How do Japanese pubs generate private domain traffic?

Friends who often watch Japanese dramas will definitely find that taverns appear very frequently in Japanese dramas. Not only in TV dramas, but in real life, Japanese people do have the habit of going to pubs. Whether it is after get off work or in their spare time, they will go to pubs to consume, and the venue is often fixed. The author of this article analyzes how Japanese pubs manage private domain traffic to see what insights they can provide us.

If you have been to Japan, you will find that the local izakaya or pub culture is very strong. After get off work, many Japanese people are not in a hurry to go home, but go to the pub in groups of three or five to have a few drinks.

Even if you have never been to Japan, you must have seen scenes of protagonists drinking in taverns in many film and television works: from "Late Spring", "The Taste of Autumn Saury" to "Midnight Diner", "Family Bitterness" to "We Who Can't Be Beasts", taverns often occupy the center scene in these film and television works.

The special thing about the taverns in these film and television works is that they are basically places that the protagonists frequent regularly. Once they have been to a tavern, they generally rarely go to other taverns.

This actually reflects the Japanese habit of going to pubs. Most of them patronize one pub regularly and rarely switch to other pubs. From the perspective of the pub, they have done a very good job in private traffic.

In the article "Rethinking Private Domain Traffic in the Post-WeChat Era", I mentioned the issue of Japanese pubs dealing with private domain traffic. This article will use this as an opportunity to talk about how a small offline shop should handle private domain traffic.

1. Private traffic of Japanese taverns

I traveled to Tokyo in 2018 and stayed quite far from the city center. According to Beijing standards, it was at least outside the Fifth Ring Road. In order to experience the local pub culture, I walked into a pub rashly.

The tavern only had about 5 or 6 chairs around the bar, and there were two people inside drinking and chatting with the owner. My entry obviously caught the boss by surprise. He looked at me with a little confusion, and then handed me the menu cautiously.

There are some food like oden with pictures on the menu, and the rest is alcohol. I ordered a drink, he realized I was Chinese, and we chatted for a while in broken English.

This experience made me realize some characteristics of Japanese taverns:

1. Standardized products

The goods sold in Japanese taverns are mainly alcoholic beverages, which are standardized products. There are not many food items. For example, the menu I saw only had some simple oden, and very few stir-fried dishes or barbecued items.

Japanese people go to izakaya to drink instead of eating. They can often finish a meal with a small plate of edamame. This is different from the Chinese habit of eating a table of food with a bottle of beer.

Therefore, the taste of the food does not play a decisive role in the operation of a tavern; the decisive wine is standardized.

2. Backed by the community

Apart from the bustling pubs in the city's commercial district, most pubs are located backed by communities. If people living in the suburbs want to have a drink at night, they will definitely choose these pubs close to the community.

In the evening, when people from the workplace come back tired, it is a great idea to go to the pub to have a few drinks before going home to rest.

3. Regular customers

These pubs are located on various streets and are backed by communities. Because they are backed by communities, their regular customers are often relatively regular. Frequent guests from surrounding communities actually regard the pubs as social gathering places.

Although the pub is not big and can usually accommodate only about 10 customers, there are only a few dozen people who come here regularly and almost every day, so the pub business is very stable.

Simply put, this is actually a business based on acquaintances, and the customers who come to drink are basically acquaintances of the boss. For example, in "Midnight Diner", those few people come almost every night, so that when the old lady Yukiko, played by Misako Watanabe, comes to the late-night diner, she becomes an uninvited guest.

So when I walked into that little tavern in Tokyo, the owner looked at me quizzically because he had obviously never seen me before.

4. Emotional Bond

Since these taverns are located close to the community and the people who frequent them are basically neighbors in the community, the tavern owners have emotional ties with these customers beyond transactions.

People who come to drink, in addition to drinking, mainly want to chat with other neighbors and the owner of the pub.

For example, in "Family Bitterness", Isao Hashizume, played by Shuzo Hirata, often visits the tavern run by the proprietress played by Jun Fubuki. He usually comes to chat with the proprietress, so in the later plot, Isao Hashizume even drives the proprietress out for a ride.

5. Long-term operation

In China, unbranded restaurants and pubs often find it difficult to operate for a long time. If you pay attention to the small shops near your home, you may find that on average a batch of stores are replaced every 1-2 years, and those that have been in business for a long time are often chain brands.

But many of Japan's taverns are able to operate for a long time, and some even exist for decades.

Last year I went to a famous puffer fish restaurant in Osaka, Tsuboraya, for dinner. After the meal, the chef came out to bow and thank me. She was a nearly 70-year-old grandmother, and the restaurant had been in business for nearly a hundred years - this kind of situation is almost impossible to happen in China.

If we summarize the above characteristics, the reason why those small Japanese pubs can operate for a long time is that they have successfully managed their own private domain traffic:

1. In terms of acquiring private traffic: they choose a location close to the community, which is naturally conducive to people from the community coming to consume. Therefore, in terms of location, these taverns accurately attract the public domain traffic of the entire community's wine culture to their own taverns, turning it into private traffic.
2. In terms of activating private domain traffic: in addition to providing drinks, the pub also provides substantial services such as chatting and drinking, and establishes emotional bonds with customers through long-term communication. This makes the users of these private domain traffic become loyal and active users, making the private domain traffic pool very stable.

2. Why is it that in Japan physical stores have killed e-commerce, while in China it is e-commerce that has killed physical stores?

As a form of physical business, Japanese taverns have not been impacted by the Internet. Instead, they have operated steadily with their own unique characteristics and have become a unique business form in Japan.

