Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 14, No. 1, 2024 106 Study on the Construction of New Tea Drinking Consumption Space under the Symbolic Perspective Huayi Zhao, Li Kong Xi'an International Studies University, Xi'an, China Abstract: Under the dual background of urbanization and socialization, along with the rapid development of social media, the consumption orientation of China's consumer groups presents diversified characteristics, and new-style tea drinks are an important part of them. In this paper, we study the spatial production and business model of new-style tea drinks, and explore the construction of new-style tea drink consumption space under the symbolic perspective. Keywords: Symbolic consumption; new-style tea drink; consumption space. 1. Introductory As an important part of the consumer group, the youth group is leading the innovation of the consumption mode, and the most significant feature of their consumption orientation is that they mainly aim at socialising. In order to meet this characteristic of the consumer group, a large number of symbolic new-style consumer space. As a new interpretation of China's tea culture, new-style tea drinks have become one of the fast-growing catering industries. Various tea drink brands have shaped consumer spaces with brand cultural characteristics to meet the market demand of consumers. Taking Tea Talk as an example, as a representative new tea drink brand in Shaanxi, it maximises the Chang'an culture through scenes, cultural creations and other means of expression in the creation of consumer space, and has become one of the tourist attractions in Xi'an. 2. Transformation of Consumption Space and Socially Oriented Consumption For social consumption, some scholars believe that contemporary consumption through social media platforms has become mainstream, and the growth of shopping on short- video platforms is particularly obvious. Compared with the picture text display goods, through the short video live, consumers can more intuitively understand the attributes of the goods. For marketers, the use of more emotional content for consumers is more likely to delight and evoke emotions and stimulate consumption. However, marketers should also avoid too much marketing content will make consumers produce aesthetic fatigue and cognitive burden, and should be selectively presented.[1] Experiential consumption can bring consumers a higher sense of well-being, which is more conducive to self- identification and less prone to negative emotions. Consumers' interests and expected enjoyment levels vary in different social situations, and social situations in which they are alone tend to produce negative emotional experiences, which are not conducive to the realisation of their motivation for social bonding. [2]Both economics and sociology focus on the productive side of consumption and discuss it based on rational analyses, while the unproductive "consumption" side of consumption is easily neglected. Nowadays, with the increasingly developed social media, the social consumption of the public is becoming more and more prominent, and social consumption undoubtedly provides a broader vision and research space for the sociology of consumption, and also responds to the real needs of the society. We should not stick to Baudrillard's theory of "symbolic consumption", but rediscover the sociological value of consumption.[3] Food consumption, as a hotspot of people's attention in recent years, pays more attention to the cultural construction and identity of food consumption, and is closely related to cross-local cultural production. The research direction of the geography of consumption mainly focuses on the place and space of consumption, and its research tends to be multi-scale interaction and interdisciplinary perspective. The research content shifts from the macro to the micro level, combining qualitative research with quantitative methods, and focusing on topics such as consumers and consumption patterns. Geographies of consumption focus on how and why consumption occurs, and on consumption practices as an act of production, helping people to critically understand life and space. Consumption practices range from the local to the global, and they reflect a relationship between people and place, and conversely, the influence of place on consumption practices is crucial.[4] Consumption upgrading and the concept of sustainable consumption have driven the transformation of society, and consumers' pursuit of a better life has promoted diversified consumption behaviours. Consumption space as the main carrier of consumption, its own emotional atmosphere plays an important role in consumption practice[5] . Invisible consumption space operated by relying on online platforms has made the renewal of old cities more diversified[6] , and the shift in the focus of consumption space research has also shifted from supermarkets, parks, festival venues, etc., to informal and mobile consumption space,[7] . The traditional retail industry is centred on brick-and-mortar shops, where online and offline value creation is fragmented, while the new retail model has shaped a new form of online and offline services and experiences that are deeply integrated and data- driven[8] . Nowadays, with the rapid development of the Internet and social media, the traditional social theory of consumption is not enough to cope with the fast-changing status quo, and the social consumption tendency needs more detailed and in-depth research. Consumption is not only a material consumption practice, but also a symbolic 107 consumption that pursues individuality and difference. At the same time, these symbols constantly stimulate people's desire to consume, and the values they represent are constantly changing. 