Catering is an industry driven by experience and supported by repurchase. Most merchants only focus on traffic and fail to allow customers to truly stay. This is why we should optimize the experience design of retaining customers.
In early May, Lao Liao in the team told me that he had taken on a case of Malatang. When I heard it was Malatang, I didn’t want to take it. The average customer price of Malatang is only 20 to 30 yuan, which is difficult to operate.
Lao Liao knew that I was so straightforward and immediately told me that although the store was Malatang, it actually mainly engaged in Chuanchuan Xiang hot pot, just like the steel pipe factory Xiaojun Gan Chuanchuan hot pot. However, this store also operates other products such as Bobo chicken, Leshan snacks, etc., so the store name is Malatang.
Hotpot Chuanchuanxiang is a hot pot category that has been popular all over the country in recent years. Because of its spicy and fresh taste of hot pot and the combination of stringing dishes with tags, it is both convenient and fast, and is deeply loved by consumers.
The most well-known brand of Chuanchuan Xiang Hot Pot is Xiaojun Gan Chuanchuan Xiang, a steel pipe factory in the fifth district. This strange-named Chengdu brand quickly opened a new trend in the hot pot segment market. It opened more than 400 stores in just 5 years, becoming the leading brand in Chuanchuan hot pot industry.
After listening to Lao Liao's introduction, I became interested. The minimum average customer price of Chuanchuan Incense Hotpot will not be less than 50 yuan, and it has strong social attributes and price fraud, so it will be more handy.
But from the categories it operates, it not only makes Chuanchuan incense hotpot, but also has Bobo Chicken, and other snacks. This is a taboo in catering: wanting to sell everything will eventually lead to not selling anything well!
Since Lao Liao has taken it down and has never made Chuanchuan hotpot, I am indeed willing to give it a try.
This store is located in a fifth-tier city in the middle of Sichuan. It is named Niuhua Old Grandma Malatang, and it is a new brand that it joins. The total investment cost is approximately 700,000 to 800,000, which is considered the scale of small and medium-sized investment.
htmlOn April 5, the Qingming Festival, Niuhua Old La Po Malatang began trial business. The trial business activity was to buy a value-added package worth 100 yuan for 0 yuan, with a limited quantity of 300 copies. At the same time, it was jointly organized by other foreign merchants. Although has a certain effect, it is far from achieving the expected effect. At the highest, the turnover is only 3,000+ yuan, while at the lowest, the turnover is only a few hundred yuan, the average daily turnover is less than 2,000 yuan, and the average daily breakeven point of the store is 2,000 yuan.
Niuhua old grandmother Malatang faces losses as soon as it opens.
When the boss found me, he was very anxious and asked:
My products are not worse than other people's homes, why don't they come to eat it?
My 0 yuan purchase activity is so strong, but still it hasn’t exploded?
...
This is a question that traditional catering people or restaurant beginners are often confused. My products are obviously delicious, so why don’t consumers come?
Once the business is bleak, I want to rely on discounts and promotions to attract traffic. The final result is either the loss of store value and the loss of customers forever;
or it comes to spend when there is promotion and discount. If there is no promotion, it will no longer come and wait for the event to spend.
Most merchants fall into two misunderstandings of thinking:
1. Thinking that the product is delicious can make a profit
Most people with this kind of thinking do not have strong business thinking. If the product is good and the business can be popular, then it is best for a chef to open a restaurant.
2. If the business is not good, discount promotion will be carried out
Most merchants are trapped in the vicious cycle of "promotion-consumption-no promotion-no consumption". If you can start your business by relying on discount promotions, this business is too easy to do.
No brand is built on discounts and promotions.
I sent three forms to the customer and started to conduct research, namely:
- Product structure table
- Cost and income statement
- Natural traffic table
Because the main product is a string, the structure is simple and there is no big problem; the cost and income statement is also normal;
problem lies in the natural traffic. According to the traffic data provided by the boss, only about 200 people passed by the door at noon, and the traffic in the evening is only about 500 people, which adds up to about 700 people. Such a natural traffic distribution can only indicate that its geographical location is not superior enough.
Next is the competitor's information.
The old grandma Malatang has two main competitors:
One is Guanyao, and its main feature is the casserole type Chuanchuan Incense Hot Pot.
local local snake has been operating for more than two years, has a deep foundation and a wide customer base locally. The boss is very good at dealing with things and maintains customer relationships very well. He is also the old lady’s biggest competitor.
