Why is the celebrity investment in catering frequently questioned?
The catering industry is a competition for some stars in the Red Sea to open stores to make money, and they are not ordinary consumers
In the past week, the catering "side business" of the two stars has been overturned one after another - Hu Haiquan's brand "Bengong's Tea" was fined for tax evasion, and Xianhezhuang founded by Chen He was also exposed to the hot search because of being cut off by the franchisee "leek" many days.
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily found that opening a restaurant seems to be the first choice for celebrities as a sideline, but catering companies with a star halo have been prone to negative news in recent years, or they do not open for a long time. What is the reason behind this?
Event: Hot searches on "Xianhezhuang" and "Bengong's Tea"
In the past week, the hot searches on Weibo have been dominated by keywords such as "Chen He" and "Xianhezhuang" for several days. First, Xianhezhuang was collectively defended by franchisees, and it was revealed that they earned two or three hundred million from the franchise fee.
Later, it was revealed that Chen He, who had previously appeared in the activities of Xianhezhuang as a "boss", had withdrawn from the shareholders of Xianhezhuang, and he also deleted the content of Xianhezhuang on Weibo, which was suspected to be "clearly separated from the brand". limit".
In this regard, on the evening of June 8, Xianhezhuang Luwei Hotpot Weibo issued a statement saying that Chen He was not a direct shareholder of the main body of the Xianhezhuang brand operation, and authorized Xianhezhuang to use its image, etc., and never received any charges. cost.
The news that Chen He charged a "240 million franchise fee" on the Internet was untrue, but he did not respond to how much the franchise fee was charged, whether it was reasonable or not, and the related questions raised by franchisees.
On June 11, Chen He posted a Weibo in response to the dispute over the operation of Xianhezhuang, saying that for the Xianhezhuang brand, he will always maintain the identity of the founder and join hands with all franchisees of the stores.
At the same time, in response to the doubts on the Internet, it has taken the initiative to explain the situation to the relevant departments.
Although the two have issued statements to explain, but netizens do not seem to buy it.
On June 9, Guangzhou Bengong Catering Service Co., Ltd., an affiliate of “Bengong Tea”, was fined by the Second Inspection Bureau of Guangzhou Taxation Bureau for tax evasion.
The co-founder of this brand is singer Hu Haiquan.
Phenomenon: Celebrity investment in catering is "flow realization"
In fact, many stars have joined the catering industry in recent years, such as Xue Zhiqian who participated in the investment in Shangshangqian Hotpot, Huang Xiaoming, Li Bingbing, Huang Bo, He Jiong, Jing Boran, and Ren Quan who were shareholders of Hot One, Du Haitao and Wu Xin is the co-founder of Laidou La, Zheng Kai launched "Huofengxiang Fresh Hot Pot", and Huang Lei and Meng Fei's Huangliang Yimeng...
However, many restaurants opened by celebrities ended up closing their doors.
Some netizens have sorted out the catering stores opened by more than 40 celebrities that have been reported in the past 20 years. Among them, more than 85% of the restaurants eventually closed and their brands disappeared. Most of these catering brands have existed for 2 to 5 years, and some even just opened. Closed in 1 year.
Why don't celebrity restaurants last for a long time?
In addition to the catering industry itself being a highly competitive Red Sea industry, what is more important is that most of the star's opening stores are to make "traffic monetization".
A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily learned that the MCN organization that incubates Internet celebrities is to convert the fans of Internet celebrities into purchasing power of products through the to B model after the IP has been successfully built in the early stage.
When celebrities open stores, they skip the incubation process and can directly monetize traffic.
In the early years, Hu Haiquan brought the drink "Bengong's Tea" to variety shows.
The sudden emergence of Xianhezhuang also relies on Chen He to unleash his influence on Douyin, and implant the scene of "Xianhezhuang" in the variety shows he participates in.
Relying on celebrity halo marketing, driven by the fan economy, many consumers consume with the feeling of supporting their favorite celebrities, or hoping to meet celebrities in restaurants opened by celebrities.
