Seeing this familiar fire boiler, what did you think?
That's right, it's Haidilao hot pot.
Since opening in 1994,
Haidilao has gradually transformed from a small restaurant to a hot pot empire.
But since the beginning of the epidemic,
Haidilao is constantly changing;
Is Haidilao really not working?
Can Haidilao save itself?
Let's take a look at it from the perspective of PR relations.
01
background
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In August 2021, Haidilao's boss lady and its second largest shareholder withdrew from the board of directors, and a group of young people came to the management; coupled with a series of data such as the decline in the turnover rate and the decline in net profit, Haidilao once again received attention.
Netizens have speculated that what is wrong with Haidilao?
As of the first half of 2021, the overall turnover rate of Haidilao restaurants has dropped from 3.3 times/day in the same period to the current 3.0 times/day, and the operating effect has not met management expectations. In addition, the financial report shows that the per capita consumption of Haidilao customers decreased from 112.8 yuan in the first half of 2020 to 107.3 yuan in the same period of 2021.
At the same time, this change has received widespread attention and coverage from the media.
Media reports followed, and the response of Haidilao founder Daniel Zhang also came into view. Below, let's use this incident to analyze Haidilao's public relations strategy.
02
analyse
1. From the perspective of Daniel Zhang talk, Haidilao's internal public relations strategy
Internal public relations, full name internal public relations, refers to a management function of communication activities between the organization and the internal public, that is, to form the greatest cohesion and centripetal force within the organization through effective communication methods. The establishment of internal PR helps to cultivate a corporate culture.
Haidilao has always attached great importance to its internal public relations since its inception; this has a lot to do with the Daniel Zhang of its founders. Daniel Zhang started from scratch, knowing the difficulty of grass-roots employees, and in the early days of opening, he found that customers would not ask for change because they sent a plate of fruit; thus he realized the importance of service.
As the company grew bigger and bigger, Haidilao established the core concept of 'hands change destiny' to unite employees. What I want to convey is that "as long as you follow the creed of diligence, sincerity and dedication, your hands can change something."
Employees firmly believe in this concept and will pay to customers from the bottom of their hearts. We have also been greatly improved in our services, thus firmly grasping the hearts of consumers. Daniel Zhang pointed out.
Haidilao founder Daniel Zhang
Therefore, in terms of the concept of corporate culture, Daniel Zhang spent a lot of thought, and this is also reflected in his response to the decline in Haidilao's performance:
First of all, Daniel Zhang once said: "As the largest shareholder of Haidilao, I have no hope for future performance growth. No business will continue to grow...", the blunt way shows its frankness and outspokenness.
Secondly, Daniel Zhang did not attribute the problem to the epidemic, frankly judged the epidemic situation in 2020, called himself "indeed blindly confident", and pointed out that the operating pressure brought by the epidemic to the store last year would train a new batch of store managers, saying that "haidilao's success is because there are many excellent cadres."
This shows that they take responsibility and trust their employees; trust in them means that they can truly "use their hands.".
Daniel Zhang trust in employees is reflected in the independent decision-making rights of Haidilao employees. At Haidilao, every waiter has the right to give guests a free ticket; this is extremely rare in other catering companies.
Since Haidilao does not restrict employees like other enterprises and give them the right to solve problems independently, when customers are dissatisfied, Haidilao employees can appear first and solve problems in a timely manner and take responsibility.
It can be seen that Daniel Zhang trust in employees, so that employees have the motivation to fight for themselves; at the peak of Haidilao, Haidilao from top to bottom, all employees are full of energy and actively serve customers. Haidilao has thus formed a huge cohesion and centripetal force internally, which has also enabled the haidilao enterprise spirit to be smoothly practiced, not just an empty word.
Haidilao's internal public relations success has also enabled it to successfully deal with crisis events, the most well-known of which is the "Rat Gate Incident" in 2017.
2. Haidilao consumer public relations from the perspective of corporate culture
In 2017, reports of the dirty and chaotic kitchen of Haidilao went viral. In the video, rats sneak east and west on the back kitchen floor, and Haidilao's back kitchen uses the hot pot spoon used by customers to dig the sewers, which causes a fierce reaction from the public; everyone has expressed "incredible". This incident is known as the Haidilao "Rat Gate Incident".