The stable operation of Japanese pubs is not an isolated case. Unlike China, although the Internet is booming, Japan's real economy has not been destroyed but continues to flourish.

Therefore, there is a question on Zhihu: "Why is it that in Japan physical stores killed e-commerce, while in China e-commerce killed physical stores?" In essence, the reasons for the success of physical stores in Japan are similar to those for the success of pubs.

1. Strong consumption convenience

There is a view that the reason why Japan's Internet has not developed as impressively as in the industrial era is because Japan's physical industry is too developed.

For example, there is basically a convenience store within 100 meters in Japan, and the products are extremely rich. If you need to eat or use something at home, just go downstairs to the convenience store and get the things home in 5 minutes.

It’s no problem for a person to stay at home for a week and live by the convenience store downstairs.

One important reason why e-commerce has developed rapidly in China is that physical consumption is inconvenient, but this problem does not exist in Japan. In addition, after years of development, Japan's retail industry has become very efficient in offline retail, with prices online and offline almost the same.

In this case, the advantages of online consumption do not exist.

2. Ultimate service

Japan's physical industry is famous for its service. Bowing 90 degrees is a common practice in Japan. When talking about the experience of trying on shoes in Japan, one netizen said that the waiter "knelt down on one leg to help you try on shoes without any hesitation or unnaturalness."

Some time ago, there was an article online about the Japanese extreme moving methods. The movers were very considerate in every step, from arriving at the door to filling in the forms to packing. This is simply unimaginable compared to the violent moving methods in China.

The service experience you enjoy when shopping offline is something you can’t get online.

For example, when it comes to drinking, of course you can buy it online and have it delivered to your home to drink, but compared to a pub, there’s probably no point in drinking alone if there’s no one to pour you a glass of wine or chat with you.

3. Social hubs in physical stores

In Japan, stores that serve the community are almost all social centers. Pubs are places for neighbors to chat and connect with each other, and convenience stores are also community centers where Japanese people seek mutual help and interaction.

Therefore, those physical stores in Japan that are backed by communities are not simply for selling goods. They are more like social centers and have greater emotional connections, and are therefore more attractive to people. This is something that e-commerce does not have at all.

3. Enlightenment from the private traffic of Japanese physical stores

The so-called Japanese physical stores have killed e-commerce, essentially because physical stores have many factors that e-commerce does not have. This allows physical stores to convert most of the customers entering the store into regular customers, forming their own stable private traffic pool.

1. Private domain traffic must be accurate

Increasing private domain traffic has become an important goal for many companies in the past two years. How to intercept private traffic from public traffic has always been a difficult problem for enterprises.

The strategy of many companies to build private domain traffic is to add WeChat friends as much as possible, to recruit people to form groups, and to increase the fans of public accounts through various fission methods. This method may be able to quickly increase private domain traffic, but it is not accurate. The most likely result is that it may be your private domain traffic today, but it may say goodbye to you tomorrow.

The reason why Japan's pubs and convenience stores backed by communities have large private traffic pools is that they attract precise customers, most of whom come from nearby communities. They intercept traffic directly from the most precise public domain - the community.

Especially for pubs, basically every new customer is the private traffic of the store.

Therefore, for small physical stores, the quantity of private domain traffic is not that important, the quality is more important. Although the pub is not big and can only accommodate less than 10 people, it still has no problems with business every day.

2. Private domain traffic needs service and care

Many domestic companies have private domain traffic, and there are many ways to promote activity, such as sending spam text messages, sending coupons worth a few cents, sending notifications to harass...

Many of these activation methods are indeed effective, and they may encourage dormant customers to come back and have a look, but these methods are essentially done from a business perspective and do not bring much actual value to customers.

What e-commerce can never replace is the service and care of physical stores. You may get some discounts through e-commerce shopping in China, but you will never be able to get the ultimate service and heartfelt care like in Japanese stores.

As mentioned above, the Japanese salesperson bows 90 degrees and kneels on one knee to help you put on your shoes. This kind of service has already impressed you from the very beginning, and it is hard for you not to feel good about such service.

3. Private domain traffic needs to be humane

There is a joke about private domain traffic that goes, "I treat you as a friend, and you treat me as private domain traffic." This reveals the fatal flaw of many companies doing private domain traffic, which is that they have always only treated customers as data and monetization tools, but never as human beings.

The core of a store’s private domain traffic is to differentiate itself from e-commerce, which essentially means being humane. There is no essential difference between online shopping and e-commerce, and this is when the human factor plays a decisive role.

We often have this experience when shopping in physical stores. If you visit two physical stores:

If one of the salespeople has a cold attitude and is indifferent, then no matter how good the products are, the entire store will leave a very bad impression on us, and we will most likely not make any purchases there. However, if another salesperson is enthusiastic, explains the products carefully, and shows all kinds of care to customers, then even if the price is a little higher, we will most likely make a purchase there.

For example, the pub owner’s willingness to chat, drink, and communicate with customers are the human touch that e-commerce companies simply do not have. Many times, the term private domain traffic has been demonized in China. Companies often engage in private domain traffic just for the sake of doing it, without understanding that the core of it is to provide value to customers.

The reason why Japanese physical stores are still standing strong is that they provide convenience, service, care, emotional communication and other things that e-commerce does not have, and these things are the most important.

Without these, the so-called private domain traffic is nothing more than data and tools without human touch.

Author: Xunkong

Source: Xunkong’s Marketing Revelation (ID: xunkong2005)