Not only eating and drinking, but also new tricks and tricks frequently appear in the "circle fans" of restaurant companies
Watching chefs from well-known catering companies make famous dishes in the live broadcast room. If you want to eat authentic old Beijing flavors, you can do it in the community store at your doorstep. You can dress up in the same Song Dynasty style as "Meng Hualu" while dining and watching the performance. The mobile phone sets the alarm clock to snap up the collection of blind boxes of a century-old restaurant... Recently, a series of new models related to going to restaurants have surfaced.
The catering environment and consumption trends have undergone tremendous changes, which also force the catering industry to make changes.
At the same time of difficulties, the catering industry has also shown strong resilience: live broadcast has become a monetization channel from a "life-saving straw" during the epidemic; after the epidemic, "just-needed" catering has found a broader stage in the community; immersive, destination The theme restaurant is in line with people's higher requirements for catering experience; the sale of digital collections allows the traditional industry of catering to start testing the waters in the "metaverse".
The epidemic has accelerated the arrival of catering changes, and under the crisis, there are also new opportunities.
Catering live streaming enters the 3.0 era
"In the beginning, as long as you do a good job of the dishes and open the store in a place with a lot of customers, the store will be able to do it; later, if there are public comments, you must maintain the online rating, because the customers will refer to it; now you have to think about shooting videos every day. , pondering live broadcasts to get more traffic." A catering person said in an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News.
As the national running enters the era of "live broadcast e-commerce", the model of "catering + live broadcast" is also constantly iterating.
Some people in the industry concluded that in the 1.0 era of "talents bringing goods", it was the first taste of catering leading brands to face the new thing of live broadcast; in the 2.0 era, it was "live broadcast of a few big brands + live broadcast of store visits/group purchase experts". Two-wheel drive; today's 3.0 stage is the start of the "Wandian live broadcast" era. The epidemic is the catalyst, the maturity of the live broadcast model is the foundation, and the thirst for traffic is the core demand.
According to the "2021 Douyin E-commerce Ecological Development Report", the live broadcast of merchants on Douyin's life service platform is rapidly becoming an important force for business growth. In 2021, the GMV (gross merchandise transaction) of all Douyin stores' live broadcasts has increased by 835.34 year-on-year. %.
The rapid growth of the market and the catalysis of the epidemic have driven catering merchants to accelerate their entry. In May, only in Beijing, the number of catering merchants that have opened Douyin live broadcast increased by 20% month-on-month.
Now, the live broadcast of catering companies has also been upgraded in all directions from the simplest way to bring goods.
For example, the catering brand represented by Hefu Lo Mein has played the "ancient costume style", with anchors in ancient costumes, in line with the brand tonality of Hefu's "study health noodle"; Siji Minfu makes full use of the location of the Forbidden City store. The superior geographical location of the Forbidden City uses the Forbidden City as the "background wall" of the live broadcast room, with its own traffic.
Different from other types of live broadcasts, in the field of catering, “the boss personally goes into battle” live broadcasts are more common.
Bosses live more casually, and it is easier to form conversions.
For example, during the epidemic, Zhang Yaqing, the founder of Wangshunge, posted several Douyin tweets, "The epidemic always repeats the restaurant owner, should the restaurant owner die or close the store?" "Will retaliatory consumption still come?" All received thousands of likes. Credibility, endorsement of your own brand, and it is easier to establish a personality, which is convenient for the creation of brand IP in the future.
In addition to the boss, many chefs have also entered the live broadcast room. For example, Wang Ruofei, the five-star chef of Xibei Noodle Village, broadcasted the cooking process of a popular signature dish to netizens in a live broadcast. The live broadcast attracted more than 50,000 people. Netizens who love food watched and drove the sale of 1,217 semi-finished ingredients such as beef bones.
Nowadays, the live broadcast room is fighting for "comprehensive presentation power", and the input-output ratio needs to be considered.
In addition, relatively small brands do not have a large fan base, and the live broadcast effect will not be very good. It is still necessary to consider the safe method of "brand live broadcast + store visit/group purchase expert live broadcast".
Entering the community and deploying full-time operation
The epidemic has made "community dining" a hot word.
In the past, catering companies scrambled to enter large-scale commercial complexes, but now many brands are starting to open small stores in communities, opening up new opportunities for business operations.
At the end of 2019, Ziguang Garden only had more than 20 stores, and in the next two years, it has opened more than 100 directly-operated stores, and created a miracle in the industry with a single-day turnover of 60,000 yuan for a 10-square-meter stall. ; Nanchengxiang opened more than 30 stores in 2021, and now there are 130 community direct stores; not long ago, Haidilao announced the new business module "Haidilao Community Operation Department" for the first time, forming a "takeaway + community + The community operation model of "live broadcast + online mall".
The accelerated pace of life and the increase in fragmented time have put forward extremely high requirements for "convenience".
Especially after the epidemic, people increasingly hope to meet consumer needs such as dinner parties and social interactions in the "last mile".
