Author: Baling Fisherman's new book "Channel Leadership" selected articles:
Pillow Game: Quietly Raise the Banner of Sex Goods franchise chain.
I believe many people will be confused about the word "pillow game". What is this?
This is actually a brand shop of sex toys. When I first saw this name, I didn't think of what this store was selling.
I first saw the brand "pillow game" on Christmas Eve in 2007. When I got off work, I found a shop called "Pillow Game" next to my company on Tianhe North Road in Guangzhou. At that time, I was very impressed that the red feather screen at the entrance of the store gave off soft light and revealed attractive mystery in the twilight of Christmas Eve. At that time, I thought it was a game product for couples, but I didn't go in to see it. Two years later, I returned to Guangzhou again, passing by, and found that the store was still open there. It suddenly occurred to me that this strange shop was not closed in such a prosperous area of Tianhe North, and I thought that business should be good. Go in and have a look and find that this is an adult shop! However, in the surprise, what remains is respect and admiration for such a company. Our common physical store that makes adult products is either called "adult goods store" or "lovers' sex shop" in name, and the location and image of the store are even more shabby. Some even open in a few square meters of simple gables, which looks like gross. They are not confident enough to open a shop, and they are thieves when they enter the store. It's not easy to open a shop in a high-end business district like "pillow game" and make an adult product brand so tasteful!
In this context, I went to understand the parent company behind the "pillow game"-Guangzhou Ruidi Health Products Chain Co., Ltd., and found more interesting information. The company not only developed the online shopping mall franchise store of "pillow game", but also began to engage in ground franchise chain investment nationwide in 2008. At present, the specialty stores of "pillow games" have been opened from Guangzhou to Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Chengdu. Let's briefly introduce Guangzhou Reddy Company. It can be known from official website that this company was founded in 1996, which is a B2B and B2C e-commerce company engaged in adult products trade, mainly engaged in the wholesale business of foreign adult products in China. It founded its own brand "Pillow Game" on 199, which has been 12 years, covering condoms (condoms), condoms, condoms, condoms, condoms, condoms, condoms, condoms and so on. Judging from the information we have seen and obtained so far, this company has three typical models:
First, B2B and B2C e-commerce companies choose to build a ground channel development system.
Today, enterprises are keen to open online stores and build online marketing channels, and the "pillow game" that started with the e-commerce business model has built a franchise chain channel system in reverse. The channel strategy behind this is worth discussing.
Second, from network to ground marketing, it has broken through the traditional online marketing mode of adult products.
In China's sex products industry, the traditional way is to sell products through relatively private online channels, and to use face-to-face ground terminal retail in a big way, which is a breakthrough to the traditional conservative culture of China, and regards the consumption of sex products as a personal privacy environment.
Third, good brand planning ability, with the foundation of leading brands in sex products.
From the relationship between the name of "Pillow Game" and sex products, and the fashionable and elegant store image design of "Pillow Game", we can see that the behind-the-scenes team has very professional brand planning and operation skills, and has leading strength in the domestic mixed products market at present.
From the introduction of relevant materials, we can roughly judge that Guangzhou Ruidi, the parent company of "Pillow Game", is a trading company mainly importing foreign brands, and does not have the ability to research, develop, design and manufacture related products. Therefore, "pillow game" is essentially a virtual brand of sex products, which only integrates related products imported from abroad into the brand shell of "pillow game" for overall brand operation. However, from the perspective of sex products industry, at least at present, it is easier to gain the trust of customers by directly introducing mature foreign products than by independently developing products at home. So back to the theme of franchise chain "pillow game", from the perspective of enterprise channel development, I am very optimistic about the direction of "pillow game" as a chain brand for the following three reasons:
First, there is a long enough product profit support point.
After 12 years' operation, the pillow game has obtained some general agency rights of famous European, American and Japanese brands in China, and accumulated enough product marketing experience. From its online shopping mall, we can see a rich product line, so it can provide enough competitive product portfolio choices for the ground chain brand stores of pillow games, which also ensures that the single store profit of pillow game brands can be supported by a long product profit chain.
