Selling goods online, why can't the big guys of restaurant companies do small brands?

Image source @ Visual China

Wen | Red Food Network, the author | Yuyan

Restaurant chain big brands to be famous, to have resources and resources, the supply chain is more perfect, why do convenient fast food but can not do the emerging small brands? Behind this, it actually reveals a compulsory course that traditional restaurant companies generally lack - the operational logic of new retail in catering.

Affected by the epidemic, coupled with the rise of Generation Z, the demand for convenient fast food has exploded, and restaurant companies have also entered the game to share a piece of the pie.

However, the red restaurant network combed and found that in this new battlefield, well-known chain bosses want to be famous and famous, and they want resources and resources, but in most cases they can't do the emerging Internet celebrity brands.

For example, the sour and spicy powder launched by Haidilao, the self-heating small hot pot launched by Dezhuang and Xiaolongkan, the sales volume on platforms such as Taobao and Douyin, and the data of Internet celebrity brands have a gap. The sales volume of Jia Guolong's kung fu dishes is also relatively average.

Obviously, the big guy has more advantages in making food, why can't he do some emerging Internet celebrity catering brands or new consumer brands?

Selling convenient fast food, chain big guys can't do small brands

Under the new normal of the epidemic, traditional catering has encountered great challenges, while the convenient fast food track has ushered in new development opportunities.

Convenient fast food is a concentrated embodiment of the lazy (home) economy under the pressure of singleness, loneliness and fast-paced life. From the perspective of market demand, it is mainly a consumption upgrade product of 3-5 yuan of traditional instant noodles.

According to the "2021 Convenience Fast Food Industry Insight Report" released by CBNData, the domestic convenience food market size exceeds 250 billion yuan, with a growth rate of more than 70% in the past year.

Young consumers are becoming more and more at home, more and more lazy, forcing traditional catering companies to lay out convenient fast food.

For example, Haidilao has launched self-heating hot pot, brewed rice and brewed vermicelli products through online and offline channels. On Taobao, in Haidilao's flagship store, its self-heating hot pot sales are 20,000 copies/month, and sour and spicy powder sales are 9,000 pieces/month (as of March 31).

Image source: Haidilao flagship store

Xiaolongkan hot pot also launched self-heating hot pot and sour chili powder, on Taobao, self-heating small hot pot sold about 10,000 pieces a month; sour chili powder sold about 1,000 pieces a month.

Xibei launched Jia Guorong kung fu dishes (grassland scorpions, noodle fish and other products), and the monthly sales of single links on Taobao were about 1,000 pieces. Mongolian cheese cakes are heated and eaten, selling about 10,000 servings a month.

It is worth mentioning that although the data of the above-mentioned retail products of restaurant companies looks good, if compared with the Internet celebrity FMCG brand, the gap is still quite large.

Taking chutney products as an example, the current online sales are top brands such as Cannibals and My God, and the monthly sales are generally around 50,000-100,000 pieces.

As for the head brand of self-heating hot pot, Mo Xiaoxian has multiple single links with monthly sales of about 30,000 copies. Thanks to the strength of offline brands and the early entry, Haidilao can still compete with these internet celebrity fast food brands.

If the focus of traditional restaurant companies is on store dine-in, new retail is only incremental, but it is not as good as FMCG brands, and it is generally forgivable. But what is surprising is that the achievements of some emerging catering brands in this regard can easily beat big guys such as Haidilao and Xibei in a second.

For example, Xiaoman Handmade Noodles, a rice noodle restaurant founded in 2018, currently has more than 70 stores across the country. Its "full of small" series of rice noodle retail products, with "hot Hong Kong's fat rice noodles" as the selling point, the monthly sales data on Taobao is more than 50,000 pieces, and there are also a large number of "planting grass" on Xiaohongshu and Douyin.

The same catering enterprises, the same selling rice noodle retail products, Xiaoman handmade powder new retail performance is obviously better than Haidilao, Xiaolongkan. Compared with Haidilao's best product self-heating hot pot, the same is true of the (Taobao sales) gap.

Restaurant chain big brands to be famous, to have resources and resources, the supply chain is more perfect, why do convenient fast food but can not do the emerging small brands?

Behind this, it reveals a compulsory course that traditional restaurant companies generally lack - the operational logic of new retail in catering.

Product taste and price band determine the market space

Red Food Network interviewed a number of big coffee in the industry, including the traders of the Internet celebrity FMCG brand, and finally figured out the key points.

