18i5_Tobacco_Cultural_Experience_Store
Cultural experience stores are the latest retail trend
By TobaccoChina Online
Nowadays, many manufacturers not only carry out various online activities but also launch a variety of offline marketing events to increase the exposure of products and brands. Major merchants resort to various “singular tricks,” such as adopting “experiential marketing” and setting up offline experience stores, which are the main means for major brands to attract the attention of consumers.
The so-called “experiential marketing” comes as a business model of “try before you buy”. The operation and management of this draws on that of the 4S (satisfaction, service, speed, and sincerity) concept, integrating self-observation, self-tasting, self-experience, and self-purchase. At present, many brands opened offline experience stores. One of the most common and intuitive experience stores is the flagship store of smartphones, such as the world-renowned iPhone flagship store, which displays products in showcases to facilitate consumer experience and make consumer choices.
The biggest role of the experience store is to let consumers get a deeper understanding of the value that a brand’s products and services bring to them through immersive ways, further creating purchase motives and even purchase behavior. There are now two cultural experience and collection stores with their own advantages – Jiyan (Hebei Tobacco) Brand Culture Museum and Great Wall Quality Life Museum.
Cultural experience store promotes brand communication
As the experience store in the tobacco industry got off to a late start, its function is more focused on the sales of relatively simple products, making it difficult to attract consumer groups other than cigarette consumers. Compared with the traditional experience stores, the cultural experience stores boast more functions. In addition to product sales, the stores also set up a tea break room or a network area to attract consumers to come to drink tea or handle business affairs in an emergency. Besides selling cigarette products, cultural experience stores, more importantly, highlight the brand culture and help consumers to know more about the brand culture and brand history, such as the Jiyan Brand Culture Museum dedicated to the dissemination of the Lotus brand.
Entering this cigarette retail store on Qingyuan Street in Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, you immediately appreciate the unique atmosphere. Different from general stores, this cultural experience store presents the beautiful Lotus brand. Calligraphy describing the history of the brand and product development hangs on the wall. The exhibition hall displays cigarettes of various specifications from Hebei Tobacco over decades, demonstrating the history of the continuous growth of Jiyan. Consumers like to come here to buy cigarettes and go to the exhibition hall to walk and look around. It has become a shining example for Shijiazhuang retailers to build their own terminals.
The owner of this store said that the purpose of creating this cultural experience store is to promote the Lotus brand through attracting old customers to come here and talk about business over drinking tea. It has been a hot spot since its establishment. The featured brand has attracted many fans. Many local retailers visit the store and study its business model. Whenever a guest comes to the store, the boss and his staff are very enthusiastic to introduce the various exhibits and invite everyone to drink tea in the smoking experience area, and chat and exchange ideas with each other, creating quite a harmonious atmosphere. It has now become a good platform to showcase the brand culture.
Tobacco collection store to create new form of commercial space
In today’s era when the business environment is changing faster with more uncertainty, the establishment of a brand’s competitive advantage must ensure a “two-steps ahead” capability. As a new form of commercial space, the completion of the Great Wall Quality Life Museum is an efficient attempt to lead the measure.
This museum is the first national tobacco collection store launched by China Tobacco Sichuan Industrial. It combines the five life elements of tobacco, coffee, light food, books, and cultural products to create new retail species through scene innovation. Consumers coming to the Museum will experience the full range of Sichuan Tobacco’s Kuanzhai products, new tobacco products, as well as the custom-made Great Wall cigars. The experiencing of products, the beautiful environment, a large number of books, as well as coffee and food service create a new experience for consumers.
Comments from customers who have visited the museum include, “An excellent tobacco point. You may get much knowledge about cigarettes when listening to the introduction of traditions by the store owner” and “The display in the store is very elegant, and the sofa is very comfortable! In the sunny afternoon, taste a Great Wall cigar or other cigarettes of Kuanzhai over some coffee and use your mobile phone to scan the Kuanzhai QR code. It makes you feel really great to know about the new mainstream tobacco products.”
It can be said that the Great Wall Museum represents a brand new ecology. As the traditional retail terminal pays more attention to on-site factors such as storefront display and product display, the museum breaks out of the original cigarette retail experience and ultimately brings about a new product or service form. More importantly, it creates a new business system that seems to return to the basics but the underlying logic has been completely changed.
Fundamentally speaking, the essence of business is to serve people. In the era of new retail, the development opportunity that enterprises face is to create value points for customers different from traditional fields. Whether it is a cultural experience store or a tobacco collection store, it is a part of modern terminals, or a part of new retail, which is in its infancy and still has a long way to go. Tobacco companies may try to focus on cultural experience stores or collection stores, aiming to enable both product marketing and brand promotion.