Review of the "Rat Gate Incident" event
Haidilao made a positive face-to-face response after 4 hours, and not escaping the problem reflected its willingness to face its mistakes.
Secondly, Haidilao wrote in the circular that the incident will be borne by the top level, not by the grass-roots employees; more grateful to the media for exposing the incident, directly admitting its own mistakes, and showing its willingness to take responsibility.
Finally, Haidilao welcomes customers to continue to supervise, trust diners, and actively build good relationships with customers, which reflects Haidilao's emphasis on consumer public relations.
(The so-called consumer relationship refers to the social connection between the enterprise and the actual and potential consumers of its products and services.) ）
In this incident, Haidilao did not slacken off at all, actively responding, cooperating with supervision and improvement, which is greatly related to the success of the entrepreneurial spirit.
When employees have a certain degree of autonomy and a crisis occurs, Haidilao's staff will focus on solving problems rather than throwing pots, and must make customers satisfied.
This has re-established consumer trust in Haidilao, and has made the crisis PUBLIC RELATIONS event a textbook crisis public relations event.
In addition, the way Haidilao handles the problem once again reflects the importance that Haidilao attaches to employees; the fact that the senior management is responsible for the incident and is not carried by the grass-roots employees has made the public more impressed by the importance it attaches to employees, which is actually a consumer public relations strategy.
As we all know, Haidilao hot pot must not be the best taste in the hot pot industry, and it has always relied on exaggerated service to win. However, the word service is very subjective; even if you make a manicure or pour a drink for a customer, you can't really make all customers pay.
So why can Haidilao use exaggerated service methods to get out of the circle?
At the end of the day, it is our belief in the importance and respect it places on people.
Although we are consumers when we go to Haidilao for dinner, we also play a role in serving others at work.
When we see that Haidilao attaches importance to employees, in fact, most of the time it is comfort to themselves, we will find that there will still be a conscientious enterprise that is friendly to employees in society; this step makes it easier for the public to have a good feeling for Haidilao.
And when we see that Haidilao does not throw the pot and does not shirk responsibility; we are willing to believe that Haidilao attaches importance to employees and people, and naturally we are willing to believe that Haidilao will pay attention to customers; this step makes us willing to pay.
Finally, Haidilao launched a variety of personalized services, such as different soup bases in different places, birthday services, various gifts, helping to bring babies, etc., to effectively retain customers.
The premise of all this is Haidilao's internal public relations from top to bottom, the corporate culture caused by it, and the effect of consumer public relations. In this way, Haidilao creates a "home" feeling based on customers.
It can be seen that Haidilao not only builds the core spirit of enterprise through the attention of employees, but also arouses the love of the public; this is the ultimate purpose of consumer public relations.
03
suggestion
1. Is it still employee- and customer-centric?
During the epidemic, the catering industry has been hit, and haidilao is no different. According to the analysis of Evergrande Research Institute, affected by the epidemic, the catering industry lost nearly 500 billion yuan in the seven days of the Spring Festival.
In the face of financial pressure, Haidilao, which has almost never laid off employees, has also begun to lay off employees, and even increased prices by about 6% after the epidemic resumed work; many consumers believe: "It is already expensive, and now it is more expensive!" ”
Haidilao has been on the cusp of public opinion since the end of the epidemic due to price increases and layoffs, and everyone has commented on where the problems of Haidilao are.
The sudden withdrawal of Daniel Zhang wife Shu Ping and Shi Yonghong, co-founder and second largest shareholder of Haidilao, also seems to indirectly answer the speculation of netizens - Haidilao is really facing reform.
Now that the management has been replaced, continuing to uphold Haidilao's spirit of putting customers and employees first has become a top priority.
After the epidemic, Haidilao will certainly not be able to return to the peak in a short period of time in terms of turnover; but if the construction of corporate spirit is abandoned for economic gain and loss, it will lead to the failure of internal public relations, so as to affect the customer experience, which will bring a fatal blow to Haidilao.
