The article advocates that bosses and executives experience the market firsthand, penetrate into the life scenarios of ordinary consumers by bicycle or bus, and keenly capture market dynamics and consumer needs. Emphasize avoiding narrow vision due to long-term comfort and ignoring the real market situation and opponent dynamics. It is pointed out that only by truly going deep into the market can we break the limitations of cognition and avoid “darkness under the lights”.
Straight to the point:
Strongly fool all bosses and executives,Cycling and bus ride to see the market.
This is my strongest experience recently.
First of all, people are from luxury to simplicity. First class is definitely more comfortable than economy class, and the air in the lounge is definitely more fragrant than the smell of smoke, instant noodles, and sweat in the waiting hall. Luxury five-star hotels are definitely more desirable than express hotels.
But over time, after getting used to these scenarios, you will lose the sharpest judgment of the market, the capture of emotions, the sensitivity of price gaps as small as a few cents, and the dynamics of opponents.
I don’t think the dynamics of the opponent are the so-called lofty things that were said at the press conference. It may just be that they have been doing tying recently, whether they are doing the second half price, and whether the dough cake is 20 grams more. Sit in the fly restaurant, in the small shop on the side of the road, and pay attention to what everyone is talking about.
You will find that your concerns are really too narrow.Maybe high-end, but really too narrow. Observing everyone’s state and appearance in the waiting hall of the train station is far more real than what you see on the Internet.
How can product managers do a good job in B-end digitalization?
All walks of life have taken advantage of the ride-hail of digital transformation and achieved the rapid development of the industry. Since B-end products are products that provide services for enterprises, how should enterprises ride the digital ride?
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01
We always make the mistake of being dark under the lights.The so-called darkness under the lamp is a kind of blind spot。
I recently posted a circle of friends, which is very touching.
Because I swiped to the live broadcast room of an airline, he was selling the same food as the in-flight meal. I subconsciously thought: Who would buy such a bad airplane meal? I also sent a circle of friends to ask, and a friend reminded me. He said: You yourself have also written “A billion people have never flown on a plane, and 1.3 billion people have never gone abroad”.
At that moment, I suddenly realized. This is typical darkness under the lights.It is a typical subconscious, a view that the buttocks determine the head。
Of course, the vast majority of these are sold to people who have never flown on a plane, and of course a small number of people who may really like airplane meals… (But I don’t think it should be too much)
When you fly a hundred times a year, of course, you are a treasure of airports across the country and even around the world.
But your brain will automatically block some other people’s common sense, and even find it incredible.
For example: most airports have a guest staying in a hotel at the arrival point, and he will always be there. Many times I find it annoying. I often think with the so-called Internet thinking, what age is it, how can it be possible to solicit customers with human flesh.
But think about it again: if he can’t pull it every day, will he come? There must be a certain probability!
Even if the Internet is so popular, people like Ctrip Fliggy still account for only a part, not all!
02
In fact, your butt is not removed from the commercial vehicle. You can never really understand the perspective of the bus and the bike.
When I graduated from university, I worked for a large cosmetics company. That was twelve years ago. Since then, analysts, consulting firms, and companies have believed that Chinese men’s skin care products will definitely rise. It’s been twelve years. The zodiac has finished a circle. How many teenagers have become beer bellies and baldness, has men’s skin care risen? It’s definitely better than it used to be, but is it much better? It is definitely not from what was expected. There are several teams around me who are doing this.
This matter is still talked about every year, and it is also talked about in forums.
Everyone says that men are not as good as dogs. So why?
I still recommend that you take a bus, smell the strong smell of sweat, and observe what bags and shoes everyone is wearing. What exactly is the aesthetic stage?
You can probably understand the current situation of the majority of men in China about smell/dress/decoration.
It’s impossible for you to sell him your three-piece set and perfume. Because the vast majority of people don’t care about these things at all. Not caring and having spending power are really two different things.
Last week, I went to a salon for a multinational company, and we discussed that one thing that is more profitable than selling luxury goods is paper bags. It is said that there is such a store on Taobao, and the net profit margin is very terrible.
03
I went to Changsha a few days ago, and I have been to this city many times. There is nothing as real as this time.
In that city, because I have many friends and clients, I have someone to pick me up every time I go.
Basically, from the airport to the hotel (most likely near IFS) IFS has almost all luxury brands, there are hotels in the cloud, and I have stayed at a height of 300 meters. Or to the customer’s headquarters building, office building. You can always overlook the Xiang River and the head of Orange Island.
In fact, the external environment is isolated from you.
It is difficult for you to really feel the state of this city, the so-called going to the market, it is reduced to looking at IFS, looking at the nearby pedestrian street, buying a cup of milk tea, eating a stinky tofu, feeling that the crowd is very turbulent, and feeling that the city is very vibrant.
Then briefly attribute it, saying that the housing prices in this city are low, so everyone is very energetic.
I have seen with my own eyes the so-called backbone team of some consulting companies, that is, more than a dozen people went to a strong provincial capital city to stay in a five-star hotel, and then in the conference room, they came up with a plan: xx is far ahead.
Back to this time, why is it different? First, I didn’t contact those enthusiastic friends. Ride around real residential areas by yourself. I felt a certain degree of separation. This fragmentation is present in the capitals of all strong provinces.
