged 35 to 45, are all professionals in their respective fields and belong to the typical middle class in Beijing's sense. This group of people has a unique characteristic: they have relative freedom, are not restricted by the system, and their work is not restricted by time and space. For them, life and work are no longer problems. How to live better and work creatively is what they are confused about.

Aranya positions itself as the first residence of this group of people’s souls. The so-called first residence of the soul means that life is truly the first priority and the center of residence, rather than accommodation. This definition of life has broken the concept of vacation real estate and settled on the concept of starting from "vacation" and ending with "community".

2. About Sentiment - Spiritual Pursuit, Authentic Life

Aranya's customers are not defined by their wealth, but more by their spiritual dimension. Whoever agrees with the value proposition advocated by Aranya is their customer. From a reality point of view, the clients of the Aranya Project have all turned away from the pursuit of work and basic life and instead paid more attention to how to live better and work creatively. In order to answer this question, Aranya Town attempts to rebuild a new way of life based on the life proposition it advocates. This reconstruction is "return". Specifically, from the material level, Aranya Town returns to a life of "quality simplicity, controlled abundance"; from the emotional level, it advocates a return to the warm relationship between people; from the spiritual level, it pursues the pursuit of unparalleled No longer worship power, money, or material things, but return to family, nature, tradition, and a spiritual and authentic life.

The town of Aranya itself contains a kind of power of abandonment, which encourages people living in it to let go of the burdens of life and achieve a state of returning to nature. The high-pressure middle class in the city lives a wealthy but lonely life. Behind this lies the endless pursuit of material life, indifference to emotional life, and neglect of spiritual life, which leads to a general anxiety and lack of security. feel. Many middle-aged people are becoming less and less interested in flashy, external things, and more and more interested in authentic, internal things. Throughout the construction process of the Aranya project, full consideration was given to supporting facilities that are in line with the values. By finding architects who understand Aranya's values ??and planting their concepts into the inner space, function and spiritual connotation of the building, we ultimately achieved the goal of returning to life. The perfect state of authenticity, nature and relaxation.

3. About temperature - considerate service, community building and integration

Temperature is an extremely heart-warming word, and what it derives contains the beauty of emotion and the openness of life. There are two types of temperature in life, one is the external warmth given by others, and the other is the cooperative warmth given by students. Aranya Town starts from these two dimensions and delivers warmth through a complete and considerate service system and close and friendly community relations. The perfect and considerate service system is mainly reflected in the dedicated service of the staff to the owners. The property team can directly communicate with consumers and make suggestions, so that services can be continuously improved and improved, and people's happiness in living in Aranya Town can be enhanced. The warmth of close and friendly community neighbor relationships is mainly reflected in online community group communication and offline activities. Online community groups provide a good platform for community owners to communicate and communicate in a timely manner. In addition, a variety of offline activities transform this mimicry of interpersonal communication into real interpersonal communication, making virtual emotions concrete, clear and fixed, and enhancing the intimacy and familiarity between community neighbors. Aranya Town held more than 1,500 activities last year, many of which were planned, organized and provided by the owners themselves. Aranya is trying to rebuild the intimate relationships between people, rebuild a society of acquaintances, and let people regain the beautiful relationship between neighbors when they were children.

(3) Development process

1. Forced to transform

The development of the Aranya project was not smooth sailing, but went through a transformation process from death to life. Due to its backward business philosophy and low product competitiveness, the Aranya project fell into sales difficulties when it first opened in 2012. Due to the investment in golf courses and land payments, it was saddled with a large amount of debt and was even rated as non-performing. The asset becomes a recognized dead market. In 2013, Aranya brand founder and current helmsman Ma Yin officially took over the real estate project. He thought this was an opportunity, so he took it and prepared to take action again. As a result, the project basically fell into his hands after he took over it. Forced to have no choice but to save himself, Ma Yin began to embark on the road of transformation. The transformation was formalized at the end of 2013, with the following adjustments and changes being made: ① Re-adjusted the facades and landscapes of the completed first-phase products, and re-planned the second-phase products; ② The Jiuzhou Association was established, under its jurisdiction Resort center, commercial center, and property center; ③ Take out 6 villas and adjust them to commercial facilities, adding child care, food, medical stations, supermarkets, cafes, and bars; ④ Adjust the use functions of the golf club and add a canteen for the owners and accommodation rooms; ⑤ Established a community and boldly brought all owners into a group at the same time, and the general manager will personally serve. All customer problems will be replied within 5 minutes and resolved within 24 hours; ⑥ Determined the "service-oriented" "oriented, with the goal of rebuilding hometown" theoretical system, and promote it in practice.

