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Red Net Moment News correspondent Hu Xiao reported from Guangzhou
The essence of food and beverage is to depict the beauty of contemporary life with taste. With rice Xiangxu rooted in the city, and continue to take root, constantly exploring the beautiful connection between Hunan cuisine and the city. "Taste of Hunan" invited Huang Yao, the founder of the Xiangxu brand, to talk about how to take root in the city with Hunan cuisine and how to integrate with the local culture.
Taste of Hunan: Hello Mr. Huang, it is my pleasure to invite you to be interviewed by us, first of all, please introduce yourself and your resume.
Huang Yao: My personal resume is relatively simple. At first, because I was from Jiangxi, I made Jiangxi cuisine, and with my familiarity with the catering industry and the insight into customer preferences and demand trends, I began to make Hunan cuisine.
"Taste Hunan": We learned that you are a Hakka from Jiangxi, why did you enter the track of Hunan cuisine to start a business?
Huang Yao: Frankly speaking, I first made Jiangxi cuisine. However, it is also found that Jiangxi cuisine and Hunan cuisine are also quite close in terms of humanistic culture and food culture, and then see the acceptance and love of customers for the dishes, they are also more inclined to Hunan cuisine. Subsequently, together with my team, I officially crossed into the field of Hunan cuisine, and this process was relatively comfortable.
To Fan Xiang Xu Ming file environment.
"Taste of Hunan": What kind of idea and story is the brand named "Yifan Xiangxu" based on?
Huang Yao: As for the brand name, at the beginning, I was also thinking about it, especially trying to come up with a good name for our restaurant, and I was quite excited the night I came up with it.
The origin of the name is a few of my thoughts on my personal past experiences. From going to work to starting a business, and now entering the catering industry to cook Hunan cuisine. Along the way, there are quite a few people who want to be thanked. Therefore, behind the name of "Yifan Xiangxu", what I want to express more is my gratitude and gratitude to the people who have helped me along the way.
At the same time, to the present. What I would like to express more is the attitude of our brand towards all our customers. It is an attitude of making every meal well, an attitude of "making promises with the heart". I have always told the team that every time it should be like cooking for the family, more attentive and more dedicated, so as to better convey our beauty.
And the meaning of "Xu" in this name also represents a value of me and my team, which is to truly take root in the catering industry and "Xu to" this industry. Because the catering industry is very attractive, it can make many ordinary people like me shine through their own efforts. Therefore, I will often communicate with the team, we want to settle down our hearts, choose this industry, this enterprise, we should use a "promise" mentality, do a good job in the hands of the hand, and always have an attitude of "everything will be better through my hands", which has also become the value that our team agrees on.
Taste of Hunan: What do you understand as the taste of Hunan, what are the characteristics of the dish design of Fan Xiangxu, and how do you present this taste?
Huang Yao: In terms of taste, I think the taste of Hunan is very rich and evocative, and it is very easy for people to get a sense of happiness from it. And including me and the people around me, there are too many people who love Hunan cuisine, so it gives me a feeling, that is, the taste of Hunan, which has slowly become a national taste, and everyone loves to eat it.
Moreover, in a city like Guangzhou, as far as the people I see in Guangzhou, the younger the people, the more accepting of Hunan cuisine is. It gives me a feeling that Hunan cuisine is now relatively popular in the whole country and is a model representative of Chinese cuisine.
In our "Fan Xiang Xu", it is mainly aimed at customers aged 25~30, and mainly white-collar workers and young residents living around, so for them, it is more of a "daily meal" choice, which is based on such consumer groups, as well as the characteristics of this type of people who love life and love to share life. In addition to the taste itself, we also pay attention to the appearance of the dishes, so as to bring customers a better dining experience.
Taste of Hunan: In 2022, Yifan Xiangxu was rated as a "Guangzhou Food Landmark" at the Guangzhou Asian Food Festival, what advantages do you think Yifan Xiangxu won this title?
Huang Yao: First of all, we would like to thank our customers for their love, support, recognition and encouragement. Secondly, in my opinion, it's not about how perfect we are, I think it's more about our adaptation to Guangzhou, so as to improve our brand. Everything about our brand is thought about and developed around the experience of our customers. From the dining environment, to the service process, from the menu design to the price design, it is all based on the design and implementation in the direction that customers like.
Taste of Hunan: How do you think of the young consumer group now, what are the characteristics of their preferences? and how do you gain the hearts of young consumers?
Huang Yao: I think today's young people are a generation with a lot of personality, and they are more in pursuit of a sense of experience in life. And in my opinion, in this day and age, everyone's consumption is more about pursuing a uniqueness. Therefore, from the moment we opened our first restaurant, I thought that what was missing in the market was not a Hunan restaurant, but whether there was a restaurant that could be integrated with their daily needs. Based on this thinking, we will consider and meet the lifestyle, consumption habits, and dietary preferences of contemporary young people in terms of the amount and structure of the dishes, the design and actual experience of the restaurant.
