Is the ticket blind box a marketing gimmick or a real benefit?
Online travel platform: This is a "pull new" drainage method. The departure time and route are random
In the past two days, the blind box of the ticket destination suddenly became popular, replacing the previous Xpress Fly and becoming the most concerned product in the tourism industry.
At present, Tongcheng, Fliggy, Qunar, and Ctrip have launched their own blind box products. No matter 66 yuan, 88 yuan or 98 yuan, they can be regarded as "cabbage price" compared with the price of air tickets on the market. How many of the randomly selected air tickets are in full compliance with the consumer's "intentions" and can contribute to the final trip?
Is the seemingly lively ticket blind box just a marketing gimmick?
phenomenon
Major online travel platforms push "ticket blind box"
How popular is the ticket blind box?
This can be seen from the rush of major online travel (OTA) platforms to launch blind box products.
On April 3 this year, Tongcheng Travel took the lead in launching the "Blind Ticket Destination Box" campaign, which attracted more than 10 million people to participate in the panic buying. The topic of "over 10 million people snapping up the blind box for tickets for 98 yuan" was also posted on Weibo. Hot search.
Taking advantage of this enthusiasm, Tongcheng Travel continues to launch a new round of "ticket blind box" campaign. The panic buying campaign was launched at 10 o'clock on April 22 and will last until April 26.
On April 20, Fliggy launched a blind ticket box of 66 yuan. Consumers participating in the event can get a blind box of tickets to random destinations across the country for an ultra-low price of 66 yuan after getting help from their friends.
On the same day, Qunar revealed that it will launch a blind ticket box for 88 yuan and a blind train ticket box for 66 yuan on April 21 at the same time.
Prior to this, Ctrip launched the "wine + machine" blind box package on April 19, priced at 699, 999, and 1299.
method
Unlocking methods are different, some need help from friends
What are the differences behind the blind ticket boxes of similar online travel platforms?
From the price point of view, the ticket blind boxes of Tongcheng, Fliggy, and Qunar are all below 100 yuan, and are aimed at a wider audience. Although Ctrip's blind box packages include not only air tickets, but also hotel products. , But the lowest price of 699 yuan is bound to make participants more cautious.
The biggest feature of Tongcheng's new round of blind box activities is that users can get two draw opportunities for one blind box purchase-once on the two platforms of Tongcheng Travel App and Tongcheng Travel Mini Program.
Both Qunar and Fliggy’s blind box activities require the help of friends to complete.
In Fliggy’s blind box assistance, users must share the link with 3 friends to be eligible for blind box extraction.
Qunar's blind box activity also requires three people to help in order to buy blind boxes at a low price.
The difference is that after buying the blind box on Qunar.com, consumers can continue to invite friends to assist. Every 3 friends invited to assist can unlock 1 more route, and up to 10 alternative routes can be unlocked. Consumers can finally choose from. 1 favorite route.
In addition, another bright spot of Qunar Netblind Box is that it can choose the departure date independently, and consumers have more autonomy.
There are two highlights of the Fliggy Blind Box activity: one is that the event can be joined by two persons, and the blind box of the ticket drawn is a double ticket for the same route; the other is that there are two routes for selection in the Fliggy Blind Box, which is better than ordinary blind boxes. The box has one more route.
It is worth mentioning that after purchasing a blind box, consumers can get a full refund if they do not select a ticket.
Dispel doubts
Product time-sensitive destinations, random routes
Consumers generally have several big questions about blind ticket boxes. Is this a marketing gimmick or a real benefit?
Are the destinations and routes unlocked are some unpopular routes?
In response to related issues, the relevant persons in charge of major online travel platforms also responded accordingly.
Regarding whether the blind box push is supported by big data algorithms, Li Chen, vice president of Fliggy, said that the destination of the blind box is completely random.
Xu Guangye, director of public affairs at Qunar, said that the more friends in Qunar's blind box activity, the more routes can be unlocked. These routes are completely random.
Most of the blind boxes of air tickets are cheaper, so are they mostly unpopular routes that no one cares about?
In this regard, Li Chen said that from the current blind boxes, Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and other popular destinations during the May Day holiday are covered.
However, there are limited seats on flights during peak seasons and relatively few choices.
And the time covered by the blind box is three to thirty days in the future. It is not limited to the May Day holiday, and there will be more popular routes during non-holidays.
Xu Guangye said that air ticket products are time-sensitive. Most online travel blind box activities have a random departure date, and consumers cannot choose by themselves, so the problem of timeliness cannot be solved. This is what the industry refers to as taking the tail cabin. The product is sold.
In the blind box event of Qunar.com, consumers can choose their own departure date, so the route coverage is relatively wider and there are more popular destinations.
Li Chen said that the domestic travel market is gradually recovering, and airlines and online travel must have marketing needs at this time. As for whether to fly freely or blind box, which form may be ever-changing.
Any marketing method has periods of growth and decline, so each company continues to introduce new gameplay. How long this marketing method can last is actually determined by consumers.
Xu Guangye said that any ticket cannot be so cheap. The price must be paid for, so this is a "pull new" job, and use this method to attract traffic.
Regarding the effect of drainage, both parties expressed no expectations, but hoped that this would allow users to have a better experience.
Text/Photo courtesy of our reporter Zhao Tingting/Visual China
expert's point
Blind ticket boxes for younger markets
Yang Yanfeng, director of the Online Tourism Research Center of Beijing Union University, believes that the blind ticket box game is relatively new and has two main backgrounds: first, airlines have insufficient capacity during the epidemic, so the proportion of tail tickets and discount tickets has increased. There is a large amount of surplus inventory to be consumed.
Second, Tencent ecological companies such as Tongcheng Yilong are very suitable for this kind of social marketing and social distribution.
Because it has relatively few customers, and there are close to 1.5 billion people in the Tencent ecosystem, it needs to reach more customers through social distribution, and ticket marketing like blind boxes can just reach these lower lines. , Or the kind of customers who have more time and are price-sensitive.
In this sense, this kind of customer market with blind box demand is aimed at the lower-line and younger market, which has a certain role in cultivating future market share.
There are relatively few discount tickets or tail-cabin tickets on each flight segment. Through this innovative social gameplay, these inventory can be effectively digested, and some customers who have travel needs but are price-sensitive can also accumulate.
This is more meaningful for the cultivation of new routes and airline revenue management.
Yang Yanfeng believes that unless the epidemic is greatly alleviated, the tail warehouse resources are not so many, or the "new" competition of various online travel platforms is not so fierce, the blind box gameplay may be reduced, otherwise this kind of marketing method Will last for a long time.