The unique path of many young startups in Thanh Hoa

The photobooth model at Snap Booth attracts many young people with creative decor space and many unique posing accessories.

Not too noisy, but step by step, young people are affirming their position in the market with their creativity, sensitivity and high adaptability to new consumer trends.

Instead of choosing to open a pet spa like many others in the same industry in big cities, Mr. Truong Tuan Anh chose to stay in Hac Thanh ward, Thanh Hoa province to develop Dau Pet Shop - a comprehensive pet care center for dogs and cats, targeting middle-class customers who love pets.

Initially, Dau Pet Shop was just a small shop specializing in selling accessories and food for pets. But after more than 3 years of operation, this place has become a familiar destination for many local pet owners with full services from bathing, hair trimming, vaccination consultation and veterinary treatment; to short-term stays, breeding, buying and selling and even custom-made clothes for dogs and cats. In particular, many services are designed to be personalized, each pet has its own profile, health history and habits are closely monitored to better serve each return.

“Each animal that comes here has its own name, personality, and taste. My staff must remember them all, because customers do not consider them pets, they consider them children. We do not serve one customer, but a long-term, familiar relationship,” Tuan Anh shared.

On average, Dau Pet Shop serves more than 300 pets each month, of which about 60% are returning customers. Despite not spending a lot of money on advertising, the center still maintains a stable number of customers thanks to its dedicated service and reputation spreading throughout the pet-raising community in Thanh Hoa. Many people are willing to schedule 1-2 weeks in advance to reserve a spot on weekends or holidays.

The center's biggest difficulty is that when it needs to expand or raise capital, many investors are skeptical about the potential of the pet care industry in Thanh Hoa. "Many people ask me why I don't go to Hanoi or Saigon to do it big. But this market in Thanh Hoa is still empty, no one has done it properly and I see that there are many people here who are willing to pay high prices as long as they trust. The difficulty is not that the market is small, but that no one is willing to do well enough to keep customers for a long time," said Mr. Tuan Anh.

Similarly, the automatic photobooth store model - a relatively new service - is also proving the potential of the niche market when it knows how to hit the psychology of young people. Just a short time after opening, the small store named Snap Booth located on Lac Long Quan Street (Hac Thanh Ward) has become a familiar check-in and photo-taking spot for hundreds of young people every week.

No need to hire a photographer, no need to make an appointment, customers just need to step into the photo booth, which is pre-designed with lighting, background, camera and even posing suggestions. The space here is decorated extremely creatively in Korean style, combining pastel-colored backgrounds, letter boards, dried flowers, round mirrors, sunglasses, berets... for customers to freely choose and pose as they like. It is the novelty in the layout and unique accessories that make the photo booth experience much more interesting.

Unlike traditional photo studios with monotonous colors and rigid poses, photos at Snap Booth have more than 10 different color tones, from warm vintage to artistic black and white, allowing each group of guests to choose their own style. After taking the photo, guests receive both the original photo file and printed photos on the spot, convenient for saving or sharing on social networks.

“We target customers who like to preserve emotions in a different way - not regular phone photos but printed photos, scrapbook photos, and souvenir photos. Surprisingly, many people come back more than once. There are couples who take photos throughout the four seasons, groups of friends who come to take photos before graduation, then take them again after starting work. What we are selling is not photos, but a memorable experience,” said Hoang Duong, born in 1999, co-founder of Snap Booth.

The unique path of many young startups in Thanh Hoa

The photobooth model at Snap Booth attracts many young people with creative decor space and many unique posing accessories.

Despite not investing in large premises or expensive equipment, Snap Booth still creates advantages thanks to its minimalist, convenient design and takes advantage of social networks to spread its image. Every day, dozens of Instagram and Facebook stories are tagged with the check-in “Snap Booth Thanh Hoa”, helping this model reach the right target customer group without spending much on marketing costs. In addition, the store is also flexible according to the season, such as Valentine's Day, graduation or Mid-Autumn Festival, which will have its own decoration theme and background to attract customers to return.

Not following the crowded path, Snap Booth chose to serve a small but distinct group of customers, those who love beauty, like nostalgia and are looking for something to “slow down” in the midst of a busy life. That has helped the store maintain stable revenue and start planning to replicate the model in the province.

In a rapidly changing local economy , these seemingly “unconventional” paths contribute to creating a new color for the startup ecosystem. There, differentiation is no longer a risk, but a competitive advantage. And if properly resourced, niche market models can become “small bricks” that build a picture of sustainable and distinctive growth for the locality in the future.

Article and photos: Chi Pham

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/loi-di-rieng-cua-nhieu-startup-tre-o-thanh-hoa-257298.htm