Source title: Interview with Luo Qingbo: Continuously innovating the traditional laundry industry, where is the next gold mine?
He was once an ordinary technician in a laundry equipment manufacturing company. He embarked on the road of entrepreneurship with a heart of adventure. Because he was optimistic about the development prospects of China's future laundry market, he gave up his stable high-paying job and resolutely devoted himself to the laundry business with rich front-line experience, hoping to make some achievements. At that time, it was the turn of the century, and the Chinese laundry industry was surging, and various dry cleaning franchise stores were developing in full swing.
Luo Qingbo, who was full of novel ideas, opened his first laundry store in 2003. This was both his initial test and the beginning of his legendary entrepreneurial journey. With a steady stream of creativity, Luo Qingbo overcame all difficulties and soon made his brand Aote Xifulai stand out in the industry. The team, which originally had only a few people, developed to a scale of more than 1,400 franchise stores in just 20 years. In the eyes of many peers and investors, Luo Qingbo can always seize the market opportunities and find the gold mining points first. Everyone can't help but wonder, what is his secret?
[Break through the marketing model and steadily expand the market]
Only innovators are strong and only innovators can advance. The innovation ability of Aote Xifulai in the industry is obvious to all. From the "laundry and shoe washing store in store" model launched when Luo Qingbo just entered the industry, to the "one-stop washing and care for clothes, shoes, bags, and luxury goods" model launched during the expansion of business, all of them have set off a learning trend that swept the industry. Although young, Aote Xifulai can catch up with the marketing ideas that amaze the market.
But if you want to be invincible in the rapidly changing market all year round, it is not feasible to rely on an unchanging model once and for all. Not long after the birth of "one-stop laundry", in order to further upgrade the customer's consumption experience and accurately hit the pain points of the consumer market, Luo Qingbo abandoned the crude marketing of only fighting price wars, changed the tradition of charging by piece, and launched preferential measures such as annual and monthly membership fees and WeChat Mall points redemption to allow customers to reduce laundry costs and even achieve free laundry.
"Our earliest idea was to package annual laundry. For example, a family spent 2,980 yuan to cover the clothes of a family of three for the whole year, excluding luxury goods. This is very cost-effective and anyone can afford it. In addition, we also have a single card for white-collar workers who work alone. It costs 1,180 yuan a year, and you can wash one piece every day. On average, one piece costs only more than 3 yuan, which is very cost-effective."
This kind of systematic marketing envisioned by Luo Qingbo directly connects with the needs of different groups from the standpoint of consumers. But he believes that this is not enough to explore all laundry needs. In order to allow more people to experience the high-quality laundry service of Aote Xifulai, he boldly proposed the marketing concept of "turning consumers into shareholders". By launching laundry cards, consumers' purchasing behavior can become a kind of crowdfunding investment. While enjoying preferential prices, customers can also share the dividends of store operations at the end of the year. This change of identity can not only benefit consumers, but also increase customers' recognition of the brand.
[Innovative cooperation model to gather franchise power]
In addition to attracting the attention of the consumer market, it is also crucial to the development of the brand to successfully replicate its own model. After Luo Qingbo launched the "one-stop ecological laundry service" in 2008, it was crowded with customers as soon as it opened. Not only did his business become a hit, but it also attracted many investors to come. For a time, a wave of imitation and copying swept the industry. Many laundry shops applied Luo Qingbo's creativity and used "one-stop washing and care" as their business highlight.
It is easy to imitate the concept, but it is difficult to grasp the core. Due to the lack of technical support, various mixed brands eventually failed in the real laundry effect. After that, all investors who wanted to further develop the laundry industry came to Luo Qingbo for advice. After hearing his insights on the laundry market, many of his peers chose to cooperate with him. In just a few years, the franchise stores of Otto Xifulai spread all over the country like a spark.
Looking at the franchise models of various industries, they always encounter the dilemma of "chaining but not locking" after becoming bigger and stronger, and the laundry industry is no exception. Once the service quality of the chain store declines, it will not only affect the brand reputation, but also the confidence of subsequent franchisees. "In fact, the emergence of any new business model must have some problems in the early stage." Luo Qingbo said frankly. In order to solve this industry dilemma, Luo Qingbo began to explore new expansion models, trying to effectively break the curse of "chaining but not locking".
"Since we know that this store is very profitable, why don't we take out money to run it together with the franchisee?" Based on the confidence in the profitability of his own brand, Luo Qingbo launched the "Partnership Plan", directly investing in franchisees in the form of cash equity, upgrading the franchise relationship to a partnership. This not only dispels the franchisee's doubts that the brand will no longer provide follow-up support services after collecting franchise fees, but also avoids the franchisee from setting up a new business after learning the technology. "The company makes money only when the franchisee makes money. Let the partners benefit from our resources and services, make money together, and then everyone will share it." By bundling the interests of the headquarters and franchise stores and establishing a closer relationship, the strength of both parties can be gathered.
[Technology-based investment, the cornerstone of the brand]
Looking at the various business models launched by Luo Qingbo, in fact, there is a reliance on laundry and management technology behind them. "Between 1997 and 1999, I met too many of the first laundries that opened with very simple equipment. At that time, China's laundry technology was too backward, so when I first entered the industry, the first problem I faced was how to improve laundry technology."
Since he started his entrepreneurial journey, Luo Qingbo has been determined to change the state of China's laundry industry with poor technology and backward equipment. To this end, he chose to go abroad to learn advanced technology. In 2008, Luo Qingbo went to France, the birthplace of the dry cleaning industry, to study, and when he returned to China, he introduced the top luxury dry cleaning equipment at the time. "If you solve any technical problems in the store, you can wash clothes very well. Even if the early performance is small, and you only wash a few clothes a day, every piece of clothing you hand over to the customer can gain satisfaction and trust. In the long run, with a good reputation, there is no need to worry about not having room to improve performance." In 2011, Luo Qingbo introduced the "ecological washing technology" of international environmental protection standards from France and launched the "ecological laundry club" model, making Aote Xifulai a benchmark for healthy laundry in the industry.
In addition to pure laundry technology, Luo Qingbo also seized the opportunities in the Internet boom. In 2015, Aote Xifulai took the lead in developing the physical store online laundry and marketing service platform "Yixi Ke", upgrading the single offline store service to an online and offline dual-channel business. Customers can place orders and deliver clothes through their mobile phones, and enjoy high-end laundry services without leaving home.
On this basis, Luo Qingbo further laid out offline smart communities, using transparent, digital, standardized and intelligent services to promote the standardization of the laundry industry, thereby subverting people's impression of the traditional laundry industry. "Why are we called smart communities? Because we can use the smart shared wardrobes of offline terminals to gather all consumers in the community. Next, we can provide many services based on this wardrobe." The smart wardrobes laid at the doorsteps of consumers can not only realize the 24-hour delivery of dry-cleaned clothes, but also save the trouble of going out to find a laundry shop, saving valuable time for customers, and for Aote Xifulai, it solves the problem of the last mile and pushes services to homes. In the future, these smart offline wardrobes may also become a platform for daily needs such as flower ordering services, nutritious breakfast projects, and express delivery, and then become an extended business of Aote Xifulai.
Without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand miles. While solving one problem after another, Luo Qingbo gradually built a huge laundry empire. His pioneering spirit is not only to plan a blueprint for the development of the enterprise, but also to stand at the height of the entire industry, expand the cake, explore the market, and achieve breakthrough innovation.
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