Wen | Cheng Liang
Editor| Yang Jie
At the beginning of 2022, KFC co-branded Bubble Mart launched the "Buy DIMO Family Barrel Package Blind Box", setting off the first wave of new year's carnival across the field of fast food and trendy play.
On January 10, the weekly magazine "Finance and Economics" found that on the second-hand trading platform of idle fish, the hidden "ace fried chicken" doll with the original price of 69 yuan / piece has been fried to 800 yuan.
At the same time, in order to grab the blind box, the inter-provincial and inter-district KFC "substitute eating" service is still in full swing. As early as January 4, the day of the sale of this package, many users began to buy wildly, and even some people smashed tens of thousands of yuan at a time to "eat chicken"; some people got the blind box, opened the baby, but dropped the family barrel and left; even in order to smoke the blind box, the "professional eating" group was born.
(Photo: KFC official micro screenshot)
From "Crazy Thursday" to blind box, KFC can always grasp the "traffic password" and attract a wave of young people to "go crazy" for it.
The veteran "foreign fast food" KFC needs to keep the post-95s. This time, the marketing of KFC's joint bubble mart has greatly "broken the circle", and it has also brought about the influence of continuous fermentation; however, in the case of a large number of buyers "only baby, no chicken", it has to be said that in the face of emerging blind box consumption, KFC's "fried chicken burger" is a bit "dwarfed".
If there is no promotion and joint blind box "rubbing heat", for the post-95s and post-00s, will KFC still be so fragrant?
"Baby to you, chicken to me"
"In order to grab DIMO, one person also has to eat the whole family barrel!" After 95, Chen Xiao excitedly sent a circle of friends after drawing the joint "Flying Colonel" of KFC and Bubble Mart Dimio.
According to the official Weibo preview of KFC, from 10:30 on January 4, purchase a designated 99 yuan family barrel package at KFC, you can randomly receive 1 KFC China 35th anniversary "KFC × DIMOO" limited series, limited in quantity, first-come, first-served.
It is reported that the series of blind boxes has a total of 6 regular models and 1 hidden doll, 6 1 box, a total of 263880 copies sold nationwide. This also means that users who buy family buckets have only 1/72 chance of winning the hidden doll.
A week ago, after learning the news of this activity in the baby friends group, Chen Xiao began to make preparations. He made up a memorandum and set an alarm clock in advance, afraid that he would miss the time to place an order. Even in order to improve the success rate, Chen Xiao also deliberately chose a relatively remote KFC store to "stay" in advance.
At 10:30 on January 4, Chen Xiao placed an order on time and waited in line to draw a blind box. However, when it came time to put the package, Chen Xiao found that the number of blind boxes assigned to each KFC store was different. "There is insider information in our circle that a store will allocate 36 sets, corresponding to 36 dolls, that is, 6 whole boxes of blind boxes. But the store I was in only had 4 full boxes of blind boxes, while my friend said that some stores only had 1 full box. ”
"The people behind me have placed a lot of orders at once." Chen Xiao said. Because the guest only gave 1 doll for every 1 set meal, when it was his turn, the whole box of blind boxes that had just been opened was divided, and the remaining 3 whole boxes of blind boxes, the clerk planned to give all the "big customers" behind him.
This violates the "first come, first come" rule, Chen Xiao is particularly unconvinced, and quarreled with the clerk to get his own DIMO doll. But because of this, Chen Xiao suspected that it was not ordinary customers who bought a large number of packages. "There were a lot of scalpers on the scene that day, basically running to the bottom of the pocket."
Chen Xiao is considered lucky among the people who "snatched dolls". There are not a few netizens who say on the Internet that "they can't grab it at all, or even have to grab it", and there are more and more doubts under KFC's official Weibo: "Is it okay for employees to become scalpers to directly scalpers?" "Which stores have blind boxes and how many packages will be released is not clear at all." "I placed a good order on the mini program, and I rushed to the store, but the result was all bought by scalpers, and the clerk actually let me return it myself?"
KFC's 99 yuan package includes: 3 small colas, 1 small french fries, 1 old Beijing chicken roll, 1 spicy chicken leg burger, 5 golden chicken nuggets, and 2 Portuguese egg tarts. On social platforms, a hand-made player stood out in this rush to buy: in order to draw hidden money, he spent 10494 yuan and bought 106 packages in one go.
Is it worth spending so much money to buy a family bucket? "You look at this 99 yuan package and think it is quite expensive, but you have to know that a DIMO blind box on the market sells for at least 69 yuan, and the joint model sells for 89 yuan, so that if you buy a doll, you can also eat a set of family barrels, which is very cost-effective, you can say 'buy is earned'." What's more, dolls are sold in idle fish, generally sold to more than 100 yuan. Chen Xiao said.
