Total No. 4000
Author | The restaurant owner is a month and a half
The era of "strategic recognition" in catering
Cai Lan Dim Sum opened 7 stores in a row, laying out a new line
During the National Day, the 6-year-old "Cai Lan Dim Sum" opened 7 stores in a row, and the brand has a new footprint in South China, East China, Central China and Southwest China.
Wuhan Dream Times, Shanghai Changtai Plaza, Shenzhen Longgang Vanke, Sanya Joy City...... The new stores occupy the core business district of the local area. This time, "Cantonese culture" has infiltrated the "light social" eating scene of young people in a more youthful and fashionable form.
In Changsha Meixi Lake BBK store, "movable type printing fan activity" attracted a lot of handsome men and women, the store will be the four major inventions of China's movable type printing technology extension, with Mr. Cai Lan's calligraphy as the carrier to engrave the seal, customers can use "joy, happiness, happiness" and other words to freely combine, stamped on the folding fan, to create a handicraft with personal characteristics and cultural customs.
When the folding fan printed with "I love to eat" was "customized and baked", the customers gathered at the door of the new store couldn't help laughing.
It is reported that during the long holiday, Cai Lan's new dim sum store had a daily turnover of up to 102,000 yuan, and the turnover rate reached 10.3 times, and many new and old customers came here. In the comment area of the official public account, many fans also shouted: "When will you come to Shenyang", "Shantou is not, sad", "Kunming also needs"......
The goal is to experience a sense of relaxation
Create a good place for urban relaxation
Up to now, Cai Lan Dim Sum has opened 93 stores across the country. This batch of new stores, both at the product level and at the atmosphere creation level, have come out with a new look.
First, young people's lives are fast-paced, and one-person food and light socialization are the main scene needs, Cai Lan Dim Sum has set up two-person and four-person seats as the main table type, fully considering the most real dining needs of young people at the moment.
A recent survey showed that 71.4% of the young people surveyed felt that it was more difficult to maintain deep social relationships, and most of the keywords around the current social topics of young people belonged to "lightweight socialization", also known as "young people's dopamine socialization", such as "hitchhiking culture", "momo anonymous socialization", etc. Compared with traditional social networking, this model is more burden-free, more flexible, and has a greater sense of boundaries with each other.
One of the important dimensions of light social interaction is the "ease of social experience", both sides pay more attention to the relaxation and comfort in the social process, reduce the complexity, and first "please yourself" and then "please him". Under this demand, when shopping or choosing a restaurant, it will also be mainly a small gathering. The brand positioning of Cai Lan Dim Sum is based on the dim sum culture of Guangdong and Hong Kong, adding a casual temperament, and the adjustment of the main table type coincides with the casual food culture that young people yearn for.
Second, young people prefer the latter between traditional and modern teahouses, partly because they have requirements for the appearance of their stores. Insight into this change, Cai Lan Dim Sum uses a large area of floor-to-ceiling glass, wooden tables and chairs, green plants and other elements, so that the store presents a sense of leisurely and comfortable courtyard, and a dining atmosphere of one step at a time, so that young consumers can find and fall in love with their own "sense of relaxation".
For young people who often fall into "mental internal friction", relaxation seems to be a scarce medicine, hidden in the various choices of urban youth.
In order to create a sense of relaxation that young people love, Cai Lan Dim Sum first made a creative experience in the scene, no longer the general "one step to the streets of Hong Kong" atmosphere in the dim sum category on the market, but widely used natural and harmonious wood tones to create a warm and relaxing environment. Landscaping, metal grilles, wood decorations, and soft light staggered...... It creates a leisurely feeling of "stealing half a day of leisure".
Third, young people's awareness of food health and food hygiene is gradually increasing, and Cai Lan Dim Sum is equipped with a large area of bright file production area in the store. Further strengthen food safety, and at the same time make the restaurant more "hand-made" temperature.
In Cai Lan's dim sum, children are often seen lying in front of the bright file and watching intently. On one side is the afterglow of the sunset, and on the other side is all kinds of exquisite dim sum with heat on the steamer, which not only allows consumers to see the process of dim sum making at a glance in the dining area, but also makes the dim sum wrapping technique a "dining scene", which is both ornamental and interesting.
Rubbing, dressing, leathering, filling, pinching...... The handiwork can be clearly seen through the Ming file, Cai Lan's dozens of SKUs, special personnel, ingenuity inheritance, some even start to prepare ingredients from 6 o'clock in the morning, and require "selection of ingredients", fresh not only to eat, but also to see.
In the era of "food transparency", there is an increasing demand for "visualization" from customers. Product visualization, ingredient visualization, ingredient visualization, and production visualization are all important dimensions for customers to "secretly assess" a brand. Behind this, people's sensitivity to food safety and the further improvement of demand standards.
The business model of Ming file has broken down almost all the distances and obstacles between customers and products, and this simple, direct and unhidden characteristics actually conform to the inherent needs of people in modern society for simplicity, efficiency, openness and communication. "Ming file is the result of fierce competition in the catering industry, and it is also the inevitable trend of industry upgrading." An industry insider commented.