Another is Roadside , which is a nationally renowned Internet celebrity brand. Although
has not been open for a long time, it can still attract a large number of consumers with its strong brand potential and is the second largest competitor of the old lady. In terms of pricing, the roadside and Guanyao are both 0.6 yuan/skewers, while the old lady’s 0.5 yuan/skewers, and the meat skewers are more than their competitors. If the price of
is at the strategic level, it is an advantage, such as grandma's house; but if it is at the tactical level, it is a disadvantage; and the old lady's low price is not strategic, but a low price at the tactical level, and it cannot form an aggressive targeting competitors.
I asked the boss, what are your advantages besides lower than your competitors in terms of price?
boss said that compared with the roadside, there is no advantage; compared with Guanyao, we have a better taste, and the bottom of his pot is not a disposable pot, while the old lady and the roadside are both disposable pot bottoms.
Therefore, the old lady is facing this situation: the geographical location, customer base, and brand potential are all weaker than the local local snake kiln and roadside, and the boss believes that their advantage lies in lower prices and better taste.
is even lower. As mentioned above, low prices at the tactical level cannot constitute an effective attack; good taste and strong subjective nature, so it is said that it is difficult to adjust the public. This is what is said.
Even if your taste is indeed better than your competitors, unless you have a significant gap in taste and the taste is better than your competitors, just like the difference between the experience of Apple phones and Android phones, the taste is not enough to constitute the core competitiveness.
After learning about the above information, I fell into thinking: How can I break through when I am at a disadvantage in all aspects?
- definitely won’t fight against price wars
- Competing products has no chance of winning
- There is no significant gap in dining environment
- Service capabilities cannot form competitive barriers in the short term
- ...
When conventional vertical thinking cannot be inspired, you must switch the thinking path and think reversely, and enter from another port:
Under what circumstances do consumers choose old ladies instead of competitors? What kind of purchase reason does
provide to make consumers willing to spend?
The essence of business lies in value exchange.
What kind of differentiated value can we provide to create customers? And this is the key to brand building.
I started thinking about consumer needs and the trend of the catering industry. For consumers, catering flavors are polarized:
One is a heavy taste, is fresh and spicy, which stimulates your taste buds. The more you eat, the more you become addicted. Hotpot, barbecue, and crayfish all belong to this category. The consumer group is 18-35 years old. This group of people is characterized by young, passionate, and willing to try new things;
is a health type, has a light taste and focuses on health, such as coconut chicken, pig-bellied chicken, etc. It is suitable for people under 18 years old and over 35 years old who pays attention to nutrition and high consumption capacity.
Chuanchuan Hot Pot is obviously the former, fresh, spicy, and the more you eat it, the more addicted it is, the consumer is the young.
also moves from two directions in the trend of the entire catering industry:
, one is the production process, emphasizing clean and hygienic . For example, Xibei Younian Village, Banu Dust Hotpot, and Xijiade Shrimp Dumplings are all leading this trend. In today's catering, I feel embarrassed to say that I am doing catering in unknown places.
As a hot pot, Chuanchuanxiang does not need to be cooked, but cooked immediately. The production process is clean and hygienic, which can be seen in the open. But this is an advantage of the hot pot category, and under the same category, it cannot constitute a brand advantage.
One is the freshness of the ingredients, emphasizing the freshness of the ingredients in cooking . For example, Chaoshan fresh beef hotpot, which has been very popular in the past few years, is now shrinking in the market. With the slogan of "one beef every day, fresh is not overnight", it swept across the country and caused a strong wind of "fresh beef hotpot".
Based on the above data research, competitive status and industry trend analysis, the brand competition strategy we proposed for Niuhua Lao Po Malatang is:
avoids low-dimensional competition and provides differentiated category value; reconstructs product value, repricing, reconstructs product form perceived value, shapes brand value, and seizes differentiated awareness.
1. Provide differentiated value
At the beginning, my idea was to focus on Chuanchuan Incense Hotpot on a certain dish.
The idea at that time was that since hot pot can be divided into beef hot pot and tripe hot pot, why can’t Chuanchuanxiang be more subdivided and focus on a certain item?
Of course, this idea was denied by our team. The reason for
is also very simple, there are not enough resources to match this strategy.
When you subdivided and focused on a certain product, this product must have the important task of sharp knife products and can tear open the fiercely competitive market, but such sharp knife products cannot be found.
The key to the strategy is not only the direction of the strategy, but more importantly, how to allocate resources to achieve the intention of the strategy. Strategies without overwhelming resource investment are difficult to form effective barriers.
In the team's brainstorm, we realized a problem:
All chuckwheat hotpots do not emphasize the freshness of the ingredients, and the roadside and steel pipe factory are not leading this matter.
So, since the Chaoshan fresh beef hotpot, which "one beef every day, fresh and not overnight" can lead the trend, and the "no overnight meat" of Qian Laoma can also be popular all over the country, then the freshness of the product has a strong value appeal.
