It is inevitable that Panda will go bankrupt!

This article deeply analyzes the reasons for the business failure of the Internet celebrity cake brand "Panda Buzou", explores issues such as cost control, product core and expansion strategy in business operations, and guides readers to understand how companies can avoid similar problems. I hope it will be helpful to you in business operations and strategic planning.

Panda, an internet-famous cake brand that has raised over 100 million yuan in financing and has an annual revenue of 800 million yuan, has collapsed.

On the one hand, employees were demanding their salaries on the official Weibo account, saying that the company’s founder had lost contact, their salaries had been in arrears for several months, and their social security and provident fund payments had also been cut off.

On the other hand, the founder admitted in the DingTalk group that the company was facing operational difficulties and encouraged everyone to protect their rights through arbitration.

Although I once wrote an article highly praising PandaBuzou's differentiated services, a company cannot regard the form of delivery as its core competitiveness, otherwise bankruptcy is inevitable.

1. The delivery is too heavy

I have to say that Panda Buzou’s delivery is creative and valuable.

For a birthday person, especially a child, this kind of thing is very interesting.

But the core of the problem is that such a delivery is too heavy!

1. High cost

Originally, if you hired a delivery guy to deliver a cake, the errand fee would only be seven or eight yuan or 10 yuan.

But if you switch to your own delivery service, or hire someone to deliver it, you need to buy clothes, customize performances based on customer needs, and provide on-site service.

In this way, the lowest delivery cost increased from seven or eight yuan to seventy or eighty yuan.

2. Low efficiency

The entire process from order taking, demand communication to production, delivery, and performance for a customer takes at least an hour for delivery service alone, not including the accuracy of the previous day.

If a store encounters several waves of customers in a day, from different places and at the same time period, additional staff will be needed.

This results in increased costs for delivery services, while individual output is low.

But for the same time and price, a delivery guy can serve more than a dozen customers.

3. Difficult to unify

The biggest challenge of differentiated services lies precisely in differentiation , and perhaps the headquarters does a good job.

However, there are differences in delivery among franchisees and part-time staff in each city.

It was well-intentioned, to enhance the user experience, but because of the difficulty in unifying the delivery, it resulted in a poor experience.

2. Products are the core of the entire business!

There are many services regarding door-to-door or in-store performances, such as Haidilao, which is very famous.

But no matter how good Haidilao’s birthday wishes are, what users ultimately care about is whether the product is fresh, delicious, and expensive.

Similarly, what do users remember when Panda doesn’t leave?

Is it a performance of sending birthday cakes, or do you want users to remember your cakes and pastries?

There is no pastry shop that survives by making birthday cakes.

Birthdays only happen once a year, but you can buy small cakes, bread, etc. every day or every week.

The initial stage of consumption is that your product must be delicious!

Everyone is sharing Panda Buzou’s deliveries on WeChat Moments, but no one is sharing how delicious Panda Buzou’s cakes, breads, and snacks are. This is putting the cart before the horse.

3. Freshness only happens once

When you enjoy Panda’s cake show service for the first time, you may feel very surprised and even share it on your Moments.

But after experiencing it once, what about the second and third time?

I think many people will get tired of it because the novelty only happens once.

It is also easy to give users the impression that your profits are too high rather than your service being too good!

Just think about it, when you spend hundreds of dollars to buy a cake, there is also a real person’s thoughtful performance service.

You will think that the merchant should be making a lot of money, and then you will naturally question the nature of the product, or discount it mentally.

Originally you bought a cake for 200 yuan and thought it was worth 150 yuan. But now after the performance, you think the cake is only worth 80 yuan because the other costs have increased.

What attracts users to repurchase is whether the cake tastes good, whether the ingredients are good, and whether it can attract users to buy other cakes.

Sometimes it is more important to provide differentiated services, cut down on the cost, and provide users with good products.

For example, I have heard of Panda’s never-ending cake, but I can’t think of any other dessert products from Panda because I only have one birthday a year and I can’t think of other occasions to consume it.

But when my birthday really comes, I have already forgotten about it, and I will definitely go to the dessert shop I often go to to buy it.

4. Do not expand blindly and stop losses in time

Yang Zhenhua, the founder of Panda Don’t Go, admitted that his blind optimism, wrong decisions, and misjudgment of the epidemic, market, and policies led to the company’s current situation of capital chain being strained and suspension of business.

This is a wake-up call for all of us entrepreneurs.

Think about it, do all failed entrepreneurs have the same excuses and problems?

1. The authorities are mysteriously confident

Many entrepreneurs, whether they have failed or are very successful, sometimes have a mysterious self-confidence. They don't trust anyone and want to establish their own authority.

Therefore, they often make decisions that they think are "correct" at the time, such as blindly expanding, blindly developing new products, blindly doing other businesses, or not decisively laying off employees.

Because of the blind confidence in expected future income, one ends up spending more than one earns.

2. Stop loss in time

Problems in a company do not arise suddenly, but there are signs.

It could be someone's resignation, a business's loss, a product's stagnant growth, or the loss of a major customer.

But if the founder still expands blindly and invites the team to execute his own wrong decisions, it is doomed to fail and cannot be saved.

As a founder, you must have the courage to admit your own decision-making mistakes, have the courage to give up businesses that you are not familiar with and are losing money, and have the courage to admit that others are doing better than you.

At this time, you should have the determination to cut off your own arm, preserve your strength, and look for new opportunities.

Otherwise, even the basic foundation will be gone, and the chance of recovering will be slim.

Author: Shili Village

Source: WeChat public account "Shili Village (ID: shilipxl)"