According to the "Finance and Economics" weekly found that at present, on the idle fish platform, the cheapest regular model of KFC's joint DIMO doll is also 70 yuan; among them, the regular version is also priced separately according to the different heat. For example, the price of the holy substitute is 125 yuan / one; the hamburger model and potato terms are sold to 110 yuan / one, and the other models are 100 yuan / one.
The scarce hidden model has been speculated to 800 yuan / one, which is nearly 12 times higher than the price of 69 yuan DIMO dolls on the market.
(Photo: Screenshot of Idle Fish)
But daring "Kryptonian" players, such as the "10,000-dollar chicken" player, are faced with new problems: how to solve 106 hamburgers, Beijing chicken rolls, small french fries and colonel chicken nuggets, 212 egg tarts and 318 cups of small coke?
The "substitute eating" service also came into being.
In the "eating on behalf of" topic area on Weibo, "professional eating, never waste" and "dolls belong to you, obesity belongs to me" and other messages are full of them, and even some netizens have begun to take orders across provinces.
It is understood that the "substitute eating" service is roughly divided into three situations: first, the two sides each bear a certain package fee, the proportion is determined by the negotiation between the two sides, and the doll in the draw belongs to the party who invites the "substitute to eat"; the second is that the buyer pays the package fee in full, takes the doll, and the meal is all given to the eater; and some buyers simply spend money to find food across the city because the activity has not yet covered their own city, and only seek a blind box for themselves.
Even though it has been nearly a week since the launch of the joint activity, there is still no shortage of "free shipping to find substitute food" and "take over the food" list on the idle fish platform.
While frantically "selling babies", while frantically "eating chicken", a spectacle on the second-hand trading platform has been formed. There are also some people who sigh and fall into the consumption trap of "marketing maniac" KFC.
But this time, what retains users is the blind box, but it is not KFC's fried chicken burger.
Grab the traffic password
Doing the joint blind box, KFC undoubtedly mastered the current "traffic password".
Engaging in joint marketing to make customers voluntarily pay money has long been a tried and tested means of KFC. Before DIMO, KFC also co-branded well-known toy brands such as hellokitty and Pokémon, and the "substitute eating" service has long existed.
In March last year, KFC launched a linkage package with the popular mobile game "Original God", with in-game props and limited badges. At that time, countless KFC stores were lined up in front of the door, and even some people set up tents from night and waited for the door to open. At that time, there was no shortage of people who placed orders on Weibo and idle fish platforms to "eat on behalf of", and even some people specially built "food groups".
From two-dimensional games to tide play, in the footsteps of young people, KFC is tireless. In addition, it also played the "Crazy Four Literature" meme.
"Crazy Four" refers to the low-price promotion of "Crazy Thursday" popular products launched by KFC, and the "literary meme" extended from this is the ridiculous text that has swept the Internet since the second half of last year. Netizens tell nonsensical stories, and each story can be composed of "Today is KFC Crazy Thursday, who invited me to eat?" "As a hilarious reversal ending. KFC also held the "Crazy Four Literary Festival" to collect "Crazy Four Literary Heroes" and send mysterious gifts.
(Photo: Screenshot of Weibo "Crazy Four Literature")
In the "eat chicken" world, as far as marketing is concerned, KFC is second, and perhaps no one dares to compete for the first. As early as 3 years ago, Zhong Fanghua, vice president of Yum China's planning and shared services department, emphasized: "Content marketing is more and more important than ten years ago, because of the change in the nature of consumers, the brand is facing the post-90s, post-95s, this group of consumers are subordinate to different circles, and have completed the transformation from passive acceptance to active search, mining and even co-creation for the content of interest." ”
However, it is worth noting that while KFC brushes its sense of existence and vigorously markets, some users begin to complain about KFC's increasingly unaffordable promotional methods. Some netizens once complained on Weibo: "Almost got it, Thursday is quite crazy, but the dishes are not crazy at all... The portions are too large, the menu is not updated frequently, and marketing alone is not practical at all. ”
KFC's many joint activities have come down, and there is no shortage of consumer disappointment. In the earlier KFC joint "Original God" activity, many fans who came to the scene questioned KFC's false publicity and cutting leeks: "The activity claims to last so many days, but the half-day meal is sold out." We came from afar to stay in the hotel, and when we arrived at the theme store, the activity was notified that it had been temporarily cancelled, and the official micro did not give advance notice. ”
In this joint activity with Bubble Mart, various doubts such as "scalper rush" and "reselling blind boxes" have also triggered many netizens to denounce.
KFC has been "not good at making chickens" for a long time
KFC has long begun the "influencer marketing" wind.
From its first landing on Qianmen Avenue in Beijing in 1987, KFC now has nearly 8,000 restaurants in more than 1,200 towns across the country. But because of the combination of fried chicken with carbonated drinks, KFC has begun to be criticized as a "high-calorie food" from the original "foreign fast food".
To this end, in 2004, KFC specially released the "China KFC Food Health Policy White Paper", which clarified the direction of creating products that meet Chinese tastes.
