Firstly, the theoretical research of experiential marketing is summarized.
1, a summary of theoretical research on experiential marketing at home and abroad
Since Alvin toffler, a famous American futurist, put forward the concept of "experience economy" for the first time in his book 19xx, the world economy has experienced agricultural economy, manufacturing economy, service economy and other modes, and now it is turning to a new development trend-experience economy.
From 65438 to 0998, Joseph Pine and James gilmour published an article entitled "Welcome to the era of experience economy" in Harvard Business Review, which marked the arrival of experience economy. Pine and gilmour are therefore called the originator of experience economy. A year later, in the book Experience Economy published by Harvard Business School Press, they systematically expounded the theory of experience economy for the first time. They believe that every employee and customer of an enterprise, like an actor in a drama, plays a different role, and the enterprise must choose the right employee to play the right role in order to achieve the ideal effect. 1999, Bernschmidt first put forward the concept of experiential marketing, and put forward the concept of "sensory experiential marketing", thinking that experiential marketing is "a marketing and management model driven by experience". In 2002, Joseph Pine and James gilmour thought that experiential marketing was "redefining and designing marketing concepts from five aspects: consumers' senses, emotions, thinking, actions and relevance", and they first put forward the concept of "experiential theater". In 2004, Bernschmidt elaborated the experience theater and role theory in his Experience Marketing, which further improved the experience theater model. He believes that the enterprise is a performer, the workplace is a theater, and the experience is like a drama, and both customers and experience marketers have certain roles in the experience theater.
The research on experiential marketing in China started late, and it just started at the beginning of 2 1 century. The experiential marketing model of Zhongcaibang is based on "customer satisfaction = customer experience value-customer expectation value". Scholar Liu Hong (2005) put forward the "SHUP" model of experiential marketing. Hear believes that experience is mainly composed of four links: seeing, listening, using and participating, while experiential marketing focuses on consumers' sensory and action feelings. Fan Xiucheng and Chen Yingyi believe that "the core concept of experiential marketing is not only to provide customers with satisfactory products and services, but also to create and provide them with valuable experiences". Guo Guoqing believes that "enterprises should design marketing concepts from senses, emotions, thinking, actions, relevance and other aspects, and use products or services as props to stimulate and meet customer experience needs, so as to realize the marketing model of enterprise goals." Qian believes that experiential marketing is a social and management process based on consumers' pursuit of personal value, guided by satisfying consumers' experience of ideal life mode, and guided by the concept of experience demand, providing products and values for exchange. Scholars Wang Tao and Cui Guohua believe that experiential marketing means that enterprises create an atmosphere, design a series of events, and let customers become one of them and enjoy "performance". In the process of "performance", customers will have a profound and unforgettable experience because of their active participation, thus transferring value to the enterprise for the obtained experience. In addition, Ma Lianfu combined with many classic cases of enterprises to explore the feasible strategies for enterprises to implement experiential marketing. He believes that enterprises can make full use of the props of products or services on the basis of satisfying customers' experience needs, and maximize the marketing process of creating value for customers. Xiao Jianzhong and Xiong's Experience Marketing ―― Popular Beauty 10 Profit Model (Renmin University of China Press, 2005) deeply analyzes how China local enterprise ―― Popular Beauty successfully implements experience marketing, which is a practical classic of experience marketing in China.
2. The connotation of experiential marketing
This paper draws lessons from scholars Wang Tao and Cui Guohua's understanding of experiential marketing, that is, enterprises create an atmosphere and design a series of events to encourage customers to "perform" as much as possible. In the process of "performing", customers will have a profound and unforgettable experience because of their active participation, thus transferring value to enterprises for the obtained experience. Experience marketing aims at providing customers with valuable experience, trying to attract and retain customers and gain profits by meeting consumers' experience needs. In the experiential marketing model, the role of the enterprise is to set up a good stage and write a good script, the role of the customer is an actor, and the interest bond between the enterprise and the customer is experience. Enterprises consciously take service as the stage, store facilities and products as props, and through careful design, they integrate guests in a personalized way, thus forming unforgettable events.
Second, the beauty service industry and experiential marketing
1. Development Status of Beauty Industry in China
(1) has a fast development speed and a large market demand. The beauty industry as a whole has the characteristics of leap-forward growth in scale, rapid improvement in technical level, rapid expansion of employment scale, rapid growth in wages and substantial increase in operating income. In 2007 alone, the output value of the beauty service industry reached about 300 billion yuan, and the number of employees in the industry exceeded120,000. In 2008, when the global financial crisis broke out, the beauty industry continued to develop at a rate of 23.8%, achieving an industrial output value of about 320 billion yuan and a profit growth rate of 37.9%, ranking first in all walks of life, with 1 1.2 million employees nationwide. At present, more than 20 million people in China are engaged in beauty and related industries. The average annual development rate of the beauty industry is above 30%, and those high-level enterprises are developing rapidly, with an annual growth rate of 50%, which is already in a high-speed development stage.
