text | Tidal Business Review
"Look what this is." Andy picked up the phone and took a picture of the hot-pot meat that the waiter had just brought to his friend.
"Seven slices of beef."
"No, it's 88 yuan."
"..."
"It doesn't taste that good. Why is it so expensive to eat hot pot now." Andy touched her wallet and it hurt. road.
From Haidilao's "apology for price increase" to Banu's "potato chips incident", to "hot pot base is expensive", hot searches. In recent years, the entanglement between "price" and the hot pot industry seems to have never stopped.
Judging from past experience, although food safety is an important line of defense in the minds of consumers, the splash it arouses is far less expensive than the "price" of hot pot companies.
Nowadays, when consumption becomes more and more rational, how should the Bannus who buy "7 slices of beef for 88 yuan" respond?
01 Hot pot industry: Frequent "price" scandals
In March 2020, dine-in dining had just resumed, and "retaliatory consumption" had not yet arrived, but Haidilao became a hot search due to "retaliatory price increases". The reason was that some consumers in Beijing reported that Haidilao’s Xuewang half portion increased from 16 to 23 yuan, a slice of potato cost 1.5 yuan, and a bowl of rice cost 7 yuan, which triggered public discussion and complaints.
Although Haidilao responded quickly, the price increase was due to the impact of the epidemic and rising costs. The overall menu price adjustment was controlled at 6%, and each city implemented differentiated pricing. However, it was still difficult to calm the mood of consumers. Later, Haidilao publicly apologized for the price increase and announced that the price of dishes would return to the standard before the price increase.
In February last year, Banu Maodu Hotpot became a hot search topic due to the “exorbitant price of potato chips for 5 pieces at 18 yuan” incident. Banu explained that the dishes sold are selenium-rich potatoes, so the price is on the high side. But a month later, it was removed from the shelves because "the loss of selenium after cutting the potatoes did not meet the standard." Half a year later, Banu was once again pushed into the center of public opinion for "selling duck meat with a sheep's head". The high-calcium mutton rolls sold at his Chaodao hotpot Beijing Heshenghui store, which sells for about 80 yuan/jin, were found to contain duck meat. Element.
During the May Day holiday this year, some netizens reported that the price of some dishes at Banu Hot Pot’s Beijing store increased by 2 to 4 yuan, involving dishes such as pulled noodles and fennel fried dough sticks, which once again aroused public discussion.
...
In recent years, every time "Haidilao Banu" come out of the circle, it is always related to "price", either overt or covert price increases, or the correlation between dishes and selling prices is "outrageous". Even though Banu has explained that the potatoes are no ordinary potatoes, consumers still don't buy it.
So, why do consumers always hold on to the price of "Banu Haidilao"? At the same time, the Haidilao Banu people who have legitimate and sufficient "reasons for price increases" obviously have nothing "out of place", so why do they always feel unreasonable, and even feel powerless that their "power to increase prices" has been eclipsed.
To put it simply: without the same frequency as consumers, the public has entered the "5g" era, and Haidilao Banu are still reading about the "2g" business experience.
In the past, we would always use Sanura Miura's "Fourth Era of Consumption" to refer to the reverse consumption in the late modern society, when the logic of consumer desire has developed to the extreme, returning from face to practicality, from extreme luxury to minimalism, and increasingly Be rational.
Nowadays, the general environment has entered the vuca era (vuca). Affected by uncertainty and complexity, consumers will also have an endogenous need for self-emotional satisfaction while pursuing rational consumption, and pay more attention to the connection between consumption and emotion. .
For example, last year, the performance economy ushered in a year of "retaliatory consumption". Singers were holding concerts crazily, and fans were chasing stars crazily. Haidilao, on the other hand, was frantically fishing for people at the entrance of the concert, and took free buses to pick up fans for food. Have a late night snack to keep the lingering warmth going, and have another afterparty for the fans after the concert to increase the emotional value. This also binds Haidilao directly to concerts, and even becomes a necessary part of the "concert consumption chain".
