Wen | Qian Yi Liu Chenghong
Edit | Zhang Yuzhe
"Wuren milk tea, beef tongue cake milk tea, jujube milk tea to understand?"
Previously, I am afraid that many old Beijings could hardly imagine that such a shouting sound actually appeared in the storefront of Beijing Daoxiangcun, a long-established pastry brand that has been established for nearly 40 years.
In August 2021, Daoxiangcun's "Zero Shop" was regrouped on Dongsi North Street, where the former site of the first business department in Beijing is located, not only launching Beijing-style milk tea with Chinese pastry flavor, but also printing special cultural elements such as "Four Treasures of The Study Room", "Peking Opera Facebook", "Hutong Door Number", "Wen play walnut" and other characteristic cultural elements on the freshly baked pastries.
Two months later, Bi Guocai, chairman and general manager of Beijing Daoxiangcun, said in an interview: "Simple old, not old brand, must keep up with the development of history and the requirements of the times, the combination of new and old, inheritance and innovation and development, and constantly write a new chapter to become a qualified old brand." ”
Under the new wave of consumption, not only Daoxiang Village, but also old-fashioned enterprises such as Arctic Ocean, Tongrentang, Dong'e Ejiao, Tao Taoju and so on are actively making themselves look "younger and younger", trying to dialogue with young consumers and evoking the new generation's memory and recognition of old brands.
The old brand strives to get rid of the stereotype of "relying on the old to sell the old, not being flexible", and slowly approaches the narrative language of the new consumption era from the form, in line with the rise of the national tide, becoming an active participant in cross-border joint branding, opening pop-up stores, and laying out new retail.
Can "national tidalization" allow the old brand to cross the river of time and thus rejuvenate? Where is the ceiling of "emotional consumption"? Product function innovation or re-taking the emotional route, how should the old brand grasp the balance between inheritance and innovation?
Century-old stores are experiencing an "age crisis".
According to CCTV Financial Reports, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were more than 10,000 old brands, but most of them were annihilated in the tide of the times and became history. Despite a series of supportive policies from central and local governments, long-established brands are disappearing at a speed that is visible to the naked eye.
At present, the first batch, the second batch and the third batch of Chinese time-honored enterprises identified by the Ministry of Commerce total 1128, of which only a small number can achieve profitability, and most of the old brands are limited to different degrees of business difficulties. Some enterprises are more and more lost in blind trial and error, not only do not please the younger generation, but also lose loyal old customers, and do not buy at both ends.
Most of the listed long-established brands are also deeply mired in the decline in revenue and profits. From the perspective of industry distribution, A-share long-established listed enterprises involve liquor, traditional Chinese medicine, food, catering, department store retail and other subdivisions, due to the overall scale advantage of China's liquor market, long-established liquor companies such as Guizhou Maotai, Wuliangye, Luzhou Laojiao are leading in market value with absolute advantages.
Leaving aside the liquor track with cultural and value particularities, the business involves food and catering, and long-established enterprises that are closely related to mass consumption, such as Quanjude, Guangzhou Restaurant, Dong'e Ejiao, Tongrentang, Bright Dairy, Shanghai Meilin, Weiwei Shares, Gui Faxiang, Xi'an Catering, etc.
From the perspective of operation, among them, Quanjude, Dong'e Ejiao, Weiwei Shares, Gui Faxiang, Xi'an Catering and other enterprises have continued to decline in performance in recent years, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, the long-established enterprises mainly engaged in offline catering business have been hit hard, and the loss margin has further expanded.
Taking Quanjude, which has a history of 157 years, as an example, in November 2007, this roast duck "golden signboard" was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as the "first stock of the long-established restaurant", and its performance has maintained rapid growth for many years, and its revenue reached a historical peak of 1.944 billion yuan in 2012. However, Quanjude's revenue growth has been almost stagnant since 2013, and its operating conditions since 2017 have deteriorated.
On the public reviews, it is not uncommon for Quanjude to be "slow to serve", "dirty environment", "poor service attitude", "ingredients are not fresh" and other bad reviews. "The dishes and services are old-fashioned and decent, and they will never come again." A netizen commented disappointedly that it can be seen that the inability of long-established brands to provide a quality experience is dissuading more and more new generations of consumers.
At a time when alternative consumer brands are emerging, the famous traditional long-established signs are no longer a reason to convince consumers.
Seeing the mushrooming of emerging brands there, the "rising stars" in many consumer goods have begun to occupy the minds of consumers, and the old brands whose original voice and market impact have been affected are worried and know that they urgently need a self-revolution.
How to present products in a form close to the lifestyle of young people is the direction that long-established brands have been exploring in recent years. In order to take into account the tradition and innovation, in terms of product manufacturing, try to combine more elements that are of interest to young people, and slowly take steps to "trial and error" to become the first choice for the rejuvenation of old brands.
Food-related long-established brands have invariably tried the popular coffee and tea tracks across the border.
For example, in the Daoxiangcun No. 0 store that specializes in Chinese pastry flavored milk tea, the jujube mud flavor, wuren flavor, beef tongue cake flavor, and fresh rose flavor are uniquely integrated into the flavor of milk tea, and a number of small red book netizens praised "salty milk tea is unexpectedly delicious", "beef tongue cake pretzel salt taste is addictive", "Wuren milk tea is a bit like tea color", becoming a popular punch point in Beijing. It is reported that the current passenger flow of the zero store is between 1,000 and 2,000 people per day, and its popularity far exceeds that of the ordinary Daoxiangcun store.
