As a master of Western cuisine, Wang Pin was listed on the Michelin one-star list for three consecutive years for the first time as a Chinese food brand; for the first time as a Sichuan cuisine brand, he was also recommended by Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Chen Zhenghui, chairman of of Wangpin Group, said with a smile in the interview: "I got the Michelin by accident." What's going on?
column planner/host of "Hongbo High-end Interview" weekly magazine: Chen Hongbo (founder of Red Meal Network)
When mentioning Wangpin Group (hereinafter referred to as "Wangpin"), its multi-brand strategy cannot be avoided, this is Wangpin The unique label is also one of the core advantages. Since
was founded in Taiwan in 1993 and entered the mainland market in 2003, countless brands have been born under Wangpin. Currently, there are still 27 brands in operation, with a total of 427 directly-operated stores. Among them, there are 9 brands in mainland China, including Wangpin Steak, Xidi Steak, and Mrs. Goose, with 150 stores.
△Wangpin’s existing brand
At the end of last year, Wangpin Taiwan took the initiative to close down its underperforming Yita and Shuguo brands, with a total of 7 stores and a loss of nearly 20 million. The performance of the failure of the "multi-brand" strategy. In this regard, Chen Zhenghui, the current chairman of Wangpin Group, said in an interview with Hongcan (ID: hongcan18): "Not all of the brands under Wangpin will develop well, and there must be some that are not doing well. Closing the store is to hope that The limited operating resources are re-adjusted and concentrated on strong brands, which is more conducive to the development of the group."
Compared to the company's financial gains or losses, as the group's leader, Chen Zhenghui pays more attention to two things: "One is strategy, brand and The group's future development strategy; one is talents. These two should be the two most important things in the catering industry." And these two points are also the core advantages that Wang Pin relies on for survival and continuous strengthening.
Chen Zhenghui talks about Wang Pin's system strategy
strategy: multi-brand logic
Wang Pin Group originated from Wang Pin Formosa Plastics Steak. In 1993, Wangpin Formosa Steak became very popular in Taiwan with its well-done steak of "one cow is only for six guests" which was different from the market.
is different from the vast inland market, fast food and beverage updates, and easy expansion of brands. Taiwan’s market is small, and a brand can reach the ceiling with at most a dozen stores. In addition, has fierce market competition and wants to occupy more markets Shares can only be met by continuously innovating models, developing new categories, and innovating brands to meet the different needs of the same customer group, and thus the multi-brand strategy came into being.
After more than 20 years of polishing, Wang Pin has derived a set of unique logic in brand mining and innovative brands, namely: discovering new brands around core advantages and market gaps, and the core point of this logic is to identify differences. Cut into the big market with a small difference.
brand innovation: extend the core advantages, do what you are good at.
Wangpin started with Western food and Japanese food. After more than 20 years of development, the Western food and Japanese food system has already been perfected. It is king to find brand opportunities from the core areas of its own advantages. goods good at.
For example, Xidi Steak, which was originally extended from the high-end brand Wangpin Steakhouse, focuses on the mid-range market; another example is the Wuyu Japanese Food Beauty Collagen Pot (hereinafter referred to as "Wuyu"), which became popular when it opened last year. This brand is currently in Shanghai. Four stores have been opened, and the score on a review platform is extremely high, with taste, environment and service all above 9.0 points. How can
be so successful? Chen Zhenghui said that there are two main reasons:
- First, Japanese food is a category that Wang Pin is good at. Among the 27 brands of
Wangpin, 11 Japanese food brands accounted for almost half of the country. From kaiseki cuisine, Japanese style cuisine, raw stone grill, teppanyaki to kombu pot, Japanese pork chops, all categories of Japanese food are involved, and they cover different consumption levels. Relying on its own strong chef team in the daily food category, rich experience in store operation and management, and a stable and solid supply system, Wuyu is familiar with the business.
- followed by, Brand positioning is closely integrated with product attributes.
