At the beginning of 2021, Shandong's "ramen brother" Cheng Yunfu suddenly became popular all over the network.
Brother Ramen was originally just the owner of an ordinary ramen stall, 3 yuan a bowl of ramen, ramen has never increased in 15 years, only for every villager can afford to eat.
After a live broadcast by an internet celebrity, his life has changed dramatically. At the hottest time, thousands of Internet celebrities ran to his home every day to broadcast live, which not only affected his ramen business, but also seriously affected the life of ramen brother. However, within a few months, the popularity of Brother Ramen plummeted, there were few followers, and Brother Ramen's life returned to calm.
The popular network did not make him expand his business to become a big boss, and it did not let him "go out of the circle" from then on. Like many Internet celebrities, Ramen Brother will eventually escape a short-lived fate.
In the final analysis, whether it is a small shop operation or business management, it is not a simple thing. Only by establishing an effective model can we achieve long-term stable development.
Ramen brother
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > the simple ramen life of "Ramen Brother"</h1>
In the village of Horseshoe River in Fei County, Shandong Province, Cheng Yunfu and his wife pulled a cauldron of flour, plates and boiled noodles early and wandered to the bazaars of several surrounding townships.
As soon as it was light, they set off from home. When you arrive at the market, it is the opening time. The villagers here are basically local farmers, and their incomes are not high. They all like to eat a bowl of ramen for 3 yuan at the ramen brother's stall – cheap, but generous, good tasting, and even a little slice of meat.
The dark-skinned Cheng Yunfu had a simple and thick face, and even if he talked to others, the movements in his hands did not stop for a moment. He's skilled enough to pull out a large bowl of noodles in 30 seconds.
For fifteen years, Cheng Yunfu and his wife got up early every day to get up early and go dark, just to do one thing, that is, to cook a bowl of hot ramen for the villagers. And, no matter how many times the house price has doubled, the price of his ramen noodles is 3 yuan, which has not changed in 15 years.
Until the beginning of 2021, after Cheng Yunfu's deeds were spread to the Internet by an Internet celebrity named "FeiXian Peng Jiajia", it suddenly caught fire, and netizens gave him a kind name - "Brother Ramen".
I am paying for the "ramen brother" of the noodles
Many people were deeply touched by the simplicity of The Ramen Brother's heart, and even ran thousands of miles to eat a bowl of ramen. Some people ask, why don't you raise the money? He smiled puzzledly: I sold expensive, afraid that the people would not be able to afford to eat. In a word, it attracted a flood of praise from the screen.
There is "conscience", there is "original heart", there is a sense of "social responsibility", ramen brother's hard-working, honest and trustworthy, broad-minded, excellent quality instantly on the hot search.
Some people praised, "Shandong ramen brother is not selling ramen, but human kindness." Some central media also joined the chorus of praise, saying that "his simplicity and sincerity are the epitome of thousands of working people."
Brother Ramen was interviewed by CCTV
Indeed, Brother Ramen is a good man, a representative of the kind and simple Chinese peasants. However, such an ordinary working person cannot help but produce a kind of helpless sadness in people's hearts.
Even if the ramen brother does not stop for a moment, he will sell three or four hundred bowls a day, throw away all the costs, and you can earn two or three hundred a day. 15 years of hard work, getting up early and greedy, wind and sun, leaving him with a face full of vicissitudes, and can only basically meet the needs of food and clothing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="121" > is very popular, but it seems to be short-lived</h1>
Born in 1982, Brother Ramen is not yet forty years old this year, and looks to be in his 50s because he has been on the street for many years. In the past 15 years, he has gone from a young man to a middle-aged man who has experienced many vicissitudes.
Afraid that customers can't afford to eat noodles, he has not raised money for many years, and he can't deny the simple emotional factors in it, but it is a helpless choice under the pressure of life.
Who doesn't want to live comfortably, not so hard and not so tired, have a fixed stall, and make a stable living?
No one asked him not to raise prices, and no one asked him to fulfill his social responsibility. However, high prices are bound to weaken competitive advantages, small profits and high sales must be a realistic choice, and it is easier to control costs at good prices and increase revenue as a whole.
However, in the past 15 years, the cost of various factors has increased, and the only trick to keeping profits in Ramen Brother is one: to compress all the costs that can be compressed.
There are stalls in the market, saving the rent fee, except for noodles, water, electricity... The necessary cost, the hard work of the couple has become the only profit point. Saying that it is a business is actually just a livelihood, and it is barely getting by. After 15 years of struggle, it is still a mobile stall, and the ramen brother has not been able to hold up a façade.
After becoming popular, Ramen Brother became a major IP in his hometown, attracting a large number of netizens to come to eat noodles, as well as a large number of Internet celebrities who rubbed traffic, ran to Ramen Brother's stalls, and even broadcast live at home. In order to facilitate so many visitors, the village has also deliberately built roads and built new amusement facilities.
