Seizing the social and emotional needs of young people, offline catering breaks through the scene

As consumers' demands are constantly changing, the catering industry has taken the initiative to adjust its business methods and launch new marketing ideas. However, along with the strong recovery of the catering market, it is also accompanied by a complex and changing marketing environment. In this case, how can major catering industries find a breakthrough? This article takes this as a starting point, and those who are interested can take a look.

Recently, offline catering brands have started a new round of "revitalization".

After the end of the epidemic, traditional offline catering companies have started a new round of battle with young people and began to penetrate into the life and entertainment scenes of young people.

As consumers' demands continue to change and seek innovation, the catering industry has taken the initiative to adjust its business methods and launched new catering marketing ideas such as "innovative pre-prepared dishes", "camping restaurants", and "Chinese-style hamburgers". On this basis, it has also strengthened cross-industry integration and added emerging consumer elements. This series of operations has pushed the catering industry to the forefront of traffic and attracted the attention of many young consumers.

As an industry that deals with people, the strong recovery of the catering industry market is also accompanied by a complex and changing marketing environment. In this situation, how can major catering industries find a breakthrough? How can they overturn the traditional marketing environment and play with young people?

1. Fancy activities have ruined the dining scene for young people

Long periods of home life have made camping, which involves stepping into the wilderness and getting close to nature, popular among many young people. The topic of camping on Xiaohongshu has been viewed over 100 million times. Driven by the hot topics and discussions among young people, brands have seized the opportunity of camping and brought this trend into the catering industry.

Big-name catering companies such as Haidilao, Wenheyou, and Guoquan have all set their sights on this "piece of cake" and started launching "camping catering."

According to official information, in August this year, Haidilao launched the country's first hot pot pop-up restaurant in Shanghai, focusing on the combination of camping and hot pot. It not only directly saves the tedious steps of packing equipment, choosing a venue, and setting up tents, but also provides outdoor KTV and mahjong, board games, fishing and other one-stop services that young people love. Consumers only need to book the venue and the corresponding package in advance, and they can quickly "arrange" a "camping hot pot trip" that can go on a whim.

As soon as the news came out, the topic #HaidilaoCamping attracted more than 462,000 views, and many young people checked in and posted photos. Netizens from all over the country also shouted "Open a store in Xi'an" and "Haidilao, you deserve to make money", etc., making Haidilao once again the center of young people's attention.

(Photo source: Haidilao Xiaohongshu screenshot)

So far, Haidilao's camping hotpot has been launched in Wuhan, Beijing and other places. Obviously, combining marketing topics with things that young people are concerned about today to keep the brand young is a new track for innovation and gold mining in the catering industry.

In addition, Changsha's famous catering culture brand Wenheyou, as a time-honored catering brand, has also innovated after experiencing the layoff storm a few years ago, and opened two "camping restaurants" in one go, named "Not Super Wenheyou".

The essence of "Bu Super Wenheyou" is to create a casual and free night market consumption environment. The entire scene covers an area of ​​nearly 10,000 square meters. Although it took only 20 days to come out, the camp has a wide variety of contents. In addition to the basic camping site, there are also various Changsha specialty snacks, markets and occasional live performances.

"Bu Super Wenheyou" combines the scenes that young people like today, breaks the limitations of traditional dining scenes, and enhances the immersive dining experience. It not only meets the social needs of young consumers who like to share food and check in on social networks, but also truly penetrates into the social scenes of young people and achieves life-oriented marketing.

Not only the entertainment scenes for young people, but offline catering brands are also targeting young people's "social phobia" and emotions.

Recently, Haidilao has launched a special "i-person" and "e-person" waiting service. The term "i-person" and "e-person" originated from the popular 16-type personality test in the social circle of young people. The test results are roughly divided into two types of people: "i" represents introversion and "e" represents extroversion. In layman's terms, they are "social phobia" and "social adeptness".

Haidilao has borrowed this concept to divide the waiting areas for different types of consumers. When consumers enter a Haidilao store to wait, they will see two red and blue signs, representing the waiting areas for "i people" and "e people" respectively. Even "i people" and "e people" signs will be distributed on site.

In addition, "i-people" can enjoy a quiet environment while waiting for a table, and employees will try to avoid enthusiastic interactions. "e-people" can interact and chat with other customers in the waiting area. Haidilao also prepares various small games and interactive activities for "e-people".

By using young people's emotions to drive innovation and upgrading of services, offline catering brands have made great breakthroughs in seizing hot spots and creating social trends, and are more in line with young consumer groups. Consumers can easily resonate with the brand and gain emotional identification.