Second, the business model is simple and reproducible.
At the product level, sex products are not as troublesome as food products in terms of quality assurance and storage management, nor are they as troublesome as IT technology products in terms of use and after-sales technical services. At the same time, due to the portability of the product, it does not need to bear the high cost of occupation, display, logistics and transportation like bulk electrical products, and it does not need to bear the potential replacement cost like fashion clothing products in product aging. On the service level, the sales of sex products do not need to rely on people's super sales skills, nor do they need to rely on too complicated service processes. It is enough to explain the specific functions and applications of the product clearly. Generally speaking, it can ensure the reliable product quality of imported products, convey a pleasant brand experience to customers, and create a shopping environment that makes users feel comfortable and communicate happily. Therefore, the business of this ground brand store is relatively simple and reproducible.
Third, it solves the psychological barrier of target customers' purchase.
In the cultural tradition of China people, the consumption of sex products is still a very private issue, or it is difficult to talk about sex. Although people can see a sea of people at various sex culture festivals all over the country every year, and modern China people no longer talk about transsexuality, there is still a long way to go from curiosity to calmness to real consumer goods. What is more difficult in this process is how individual consumers break through psychological barriers and move from furtive consumption to aboveboard consumption. At this point, the pillow game should be said to be very good. Whether it's a very good brand name of "Pillow Game", its elegant and unique physical storefront environment and display design, or the location of the "Pillow Game" physical store near the high-end residential area where white-collar workers are concentrated and the central city business district, it can attract customers to enter a happy world of adult products with curiosity and appreciation. In addition, whether it's official website, the company of "pillow games" or the online shopping mall of "pillow games", the pages are extremely clean and exquisite, and there is no smoky and naked emotion on other marketing websites that make adult products. In this way, customers can also win high trust in the professionalism and professional ability of the enterprise team.
From the above analysis, we can basically judge that the single store profitability of "pillow games" should be relatively high. Generally, the profit of a single store depends on the "Big Three". First, the target customer base of brand stores is large enough. Second, the absolute flow and frequency of customers entering the store are large enough. Third, the customer's single consumption quota is large enough. In fact, the customer base of "pillow game" in adult products industry is large enough to cover adult men and women of different ages. On this basis, the "pillow game" has been further subdivided, that is, the target customers are urban white-collar workers, intellectuals and fashionistas. These target customers have high spending power and are more likely to accept various experiences and attempts to improve their sexual life. While choosing brand stores in core high-end business districts and communities, passenger flow is not a problem. At the same time, the image design of brand stores has also solved the scruples and psychological obstacles of target consumers entering adult goods stores. Aiming at the clear target customers, the "pillow game" also chooses the high-end route in product selection. The product line is long enough to meet customers' diversified choices and one-stop shopping convenience, and naturally it can also achieve the purpose of increasing customers' single consumption. Therefore, on the whole, "pillow game" has the basic conditions for high profits as a ground brand store. From the traditional B2B and B2C network channels to physical retail stores, the strategy of "pillow game" choosing to develop ground franchise chain channels is worthy of recognition.
In fact, whether an enterprise can successfully develop franchise business depends on three factors, the first is the profitability of a single store, the second is the replicability of the profit model, and the third is the successful brand influence. Without these three basic conditions, enterprises should not easily develop chain channels of ground entities. Similarly, for "pillow games", although there are basic conditions for developing franchise chain stores, it is necessary to be vigilant to control the speed of opening stores. It is not difficult to open "pillow games" channels to join chain stores all over the country. The difficult thing is how many customers have really broken through the psychological barrier of sexual goods consumption? How much chance and ability does "pillow game" have for customers who enter the store to come up with real money? In essence, this does not depend on the energy of the "pillow game", but on the development trend of the sex industry in China. No matter how much you toss, it is difficult to make a difference. China's sex market is coming in spring, and it is hard to succeed.