The 3.0 version of Nan hot pot came out, with 9 new types of pot bottom flavors, focusing on the integration of diversified "Chinese hot pot", and the signature fresh-cut beef starts from 9.9, with the ultimate cost-effective layout in the sinking market.
This article was originally published by Red Meal Network (ID: hongcan18), author: Zhou Feifei; Edit: Fang Yuan.
The 11281 number was released in 7 days, 8,503 people were received, and the queue was still hot at 2 o'clock in the morning......
Recently, the Nan Hot Pot Taikoo Li store was reopened and launched a welfare activity for free eating for 7 days, which caused a big sensation in the hot pot circle and attracted many peers to check in and visit the store.
At present, the store is still full every day, from the morning when it is not open until it closes in the early morning, and the queue is constant. According to Dianping, at around 10:30 p.m. on May 10, there were nearly 700 tables waiting for seats at the store. Every time a meal arrives, there are thousands of tables in line at this store, and it has dominated the top of the Dianping check-in popularity list so far.
△ Image source: Screenshot of Dianping
Why is it so popular? RedFood.com noticed that the newly upgraded Taikoo Li store is the debut of the Nan Hot Pot 3.0 store. Recently, Red Food Network interviewed Zhang Wenhao, the founder of Nan Hot Pot, to take a look at the characteristics of the new Nan Hot Pot store type.
Fresh-cut beef starts at 9.9 yuan, aiming at the ultimate cost-effective track
Red Meal Network noticed that the biggest highlight of the Nan Hot Pot 3.0 store is to put forward a new positioning - Chinese hot pot.
Why Chinese hot pot? Zhang Wenhao, the founder of Nan hot pot, said that the background color of Chinese hot pot is more integrated and diverse. Nan hot pot should be a more integrated and adaptable hot pot brand to the global market.
In Zhang Wenhao's view, Nan hot pot was previously positioned as "Chongqing hot pot", which was aimed at people who love spicy food, but after upgrading to "Chinese hot pot", it integrates the pot base with local characteristics and flavors, and the products are more diversified and suitable for a wider range of consumer groups.
In addition to a higher dimension of positioning and more inclusiveness, there are more details worth savoring in this Nan hot pot 3.0 store upgrade, such as more prominent fireworks and extreme cost performance.
1. Promote "shop-in-shop" and emphasize "young fireworks"
A visit by Red Meal Network found that the Nan Hot Pot 3.0 store has undergone a big change from the appearance.
Different from the previous retro style, the new door is simple and atmospheric, with black characters on a white background highlighting the new positioning of "Chinese hot pot", and also playing the slogan of "beef shi characteristics, rich pot bottom", as well as the price of several main pot bottoms.
Walking into the store, the past "alleys through the wall" are fully opened, the tables are tiled and extended, and the circulation line is more simple. The décor has also been redesigned from retro to warm-toned, with signature dishes and slogans on the walls, and ambient lights hanging on top to emphasize "youthful fireworks", which also creates a more relaxed and social dining environment.
Red Dining Network noticed that after simplifying the space of Nan hot pot, several new areas have been added. Taking the fresh-cut open-file window as an example, through the beef and other ingredients store-cut, the whole process of the kitchen operation is displayed, so that customers can see the freshness and feel at ease.
The DIY self-service dining area highlights the interactivity of the store.
In addition, the 3.0 store also launched the "shop-in-shop" model for the first time, adding a new "Nan Xiaocha" stall, focusing on beverage production, and providing dine-in + take-out + take-out services.
According to Zhang Wenhao, the current Nan Xiaocha products are still being adjusted and will be officially launched in June this year.
2. Fresh-cut beef starts at 9.9 yuan, and a variety of new products are launched
The product structure of Nan hot pot 3.0 stores has also been greatly adjusted and upgraded, which can be summarized as "fresh-cut beef + diversified new products".
Why is fresh-cut beef the main product of this upgrade? Zhang Wenhao said that beef is an ingredient with a stronger sense of value and a wider audience, which is very suitable as a main product.
In order to highlight the diverse characteristics of Chinese hot pot, Nan hot pot has launched a variety of new products based on the food culture and taste characteristics of many places, such as water-based poplar, flowering cucumber, arugula, kale, etc.
In addition to the traditional Chongqing spicy pot, Nan Hot Pot 3.0 stores also launched Chengdu slag beef pot, Yunnan sour soup pot, Guizhou sour soup beef pot, tomato soup pot, Chaoshan beef soup pot, pork belly chicken soup pot, health mushroom soup pot, Thai tom yum gong pot, etc.
The products are more abundant and the prices are more cost-effective.