Beijing Tongrentang's new retail business "Zhima Health" cuts from coffee, which adds herbal elements of medicinal and food homology, and launches a series of Traditional Chinese medicine health coffees such as Motherwort Rose Latte, Licorice Latte, Luo Han Guo American, Cinnamon Cappuccino, etc., in order to pass on and carry forward the concept of TCM health to more young people.
Deeply aware of the importance of marking emotional consumption in the hearts of the new generation, the brands represented by arctic ocean, bingfeng, Tianfu Coke, and Hankou Second Factory, their products themselves adhere to "familiar formulas, familiar tastes", and more choices are made at the level of packaging, product form, marketing methods, etc., in order to attract more consumers.
Notes related to the Little Red Book "Beiping Ice Factory"
Source: Little Red Book app
In the Arctic Ocean "Beiping Ice Factory" experience store, the appearance of the old yogurt engraved porcelain bottle, glass bottle orange soda, chocolate won the Panama Exposition gold medal in 1915 and other popular foods of the last century are all displayed, the product itself follows the traditional classic formula, whether it is soda or tea, popsicles, chocolate, yogurt, the products are mainly healthy and additive-free, circle powder "punk health" young people.
In terms of marketing ideas, the transformation of the old brand is reflected in the idea of imitating emerging brands to build brand power, starting to focus on creating a private domain traffic pool to enhance user loyalty, enabling the brand's official app, WeChat public account or WeChat Mini Program to cultivate private domain users, and establishing an online and offline linkage marketing system.
In addition, many long-established brands have upgraded their business models, such as stores trying to lightweight pop-up stores, entering new retail stores, building e-commerce promotion channels or establishing their own channel malls.
It can be seen that what remains unchanged is the culture and feelings, and only the cognitive forms that are closer to the young people in the new era have changed.
The "old" word filter seems to have become a reasonable explanation for centuries-old stores that should pursue tradition and lag behind the times.
Behind the "abandonment" of old brands by consumers, it is precisely the old brands that ignore the new consumer demand. Coinciding with a large number of new consumer brands born in the Internet era, closer to users and more responsive to the stage, especially the "no hurry" of the old brand.
Chang Shuai, vice president of global opportunities at catterton, believes that trying to please everyone is a dilution of the brand spirit, and brands with long-term competitiveness have a common point, "can make consumers feel a sense of identity and belonging." Grasping the scale of inheritance and innovation has become another obstacle to the decision-making of the old brand.
Product value is always the core asset of the brand. "Time-honored innovation cannot be separated from the core of the brand and culture." Shen Qinfeng, marketing manager of Great White Rabbit, said, "After all, it is a state-owned brand, and it cannot do anything that harms brands and consumers, and then innovate based on this premise." "Through the trial and error verification of the first batch of old brands, it is a reference answer to maintain the spiritual core of the old brands, and at the same time to grasp the innovation of product strength and brand power under the new consumer trend."
Taking the "national tide" posture of the return of the great white rabbit as an example, on the one hand, it retains the classic product white rabbit milk candy formula, copies the product taste to ice cream, milk, yogurt, etc., and also uses the product cross-border joint name to enrich the IP extension; on the other hand, it is large-scale stationed on social media and layout of live e-commerce, multi-channel rollout to enhance consumers' perception of the new image of the great white rabbit brand, and establish emotional connection with the audience.
Long-established brands enter the content platform
Source: Douyin, Taobao app
How can the old brand learn from the new consumer brand to innovate the narrative method?
At a time when consumer goods are changing with each passing day, the marketing logic of the new domestic product "explosives" invariably points to d2c (direct to consumer). Emerging brands generally attach importance to digital marketing capacity building, which is mainly reflected in four aspects: voice awareness, private domain operation, mental impact and consumption conversion.
Whether it is the marketing matrix of major content platforms, or the operation of private domain channels, e-commerce platforms to guide sales and conversion, they have intentionally or unintentionally built a bridge for direct dialogue with consumers, obtaining feedback, and quickly adjusting products.
The long-established brand is striving to keep close to the new consumption trend and broaden the consumption channels, and the online and offline linkage layout is one of the formulas that the old brand can learn from in innovation, such as the layout of the local life platform, the opening of offline self-service ordering smart stores, the launch of the e-commerce platform, and the integration of new elements to create fashion products. At present, there are more than 700 long-established brands on Alibaba's retail platform, of which more than 400 Chinese time-honored brands have opened flagship stores on Tmall.
According to the "China Catering Time-honored City Innovation Report" Catering Time-honored Brands Touch the Internet Innovation Index List, the top five long-established brands in the platform expansion force are Yang Yuxing, Sichuan Restaurant, Beijing Daoxiangcun, Wufangzhai and Huguosi Snacks. At the same time, according to the data of the Koubei & Ele.me platform, the brands that realized earlier that they used to lay channels in the way that young people are used to are more prominent in terms of the proportion of young customers, per capita consumption growth and order growth.
From the perspective of investors, consumption is endless, and the new and old brands are only relative propositions. "Investors focus on trends and trends, but also think about the unchanging nature behind the trends: the quality of the product itself, the power of the brand, and the ability to build emotional and spiritual connections with consumers." Chang Shuai thinks.
The consumption track is vast enough that the possibilities of any subdivision are endless. In the matter of winning the favor of consumers, it does not matter whether it is a new or old brand, the opportunity is always equal.