(Photo source: Xiaohongshu screenshot)

2. Mixed feelings: some are happy while others complain

The emergence and promotion of new marketing methods have also brought both positive and negative effects to the brand. The popular online meme about Haidilao's live broadcast divided consumers into different types. Although it has deepened the "humanization" characteristics of the brand to a certain extent, it has also brought "controversy" to the brand on the other hand.

Some consumers believe that Haidilao's activities are in line with their service needs, but some consumers think that this is a kind of "labeling" behavior, "I am an i-person, not autistic", "Who is actually increasing the stereotype of e-people", "Is it really okay to label people with two letters like this"... Consumers' doubts on social platforms have also appeared one after another.

(Photo source: Xiaohongshu screenshot)

This just shows that in the design of marketing content, although the innovation and timeliness of the content are crucial, the brand also needs to consider the acceptance of the consumer group itself and possible objections from public opinion. Only by accurately tracking the consumption needs of young people, grasping the majority of consumer groups in the market, strengthening the company's own risk resistance, and exploring diversified commercial marketing methods suitable for the consumer market can we break the deadlock.

Young consumers have a strong sense of autonomy and participation in the things they love and are interested in. However, they can have many different opinions on the same content, which is also one of the characteristics of young consumers. How to seek common ground while reserving differences and how to build a suitable communication bridge between brands and consumers are the issues we need to think about now.

From this point of view, youth marketing should not be too aggressive. The ultimate goal of marketing is to attract consumers and establish a deep emotional bond with them. We cannot just focus on social networks. Although young consumers are highly sensitive to the Internet, "playing with memes" also comes with the risk of "turning over". Opportunities and risks coexist. Brands need to find a balance between themselves and the preferences of young people and really understand the tricks involved.

3. Subverting the single business model and a diversified "self-rescue"

According to the "2023 China Catering Consumption Trend Report", satiety and taste are no longer the only needs of the new generation of diners, and catering + experience will better meet consumer needs. Therefore, traditional offline catering brands need to break through the business model centered on a single catering dish to face the changes in current consumer preferences.

At the same time, offline catering has been hit in recent years, and many brands have been hit by store closures, which has also sounded the "wake-up call" for catering practitioners. Take Haidilao as an example. According to the announcement released by Haidilao on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange during the epidemic, the company will close about 300 Haidilao stores with relatively low customer traffic and operating performance not as expected in 2021. Some of these stores will be temporarily closed and reopened at an appropriate time. The longest rest period will not exceed two years. This year, Haidilao's net profit loss was 4.163 billion.

The offline single operation model is not only restricted by geographical location, but also has relatively narrow channels and scope for spreading information. In addition, with the rise of Internet catering brands and new consumer rising stars, the cost and customer acquisition space of the offline catering market have been gradually widened, and consumers' control over their spending power has made it increasingly difficult for brands to price and market their products.

Because of this, after its recovery, Haidilao began to try to develop a diversified catering layout. Camping spots and people-friendly brands are all innovative attempts, and it began to focus on social marketing among young people.

From the performance ranking of listed catering companies in the first half of 2023 released by Lianshang.com, it can be seen that Haidilao's revenue in 2023 increased by 2981.74% year-on-year, far ahead of other listed catering companies. This is also due to Haidilao's youthful marketing strategy, which uses "scene + product + content" to achieve two-way interaction with young consumers and build an open and diversified catering channel.

(Photo source: Lianshang.com)

Catering companies are rushing to seize the popularity and researching new marketing strategies. Haidilao, Xibei, Quanjude and other merchants have launched pre-prepared dishes; Meidong Supo, Xiaolongkan and other national catering brands have gathered in Taobao live broadcast rooms. In addition, low-price group purchases, late-night snack economy, cross-border cooperation and other marketing methods are also highly respected by brands.

In this process, brands must start with product quality, based on the reputation and brand genes accumulated offline for many years, and stimulate consumers to spontaneously participate in the process of brand communication from aspects such as channels and symbols. Secondly, they must understand consumers' preferences, choose appropriate ways to renew the brand image and create products in a targeted manner, embrace the trend of brand self-broadcasting, and bring direct results to brand conversion.

Summarize

Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to experience in consumption, and the mood, aesthetics, taste and atmosphere in the consumption process are also very important. Brands output youthful concepts through marketing and activities, express the emotions behind and communicate with young groups. Creating a youthful atmosphere and image is the only way for enterprises to achieve long-term development.

However, each person is different, so how to create a better interactive marketing method requires constant adjustment of strategies, gradual exploration with long-term marketing strategies and systematic analysis, and use practice to open up the "future" of the catering industry.

Author: Kenan, WeChat public account: TopKlout (ID: TopKlout)