Previously, Wang Pin mostly made high-end daily food products, and was good at serious style. There was still a lack of a casual mid-end daily food brand in the brand matrix. The one that meets these two requirements is undoubtedly izakaya , but the authentic Japanese-style izakaya has a disadvantage-it only opens at night and does not open during the day, what should I do?
During the survey, they found that Japanese food and hot pot are the most popular among consumers, and it may be feasible to combine the two. "Most of the daily food is cold food. If it is paired with a hot pot, we believe it will be very suitable for the needs of mainland consumers."
At the same time, in view of the characteristics of 80% of the target group will be young women, the Wang Pin team has found a market difference. Collagen small hot pot, according to women's "love beauty" psychology, a brand of Japanese food + hot pot was born.
△ Wuyu Collagen Hot Pot
Exploration of Chinese Food Brands: Looking for Small Differences in the Big Market
In 2015, after Chen Zhenghui took over as the chairman of Wangpin Group, Wangpin began to enter the Chinese food market. The Chinese food market is vast and the competition is fierce. How to choose a category? The logic of
Wangpin is to look at the market size, market space determines the scale that the brand can develop in the future . "Since we want to intervene, why not choose a big category to do it?" Among the eight major Chinese cuisines, Sichuan cuisine and Cantonese cuisine have the largest markets and the lowest taste barriers. But at the same time, the market is large, the threshold is low, and the competition is fierce. At this time, differentiated breakthroughs are particularly important.
Take Wang Pin’s first Chinese food brand “Goose Lady” as an example. Previously, Wang Pin’s team did a lot of research on the Cantonese cuisine market. They found that the market for Cantonese Chinese tea restaurants is the largest, but there are the fewest merchants making roast goose. Wang Pin decided to start with roasted goose, and here came Mrs. Goose——with "the first brand of roasted goose" to seize the minds of consumers. Another example is its second Sichuan cuisine brand "Just Sichuan", which uses the model of Sichuan-style taverns to break the concept of large portions of Sichuan cuisine and create a relaxed atmosphere of "drinking small wine and eating small dishes".
"It's the first time we cook Chinese food, and we are very nervous internally." Because of the nervousness, Wang Pin not only invested a lot of money, but also transferred the best store manager, chef, and front office service team under its banner to reinforce Mrs. Goose. This means that it has been on the Michelin one-star list for three consecutive years.
△ Mrs. Goose Crispy Roast Goose
However, it is easy to make a single restaurant, but it is not easy to do a Chinese restaurant chain. Goose Lady is the largest Chinese food chain brand of Wang Pin at present. It has 24 stores in 4 years. The Shanghai Xinzhuang store has maintained a Michelin one-star standard for three consecutive years. It is still a challenge to make other stores reach the same level. The standardization of Chinese food is the first hurdle that Wang Pin has to overcome. Even if the western food operation system is complete, it must be learned from scratch.
“We are still not capable enough in terms of Chinese food management system and standardization of Chinese food. This is what Wang Pin is trying to learn and adjust.” Every step is cautious, including site selection, operation, profit structure planning, and management team configuration, all of which are being optimized.
Trial and error and self-examination: strong men break their wrists and stop losses in time
Wangpin will launch 1~2 new brands every year. How high is the brand success rate? 80% to 90%, such a high success rate comes from constant trial and error and self-examination.
Wang Pin gives each brand 5-10 million yuan of trial and error funds. Based on years of experience, if you spend about 3 million yuan on a brand, you can judge whether the brand is suitable for development within six months to one year. And after the brand has passed the dangerous period of start-up, it will still undergo regular "inspection", and if it fails to achieve the expected effect, it will be shut down decisively and the loss will be stopped in time, as is the case with Yita and Shuguo.
Because the trial and error costs of brands are relatively low, this also allows them to boldly try more new categories and new business models. Through brand trial and error, makes it easier for Wangpin to find out a new model suitable for the market, and it is more clear where its own advantages are and what is suitable for.