(2) The knowledge level and comprehensive quality of employees are low. The entry threshold of the beauty industry is relatively low, and the education level of employees in most beauty enterprises is generally low. Among them, junior high school education or below accounts for about 38%, high school education or above exceeds 50%, and college education or above is only about 1 1%. In today's highly developed material civilization, people attach great importance to health, sub-health, disease and aging. How to resist aging, how to resist the occurrence of diseases, and how to adjust sub-health to a healthy state so that it does not develop into a disease have become the focus of consumers' general attention. This puts forward higher and more professional requirements for practitioners in beauty salons. They should not only understand the basic medical knowledge, but also receive the training of medical beauty and face makeup knowledge, and master the operation skills of beauty projects skillfully. The trend of integration of medicine and beauty puts forward higher requirements for beauty salons. However, the complicated structure of employees and low level of knowledge and comprehensive quality have become the bottleneck restricting the rapid development of the beauty industry.
(3) The level of industrial structure is low, and the vitality of enterprises is insufficient. At present, the distribution pattern of the nature and structure of domestic beauty institutions is: private (including individuals) accounts for 92%, foreign-funded enterprises account for 4%, state-owned and state-owned holding companies account for 3%, and others account for 1%. Private enterprises are generally small in scale, lack of funds, backward in technology, poor in customer service awareness and irregular in service. The large proportion of private enterprises in the industrial structure leads to the characteristics of "small, scattered and chaotic" in the industry. According to incomplete statistics, there are about10.8 million beauty institutions in China, of which more than one-third close their doors every year, less than one-third can really make money, and about one-third of enterprises barely maintain. The metabolism of the industry is faster than that of other industries.
(4) The business philosophy and mode of operation of the enterprise are backward. Most beauty companies are confused about the choice of business philosophy and business model. They can't objectively evaluate themselves, then make an accurate positioning, find a new way out in the highly competitive market, find their own space and establish their own brands, and just blindly imitate the practices of other companies. This follow-up mode is too passive. Proper training and education of employees can convey correct beauty knowledge to customers, which is a basic accomplishment of beauty salons. Because the more professional customers, the more they can agree with the operators' practices, which is of great benefit to the management of beauty salons. However, in reality, most beauty companies do not have corresponding training and education support systems for their internal employees, because they are afraid that the employees they train will quit after studying or set up another portal to grab customers, so it is difficult to improve their service technology and service level, let alone launch new service projects to meet the changing consumer demand in the market.
2. Applicability of experiential marketing in beauty industry.
In the era of rapid development of information, more and more newspapers, magazines, Internet and other media have carried out detailed and extensive dissemination of beauty knowledge, and consumers are no longer so pale in the field of professional beauty knowledge. Secondly, the world's top well-known cosmetics brands hold lectures and live demonstrations on popular science beauty knowledge from time to time, so that consumers have a deeper understanding and understanding of beauty, and have higher requirements for products in the beauty service industry and the professional quality of beauticians. In addition, the fierce competition among various beauty brands is constantly prompting consumers to become more mature and rational.
The maturity and rationality of the consumer market make more and more consumers take the pursuit of professional, personalized, high added value and high comfort regular maintenance as a living habit. The change of the market forces customers not only to have new requirements for the service quality of beauticians, but also to attach great importance to the equipment of beauty salons and the atmosphere created by the internal environment. I also hope that beauty salons can often provide a lot of health information. In this case, it is obviously difficult for beauty enterprises to continue to adopt the traditional business model to form lasting competitiveness. Only by introducing experiential marketing can customers feel the professional and high value-added services delivered by the enterprise in their personal experience, immerse themselves in them and leave an unforgettable impression, so as to meet the customer's experience needs to the greatest extent, cultivate customers' loyalty to the enterprise and realize the ultimate goal of the enterprise.
Thirdly, how to introduce experiential marketing strategy into the beauty service industry?
Guangzhou Di Zi Science and Technology Beauty SPA Life House is a beauty and body SPA life house wholly owned by Hong Kong Jiahong International in Guangzhou in 20xx. In a short period of two years, in the face of fierce competition in the beauty market in Guangzhou, Di Zi Science and Technology Beauty SPA Life Museum soon has a large number of loyal customers, and has opened two branches in high-end residential areas in the city, and it has the trend of continuous expansion. Based on the analysis of the experience marketing of Di Zi Science and Technology Beauty SPA Life Museum, this paper puts forward the strategic choice of implementing experience marketing in the beauty service industry.
1, Experience Marketing Analysis of Di Zi Science and Technology Beauty SPA Living Center.