For example, Banu's insistence on "productism" has laid the foundation for the impression of "high quality" of ingredients in the minds of consumers. Rational consumption does not mean refusing to consume, but spending money to get products or services of corresponding value. If consumers want to eat higher-quality ingredients, they are willing to go to Banu to consume them.
But why do Banu Haidilao people still read about the "2g" business experience? ——The fundamentals of a “good product” are unstable, and no matter how much “work” is done, it will be in vain. This move is even more "deadly" when consumers are no longer willing to pay too much for brand premiums.
Consumers are not opposed to "price increases", but they sneer at the behavior of "price mismatch".
Let’s take the Banu “Potato Chips Incident” as an example. Although the Banu Hotpot official has apologized and explained that the “18 yuan for 5 slices” reported online is actually a small portion of selenium-rich potatoes for 9 yuan, and a selenium-rich potato for 18 yuan. is 240 grams.
According to this calculation, the price of about half a catty of selenium-rich potatoes is about 18 yuan, and one catty is about 36 yuan. According to the person in charge of commercial potato sales at Huasong Seed Industry, the supplier of Banu hot pot selenium-rich potatoes, the price of selenium-rich potatoes was more than twice the price of ordinary potatoes, which was more than 3 yuan/jin at the time. Therefore, the purchase price of half a kilogram of selenium-rich potatoes may only be about 1.5 yuan. Banu has increased the price of selenium-rich potatoes more than ten times.
Although selenium-rich potatoes can be classified as high-quality ingredients, and the company's labor and transportation costs can also be understood, in the conventional impression of consumers, potatoes worth 18 yuan can be eaten for at least a month, and may only be eaten in Banu. Half, naturally arouses "dissatisfaction" among consumers.
As for Haidilao, in 2020, after consumers ate plastic pieces from Haidilao's black-bone chicken rolls, a batch of chopsticks from Haidilao Hotpot Hangzhou Fuchun Xintiandi store was also found to have unqualified coliform bacteria.
The hot pot industry is constantly developing towards the high-end trend, but high-end is not just "expensive", the quality of service, the quality of the dishes, and even the "emotional value" must satisfy consumers. But after various incidents, "trust" has undoubtedly become the bond between consumers and Haidilao Banu.
Today, consumers who have returned to rationality are looking for emotional value in food while disenchanting brands.
The root meaning of "There is nothing that cannot be solved by a hot pot" lies in the spiritual satisfaction of "eating happily, eating happily".
02 The "stubborn" hot pot people are full of "bitter water"
"denounced" time and time again and responded with "price increase".
Why are the Haidilao Banu people so stubborn and persistent when it comes to “price increases”? ——The answer is one word "volume".
The wind of involution has already hit the catering industry, and even more so in the hot pot industry.
According to data from Qichacha, in the first quarter of 2024, there were 11,400 new hot pot-related companies in my country, and 12,700 companies were canceled and revoked. The number of cancellations is more than the number of registrations. It can be seen that the hot pot track is under countless pressures.
Even top hotpot players such as Haidilao Banu can feel the pressure from the catering industry. Compared with the three years of the epidemic, Haidilao's turnover rate has increased in 2023, but if these three years are put aside, Haidilao's turnover rate has generally shown a downward trend. And judging from the table turnover rate alone, Haidilao’s customers are decreasing.
In terms of per capita consumption, Haidilao’s per capita consumption level fell below 100 yuan in 2023 and reached 99.1 yuan. Not only has it dropped from 104.9 yuan in 2022 to 99.1 yuan in 2023. And it is worth noting that compared with the per capita consumption of 110 yuan in 2020 during the epidemic, Haidilao's per capita consumption in 2023 dropped by about 10%.
Generally speaking, fewer and fewer people go to Haidilao, and those who go to Haidilao spend less and less money.
Coincidentally, the per capita consumption of CouDou is also decreasing. In 2022, the per capita consumption of CouDou was 150.9 yuan, and by 2023 it dropped to 142.3 yuan. Xiabuxiabu’s per capita consumption will decrease from 63.9 yuan in 2022 to 62.2 yuan in 2023. The per capita consumption of Zinzi Hotpot, a subsidiary of Jiumaojiu Group, will be 128 yuan in 2022 and 113 yuan in 2023.
