Quanjude, Donglaishun and other "old brands" take the initiative to reduce prices and drain the flow is the correct "opening way" to break through the transformation?

Recently, Quanjude, which has a history of 156 years, suddenly announced that it will change from three aspects, first of all store halls will no longer charge service fees; second, the overall price of dishes will be reduced by 10% to 15%; third, innovative dishes, released 47 new dishes. Some media have calculated that by canceling the service fee alone, Quanjude will reduce its income by nearly 40 million yuan per year.

Compared with the moderate reduction of prices to attract passenger flow, Donglaishun, a representative of a century-old restaurant company and Beijing hot pot, recently launched a new product - "68 yuan self-service hot pot, beef and mutton eat casually", Donglaishun has thus become the most prosperous store in the mall.

Since this period of time, more and more long-established brands have taken the initiative to transform, in addition to Quanjude, Donglaishun, Tongrentang, which is mainly engaged in Chinese herbal medicine projects, has launched health coffee and milk tea products, and Huifengtang Restaurant has entered Hema to sell fried sauce noodles... What is the new logic of development behind the active transformation of the old brand? How do you see the balance between traditional craftsmanship and standardized production?

Old brand new look

Recently, on the fashion sharing APP, young people dressed beautifully walked into the 300-year-old pharmacy Tongrentang and ordered a cup of goji berry coffee, which became a new fashion. Behind the coffee in Tongrentang is the pursuit of consumers for tongrentang's newly launched brand "Zhima Health", which hopes to create a composite functional body of "healthy diet + medical center + physical examination + social entertainment" to make the brand young and diversified.

Showing a new look, there is also the Beijing roast duck golden sign "Quanjude". Quanjude Houhai store hung a banner: "Business resumed from July 26, the price of dishes was reduced, and the service fee was free." The clerk of Quanjude Heping Store said that except for some special scenes, all store halls of Quanjude will no longer charge service fees. "Now there is no private room fee, no service fee, private room can be accompanied by meals can also be ordered, such as you can order 300 yuan / person, 400 yuan / person kind of food."

Service fee, Quanjude has been charged for 20 years. The staff of Quanjude Qianmen store said that the exemption of service fees, as it has been since the new crown pneumonia epidemic, has now become the norm.

Reporter: Are there still private room fees or service fees?

Staff: No, there are no other expenses than the cost of ordering your own food. There used to be service fees, but now the service fees have been cancelled, and the service fees have been confiscated since the outbreak of the epidemic.

Some media have calculated an account, only the exemption of service fees, Quanjude will be less than 40 million yuan of income a year, plus lower prices, the launch of new products, the cost is higher.

Compared with Quanjude's comprehensive price reduction, the representative of the old Beijing shabu lamb "Donglaishun" has also launched a transformation work, but the meaning of "testing the water" is stronger. At present, only Donglaishun New Dongan store has launched a 68 yuan buffet hot pot.

Donglaishun staff: On weekdays at noon, there are more than 50 people per working day. Some dishes, eat as much as you want. We all put the dishes there, and there is no limit to what the customers eat.

Reporter: Is it the same as the meat of a single order?

Donglaishun staff: Definitely not the same, a single point, you want to eat which part of which part to order, self-help is the most common meat.

In the picture sent by the diners, the queue waiting to eat the Donglaishun self-service hot pot is nearly 100 meters.

Donglaishun staff: If you want to eat, you have to come early in the morning to register, there are many people, and it is very early, when you register at 8:15 in the morning, there are already several tables at the door. We started registration at 8:15 in the morning, generally less than 9:00 the quota is gone, after taking the number can leave, after the meal and then come back.

Reporter: Is this a long-term product, or will it be gone after a while?

Donglaishun staff: Not long-term, it can be determined to August, September is not yet determined.

The fried sauce noodles of the century-old Huifengtang Restaurant and the sheep scorpion of Yueshengzhai have also cooperated with the new retail enterprise Hema to standardize the products and bring them to the market.

The long-established transformation path

To sum up, the transformation of the current long-established brands generally follows the major paths of popularization, rejuvenation and product diversification. In the case of Quanjude, the cancellation of service fees and the reduction of prices are precisely in the hope of mobilizing the good feelings of more consumers first.

Zhou Yanlong, general manager of Quanjude, told the media that after the epidemic, if the company only recovers hard and passively recovers, and continues to pursue excessively high per capita consumption, it will further overdraft the brand dividend. In fact, even before the epidemic, the development of long-established brands was subject to many constraints. Adjust the development path, in which direction should we change?

At present, the development of China's time-honored brands is subject to multiple restrictions, the industrial scale is not large, and the competitive strength is insufficient. Only 10% of the production and operation of more than 1,000 Chinese time-honored brands have a certain scale, good efficiency and healthy operation, nearly 70% of the enterprises are facing development difficulties due to outdated concepts, rigid mechanisms, insufficient innovation, weak inheritance, etc., and about 20% of the enterprises are on the verge of bankruptcy due to long-term losses. For consumers, why do they feel that the long-established brand of Quanjude is not attractive enough? Mr. Han of Shandong said: "Now like Quanjude, Donglaishun and so on have opened a lot of chain stores across the country, going to Beijing has no characteristics to speak of, I may not choose to go to these stores in Beijing again." ”

Ms. Ni of Jiangsu believes that there is Chinese culture behind the old brand and should be developed by leaps and bounds, but for consumers, the old brand must have a unique charm in order to catch consumers. She said: "When I go to various places, I will be eager to meet the old brand, which is a representative of the city's culture and has a sense of history. I also hope to meet some old brands that exceed my expectations, from a consumer point of view, I may go to some old brands, but the experience is not as high as expected. I think the price is only one aspect, there are some old brands, such as in some environmental facilities, it may be older. In addition, we hope that long-established brands, such as in taste, can reflect uniqueness. ”

Experts: Benchmark demand and consumption

That is to say, in the process of development, the old brand needs to solve the balance between traditional crafts and commercial society and standardized production. Zhao Jingqiao, deputy director of the Service Economy and Catering Industry Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Financial and Economic Strategy, believes that price reduction may be a "double-edged sword" for the old brand: "The old brand wants to be younger and more civilian, and there is certainly no problem with this idea." However, popularity is not necessarily low price, to consider whether your service can play a brand, so that consumers are willing to pay for this service. I think we should embrace new ways of communication; in terms of products and services, we must adhere to the quality of old brands. In addition, to know where their consumers are, the market is diversified or vertical, to be analyzed. ”

Zhao Ping, director of the International Trade Research Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Research Institute, has been paying attention to the development of national time-honored enterprises, in her view, no matter what kind of road, the transformation of time-honored brands will ultimately be solved and benchmarked against demand and competition. She believes: "First of all, for the old brand, whether its image in the minds of consumers follows the previous market positioning, if the market image in the minds of consumers now is very different from the previous brand image, then the company's marketing strategy will have to make a substantial adjustment." Secondly, to benchmark the demand, that is, whether there have been new changes in consumers' demands for the old brand, and now roast duck has become a common thing, so what kind of value can Quanjude's roast duck bring to consumers? For the old brand, in fact, standardization and industrialization may be more of some thinking at the operational level, and also belong to some problems that need to be solved in the internal management of the enterprise, but for consumers, consumers are not concerned about whether you produce this product through industrialization and standardization methods, but Whether I buy your time-honored products, can I get the value I expect. ”

The long-established brand represents corporate culture, urban culture, and is more permeated with Chinese culture. Embracing the market is the basis for the continuation and survival of the long-established brand, and we hope that China's time-honored brand can shine with new light in the transformation. (Reporter Zhou Yifan)