2. Complete supporting facilities

In order to better demonstrate Aranya's services, the Aranya project continues to improve its own supporting facilities. Each point represents a kind of temperature. We use a long-term operation mentality to build these supporting facilities. facility rather than using it as a sales prop. At present, the bars and clubs in the community are all profitable, and the children's camp, library and auditorium are fully present. In addition, eating well is a prerequisite for vacation. In order to solve the catering problem, Aranya Town has specially set up a canteen for owners and it has become one of the venues with the highest satisfaction among owners. Many other real estate projects are imitating the construction of canteens, but what they can learn is the supporting facilities, but what they cannot learn is the care and warmth. The Anaya owner’s cafeteria has a variety of authentic snacks, more than 1,000 dishes, 24 solar terms delicacies, and a safety inspection center; and what’s more important is the attentiveness. For example, when the Sophora japonica flowers are in full bloom in May, the chefs He can pick locust flowers and make more than ten kinds of dishes, which shows his level of care.

3. Community creation

So far, Aranya has nearly a hundred communities, of which 8 large owner groups are mainly used for people to discuss community affairs, as well as drama groups, running groups, and equestrian groups. There are many interest groups such as family history group, reading group, philharmonic group, photography group, dance group, poetry group, kitesurfing group, etc. Of course, the establishment of a cultural tourism resort community cannot be separated from the promotion of offline activities. These owners who are brought together by the same interests and hobbies will spontaneously organize corresponding offline activities, such as reading clubs, poetry recitation competitions, and morning jogs. , small concerts, etc., through the opportunity of participating in the activities, the owners can get familiar with, understand and even become friends with each other, which promotes the integration and improvement of the feelings of the community and neighbors. The creation of this emotional atmosphere has greatly enhanced the owners' recognition and support for the Aranya project.

4. Popular Internet

In addition to internal strength, effective publicity and marketing are essential for a project to become popular. The reason why Aranya is so popular on the entire Internet is inseparable from the traffic of the Internet celebrity IP - Lonely Library. In 2015, a 5-minute short video "The Loneliest Library in China" became a hit, with more than 20 million views within a few months. Many people flew to Qinhuangdao just to get a glimpse of the library. Aranya became a phenomenon overnight, and the total marketing expenses for the Aranya project did not exceed 3 million yuan. Since then, the Lonely Library has put a label on Aranya that instantly hits people's hearts. It has also given this cultural tourism real estate project a new scene and brought an innovative business model.

(4) Experience summary

1. Value Implantation

The ultimate goal of Aranya Cultural Tourism Resort Real Estate is to build a future community and create a neighborhood center to help owners regain their childhood neighborhood relationships and bridge the gap between people in the city. Indifference and disconnected relationships. The positioning of all its products is to correspond to the elements that future communities should have: family, friendship, joy, tranquility, and community spirit. These elements can find spatial correspondence in the products, which makes Aranya's vacation products different from other Similar products. The house in Aranya is not only suitable for vacation, but also suitable for long-term living. With the support of these elements, every building, every activity and every product of Aranya is an output of values. For example, the brand characteristics of the entire project are that life can be better, and the lonely magnificence exuded by the lonely library, etc.

2. Creating special spaces

Aranya has built a series of high-quality buildings according to the needs of residents, creating different spaces: there are special spaces that provide people with solitude, such as libraries, seaside auditoriums, and The Sunrise Art Museum, Bird Watching House, etc. are being built; there are spaces covering all aspects of "clothing, food, housing, and transportation", such as canteens, boutiques, cafes, bakeries, supermarkets, etc.

