Since his arrival in Mexico in 2016, Miniso began a new stage until it became the fastest growing retail chain nationwide with the goal of closing 2019 with 200 stores.
However, the challenge facing the Asian giant was great: entering a large market that did not know the brand and that would be the first large Hispanic market, the one that would open the doors to enter Latin America.
Thanks to its expansion in Mexico with an advertising campaign that knew how to connect with consumers through the slogan “didn’t know i needed it” its presence in countries such as Colombia and the acquisition of licenses such as Marvel , Hello Kitty , Adventure Time and the Pink Pantherthe outlook looks positive, to the extent that Grupo Sanborns acquired a third of the company.
For Adriana Velasquez, former manager of creativity and content at Miniso for Latam, the challenge of taking this company that had established itself in Asia to the Hispanic market was possible thanks to the passion with which the marketing team experienced the process. “Being in Miniso is like running a marathon: you are in constant motion all the time.”
Throughout these two years in which the network positioned itself in the minds and hearts of the Mexican public, Adriana learned several lessons leading the creative team, which she immediately shares with us.
1. Anticipate and listen to your client
The marketing team did not know how long it would be before Miniso’s direct competitors arrived in the country, which happened less than a year after launching their campaign. For this reason, the most important thing is not to be the first to arrive, but to know how to make your customers fall in love. Hence the need to understand the market as a Latin country and tropicalize it, says Adriana, to know how you are going to speak to it.
When the company arrived in Mexico, it was not enough to open the stores, but they also had to win the hearts of a public that has always received Japanese design positively. In fact, according to Adriana, Mexico was the one that gave Miniso a strong brand touch at an international level.
However, “when the brand arrived we said: this is a very cool but it lacks brand building”. To deal with this situation, the team adapted it according to the messages that the clients wanted to hear and what the business could give them, so that both the creative team and their agency could reach them with adequate communication and dynamics like that time All the stuffed animals in the stores disappeared.
Another strategy to achieve this success was to pay attention to social networks, where they report on new releases and exclusive products, respond to user comments and even make new versions of known memes to connect with them. “If the consumer is talking to us, we have to respond.”
2. Fall in love with what you do
How to spread the love for your brand to the team? For Adriana, this factor is as basic as it is important, and even more so if the company is in constant movement, as it launches new products every week, something that makes them feel like running a marathon.
Adriana believes that if the people who work with you are not in love with what they do, they cannot pass it on to someone else. “People will trust you if you manage to infect them with that emotion that you feel when you are building something incredible that you believe in and that makes you grow personally and professionally.”
Communication is the first step in achieving empathy with the team and letting them know what is expected of them. “The most important secret to convey that is to talk to people, who know where you want to go. Conveying your vision of how you see things to others gets them on board with you,” she says.
3. An effective team is better than a large one
With a creative team of four people, a marketing team of three, and one person on the digital side, Adriana says that the important thing is not to have a large group responsible for all the functions, but rather that the collaborators learn and master the functions, create synergies, find allies and build long-term relationships with those who engage with the brand, including your agency.
The important thing with the team is that each member counts, is high-performing, committed, passionate and whose ideas count when it comes to strategy. “Within the company we have a phrase, an internal slogan that is ‘we’re crazy and it’s fine’, that defines a lot our corporate culture, what we are, where we’re going and why we are pending 24/7 because we believe in what we do .”
4. Focus on what your competition can’t copy
The success that the Miniso stores have had also opened the doors of the retail market for other national and foreign brands that brought similar concepts and products to enter. In many cases, their offer was very similar to that of Miniso, so they had to look for key differentiators, although Adriana considers that the fact that the company’s model wants to be imitated is positive and desirable.
“We asked ourselves: what was life like before Miniso? Where did we go to buy those things we didn’t know we needed? Where did we release those endorphins?” says Adriana. With this in mind, the marketing team has focused on five key elements that give Miniso its identity and have made it a leader in the sector: design, variety, quality, innovation Y Accesible price.
According to the manager, in terms of innovation, every 7 days there are new products in the stores. They have too many stores around the world to provide quality and affordable prices. “We have economies of scale, and we can produce a lot at a low price.” And as if that were not enough, to develop the visual image they have a Japanese designer who has a design institute called Miniso Original Design (MOD) which has won many IF Design Awards for excellence in product design.
5. Know the function of the contents
By having an advertising campaign and social networks that must be nourished by content, there is a risk that they will be filled with adapted versions of the advertising that we already know. Therefore, the creative team had to consider what they wanted to achieve and what they would seek to avoid. “The branded content (branded content) is a very broad path, very interesting. I think it’s the most wonderful way to connect with your audience. It is a commitment and a marriage, a relationship with your clients”, says Adriana.
For this reason, to start the strategy, the work teams must be documented even before setting objectives. “Really read what is and is not the branded contentit is all that content that excites, that educates, that amuses, that generates a connection, that does not worry about selling a product, that the sale is a consequence of that emotion, fun, teaching and connection.”
So, from the way they present their products with award-winning designs to the new Marvel line, those elements are there, whether you find them on Instagram, Facebook, in their advertising or in their stories.
6. That the budget does not limit you
In the same way, creativity brings out the best in scenarios with few resources because we seek solutions to the challenges we face using what we have and taking advantage of it. Upon reaching the Hispanic market, Miniso was no exception and used the products it had as an active part of its messages.
“Know that there are no limits, the budget is not a limit. There are a thousand ways to do branded content well done, it just takes a lot of creativity and knowing what your goal is.”
7. Don’t sell products, tell a story
We know that companies live from their sales, but most of them stick to offering sales arguments instead of going further. Companies that win the hearts of their customers do so by connecting with each other. For this reason, Adriana recommends that the content focus on telling a story.
“It is wonderful because what it achieves is to tell history and human beings are made of stories. If you want to dedicate yourself to creating connections with this content, you must know what story you want to tell.”
Both the Mexican and Latin American markets gave Miniso and his team something that helped them when looking for ideas for those stories. “We Latinos have something very beautiful and that is that our blood vibrates, it has its own pulse,” says the creative manager. In addition, she points out that we have a passion that no one else has like in soccer, in food, in the way we fall in love and even how our mother scolds us. Capitalizing on this passion is the best we can do.
With that base we can condense the essence of the business, the content and the story in a keyword. “All Latinos are passionate about something to the tips of their feet, you just have to find what it is. I say that many times it is a word that tells us what our vocation in life is,” says Adriana, “let’s take advantage of that passion that vibrates, capitalize, make it something good and successful, and find that word that defines our essence.”
By: Armando Ruiz
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