First of all, objectively speaking, the success of a brand's operation is the comprehensive result of product power, brand power and channel power. On the track of convenient fast food, when the brand power does not quickly open the gap, who is strong enough in product strength and channel power can quickly outperform the market.

The strength of the product force, the first layer is not the delicious and high quality that we catering people generally think, but "to see if the product is in line with the consumption trend, the so-called situation is stronger than people, to meet the 'time, place and people' consumption upgrade."

According to the "2021 Convenience Fast Food Industry Insight Report", in the MAT2020 Tmall convenience food category fastest growing category statistics, convenient fans and rice noodles ranked First, with a growth rate of 26 times; in the convenience fast food night snack ranking, convenient fans and rice noodles ranked Second. In terms of taste, sour and spicy are the dominant flavor types chosen by consumers.

Image source: 2021 Convenience Fast Food Industry Insight Report

It can be seen that chutney/rice noodles are the most popular fast food category among online consumer groups at present. Haidilao and Xiaolongkan have also seen this trend and have launched chutney products. The rapid rise of new retail products of Xiaoman handmade powder is also related to this trend.

The second layer is the pricing of online products, which must be in line with the acceptance habits of online consumer groups - everyone can afford it.

Wang Zhengqi, founder of Mo Xiaoxian, once said: "The target customers of convenient fast food are ordinary consumers who pursue cost performance and convenience, such as college students, urban white-collar workers, etc., and have a strong penetration ability in third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities." Just like the old dry mother, everyone can afford it. ”

An industry personnel who has been engaged in convenient fast food for 4 years also has this view, and the age of consumers of convenient fast food is concentrated between 90-95, and the price band is between 6-15 yuan, and the sales speed will be faster and more popular.

From the chart below, whether it is self-heating hot pot or chutney powder, the higher the price, the lower the number of transactions. (March 31 Taobao data) The following selection content is a single link with higher sales in Taobao stores:

As far as the self-heating hot pot is concerned, the price of good sales is concentrated in 10-20 yuan / box, and the pricing of traditional restaurant companies is generally high, all around 30 yuan, or blessed by brand power, and Haidilao can sell it.

It is worth mentioning that recently Xiaolongkan launched an activity, 5 boxes of small hot pot priced at 27.8 yuan, the price discount is unprecedented, and the monthly sales reach 10,000 copies. Previously, when its small hot pot set was priced at 60.8 yuan / 2 boxes, it only sold 1,000 pieces per month. After the price reduction, it brought 10 times the sales volume.

As far as chutney/rice noodles/noodles are concerned, the pricing is generally 4-20 yuan, and the best sales volume is the price band of 10-15 yuan, and the price of ramen noodles priced at 20 yuan is said to be slightly expensive because the sales volume is not high. In this regard, the convenient instant sour and spicy powder launched by Haidilao and Xiaolongkan is actually doing a good job, and the price is around 6-7 yuan.

In terms of pre-made vegetable products, The cheapest Mongolian cheese cake in Sibei sells the best, but it is also cheaper than the internet celebrity FMCG brand chicken soup wontons.

The third level of product power is convenience and speed. The characteristics of more and more lazy houses after 90 require that the product be eaten as simply as possible, can be brewed and cooked, and it is best not to use it to cook again. For new retail products that meet this basic feature, the market feedback is significantly better.

E-commerce channels have deep plowed their capabilities and driven the rapid development of brands

On the basis of the product has a certain track heat, a trend dividend, and the pricing is also appropriate, on the marketing side, whether the convenience fast food can produce better sales and can develop rapidly, the channel capture and deep ploughing ability requirements of the enterprise helmsman are very strong.

"17 years of content marketing, 18 years of social e-commerce, 19 years of live broadcasting, we have stepped on the wind at every step." One of the co-founders of Ramen said so.

Brands need to "go wherever there's traffic." The rise of a large number of Internet celebrities and convenience fast food brands has all seized several channel dividends to achieve rapid development and market accumulation.

In the past two years, a large number of new-style Internet celebrity FMCG products started, that is, to seize the first wave of douyin live broadcast, Li Jiaqi, Wei Ya, Lin Xinxin, Brilliance Chenyu and other KOLs live broadcast goods, boosting Akita full of Liuzhou snail powder, three squirrels, Mo Xiaoxian and other brands to quickly go out of the circle, single live broadcast sales up to millions.

