The success of "Huang Taiji Pancake" is not only the result of operating traditional snacks with internet thinking, but also the result of micro-innovation-clean and elegant environment, meticulous store design, a series of delicious food related to pancake fruit, and fashionable white-collar workers who come in and out of the store wave after wave. You all suspect that this is not like eating pancake fruit, but more like eating western food.
In 2004, He Chang came back from abroad and worked as a designer in Baidu, which was his first job. Later, he worked as a user director in Qunar.com and a brand and user manager in Google. In 2009, He Chang started his own business and set up an advertising company, which operated well. At the age of 27, he became the founding partner of the youngest 4A advertising company in the world. However, even if his career is successful, He Chang is still not satisfied. He wants to cook and sell pancake fruit.
What does He Chang think of the "Gaodashang" advertising company not operating and selling pancake fruit? Because He Chang is a "foodie" and a good cook, he loves to eat and cook. He wanted to open a restaurant long ago. However, there are so many kinds of Chinese food. What should we do specifically? He thought of KFC and McDonald's. The long-term development of this kind of foreign fast food in China has a lot to do with its simple operation mode. For example, you can eat two pieces of bread and order some meat, and you can change whatever you want, which can not only realize standardized operation but also change constantly, so it is relatively simple to make food or operate restaurants. Cooking Chinese food is much more complicated. If you want to be delicious, you must rely on the chef, but the chef often can't do standardized operation, and it is difficult to keep the taste consistent and delicious forever. Then, can we find foods like KFC and McDonald's in Chinese food that can not only achieve standardized operation but also continuously expand the taste? He thought of pancake fruit.
Friends were surprised to hear that he was going to sell pancake fruit. In their view, He Chang is a fashionable and tasteful person, and what he wants to sell is such a "local" traditional snack. However, He Chang said that although pancake fruit is a traditional snack, it is not "earth". Even if it is "earth", he will sell it as a trendy and "tall" food. So, after some preparations, Hechang's pancake fruit shop "Huang Taiji Pancake" opened.
How does Huang Taiji attract its target customers? After all, it is not easy for white-collar workers to suddenly accept the pancake fruit that is "tall". This is about the marketing model of "Huang Taiji". He Chang, a boss from the Internet field, will definitely take advantage of his own advantages in marketing-customer experience.
In order to get a more accurate understanding of customers' feelings, diners can try "Huang Taiji" first, and then give feedback on the Internet test launched by "Huang Taiji", and "Huang Taiji" will adjust the taste of food according to the feedback of diners. Doing so can get accurate feedback from customers and take the opportunity to publicize.
Why is the "Huang Taiji" store so beautifully decorated? It's for sharing. If it's beautiful and fun, someone will take pictures. After taking photos, it will be posted on WeChat and Weibo, which is equivalent to giving "Huang Taiji" free publicity. He Chang often chats with netizens on Weibo to find out how they feel about "Huang Taiji Pancake", and sends one or two long microblogs from time to time to attract fans' attention to "Huang Taiji".
He Chang also often creates topical events. For example, he used to drive his own Mercedes to deliver food, which was unintentional. This has become a hot topic among netizens-"Huang Taiji pancake shop owner drives Mercedes-Benz to deliver food". Since netizens are so concerned, He Chang simply pushed this incident to the market and deliberately drove a Mercedes-Benz to take delivery. As a result, many consumers took photos and uploaded them online, and "Huang Taiji Pancake" got a very effective marketing.
In addition to Internet marketing, Huang Taiji has other marketing methods, such as an interesting advertisement: "Here, eat pancakes and drink tofu brain to think about life." During festivals, Huang Taiji Pancake Shop will also launch various interesting activities, such as COSPLAY (reality animation show), pancake fruit when customers wear red scarves to eat in the store, eating pig's trotters during the Dragon Boat Festival, and "taking dad to eat pancakes" on Father's Day. How can a pancake fruit not be spicy after He Chang has played so many tricks?
Therefore, "Huang Taiji Pancake" opened a store for one year, with a running water of more than 5 million, and was valued at 40 million by venture capital.
When talking about the secret of the success of "Huang Taiji", He Chang said that the advantage of "Huang Taiji" lies in the product advantage first and the internet thinking second.
