Why do celebrities get together and open hot pot restaurants one after another?
The aftermath of the plagiarism of Huofengxiang hot pot opened by Zheng Kai is still in the air, and another star hot pot restaurant has been sent to hot search on suspicion of plagiarism.
A few days ago, Chongqing Hot Pot Factory issued a statement on Weibo, "To the Plagiarist Huxi Pot", alleging that Hu Haiquan endorsed the "Huxi Pot Chao Brand Hot Pot" for plagiarism, and attached the decoration and display of the two restaurants. Multiple comparison pictures.
From Chen He's Xian He Zhuang, to Zheng Kai's Huo Fengxiang, to Hu Haiquan's Hu Xi pot, in recent years, celebrities have come off the stage to start the hot pot business.
At the same time, the controversy about star hot pot restaurants has never stopped, and problems such as suspected plagiarism, food safety, and even "harvesting leeks" with initial fees have emerged one after another.
Hu Haiquan endorsed hot pot restaurant accused of plagiarism
It is understood that the first hotpot restaurant of the Chaoxi Hotpot brand was opened in Hangzhou. As soon as the store opened, some netizens broke the news that "suspected to imitate another hotpot restaurant". The logo image elements, restaurant decoration style, furnishings, slogans and slogans of Chaoxipot , Dishes, staff’s clothing image, etc. are similar to those of Chongqing Hot Pot Factory.
After the incident in which Huxi pot was accused of plagiarism and counseling Chongqing Hot Pot Factory broke out, it has aroused public attention.
It is understood that the main operating entity of Xingmeng Food (Hangzhou) Catering Management Co., Ltd., Tianyan Check data shows that it was established on January 21, 2021, and its legal representative is Sui Hongjiang.
Star Hu Haiquan owns the company's shares through indirect shareholding, with a shareholding ratio of approximately 5.4%.
According to public platform information such as Meituan, Hu Haiquan is the co-founder of the Huxiguo brand and endorses the brand.
According to the data, Chongqing Hot Pot Factory, which issued the "Xishi Pot Plagiarism Statement" this time, is a sub-brand of Jiu Mao Jiu Group's layout of the hot pot track. It opened its first store in Guangzhou in August 2020.
According to Dianping's data, Chongqing Hotpot Factory has opened stores in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hainan.
The protection of intellectual property rights in the catering industry is imminent
Regarding the incident of Hu Haiquan’s shareholding in the "Soxi Pot" plagiarism and "counseling hot pot", Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, said in an interview with reporters that from the comparison chart, the logo image elements and restaurants of Hu Haiquan The decoration style and even the three-piece paper cups are highly similar to the hot pot. Compared with the plagiarism level of the Huofengxiang hot pot restaurant opened by Zheng Kai, it is even worse.
"Catering is an industry that emphasizes experience, and catering companies need to provide customers with more added value. Especially in the operation of hot pot catering, the role of decoration, style and concept design in the operation is very important. Therefore, plagiarism is harmful to genuine companies. The damage is also particularly great.” Zhu Danpeng said that in the face of plagiarism, genuine companies often need to pay a high time cost to protect their rights. It is difficult to obtain evidence, hire a lawyer, and file a lawsuit. The cost and the benefit are hard to be proportional.
If plagiarism like Huofengxiang and Xuxiguo cannot be effectively stopped, it will have a huge impact on the entire catering industry ecology, and it will also be unfair to companies that really make great efforts to innovate the industry.
This will also lead to no one willing to innovate and simply imitate plagiarism, which is very detrimental to the healthy development of the industry.
In Zhu Danpeng's view, the catering industry, as the oldest traditional industry, has fully entered the era of brand competition, and intellectual property as an intangible asset has occupied the first place in the entire brand equity system.
At present, similar incidents of plagiarism and infringement of Haxi pot have emerged one after another in the domestic catering industry. Master Bao, Meng Ziyuan, and Lujiaoxiang have all been deeply involved in plagiarism, and the protection of intellectual property rights is imminent.
It is worth noting that in the face of plagiarism in the catering industry, corporate intellectual property awareness and self-protection awareness are constantly strengthening.
