Written by | Jiahui, Xinyan Regional Economic Group
Edit | perch
No duck can swim out of Nanjing alive?
No, there is not even a chance to jump off the river.
Brine duck, roast duck buns, duck rack soup, duck shortbread... The people of Nanjing have taken their love of ducks to the extreme. According to incomplete statistics, Nanjing people can eat at least 80,000 ducks a day, and it is no wonder that ducks have to shake their legs when they see Nanjing people, let alone swim out of Nanjing.
From duck raising, duck making, and then eating duck, Nanjing, known as the "duck capital", has precipitated many long-established duck brands over the years, and the renovation of various duck dishes styles is also different.
In recent years, Nanjing's tourism industry has developed rapidly. During the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday in 2019 alone, the total number of visitors to the seven scenic spots in Nanjing reached 1.2365 million. Among them, the Confucius Temple Scenic Area received 600,000 people, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum Scenic Area received 172,000 people, the Presidential Palace Scenic Area received 63,800 people, the Xuanwu Lake Scenic Area received 300,000 people, the Yuhuatai Scenic Area received 54,900 people, the Niushoushan Cultural Tourism Zone received 18,700 people, and the Dabao'en Temple Relic Park received 27,100 people.
Many of these tourists come with the purpose of experiencing Nanjing's profound cultural heritage, and when they come out of major scenic spots, in addition to buying famous foods such as saltwater ducks, they will also buy corresponding cultural and creative products, of which there are many duck-related products, or as souvenirs, or gifts to relatives and friends.
An obvious perception is that the use of cultural and creative products to drive the flow of people in scenic spots, and then promote the development of the urban economy, has become the next direction for the upgrading of Nanjing's cultural and creative industries. Based on this, this new eye will analyze the origin and direction of nanjing ducks from the following three aspects:
· Consuming 100 million a year, why are nanjing people so obsessed with ducks?
Duck shop old brand encountered new franchise model, Nanjing duck was "played bad"?
· Relying only on duck dishes, can Nanjing always win the hearts of tourists?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > engraved in genes</h1>
The so-called "three days do not eat duck, walk to slip", for Nanjing citizens, duck has long become a regular customer at the dinner table. Come on, chop a duck; pay a salary, chop a duck; if you can't eat it in a foreign country, chop a duck; every New Year's Festival, chop a duck...
No duck is not a table, and the delicious taste of duck dishes has long been deeply rooted in the genes of Nanjing people. There are more than 20 kinds of Nanjing dishes listed in the "History of Ru Lin", of which the most listed is duck. Wu Jingzi wrote in it: "Raw in the city is called crystal duck, holding up a fork fire red skin is not scorched, called burning duck." Those who apply sauce to the skin, so that the taste is transparent, called sauce duck. And are not as good as the brine duck for the top product, light and purposeful, fat but not thick, until the winter is salted for a long time, called the plate duck, far away people like to buy it as a gift. ”
No matter where you come from, in Nanjing, there is always a variety of duck dishes that can conquer your mouth.
It is not enough to have people who love to eat and can eat ducks, but also people who can make ducks. During the Six Dynasties period, Nanjing had the production of duck food, Nanjing's chefs were also known as "heavenly cooks", to the Tang Dynasty, Nanjing duck is more known as "Jinling duck steamed to the world", as the capital of the ten dynasties, Nanjing, has always been favored by the emperor's family, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once built the capital here, the emperor also brought rich households and officials, compared to the common people, they have more time, and the time used to study food is much more, so it is not surprising that so many duck tricks can be studied.
From the royal court to the common people, the love of duck dishes from all walks of life directly stimulated the development of the duck industry. Daoguang's "Little Chronicles of the North Lake" once recorded: "A duck farmer must drive a small boat to wander in the Erlang Stream, and each group can reach as many as a thousand hundred." In Jiangnan Water Town, duck farming has become a favorite side business of farmers, and it is not unusual for a family to raise hundreds of ducks. It is said that during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, King Wu once built a duck city for duck breeding, and it had a grand scale of "hundreds of miles in all directions, only ducks are seen, and no people are seen".
Duck dishes are not only eaten into an industry, but also feed countless people who make a living by raising ducks. According to data released by the Nanjing Duck Industry Association, in 2016, there were more than 1,500 large and small stores in Nanjing, and the sales of ducks reached 156 million, bringing a considerable income of 9.1 billion yuan to Nanjing.
Long lines in front of duck shops and rising duck sales in various brine shops have long been commonplace.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > be wary of chaining</h1>
With the joint efforts of all the people in Nanjing to eat duck, various special foods made of duck have also become synonymous with Nanjing, and Confucius Temple, Lion Bridge and other places are called "foodie's paradise", receiving diners from the north and south of the river.