For example, the signature product fresh-cut beef starts at 9.9 yuan, and it is also promised that it will be refunded free of charge if it is not fresh. The main pot bottoms are also very affordable, authentic Chongqing spicy pot is 39.9 yuan, Chengdu slag beef pot, Guizhou sour soup beef pot and other pot bottoms are 28.9 yuan. At the same time, the 3.0 store can also realize the three spells of the bottom of the pot to meet the personalized needs of consumers.
Zhang Wenhao told the red food network that with the changes in the economic situation and market environment, the price band of per capita consumption of 100 yuan in the past has become more intense, and the repurchase power is not strong, and the Nan hot pot 3.0 store should do the ultimate cost performance, and the per capita consumption has dropped to 70-80 yuan.
Overall, compared with the previous store type, Nan Hot Pot 3.0 stores point to more daily and popular consumption in terms of scenes and products, making it easier for consumers to eat hot pot.
From "Chongqing Hot Pot" to "Chinese Hot Pot"
In fact, Nan hot pot has undergone three iterative upgrades of the store model, and the brand positioning has evolved from the original "super Internet celebrity" and "category phenomenon" to the current "Chinese hot pot".
Looking back on the development process of Nan hot pot, we can see that during the store 1.0 period, Nan hot pot created explosive products such as Jiugongge and rake chicken feet. Combined with the combination of "hot pot + creative shabu-shabu + traffic", it has launched brand awareness in one fell swoop. In 2019, the Nan Hot Pot Four Community Store created a miracle of 800 million+ traffic on the whole network, surpassing the Guanyinqiao Pedestrian Street, an Internet celebrity business district.
At that time, the Nan hot pot store was still in the polishing period and was deeply involved in the Chongqing market.
In the 2.0 period, Nan hot pot innovated the cross-border combination of categories, featuring "authentic taste + beauty dessert + traffic", and developed a variety of beauty desserts such as snow mountain ice, cotton ice, and mille-feuille ice. At the same time, Nan hot pot also proposed to adhere to the principle of "five catties of oil and one catty of ingredients", highlighting the characteristics of Chongqing's authentic old hot pot with heavy oil and spicy flavor, and successfully occupying the head position of the "Chongqing hot pot" subcategory.
In 2021, the first store of Nan Hot Pot in Taikoo Li Chengdu opened, with a queue of more than 1,000 tables on the same day, and the exposure of the whole network exceeded 2 billion+. Since then, it has been rated as the "No. 1 brand in the growth of hot pot stores" for two consecutive years, becoming a category phenomenon brand.
The Taikoo Li store 3.0 upgrade is a new combing and operation plan for the store type in the sinking market for Nan hot pot.
Zhang Wenhao said that the Nan Hot Pot 3.0 store is mainly a street-side community store, facing a broader sinking market. Whether it is for consumers or partners, the new store type is very cost-effective.
It is understood that the area of Nan hot pot 3.0 store is about 200 square meters, which is one-third smaller than that of 2.0 store, and the investment cost is 700,000 yuan, reducing the cost by more than 60%. Such an investment threshold can be called cost-effective in the hot pot track where millions of yuan are invested at every turn.
Zhang Wenhao introduced that the new store type mainly reduces decoration and labor costs. 3.0 stores are lightly decorated and heavily decorated, which greatly reduces the cost of soft decoration. "In the past, we used to have about 200,000 yuan for the soft decoration of a store, but now it is about 20,000 yuan."
Red Meal Network noticed that the space design of the Nan Hot Pot 3.0 store is more simple, and the previous "through the wall and alley" has been opened, which has also greatly reduced the construction period of the store. The construction period of 3.0 stores is 30-40 days, which is 5-15 days less than the original. After the simplification of the circulation line, the number of employees required in the store has also been reduced from 30 to 18, and the corresponding labor costs have also been greatly reduced.
The newly added Nan Xiaocha, a stall store of only about 10 square meters, can not only provide dine-in, but also create additional revenue through take-out orders. "Our desserts sell well, but they are not suitable for takeaway, and doing takeaway through Nan Xiaocha can reduce the pressure on the store and increase the profit point." Zhang Wenhao said.
He also said that for partners, Nan Xiaocha is a flexible choice. In other words, the newly opened Nan hot pot 3.0 stores can flexibly choose whether to configure Nan Xiaocha stalls, and the existing 2.0 stores can also add Nan Xiaocha stalls through store changes.
In the 3.0 store, Nan hot pot has explored a model that is more in line with the sinking market with smaller space, lower cost and richer formats.
Zhang Wenhao also told Red Food Network that the survival rate of Nan hot pot 3.0 stores in the sinking market will be higher. He analyzed that the original heavy store model may still have operating pressure when the daily turnover reaches 20,000, but the 3.0 store only needs to achieve 10,000 and can survive well. "As long as the profit model is healthy, it's hard to close the store."
