Romance has become a reason to be harvested, are you still paying for the “ceremony economy”?

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Romance is defined by value, ritual sense is kidnapped by consumption

Written by/Editor by Star Evening/Chen Dengxin

Source: Zinc Scale

Sweet festivals need flowers, birthday surprises, marriage proposals should be romantic, marriage should be exquisite… “520”, which is defined as a “love festival in the information age”, has just passed. This good day for confession and marriage has received countless gifts. Filled with flowers, young people who pay attention to the sense of ceremony are holding a new business.

Each time point that appears in the name of love requires a different mind. Even though young people have many wild ideas, it seems that the business of resource integration will never go out of style. In the past two years, ceremonial projects such as birthday surprise planning, romantic proposal planning, and marriage certificate follow-up are gradually becoming a must for love and marriage.

However, among them, the templated planning scheme and the lack of innovative activity process have also begun to expose the disadvantages of low threshold and quick money in this industry. When the sense of ritual is named “true love” and “romantic”, young people who are forced to introvert even in love seem to fall into a new consumption trap…

Everything needs planning, love is rolling in

More than half a month before “520”, Shen Yu began to think about his marriage proposal. I have known my girlfriend for more than 6 years and have been in love for more than 2 years. Since the end of last year, the two have plans to get married. After quietly buying the diamond ring, Shen Yu put the proposal on the agenda, but he was “straight man” and didn’t know what form would be more creative.

After asking a circle of friends around, I also found that there are not many reference items. Later, Shen Yu discovered that there are many planning companies focusing on surprise planning for birthdays, marriage proposals and other occasions. After getting to know 4 or 5 planning companies one after another, Shen Yu found that even for the simplest small-scale planning overall plan, the price is difficult to be lower than 2,000 yuan. The content of this kind of planning usually only includes material procurement and scene layout, and many of the decorations will be recycled.

“Actually, after understanding the planning content and quotation, I have vaguely felt that the cost-effectiveness of this kind of planning is very low. But first, I usually have to go to work and my energy is limited. Second, if I buy the materials and layout by myself, it will take a long time. , it may be discovered by the girlfriend in the process.” After thinking about it, Shen Yu paid the deposit and chose the basic arrangement plan of 2,000 yuan, and then waited for the marriage proposal plan given by the other party.

In less than two days, the planning company sent a ppt with 3 layout plans. “Although it is said to be customized according to personal preferences, it actually feels like a general template, plus a few simple elements with personal style.” Shen Yu told Zinc Scale.

Seeing that the planning plan was not too bad, Shen Yu decided on a plan that was similar to the decoration style of his wedding room, thinking that such a conservative plan would at least not “roll over” too seriously. At this point, the preliminary planning service is over, and the rest is only the on-site arrangement service of the day.

At 1:00 p.m. on the day of “520”, the planning company arrived at the scene with materials, and in less than an hour, the layout of the proposal site was completed. Shen Yu told Zinc Scale that in fact, the layout of the venue is also very simple. Most of the background materials are ready-made, and they are obviously general props that will be recycled. The balloon walls and some streamers that really need to be operated on site are mainly.

After the arrangement was completed, the staff informed Shen Yu that the “Marry Me” lamp signs and decorative flower beds would be recycled by the staff afterwards, and the remaining balloons and customized welcome cards would be handled by the customers themselves.

At 7 p.m., Shen Yu and the group of relatives and friends successfully completed the marriage proposal, and his girlfriend was also very surprised, so Shen Yu felt that “even if the cost-effectiveness of the planning is low, as long as things go smoothly, it is not a ‘blood loss’. “

There are more and more young people like Shen Yu who are willing to spend money to buy a sense of ceremony. Niki, who held a wedding in 2019, also adheres to the concept of “only one wedding in your life, give yourself the best”. Less ritual.

Because she decided to have a lawn wedding from the very beginning, Niki fell in love with a personal wedding planner early on, and refused to choose a stereotyped planning company. “Individual planners tend to focus more on the preferences and experiences of the two couples than on a wedding for others to see,” says Niki.

Because of this, Niki’s wedding preparations are more complicated than ordinary weddings. Agate stone wedding brand name, custom wedding frames, vow cards, imported raw-edge paper magnolia invitations… Almost everything needs to be carefully selected, and because most of them are customized and handmade, it requires a long waiting period.

In addition, the layout of the wedding venue is also very troublesome. “Every seat on the site is European middle-aged furniture with different shapes, and two types of bouquets are also made.” Niki told Zinc Scale that using this kind of seat is nearly 8,000 yuan more expensive than using ordinary seats. , The cost of the two bouquets is also more than 2,000 yuan.

Although Niki later asked the guests whether they had noticed these details, most of them said that they did not pay much attention, but for Niki, this is still a decision that he will not regret. “The cost is indeed not low, but the joy brought by these rituals can only be experienced by myself, and every time I recall it, I still feel it is worth it.”

Every tens of thousands of surprises are planned for the circle of friends?