Outside the core business district of Shanghai and Hong Kong, there is no difference between many areas and 40 years ago.
Putting aside residential areas, discussing a city’s research is playing hooliganism.
I once invested in projects in Changsha, but I was actually quite blind at the time, and this time I found the reason for the failure in the residential area. It is that the density of this category here is a crossroads, there are 8 companies. There may be a four-figure store in this city! It covers all the interpretations of competitors from mom-and-pop stores, to entrepreneurial teams, to those that are already in the city’s hundred volumes.
The blind optimism at that time was partly due to the fact that I did not really look at the problem with a finer granularity.
04
A violent theory:Airports, TOD are all distorted China.At the airport, you always feel like there are more gold members than dogs. And the integrated passenger terminal (bus, coach, ferry) is the real China.
Let’s take Zhujiajian Passenger Terminal as an example. (Even this is not typical enough, his size is very large) Additional note: This is the only place to burn incense in Putuo Mountain. And incense burning is very universal to almost all adult age groups in China. So you can see almost all types of people here.
Starbucks in the best prime location of Zhujiajian Wharf (the large bay on the right side of the main entrance) was squeezed away by Bawang Chaji. The visual estimate is because Bawang’s franchisees gave better rents, so after the last contract expired, it was not given to Starbucks.
I heard the KFC clerk chat that he did 1W6 on Saturday, (because it was raining heavily + windy this Saturday) he said that he could do 4W the day after tomorrow, and I checked it seems to be the Bodhisattva’s birthday. So I estimate that when it’s good, it’s between 2-3W on weekends.
I bought xiaolongbao in the store at seven o’clock in the morning, and I can buy chicken racks in the evening, and I can also buy some pre-made dishes, and KFC’s categories have almost everything you can think of. The positioning theory has been thrown on the ground by KFC and rubbed N times repeatedly.
The rigid use of positioning theory is also one of the deepest pitfalls that Chinese bosses have stepped on.
The boss of Tex squeezed out a corner and opened a Luckin. It turns out that opening a store is the same as farming, and improving yield per mu is the core thing. Whether you sell xiao long bao in the morning like KFC or chicken racks in the middle of the night. Or do you split a corner like Tex’s franchisees to open Luckin.
It is not accurate to say that Luckin defeated Starbucks. It was a group of people who picked up Starbucks cakes together.
The tour buses on Putuoshan Island are monopolized by the villagers. In the past, it started at 15 (if I remember correctly), but this year the price was reduced to 5 yuan. Maybe it’s because I’ve been complained about more.
05
Here I will share the cost of my trip to Putuo Mountain. (I chose to go to Ningbo first and have a day, so it cost more than going directly to Putuo Mountain, and because the maritime department notified me the next day, the flight was suspended after 10 o’clock, so I didn’t have time to go down the island that day)
The first class seat of the high-speed rail from Shanghai to Ningbo is 270 yuan
Ningbo Wanfeng Hotel 380 yuan (platinum card with breakfast)
Ningbo to Zhoushan taxi 180 yuan + 190 yuan round-trip toll (he said he didn’t give a round trip)
Zhoushan Crowne Plaza IHG membership card 16,000 points exchanged for actual payment of 0 yuan
KFC breakfast is 30 yuan
Lunch 185 yuan (failed to order, ordered a few expensive but difficult dishes)
Dinner 80 yuan Next day lunch (130 yuan)
Accommodation on Putuoshan Island Huazhu’s Manxin 730 yuan Zhujiajian-Shanghai South Railway Station bus (known as the luxury version) 125 yuan
Due to the suspension of flights, a ticket is lost and a refund fee of 100 yuan is lost.
Toilet paper in the service area (claimed to be only a large bag) is 8 yuan
Go home for 2 subway stations 4 yuan
Total: 2,412 yuan.
(Many of the expenses here are neither savings nor too extravagant, just to reflect the expenses of a normal trip)
On the bus, I was surprised to hear that many people took the first bus today, and then took the last bus back. At that moment, I realized that my so-called budgeting was nothing more than a moaning without illness.
As long as the time card is accurate, you don’t need to spend most of the money. This is the real choice of the vast majority of people.
In addition, when I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop on the side of the road, I found many tour groups, which were also operated. I heard the tour guide say: I will also take a night tour of the Huangpu River tonight. Then go straight to Suzhou.
In fact, here can answer many people’s doubts.
Why is the scenic spot full of people, but the business is not good?
06
In recent years, everyone has known the curse of knowledge. But I think the so-called knowledge is also cursed.
You see the next step in many industries too early, but you forget what the greatest common divisor of the moment is. (Don’t use the technology industry to raise the bar)
You plunged into the pile of the rich and the elite too early (but most likely on the periphery, not the top predator), and you mastered the sophistication of those people. You are so familiar with those ways of language that you forget the silent majority.
You get used to a more orderly and beautiful living environment too early, and you lose the possibility of that rough but very vital aesthetic of violence.
Sometimes, I pessimistically think that those jade towers and jade buildings, those carved beams and paintings, are too illusory for those who have not really realized their ideals.
I think the sinking is no longer mysterious, and the middle class has long lost its aura. The so-called two structural dividends of upgrade and downgrade have been cleaned up.
How should we deal with the market and our own hearts that have nowhere to settle?
I think it might be a better solution to move your butt before settling down.
