Research on Marketing Strategy of Tourism Souvenirs in Xinjiang Based on Douyin Short Video ()
1. Introduction
In recent years, the short video platform represented by Douyin has developed rapidly, and its fragmented reading, convenient communication, precise marketing positioning and strong interactivity meet the needs of today’s fast-paced social life. Explosive user growth and innovative entertainment methods have brought the spring of the short video industry, and also provided new marketing channels for all kinds of sellers (Li, 2022) . In 2022, Premier Li Keqiang proposed in the Government Work Report that it is necessary to reform the business environment, promote the development of the digital economy, cultivate the data element market, release the potential of data elements, and better empower economic development and enrich people’s lives. Using short videos as the medium, the Internet is used to drive the innovation and reform of the traditional tourism industry, and promote the innovative development of the marketing model of Xinjiang tourist souvenirs. This study mainly analyzes the current situation of the existing Xinjiang tourist souvenir Douyin short video marketing through literature review and data collection, finds the problems in the marketing of Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs according to the current analysis, and uses the 4P theory to put forward corresponding countermeasures for the above problems.
2. Overview of the Study Area
This study took the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar as the research object, and conducted an in-depth analysis of Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar tourists, souvenir buyers and customers who had purchased Grand Bazaar souvenirs on Douyin. Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar is extremely rich in tourism resources and folk customs, and there are various types of tourist souvenirs. At present, hundreds of kinds of tourist souvenirs have been developed, covering almost all types of tourist souvenirs, Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar belongs to the characteristic trade “market” in Xinjiang, and the existing tourist souvenirs are mainly concentrated in ethnic handicrafts and native pro- ducts.
Chinese domestic tourists buy tourist souvenirs in Xinjiang accounting for less than 20% of the total tourism expenses, indicating that the value of tourist souvenirs in Xinjiang needs to be further improved, and the government proposed in the 2022 work report to liberate the value of tourist souvenirs and drive the economic income of tourism areas.
3. Current Situation of Marketing of Douyin Short Videos of Tourist Souvenirs in Xinjiang
3.1. Short Videos as a Carrier to Spread the Tourism Culture of the Grand Bazaar
As a large-scale trade “bazaar” in Xinjiang, the International Grand Bazaar is mainly sold through offline entities, with a single sales method and narrow publicity channels, mainly through consumer word-of-mouth. We-media marketing breaks the defects brought by traditional marketing, and the marketing model is more diversified. On Douyin short videos, the main marketing method of the Grand Bazaar is the introduction of culture, and the Grand Bazaar has an officially certified “Blue V” account “Xinjiang Grand Bazaar Pedestrian Street” dedicated to introducing the customs and customs of the Grand Bazaar. The private Douyin account and the officially certified Douyin account of the Grand Bazaar have introduced the tourism culture of the Grand Bazaar, and there are fewer accounts dedicated to introducing tourist souvenirs, and the Douyin short video account pays more attention to the dissemination of culture.
3.2. Xinjiang Anchors Live Broadcast Goods to Increase Sales
Local businesses in Xinjiang mainly conduct live broadcasts of the Grand Bazaar on Douyin with personal accounts, and the live broadcasts mainly include more conventional content such as introducing the functions of tourist souvenirs, publicizing the uniqueness of tourist souvenirs, displaying the appearance of tourist souvenirs, and introducing the origin of tourist souvenirs. Compared with the current environmental impact, such live broadcasts can also improve the trust of viewers in the live broadcast room for tourist souvenirs and generate purchase behavior. Hang the shopping cart link of tourist souvenirs in the live broadcast room to complete the sales of tourist souvenirs.
3.3. The Short Video Content Is Mainly Displayed, Directly Expressing the Utility of the Grand Bazaar Tourist Souvenirs
Searching on the Douyin platform with “Xinjiang tourist souvenirs” as the keyword, the “User” column of the platform shows that there are 8 Xinjiang tourist souvenir accounts with “yellow V” certification and 43 valid Xinjiang tourist souvenir accounts with “Blue V” certification, (data statistics time as of December 3, 2022), of which there are 1 “Yellow V” account and 3 “Blue V” accounts that market Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs. The sales of Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs are more in the form of offline physical stores and Douyin live broadcast, the main communication content of the existing Douyin short video marketing about the Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs is to introduce products, introduce culture, the overall is more direct, but also attract some consumers to buy Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs.