From breakfast porridge in 2002, to old Beijing chicken rolls in 2003, to fritters, soy milk, tomato egg flower soup and so on on the fast table after 2005, KFC has become increasingly "localized".
In recent years, KFC has "intensified its efforts" and successively launched sichuan spicy skewers, Guangxi snail powder, Wuhan hot dry noodles, Henan hu spicy soup and Hunan beef rice noodles.
In this process, more and more "net red" elements have also been included in KFC, not only in terms of ingredients, but also extended to different tracks. For example, KFC entered the beauty industry with a limited edition nail art, developed a virtual avatar of the founder, Colonel Sanders, and launched I Love You, Colonel Sanders! Love simulation game, etc.
According to data, as early as 2018, KFC's new speed exceeded that of Nearly 90% of China's catering enterprises, with nearly 40 or 50 new models in the year, with an average of at least four products updated every month. However, KFC, which is "no latest, only updated", has now begun to make many people feel "confused".
Knowing that there is a question on the "why is KFC getting harder and harder to eat", the following high praise answer said that KFC will quickly remove delicious things from the shelves, and will also reduce the amount of meals less and less.
Cui Yicheng, who loves fast food, is an old user of KFC, he said: "Last year's return time in Pastoral Castle was too short, and the market response was so good before. Wonder if this is a kind of hunger marketing tactic of KFC? ”
The young post-95s Guo Keke said that he rarely eats KFC and McDonald's anymore, unless they have beautiful toys. "KFC and McDonald's are getting more expensive, especially KFC. Moreover, its spokespersons changed one by one, giving me a package of 35 yuan to buy, and 30 yuan was spent to give the spokesperson the feeling. And the menu is replaced with new products, which gives me the feeling of 'changing the soup without changing the medicine', adding a mushroom to the original category, changing a sauce, and it is on the shelves again. ”
In the face of the increasingly "localized" KFC, Guo Keke is a bit lost, "can understand the brand 'into the countryside', want to close the distance with consumers, but obviously is a foreign fast food brand, and now it has become four different." Moreover, there are more Western-style fast food now, and for the same money, I may eat better and more in other homes. ”
Can foreign fast food still retain young people?
(Photo: Visual China)
As a foreign fast food giant, KFC, which is "not good at making chickens", also seems to reveal some anxiety.
According to the financial report, as the largest façade of Yum China, as of the end of June last year, KFC accounted for nearly 70% of its offline stores, contributing $3.566 billion in revenue, accounting for 71.2% of the total revenue of the parent company; together with Pizza Hut, it contributed 92.75% of Yum China's total revenue in the first half of last year.
However, according to the financial report, Yum Group's adjusted net profit in the third quarter of last year was $96 million, down 63% year-on-year; same-store sales fell 7% from the same period last year, of which KFC and Pizza Hut fell by 8% and 5% respectively.
In September last year, Yum China suffered an opening break on the first day of its second listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, falling below the issue price of HK$412, a drop of more than 15% at one point, and finally closed at HK$390.2, down 5.29%.
In addition to the pressure on its own performance, KFC has also begun to face the problem of a new generation of consumers focusing on diversified needs and healthy diets. According to the "2021 Catering Industry Digital Research Report", the post-90s population, especially the post-95s, has gradually become the main consumer of the catering market, and in 2020, such people contributed a total of 66.1% of the catering consumption. At the same time, studies have shown that after the epidemic, 85% of post-95s are more concerned about physical health and are more inclined to choose healthy foods.
"It feels very unhealthy to eat fast food often, and in general, I only eat KFC, McDonald's, etc. when I'm busy, or when I really don't know what to eat, or when I'm doing activities." After 00, Xing Jiamo told the weekly magazine "Finance and Economics".
Cui Yicheng expects KFC to continue to do it, "There are too many choices for young consumers now." But when I was a child, these things were difficult to eat once, and its classic products always had the taste of my memory."
It is worth mentioning that from the financial report, the decline in performance has not affected the expansion rate of KFC's parent company Yum China. In the third quarter of last year, the company opened a total of 524 new stores, a record high in a single quarter, adding 362 KFC brand stores and 103 Pizza Hut brand stores.
At the same time, KFC's digitalization and supply chain are constantly being optimized, and the parent company also said that 45% of the fundraising will be used for digitalization, food innovation and the integration of advantageous market resources. At present, KFC Apps are also gradually evolving from a simple membership order platform to a more complete retail e-commerce platform.
For the post-95s and post-00s, the "fried chicken burger" may not be more attractive than milk tea, blind boxes, etc. Can KFC reconstruct the fast food memories that belong to the next generation of young people?
(At the request of the interviewees, Chen Xiao, Cui Yicheng, Guo Keke, and Xing Jiamo are pseudonyms)
This article is originally produced by AI Finance and Economics, an account of Caijing Tianxia Weekly, without permission, please do not reprint it on any channel or platform. Violators will be prosecuted.