First of all, "Huang Taiji Pancake" is an improved traditional snack, completely getting rid of the feeling of "earth". Generally, the fruit in the middle of pancake fruit is "crisp", but the fruit in the middle of "Huang Taiji" pancake is fried with fried dough sticks, without alum, because there are fried dough sticks in the middle of authentic pancake fruit. In addition to pancake fruit, "Huang Taiji Pancake" also includes soybean milk, bean curd, northeast burrito, mala Tang, Sichuan cold noodles, secret trotters, pumpkin soup and purple potato taro. This series of products, including staple food, drinks and desserts, are no longer monotonous pancake fruits in people's memory. It is hard for customers to think of "earth pancakes" when they eat such food in such a fashionable store. So many white-collar workers come here to eat. In order to facilitate customers' dining, "Huang Taiji" has set the business hours from 7 am to 2: 30 pm, and can also deliver takeout in the evening. In the slogan of "Huang taiji", it means "it's dark at night, we understand".
Secondly, Hechang has a strong advantage in Internet marketing. Thanks to his experience, he once worked as an executive in several Internet companies. He once founded an advertising company and was very good at marketing, especially Internet marketing. He said that he dare not say that he is the person who knows Internet marketing best in the catering industry, but he must be the person who knows Internet marketing best in the pancake fruit industry, and he is the strongest in this field.
He Chang believes that the main feature of the Internet is to create demand rather than cater to it. For example, when there is no search, people don't feel that they need to search. With search, people find that search has brought so many conveniences and benefits to our lives. He also used this idea to create "Huang Taiji Pancake". Before this thing appeared, people would feel that they didn't like or need pancake fruit very much, and there was no need to go to such a grand place to eat this food. However, when he tasted "Huang Taiji Pancake", he found that the food was so delicious that he liked it very much and needed to eat it again. This is "creating demand". If every entrepreneur can create demand rather than just cater to it, then he can always find opportunities to start a business.
In addition, He Chang himself is a young man. He knows more about the consumption tastes and needs of young people now, and he also knows how to communicate with them and win their attention. That's why Huang Taiji Pancake can be successful. However, He Chang is not complacent. He is still groping, hoping to find a set of ideas that combine traditional enterprises with Internet thinking more perfectly.
What customers are Hechang's pancake fruits mainly sold to? Is it also sold to office workers who are in a hurry in the morning? This is not the main position that He Chang gave to "Huang Taiji". He wants to sell pancake fruit to white-collar workers who often go to high-end office buildings.
For such a positioning, He Chang also had many concerns at the beginning: as a rule, soybean milk, fried dough sticks and pancake fruit are all breakfast. Will everyone come to his shop from morning till night? In everyone's impression, pancake fruit is a very cheap food, but the pancake fruit you sell is much more expensive. Can consumers accept this price? Roadside food stalls have been upgraded and moved to elegant halls. Will petty bourgeoisie white-collar workers who pay attention to emotional appeal accept this form?
In order to attract petty bourgeoisie white-collar workers to accept his pancake fruit, He Chang built his own shop in the style of "cool literature and art". His storefront was not chosen in the bustling center, but in a relatively deserted place; The storefront decoration is fashionable and elegant, and the style is somewhat similar to Hong Kong-style restaurant. All kinds of bonsai and novelty items from all over the world are placed in every corner of the store. Pop, jazz, blues and other music are constantly playing in the shop. In short, it is full of "literary coolness".
What is the "literary cool" style? He Chang is defined as follows:
Literature and art is to do small things to the extreme with delicate emotions, slow pace and gentle feelings. This extreme includes products, environment, marketing, added value and so on. There is a sense of literature and art, which is in line with the self-orientation of petty bourgeoisie white-collar workers in pursuing emotional appeal and taste of life.
"Cool" is to make a boring thing interesting. In everyone's mind, eating pancakes is a very unromantic thing, and the pancakes sold by the roadside are even an unhealthy food. But it is such a boring food that people don't expect much from it. After Hechang's creation, it has completely changed: pancakes can not only be eaten in a clean and romantic environment, but also sold in sports cars, which is simply cool! For young people nowadays, anything interesting is "cool" for them.
After packaging, pancakes full of "literary coolness" have long been out of everyone's impression. When petty-bourgeois white-collar workers saw such pancakes, they immediately lost their appetite, and He Chang's worries vanished.
He Chang's "earth" pancakes are literary, high-grade and international. No wonder those petty bourgeoisie white-collar workers who drink Starbucks coffee have come over, because this store has a unique style and suits their mood.
This article is taken from the guide book "Light Entrepreneurship" in the Internet age.
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Yunxian Tian
Founder of education and training industry, international business war training authority, international training expert, chairman of the board of directors of Yunxian Tian International Education and Training Group, founder of Cloud Fund, founder of business war training system, and successfully developed a number of training systems such as the King's Corps, elite training camp, enterprise business war system and enterprise operation complete system. He is the author of the best-selling book I want to wait for Xi 'an.