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- Source/Brand Officer
- Author/Brand Officer
Internet celebrities in the past, cool today.
The chain soybean milk fritter shop "Taoyuan Military Village", which once subverted the positioning of the breakfast "roadside stall", now only has 4 stores struggling to support.
It is located next to the luxury brand LV, paying a lot of rent, but it sells the most down-to-earth home-cooked breakfast, soy milk, fried dough sticks, baked cakes and rice balls.
In December 2014, Taoyuan Military Village opened its first store of about 400 square meters on Taizhou Road in Shanghai.
Relying on the gorgeous decoration, the unit price of 50 yuan per person and the marketing gimmick of opening the "breakfast shop" next to LV, Taoyuan Military Village was given the title of "Hermes in the breakfast world".
In the past, if you wanted to eat a breakfast in Taoyuan Military Village, you had to queue for two and a half hours to eat, but now you can no longer see the crowd at the door.
This former originator of the "first generation of Internet celebrity stores" is still in the whirlpool of public opinion that has withdrawn stores in many places.
01, Internet celebrity, after all, still can't "become popular"
In 2014, when Taoyuan Military Village opened its first store in Shanghai, it became an instant hit with an article titled "He opened a fried cake fritters shop next to LV, which became popular all over the beach, and Internet celebrities were willing to queue for two hours to eat a bite".
This gave a lot of shock to the catering industry at that time, because it was able to transform the national catering category with great pyrotechnics into a brand, positioning it at a high-end level, selling at a high price, and the popularity also detonated the Internet and circle of friends.
Relying on the soaring popularity, in 2017, Taoyuan Military Village also won the favor of capital and completed the A round of financing, with investors such as Legend Capital and Mingyao Assets.
Long queues, taking photos and punching in, and blowing up the circle of friends...... There is no doubt that Taoyuan Military Village has the standard elements of "Internet celebrity store".
However, at present, the word Internet celebrity has evolved into a derogatory term, and in the constantly updated and iterative catering market, most Internet celebrity brands have disappeared into the torrent after rounds of reshuffling.
Today's Taoyuan Military Village is no exception, not only has it lost its popularity, but it has also closed stores intensively.
At its peak, there were more than 40 stores in Taoyuan Military Village, but only four are still in operation nationwide, including one in Shanghai, two in Chengdu and one in Xiamen.
You must know that Shanghai, as the largest market in Taoyuan Military Village, once opened 14 stores.
In fact, as early as 2021, Taoyuan Military Village exposed the news of the closure of stores in many places, not only the number of stores has been cut in half, but the surviving stores are also having a hard time, the occupancy rate is even only 10%, and there are more clerks than customers.
According to the report of Jiemian News, according to the enterprise investigation, Taoyuan Military Village belongs to Shanghai Xiangda Catering Management Co., Ltd., and this company has been marked in red with labels including restrictions on high consumption, equity freezing, and execution.
At this time and then, the once smash hit Internet celebrity store has now ended up like this, and the remaining 4 stores are struggling to support, which can't help but sigh.
02, take the high-end route of the "breakfast stall", lose very thoroughly
Taoyuan Military Village can be popular in the early stage, which is inseparable from its "contrast" positioning.
The store is opened into a popular shopping mall with a large traffic in first- and second-tier cities, a large store of 150-200 square meters, and it is decorated with a petty bourgeois tone, but it sells soy milk fritters.
As soon as consumers enter the store, they can be moved by this sense of contrast, after all, in Shanghai's most demanding business district, opening a baked cake shop is a very topical thing.
From the price point of view, Taoyuan Military Village does live up to the title of "Hermes in the breakfast world", 8 yuan for a piece of oil, 10 to 18 yuan for soybean milk according to the difference in sweetness, 22 yuan to 32 yuan for a baked cake, and 46 yuan to 88 yuan for a cage of xiaolongbao.
This price is really several times higher than that of the humble "breakfast stall" on the street.
A total of 293 yuan was spent for 6 people, with an average of 49 yuan per person
Of course, for the pricing of Taoyuan Military Village, even in a first-tier city like Shanghai, there are many complaints about "not cost-effective and expensive".
In particular, after tasting the soybean milk and fritters in Taoyuan Military Village, most consumers gave the evaluation of "just ordinary soy milk fritters" and "it is very delicious, not as good as a roadside breakfast stall".
"Value for money" is the lowest score
None of the founders of Taoyuan Military Village understand catering, but they definitely know the most about marketing.
One of the partners, Cheng Hui, used to be the creative director of a 4A advertising agency, and he knows that the one who does advertising knows the most about users, so Taoyuan Military Village can be said to be well versed in marketing.
At first, they positioned the core consumer group of Taoyuan Military Village as white-collar workers, petty bourgeoisie and trend-catchers.
Because, this kind of people can help them spread the word and create a topic.
Therefore, they convert every corner, every scenery, and every piece of furnishings in the store into elements that can be disseminated, that is, they can take photos and check in, and post them to Moments.
For example, when consumers drink the soy milk, the words "I am willing to spend my life for you" will appear at the bottom of the bowl, which attracts a large number of consumers to take photos and spread.
Even a pancake, they can make a pattern of it, adding salad, pork chops, tuna and other Taiwanese elements to the pancake.