There are also consumers who "transplanted" the halo of celebrities to restaurants, but many people found that the dishes opened by some celebrities were expensive, small in quantity, and poor in taste after consumption.
For example, in 2017, Huangliang Yimeng was on a hot search for selling beef for 388 yuan.
Under the premise of pursuing "traffic monetization", celebrities pay for "fame", but most of the restaurants are entrusted to others, not their own business. Naturally, most of these restaurants' operation and management conditions are not satisfactory.
Some of these restaurants have also exposed various negative news, such as food safety, hygiene issues, shoddy charging, franchise disputes, and some even involve unlicensed operations, illegal fundraising and other issues that violate the law.
After the tax evasion incident was exposed, in a reply to netizens, the "Bengong's Tea" brand also stated that Hu Haiquan did not hold any management positions in the company, nor did he participate in the daily operation and management of the company.
It is not difficult to find through the two official replies of "Bengong's Tea" and Xianhezhuang that although they claim to be the founders of the brand, the business stars of these catering brands basically "don't ask".
Industry: After all, "endorsement" is not a real store
Some industry insiders said that the opening of a star's store is itself the realization of its "fame".
Some catering companies are indeed invested by celebrities with money, but there are many ways of catering, and celebrities do not have time to take care of them in person. In the end, like some novice investors who set foot in catering for the first time, they ended up being closed.
Some so-called star stores are even a disguised "endorsement": the star does not invest, but invests in shares in his own image, and finally receives dividends based on the proportion of shares, or "sells" the shares back to the company or by other companies at the agreed time. "Take the offer", the brand or company has nothing to do with the star himself, and the equity is the endorsement fee.
Compared with the high-profile publicity of "celebrity store opening" at the time of opening, before some brands collapsed or after big negative news, most celebrities quietly or withdrew capital or withdrawn shares or changed shareholders and a series of actions, just to cut with the brand.
What's more, some so-called star-run stores are not aimed at making money from consumers.
Some catering practitioners, who did not want to be named, said that some brand operation companies, or acquiring stores opened by celebrities or looking for celebrities to "endorsement" of catering brands by way of shareholding, want celebrities to drive traffic and build excellent restaurants in the early stage. business data.
What these companies earn is the franchise fee for investors.
"It's like a TV franchise advertisement more than ten years ago, except that the original advertising money for TV stations was given to celebrities as endorsements."
Compared with ordinary franchise projects, these brands with celebrity "blessing" can not only attract more investors, but also charge higher fees than similar franchise projects.
For example, in the franchise fee of a hot pot, the decoration cost of the store is 700 to 900 yuan/square meter, the equipment cost is 130,000 to 150,000 yuan, and the opening cost is 10,000 yuan, etc.; while the Internet Chuanxianhezhuang decoration cost is 1,500 yuan/ Square meters, the equipment cost is 600,000 yuan (including the front hall and kitchen), and the opening cost is 50,000 yuan.
Of course, there are differences in decoration effect and equipment, but according to this detail, the opening fee is indeed much higher.
But in either case, unless the star is sitting in his own store every day, the so-called "star's store" is just a form of marketing.
It is no wonder that some netizens "summarize" the star's shop opening routine, saying: use fame to open a store to earn franchisee money; make money almost, and gradually withdraw shares; see that business is not good or immediately draw a line from the brand after an accident.
People in the catering industry said that the long-term operation of a restaurant depends on the repurchase rate, and the repurchase rate of nearby people determines whether a restaurant makes money or not.
Because the restaurant is restricted by geographical location and other conditions, the coverage of the population is always limited, and the traffic brought to the restaurant by celebrities is difficult to break through the geographical restrictions.
It is impossible to stimulate repurchase for a long time, and the "star's store" cannot last for a long time.
"After the star halo fades, whether the store can continue to operate and whether it can make money depends on multiple factors such as the franchisee's own capabilities, products, and location. Therefore, there are still a few successful ones."
Text/Coordinator Zhang Xin, reporter of this newspaper/Yu Meiying