After repeated thinking by the team, we determined the direction of the brand strategy: not selling overnight meat skewers
Reason:
- provides differentiated category value, does not sell overnight meat, strong value perception
- No competitor has made a difference in brand strategy
- conveys a clear purchase reason
- The transformation cost of the store is very low, and the resources can be allocated
. Once the direction of the strategy is determined, you must invest overwhelming resources to gain consumer cognitive advantages, seize the minds of consumers, thereby building a brand and winning competitive advantages.
2. Store value reconstruction
Since we have set the direction of our strategy to: fresh and clean.
So, all resource investment in the store must revolve around "fresh and clean". Based on the value demand of "fresh and clean", we put forward three major promises:
- does not sell overnight meat skewers, and sell them on the same day!
- only uses disposable pot bottom, refuse to recycle oil!
- only uses one-time signing, and reuse signing is refused!
"No overnight meat skewers, sell them on the same day" is presented:
After 10 pm, all meat skewers are 0.5 yuan per skewers;
After 11 pm, all meat skewers are 0.4 yuan per skewers;
After 12 pm, all meat skewers are 0.3 yuan per skewers;
Proof of disposable pot bottom:
After each customer has finished spending, pour ink directly into the pot; and actively recommend that customers can pack the pot bottom home and continue to use it.
proof of one-time signing:
After each consumption, the signing is broken in front of the customer and placed it at the door, and the words are piled up, "One cut, two pieces, our store promises to use one-time signing!"
At the same time, we require the boss to set up a clear file area within the range visible to the customer, and the meat skewers are now available on site, so that customers can see that our meat skewers are now, which is the visualization of value.
and the more customers in the store, the more you need to wear meat skewers at this time.
optimizes the existing door head, and refines "not selling overnight meat skewers, sell them on the same day" into slogans and carves them on the door head;
prints the store's "three major commitments" on the storefront and on the cashier, so that consumers entering the store can perceive the value of the store everywhere.
increases the product price, increasing the original string of 0.5 yuan to a string of 0.6 yuan, which is the same level as competitors' roadside and Guanyao, because as mentioned above, tactical low prices cannot bring brand advantages.
In addition to this, there are the following measures: strengthen the waiter's standard speech, create standardized movements with a sense of ritual, etc.
The core of building a catering brand is not the taste of the product. Taste is only the basis of competition and cannot constitute the core competitiveness; and how to prove that your product is delicious is your core competitiveness.
It’s like some shops selling suitcases on Taobao that say that their suitcases are the most heavy-weight, but if you don’t prove that your suitcase is heavy-weight-resistant through what you perceive.
For example, let two people over 200 kilograms step on it, the suitcase is intact, etc. video prove that otherwise others will not believe that your product has strong weight resistance.
The taste of the catering industry is actually similar and cannot form a gap with its competitors. The reason for being delicious at this time can make it psychologically delicious.
At the same time, the essence of brand positioning is to scan the value area in the minds of consumers, find high-perceived value areas that meet the product category, occupy the characteristics of the brand, overwhelmingly invest resources, seize high-value perception areas, and form brand potential energy.
3. Optimization of customer behavior path
The so-called customer behavior path means that the customer can be divided into several major steps from entering the door to leaving the store. Each step represents a contact point, and each contact point represents a customer's experience.
even starts from the customer's demand and the behavioral path after the customer leaves the store, it can be included in the scope of user behavioral path design.
1. Customers generate demand
When customers have a demand for eating, they are the first to consider what to eat, such as Chinese or Western food, or hot pot...;
Then consider which one to eat and which brand to eat, such as the customer chooses to eat Chuanchuan hot pot, whether to eat on the road or the old lady's house.
Let’s go eat old grandma spicy hot pot today!
—This is what consumers think about using categories and express them with brands.
So, when customers choose to eat Chuanchuan Hot Pot, you must convey a clear purchase reason to let consumers choose you. And this reason is - not selling overnight meat skewers, selling them on the same day.
If the customer does not have a clear brand choice, he will use two methods to assist in decision-making:
One is to ask friends directly and ask friends to recommend
The other is to go to Meituan Dianping to see which company has a good reputation. The first type of
requires the brand to design a slogan to let customers spread their word of mouth for you.
The second type requires merchants to display the store value on third-party platforms, such as store environment, display of dish photos, and merchants’ strategic reply to customer reviews
We require customers to display the store core value on third-party platforms.
2. Customers pass by the store
What most people don’t understand is that the rent paid by the store is not just the space occupied by the purchase of the house, but the traffic of the purchase. If your store cannot bring traffic, no matter how large the space is, it will be useless.
