After the epidemic, a number of "old-fashioned" catering brands fell off the altar one by one, such as dog delisting from the new third board, and Quanjude lost 88.5 million yuan in the first quarter.
Relevant data show that 20% of the more than 1600 long-established restaurants have long-term losses, and some have even been eliminated by the market. About 70 per cent barely maintain the status quo, of which only 10 per cent are doing well.
After experiencing a glorious history, the "old brand" has accelerated the pace of the market economy and faced a severe test, and if it does not adapt to the rules of the game, it will inevitably be impacted by the market and fade out of the market.
The long history, rich cultural heritage and unique technical inheritance make the long-established enterprises have a profound development heritage. In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, long-established enterprises will also face many challenges such as technological innovation and development model upgrading. How can long-established enterprises integrate innovative thinking in their heritage? These are some of the problems identified in this review. How to buck the trend in the new situation?
01
Inheritance | The old sign has hard kung fu
The brand image of "time-honored brands" has already had a high degree of public recognition, such as "Quanjude", "ZhiweiGuan", "Louwailou", etc., which can be said to have both popularity and reputation in the minds of customers.
"Time-honored brands" are the ultimate winners in the centuries-old competition between business and handicrafts, with unique cooking skills and skilled teachers who have gradually stood out in the long-term development process, which is also unattainable by emerging catering enterprises.
The people take food for the day, and the variety of cuisines is one of the most fascinating parts of the city's culture, and many have become the city's business card. Often the more long history, deep cultural accumulation of the city, the more abundant the variety of food, the more exquisite the dining, some even "red tape festival", some of the city's catering time-honored brands have been passed down for a hundred years, or even a thousand years of delicacies, more importantly, food culture and etiquette, customs, etc., thousands of years of praise many allusions and secrets, in the taste of food, while enjoying the meal, thousands of years of historical pictures have also emerged in front of the eyes, such as "lamb steamed buns", "gourd chicken".
The monopoly of technology and talents has become the core guarantee for the survival and development of "time-honored" catering enterprises in the future, and has achieved "time-honored" excellent products.
02
Fusion | The mindset needs to be broken and embracing the new retail of catering
With the passage of time, the signs that some long-established brands are difficult to keep up with the pace of the times have gradually emerged. According to reports, at present, there are 1128 Chinese time-honored brands identified by the Ministry of Commerce, of which only 20% to 30% are in continuous development and growth, and the development of most of the old brands is in stagnation or even decline.
For the catering industry, the classic recipe and texture is one of the core barriers, if the taste changes, not only customers will not pay, investors will not pay.
Do you stick to tastes and ingredients and continue to be a craftsman, or do you boldly improve to cater to changing consumer tastes? Thousands of years of inheritance, fighting and moving stars, are we doing too badly, or are people doing too good? Are we unable to keep up with the pace of the times, or are we stuck in our own ways?
If we want to find the most fundamental reason, then we must return to the most fundamental cognition. Food exists because people, people are the ultimate carrier of food, their preferences and habits, determine the change and future of food.
At any historical moment, it has never been like today's China, in these 20 years, it has such a large population base, highly developed transportation, and rapid crowd movement, such as white colts, such as cang dogs, such as thunder and electricity. The mobility of the crowd accelerates our adaptability to a variety of cuisines.
There are no absolute boundaries on food, and the people who maintain the authentic system have long changed, because everyone is busy looking at the world, busy traveling around, the concept of authenticity will slowly fade from their minds, and authenticity will truly become the exclusive term of those indigenous people.
The brand is the soul of the company and the foundation of the lasting trust and support of consumers. Whether it is inheritance or innovation, it is necessary to stand on the perspective of consumers and narrow the distance between the brand and the "heart" of consumers. In the new era of consumption, how will the "time-honored" brand road continue and develop? Jiang Nanchun believes that the four paths of commercial warfare are that the boss seals the taste, fights the defensive war, and avoids the price war; the second occupies the characteristics, attacks the boss, and changes the advantages of the boss into disadvantages; the third focuses on the vertical zone; and the fourth creates no man's land and looks for new tastes.
The biggest pain point of "old brand" is the aging of thinking, which in turn leads to a disconnect with the times in terms of marketing, scale, dishes, and talents.
Emerging restaurant brands generally make great efforts in marketing, such as Huang Taiji's "pancake takeaway". For the "old brand", these aspects have not been paid attention to. Nowadays, many "old brands" still believe that "wine is not afraid of deep alleys", and in the era of Internet marketing, they have not been able to keep up with the trend.
The era of the experience economy has arrived. The rise of "Internet +" and "net red style" catering enterprises, the structure of catering supply has undergone new changes, "high-value" dishes, interesting and fresh marketing methods, and experiential interactive consumption are guiding consumers to make choices. The old model of relying purely on the brand's historical inertia to attract customers has not worked.
The Chinese market is too large, any feature may roll up a huge wave in the national market, and the old brand is also looking for features, rather than blocking categories. Consumer life scenes are difficult to change, and to break into the fashion crowd, we must embrace change.
03
Change | The old brand that broke out of the siege is also a dark horse
These long-established brands are examples of embracing a new era:
Founded in 1845, Ma Xiangxing Restaurant is an "old life star" among the existing halal restaurants in the country, featuring the operation of "Niu Ba fan" halal dishes.
Ma Xiangxing is very fashionable and has been touching the Internet since 2012. Not only frequently launch group purchase products and vouchers on major group buying platforms, but also launch their own WeChat public account platform, independently hold some tasting activities, and actively join the delivery platform.
In addition, they also cooperate with banks to launch promotions with different discount levels, which can be described as a variety of marketing channels, not inferior to the emerging brands.
With a history of 140 years, China's time-honored Tao Tao Ju is famous for its exquisite, exquisite wind and mountain spring water tea, and its mooncake production is well-known, with the reputation of "Mooncake Taidou", and the product "Tao Taoju Last Month" has won the title of "Golden Tripod Award" and "China Famous Brand Mooncake".
Since 2016, Tao Taoju has actively explored cross-border attempts, and has cooperated with IP such as Ofo, Mobike, Minions, Rolife Ruolai, etc. Under the wave of live broadcasting of the whole people, Tao Taoju has also tested the water live broadcast and held a unique new product cloud conference.
Long-established brands have different marketing methods at different stages. The century-old reputation comes more from inheritance and lacks innovative marketing. In today's new era of consumer rise, long-established brands are gradually losing their emotional connection. How can we continue to love such a brand as much as our parents do when we are younger? This requires innovative marketing efforts.
In addition to the grasp of the current consumer trend and the grasp of the media trend, good marketing ability also requires a change in the thinking of marketers. At present, the long-established enterprises do not necessarily have marketing departments, only the old-fashioned enterprises open their minds, the mechanism is open, the introduction of professional talents, combined with the DNA of their own brands combined with the advantages of our dishes and crowds, the story of the old-fashioned brands is told in a new era, so that the Z generation remembers their parents' understanding of the old-fashioned fashion of that year, in a new way to understand it, the old-fashioned brand is cool and cultured, and there is fashion, this is our national tide.
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