On the contrary, if we continue to focus on employees and customers, employees are naturally willing to continue to serve the enterprise, so as to bring a good experience to diners and attract customers.
2. Capture the consumer psyche – what do they really like?
After the epidemic, the controversy about Haidilao, in addition to the price increase, is the "beef grain incident".
Some people may not yet know why diners are crazy about it. Haidilao beef pellets are a seasoning provided by Haidilao Restaurant; one of the more common ways to eat it is mixed with tomato soup pot bottom, celery and coriander. The finished product tastes sweet and has a rich taste; many people even go to Haidilao for this bowl of soup.
It is this condiment that is popular in Haidilao, which has been replaced by "flavor companion" in some branches, a soybean product similar to the flavor of beef grains.
As soon as this change came out, it once set off a hot discussion among the public, and on Weibo, #Haidilao beef grains became vegetarian and even appeared on the hot search.
Many people believe that Haidilao has been caused by long-term "wool", but many people still published statements such as "the tomato pot without beef grains has no soul", "it is not cheap, now even beef pellets have to be charged", "Haidilao you have lost me" and other remarks, and have expressed pity and dissatisfaction with the removal of beef grains.
Seeing this, haidilao withdrew the "taste companion" and reused beef grains.
The incident did not have a fatal impact on Haidilao; after the return of beef pellets, the public's attention shifted from Haidilao.
However, if Haidilao estimates the market in advance, it can avoid the recurrence of such incidents, after all, this negative impression of the company is irreparable.
As mentioned earlier, Haidilao does not win with taste, and ordinary balls and meat are not the reasons why customers go to Haidilao to consume; on the contrary, more people become repeat customers because of beef grains.
Accurately grasping the psychology of consumers can make customers think that their ideas have received the attention of the enterprise, and this is also one of the communication methods between Haidilao and customers, which is its efforts in consumer public relations.
3. Media PR: Trouble is better for me
Media public relations is the abbreviation of media public relations, which refers to a series of communication activities carried out by media organizations to coordinate and improve the relationship with the public concerned with them, so as to enhance the public's awareness of media organizations. By winning the understanding and support of the public and building a good operating environment for media organizations, enterprises can establish a good image of media organizations.
Some of the main tasks of media public relations are to maintain the relationship with various media on a daily basis, accumulate for news crisis public relations, and sort out and summarize various reports on crisis events in various media for research and use. Through daily work, the ultimate main goal is to build a good relationship with the media.
The current Haidilao is no longer as brilliant in the eyes of the public as it was a few years ago. The media's attitude towards Haidilao has also begun to change from "praise" a few years ago to a more sharp reporting method today. Due to the reporting methods of different media, haidilao's image is gradually declining.
However, Haidilao is actually more conscientious than the public thinks in many ways. For example, in terms of food safety, which is most valued by the public, Haidilao will conduct food safety inspections every month, and upload safety announcements accurate to specific cities and specific branches at the end of the month to handle inspections to the official website (see Figure 3 below), which shows its emphasis on this aspect.
But in today's era of information explosion, no one will actively understand Haidilao's food safety inspection. Therefore, when Haidilao erupts into food safety-related problems, the way the media reports are particularly important.
If Haidilao can have a good relationship with the media in its daily operations, properly disclose and disseminate relevant information to the outside world, then when the East Window incident occurs, it will be able to ensure that it has at least a small part of the right to speak and will not be pushed by the wall.
04
summary
If 3 years ago, it would not be an exaggeration to call Haidilao the benchmark of the catering industry. But today, Haidilao's reputation has declined; some people may disagree with the positioning of Haidilao's "benchmark" in the title of this chapter.
However, throughout the food industry, there is really no company that can replace her position; she is still one of the best in the industry.
From the change of management and the fact that the beef grain incident can cause such a big response, it can be seen that Haidilao's influence and the public's attention to it.
Through the construction and persistence of its entrepreneurial spirit, Haidilao is expected to regain the trust and love of most customers, as Huang Tieying said, becoming "Haidilao you can't learn".
Source: Zhejiang University Strategy Communication
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