4. Problems in the Marketing of Short Videos of Xinjiang Tourist Souvenirs on Douyin
4.1. The Marketing of Short Videos of Grand Bazaar Tourist Souvenirs Is Fragmented and Differentiated
Since the Grand Bazaar is a combination of a large number of merchants, the product itself is relatively fragmented, there is a lack of systematization in the promotion, and the marketing of Douyin accounts also lacks professionalism, thus giving users who watch tourist souvenir promotion videos a bad viewing experience, resulting in the problem of low attention and fewer fans in the accounts of the three Grand Bazaar tourist souvenir sales. The existing short video marketing on Douyin about the Grand Bazaar tourist souvenir is relatively scattered, and the number of fans is low, the stickiness of fans is not high, and it is difficult to get the love of Douyin users without its own unique style. Lack of professional and overall operation team to do systematic short video marketing of Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs.
4.2. There Is Homogeneity in Anchors with Goods
Douyin provides a new form for the promotion of product marketing (Li & Qin, 2021) . Compared with traditional media, it has more immediacy and flexibility, which is also the biggest advantage of Douyin, which can strengthen effective interaction with the audience and make the feedback of information more timely and clear. However, at present, the live broadcast content in Douyin marketing is single and repetitive, most of which are promoted around the characteristics of the product itself, there is no innovation in content, the transmitted live broadcast content is thin, and the live broadcast platform provides the public with basic music and other background music, when users see a large number of similar content, it is inevitable that visual fatigue will occur, which will have a certain negative impact on the marketing of the product. The content of the live broadcast is not novel, resulting in the inability to retain viewers, will be forgotten, more than 50 people in the live broadcast room of 1000 people less than 30 minutes, most of them stay less than a minute and slip away, (data collected on December 4, 2022) The live broadcast atmosphere is not active, the overall live broadcast effect is poor, on the Douyin live broadcast platform, the more content the audience accepts, the easier it will be to cause audience aesthetic fatigue, and thus be eliminated.
4.3. Short Video Content Has No Story and Novelty
Douyin’s short videos of Grand Bazaar souvenirs have different content, lack accurate positioning, and do not have unique and innovative publicity methods and product introductions. There are a lot of works on Douyin, and there are many users, in addition to verifying Douyin accounts, there are also a large number of private accounts, which also leads to uneven short video content, but the overall content is similar, and the short video content about the Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs is summarized as follows: around the product ornamental introduction, price war, introduction of product production materials and production process, etc. These are indeed the content that can be involved in short video promotion, but too much emphasis will give the audience a sense of visual fatigue, and the video content needs new blood and new story connotations.
4.4. The Sales Price of Short Videos Is Not Reasonable
The Douyin short video market is full of goods that are not proportional to the price. The survey results show that the value and quality of many tourist souvenirs in China do not match, including low-end tourism goods with relatively low prices, as well as high-end souvenirs with high-end brands and high-value souvenirs. These phenomena have a lot to do with the fact that tourist souvenirs are essentially a product that can be sold quickly, and even if it is a service, it is difficult to obtain actual service due to the influence of time and other reasons. Merchants mainly reduce costs from the perspective of materials and product design, resulting in a flood of goods without texture and lack of cultural collection significance such as tourist souvenirs in the market, and even destroying the market. There are many reasons for unreasonable pricing, and the vague effect of merchants on the external and internal conditions of their own tourist souvenirs is more prominent, such as inaccurate value positioning, lack of understanding of market supply and demand, lack of national macro-control, lack of understanding of consumer consumption psychology and failure to locate regional conditions and production levels. For example, on the eve of festivals across the country, the prices of agricultural and sideline products in supermarkets will rise, while the market information of tourism products seems to be closed, and they do not do their own positioning on specific days, and flexibly adjust prices to adapt to the market environment.
4.5. The Quality of Short Video Sales of Tourist Souvenirs Is Not Up to Standard
The international Grand Bazaar tourism commodity market has begun to take shape, with sufficient supply, with a total of more than 2000 households on six floors, including Carrefour supermarket, desert jade, Tianshan cashmere sweater, Xinjiang famous brand “Guizi Qing” Xinjiang characteristic tourist souvenirs, etc.; The product categories cover most of Xinjiang’s tourism products and have a certain degree of popularity. Due to too many products, the quality cannot be guaranteed, especially in the case of serious cost-effective products sold by Douyin short videos. There is no systematic professional team for quality assessment sales, the overall situation of tourist souvenirs sold by Douyin is not good, and even some buyers leave messages in the comment area below the short video to dissuade other consumers, forming a certain negative word-of-mouth effect.