In addition, each piece of food will be served with a bamboo stick, and the food will be brought to life in an anthropomorphic form, as if they are also living individuals, with their own thoughts and emotions.
Although it seems to be a bit pretentious now, it is very useful for petty bourgeoisie and young people who pursue novelty.
"In this period, I believe that it is more important to catch the pressure than to taste good. It's like doing Starbucks in the early days, you have to grab the targeted crowd and grab them. ”
It can be seen that when Taoyuan Military Village was first founded, the founder did not take into account the basic skill of catering-deliciousness, so it led to mixed reviews of the products by consumers.
However, in the catering market at that time, Internet celebrity stores relied on "gimmicks" to get out of the circle, not "delicious" out of the circle.
I have to say that in the gimmick, Taoyuan Military Village is indeed very good at manufacturing.
For example, when the Beijing store opened, they invited a professional lion dance team from Hong Kong, and the onlookers felt like they were in the scene of the Hong Kong film "Once Upon a Time".
During the Dragon Boat Festival, people will be invited to role-play "Qu Yuan" in various stores, attracting the surrounding crowd to watch and take pictures, which has triggered a new round of craze.
However, the Taoyuan Military Village, which has been out of the circle with marketing, has not brought a sense of surprise to consumers in recent years, and the initial check-in experience is gone, leaving only the dining function.
If it is not a catering brand that relies on delicious food to win, then the freshness of the brand is particularly important, so that the brand can have the ability to continue to attract new customers and do repeat business.
If "Internet celebrities" want to become "long-term red", in addition to marketing efforts, they must also keep iteratively updating products and generating explosive products to increase attention.
However, in recent years, the product differentiation of Taoyuan Military Village has not been large, compared with the frequency of "monthly new" of those Internet celebrity brands, not only is it pitiful, but also the characteristics are not obvious, and they are some "mass goods" without innovation, such as xiaolongbao, beef noodles and so on.
According to the article on the official account, its only new product in 2023 is rice wine.
In this way, once the consumer's hunting period passes, the attention of the brand will decrease, so that the "Internet celebrity" will be lost, and consumers will no longer take the initiative to communicate for the brand.
Therefore, once Taoyuan Military Village has no way to give consumers a continuous sense of freshness, then consumers will gradually not buy it, and the repurchase rate will be greatly reduced.
03. Does catering, high-end work?
The high-end of soy milk fritters is a good business, but it is not a profitable business.
Turning the breakfast of traditional roadside stalls into high-end shopping malls, Taoyuan Military Village can be said to have achieved the "entry into the house" of traditional categories.
However, in the public's traditional breakfast consumption cognition, soybean milk fritters belong to "parity" pricing.
A little premium is acceptable, and if the premium is too much, it would be rude.
Soy milk and fritters as the most common breakfast category, no matter how expensive it is, it is not expensive, after all, the value is there, so 30-40 yuan per capita is also acceptable, if it is raised to 100-200 yuan per capita, who do you think will be the big boss?
In the public's impression, soy milk fritters are not a high-end food, and no matter how expensive they are, they are only soy milk fritters, so consumers may want to check in, take pictures, and taste fresh for a while, but they will definitely not become frequent customers.
If the quality does not match the price, it is a proper "IQ tax" for consumers, and it is better to go to the breakfast stall downstairs and eat enough within 10 yuan.
A breakfast close to 50 yuan is not a level that the general public can consume for a long time.
Even if the store is opened next to LV and stained with the light of luxury, those consumers who can afford LV will not go to Taoyuan Military Village to eat a meal of soy milk fritters after buying LV.
It can be said that the birth and popularity of Taoyuan Military Village is in line with the trend of China's "consumption upgrading", and consumers are willing to accept the premium of the brand for the "quality" experience.
However, in today's economic downturn, consumption downgrade has become the main theme of everyone, and everyone is unwilling to spend unnecessary money, and is more pragmatic and rational in consumption.
And for the premium of the brand, everyone will also be more cautious and strict scrutiny, and no longer blindly impulsive.
According to the "2023 618 Consumption New Trend Insight Report", nearly six adults believe that they are more rational in consumption, and they have transitioned from free consumption to shopping around now.
In this context, brands have also begun to cooperate with consumption downgrades.
In the coffee and tea industry, the "Ruiku" war has hit the price of coffee into 9.9 yuan, and the new tea head brands Hey Tea and Nai Xue's tea are also constantly dropping prices, and the two sides have opened the banner of price reduction and bid farewell to drinks starting with 3.
The Internet celebrity effect can only ensure a momentary heat, and after the tide of impulse fades, the high-end with only its appearance will only show its original form.
Only by cultivating the internal strength of catering, creating excellent products and people-friendly prices, and then cooperating with marketing power, can the brand be like a tiger.
Just like this netizen said: "If you don't do a good job in product quality, you won't go long by hype." ”
The tide of Internet celebrities is fleeting, and even if you catch it, it is just a flash in the pan, and in the face of reality, these so-called popularity will become a passing cloud.
Brands must put aside gimmicks, truly serve with heart, and provide consumers with cost-effective meals, in order to be promoted from "Internet celebrity" to "Changhong".
Have you ever eaten Taoyuan Military Village? What do you think about the tide of store closure in Taoyuan Military Village? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area and share your views, thank you!
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