Surrounded by negative news, why are celebrities investing in catering frequently questioned?

In the past week, the catering "side business" of the two stars has flipped over - Hu Haiquan's brand "Honggong's Tea" was fined for tax evasion, and The Xianhezhuang founded by Chen He was also exposed to cutting franchisees "leeks" for many days. The Beijing Youth Daily reporter found that opening a restaurant has always seemed to be the first choice for celebrities as a side business, but catering companies with a star aura have been prone to negative news in recent years, or they have not been open for a long time.

Events: "Xianhezhuang" "Tea of Hongu" on the hot search

In the past week, Weibo's hot search has been occupied by keywords such as "Chen He" and "Xianhezhuang" for several days, first Xianhezhuang was collectively defended by franchisees, and it was exposed that it earned two or three hundred million yuan by joining fees. Later, it was exposed that Chen He, who had previously appeared in the activities of Xianhezhuang as a "boss", withdrew from the shareholders of Xianhezhuang, and he also deleted the content of Weibo about Xianhezhuang, which was suspected of "drawing a clear line" with the brand.

In this regard, on the evening of June 8, Xianhezhuang brine hot pot Weibo issued a statement saying that Chen He was not originally a direct shareholder of the main body of Xianhezhuang brand operation, and authorized Xianhezhuang to use its image, etc., and never charged any fees. The news that Chen He charged "240 million franchise fees" on the Internet was untrue, but there was no response to how much the franchise fee was collected, whether the collection was reasonable, and the relevant questions raised by franchisees. On June 11, Chen Hefa Weibo responded to the business dispute of Xianhezhuang, saying that for the Xianhezhuang brand, it will always maintain the identity of the founder and the franchisees of all stores to work together. At the same time, in response to the online doubts, we have taken the initiative to explain the situation to the relevant departments.

Although the two have issued statements to explain, netizens do not seem to buy it. On June 9, Guangzhou Honggong Catering Service Co., Ltd., an affiliate of "Honggong's Tea", was fined by the Second Inspection Bureau of the Guangzhou Municipal Taxation Bureau for tax evasion. The co-founder of this brand is the singer Hu Haiquan.

Phenomenon: Celebrity investment in catering for "traffic realization"

In fact, in recent years, many celebrities have devoted themselves to the catering industry, such as Xue Zhiqian participated in the investment in Shangqian hot pot, Huang Xiaoming, Li Bingbing, Huang Bo, He Jiong, Jing Boran, Ren Quan, six stars were once shareholders of Hot Spicy No. 1, Du Haitao and Wu Xin were the co-founders of Spicy Dou Spicy, Zheng Kai launched "Huofengxiang Fresh Hot Pot", and Huang Lei and Meng Fei's Huang Liang Yi Meng...

However, many celebrities open restaurants that eventually close their doors. Some netizens combed the catering stores opened by more than 40 celebrities that have been reported in the past 20 years, of which more than 85% of the restaurants eventually closed their doors and the brands disappeared, and the existence of these catering brands was mostly 2 to 5 years, and some even closed down after just 1 year.

Why don't celebrity restaurants last long? In addition to the catering industry itself is a fiercely competitive Red Sea industry, more importantly, most of the celebrities open stores to make "traffic monetization".

The Beijing Youth Daily reporter learned that the MCN institution that incubated Internet celebrities is to convert the fans of Internet celebrities into the purchasing power of products through the model of to B after the success of the early IP. When celebrities open stores, they skip the process of incubation and can directly monetize traffic.

In the early years, Hu Haiquan took a drink of "Hongu's tea" on a variety show. The sudden rise of Xianhezhuang is also based on Chen He to mobilize his influence on Douyin, and implant the scene of "Xianhezhuang" in the variety show he participated in.

