KFC, which is keen on cross-border joint marketing, has "overturned".
Recently, KFC and blind box seller Bubble Mart launched the "DIMOO joint blind box package" to trigger consumers to rush to buy. On January 12, the China Consumer Association issued a document pointing out the name, KFC's joint marketing is "contrary to public order and good customs and the spirit of the law". Some experts believe that this "rollover" is the embodiment of KFC's anxiety and internal volume under the setback of development.
Source: The official website of the China Consumer Association
The premium of the blind box on the second-hand platform is more than 13 times, and the daigou service is online
It is reported that the controversial KFC blind box package was launched on January 4, priced at 99 yuan, and the package includes a family bucket and a bubble Mart DIMO random blind box. There are 7 blind boxes on the market, including 6 regular models and a hidden version, and the production ratio is 72:1, that is, 1 out of every 72 products produced is a hidden version, which cannot be replaced after sale. To get it all together, you must purchase a certain number of packages. The products in this package can basically be eaten for 2 to 3 people.
Although the package was previously announced to be sold nationwide for 263,880 copies, there were not a few netizens who said that they "couldn't grab it at all". Some netizens said that their city stores "showed sold out yesterday, and today there is no such package." However, in the online second-hand trading platform, there are many merchants selling. The reporter search found that many merchants sell DIMO blind boxes, bidding from 70 yuan to hundreds of yuan, and the hidden blind boxes are speculated to 900 yuan / one, which is more than 13 times higher than the price of DIMMO blind boxes of 69 yuan / on the market.
Image source: Idle Fish app
In addition to directly selling blind boxes, many people have also started a "substitute eating" business. It is understood that the "substitute eating" service this time is roughly divided into three situations: one is that both sides bear a certain amount of meal expenses, the proportion is determined by the negotiation between the two sides, and the dolls in the draw belong to the buyer; the second is that the buyer pays the package fee in full, takes away the dolls, and all the meals are given to the eaters; and some buyers spend money across the city to find blind boxes for food because the activities have not yet covered their own cities.
Behind frequent youthful marketing: operating profit fell by 31% year-on-year
In fact, this is not the first time that KFC has co-branded marketing. Previously, KFC also co-branded well-known toy brands such as hellokitty and Pokémon, and two-dimensional anime game IP such as Tianguan Blessing and Fifth Personality. In March 2020, KFC launched a linkage package with the popular mobile game "Original God", with in-game props and limited badges. At that time, there were players queuing for 12 hours, just to buy limited products. At that time, some media exposed that there was no shortage of people on social platforms who provided substitute eating services, and even had special "substitute eating groups".
Joint marketing is intended to actively move closer to young people and help the brand to become younger. As early as 2019, Zhong Fanghua, vice president of Yum China's planning and shared services department, emphasized: "Content marketing is becoming more and more important than ten years ago, because of the change in the nature of consumers, brands are facing post-90s and post-95s, these consumers belong to different circles, and have completed the transformation from passive acceptance to active search, mining and even co-creation for the content of interest." ”
But can frequent marketing of young content really attract contemporary young consumers? Judging from the financial report data, consumers do not seem to buy it. Yum China's 2021 Q3 financial report shows that as of the end of the third quarter of 2021, KFC restaurants reached 7908, operating profit fell by 31% year-on-year, profit margin fell from 18.6% in the same period of 2020 to 12.2%, same-store sales fell by 8% year-on-year.
Experts: "Rollover" is the embodiment of the anxiety and inner volume of the development of setbacks
It is worth noting that it is not KFC that launched the blind box package. Dirks, McDonald's, and Burger King have recently launched blind box packages, and cross-border joint marketing is not uncommon. Internet analyst Zhang Shule analyzed that the essence of joint marketing is to connect potential consumers who have not been deeply reached between cross-border brands to form brand exposure and mutual benefit. At the same time, "foreign fast food" can also achieve Internet celebrity through joint names.
The key to the "overturning" of KFC blind box marketing is that fast food has the characteristics of "on-demand purchase and instant consumption", and consumers usually do not over-purchase. The sale of limited blind boxes is to stimulate consumption by means of "hunger marketing", which can easily lead to consumers to consume impulsively in order to obtain limited blind boxes, and cause unnecessary food waste due to over-purchase.
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng believes that on the whole, KFC's growth has been weak in recent years, and the key problem is that product innovation and upgrading and iteration speed "can no longer keep up with the speed of consumption upgrading", and the products do not match the core needs and demands of the new generation. According to the "2021 Catering Industry Digital Research Report", the post-90s population, especially the post-95s, has gradually become the main consumption force in the catering market, and in 2020, this group of people contributed a total of 66.1% of the catering consumption. "Health" and "green" have become the primary considerations for young people's catering consumption, and "foreign fast food" such as KFC and McDonald's is no longer their primary choice.
"This marketing 'rollover' can be said to be a concentrated embodiment of the anxiety and inner volume of foreign fast food in the frustrated development." Zhang Shule said that to attack the young people's market, marketing is meaningful, but it is not necessary. The key is to find products that "dialogue" with young people, and use iterative tastes and products to form a popular internet celebrity cuisine to stimulate consumers' taste buds, rather than blindly creating topics to use content to drive consumption.
Aoyi news reporter Zhang Jieying