西贝副总裁宋宣：在内卷的餐饮行业，找到“家庭欢乐餐厅”定位丨WISE2024未来消费大会
On November 29, the WISE2024 Future Consumption Conference was officially held in Beijing. This conference is hosted by 36Kr Future Consumption with the theme of "Always with You", focusing on hot topics in the consumption industry. It invites more than 20 executives from investment institutions, platform providers, brand owners, and service providers to jointly explore new trends and opportunities in the consumption industry.
The era of mass catering has arrived, and competition is a constant theme in the catering industry. Blaming the market environment or complaining about competitors cannot solve the problem. Xibei, which has been established for 36 years, is striving to formulate a new strategy to once again navigate through the cycle. Song Xuan, Vice President of Xibei, said that lowering prices does not mean being able to do business well. Instead, one should understand and insight into the current catering consumption trends. Currently, there is an oversupply and insufficient demand, but supply and demand are actually continuously segmented in the market. Xibei has found that there is still potential in the children's meal field. This year, Xibei decisively chose its strategic direction, that is, to further position itself as a "Family Fun Restaurant", choosing to focus on family customers and "Give the Best to Children".
Vice President of Xibei Song Xuan
The following is the speech record of Mr. Song Xuan, edited and sorted out by 36Kr:
Good afternoon, everyone! Today, I would like to talk to you about a topic that has been frequently discussed in the catering industry recently - how to counter the intense competition. At this moment, the market competition is very fierce, and everyone is rather distressed, and this kind of competition is reflected in all industries. This is a fact. Blaming the market environment or complaining about competitors is in vain. Ultimately, the key lies in one's own choices.
There are many discussions within Xibei on this topic, and we also have our own choices in strategic selection. Xibei is a catering brand with a history of 36 years, while the average survival time of a catering brand is 508 days. The era of mass catering has arrived, and competition is a constant theme in the catering industry.
How does Xibei do it? What choices has Xibei made in the current market? Let me briefly talk to you about it here.
The catering industry continues to grow in scale, and the main driving force comes from the continuous expansion of the out-of-home food market. In the past two years, the most obvious trend in the catering industry is reflected in the takeaway market, where the proportion of takeaway is increasing. With more and more small families, takeaway is constantly replacing the home kitchen. People only cook at home when they are having leisure and entertainment. Generally speaking, people tend to have breakfast at home, have lunch at the company, and order takeaway or eat out with colleagues for dinner.
Looking back at the more than 40-year history of the entire Chinese catering industry, from the birth of the first individual business license in 1979 to the present, it has continuously passed through several cycles. From 1979 to 1988 was the first generation, when the national canteens opened shops on the streets, and time-honored brands were the more mainstream brands in the catering industry. After 1988, KFC and McDonald's entered China one after another, and the Chinese catering industry began to enter the era of chain brands. The introduction of these brands has had a significant impact on the chain process of the Chinese catering industry.
In the 2000s, the catering industry began to be dominated by high-end catering consumption, and going to restaurants became the main topic of discussion in the catering industry. After the introduction of the National Eight-point Regulation policy, the catering industry entered the era of mass consumption, and high-end brands such as South Beauty gradually withdrew from the market. After the epidemic, the catering industry has ushered in a new cycle, with young people returning to their hometowns to start businesses in small towns, and the sinking market has become a new trend in the catering industry.
Looking back at the biggest bonus in the catering industry, it is actually from 2012 to 2014. The rapid rise of industrialization has driven the rapid chain development of the catering industry, and the catering industry has begun to develop rapidly. This period is the happiest era of consumption upgrade for consumers. People dare to consume, and the primary and secondary markets perform well. Whether it is catering brands, technology brands or mobile Internet platforms, they have obtained more funds, demonstrating the consumption vitality of the entire market.
From the arrival and end of the epidemic to today, we can still feel the rise and fall of many brands in the market. Brands that can pass through the cycle often make the right strategic choices at every key time node. Some brands rise rapidly within a cycle, but decline rapidly after the cycle ends. This is a very obvious fact. In the new cycle, whether one can grasp one's own "point" is very crucial.
The rapid development stage of Xibei began in 2014, when it first had its own designed Xibei Oat Noodles Village brand, with the super symbol "I❤Oat" and a series of products such as Grandpa Zhang's Hollow Handmade Noodles. At that time, Xibei began to enter the mass catering market. From 2017 to 2019, Xibei began to open stores rapidly and became a leading brand in Chinese casual dining. Catering brands indeed need to make key and correct choices in each cycle.
At the same time, the success of many catering brands is closely related to the sinking market, which actually also proves that the chain of the catering industry has begun to gradually enter the sinking market from first-tier cities. This trend puts forward higher requirements for the operating capabilities of catering brands, including management capabilities, supply chain coverage capabilities, store opening capabilities, and precise location selection capabilities.
