Lead
A number of Hunan cuisine brands are breaking through with tactics such as "focus", "localization", "extreme efficiency" and "economy".
This article was originally published by Red Meal Think Tank (ID: hongcanzk), author: Li Qiting.
As one of the eight major cuisines, Hunan cuisine has conquered the taste buds of consumers with its spicy and spicy taste. In recent years, the development potential of Hunan cuisine has gradually increased, and it has developed rapidly throughout the country. The Red Meal Brand Research Institute observed that at present, many Hunan cuisine brands in China are accelerating their expansion, such as Lan Xiangzi and so on.
It is not difficult to see that Hunan cuisine has once again ushered in an opportunity for development. In the new round of craze, the entire track of Hunan cuisine also presents a different development look from the past.
In this regard, the Red Meal Brand Research Institute released the "Hunan Cuisine Development Report 2023", so that readers can have a clearer understanding of the current development status of Hunan cuisine.
The Hunan cuisine brand breakthrough battle began
The rising star brings the heat of Hunan cuisine
According to Red Meal Big Data, the national Hunan cuisine market is expected to reach RMB226.4 billion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 33.6%, and is expected to increase to a certain extent compared with 2019. From the perspective of market scale growth, the development speed of Hunan cuisine in recent years is relatively fast, and the growth rate of market scale is generally higher than that of Chinese formal meals, it is not difficult to see that the development momentum of Hunan cuisine in recent years is very rapid.
In addition to the market size, it can also be seen from the number of stores in Hunan cuisine. According to statistics, as of September 2023, there are about 118,000 Hunan cuisine stores nationwide. About 2,750 Hunan restaurants have been added in the past year, while only about 600 have closed.
At the same time, many Hunan cuisine brands are also accelerating the expansion of stores. According to the observation of the Red Meal Brand Research Institute, in the past three years, many chain Hunan cuisine brands have bucked the trend to expand their stores, and a number of powerful brands have emerged in the Hunan cuisine track, such as Lan Xiangzi, Chef Fei's chili stir-fried meat, Nongging Ji, spicy cocoa Hunan cuisine, Hunan spicy and spicy, etc.
Among them, Lan Xiangzi, founded in 2019, is a powerful brand of Hunan cuisine that has run a relatively bright spot in recent years. According to Red Meal Big Data, as of September 2023, Lanxiangzi has reached 200 directly-operated stores nationwide, making it the Hunan cuisine chain brand with the largest number of directly operated stores at present. From this point of view, it can be said that it is a well-deserved head brand of Hunan cuisine.
However, although the Hunan cuisine brand has developed rapidly, looking at the current Hunan cuisine track, the overall degree of chain is not high. According to Red Meal Big Data, as of September 2023, among the Hunan cuisine brands in the country, brands with 50 stores or less accounted for nearly 90%. Hunan cuisine brands with more than 100 stores accounted for only 3.1%. It can be seen that the "big chain" is not an easy task for Hunan cuisine brands.
This can also be seen in the regional distribution and the city-level distribution.
In terms of regional distribution, the development of Hunan cuisine is mainly in the southeast region. According to the big data of red food, Hunan cuisine stores are mainly concentrated in South China, Central China, and East China, although there are also Hunan cuisine stores in other regions, but the proportion is relatively small.
From the perspective of urban line-level distribution, the number of Hunan cuisine stores in first-tier and new first-tier cities accounted for more than 20%, of which Changsha had the largest number of Hunan cuisine stores, followed by Shenzhen and Guangzhou, becoming the second "base camp" of Hunan cuisine brands.
To sum up, the development space of Hunan cuisine track is still broad. But at the same time, we also need to face up to the current development pain points of the Hunan vegetable market.
In addition to the low degree of chaining and significant regionalization characteristics mentioned above, most Hunan cuisine brands still have problems that need to be solved urgently, such as "pot gas" and efficiency, and imperfect industrial chains.
"Focused", "Efficient", "Cost-effective"
Analysis of Hunan cuisine brand breakout tactics
While most brands are struggling with how to break through, some Hunan cuisine brands have found the right tactics and achieved corner overtaking. For example, Lan Xiangzi, only 4 years after its establishment, its direct stores have been stationed in 13 provinces and 43 cities across the country, and the brand potential radiation area exceeds that of the vast majority of Hunan cuisine brands.
The Red Meal Brand Research Institute has conducted a survey on the image of a number of Hunan cuisine brands, and found that consumers generally believe that Lan Xiangzi has the characteristics of fast serving speed, fast response, efficient service, high cost performance, economy, good taste, fresh and high-quality ingredients.
It is speculated that "efficient", "affordable" and "good taste" may be the key to Lan Xiangzi's ability to stand out among many Hunan cuisine brands.
So how does it do it? The Red Food Brand Research Institute summarizes the following four breakthrough tactics.
Tactic 1: Focus on Hunan cuisine stir-fry
In recent years, the comprehensive search popularity of Hunan cuisine stir-fry on various mainstream media platforms has shown an overall trend of heating up, which shows that the popularity of Hunan cuisine stir-fry in the main meal consumption market continues to rise. The Hunan cuisine small stir-fried Hunan cuisine brand represented by Lan Xiangzi, Chef Fei's chili stir-fried meat, Xiang spicy and spicy, etc., has expanded its stores very rapidly.