In order to be different from the impact of the larger environment and big cities on human beings, the space of Aranya Town is based on the needs of the residents and based on the principle of serving the lives of the residents. After high-level and high-level design, it has formed the town itself. Unique aesthetics allow architecture to truly serve the all-round development of people. The public buildings built by Aranya so far were not originally planned. All buildings may slowly evolve with the changes in the living needs of the residents of the town.

3. Create exclusive time

The inherent core competitiveness of Internet companies is actually to provide services, and services are to occupy more of customers' time. Tourism real estate developers may eventually transform into service providers before they can truly be tied to the Internet. For developers, time is scarce but space is relatively abundant. How to use your own space advantages to gain more customers' time and cultivate customers' emotions and living habits is the focus of developers when providing services. Aranya Town has established more than 50 communities and uses the communities to exchange users' online time. The more time customers give Aranya, the more opportunities Anaya will have.

Have unique characters. People are the ultimate goal, and the fundamental purpose of the development of characteristic towns is to make people develop better. No matter how much space and time there is, if there is not a large number of residents with feelings, ideals and similar values ??living here, this town will not have a soul. Aranya is 300 kilometers away from Beijing. From selling houses to selling lifestyles and selling values, Aranya Town really uses values ??to screen customers. Many people feel that the residents in Aranya Town are all the same people and it is easier to communicate with each other. This is indeed crucial. For this small town, such a group of elite-minded residents have their own expertise, enthusiasm and openness, and are willing to build seaside homes with everyone. Therefore, in this small town, owners have gradually become town residents. Even fellow customers evolved into partners in this wonderful cause. Water sports centers, cafes, supermarkets, various types of restaurants, etc. are jointly operated by owners and developers. Gradually, all cultural activities in the community are also completed by the owners. The preparation, planning and performances of Aranya festival activities are all handled by the owners. Residents in the community discuss various types of topics every day, which are full of interesting topics, including the villagers' covenant in Aranya, whether migrant workers from the owners of the town can go to the canteen to eat, and the issue of raising dogs, etc. It is precisely because of such a group of unique characters that Aranya has truly become a town where everyone serves everyone.

Transition from operating products to operating users. Aranya's success lies in not only operating products, but also operating users, providing owners with a good living environment and making users feel at home. The purchase model of old users recommending new users makes the recommended purchase rate as high as 90%, which can be regarded as a miracle. Aranya provides membership card services to owners. They only need to pay a deposit of 100,000 yuan, which can be used for all purchases at Aranya. As long as the consumption is completed within two years, the card fee will be fully refunded. Ananya thinks this way, this 100,000 yuan consumption card can ensure that the owner will come back to stay often, or give experience to relatives and friends. If friends think the service is good, they may become Aranya's new customers. Instead of using funds for marketing, it is better to subsidize customers and make target consumers more precise by letting old customers introduce new customers. This method is very popular now. For example, social e-commerce companies such as Pinduoduo use price bargaining to reward users and bring in new users. Qutoutiao allows users to browse news and get cash back directly, forming a viral word-of-mouth spread. Therefore, the success of Aranya Town mainly lies in being user-centered, sincerely serving users, and taking a long-term view and not just considering immediate gains and losses. Transitioning from operating products to operating customers, we have won a good reputation and created real value.

Create IP buildings and create scenes to achieve potential energy. Any of Aranya's unique labels - the loneliest library, the only church on the sea, China's first seaside racecourse, the purest Club Med, Asia's most difficult golf course, etc. - are all products and brands combined. These buildings allow people to associate a product with an attitude towards life, directly touching people's hearts and ultimately maximizing the marketing effect. Aranya has established a complete value system, adding many fun elements to the cold steel and concrete, and providing warm services. In the Internet era, every business owner is an opinion leader. Providing good customer experience will naturally drive them to share on the Internet. This kind of sharing "calls for friends and friends" has an astonishingly high success rate.