Liu Zheng, president of Ziguangyuan, said that Ziguangyuan's community stores under the "dinner + stall" model began to be deployed in 2019. The store area is as small as 10 square meters and as large as more than 600 square meters.
Moreover, these stores basically operate full-time, which evenly spreads the rent and labor costs.
In the next three years, Ziguang Garden will have 500 stores in Beijing.
Nanchengxiang was positioned as "full-time community dining" earlier.
The location, products and design of Nancheng Fragrance are all based on this positioning.
In terms of product structure, Nancheng Fragrance revolves around "full time".
In terms of business model, Ziguangyuan has adopted the "employee partner system" to develop new stores to bundle interests.
In this way, employees will treat the store as their own, and try their best to reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Nanchengxiang, who insists on "non-joining", began to trial the "partner system" this year.
The purpose is to let the best group of store managers be the bosses, which is equivalent to contracting the store to them.
These store managers do not need to invest, and the company provides guaranteed income. They only need to hand over the income within the task, and the excess part belongs to them.
In terms of management, the headquarters also conducts assessments and inspections according to the standards of directly-operated stores.
As long as the management is not in place, the headquarters can cancel the partner qualification at any time.
In this way, partners will take more responsibility and increase their income.
The Beijing News reporter also noticed that in order to improve the front-end operational efficiency, Ziguangyuan is also preparing to build a factory in Pinggu, Beijing.
In fact, the essence of "stall" is to do new retail business, and the back end of industrialization may continue to enlarge the imagination of new retail.
Theme restaurants and immersive experiences become fashionable
The domestic theme restaurant related enterprises began to rise around 2010, and after 2014, they showed an increasing trend year by year, and reached their peak in 2017, with a growth rate of 53.92% that year.
From 2017 to 2020, the number of new companies related to theme restaurants began to show a decreasing trend year by year.
Beginning in 2021, the theme restaurant trend will sweep again, showing a rapid growth trend.
As of May 24, there will be more than 1,200 new enterprises in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 477%.
At Qianmen, a famous traditional commercial street in Beijing, the Palace Banquet opened last year catered to young people’s passion for “travelling”, presenting a refined lifestyle of the ancients, giving people a real experience of traveling through time and space.
Xing Bin, founder of Gongyan, said that although Gongyan opened on Qianmen Street less than two years ago, according to data from third-party platforms, the repurchase rate has reached 70%, and the portraits of mainstream consumer groups are mainly women between the ages of 20 and 45. .
During this period of time, with the popularity of "Meng Hualu" and the arrival of the summer vacation, the lunch and dinner periods on the third floor of the palace banquet were almost full.
A customer said that he rushed into the restaurant at 10:30, but still did not choose his favorite clothes.
The time-honored Quanjude is also aiming at themed restaurants and immersive experiences on the road of innovation.
The Beijing News reporter learned that the Light and Shadow Restaurant, which was officially unveiled at the Qianmen Yuanyuan Store on April 10 last year, has now been upgraded to version 2.0. More themed scenes made with three-dimensional and two-dimensional animation videos will be displayed in front of diners. Consumers also You can experience more fun interactions such as "playing chess" at the dining table.
Quanjude said that in the third quarter of this year, the "Quanjude Palace, Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang" themed restaurant and the third floor of the Quanjude Peace Store of the "Sky Courtyard" will be unveiled soon.
The theme restaurant "Quanjude·Gongxi Dragon and Phoenix Prosperity" was jointly launched by Quanjude and Beijing Palace Museum Culture Communication Co., Ltd. It is located on the second and third floors of Quanjude Wangfujing Store. It is the first "Gongxi Dragon and Phoenix Prosperity" theme restaurant in Beijing. The first joint restaurant in Quanjude.
According to reports, the restaurant will use the architecture of the Forbidden City, calligraphy and painting and Quanjude intangible cultural heritage techniques as elements, and use digital multimedia technology to create thousands of lights, time tunnels, love codes, rose gardens, beautiful women's columns, handed down from generation to generation, love full of palaces, The space design of Manting Palace and Eight Sceneries.
On the third floor, the "Peony in the Prosperity" multi-functional banquet hall will launch an exclusive customized "Palace, Dragon and Phoenix" theme wedding.
The relevant person in charge told the Beijing News reporter that customers can also change clothes and make up in the dressing experience area, and check in to take photos and eat in the immersive experience area.
The dishes are all unique co-branded dishes, and also include 15 desserts and drinks that are both beautiful and delicious.
The third floor of the Quanjude Heping Store "China One Unique Hall" is another upgrade project based on the store's launch of the "China One Unique" FIT restaurant on the first floor in 2020.
The overall decoration design of the upgraded restaurant continues the "Beijing-style" style, aiming at the concept of "sky courtyard", creating a down-to-earth Beijing-style language service. Living atmosphere and market style.
According to reports, each private room in the upgraded north section of the third floor is uniformly equipped with a glass curtain wall. Sitting in the restaurant, you can have a panoramic view of the capital and feel the changing seasons of Beijing.