Among them, Lan Xiangzi opened about 50 new stores from January to August 2023, an increase of more than 20% over the same period last year.
Tactic 2: Localize taste, improve the supply chain, and focus on talent training to open up the national market
The level of national layout of Hunan cuisine brands is slightly higher than that of Chinese meals as a whole. According to the big data of red meals, the stores of Hunan cuisine brands cover an average of 11 cities, while the stores of Chinese formal food brands cover an average of 8 cities. Among the directly operated brands, the number of cities covered by Lanxiangzi stores is much higher than that of other Hunan cuisine brands, becoming the Hunan cuisine direct brand with the most extensive store coverage.
From the perspective of store distribution, Lanxiangzi takes Shaanxi as the core, and the store distribution expands horizontally from east to west, and gradually radiates to other provinces and cities in the north. At the same time, in recent years, Lanxiangzi has gradually explored the north and south vertically, and stores have also entered some provinces and cities on the eastern coast and southwest region.
It is understood that in order to break through regional restrictions and achieve national expansion, Lan Xiangzi will adjust the salinity and spiciness of the product according to the taste preferences of the local market to ensure that the taste is more in line with the taste of local consumers. Not only that, Lan Xiangzi also attaches great importance to the construction of supply chain system and the cultivation of back-kitchen talents.
In general, Lan Xiangzi consciously started from product taste, ingredient quality and talent management at the beginning of its establishment to lay the foundation for national expansion. Thanks to such a forward-looking strategic layout, Lan Xiangzi can go faster and faster on the road of nationalization.
Tactic 3: The front office and the back kitchen work together to create the ultimate serving efficiency
According to a survey by the Red Food Brand Research Institute, 43.3% of consumers said that the average waiting time for the first dish to be served when eating out was 10~20 minutes, while less than half of consumers were "satisfied" with this duration, and most of the rest said that it was "acceptable".
In addition, in terms of the time taken by the dishes to be qi, 53.4% of consumers said that the average waiting time for all dishes to be served when eating out was 20~30 minutes, and seventy percent of consumers expressed "satisfaction" with this time.
From the survey data, it can be seen that consumers' tolerance for "waiting" is decreasing. In order to improve the dining experience of consumers, Lan Xiangzi has made a series of adjustments.
In the face of consumers' requirements for higher dining efficiency, Lan Xiangzi made a "25-minute dish service, overtime dishes are delivered for free!" and optimize efficiency from ordering, menu structure, ingredient cutting, stir-frying and cooking.
Through the tacit cooperation of the front office and the back kitchen, Lan Xiangzi's dining efficiency has been greatly improved, consumers' sense of experience has become better, their satisfaction with the brand has been higher, and Lan Xiangzi's consumers have become more sticky.
It is understood that the average serving time of Lan Xiangzi's first dish is about 6~8 minutes after the customer sits down, and try to serve the dishes within 25 minutes. Under such extreme efficiency, Lan Xiangzi has created a daily turnover of 12 times.
Tactic 4: Anchor cost-effective and affordable brand positioning
The Red Meal Brand Research Institute observed that most of the Hunan cuisine brands with good development momentum are aiming at cost-effective and affordable price positioning. At present and for a long time to come, this will still be the mainstream of Hunan cuisine. According to the big data of red meals, the proportion of Hunan cuisine brands with a per capita consumption price of 50~80 yuan has reached 75.4%, which is much higher than the average consumption price range of others.
Lan Xiangzi, who has long had a keen insight into the market, positioned the brand as a cost-effective Hunan dish stir-fry from the beginning. According to the big data of red meals, the per capita consumption of Lan Xiangzi is in the range of about 60 yuan. From the perspective of the unit price of its dishes, the number of dishes of Lan Xiangzi 20 yuan ~ 30 yuan accounted for 40%. Its signature dishes, stir-fried meat with chili pepper and stir-fried yellow beef, are priced at only 49.8 yuan and 59.8 yuan respectively.
And many Hunan restaurants of the same type basically sell for these two dishes at 70 or 80 yuan. It can be seen that compared horizontally with other Hunan cuisine brands of the same type, Lan Xiangzi's dish price pricing is more close to the people.
With a very high cost performance, Lan Xiangzi has also won the love of many consumers, and relevant data shows that from January to July 2023, the cumulative number of tables queued by Lan Xiangzi reached more than 1.21 million.
epilogue
Hunan cuisine naturally has the characteristics of being grounded and close to the people, and it is also more acceptable to the public. Nowadays, with the Hunan cuisine brand represented by Lan Xiangzi, by focusing on "Hunan cuisine small stir-fry", streamlining SKUs, and upgrading traditional Hunan cuisine restaurants from various levels such as store service and dining efficiency, Hunan cuisine will usher in great development in the future.
However, at present, Hunan cuisine is also facing many pain points in its development. If Hunan cuisine brands want to break through, they may be able to start by further improving the supply chain, digging deep into the Hunan cuisine subdivision track, creating differentiated products, and carrying out multi-dimensional innovation.
Red Meal Brand Research Institute believes that with the further improvement of the Hunan cuisine ingredient industry chain, under the continuous exploration of Hunan cuisine brands such as Lan Xiangzi, Hunan cuisine will usher in a broader space for development. In the future, there will be more Hunan cuisine brands rising!