Ramen brother surrounded by a large number of anchors
Who would have thought that the good times would not last long, and just a few months later, the popularity of Ramen Brother on the Internet declined rapidly. Gradually, the Internet celebrities left, few people ran away to eat ramen noodles, and the village slowly returned to tranquility.
Going around, the ramen brother who was once very popular, like many Internet celebrities, has once again fallen silent, and finally failed to change the trajectory of fate. What went wrong with that?
Thinking about ramen brothers, as well as many short-lived Internet celebrity shops and brands, they all have a common feature, that is, they lack a holistic view, a big picture view, and do not form an effective model of sustained profitability.
First of all, there is a lack of business awareness and excessive consumption of "brand" and "traffic". When Brother Ramen was popular, the traffic was not doubtful, but he did not have enough business awareness, did not know how to manage his own IP, did not have the strategic ability to continue to operate, and was doomed to consume his own popularity.
Second, the pattern is too low, lacking the awareness and spirit of sharing. In the face of his own traffic, it is impossible to say that the ramen brother does not have a little careful thinking. Brother Ramen also wanted to convert and realize the traffic himself, so he used his "reputation" and "traffic" as capital to negotiate with the "Fei County Peng Jiajia" who made him popular, wanting to "share a piece of the pie" in the dividend, but in the end it backfired, resulting in the termination of cooperation between the two sides.
Finally, there is a lack of organizational awareness and a failure to form a cohesive team. The ramen brother who only wants to do noodles, he does not have the ability to create an organized team to operate his own IP, relying on single-handedness, or there is no organized cooperation from the outside world, and he has not been able to continue to promote the development of this IP.
Without a solid underlying support, it is true that the higher the rise, the easier it is to fall. This is the root cause of ramen brother and even other Internet celebrities such as a flash in the pan.
Brother Ramen and Peng Jiajia of Fei County (left)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="122" > key factor supporting the profitability of small shops</h1>
Many caterers, all their lives, are busy with the business of small shops, and even maintaining basic profitability is a problem. This is more common in mom-and-pop shops.
If the three words "ramen brother" represent product strength and brand power, good use can indeed bring revenue to small stores, but this is only a pillar that supports the profitability of a single store, not all elements, not enough to support a complete "single store profit model".
In addition to products and brands, financial models, team management, customer operations, etc., are also important factors supporting small stores and even corporate profitability. Whether it is the ramen stall of the ramen brother or the business management, these points cannot be ignored.
Ramen sister-in-law and netizens sent small statuettes
First, take data analysis as the core and build a financial model.
The financial model of the store, including store investment, operating income, operating costs and payback period.
The ramen stall of The Ramen Brother is a typical mom-and-pop shop. The store investment is very small, and after years of operation, the cost has long been recovered. Moreover, the operating cost of the stall is very low, which is basically the cost of ingredients.
Of course, Brother Ramen does not have this awareness, and in his opinion, making a bowl of ramen is all. But for investors who want to run a good restaurant, this is a fundamental factor that cannot be ignored, and the comparison between input and output can be more clearly seen in order to see the path to profitability.
Second, with brand positioning as the core, establish two major systems of branding and store opening.
How to select the site, build the store and open the store, how to determine the effective brand positioning, the VI/SI presentation of the store and the dissemination and promotion are all important factors for the rapid development of the catering store.
Brother Ramen did not choose to set up a store, but for him, the choice of stall is equally important. His stalls are placed at the door of the crowded market, and the daily flow of customers is continuous, which is a must for catering people.
In this place for many years, the three words "Ramen Brother" have formed a brand, which is a guarantee of quality, but unfortunately, Brother Ramen himself has not been able to make it have a steady stream of influence.
When I think of this, I can't help but feel sorry. After all, maintaining a quality brand for a long time is more difficult than creating one. As a boss, you should always be more concerned about this.
Third, with customer needs as the core, establish product services, team management, customer operations and other systems.
Products and services are the most direct factors that connect the restaurant owner with the customer. Brother Ramen's product is naturally a bowl of delicious ramen, and there is nothing special, but his service characteristics are incomparable to others - that is, his simplicity and full of contentment make him and the villagers have no sense of distance, and his father and fellow villagers like to go to his stall to eat noodles.
In such a situation, he does not need to do any customer operation, no routine, no strategy, pure word of mouth communication, everyone can become a repeat customer, the referral rate is still high. This is the best customer operation.
As for the team, it is even more obvious. If it is said that after the explosion of popularity, Ramen Brother can form a sticky and cooperative organizational team with the Internet celebrity team and local official agencies to continue to do a good job in publicity and promotion, personnel management and other work, and will not eventually return to the original point.
Single store profit 123 model
If the key elements supporting the profitability of small stores are organically combined, an effective "single-store profit model" can be formed. Relying on this model, thousands of small restaurant owners like Ramen Brother, and even business owners, can extract the key points that support the efficiency and efficiency of a single store.
It is not beautiful to let small restaurant investors take fewer detours, form a single-store profit model, continue to make profits, and even carry out standardized replication to achieve chain operations.