Read the slow life with ingenuity
Dismantling Cai Lan's dim sum "time and place"
At present, the involution of catering is accelerating, and it seems that the most important thing is the news of store closures. Among them, some are withdrawing from the regional market, some are closing the sub-brand, and more are no longer radically opening stores and choosing to move forward conservatively. As a head boss in the fast food industry bluntly said: This year is an era of ecological reorganization, which used to be fast and expanding, but today is seeking effective turnover and effective store opening profits, and not consuming is the greatest success.
Many brands have started a "conservative" strategy and carried out "strategic contraction". Cai Lan Dim Sum, on the contrary, accelerated the national layout, attacked the mainstream business districts of new first-tier cities, and opened several stores at the same time, full of potential. Behind this, where is the confidence?
On the one hand, Chinese casual dining has performed well and recovered rapidly in the recovery market. According to the white paper of Chenzhi big data, as of 2023Q4, the scale of Chinese casual catering stores is about 611,000, accounting for 7.9%, ranking fourth in the number of Chinese casual restaurants in the structure of China's social catering market.
At the same time, the peak consumption of Chinese casual dining restaurants is during dinner hours, and it is more inclined to scenes such as friends/classmates dinners, family gatherings, couples dating and company/colleague dinners. Focusing more on dining with 2-6 people and creating a scene of "social attributes" for young consumer groups is a topic that Chinese casual brands should study. At the moment of upgrading consumer demand, consumers not only have requirements for dishes and prices, but also become more and more "picky" about services and environment.
Under this change, Cai Lan's various upgrades and site selection strategies have steadily grasped the new needs of new consumer groups.
On the other hand, as a brand of Kam Tong Mingshan Group, Cai Lan Dim Sum has benefited from the Group's rich experience and core competitiveness in restaurant management, food safety, product research and development, customer service, talent training, brand management and supply chain, which has provided a solid foundation for its rapid expansion.
Such an endorsement gives Cai Lan Dim Sum a natural advantage in the technical inheritance of the Chinese food chain, and relies on the group's standardization system and methodology to truly give full play to the advantages of "quality-price ratio". For example, through the efficient collaboration of centralized procurement, processing and production, logistics and terminal sales, Cai Lan Dim Sum not only controls costs, but also ensures food quality, especially in the catering industry, where raw material costs account for up to 42%, and the continuous optimization of the supply chain has made it take a more stable step.
At the same time, it pays attention to rejuvenation and innovation ability, and uses dim sum to convey a sense of brand culture. Whether it is the product, the environment, the marketing method, or the atmosphere creation, break the "aging curse" of the traditional dim sum category.
For the Chinese morning tea category, the future market competition will pay more attention to the brand's rejuvenation and innovation ability, as well as the ability to provide a "unique dining experience". Brands need to maintain the essence of tradition while constantly exploring new development models and marketing strategies to meet the needs of an increasingly discerning young consumer base.
In addition to the above-mentioned "light social" and "good looks", the upgrade of Cai Lan's dim sum is more reflected in product innovation. For example, in the first half of this year, the new "Packing Spring" series, Ma Lantou Linglong hugged shrimp dumplings became a hit once launched, this product fully embodies the food concept of "not eating from time to time", selecting the "King of Spring Wild Vegetables" Ma Lantou, with the tender green that broke out of the ground, hand-wrapped into mini dumplings, and matched with large shrimp dumplings, the taste is fresh and sweet, and the color is bright.
Another example is on the eve of the new "God of Food" theme in summer, through voting and co-creation activities to warm up the momentum, a total of more than 5,000 customers' creative concepts were collected, and fans continued to pay attention to the new news. Close to the preferences of young people, give customers a sense of brand participation, and integrate brand genes and cultural tonality into daily marketing.
There are many similar innovations, Cai Lan Dim Sum focuses on the fusion of tradition and innovation, and carries out product innovation according to seasonal ingredients, which meets the needs of young consumers for fresh experiences and healthy eating. As the founder Mr. Cai Lan said: I like to eat dim sum, and it has always been my dream to open a Hong Kong-style dim sum shop that is worthy of myself and customers.
The success of Cai Lan Dim Sum also lies in its keen insight into the needs of young consumers, and through the transmission of cultural activities, the charm of food is presented to consumers in a more modern and fashionable way. For example, the brand brings customers a more ceremonial dining experience through interesting interactive games and limited peripherals that integrate Cai Lan's IP culture. Another example is to cooperate with public welfare organizations to carry out used book donation activities, strengthen the brand's sense of social responsibility, and win praise from customers; The cross-border co-branded NetEase Snail Reading, with Mr. Cai Lan's books as the connection point, carried out traffic replacement, and NetEase Snail Reading has gained a total of 10 million+ exposures on the whole site and off-site advertising space, attracting more customers who pay attention to humanity for the brand.
brief summary
Cai Lan dim sum, looking for "slow" delicacy in the era of fast food.
The opening of seven new stores in seven major cities has received enthusiastic responses from peers and customers, and has further infiltrated the "Cantonese culture" into the tongues and minds of young people.