On the afternoon of November 27th, the 2024 Consumer New Forces Conference, a grand event in the consumer industry, was held in Xuhui District, Shanghai, with over 400 attendees on site. The attendees include top companies in various industries such as retail innovation, medical beauty consumption, coffee and tea drinks, going global, and olfactory economy, as well as multiple investors from leading institutions such as Qicheng Capital and Fengrui Capital.
At the meeting, Liu Xiaobin, CMO of Miniso Group, shared his business insights and strategies on Miniso's expansion into overseas markets.
From brand transformation and seeking new business characteristics, to how to penetrate the global market and enter the local market, Miniso's years of going global have also been a process of exploration and maturity. With the improvement of the comprehensive and systematic overseas strategy, Miniso has gradually radiated its influence outward.
In addition to expanding our business overseas, Miniso also has an additional mission of Chinese brands going global. In the retail industry, we have been going global earlier and are also tasked with how to bring more Chinese culture and IP overseas. "Liu Xiaobin revealed that recently, the" Milk Dragon "IP is leveraging Miniso's retail channels to expand into Southeast Asia, with over 100 million exposures in the Indonesian and Vietnamese markets.
Brand founder Ye Guofu revealed at a recent brand strategy upgrade results conference that Miniso's next decade goal is not only to become a highly globalized super brand, but also to leverage its channel capabilities to bring 100 original Chinese IPs overseas.
Searching for new business features: transforming from affordable daily necessities to super IP co branding
In the process of brand operation, Miniso always seeks the unique value it can convey to consumers. Liu Xiaobin said that in the past decade, the deeply ingrained label has been ultimate cost-effectiveness. We are a super affordable brand, and cost-effectiveness is a trump card for participating in competition.
Liu Xiaobin believes that many retail giants today are providing consumers with high-quality and low-priced products, such as Pinduoduo. At the same time, Sam's Club and Costco are not only focusing on cost-effectiveness, but also creating their own unique features, including their own brands and selected SKUs for paying members. Last year, Sam's had 49 stores and sold approximately 84 billion yuan, with an average of 130 to 140 million yuan per store per month. This is a very enviable and high-quality development
Therefore, besides offering affordable prices, Miniso also hopes to find value innovations beyond cost leadership.
Liu Xiaobin observed that there have been many changes in the consumption trends of young people nowadays, from focusing on the functional value provided by a product to paying more attention to emotional value, from practicality to self satisfied emotional consumption. Its product labels have gradually shifted from the original "three, three, three, low" to prioritizing good looks and fun over usability.
As a result, Miniso has found a new solution - IP collaboration.
What is the scale and potential of IP globally? The industry index for 2022 shows that the per capita consumption of global IP is 227 yuan, while the penetration rate of Chinese IP users is only 4%. Among them, first and second tier cities are relatively good, but they are relatively poor in the offline market, with an average of 51 yuan per person currently. Japan is 11.5 times that of China, and the United States is 60 times that of China.
Liu Xiaobin put forward an idea on the spot: assuming that on the basis of the market size in 2022, if China's per capita IP consumption contribution can reach the level of Japan, the market size will reach 800 billion. If it can reach the level of developed countries in Europe and the United States, it will be a trillion market. Based on this outlook, combined with Miniso's expertise in daily necessities, the team quickly reorganized the brand positioning from a fast fashion department store for daily necessities to a global IP co branded collection store.
From the initial proposal of the trend of "interest consumption" to the global brand strategy upgrade in recent years, Miniso has established partnerships with over 150 different types of IPs worldwide, with cooperation cases in the fields of film and television, gaming, fashion, sports, and artist IPs. At present, Miniso has entered 111 countries and regions around the world. As of the first half of this year, the group has more than 7000 stores, with over 10000 new IP products added annually. In the past five years, the cumulative sales of related products have exceeded 800 million pieces.
Methodology of Miniso's Going Global
According to Liu Xiaobin, Miniso initially focused on expanding China's supply chain and production capacity overseas, but later evolved to use online sales channels to promote product expansion and gradually establish channels and offline distribution in the local area. Currently, Miniso has evolved to a comprehensive and systematic approach to going global, with both channel products and brand building.
Although going abroad is a long-term strategy, one can make market choices. The pace of doing overseas business is easy first and then difficult. From a resource perspective, investing less is more, "said Liu Xiaobin.
The principle of 'easy first, difficult later' means that countries with geographical advantages and low trial and error costs are preferred, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand in Southeast Asia, followed by the Middle East and Latin America. In Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, there is a more concentrated population distribution, which can be used to build brand power and constantly trial and error. Liu Xiaobin also mentioned that in Europe and America, where consumer power is stronger and there are more retail formats, Miniso is focusing on highlighting its differentiated characteristics.
Less is more "focuses on consumer markets with more significant growth. It is reported that Miniso's three major markets in Indonesia, the United States, and Mexico have continuously increased their revenue and terminal GMV share, becoming Miniso's top focused agent customers and direct overseas markets.
Therefore, Liu Xiaobin summarized the overseas experience of Miniso as a "1+3" strategy. One of the most crucial aspects is relying on China's strong supply chain capabilities to spill over and have a global impact; Going global requires three things: global IP copyright cooperation, self built global channels, and direct procurement of 40% of overseas local products.
In the process of overseas operation and landing, Miniso still emphasizes four "super" concepts: super symbol, super IP, super store, and super marketing.
Liu Xiaobin emphasized the value of "super IP" and "super stores" in his speech. The innovative combination of super IP and end-point stores has created many changes, while also giving the brand's marketing model several different operational ideas.
Based on IP, creating an experience different from traditional retail spaces, the strong immersive interactive experience turns sales venues into super content factories. Users can constantly take photos, check in, share, and interact while browsing, reaching more users. "Liu Xiaobin revealed that under such logical guidance, Miniso's stores in Times Square in the United States and Champs - É lys é es in France have created very high floor area efficiency and sales performance. In addition, the local "Global Number One Store" in Shanghai, China has also shattered the imagination of the retail industry and consumers about the form of retail stores.
With the support of IP and creative stores, consumers and store staff are often willing to spontaneously help Miniso spread interesting content and do marketing communication.
Taking China as an example, in the first half of this year, consumers and employees of Miniso were able to generate Xiaohongshu notes with likes exceeding 100000 to 300000 when sharing their Little Pony IP. If we collaborate with experts to achieve this kind of data, it would require a cost of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, but now we can achieve it with just one coupon or a new product trial, "said Liu Xiaobin.
Focusing on globalization and focusing on localization, "Liu Xiaobin mentioned the concept of" concrete organization "when discussing overseas operation strategies. When entering overseas markets, in addition to marketing in-depth understanding of local insights and user needs, and communicating with local consumers, it is also necessary to involve more local people in management and operation to develop management plans and rhythms that are more in line with lifestyle consumption habits.