Relying on star aura marketing, driven by the fan economy, many consumers are holding the feelings of supporting the stars they love, or hoping to meet stars in restaurants opened by stars. There are also consumers who "transplant" the aura of celebrities to restaurants, but many people find that some celebrities open restaurants with expensive dishes, small quantities and poor tastes after consumption. For example, in 2017, Huang Liang Yimeng was on the hot search for selling beef for 388 yuan a piece.

Under the premise of pursuing "traffic realization", celebrities pay "fame", while the operation of restaurants is mostly entrusted to others, not their own business, and the operation and management of these restaurants are naturally mostly unsatisfactory. Some of these restaurants have also exposed various negative news, such as food safety, health problems, shoddy charging, franchise disputes, and some even involve unlicensed operations, illegal fund-raising and other issues that violate the law.

After the tax evasion incident was exposed, in a reply to netizens, the "Hongu Tea" brand also said that Hu Haiquan did not hold any management positions in the company and did not participate in the daily operation and management of the company. Through the two official replies of "Hongu's Tea" and Kenhezhuang, it is not difficult to find that although they are known as the founders of the brand, the business stars of these catering brands themselves are basically "not asked".

In the industry: "endorsement" is not really a store after all

Some insiders said that the opening of a star store is itself the realization of its "fame". Some catering companies are indeed invested by celebrities with money, but there are many doorways in the catering industry, and the stars do not have time to take care of it themselves, and eventually like some small white investors who are involved in catering for the first time, they end up closing down.

Some so-called celebrity stores are even a disguised "endorsement": the star does not contribute, enters the shares in his own image, and finally takes dividends by the proportion of shares, or at the agreed time, "sells" the shares back to the enterprise or is "taken over" by other enterprises, the brand or enterprise actually has nothing to do with the star himself, and the equity is the endorsement fee.

Compared with the high-profile promotion of "celebrity stores" at the opening of the business, some brands have poured out before or after the emergence of big negative news, most of the stars quietly withdraw or withdraw or withdraw shares or change shareholders and a series of actions, just to cut off with the brand.

What's more, some so-called celebrity stores are not aimed at making money for consumers. Some catering practitioners who did not want to be named said that some brand operation companies, or the acquisition of celebrity stores or the way to find stars to "endorse" catering brands in the form of shares, want the stars to drive traffic, and create excellent operating data in the early stage. These companies earn the investor's franchise fee. "It's like a TV franchise advertisement more than a decade ago, except that the original money for advertising for TV stations gave celebrities endorsements."

Compared with ordinary franchise projects, these brands with star "blessing" can not only attract more investors, but also offer higher fees than similar franchise projects. For example, in the franchise cost of a hot pot, the store decoration fee is 700 yuan to 900 yuan / square meter, the equipment cost is 130,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan, the opening cost is 10,000 yuan, and so on; The decoration fee of Wangchuan Xianhezhuang is 1500 yuan / square meter, the equipment fee is 600,000 yuan (including the front hall and kitchen), and the opening cost is 50,000 yuan. Of course, there are differences in the decoration effect and the number of equipment, but if you rely on this detail, the opening fee is indeed much higher.

But in either case, unless the star sits in his own store every day, the so-called "star's shop" is just a kind of marketing. No wonder some netizens "summarized" the celebrity store opening routine: using fame to open a store to earn franchisee money; The money is almost earned, and the shares are gradually withdrawn; Immediately draw a line with the brand after seeing bad business or having an accident.

Catering industry insiders said that the long-term operation of the restaurant depends on the repurchase rate, and the repurchase rate of people nearby determines whether a restaurant makes money or not. Because the restaurant is restricted by geographical location and other conditions, the coverage of the crowd is always limited, and the traffic brought by the stars to the restaurant is difficult to break through the geographical restriction. There is no long-term stimulation of repurchases, and the "star's store" cannot last long. "After the star aura fades, whether the store can continue to operate and make money depends on multiple factors such as the franchisee's own ability, product, location and so on." So the success is still a minority. ”

Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Dong Siyun Caption Source: IC photo Image Editor: Zi Xi

Source: Author: Beijing Youth Daily