Why has the "big membership system" that Mengniu, Huazhu, and Jinjiang are all building become a money-making tool in the new era?

Membership system is now implemented everywhere, whether it is a shopping mall or a store, it seems that having a membership system is a very beneficial thing. Why has the membership system become a money-making tool in the new era? You can read the relevant content analyzed by the author in the article below.

2. “Big Members” are booming

Membership is nothing new, but it is very lively this year.

Costco popularized membership-based retail at the beginning of the year, and later JD PLUS membership and Taobao 88VIP membership were both upgraded. Then Oriental Selection launched a 199 yuan paid membership before Double 11, and everyone was flocking to the membership craze.

In addition to membership-based retail and paid membership, there is another membership trend, that is, companies are upgrading to "premium membership" .

Just look at this, on November 1st, I received a notification to upgrade to “Premier Member” from Jinjianghui.

What is a "premium member"? As a member of Jinjiang Club, you can enjoy the rights and interests of Jinjiang International's hotel, tourism, pre-prepared food, passenger transportation and other industry sectors.

For example, exclusive member prices and dining discounts at high-star hotels, Radisson overseas hotel membership benefits; free breakfast and room upgrades at preferred hotels; quarterly travel coupons; monthly gifts for pre-prepared meals; car service member discounts, etc.

Not only that, Jinjiang members can earn unified points when spending in various industry sectors, and redeem them for “all points for the entire store” in the points mall.

In the future, we will also launch functions such as overseas hotel points redemption rooms, and "points for cash" for members' online orders of hotels, travel, pre-prepared meals, etc., so that members can truly experience spending points as money and obtain point value feedback and high value-added services.

In short, as a "big member" of Jinjiang, you can enjoy a unified membership experience and services in all business segments. In the future, "one card in hand (membership status), worry-free experience."

In fact, the upgrade from membership to "premium membership" is something that is of great importance to more than just Jinjiang.

Last year, Jinmao Group also upgraded to a "big membership" system. They emphasize customer-centricity, so they integrated the membership, rights and services of several major business sectors such as commerce (shopping centers), hotels, real estate, and residential properties.

Similarly, in the past, Jinmao users consumed in different business segments and had different membership identities, their data was not connected, and their rights and experiences were also fragmented. Now, one membership identity can take care of everything, and members can consume across different business formats with richer and more convenient rights and interests.

For example, in business, Jinmao members can enjoy 10 major privileges including gold rebates on consumption, parking discounts, merchandise discounts, upgrade gifts, salon communities, birthday gifts, VIP events, etc.

In the design of the entire "big membership" system, Jinling is a major innovation of Jinmao. Through Jinling, Jinmao's members can share the rights and interests of different businesses and exchange points.

Jinling can be exchanged for goods in the member mall, and can also be used as a deduction in the consumption scenarios provided by Jinmao's various business formats, such as exchanging for property fees, etc. Jinling can not only be obtained through consumption, but also by completing tasks and participating in activities to earn Jinling, which can increase the interactive stickiness of members.

Some people may ask on the Jinmao Member Mini Program page, these companies have complex businesses themselves, are there any retail brand companies that are also doing "big membership"?

Of course there are, for example, Jiangnan Buyi Group, which has a group-wide "grand membership" system, and Huazhu Group, which has many sub-brands, also has a "grand membership" system. Recently, Mengniu, a group brand enterprise that I have paid attention to, is also vigorously promoting the "grand membership" system.

From now on, I think more and more retail brands will launch "premium membership". Why?

Because market competition will be more intense, they need to launch different sub-brands to occupy different tracks and populations. It is impossible to set up a membership system for each sub-brand. This will result in high operating costs and low efficiency for group corporate members, and will not be conducive to the accumulation of member assets . It is inevitable that they will merge into a "big membership" system.

Mengniu Lifestyle Member Center is a good example. We can study it in detail.

As a consumer, do you like to have many membership accounts, or is one enough? I think the answer is self-evident. One membership has the rights and interests of different brands. This is very convenient and fast. Why not? Mengniu Life Home does just that.

"Mengniu Lifestyle Membership Center" is Mengniu's official membership platform, providing membership services for seven brands including Mengniu Pure Milk, Chunzhen, Breakfast Milk, Future Star, Xinyangdao, Zhenguoli, and Yogurt.

Users can accumulate points when purchasing products from the seven major brands, which can be redeemed universally. At the same time, users can also obtain nutritional value by participating in brand activities, playing favorite games, and reading interesting content on the same mini program interface.

Consumption points and nutritional values ​​can be exchanged for favorite products, realizing a closed loop. Such a member living space not only conveys Mengniu’s brand concept, but also provides members with nutritional emotional value and strengthens the connection between the brand and consumers. This is much better than asking users to log in to 7 different member applets.

Seeing this, we will find that "Mengniu Lifestyle Membership" also represents a brand's attempt at "premium membership" and its business thinking that keeps pace with the times.

I believe that the era of conference membership is coming, but the driving forces of different companies are different.