In marketing theory, 4P combination strategy is a very effective marketing strategy tool. Chinese scholars Wang Tao and Cui Guohua put forward the five-E combination strategy of experiential marketing, namely, experience, environment, events, input and effect. This paper analyzes the experiential marketing of Di Zi Science and Technology Beauty SPA Life Museum from these five aspects.
(1) experience. In the combination strategy of experience marketing, experience is the most basic element, which refers to what kind of experience the company will provide to customers, just like the products in the 4P combination strategy. Schmidt believes that experience includes five types: feeling, feeling, thinking, action and connection. The experience perceived by consumers is often the overall feeling produced by the organic interweaving of these five forms. Therefore, enterprises should find a core experience point when designing experience products, and then expand the combination of experience lines on this core point. Di Zi Beauty SPA Life Museum aims to convey a super-value beauty enjoyment to customers. Therefore, it is required that its beauty products, beauty service projects and beautician's service technology should be professional. First of all, it launched different series of beauty services according to the different beauty needs of customers. All products and corresponding instruments and equipment come from high-quality Italian formula. Secondly, most beauticians in Di Zi graduated from professional beauty colleges, and some even graduated from regular medical schools. Beauticians have rich professional knowledge, excellent skills, gentle techniques, a sense of responsibility, always think of customers, give timely advice and suggestions, dress neatly, pay attention to self-maintenance, and have certain medical knowledge. These beauticians with high comprehensive quality are helpful to help customers analyze their own skin and physical condition, so as to correctly choose appropriate products and care items. In addition, all the new products and new instruments and equipment in the beauty salon are tried by the Emperor himself, and then recommended to customers for use, and then given to customers in absolute safety.
(2) Situation. The so-called situation refers to the "performance stage" created by enterprises for customers, that is, the external environment generated by experience. For example, the interior decoration environment of beauty salons. With the improvement of people's living standards and the development of modern beauty industry, a single beauty service can no longer meet the growing consumer demand of customers. Beauty salons have become a place for people to release pressure and adjust their mentality, and a leisure lifestyle. Therefore, beauty salons should intentionally integrate certain artistic elements into the decoration of the internal environment, and use color matching and auxiliary decoration to create different styles and create different emotional appeal to meet the different needs of different consumers for beauty. The uniqueness of Di Zi Beauty SPA Life Museum lies in its room, which is not as pale and monotonous as other beauty salons. Most of the rooms in Di Zi Beauty SPA Life Museum are named after beauticians. Each room has a theme, and all kinds of furniture corresponding to the theme are placed in the room. This highly humanized design creates this kind of atmosphere experience that can bring perfect enjoyment to customers in spirit.
(3) events. Events in experiential marketing refer to setting up a series of performance programs for customers, guiding customers to participate in them, so that customers can get the most authentic experience, thus forming a clear concept and positioning in their minds. For the beauty industry, it means that beauty salons must carefully design a set of beauty care procedures. Di Zi Beauty SPA Life Museum aims to provide customers with value-added services, which is vividly reflected in its nursing procedures. Before the formal service project is implemented for customers, beauticians in Di Zi will give customers small care of different parts of the body, and the content of this small care will often change according to different seasons. In Di Zi Beauty SPA Life Museum, customers are not only unforgettable. After each treatment, customers pack up their clothes and walk out of the room. The beautician who knows how to keep in good health will bring you a small bowl of exquisite sugar water or stew. They will also tell you without hesitation, in this nursing process, they found out which aspects of your body need conditioning, and what specific materials can be used to make soup for fine-tuning when you get home. Just like a full-time dietitian, meticulous care makes people very attached. How can you think that there is a buying and selling relationship between merchants and customers?
(4) immersion. The so-called immersion strategy refers to letting customers really integrate into the activities designed by enterprises by adopting some marketing means. Experience marketing pays attention to the active participation of customers. Only when customers actively participate in the activities can they finally truly feel the experience conveyed by the enterprise. In the era of advertisement flooding, consumers seldom see the advertisements of Di Zi Beauty SPA Life Museum in public. It relies on the word-of-mouth of customers to spread. Old customers constantly introduce friends and relatives to enjoy because of their excellent experience here, and new customers become loyal because of their excellent service. The initiator knows very well that as the creator of beauty, we must first radiate the beauty from the inside out. They know that if they want to win the hearts of customers, they must really think about customers and serve their immediate customers well in order to have a solid foundation. They often organize various public welfare activities in their own communities.
(5) impression. Impression strategy in experiential marketing refers to the relevant strategies that enterprises should pay attention to in the process of transmitting experiential value to customers, so as to establish a long-term harmonious customer relationship. Therefore, in the process of implementing experiential marketing, customer relationship management is the focus of enterprises' attention. Di Zi Beauty SPA Life Museum has set up a file for every customer, recording the personal information of the customer and all the products consumed in Di Zi in detail, and regularly analyzing the skin or body of the customer, and then comparing them to test the actual effectiveness of the purchased products. On the occasion of customers' birthdays, Di Zi sent a short message in advance to express his greetings, and then presented a small gift to congratulate the customers when they came to the store. This meticulous care often makes customers extremely moved. In addition, other interesting activities are provided for members.
