Borrowing the network "reverse growth", the century-old brand "circle powder" of the younger generation

Liang Zining

A set of sales figures released by Tmall 's "Double Eleven" this year is about long-established enterprises - 220 long-established enterprises have doubled their sales year-on-year.

Cui Chen, general manager of Shandong Dezhou Grilled Chicken Co., Ltd., revealed that the sales of "Double Eleven" of Texas Grilled Chicken are nearly 4 times that of last year, and its new brand Lu Xiaoji's Orleans chicken legs and self-heating chicken pots have been loved by "post-95" consumers. With the efforts of many parties, the old brands are re-polishing their golden signboards.

The Ministry of Commerce's survey of the operation of 1128 Chinese time-honored enterprises in 2019 shows that 84% of the enterprises are in a profitable state, and the overall development momentum is good.

Some long-established enterprises, like Texas grilled chicken, on the Track of the Internet, which they do not occupy an innate advantage, with the help of the East Wind, where Chinese culture has attracted attention, strive to re-"incense" themselves in the young consumer group.

The old-fashioned dilemma: a long history has become a burden of reform

Cui Chen was born in 1989. In 2017, he returned from Australia. The young man's mission is to help his father inject new vitality into the old brand of Texas grilled chicken.

"The most important dilemma at that time was the aging of the brand image, the aging of the product and the aging of the channel." Cui Chen told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that in the consumer's cognition, the so-called traditional old brand is not good to say, and there is a sense of "relying on the old and selling the old" - too much emphasis on their glorious history and past honors, but in the mining of consumer demand, it is relatively lacking.

Even with a century of history, brands cannot "lie and win" today. This is not a problem unique to Texas grilled chicken.

This year, the Circulation Industry Promotion Center of the Ministry of Commerce released the "Report on the Development of Long-established Digital Transformation". The report pointed out that with the rapid development of the market economy, consumers have a wider range of choices in the commodity market, and the substitution of long-established products is becoming stronger and stronger. However, some long-established enterprises refuse to adopt new processes and technologies, and the quality and packaging have remained unchanged for decades; some long-established enterprises do not pay enough attention to product innovation and development, cannot keep up with the needs of consumers, cannot meet the diversified and personalized needs of consumers, and are difficult to form a strong attraction to consumers.

In the face of the development of the times and market changes, how to innovate on the basis of adhering to the "old" quality of the new generation of long-established brands is a serious problem commonly faced by long-established enterprises.

Cui Chen's choice is to "touch the net". In terms of channels, Texas Grilled Chicken has opened a Tmall flagship store to expand online channels; in terms of marketing, Texas Grilled Chicken has opened accounts on major social media platforms; in terms of brand image, from 2017 to now, Texas Grilled Chicken has carried out two brand visual upgrades, making it more in line with the aesthetics of contemporary young people.

An important change is that Texas Grilled Chicken has hatched a sub-brand, the casual brine snack "Lu Xiaoji". For contemporary young people, whole chicken is not often eaten, but brine snacks can always be prepared.

Time-honored refurbishment: a business insight underpinned by technology

These shifts were not accomplished by Texas Grilled Chicken alone.

Cui Chen talked about their partner, Tmall.

In April this year, the two sides reached an in-depth cooperation, Tmall to help texas grilled chicken this long-established brand "refurbishment".

On the product side, Cui Chen focused on innovation, and the Tmall team analyzed the trends in the brine food industry generated on the platform and gave them some practical suggestions. For example, the product packaging of Texas Grilled Chicken can be shifted to low temperature short-term products and self-heating products. Texas Grilled Chicken did the same. "Our new 60-day low-temperature short-term signature rooster series has a tenderer meat, richer juice and closer taste to fresh chicken than room temperature." Cui Chen said. For the sub-brand Lu Xiaoji, Tmall has also made an overall plan for the product, suggesting three main directions: traditional local flavor series, Surprise snack series and health food series. "We also have that idea, and their analysis makes us more explicit that we're right." Cui Chen said.

To do innovation, we cannot let the brand "raise in the deep boudoir people do not know". Since new packaging and new products have been launched, there must be some momentum to let consumers know.

Texas Grilled Chicken was invited to participate in a number of national events held by Tmall. It has been blessed with traffic, exposure and recommendation of key positions, and the new product has also entered the live broadcast room of the head anchor. In May, Texas Grilled Chicken and Via collaborated to sell more than 60,000 grilled chickens in a live broadcast.

