With its boss becoming an internet celebrity, how does Holiland reconstruct its competitive advantage?

As bakery cake shops, why are only a few people heard of shops like Rosenina and Qianji, while Holiland is well-known? What is the business opportunity? The author of this article will answer your questions.

I've been researching Holiland recently. This bakery brand is quite interesting. In recent years, it has suddenly turned from a middle-aged bakery into an Internet celebrity store.

Selecting employees is like MCN selecting internet celebrities. The age requirement is 18-24 years old, boys over 175cm and girls over 165cm, college degree, and good image and temperament.

This requirement is quite picky, but it is not surprising, as the rejuvenation of a brand must rely on young people.

Some people say that Holiland's resurgence is due to the launch of a new category of semi-ripened cheese by the founder's two sons in 2015.

Can a company become popular again with just one product? Obviously, this is too simplistic. The deeper logic is:

Holiland has created a soil for Internet celebrities through content. ‍

How to say it?

Many bosses think that short videos are very popular, so they set up teams or hire agents to create content right away. However, they end up spending money but to no avail, suffering losses due to the lack of a content strategy.

From the perspective of content strategy, Holiland is worth learning from.

1. Strategic thinking for upgrading old brands: converting young core user groups

Holiland has invested enough content on online platforms to create a fertile ground for brand rejuvenation.

What is the value of this soil?

First: help companies sell goods.

Second: Help companies build brand voice.

How to sell goods?

Holiland has 1.52 million fans on Weibo. The main purpose of creating content is new product marketing, holiday marketing, and brand exposure, which also fits the characteristics of Weibo's fast information dissemination.

Xiaohongshu has been operating since 2019 and now has nearly 200,000 followers. Its content focuses on fun and interactivity.

Moreover, the internet celebrity style and temperament of Holiland are very consistent with the tone of Xiaohongshu, which is suitable for content promotion.

On Douyin, Holiland’s strategy is very different. The official account did not release any works, but let the second boss Luo Cheng be the boss IP.

Douyin focuses on the boss's IP, and Tmall sells goods. From October 2021 to September 2022, Holiland's Tmall flagship store sold 349 million yuan.

Through online content marketing, Holiland has attracted a large number of young people, especially female users: the audience for content related to semi-ripened cheese is concentrated in young women aged 21-25.

Female users aged 20-40 are the core group that Holiland wants.

Why?

Female users have a great say in household consumption, and they make most of the daily spending decisions.

They are very sensitive and yearning for beautiful things.

The dessert category itself is something that can easily make people happy. Coupled with its fashionable design, high-quality taste, girlish decoration, and service from handsome men and beautiful women, it is easy to capture this group of users.

2. Return to user value creation: Boss IP + product IP, reconstructing competitive advantage

I have communicated with many bosses, and in the era of short videos, we must pay attention to the efficiency of internet celebrities.

As a boss, you don’t necessarily have to be a boss IP, but you must understand the concept of Internet celebrities.

The logic behind Internet celebrities is a new business logic.

Today’s internet celebrities are no longer the same as they were in the past. Today’s internet celebrities can be a channel for selling goods or a brand image.

Many bosses will use IP to help find business and shape their brand image.

If one can achieve the same influence as Dong Yuhui, it will be enough to determine the life or death of a company.

Therefore, since the two young people took over, Holiland began to attach great importance to the value of the boss's IP. ‍

Eldest brother Luo Hao has good leadership skills and is suitable for operation management.

The second brother has artistic talent, is good at brand management, and is suitable for building the founder's IP.

Luo Cheng created a Douyin account with the persona of a socially anxious rich second-generation boss, which fits the image of an ideal boyfriend for many girls.

Just like Dong Yuhui fits the image of his mother-in-law's ideal son-in-law, fans are always willing to spend money on their favorite IPs.

Later, Luo Cheng made a caviar cake worth 10,000 yuan, which received more than 1.25 million likes on Douyin.

He transformed his character from a socially anxious rich second-generation into a rich second-generation boss who can bake cakes, and successfully became popular.

The product IP and the boss IP resonate with each other, killing two birds with one stone: promoting the Holiland brand while taking in advertisements.

Delicious cakes are everywhere, but interesting souls are rare.

The Boss IP not only brings brand awareness, but also converts the fans brought by the IP into private users of Holiland. It can continuously reach users with content, and the Boss IP empowers the brand in reverse .

With the boss’s IP, you can use the product co-branded IP to tap into more potential users in unfamiliar circles.

The essence of co-branding is to break the circle, reach an unfamiliar group of people, and tap into more potential users.

Holiland selects animation IPs that young people like, such as Ultraman, Harry Potter, Pokémon, etc.

High-quality content plus high-quality products can convert fans of IP into potential users. From this point of view, Holiland really understands users.

By targeting young people, upgrading stores, innovating products, and deploying online content, Holiland has transformed itself from an old-fashioned baking brand into a fashion trend and work of art.

The successful creation of a youthful, fashionable and aesthetic brand image into the minds of young consumers has helped Holiland escape from the low-dimensional competition brought about by product homogeneity and launched a dimensionality reduction attack on its peers.

In my opinion, the function of baked products used to be eating, but now they can be eaten, photographed, and used for socializing, becoming social currency.

For example, cake is a product that relies more on perception. It is not as plain as steamed buns, dumplings, and rice, so baking actually requires aesthetic design to stimulate users' desire to own it.

This group of users does not simply pay for the functional value of the product, they also pay for the emotional value that the product brings, and are willing to pay more premium for good-looking products.

Product innovation helps users form consumption habits and social attributes, which essentially increases the added value of the product. In fact, it drives consumers’ minds to gradually focus more on the functional value of the product itself, making them more willing to pay for it.

Some people say that the design of stores, employees, and products can all be copied.

You are half right.

The accumulation of content infrastructure and brand awareness that penetrates into the minds of consumers are difficult to copy.

Brand recognition comes from the points accumulated over time during the brand’s long-term sales and user interactions.

A series of youth-oriented business strategies have been implemented over a long period of time, creating long-term competitive advantages for Holiland.

Finally, the core points are summarized:

The midlife crisis is not a crisis for all brands. By focusing on core groups + product innovation + store upgrades + online content marketing, Holiland successfully completed its brand upgrade.

Internet tools are not just efficiency tools, but to a certain extent even determine the life or death of a company. An IP can make or break a company. A company that is good at using product IP + boss IP has a longer-term competitive advantage over its competitors.

Author: Han Xu

Source: WeChat public account: HanXu (ID: kenengyouxihanxu)