The business of ritual sense is almost developed according to the preferences of young people. As long as young people want, they can always find something that matches it.

In fact, in addition to major life nodes such as proposal and marriage, today’s surprise planning has also spread to birthdays and anniversaries.

In order to further understand the current situation of the ritual sense economy market, Zinc Scale conducted a detailed consultation with a business that provides various types of surprise plans nationwide. At the beginning of the consultation, the merchant will send customer service to communicate, mainly to understand the planning type and acceptable price budget that the customer needs, and then the customer service will provide the contact information of the corresponding planner and enter the next communication stage.

According to planner Tao Tao, generally speaking, if there is no specific venue to choose from, the planning company will recommend qualified venues according to the budget. Among them, most of the venues have cooperated with them, and the existing schemes can be easily applied.

In addition to the venue, the planner will also design and plan surprise sessions based on the two people’s emotional story experiences and preferences. “If it’s a birthday surprise, we’ll arrive about 3 to 4 hours in advance to set up the scene, and then when you’re all there, our staff will come out disguised as waiters or other guests for the event. The foreshadowing of the surprise link, and then guide step by step, and finally introduce the birthday star into the final scene.” Taotao briefly introduced a surprise method to Zinc Scale, and other specific surprise details need to be booked and filled out according to the “Romantic File Form” “You can come out later.

As for the cost, Taotao said that its planning company mainly provides one-stop surprise planning services. Packages start from 4,000 yuan, including pre-plan planning, surprise link design, roses, birthday VCR video production, venue communication and coordination + warm and romantic venue layout, overall planning Execute the bootstrap service. The main gears are 4,000-10,000 yuan for basic grades, 10,000-30,000 yuan for advanced grades, and 30,000-50,000 yuan for high-end grades. There is no clear price range for more expensive private orders.

Among them, if you want a richer process, you can increase the cost of dancing, magic, etc., but each item is an additional cost. It may be a matter of opinion whether each cost is worth it or not.

Certificate collection and photography are also a ceremonial service that is emerging today. In the past, the two people brought their ID cards and household registrations to complete the certificate collection procedures. Nowadays, young people often choose to purchase tracking services to record this moment.

From the price point of view, the price range of the follow-up photo is mainly between 299 and 999. The price fluctuates according to factors such as makeup needs, the number of intensive pictures, the duration of the follow-up shooting, and the number of locations.

In fact, two consumers who chose the follow-up photo service told Zinc Scale, “Although the photos taken with the certificate are indeed of commemorative significance, in fact, it is more important to send a beautiful circle of friends.” Indeed, nowadays The increasingly cumbersome sense of ritual is filled with a smell of being coerced, and every consumption is defined as a delicate and romantic intention, but how much real intention does these ritual senses have?

A sense of ritual = a consumption trap? Anyway, don’t get screwed.

There are endless patterns to create a sense of ritual, and romance has also become an introverted thing. It seems that doing less is less sweet than other people’s love. But when romance is defined by value and the sense of ritual is kidnapped by consumption, there will be no less traps behind it.

Some consumers once complained: “The quality of the certification and photo studio is too poor, the photos taken are not as good as those taken by friends with mobile phones, and the process is also very perfunctory, just follow the same process and take a few versions and it will be hastily. thing.”

Coincidentally, such complaints are not uncommon. Because of the hot service, the practitioners who poured into it have become a mixed bag. Many studios take into account multiple projects, and the personnel experience is not clear enough. Compared with the traditional wedding photography and wedding planning industries, they are indeed immature.

And in terms of style, few businesses can make a clear personal style, whether it is planning a marriage proposal or getting a certificate and taking a photo. In general, the model of “whatever is popular on Xiaohongshu, the merchant will copy it” is the most common. However, when encountering an insufficiently qualified executive team, it is easy to become an idiot.

At the same time, in fact, many people do not think too much when they are pursuing various senses of ritual. What do they want? Is it possible to achieve the most perfect love with these additional items?

Someone directly commented, “We often think that the high praise pictures and praises in the circle of friends are the best feedback on the sense of ritual, but in fact, the noise full of human fireworks is the most suitable interpretation and interpretation of life. Taste. The so-called true sense of ritual should be an understanding made on the basis of our basic life.”

As for the merchants who sell the sense of ritual, the “money” scene of this business does not need to be repeated, but there is no hard core strength that cannot be creative and valuable, and I am afraid it is easy to be beaten by Houlang. Plus, the sense of meaningless ritual will one day be left behind by sober young people, and the rest will only be truly worth staying.

Under the question “Why do some people need a sense of ritual?” on Zhihu, there is a highly praised answer: “The sense of ritual is to demarcate the spiritual connotation behind it for each ordinary day and action.” Is the sense of ritual a consumption trap? , depends on everyone’s different ideas, but there are indeed a lot of IQ taxes that are quite harvesting under the bursting “ceremonial economy”. Young consumers should probably keep their eyes open and not be drained.

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