Some are due to the need to upgrade user experience, and some are due to the need for enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The ultimate upgrade to a membership system is an inevitable trend. After the establishment of a membership system, it will also be very important to promote the digitalization and intelligence of enterprises.

2. What is so “big” about general membership?

Some people may ask, what is the difference between the general membership and the previous membership, and where is the "general" reflected? This is a good question.

From the case analysis and practice, I think it mainly reflects three aspects:

The first is "big" data. We need to connect the huge amount of member data and identify each user in a unified way.

In the past, a user might have three corresponding identities on Tmall, JD.com, and in physical stores. Although the data were all stored in the company's database, they did not know each other and the records were stored repeatedly, making it impossible to distinguish them when they were used.

Once the VIP membership status is achieved, the company can figure out that the user is called Zhang San on Tmall, Zhang Si on JD.com, Wang Wu on the mini program, and Ma Liu in the physical store. Finally, the company will give him a unified identity [VIP Xiaoqi].

In the future, his behavior and data on different platforms will be recorded under the name of [VIP Xiaoqi]. This will achieve data unification across all channels, and the company will call it member oneID identity establishment.

The second is the big business. The identity of the VIP member can be used in different business sectors (between brands).

It is like a person who has a passport that allows him to travel to any country without any obstacles. With this convenience, it not only improves the experience and power of members, but also helps promote the various businesses of the enterprise.

For example, Mengniu Lifestyle members, who used to only buy Chunzhen, may buy Zhenguoli and may also consume Future Star, yogurt and other products. This can promote cross-selling through operational means.

Jinmao Group can use Jinling to market to shopping mall users, promote residential property activities, etc. By creating synergy between various businesses and improving business penetration, it also increases the lifetime value of members.

Finally, it is about big operations. In the past, each business or sub-brand had decentralized membership operations, and each section only considered the needs and experience of its own members, which easily led to waste of resources, duplication of marketing, and operational harassment. At the same time, the internal membership operation organization of the enterprise also repeatedly recruited people, and the efficiency was not necessarily high.

After forming the status of a VIP member, the company can design operational actions and apply for operating expenses in a unified manner based on the members' behaviors in different businesses and their life cycles. Business operations will be smoother, user experience will be more consistent, and financially it will be able to more effectively reduce operating costs, save member operating resources, and avoid the past situation of each doing its own thing.

Of course, if an enterprise wants to upgrade to "premium membership", this must be a strategic project. It will have an impact on the original business system and processes, and its complexity is no less than digital transformation.

In addition to business integration and transformation, it also involves the construction of digital infrastructure systems. The "VIP" system alone is much more complex than a single CRM. The following picture gives you a glimpse of this.

Source: KPMG China

3. 7 key points to become a member

I know that "VIP membership" is very important. I guess there are still many companies that don't understand it, but companies that have taken detours may resonate more, and many more still don't see it. In the past, when I helped companies achieve digital upgrades for consumers, I developed a strategic blueprint for VIP membership for them, but few really understood it. Most of them just thought it was novel and used it as a new concept to report to their bosses.

It doesn't matter, let some people who believe in it do it first. I remember very clearly that when I was writing a plan for a company, I talked about the time rhythm of realizing the membership strategy. At that time, I found it difficult to estimate how long it would take for their company to achieve it. The person in charge saw my difficulty and smiled and said, "Teacher Sanshou, do you think our company is still far away and may not be able to achieve it in 10 years?"

Indeed, he told the truth in my heart. After I got to know them and researched them, they were still far away. Their business team was very traditional and rigid, and their digital foundation was very weak, less than 10%; they didn't have any team talent, and they had to rebuild everything from scratch. Later, I discussed with him and set a time rhythm.

Jack Ma said, you should have dreams, just in case they come true.

Today, many people have no idea about VIP membership. When it comes time to do it, companies have a lot to catch up on. But there will always be some excellent companies that can seize the opportunity and grab a new wave of competitiveness.

From my current experience, if an enterprise wants to be a good "big member", there are some necessary key tasks to be done well, or to prepare and consider in advance , as follows:

1. The whole company should have the determination and concept to attach importance to members. Some companies only pay lip service to it but actually do not invest enough in members.

2. To elevate members to the level of “strategic business”, it is best to have special business discussions and user strategy planning.

3. The company has established omni-channel digital touchpoints and can obtain user information.

4. Enterprises can achieve the integration and unified identification of oneID for all members across all channels.

5. Enterprises need to build a consumer operation management platform (CDP+DMP+SCRM). It doesn’t matter what it is called, as long as it can realize member data management, operation, marketing and analysis.

6. Enterprises should plan and design a member growth/level/points operation system in advance.

7. The company should set up a dedicated membership operations department.

When is the best stage to start becoming a member?

This is probably a question that many companies are concerned about. I have seen successful companies usually have two ways. The first is to become a member at the beginning, which is very suitable for companies with a strong group structure.

Another way is to start the pilot with some strong business segments or sub-brands, and then carry out the pilot in stages within the group. For example, Mengniu Life Home started with 7 brand members.

In short, it doesn’t matter whether you do it sooner or later. As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago and now.

Author: Yan Tao, WeChat public account: Yan Tao Sanshou