3. Spatial Production of New-style Tea Drinks Cultural symbolisation and spatial production are important features of post-modern society and post-consumer era[9] , symbolic capital is a non-economic type of capital, but plays a certain key role in the logic of the functioning of the consumer economy[10] , China's consumer culture contains a multiplicity of cultural factors, which are distinctly different from the elite culture of modernism, and play a complex driving role in it[11] . The audience of branded tea drink shops are mostly young people, based on the needs of the audience, can accurately locate the contemporary young people's consumer market, representing a healthy and exquisite lifestyle. For the national style image of the new tea drink, the brand has formed a highly recognizable brand symbol through the integration of drink packaging, small program design, shop decoration, short video marketing, takeaway packaging and traditional cultural elements, which meets the audience's demand for personalisation. When consumers consume tea drinks, they not only get material satisfaction, but also get a pleasant experience on the spiritual level. As a kind of new retail, the new tea drink is leading the new trend and has a mature operation mode. Modern marketing methods and the promotion of online platforms have accelerated the success of tea drink brand symbolisation. 4. Changes in Retail Business Models New retail is one of the hotspots of current research in economic geography and urban geography. In recent years, the new retail model has integrated online and offline business activities, broken the sales barriers, and changed the traditional retail business model centred on physical shops. In this context, the Netflix economy has emerged to realise the commercial value brought by the online platform. The layout of commercial outlets in the new urban brick-and-mortar retail industry has received increasing attention, and it is crucial to the development of the urban economy and the allocation of resources. Most previous studies have focused on aspects such as the location choice of the retail industry. As the development of traditional brick-and-mortar retail gradually falls into difficulties, new retail gradually replaces traditional retail, and its layout is affected by a variety of correlative factors, such as the level of economic development, the degree of transport convenience, the level of culture and education, and the low price and other factors. The production of new-style tea drink cultural space needs to rely on specific cultural scenes and symbols, which become the medium of cultural space production. The Internet compresses the spatial, temporal, price and information distance between the new-style tea drink consumption space and consumers, and enhances the interaction between tea drink brand culture and the city. Real tea drink consumption scenes and symbols are transformed into virtual social scenes and symbols and interacted with through consumers' social media sharing and clocking such as friend circles and short videos. 5. Constructing Consumption Space from a Symbolic Perspective In recent years, new-style tea drinks as an extension of the traditional tea drinks industry, through a variety of innovative promotional and marketing tools, the tea drinks market into a space where customers have an emotionally rewarding consumer experience; at the same time, the brands through cross-border co-branding and other ways to launch the characteristics of peripheral products, in line with the characteristics of the pursuit of personalisation of contemporary young people. Therefore, the new style of tea drinks has become one of the most popular industries in recent years. For example, as a local speciality tea brand in Xi'an and one of the representatives of the national style school, Tea Talk is able to attract consumers through the long-tail effect. The brand puts Chang'an culture into its own brand story, and always creates an external image of the national style, using "Chang'an tea-making" as a label to pass on the cultural value contained in the scene of consumption to consumers, attracting them to learn about the culture of Chang'an, and forming the image of a cultural space. By creating a third space, such as the Xi'an Sage Chang'an Courtyard and the Gusu Courtyard, Tea Talk also allows consumers to experience Chang'an culture in an immersive way, attracting more consumers to travel to Chang'an. This kind of symbolic consumption transforms economic behaviours into cultural behaviours, and is a unity between material forms and spiritual externalisation. The brand also combines the culture of Chang'an's ancient poems with tea culture by launching various co-branded peripheral products, such as Chang'an Eight Scenes-themed paper cups and film co-branded refrigerator stickers, attracting consumers to come and visit. Consumers accept the subtle influence of consumer symbols in the consumption scene, which also satisfies the individual's need for self- expression. 6. Conclusion New-style tea drinks have seen rapid growth in consumption and high development potential in recent years, not only satisfying consumers' material needs, but also becoming a kind of consumption symbol, and the massive marketing of short videos and other Internet platforms has accelerated the dissemination of the topic of tea drink consumption. Therefore, tea drink shops and tea drink economy reflect the spatial production process in the Internet era, as well as the consumption culture with symbolic features. The prosperity of tea drink products brings economic geography a research value beyond the commodity or industry itself. Conducting geographic research on tea drinks, their spatial production, geographical distribution and influencing factors will provide new perspectives on topics such as the evolution of local industries and the construction of symbols. At the same time, it will provide ideas for the creation of national tide brands with local characteristics. The geography of tea drinks, as a product of economic and cultural development, reflects the trend of symbolic value replacing practical value, more personalised and emotional needs of consumers, and the competition among tea drink brands is intensifying. The relevant theories of economic geography and urban geography should be used to study the spatial distribution pattern of the new tea drink brand TeaTalk 108 Get and the factors influencing it, and to understand the characteristics of symbolic consumption of the emerging consumption space in the city. 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