It is understood that after the Nan Hot Pot Taikoo Li store 3.0 upgrade, the daily turnover has increased by 3 times, which shows the market competitiveness.
Make efforts in the county market, and sprint to the scale of 1,000 stores in 2024
Behind the iterative exploration of new store types is the brand's new prediction of the market trend.
The current hot pot market has already entered the stage of stock competition, and compared with the high-line market where stores are gradually saturated, there is still a blank area in the sinking market, which has become a breakthrough for brands to seek new increments.
In recent years, the consumption power of the county market is exploding in an all-round way, and brand stores such as new tea, coffee, new Chinese baking, and Internet celebrity hot pot that used to be opened in first- and second-tier cities have begun to appear in the commercial streets and shopping centers of the county. Some industry insiders estimate that China's more than 2,000 county-level administrative districts, as long as they can open 5 stores in a county, they can make a 10,000-store brand.
The sinking market represented by the county has also become the focus of strategic development of Nan hot pot in the next stage.
"We're going to infiltrate every area." Zhang Wenhao believes that now is the time for brands to grab the market, and Nan hot pot should accelerate its sinking and enter more county markets.
Nan hot pot stores overseas are also gradually expanding. In March 2023, Nan Hot Pot's first overseas store officially landed in Seattle, USA, with a monthly turnover of $367,000. This year, the Nan hot pot London store has also been successfully landed, and there have been signed cooperative stores in North America, the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand and other places.
It is understood that Nan Hot Pot currently has 600+ stores around the world, and plans to sprint to 1000+ stores worldwide in 2024.
To this end, Nan hot pot will also be adjusted and improved accordingly in stores, marketing, and supply chains.
On the product side, with the upgrade of the 3.0 store model, Nan hot pot will successively serve freshly cut beef and multi-flavor pot bottoms in stores across the country, and on the basis of retaining the authentic flavor of Chongqing, it will increase the special products from all over the world and continuously enrich the product line to meet the needs of more consumer groups.
In terms of marketing, as an earlier brand that came out of the circle with the help of platform dividends such as Douyin, Nan Hot Pot will continue to innovate in marketing to help the brand continue to break the circle. In 2024, Nan Hot Pot will empower the brand from four dimensions, namely artist linkage, IP co-branding, brand cross-border, and trendy peripherals, and create a "social currency" by co-branding with other well-known artists, brands and IP images, so as to enhance brand topics and popularity.
For example, recently, Nan Hot Pot and Yu Tao jointly launched a new product "Nine Turns of Large Intestine", put forward the concept of limited "cooking people", and also did a linkage live broadcast activity, and the first show was on the TOP1 of the Douyin food list, with a GMV of more than 60 million.
On the supply chain side, Nan Hot Pot has established a general warehouse in Chengdu and branch warehouses in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and other places. In the next step, Nan Hot Pot will focus on improving the construction of national sub-warehouses, solving the problem of cold chain transportation, and ensuring the stable supply of fresh-cut beef and special pot bottoms in stores.
In addition, what other strategic deployments does Nan hot pot have?
Red Food Network learned that on May 16, Shangzong Group, a company affiliated to Nan Hot Pot, will hold the "Nan Hot Pot, Chinese Hot Pot 4th Anniversary Celebration" in Chengdu. With the theme of "Breaking the Situation and Rebirth", Zhang Wenhao, the founder of Nan Hot Pot and Chairman of Shangzong Group, will officially launch the Nan Hot Pot 3.0 store model and announce the brand's future development plan.
At present, Shangzong Group has many brands such as Nan Hot Pot, Shanjie Old Hot Pot, Zeng Sanxian Rice Noodles, Cinnamon Kitchen, Ma Liuji Hot and Sour Noodles, Taihao Coconut, Li Haiyu Wuwei Feng Chongqing Noodle Restaurant, and LIVEHOUSE. In this event, in addition to the release of the Nan Hot Pot 3.0 store model, Wang Xiaofei, the founder of Ma Liuji, will also give a speech on the development of the Ma Liuji hot and sour noodle brand.
Conclusion
From Internet celebrity to evergreen, Nan hot pot continues to prove its vitality to the market.
In 2024, the hot pot market will still be fiercely competitive around scale and volume. Brands that can take the lead in exploring the ultimate "small and light" return on investment model are more likely to have the real strength to run into the global market.
In the future, how will Nan hot pot perform in the sinking market? What kind of surprises will it bring to the market and consumers? We'll see.
The pictures in this article are outlined by Nan hot pot, and red meal network is used with permission; Cover image source: Nan hot pot.