5. Xinjiang Tourism Souvenir Marketing Strategy Based on Douyin Short Video
5.1. Product Strategy: Unified Quality Audit Delivery
When consumers shop online, they will basically pay attention to the quality of the selected products, and the quality of the products directly affects the purchase behavior of consumers and has an impact on satisfaction and loyalty (Yang et al., 2021) . For the problems existing in the tourist souvenirs sold by short videos in the Grand Bazaar, we should focus on rectifying the quality of tourist souvenirs. A total of 7 international grand bazaars in Xinjiang can carry out business alliances, and the products participating in the sales of Douyin short videos are uniformly inspected and accompanied by inspection certificate numbers, and traceability codes can be attached to the packaging to enhance the credibility of the quality of tourist souvenirs and let consumers buy with confidence. Set up a professional team to strictly review consumers’ personal data, product information and other content, and communicate and deal with quality problems in a timely manner. Establish a sound after-sales service guarantee system to protect the legitimate rights of consumers, can support the return and exchange of unqualified quality, when the customer is not satisfied with the goods, can be returned, and the returned goods are subject to credit punishment.
5.2. Price Strategy: The Grand Bazaar Negotiates the Pricing Uniformly
Tourism souvenirs should support state control, pay attention to the consistency of quality and price, put forward according to the different customer groups of their products to develop different pricing and costs, under the premise of determining the cost of products, should develop an accurate profit range, exaggerated profit curve is not desirable, will also make consumers lose confidence. The price of tourist souvenirs sold on Douyin short videos should be checked by the organization and then determined according to the physical sales price, and similar tourist souvenirs can be differentiated if there is a large gap in quality. On the issue of market positioning, it is necessary to clarify the market positioning, competitors and market positioning of tourist souvenirs. People who occupy a large proportion of the tourist souvenir market should be paid attention to (Zhou, 2021) . Only by being consistent in quality and price can the company’s goods be credible and thus increase consumer loyalty. Therefore, according to the actual situation and market trends, we should accurately and comprehensively grasp the market environment, track the latest market demand dynamics in a timely manner, and abandon the old management concepts.
5.3. Distribution Strategy: Create a Private Brand Marketing Account
Xinjiang has seven international grand bazaars, which have the conditions and ability to create self-operated brand marketing accounts, and enterprises can create their own image spokespersons, which can directly connect with consumers and enhance emotional resonance. The international Grand Bazaar can effectively avoid the intermediate problems caused by distribution channels and better protect its own interests. Through self-operated launch of the “Into Xinjiang” series of accounts, accurate positioning of the target group can be achieved, so as to achieve more distinctive communication content and more direct emotional communication with users.
5.4. Publicity Strategy: Differentiate Publicity According to the Characteristics of Tourist Souvenirs
Combined with the current situation of Douyin short video delivery and the consumption behavior preferences and product characteristics of international Grand Bazaar tourists, classified publicity should be adopted. In addition to the promotion of tourist souvenirs, it is also necessary to carry out publicity planning for the operation of Douyin short video accounts. First of all, in the early stage of the sale of tourist souvenirs in the Grand Bazaar, the relevant government departments can provide timely guidance and assistance (Tan et al., 2021) . At present, Douyin’s popularity is relatively high, and the fields that can be promoted are relatively wide, and the government can use traditional media, media and other channels to publicize, so that consumers can learn about the tourist souvenirs of the Grand Bazaar. Secondly, in the medium term, farmers and relevant departments in Xinjiang should establish a broader and deeper Douyin account, use the Douyin platform to understand the public’s preferences and preferences, select souvenirs that the public likes and likes, do a good job in screening and promotion, vigorously promote the Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs, and create a brand of Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs. Eventually, when the number of fans reaches a certain level, the popularity of advertising and short videos on short video platforms will slowly fade. In the low tide period of China’s tourism commodity consumption boom, it is worth our serious thinking and thinking to seek long-term development opportunities. For the sale of tourist souvenirs in the Grand Bazaar, online fans can be converted to offline, such as developing a tourism business, allowing customers to experience the shopping process and experience the local characteristics of Xinjiang.
6. Conclusion
This article is based on Douyin short video on the marketing of Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar tourist souvenirs put forward a new strategy, in the new media environment, short video marketing is a new breakthrough point, it is necessary to carry out new media marketing, so the research environment is limited and the team ability is insufficient, and there are many contents to be further studied and analyzed:
1) In the new media environment, how to further select souvenirs to research the market and research objects, be more representative, and propose generally applicable marketing strategies.
2) How to promote local tourist souvenirs in the era of big data, and what means to use for marketing and promotion, so as to break through the current dilemma of low proportion of tourism souvenirs in tourism revenue.