In terms of dishes, "focusing on the past, present and future of Beijing City, looking for the old and asking for the new", there are Beijing-style snacks such as sugar pancakes, fried noodles, and pea yellows, as well as special palace dishes such as scallion roasted ginseng, crab roe and fish maw, etc. Tomahawk steak, succulent potted plants, creme brulee, mango mousse and other creative and innovative dishes.
According to data from Tianyancha, there are currently more than 7,800 theme restaurants operating nationwide, and more than 5,500 companies that have been cancelled.
The ratio of the number of actives to write-offs is about 1.42:1, which is almost the same.
The Beijing News reporter noticed that the data also showed that the proportion of theme restaurants that survived for less than one year was 25.82%, while the proportion that survived for more than 10 years was only 1.61%.
Industry insiders believe that more refined design is required from the interior and exterior decoration of restaurants to services and dining, which means that the investment cost is very high.
Xingbin mentioned in an interview with a reporter from the Beijing News that the menu of the palace banquet varies throughout the year, from themed performances to the dynasties that feature clothing, at least every season will be updated.
This will continue to give consumers fresh points and increase the repurchase rate.
On the contrary, although a new theme restaurant has a large short-term dividend and many followers, the important premise is that consumers are in a stage of strong curiosity. After the curiosity, customers will pay for the "unknown" to paying for the "known". With the change of money mentality, the probability of punching in again will inevitably decrease.
Launching digital collections to embrace the "metaverse"
Influenced by the concept of "metaverse", digital collections are creating a craze all over the world, which just hits the curiosity and pursuit of new things of the Z generation (people born in 1995-2010), and at the same time, because digitalization gives more possibilities of expression Sexuality helps to enhance interactivity and interest, and young people have become the main consumers of digital collections.
Haidilao launched its first digital blind box this year.
On March 30th, Haidilao launched the blind box of "Pie Eat Xiaohi - Eggplant Star Doll Series" simultaneously in the member mall and Tmall's official flagship store, and presented a limited number of 1,920 digital art collections in Tmall's official flagship store.
The data shows that the pre-sale started at 10 am on the day of the sale, and the limited blind box with the digital collection was sold out instantly.
Haidilao said that the current consumer demand is becoming more and more diversified. As a consumer provider covering a wide range of user groups, Haidilao has launched personalized services for different consumer groups to provide users with a better consumption experience.
On July 4 this year, Quanjude launched a series of digital collections of "One Hundred Years of Fire", which includes a "Centennial Fire" video and 6 digital collection blind boxes in the shape of cute treasure ducks.
The number of "Hundred Years of Fire" video is 3,158 copies, and the number of 6 blind boxes is 20,158 copies, including Chef Duck, Shopkeeper Duck, Haochao Duck, VIP Duck, Baide Duck and Tanabata Duck. Collecting 6 models will also give away hidden payment.
A reporter from the Beijing News learned from the Quanjude Group that the digital collection Quanjude Meng Bao Duck Blind Box was limited to 20,158 copies, and all were sold out within 6 hours.
From 10:30 on July 13, McDonald's China released 100,000 digital collections for the first time.
Consumers who purchase McMai Kazi Crispy Chicken Thigh Burger through the McDonald's App, WeChat applet, and Alipay applet using the "Pick Up Meal" function will have the opportunity to receive a "Kazi Crispy Chicken Thigh Burger Birth Commemorative Digital Collection".
McDonald's China said that, as the first digital collection issued by McDonald's China, it has opened up a complete link from product purchase to membership system and then to the digital collection platform, realizing a high degree of integration between offline entities and online virtuality. In fact, the McDonald's delicious experience of consumers has been expanded to a broader space.
As soon as the new product went on sale, consumers immediately began to receive the "Kazi Crispy Chicken Thighs Birth Commemorative Digital Collection", and the cumulative number of receipts exceeded 10,000 within 24 hours.
Many consumers also shared the McDonald's digital collections they received on platforms such as Moments, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.
Wen Zhihong, a partner of Hejun Consulting and the head of the chain operation, believes that for many people, the digital blind box is a "new gadget" with fashion attributes, and the price is not high, which is very suitable for popular sales.
It is based on these two attributes that catering companies have begun to be keen on digital collections.
"It can be said that catering companies should change the traditional impression in people's minds, cater to young people and create an avant-garde and fashionable brand image for the public. It can be said to be a manifestation of keeping pace with the times and even leading fashion." In addition, the price of digital products is close to the people, and It is very suitable for catering enterprises to activate existing users and bring new users.
Wen Zhihong believes that digital products are a brand-new way for catering companies, both in the communication of brand marketing and the maintenance of customer relationships.
But he also believes that catering companies also need some "thresholds" to test digital collections.
"In my opinion, the digital products of catering companies should be related to their own products, brands, and culture. Another important aspect is that digital collections have certain requirements for the consumer scale and user base of catering companies. The scale of the enterprise itself is very small and the number of users is very small, so the digital products sold may not be popular, and it will not play the role of brand marketing.”
Written in this edition / Beijing News reporter Wang Ping