Before and after the 21st "World Intellectual Property Protection Day" this year, multiple intellectual property lawsuits concerning catering companies were pronounced.
On April 25, the case of "Tai'er Pickled Cabbage Fish" suing "Taiqi Pickled Cabbage Fish" for trademark infringement and unfair competition dispute was publicly pronounced at the Tianhe District Court of Guangzhou City in the first instance.
The court found that "Taiqi pickled cabbage fish" constituted trademark infringement and unfair competition, and decided to immediately stop the infringement and compensate "Taiqi pickled cabbage fish" for the loss of 300,000 yuan.
On April 26, the Changsha Tianxin District Court also issued a first-instance verdict on the WeChat official account in the case of "Tea Yan Yue Se" sued "Tea Yan Guan Se". The court ruled that the relevant infringing company should compensate Tea Yue Company for economic losses and reasonable compensation. Rights protection costs 1.7 million yuan.
Who are celebrities doing hot pot business to harvest?
The hot pot industry is usually the first choice for stars to cross-border because of its high degree of standardization and easy replication.
According to third-party statistics, 60% of celebrities choose to make catering, and hot pot restaurants are the first choice in the catering industry.
At least 19 celebrities have entered the hot pot industry one after another. Some netizens complained: "The celebrities are either opening hot pot restaurants, or on their way to open hot pot restaurants."
It is worth noting that what the traders behind the star hot pot restaurant aim at is not the catering itself, but to join this fast-paying business.
According to previous media reports, Xianhezhuang, which has 800 franchise stores, can earn more than 600 million yuan by relying on franchise fees and deposits.
Huo Fengxiang has opened up more than 200 stores in a year, and through the "Huxi Pot Thousand Cities and Ten Thousand Stores Plan", in a short period of time, Huxi Pot has 60 franchise stores.
Regarding the "star + hot pot + franchise" model, some people in the industry summarized as: "Stars go out to be a signboard, operate the company to attract investment, and "catch" the franchise fee with the star."
When a celebrity opens a store, in essence, the franchisee pays to "crowdfund a celebrity."
Under this model, if there is no good service, reasonable price, and safe food, even with the blessing of celebrity traffic, how long it can last is still unknown.
"Different from the past when individual celebrities opened stores and fans were taken advantage of, a series of hot pot catering companies now provide a complete catering franchise model for celebrity catering, and catering franchisees have become the number one leek for celebrity catering." A catering industry insider pointed out, The franchise fee of several hundred thousand yuan has greatly increased the operating cost of franchisees.
Franchisees covet the traffic brought by the popularity of celebrities, but also bear the risk of declining celebrity popularity and celebrity scandals affecting turnover.
In the media, there are many news about food safety issues and the quality of dishes in star hot pot restaurants.
The repeated incidents of star hot pot restaurants show that it is far from feasible to open a restaurant relying on celebrity traffic.
"Star stores, because of the blessing of the star halo and their own traffic, so the brand has developed very fast, especially in joining this aspect. But at the same time as the initial rapid development, it also buried many hidden dangers." Zhu Danpeng said, the star Most of the shops are just famous and pursue short-term economic benefits. Due to the lack of actual catering industry experience, many supporting facilities are often unable to keep up, such as personnel, equipment, services, management, etc., with high charges, poor service quality, and poor food quality, etc. , Has become the most common problem. From time to time, celebrity restaurants have plagiarized and closed stores due to poor management.
"Stars blindly cross-border catering industry, whether it is for the stars themselves, franchisees or the catering industry, it will bring a very bad influence, and it is not conducive to the healthy development of the catering industry."
In fact, after a brief boom, celebrity restaurants have experienced a wave of "withdrawal."
According to the data released by Tianyancha in September 2020, from 2015 to 2017, there was a concentrated outbreak period for the establishment of catering companies for celebrities.
In 2017 alone, about 13 star catering companies were registered and established, but as of the data release, about 10 star catering companies have been cancelled or revoked.
In addition, more than 30% of star catering companies have experienced operational abnormalities, and more than 10% of related companies have received administrative penalties.
Nanfang Daily reporter Li Jie