Cui Chen knows that relying solely on the Texas Grilled Chicken Enterprise itself, it is too difficult and costly to "brush its face" in front of consumers across the country. "Our own resources and influence are limited, but after embedding in Tmall's system, we are on the fast track of transformation and development." Cui Chen said sincerely. Tmall's backstage data shows that the proportion of sales of Texas grilled chicken from the southern region has increased year by year, and the proportion of sales in the southern region has increased from 49.3% to 55.7% in 2021 - this part of the improvement actually comes from the new customer groups that the original offline traditional channels cannot reach.

Also successfully transforming its own products with the help of the e-commerce platform is the century-old Lingnan Xinbaotang.

Liang Zining, director of the brand's e-commerce, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that the traditional consumer base of Chen Pi is between 30 and 50 years old. But to keep up with the times, brands have to reach younger groups.

Tmall made a horizontal and vertical comparison for them, suggesting that Xinbaotang can launch some tangerine peel tea bag products. It is convenient and healthy, and can be favored by young people.

Tea bags have made the consumption of tangerine peel more daily, and have also harvested a young customer group from 20 to 25 years old. Liang Zining said frankly that the biggest help provided to them by the e-commerce platform is to let the brand see farther and think more comprehensively.

Similarly, Tianjin Intangible Cultural Heritage Old Shop "Xianghe Rao Shop" has also completed the brand rejuvenation transformation on Tmall, and the main consumer group of cakes has gradually transitioned from the original middle-aged and elderly group to the post-90s.

Time-honored breakout: Find a balance between heritage and innovation

Now, Texas Grilled Chicken has become a "benchmark" for the transformation of the old brand on Tmall. But when asked about the feelings of transformation, Cui Chen blurted out: "It's too difficult." ”

The premise of enterprise transformation is that the ideological concepts of employees should be changed. Adaptive changes must be made in terms of organizational structure and personnel capacity building.

Previously, Tmall took experts to the Texas Grilled Chicken Factory for field research, and found that the slow iteration of its new products boiled down to the fact that the organizational structure was too traditional, and the approval process alone took more than 1 month. In order to speed up the speed of product updates, the e-commerce department of the Texas Grilled Chicken Department operates independently and manages flat. In this way, the new product development link is cut in half and can be launched in 20 days.

Lingnan Xinbaotang settled in Tmall in 2007 and spent a long time to expand the consumer population. Liang Zining said that not only can not lose the cultural connotation and historical inheritance of its own brand, but also to successfully occupy a position in the cognition of young consumers, the breakthrough of the old brand, to find the delicate balance between inheritance and innovation.

Liang Zining increasingly feels that the external environment is changing, consumers' recognition of domestic brands is getting higher and higher; the Internet platform has given the old-fashioned resources tilt, and the most difficult days have passed.

"All the long-established brands today are the most successful new brands of the year." Chui Xue, vice president of Alibaba and vice president of Tmall Business Group, said. In June this year, Tmall announced the launch of the long-established brand expansion plan: 5 years of continuous investment of 1 billion yuan, from the brand marketing, consumer operations, new product research and development and other aspects to help the revival of the old brand.

The aforementioned "Long-established Digital Transformation and Innovation Development Report" suggests that long-established enterprises can be encouraged to strengthen cooperation with third-party platforms, and support platforms to help long-established enterprises expand customers, build brands, and carry out digital upgrades. Long-established enterprises can try to introduce external forces, improve the level of digitalization of internal organizations, and improve the supply chain. The long-established brand itself should also innovate products, cross-border integration, and lead and drive the development of domestic products.

In addition, relevant departments can increase policy support, improve the promotion service system for long-established brands, and give long-established brands "help them on the horse and send a ride".

Lin Jian, deputy director of the Circulation Industry Promotion Center of the Ministry of Commerce, advised that no matter how innovative, the quality of craftsmen, quality service, honest management and history and culture are the magic weapons of the old brand. Only by adhering to these four points can we do better and better.

Liang Zining lamented to the Science and Technology Daily reporter that the transformation of the old brand must not forget the original intention, and cannot lose the product core. Cui Chen also believes that the core of the long-established brand to win in the market competition is still quality first, and at the same time, it is also necessary to connect with the needs of contemporary consumers. "We are a long-established brand, but what we do is also food, it is fast moving consumer goods, so we must follow the laws of the market and follow the consumption trend." Cui Chen said.

Source: Science and Technology Daily