Xiangxu chili fried meat.
"Taste Hunan": Yifan Xiangxu is currently only doing direct sales, not franchises, why did he have such a decision, and what kind of help will it help for brand development?
Huang Yao: In my opinion, it's not about who is right or who is wrong in direct sales or franchises. Rather, we need to go back to our restaurant, the brand itself, and we hope to continue to build a brand around our customers that is compatible with their lifestyle.
We want to make the brand last longer, to really build a better relationship with customers, to really live with them, to be their "family kitchen" for their daily meals, or to match the fast-paced life of the city. Therefore, we are not pursuing to blindly expand the scale of the brand, but to return to better meet the needs of customers, take the time to allow ourselves to dig more deeply, understand and adapt to the needs of customers, build a truly beautiful lifestyle between our brand and consumers, and convey more small beauty and small happiness. That's what we want to convey to consumers.
At the same time, I also believe that the development of the brand is based on the acceptance, love and recognition of more and more consumers, and is a relationship of trust with consumers.
Taste of Hunan: In recent years, the development trend of Hunan cuisine has become popular, what do you think are the main advantages of Hunan cuisine, and what will be the development direction of Hunan cuisine in the future?
Huang Yao: From my personal point of view, this trend is closely related to the spirit and culture of Hunan itself. And Hunan itself is also loved by many consumers, and more and more people like to travel to Hunan, which also gives Hunan cuisine a good impetus for its outward development. At the same time, Hunan people and Hunan culture are inclusive, which will also affect the value culture of Hunan cuisine, so that Hunan cuisine is also inclusive and adaptable, which also promotes Hunan cuisine to go better outward, which also further promotes Hunan cuisine to become a representative of national taste.
"Taste of Hunan": As a representative brand of the new generation of Hunan cuisine, Fan Xiang Xu is mainly young and young, what kind of expectations and plans do you have for the future development of the Fan Xiang Xu brand?
Huang Yao: We originated in Guangzhou, and we also hope to take root and develop in Guangzhou. We are deeply involved in this city, and we also hope to bring more beauty to this city, and we hope to bring more small blessings in life to young people who are struggling here.
In the future, with the continuous development of our brand, we hope to take root in one city and then in another, to truly integrate the different lifestyles of each city, to actively integrate with local taste preferences, and to integrate with local cultural characteristics, and find a balance and way for our brand development.
"Taste of Hunan": As the founder of Rice Promise, what are the differences and feelings between Jiangxi cuisine and Hunan cuisine for you?
Huang Yao: The difference between the two cuisines is also like the difference between the cultures of the two provinces, but at the same time, there is also a commonality of food culture between the two cuisines. At the same time, the consumer's own cognitive process of the cuisine also gives me a relatively big feeling. Whether it is Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine, or Jiangxi cuisine, it will accompany this process and be loved by consumers.
Taste of Hunan: As a female entrepreneur, most people think that it will be more difficult to start a business than a man, so what do you think? At the same time, how do you balance your family and work?
Huang Yao: I think this matter has to return to the logic of the development of the matter itself, back to the logic of the business itself, just like I make Hunan cuisine, we need to understand Hunan, go into Hunan, to truly understand the food culture and taste of Hunan, and from this point of view, the business itself has nothing to do with men or women.
In addition, I think that balancing family and work is something that both male and female entrepreneurs need to face. In my opinion, for entrepreneurs, more energy will be focused on work, which also makes us have some regrets about family life. But at the same time, I also feel that since we can't balance in time, we should balance in terms of quality, and return to the essence of the roles of daughters, mothers, and wives in family life, to manage a higher quality of relationship.
Taste Hunan: In your opinion, what are the most important things to do a good job in the management of a chain brand?
Huang Yao: I would only like to say that I look at this issue from my current stage and perspective, because I am still on the road of exploration and development. I think the key person is the manager's own life goals or ambitions, which will determine the height of a company. Then there is our own strong desire for development, how many people we can influence, how many people we can help, it doesn't matter whether it is the company's partners or customers. My personal favorite quote is, "The more people we can help, the more people we want to be successful."
At the same time, I think that we should also follow the logic and rhythm of enterprise development itself, whether it is internal management or external marketing, it itself is scientific, we must follow these, and at the same time find our own rhythm of development in it.
Postscript:
With its unique insights, Fan Xiang Xu closely integrates food with urban life, and gradually integrates into the life of citizens, conveying the happiness and beauty of life with delicious dishes one after another. And in the process, we will continue to improve ourselves and build a better and more harmonious connection with the city and the people who live in it.