2. Choice of experience marketing strategy in beauty service industry.
(1) Pay attention to customer needs. The most critical step of experiential marketing is to identify customers who need services and understand their value characteristics and driving factors, so as to formulate products that can meet their needs and effectively enhance the consumption value of target customers. Market competition is becoming more and more fierce, consumers are becoming more and more mature, and traditional products and marketing methods are difficult to impress consumers. Beauty enterprises can no longer be limited to unilateral promotional activities. They should abandon the traditional concept of production and sales, pay attention to communication with consumers, and make efforts to study consumers' purchasing psychology, consumption habits, lifestyles and hobbies in order to find their real needs, and then design and develop corresponding experience products accordingly. In addition, we should actively establish feelings with customers and establish this kind of business relationship as a new one based on the same interests, so as to succeed.
(2) Provide high-quality personalized service. In the beauty service industry, product quality is important, but the service attitude and quality of employees can not be ignored. Beauty enterprises use service to transmit experience, and service is a natural platform for enterprises to display and transmit experience. Without decent service from employees, innovative products and beautiful environment, consumers' emotions cannot be aroused. Because consumers' needs in beauty are different, beauty companies must not use the same service model and product for all their customers. Paying attention to providing differentiated and personalized services is the king of successful operation.
(3) Create an experience atmosphere. Atmosphere refers to the effect or feeling around a group, place or environment. Atmosphere marketing is to deliberately create this kind of atmosphere experience that makes people linger. Because a good atmosphere will attract customers like a magnet and make customers patronize frequently. If the beautician's products and service technology are compared to the hardware facilities of beauty salons, then the overall space atmosphere created by beauty salons is the software part. It will affect customers' mood invisibly, thus affecting their evaluation of every experience. Today's customers no longer haggle over the characteristics of products, nor are they eager for unique products. What they pursue in beauty salons is the realization of spiritual values and the embodiment of a noble lifestyle. Therefore, it is most important for beauty companies to create an atmosphere closely related to the theme of experience.
(4) Implement internal marketing. When Christian Grant Luce first put forward the concept of internal marketing, he thought that "the higher the employee satisfaction, the more likely it is to establish a customer-oriented and market-oriented company". Philip kotler also clearly pointed out in Marketing Management that "without satisfied employees, there will be no satisfied customers". Employee satisfaction is a necessary prerequisite for customer satisfaction and successful operation of enterprises, and the core of internal marketing is employee satisfaction. Experience is transmitted to consumers through employees, and employees are the bridge between experience and consumers. The performance of employees directly affects the generation of customer experience and the evaluation of customer satisfaction with experience. Therefore, before providing customers with satisfactory service and experience, beauty service enterprises should first let employees experience satisfaction and loyalty, treat employees as members who create value with themselves, respect employees from the heart, and let employees actively participate in the work process. Only by moving employees first can we move customers.
(5) Strengthen the sense of innovation. Consumers' demand for beauty is not static. Beauty companies will lose many development opportunities if they can't assess the changes in customer needs. In addition, consumers' consumption of beauty products is still in the "perceptual stage". In the fierce competition environment, if you want to make your products and brands last forever, only by constantly changing, constantly introducing new products and projects, and creating a sense of freshness, can you retain the hearts of customers and consolidate the existing market. With the increasing demand for men's self-image, the demand for men's beauty is also increasing obviously, and the requirements are getting higher and higher. According to this social phenomenon, Di Zi Science and Technology Beauty SPA Life Museum has launched the corresponding men's beauty care project, and designated a special area in the store as a men's beauty area. At the same time, a double room is set up for couples to do nursing together. It has greatly attracted the attention of many consumers and broadened its development space in the market.
(6) Use word-of-mouth communication. Word-of-mouth refers to a two-way interactive communication behavior in which individuals other than producers and consumers convey information about a particular or certain product, brand, manufacturer, seller and any organization or individual that can remind people of the above-mentioned objects through express or implied means, without being processed by a third party, so as to guide the audience to obtain information, change their attitudes, and even affect their purchase behavior. Word of mouth plays an important role in the final purchase decision of customers, and sometimes it is even more influential than other promotion methods. Because word of mouth is more credible, it can reduce the perceived risk of potential buyers. Word-of-mouth spreads the information of enterprises or products more comprehensively, accurately and effectively. The cost of word-of-mouth is lower, and enterprises almost don't have to pay extra advertising fees for it. Beauty enterprises should strive to create a positive reputation through various channels, so as to shape a good corporate brand image.