What inspiration does the popular “Wang Po Matchmaking” bring to brands?

Why has a matchmaking program like "Wang Po Talks about Matchmaking" become so popular recently? What can brands learn from it? Let's take a look at the author's analysis.

This generation of young people is destined to be "contradictory". They clamor for good health, but they can't change their habit of staying up late in revenge; they clamor for weight loss, but they can't resist the temptation of all kinds of delicious food; they resist blind dates, but they always fantasize about a way to simplify the "clearly marked price" blind dates such as appearance, education, and career income, so as to gain sweet love...

Just recently, a program called "Wang Po's Matchmaking" in Kaifeng Scenic Area in Henan Province successfully went viral with its high emotional intelligence, good atmosphere, high efficiency and down-to-earth blind date method. While gaining attention from the entire network, it also completely ignited the flames of love in the hearts of these young people who are "tired of love" every day.

1. One person made a city famous, and "Wang Po's Matchmaking" became popular

Recently, the Wansui Mountain and Song Dynasty Wuxia City in Kaifeng, Henan Province, has become popular online for its offline interactive talk show "Wang Po Matchmaking". The host, Ms. Zhao Mei, dressed in ancient costumes, "matched" single men and women on stage, and conquered countless tourists with her friendly and humorous personality charm, superb eloquence and performance skills. "Wang Po Matchmaking" was called "the down-to-earth version of If You Are the One" and "the best-selling show under Yue Lao" by netizens.

According to statistics, the cumulative playback volume of Douyin topics such as "Wang Po Talks about Matchmaking" has exceeded 8 billion times, and the number of fans of Wang Po's (actress Zhao Mei) Douyin account "Kaifeng Wang Po" has also soared from 230,000 on March 15 to more than 6.6 million on April 10. With topics such as "Post-00s line up to find Wang Po for a new kind of relationship" frequently appearing on the hot list, the popularity of "Wang Po Talks about Matchmaking" is still hot.

Just like the extremely high popularity of Zibo barbecue and Tianshui Malatang for local cultural tourism, the continued popularity of "Wang Po Matchmaking" has naturally driven the continuous rise of Kaifeng's tourism popularity. According to Meituan data, as the popularity of "Wang Po Matchmaking" fermented, the number of ticket orders for Kaifeng scenic spots increased by more than 3 times week-on-week, and Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City also topped the "Must-Play Popularity List" of Kaifeng Meituan Fun List. The number of hotel reservations around the scenic spot increased by 44% compared with the same period last year, and the number of train ticket reservations to Kaifeng also increased significantly. In order to catch this wave of sky-high traffic, the local area even opened a direct train from the railway station to "Wang Po Teahouse" to facilitate the travel of tourists who came here. It is no exaggeration to say that with her own efforts, "Wang Po" not only brought a tourist attraction to the spot, but also successfully brought the city of Kaifeng to the spot.

2. What inspiration does the popular “Wang Po Matchmaking” bring to brands?

In my opinion, the reason why "Wang Po Matchmaking" can continue to be popular is not only due to the rapid development of short videos, but more importantly, it fully caters to the idea that the current young generation no longer adheres to traditional concepts of marriage and love, but instead pursues more free, equal and open love and marriage relationships.

More importantly, a plot that originally only existed in books was able to "bloom with new light" and attract widespread attention and participation from audiences of different ages and circles. This actually provides a reference for the marketing communications of many brands.

1. Integration and innovation

In my opinion, the birth of "Wang Po's Matchmaking" is also a cultural innovation product of the collision between the tense blind date market environment and traditional culture. Kaifeng Wansuishan Wuxia City Scenic Area cleverly borrowed the well-known story from "Water Margin", one of China's "Four Great Classics", to restore the traditional costumes of matchmakers and the ancient and quaint scene layout. The matchmaker "Wang Po" performed by teacher Zhao Mei used her humorous words to let tourists feel a different ancient marriage scene in a warm and relaxed atmosphere. This novel blind date method that combines the old and the new not only retains the ritual sense of traditional Chinese cultural marriage, but also incorporates a relaxed and humorous modern atmosphere, attracting a large number of young people and providing them with a new cultural and social experience.

From the perspective of innovation, "Wang Po Matchmaking" is an innovative product that combines traditional and modern matchmaking methods. In the ever-changing market environment, innovation is the key to maintaining brand competitiveness. Whether it is product innovation, service innovation or marketing innovation, it is necessary to keep up with the pace of the times and constantly introduce new ideas, so as to gain competitive advantages in the fiercely competitive market environment, create unique brand value and achieve sustainable development of the brand.

From the perspective of cultural integration, the popularity of "Wang Po Matchmaking" reflects that people have a high degree of attention and acceptance of traditional culture with rich cultural heritage. If brands can dig deep into their own traditional cultural heritage, integrate it into brand product design with the help of cultural creativity, create products with more novel and deeper cultural value, and do enough cultural output, it will effectively enhance brand influence and market competitiveness.

2. Emotional Value

It is not difficult to see from the popularity of "Wang Po's Matchmaking" that it has grasped the social pain point of young people's marriage and love issues, and based on young people's needs for marriage and love, it provides young people with a relaxed and enjoyable social environment for marriage and love.

This also reflects that successful brand marketing is inseparable from the accurate positioning of the target market and target population. Brands should understand the needs, preferences and behavior patterns of target consumers through market research and data analysis, so as to formulate marketing strategies more effectively, provide consumers with more complete products and services, and enable brands to gain a firm foothold in the competitive market.

At the same time, compared with the uncomfortable "arranged" blind dates, "Wang Po's Matchmaking" is more like providing young people with a novel experience of playing a blind date "script killing", allowing young people to enjoy it and gain emotional value and spiritual satisfaction.

This also fully reflects that consumers are beginning to favor "immersive experiences" that release the soul, please themselves, and deeply participate, as well as heartfelt products and services that can provide emotional value. When a brand can convey unique emotional value, it can directly enhance consumers' memory and cognition of the brand, increase consumers' stickiness to the brand, and lay the foundation for the long-term development of the brand.

3. User reputation

An important reason for the popularity of "Wang Po Matchmaking" is its recognized sincerity, which is the key to good reputation. People were moved by Wang Po's sincere behavior, such as refusing to "take advantage of the traffic" of Internet celebrities, and spontaneously took videos and shared them with comments, bringing more traffic to Wang Po Matchmaking. The good reputation of sincerity, with the blessing of CCTV's official certification, fueled its popularity.

It can be seen that in the era of rapid development of social media, for brands, whether it is products or services, good reputation is the best amplifier for consumers to spontaneously spread their brands, and can win the traffic code, thereby promoting consumers to quickly recognize the brand, increase consumption willingness, and maximize benefits.

3. Final Thoughts

It is not difficult to infer from the popularity of "Wang Po Matchmaking" that brands need to fully tap and utilize their own advantageous resources, use innovative methods to improve the quality of brand products and services, vertically segment their own consumer groups, understand consumers' personalized consumption needs, provide unique products and experiences, and form unique brand characteristics. Only in this way can they stand out in the ever-changing market environment and usher in their own great wealth.

However, with the emergence of "Wang Po's Matchmaking" everywhere, how to keep the overwhelming traffic is also worth pondering by brands. Perhaps exploring more diverse marketing strategies, meeting the needs of more other consumer circles, and finding more market differentiation development directions can open up new incremental space in the market and turn "traffic" into "retention".

Author: Mr. Bingfa

Source: WeChat public account "Marketing Art of War (ID: lanhaiyingxiao)"