Zhao Haichuan is a professor and a doctoral supervisor of the Department of Marketing, School of Management, Shandong University. He has been selected for the Shandong University Young Scholar Future Plan Cultivation Project. His research interests include consumer behavior and decision making, digital platform management, e-commerce, online comments, social media marketing, brand community, etc. He has published several articles in international top SSCI journals including Information Systems Research(UTD24), Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Business Research, etc. He is the deputy director of the Platform Management Specialized Committee of the China Information Economics Society.
Recently, by virtue of the bonus of the digital economy, Zibo barbecue has become a hot focus of public opinion. Tourists from all over the country flocked to Zibo to experience the “essential three-piece” of Zibo barbecue which contains a stove, small pancakes, and chives. The online boom event jointly created by Internet users, local government, local merchants, and citizens facilitated the development of local tourism. It is a typical case of deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy. The online boom of Zibo barbecue relies on the elaborate preparation and efforts of many sides. Zibo carefully prepared gifts for tourists on the barbecue special train, the Director of Zibo Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism acted as a “culture and tourism recommendation officer” and interacted with passengers. the government staff held up signs at the station with enthusiastic reception, and the barbecue special bus line opened up, etc. All those details manifested the efforts of the government in the online event and embodied the function of a proactive government. Likewise, the enthusiastic service, honest transaction, and reasonable prices showed the charm of Friendly Shandong to the tourists. Meanwhile, the citizens also played an important role in the campaign to promote the city brand. The impressions of Shandong culture like enthusiasm, honesty, simplicity, and integrity allow visitors to experience the entire city’s hospitality and humanistic care. Did the tourists travel such long distances just to get a taste of Zibo barbecue? Not exactly, perhaps the hustle and bustle and strong humanistic care they experience in the city were the most attractive parts. It also showed the function of an effective market. The perfect combination, mutual promotion and complement between the proactive government and the effective market of Zibo led to the boom of Zibo barbecue.
Barbecue can be seen all over the country, but why did Zibo barbecue become popular? The reason is that the unique way of eating Zibo barbecue brings different values to people. Products with characteristics constitute the precondition of the online boom event and the base of the effective market. In the process of creating online boom events, only by finding the differentiation can we evoke public opinion, and promote the public’s spontaneous dissemination. Besides, in addition to the flavor and way of eating, delicacies also have the culture behind them, and the exploration of food culture can help to build an effective market. For example, the way of eating Zibo barbecue includes a stove, small pancakes, and chives, from which the unique conception that a stove symbolizes warmth, small pancakes symbolize tolerance, and chives symbolize straightforwardness is derived. The conception is very consistent with the Lu Culture and the Qi Culture and makes people feel the warmth of culture while savoring delicacies.
Online boom events can only last for a short period of time. It is impossible to rely on a single event to keep the state of boom. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously explore “effective” hot events from the market to make the market more effective. Although the recent boom in Zibo resulted from barbecue, the city should not just rely on barbecue if it needs long-term development. So with the heat of the barbecue allowing the public to understand the city from multiple perspectives and exploring more hot events are helpful to maintain the city’s topic and state of boom, and thus improve the city’s image. As a renowned historic and cultural city, Zibo has profound cultural heritages. It is the capital of the former State of Qi, and the hometown of colored glaze. In Zibo, in addition to eating barbecue, listening to the Shao music, visiting Liaozhai City, playing Cuju, savoring Shandong cuisine, and appreciating colored glaze are all good choices. Only by making tourists feel the historical accumulation and beauty of a city can they recall.
The proactive role that the local government has played in the boom of Zibo barbecue is also indispensable. The municipal government of Zibo has been committed to forging its barbecue brand and advertising Zibo barbecue through programs like Harmony is the Taste of Zibo on CCTV and The Best Taste of Shandong on Shandong Satellite TV, which has laid the foundation for the boom of Zibo barbecue. After the boom of Zibo barbecue, the government set up a thoughtful, comprehensive, and meticulous service system for tourists by opening a Zibo Barbecue special line of high-speed railway and bus, releasing a map of Zibo barbecue, building a barbecue court near the railway station, and launching a batch of Zibo theme products of “barbecue + characteristic cultural tourism”. Meanwhile, by establishing barbecue associations and industrial self-discipline, making industry standards, regulating market order, and cracking down on the behavior of ripping off, Zibo City has shaped a good market ecology and solved the problem of market failure. Furthermore, Zibo is conceiving a bigger blueprint that aims to attract outstanding youth talents to settle down, find jobs, or start businesses in Zibo, taking advantage of the boom. The online boom of Zibo barbecue was initially owed to the spontaneous word-of-mouth spread of college students on the Internet, which also attracted many young people to experience the unique way of eating in Zibo. These highly educated students will join the work force in several years, and be the main force of social and economic construction in the future. Therefore, if an online boom event can make them enter, stay in, fall in love with, and build a city, it would be particularly essential for the development of the city. In order to attract and retain them, Zibo has introduced good policies. To attract youth talents to come in, Zibo City provides half-price youth hotels or free designated hotels and free scenic spot tickets for college students who come to Zibo for job hunting, internship, and travelling. To ensure that youth talents live and work in peace and happiness after settling down, Zibo continues to promote the construction of talent apartments, build an incubation system for youth innovation and entrepreneurship, and formulate 50 articles of talent policy. Through a series of specific measures and policies, young talents can truly feel the beauty of Zibo, it is hoped that youth talents can really enter Zibo and stay in Zibo.
With the May Day holiday coming soon, it is expected that plenty of tourists will flock to Zibo. During the whole journey in the city, tourists need to eat, live, travel, and purchase, and good supporting services can leave a good impression on them and generate a good reputation, thus promoting the improvement of online boom events. However, the impact may be larger once the bad supporting services are exposed because negative events are usually more eye-catching, which will severely reduce the enthusiasm of potential tourists for visiting Zibo. Therefore, we must make full use of the role of an effective market and a proactive government, and give full play to the “invisible hand” and the “visible hand”. On one hand, merchants should provide enthusiastic, thoughtful, and honest service. On the other hand, the government should conduct effective supervision, stop and punish the subject to liability for negative events, appease tourists in time, and prevent negative events from worsening; safeguard measures should also be taken to bring tourists a more comfortable traveling experience. Only by constructing a more “effective market” with a more “proactive government” can promote the online boom event play a greater role in pushing urban development.