In contrast, the retail products incubated by traditional restaurants, such as Haidilao's sour and spicy powder, self-heating hot pot, Xiaolongkan products, etc., rarely appear to be promoted on channels such as the big up master, and the performance of the brand live broadcast room is also average.

The recent performance of Xibei in Douyin is remarkable, and the data on March 9 shows that Xibei Douyin small store with goods is 70,000 a day, reaching 190,000 on the 31st, and the data with goods continues to improve, even exceeding the Self-Hi Pot, Ramen say and other Internet celebrity FMCG brands. The 20-day increase of 270% times shows the effort behind it.

Data source: Professional Douyin live e-commerce app Cicada Mother On March 31, the turnover of goods on Douyin was carried by enterprises

In fact, if traditional restaurant companies want to do a good job in new retail, they must find out the way of playing e-commerce channels. For example, if you want to play douyin e-commerce, you must first figure out the latest "rules of the game". At present, Douyin e-commerce has derived two new ways of playing, the first of which is that saturation attacks small and medium-sized up owners, and adopts a pure commission model to bring goods.

A large number of new startups, especially supply chain companies, have extremely high advantages in cost, creating goods with a unit price of 3-6 yuan, while looking for pure commissions to up the main docking, with average monthly sales of more than 20 million or even 50 million.

The second way to play is to switch to the self-built live streaming with goods mode.

At present, the head of the flow of people dividend has fallen sharply, a large anchor with goods down, in addition to the pit fee, the turnover of the draw, the brand side only earns money and does not make money, "a piece of goods down, sometimes only earn a few thousand pieces, net profit is only 5%". An industry insider confessed. The brand's self-built live broadcast room live streaming with goods model, the profit began to be considerable. "Selling 30,000 or 50,000 a day can earn more than 8,000 yuan, and the net profit is about 17%."

From relying on tripartite talents to bring goods to self-built Vibrato live broadcast with goods, some head brand players have invested a lot of energy in this, establishing a multi-matrix live broadcast room model, and monthly self-broadcast sales are nearly 10 million.

"Many players may have misconceptions and have questions about whether to build a live broadcast room or a multi-matrix live broadcast room." An industry insider said that the current rapid approach is to establish a multi-live broadcast room, the flow of people on Vibrato is massive, and the multi-matrix live broadcast room can quickly achieve sales growth without distracting users' attention.

In the view of this industry insider, douyin e-commerce is an emerging game, if traditional restaurant companies want to get involved in new fast consumption, whether they can quickly embrace new changes, whether they can quickly see the new situation, and deeply cultivate e-commerce in various channels, is an important factor in determining whether they can build online brands.

Convenience fast food to develop, but ultimately still test the supply chain

In any case, with the long-term continuation of the epidemic and the rise of the Z generation population, the background of the rise of comprehensive vibrato e-commerce and the growth of the convenience fast food industry will be a long-term trend. In the future, more and more local cuisines will quickly come to consumers through the Internet.

At present, on the track of the convenience fast food industry, the TOP10 enterprises are basically based on Internet red brands, and there is no shadow of traditional restaurant companies. Ramen noodles, small stoves, empty deliberate noodles, thrive in the industry.

However, it is worth noting that the production model of convenient fast food internet celebrity brands is mostly carried out in the form of OEM.

Li Ziqi, Hao Huanluo, etc. all have foundry factories in Liuzhou; in the field of self-heating hot pot, self-heating hot pot, Self-hi pot, Mo Xiaoxian, etc. are also developing rapidly in the form of OEM; and Wang Xiaohao, which is mainly based on tiger skin and phoenix claws, according to industry insiders, also adopts the OEM oem model. At present, the hot sour and spicy powder industry in the market, in Henan Jiaozuo, Kaifeng, etc., there are a large number of foundry enterprises.

The update speed of internet celebrity convenience fast food products is very fast, and the FOUNDG mode is flexible, avoiding the pressure on a single production line, and can quickly select multiple products to go online at the same time. But there is no doubt that self-built supply chains will have better guarantees for product quality.

Judging from the previous outbreak of "a snail lion powder brand worm egg" incident, as well as "a foreign body appearing in a lasagnacular skin" and other hot searches, the control of product quality by Internet celebrity convenience fast food brands needs to be improved, and this will also be one of the major advantages of traditional restaurant companies in the field of FMCG in the future.