At this stage, various platforms have launched diversified marketing strategies, promotional methods, and live-streaming methods, making the market competition increasingly fierce. The simplest way of competition is to compete on price, attracting consumers by lowering prices. Here, I would particularly like to ask everyone a question: Can lowering prices do business well? If lowering prices can do business well, then anyone can do business well, because this method is too simple. If there is a new brand "Dongbei" that simply sets a price lower than Xibei, can it succeed? Obviously not. Therefore, a simple price war has no future. It may have a certain effect in the short term, but in the long run, a continuous price war will inevitably lead to failure.
The most obvious feature of the entire market is an oversupply and insufficient demand. But in the process, we also need to find a problem. Supply and demand are actually continuously segmented in the market. The Xibei brand is also continuously segmenting its own market, constantly looking for and strengthening its own advantages. In this process, Xibei continuously crosses different market cycles, rather than simply pursuing the expansion of the market scale. In the new stage, we need to clarify what the new "point" is that we can more resolutely cut into the market.
Our choice is very clear, from "inward competition" to "upward competition". The underlying logic behind this is that we firmly believe that every brand has its unique advantages, otherwise it cannot survive in the market.
Xibei was originally a comprehensive catering brand, starting with Northwestern cuisine. This year, Xibei decisively chose its strategic direction, that is, to further position itself as a Family Fun Restaurant, which is the most important goal we have begun to implement this year. Choosing to focus on family customers is not a unique or creative choice of Xibei, but a result based on customer evaluations and actual consumption behaviors. Xibei does have a market advantage in the professional children's meal field, can do it extremely well, and can indeed occupy a unique and advantageous position in the market in terms of obtaining family customer flow.
In the new strategic cycle, how to continue to promote our brand? The key lies in extracting our past advantages, continuing to form an absolute advantage in the local battlefield, and investing heavily.
When many media interview Xibei, they will ask: Why can Xibei's professional children's meals be done well? Why can Xibei's professional children's meals sell for seventy or eighty yuan? Why do so many family customers come to Xibei? In fact, there are many reasons, but I think there is only one most important reason, that is, we have a sufficient level of investment in this matter. We have a dedicated Xibei Professional Children's Meal team, including a marketing team, a R & D team, and even an independent team for parent-child cooking classes. For example, why can Nanchengxiang do breakfast well enough? Because they have a department called the Breakfast Business Department. I was quite shocked. I have never seen a catering brand that can operate breakfast, lunch, and dinner as a separate business department. Later, the Dinner Business Department launched hot pot, and the Breakfast Business Department launched relatively cheaper breakfasts.
The logic of Xibei is the same. It has invested a lot of resources in this matter, firmly choosing its own advantages on the upward competition track and moving upward.
Our latest brand proposition is "Give the Best to Children", which is also the most important theme on the marketing side next year. We will continuously improve the organic level of professional children's meals to ensure that the quality of all ingredients is high enough that others cannot catch up. This is the key for us to gain a foothold in the process of "competing with ourselves" and "competing in the market".
Xibei has done a lot of work on many products, including investing more than 60 million yuan to establish the most advanced oat flour factory in Wuchuan, China. The factory uses 28 processes to produce high-quality oat flour. Xibei has 160,000 mu of organic oat fields and a ranch in Inner Mongolia to provide children with high-quality nutritious milk. Xibei does not raise cattle and sheep, but selects the best cattle and sheep on the grassland to ensure quality.
Because Xibei's children's meals are professional enough, many parents are willing to choose Xibei's professional children's meals for their children. This year, the takeaway sales of Xibei's professional children's meals have reached about 200 million yuan. What is more interesting here is that half of the children's meal orders come from women, not children. Many female customers also choose professional children's meal takeaway because children's meals can indeed bring a better feeling, are more nutritious, and will not cause excessive burden to the body.
In this matter, our investment is sufficient, including the five protections and seven services provided for children in the store, all in order to achieve the ultimate in this service and form a competitive advantage. With a firm investment, competitors in the same business district cannot surpass us.
Starting from next year, Xibei will also enter the field of food education on a large scale. Japan is the first and only country in the world to legislate on food education, while China has not. How can we make ourselves stronger and eat better? This starts with educating every child. Xibei will also begin to enter this field. In the dining process and before dining, Xibei launches parent-child cooking classes in the store and takes food education courses with parents. We believe that children raised in this way will love Xibei more when they grow up.
Up to now, Xibei has held 116,000 parent-child activities. Many babies are a bit restless when they come to Xibei to eat. We began to gradually provide them with some products, food or toys. For example, rubbing oat noodles. Oat noodles are like plasticine and have a very fragrant taste. Children can rub and play with them by themselves, and this has gradually turned into a course offered by the store. Later, we charge an appropriate fee of 39 yuan per family. This is not something we created, but something we refined. From the end of this year to next year, Xibei will carry out parent-child cooking classes on a large scale and open reservations on Dianping.
In the current highly competitive environment, Xibei has given a clear new strategic choice: We will further refine and optimize the businesses that we have done well before and do them even better. If we just follow the market to compete on prices, we will surely be eliminated. Therefore, we are committed to strengthening our strengths and giving full play to our advantages. This is Xibei's answer in the era of intense competition: We are not "inwardly competitive", but "upwardly competitive", and are committed to providing better services for children.
Thank you all!