For example, Wangpin tried to build a Chinese noodle restaurant brand "Sanwa Zaomen" before. This is a category that Wangpin has never been in contact with before. With no advantage in experience, the brand quickly failed. This experience made them realize more deeply: 's development of a new brand must be related to the core advantages of the company, otherwise will fail more than succeed.
Talents: Grassroots training + internal entrepreneurship
Multi-brand development requires a large number of talents to support. In this regard, Chen Zhenghui said: " When your personnel is stable, you don't need to do too much training, he can manage and maintain the store quite well. And when the scale of the enterprise grows, it is no longer managed by people, but by people. It is managed by systems and mechanisms. ”
Wang Pin currently employs more than 15,000 people, and the talent turnover rate is controlled at about 5% all year round. Moreover, there are many employees who have worked for about 10 years, and the senior management is stable. Chen Zhenghui said that the stability of the team is another advantage of Wang Pin. Summing up the experience, there are the following points.
Credit training system: professional skills + character DNA
In terms of employee training and training, Wang Pin uses educational credits + social credits to cultivate employees' professional skills and personal character.
- Education credits to develop essential skills. From newcomers to store managers at , employees need to practice various courses, such as work skills, culture and service concepts, store operation management, leadership potential development and other basic skills courses. Before becoming a store manager, they must complete 206 skill credits to be qualified.
- Social credits, cultivating Wangpin personality. Wang Pin believes that all personality development should be cultivated in life or daily behavior, and through social activities, Wang Pin's personality DNA of tenacity, perseverance, never giving up, and teamwork ability should be cultivated. Such as Wang Pin's famous triathlon: hiking, mountaineering, and marathon.
Organization and entrepreneurship mechanism: professionals do professional things
In the early years, the layout of Wang Pin Formosa Steakhouse in Taiwan was basically completed, and corporate executives gradually encountered the "workplace ceiling". In order to give them a better space for development, Wangpin established the Lion King business plan, allowing people with strong comprehensive capabilities to lead a team to create new brands by themselves. However, with the expansion of the scale of the enterprise, Chen Zhenghui believes that professional division of labor is more suitable for the current development, so there is the current organizational and entrepreneurial model, that is, let professional people do professional things.
For example, the marketing department will do the initial market research and search for market gaps, and the later store operation management and talent training will be done by the profit team. brand. In order to continuously stimulate the creativity and enthusiasm of old employees, Wangpin encourages employee rotation and training, including regional rotation and brand rotation.
Conclusion
The perfect talent mechanism has achieved Wangpin's multi-brand strategy; while the multi-brand strategy has created greater and more development space for talents.
Last year, the total revenue of Wang Pin across the Taiwan Strait was 3.7 billion yuan, and it is not afraid to try the new markets that need to be opened. However, due to the economic downturn, small and medium-sized restaurants are hard to withstand the pressure, and there are countless closures and closures. Even a catering carrier like Xiang Wangpin has to actively deal with it, and every step is more cautious.
Chen Zhenghui analyzed that under the cold winter, the catering market will face two levels of differentiation, and the mid-end catering market will be the most affected. "The economic downturn has little impact on the wealthy, so high-end consumption is still there; while low-end consumption itself is functional and cannot disappear; on the contrary, mid-end consumption will be affected and go down."
Facing the economy In the downturn, he believes that catering companies should focus on the basics, namely products, services and location selection. These three points basically determine the survival of a brand.
In addition, Wang Pin is implementing the "seven-step store opening method": in a market where 100 stores can be opened under normal circumstances, only 70 stores will be opened, and the rest will be used as flexible space, so that the growth space of each brand will not be limited. affected by the economy.
In the future, Wang Pin will focus on the mainland market, and continue to create multiple brands while, to expand the scale of good brands. In this process, Chen Zhenghui said that the greatest pressure is still talent.
“ We have seen a lot of catering industry, when it is small, the problems are not big, but when the scale grows, all the problems come out, it is not necessarily a problem of strategy, but a problem with the organization behind it, It can’t support the previous scale, that (talent) is the most important core for the development and growth of an enterprise .”
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