Our reporter Xie Ruolin
Recently, "professional food substitutes" have suddenly become popular, and even in short supply.
The reason is that KFC recently launched a co-branded blind box package with Bubble Mart. This package is mainly sold in first- and second-tier cities, and each store has only 36 packages.
Due to the extremely popular collection of blind boxes in recent years, the package was looted as soon as it was launched, and it was difficult to find a box.
While scalpers and professional food substitutes have entered the battle, a huge "fried baby group" has also been derived.
It is reported that on the second-hand platform Xianyu, the price of the set (a set of 6) blind box dolls is between 600 yuan and 800 yuan, and the price of the hidden model is as high as 800 yuan per piece, which is 8 times higher than the original price.
Against the background of insufficiency of supply, blind box marketing is evolving into the "Hunger Games", in which food substitutes, scalpers and young people who run and pay are inadvertently becoming players in the game.
Sold for 750 yuan on second-hand platforms
How hard is it to buy a KFC blind box?
"One store has only allocated 36 packages, which means that there are only 36 dolls in one store, and all the places have been sold out half an hour after the event goes live, and will not be replenished." On the afternoon of January 8, Haidian A salesperson of a KFC restaurant in Yongtaizhuang District told the "Securities Daily" reporter.
Later, the reporter went to a KFC in Qinghe area. The sales staff of the store revealed: "Our store has no right to participate in this event, only the flagship store is eligible."
A Mr. Zhang, who bought 6 sets of packages, told reporters that after the event was launched, he went to line up early in the morning, "When I went there, there were more than a dozen sets left. I originally planned to buy only one set, but I heard from the people in the queue who thought about it. I was so frightened that I bought the whole set, that is, 6 sets of meals.”
There are many people who are crazy about it. The most representative is that a "king" spent 10,494 yuan to buy 106 packages at one time.
It is for this reason that professional food substitutes have become popular again.
For example, a professional eater made a slogan in the circle of friends: the blind box is yours, the calories are me!
The reporter further found that it is difficult to find a "baby" only in offline stores, and the supply of this series of blind boxes is sufficient on second-hand platforms.
For example, there are a large number of blind boxes of this series on sale on the Xianyu platform, with a set ranging from 600 yuan to 800 yuan, and many sellers claim that they have many sets.
A Xianyu seller from Shenyang told reporters that a set was just sold at a price of 750 yuan yesterday, and there is only one set left.
As for the source of the blind box, he said that he has a friend who works at KFC.
KFC bucks the trend
How many old brands explore rejuvenation routines?
Why is the little blind box so crazy?
In this regard, an analyst who is concerned about new consumption told the "Securities Daily" reporter: "On the one hand, the brand that KFC cooperates with is Dimoo, one of the six hottest IPs under Bubble Mart, and the audience itself is many; On the one hand, the supply of this package is limited, and when the supply is less than the demand, its price in the second-hand market will naturally rise."
According to Bubble Mart’s financial report, in the first half of 2021, Bubble Mart has a total of 6 IP products with revenue exceeding 100 million yuan, including Molly, Dimoo, SKULLPANDA, Bunny, TheMonsters, PUCKY.
Among them, Dimoo's revenue was 205 million yuan, surpassing Molly's revenue of 204 million yuan, becoming the first IP product to surpass Molly's revenue.
Why is the supply of this cooperation fund limited?
In this regard, the reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of Yum China, the parent company of KFC, but as of the press deadline, the other party has not responded.
In fact, this is not the first time that KFC has "revamped" in the Chinese market.
Since entering the Chinese market, KFC has continuously launched Chinese-style food, including snail noodles, Zhou Hei duck, skewers, steamed buns, crayfish, fried noodles with chicken, moon cakes, and herbal tea.
At the end of 2021, KFC will also jointly launch Crayfish Burger and Crayfish Tender Beef Wufang with Wen Heyou.
As a representative of Western-style fast food, KFC is the most important brand of Yum China.
On September 10, 2020, Yum China was listed for the second time in Hong Kong. In the year before the listing, nearly 70% of Yum China’s revenue came from KFC. As of June 30, 2020, among the 10,000 restaurants in Yum China, 6,700 restaurants were KFC.
Moreover, the number of KFC restaurants has grown against the trend in the past two years.
Data shows that by the end of the third quarter of 2021, there were 7,908 KFC restaurants.
However, it should be noted that in the third quarter of 2021, KFC's operating profit fell by 31% year-on-year, and its profit margin fell from 18.6% in the same period last year to 12.2%.
In response, Yum China said the decline was due to lower same-store sales, increased promotions, higher wages, higher rider costs due to increased takeaway orders, and reduced temporary subsidies from landlords and government agencies.
The financial report also showed that KFC's same-store sales fell by 8% year-on-year during the reporting period.
"Most old-fashioned catering brands, including KFC, have been hit by young brands in the new consumption era. Although there is no new force that can shake the status of Western-style fast food such as KFC and McDonald's, the latter are also actively and urgently exploring the concept of "young" The above-mentioned brokerage analyst said that this joint blind box marketing is a new attempt, which may be controversial, but only from the perspective of marketing, it has indeed achieved a successful "breaking the circle".
(Securities Daily)