The natural traffic in front of the door is what your rent comes with. Then, when the natural traffic of is certain, the value perception presented by the door head directly determines the amount of store you enter and the conversion rate.
We require that "no overnight meat skewers are sold on the same day" must be printed on the door, because this sentence has a strong sense of value, which can distinguish between other competitors and increase the conversion rate of entering the store.
3. When customers enter the store,
The first impression of customers when entering the store is very important, which directly determines the customer's favorability. Therefore, when we require customers to enter the store, someone must welcome them at the door, and have a strong and sincere service attitude.
4. When customers order food and put the pot bottom
requires the waiter to emphasize that when putting the pot bottom, our pot bottom must be disposable, and inform customers how to distinguish between disposable pot bottom and not disposable pot bottom, strengthen brand value, and form brand assets.
5. During the meal,
During the meal, customers should be able to give customers a good experience and participate in activities organized by the merchant together.
instead of a simple discount promotion, it is just that the merchant is cheering on himself while the customers are watching coldly.
For example, the old lady’s opening event was May 18th, next to Valentine’s Day. The event we designed for him was “If you dare to kiss, you will get a discount!” Of course, this is based on Xibei’s Kiss Discount Festival.
6. When the customer checks out
We require that when the customer checks out, after completing the bill, we must break the sign in front of the customer, so that the customer can truly experience our promise: "Only sign for one time, no reuse sign!"
At the same time, let the waiter promote members. For each successful recommendation of one member, the waiter will be rewarded with 5 yuan, and a bonus will be issued that night.
or above is the main optimization design for customer behavior paths, with the purpose of retaining customers.
The point emphasized here is that most businesses only focus on traffic drainage, but catering is driven by experience and supported by repurchase. Traffic is not the purpose, so how to keep customers behind is the top priority.
, while most merchants only focus on traffic, , and ignore the design that can retain customers' experience. This is the significance of optimizing and upgrading user behavior paths.
4. Interlocking drainage activities
I have always emphasized that drainage is the most superficial means. Only after establishing differentiated value, brand positioning, and experience design, can drainage truly have effect.
Old Grandma opened trial business on April 5th. When we took over it, it was early May and it had been trial business for a long time, so we simply put the official business on May 18th.
Because after all the above work must be put into practice, the traffic of formal business can gain an advantage in the minds of consumers.
The traffic diversion plan we designed for customers is: eat 111 signs for one yuan and get them in two times.
When we proposed this plan, the customer said in confusion: We had been buying 0 yuan before, but no one participated. Your strength is not as strong as before. Will it be even less effective?
I said: What consumers want is not cheap, but a feeling of taking advantage. The specific drainage work of
will not be expanded. One thing to emphasize is that all drainage actions of revolve around WeChat.
includes offline leaflets, and is not randomly distributed. It requires that offline traffic must be imported into online traffic, so that fission can be further generated online.
The entire brand positioning work was completed within half a month. The boss’s execution ability is very strong. As long as there is no doubt about the plan we have, it will be implemented immediately and 100% according to my plan.
html When the preheating started on May 15, the boss found that the one-yuan purchase plan worked. html On the 117th, the event had not officially started, and its turnover had reached 7,000+. The daily turnover exceeded 10,000 yuan in three days of official business, and the maximum turnover reached 13,000 yuan. I queued continuously.reached 7,000+ yuan the day before the official business
queuing continuously for three days after opening
started to fill up
After the day of daily operations, the final average daily stability was around 8,000 yuan.
customer asked me that the product price has increased and the activity has decreased, and the business has become better. Why is this? Shou Wenbin once said: It may be difficult to increase the turnover by 30%, while it is actually easier to increase the turnover by 300%.
Finally, let’s summarize:
does not establish the marketing of brand differentiated value, and no action will have a point of focus, so it will not be able to form an effective brand offensive.
The reason why the old grandma spicy hot pot comes back to life is:
- recreates the value of the store: do not sell overnight meat skewers, sell
- on the same day value visualization: Set up the proof of disposable pot bottom and one-time signing in the current skewer file area
- Customer experience design: feedback design of each contact, retain traffic
- interlocking links The traffic drainage: The core of online traffic fission
- The sudden boom of the old lady's business attracted the attention of competitors, and even competitors maliciously complained about his WeChat account, causing the account ban...
Of course, the good news is that the old lady's franchise headquarters also sent a congratulatory greeting...
# columnist #
Wu Lao Shi, official account: Marketing Learning Club, everyone is a product manager columnist. Focus on consumer "behavior design" research, brand planning and store growth planning experts.
This article was originally published by Everyone is a product manager. Reproduction of
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