On holidays, the Confucius Temple Qinhuai Sightseeing Belt, which is a must-have place for tourism, is always overcrowded. On October 1, 2020, the Number of Tourists received by confucius temples in a single day was as high as 300,000, the occupancy rate of surrounding hotels reached a peak, and the "duck different" queue of net red duck shops was at least 2 hours, and the queues were long along the streets and alleys, and the scene was extremely hot. Many people come here to taste this time-honored saltwater duck delicacy.
Some netizens left a message "Old brand, come to the Confucius Temple must taste", "the duck is different, I want to see where the difference is".
Nowadays, many saltwater duck long-established brands such as "Duck Difference" have started chain business, and through chain stores, brands can quickly expand on a large scale, enhance brand exposure, and then increase their market share. The expansion of the popularity of "Duck Difference" is largely due to the chain operation, and the process of moving from a store to a chain store is itself an effective marketing means, and it is also the process of upgrading the brand itself.
"Different ducks" from the beginning of the name to show their own uniqueness, you know, in the Nanjing people consume more than 100 million ducks a year, saltwater ducks occupy more than 40 million, and Nanjing's Confucius Temple area as long as it is a food shop, there will be saltwater ducks sold in the store, various brands in it compete for glory.
However, if you carefully taste these brands of ducks, you will find that most of the brine ducks taste the same, and because the brine duck itself is attached to the local cultural soil of Nanjing, the target customer base is also mainly Nanjing natives, so the brine duck is sweet in taste, and it is not so friendly to foreign tourists.
Although a number of saltwater duck brands such as "Duck Difference" deliberately cater to the tastes of Nanjing people, Nanjing people do not buy it. If you ask a Local in Nanjing which shop has a delicious brine duck, he will definitely tell you that it is on the doorstep. For the people of Nanjing, authentic ducks are hidden in small shops on the corners of the street, and they can't look at the chain shops in those scenic spots.
Although this kind of chain operation mode similar to the "duck difference" brand can bring about a rapid increase in short-term profits, it is not equal to the long-term stable development, and brine duck brands such as "duck difference" still have hidden worries.
Compared with the "duck difference", Jin Hongxing Duck Shop did not choose to open a chain store, but became a veritable "queue king" among Nanjing ducks. Inside the shop, there is also a line "There is no branch, only this one". Jin Hongxing's duck is salty and delicious, the skin is crisp and tender, and the brine poured on the duck is the ancestral brine, and the entrance is addictive, which is really worthy of the title of "King of Queuing".
Shui Ximen's long-established duck shop has not opened a chain, someone once asked the shop owner why he did not open a chain store, "this old tradition I am reluctant to drop it", the boss frankly admitted that there are indeed many people to find him to do franchise business, if you do not open a chain store, the store sells more than a hundred a day, compared with the chain operation, the profit is really not considerable. However, considering the damage to the traditional craft caused by the profit purpose of joining, he still refused.
For long-established brands such as "Duck Difference", the marketing competition means of chains are important, but it is more important to maintain their own brand advantages and realize the gathering of consumers with the potential of long-established brands, rather than being led by the trend of chain operations, which dilutes the reputation and fame accumulated by the brand.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > rely on cultural creation to get out of the circle</h1>
Relying only on duck dishes to drive Nanjing's economy is far from enough, whether it is the pursuit of internet red duck shops by foreign tourists, or the local people's love for time-honored brands, the root of it lies in the deep accumulation of Nanjing duck culture.
Under this, how to closely fit the duck culture to open up new economic growth points has become a problem that Nanjing needs to think about.
In recent years, cultural and creative products have become more and more favored by consumers and the market, from the Chaozhu headphones of the Palace Museum, to the cultural and creative ice cream of Beiyue Hengshan, and then to the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Rabbit King Series" created with the traditional rabbit king of Jinan as the prototype, all of which have achieved a double harvest in economic and social benefits.
During the May Day holiday just past, Xinyan interviewed the staff of Nanjing Pioneer Bookstore and learned that there have always been special shelves in the store to place cultural and creative products, of which there are not a few cultural and creative products related to ducks, such as refrigerator stickers, children's stickers, duck key pendants, etc. Due to the large flow of people during the May Day period, coupled with the deep relationship between Nanjing and ducks, these duck-related cultural and creative products are loved by tourists, and they need to be replenished on the shelves in a while.
That is to say, nanjing's duck culture does not stay at the level of duck cuisine, but has combined with market demand and entered the spiritual level of people. Combining the rich accumulation of duck culture with innovative forms, excavating and recreating existing cultural resources, and multi-faceted efforts with different forms of products, this not only meets the cultural experience needs of tourists, but also prolongs the sense of tourism experience of tourists coming to Nanjing.
Indeed, the cultural and creative products of Nanjing Pioneer Bookstore have attracted the attention of tourists, but they have not directly acted on the pull of people's flow.
The key to the problem is that the creation of cultural and creative products needs to look at the culture and the market at the same time, and while achieving social benefits, it is also necessary to pay attention to economic benefits.