As one of the special events to celebrate the fifth anniversary, the second "Lanxiangzi Dry Rice Festival" was held in five cities from April 19 to 21, attracting more than 100,000 participants.
Then, on April 22, Lan Xiangzi successfully held the brand conference of "Dating with Lan 'Xiang' and Pursuing Dreams in Beijing" in Beijing, and obtained two authoritative certifications from the well-known organization Sullivan: the number of Hunan restaurants in China is the leading in the country, and the sales volume of Hunan cuisine chili fried meat is the first.
Lan Xiangzi, which has opened 276 stores in 16 provinces in 5 years, has jumped to a new level of branding.
1 The 2nd "Lanxiangzi Dry Rice Festival": Five cities linked, with more than 100,000 people participating
On the basis of the first session last year, this year's Lan Xiangzi "Dry Rice Festival" has a greater momentum, wider influence and more participants. Starting from April 19, Lan Xiangzi held flash mob activities in Beijing, Suzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an, and Zhengzhou, and set up themed pop-up areas in well-known local shopping districts, attracting "dry rice people" from the surrounding areas and the whole city.
At the flash mob site, three major areas were set up: the game participation area, the surrounding welfare area, and the photo check-in area, where the rice cookers took photos and punched in according to the guidelines, and participated in the #Lanxiangzi Dry Rice Festival# topic interaction on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, and they could receive game currency, play the entire game area with game currency, and win dry rice spoons, Xiaolan dolls, lunch boxes, graffiti custom handbags and other peripherals, as well as food coupons, overlord meals, vouchers and other benefits.
It has been observed that the games at the flash mob site are quite interesting, and the sandbag throwing, playing football, creative DIY, etc., attract a large number of participants, including couples, friends, families with children, etc. In the three days starting from the 19th, at the flash mob site of the Lanxiangzi Dry Rice Festival in every city, almost all of them were crowded places in local shopping malls.
It's lively offline, and it's also in full swing online. During the event, Lan Xiangzi's live broadcast of pet fans on Douyin, Xiaohongshu and other platforms was also launched, distributing welfare coupons to dry rice people across the country, and more and more people gathered at Lan Xiangzi's offline stores. And with the check-in and uploading of people from all over the country, as of now, #兰湘子干饭节#抖音话题的播放量已突破4400万. From online to offline, Lan Xiangzi's "Dry Rice Festival" completely broke the circle, attracting more than 100,000 people to participate.
2 The mystery of Lan Xiangzi's dry rice festival breaking the circle
Catering brand festivals are already a relatively common marketing method, but it is rare to attract so many people to participate in the "Dry Rice Festival" like Lan Xiangzi. According to the observation of the Dining Book, the key to Lan Xiangzi's ability to achieve such a popular effect lies in two points: being able to play and being sincere.
The name of the festival "Dry Rice Festival" actually reveals two pieces of information: one is that the target customer group of the brand Lan Xiangzi is mainly "dry rice people" who are young migrant workers; After clarifying these two points, it is not difficult for us to understand that in addition to setting up various games at the flash mob site, Lan Xiangzi also has a special photo check-in area and all kinds of exquisite interesting peripherals.
Lan Xiangzi's ability to play, of course, is not only reflected in the planning of offline activities, but also in that it cleverly connects online and offline, mainly in two aspects: one is that the game currency required by "dry rice people" to play all kinds of games offline is obtained by participating in the #Lanxiangzi dry rice festival # topic interaction or adding enterprise WeChat on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, which is to attract offline traffic online; The live broadcast of Xiaohongshu and other platforms has also been launched, distributing welfare coupons to dry rice people across the country to attract everyone to the store to consume, which is to attract online traffic to offline. Online and offline, perfect integration.
Being able to play is the premise of the event out of the circle, but it is not enough, if you want everyone to buy it, you have to be sincere. Lan Xiangzi's "Dry Rice Festival" reflects enough sincerity. For example, it has prepared a large number of dish coupons, overlord meals and vouchers both online and offline, and even gave away 30,000 chili fried pork in the Douyin live broadcast room;
Lan Xiangzi, who can play and is sincere, has made the second "Dry Rice Festival" prosperous, contributing a new example to the catering festival.
3 The root cause of the popularity of the Lanxiangzi Dry Rice Festival
Lan Xiangzi's "Dry Rice Festival" is becoming more and more popular every year, which shows that its "mass base" is getting deeper and wider, and the root of all this lies in the fact that it earnestly satisfies some of the demands of the "dry rice people".
The demands of "dry rice people" for a meal are nothing more than three points: efficient, delicious, and cost-effective. The location of Lanxiangzi is mainly based on core business districts and office buildings, which shortens the distance between the physical space and consumers, and at the same time, it serves meals quickly, and has made a promise of "25 minutes to serve, and the overtime dishes are free", which meets the requirements of "high efficiency".
As for deliciousness, first, the ingredients must be good, which is physical, and second, there must be pot gas, which is psychological. Lan Xiangzi's dish research and development is produced by Zhang Xiaochun, a master of Hunan cuisine, and the ingredients are uniformly purchased and distributed nationwide, which not only requires core ingredients such as bacon, dried fragrant meat, and chili peppers to be directly sourced from the origin of Hunan, but also ensures that all fresh ingredients are divided into warehouses in each city to achieve same-day distribution. At the same time, since its establishment, it has always insisted that each dish is made in a freshly stir-fried way to maintain the pan atmosphere to the greatest extent.
When it comes to cost performance, Lan Xiangzi is even more important, and it is also one of the killer features that it can open 276 stores in 5 years. In the industry environment where the unit price of Hunan cuisine is generally 80~100 yuan, Lan Xiangzi, which is open in the shopping mall, can achieve the unit price of about 60 yuan, how can this not arouse the popularity of diners?
Taking customer satisfaction as the only core indicator is Lan Xiangzi's own requirements, and making a meal at the speed of fast food is Lan Xiangzi's innovation in Hunan cuisine. After five years of unremitting efforts, Lan Xiangzi received an authoritative certification from the well-known organization Sullivan on April 22 - as of March 31 this year, its chili fried meat sales are the first in the country, and it is the leading Hunan cuisine brand in the country in terms of the number of stores.
4 Conclusion
Lan Xiangzi has opened 6 stores in Beijing this year, and at the brand launch conference on the 22nd, its co-founder Chen Bo revealed that it is expected that in late May, there will be more than 300 Lan Xiangzi stores. In the future, it will continue to sink in the market in the northwest and Central Plains, and take the East China market represented by Wuhan as the "growth market" and Beijing and other first-tier cities as the "strategic market" to march to the whole country, and strive to achieve "100 cities and 1000 stores" in the next stage.
In the past five years, Lan Xiangzi has rapidly grown into the head brand of Hunan cuisine, and at the same time, the market share of Hunan cuisine has increased year by year, and in 2022, it has surpassed Cantonese cuisine and ranked first among major cuisines. The growth of the top brand is consistent with the development rhythm of the category, and the emergence of the former has helped the latter gradually change the situation of "having categories but no brands" in the past. The development of Hunan cuisine has entered a new stage.
Looking at the entire catering market, under the new starting point of 5 trillion yuan, brands like Lanxiangzi will usher in greater opportunities, its "internal partnership system", its "school-enterprise cooperation, targeted training" store talent training model, and its upgrade of dining efficiency, etc., will usher in greater use. Lan Xiangzi's goal is to become the "head brand of Chinese food chain", and in this process, there will certainly be challenges, but there is also great hope.