In 2023, the entire catering industry will bloom, with new restaurants popping up one after another, from camping style to exquisite retro style, from bistro to regional specialty restaurants, and even the hot pot circuit will be more subdivided. The status of Sichuan and Chongqing hot pot is also constantly being lost. More subdivided hot pot categories such as noodle hot pot, dregs hot pot, tom yum hot pot, Hainan coconut chicken, pork belly chicken, etc. are challenging. In terms of price, while many merchants are launching low-price group purchases online, they also spend a lot of money to find influencers to visit stores and advertise on various social platforms to attract more customers to shop in their stores.
The market is becoming more and more diverse, and consumers have a wide range of choices. New contestants are interested in decoration, dishes, prices, and traffic... If they want not to fall behind, Haidilao Banu can only follow suit, excluding necessary costs such as manpower and transportation, and only focus on group buying, publicity, and streaming. Marketing behavior can cause catering companies' costs to skyrocket.
At the same time, necessary costs such as raw materials have also been rising. For example, hot pot base ingredients, according to data, the cost of hot pot base ingredients has increased by 25%-30% since 2018. In June 2022, many butter companies announced price increases, with the increase ranging from about 500-600 yuan/ton.
On the one hand, there are fewer consumers and lower unit prices year by year. On the other hand, there are rising costs and various group purchase packages with reduced profits. Hot pot companies that stubbornly "raise prices" have their own "bitter water".
03 From the top stream to "White Moonlight", Banu Haidilao people push away young people
"In the past, at Banu Haidilao here, no matter what day of the week, when it came to meal time, almost every family had to queue up, which basically lasted an hour. Nowadays, except for weekends and holidays, when popular business districts require small tables, you can eat at any restaurant there, and there are even empty tables around. Moreover, I found that the service atmosphere of Haidilao is like that. It’s not as good as it used to be. I don’t even enjoy eating in Haidilao now,” Andy said.
"Haidilao without service atmosphere is like eating a delicious but soulless meal, delicious but unhappy." This is Andy's evaluation of the current Haidilao.
When consumers make purchase decisions, they are often not only based on the function and quality of the product, but are also strongly affected by emotional factors. Perceptions and feelings about a brand are the driving force behind their actual actions (purchase, brand loyalty and brand advocacy). A study by
forrester consulting shows that compared with consumers’ opinions of the brand, consumers’ feelings about the brand and their emotional connection with the brand are 1.5 times more powerful in driving brand business development.
In the face of today's catering industry environment, although Banu Haidilao has endless suffering, it is obvious that the clever "price increase" behavior has transformed into consumers who directly feel that they are "being ripped off". The brand is good Gain will also be consumed. Whether it is dishes or services, the "price does not match" business method will also gradually drive away consumers who originally loved the brand.
In 2023, keywords such as "quality-price ratio" and "high quality and low price" will permeate the entire catering industry. In 2024 and for a long time to come, these characteristics may be continued and become the basic line of the catering industry.
Banu Haidilao cannot just be satisfied with the achievements of the "2g" business in the past. In the wave of the market, those who cannot make timely changes and adjustments will eventually be eliminated.
And actively adapting to consumers’ “new 5g demands” may be the key to breaking the deadlock. Regain the essence of what once attracted consumers and find the business attitude that resonates deeply with consumers.
"There are only two things I love about eating Haidilao before. One is the good taste, and the other is the atmosphere. The experience is good, and if it's more expensive, it's more expensive. But if you want a hot pot restaurant with bad taste, bad atmosphere, and average service, I'm sure I won’t go, and I won’t go if it’s cheap.” Andy said.
Consumers’ requirements for eating are very simple – to be happy. Whether it's the delicious taste or the pleasant atmosphere, if you satisfy consumers' emotional value while eating, you can get consumers to go for it.
