China's own "poor ghost meal" is selling like hot cakes on Douyin

In the era of economic downturn, "poor guy meal" has become a fashionable and sad word popular in the social media of Generation Z. This article traces the development history of Tustin and explores the deep-seated reasons why it has captured the hearts of young people in the sinking market and then expanded rapidly. Recommended reading for those who are interested in the development history of Tustin~

Buy one get one free, add 1 yuan and get one free, 9.9 yuan meal combo... On Xiaohongshu, Tustin is becoming a member of the "poor guy's guide" for young people, with a popularity comparable to that of McDonald's and KFC.

Image source: Xiaohongshu user

In August this year, Tustin opened its first store in Beijing at Beijing West Railway Station, which attracted strong feedback from Xiaohongshu users. Transportation hubs are popular locations for fast food, and Beijing West Railway Station is a place with a large flow of people. Setting up a store here is equivalent to setting up a billboard.

Judging from the information shared by consumers, this store continues Tustin's usual national trend style, with red as the main color and turquoise brand font. The products include both Western fried chicken burgers and special Chinese burgers such as Mapo Tofu.

According to Kas, before coming to Beijing, Tustin had already entered three other first-tier cities. According to data from Zhaimen Canyan, Tustin has 178 and 110 stores in Guangzhou and Shenzhen respectively, and nearly 30 stores in Shanghai.

For many users, Tustin is still a slightly unfamiliar brand. In 2019, Tustin officially proposed the brand positioning of "Super Burger" and began to expand rapidly in 2020. At present, its store scale ranks fourth in the Western fast food category, second only to Wallace, KFC and McDonald's, and has surpassed Pizza Hut and Dicos. In the online channel, Tustin has firmly grasped the dividends of the rise of Douyin's life services, and its sales volume often ranks in the top 5 of Douyin's monthly list.

How did Tustin stand out from the crowd of fast food brands? And what enabled it to expand so rapidly?

1. Tustin opened 4,000 stores in 3 years, and it was crazy

In this year's overall sluggish consumer market, Tustin can be said to be very popular.

One of the founders, Wei Youchun, was once a franchisee of Wallace and opened 7 stores. In 2012, Wei Youchun established the first "Tustin" store in Jiangxi, which sold pizza at that time. It was not until 2017 that Tustin launched the "burger + pizza" dual category. A year later, Tustin launched the label of "freshly baked burger dough" and officially transformed into the burger category.

In order to highlight the differentiated label of "Western burgers made in China" , Tustin distinguishes itself from Western burgers such as McDonald's and KFC in terms of raw materials and production processes. The burger base is freshly baked, that is, the dough is hand-rolled and baked on site, similar to the method of making steamed buns and pancakes in Chinese cuisine. The dough is frozen and transported to the store after proofing and dividing, and then thawed, rolled out, baked, and cut in the store, which is equivalent to postponing the process that other brands complete in the factory. It tastes better when it is made and eaten immediately.

Secondly, Tustin replaced the beef patties and fried chicken nuggets in the hamburgers with dishes that are more acceptable to the "Chinese stomach", and launched the Mapo Tofu Chinese Burger, Peking Duck Chinese Burger, Fish-flavored Shredded Pork Chinese Burger, etc.

With the label of "Chinese burger", Tustin caters to the concept of "national trend" sought after by young consumers in brand marketing. Tustin's brand logo is a Chinese lion, the font of the store name is modified from traditional official script, the store and packaging are mainly red, and the slogan is "It's a Chinese stomach, I love Chinese burgers."

Image source: Tustin official website

In the past few years, when the new consumption wave was at its most turbulent, Tustin and its main hamburger category were not the darlings of the capital market. In contrast, more imaginative catering categories such as tea, coffee, noodle shops, and baking were the hottest tracks.

But since the official announcement of the brand upgrade in 2020, Tustin has begun to overtake. In 2021, it received 150 million yuan in investment from Source Code Capital and Buhuo Venture Capital. In 2022, it opened more than 2,000 new stores, and by 2023 it became a hit.

To sum up, Tustin's rapid expansion is inseparable from three advantages:

First, it chose a niche market. The new Chinese brand style and positioning filled the gap between local brands Wallace and KFC and McDonald's, and was commented by netizens as "better than Wallace and cheaper than McDonald's and KFC."

Second, relying on the advantage of brand positioning, it has won the support of investors.

Third, expand through franchising and quickly stake out territory. The hamburger category itself is highly standardized, and under the brand's own low-price promotion strategy, sufficient stores can bring economies of scale and cost advantages.

Second, low prices are the main focus offline, and "discounted prices" are used in the live broadcast room

In addition to keeping up with popular trends and focusing on "national trends" in terms of concept, Tustin's low-price route is the core reason why it can quickly occupy the sinking market and gradually invade first-tier cities.

Obviously, the market demand for affordable Western fast food is broader than the high-end market. Data shows that from 2021 to 2022, the per capita consumption price of Western fast food in China was 20 yuan or less, accounting for more than 63%, and another 27% was in the price range of 20 to 40 yuan, and less than 4% was more than 60 yuan per capita. Therefore, the sinking market is the best entry point for Tustin. The narrow door dining eye shows that its per capita consumption price is 19.47 yuan.

Image source: Zhaimen Canyan

In Tustin’s Douyin and Kuaishou live broadcast rooms, product prices are about half as low as those in offline stores.

On Douyin, Tustin has opened multiple accounts such as Tustin (China Hamburger) Food Bureau, Tustin (China Hamburger) Welfare Club, Tustin (China Hamburger) National Trend Club, etc., relaying live broadcasts to cover different time periods to maximize platform traffic. Consumers can quickly find the live broadcast room to purchase group purchase coupons at all possible meal times.

In the Douyin live broadcast room, Tustin's group purchase discounts are very strong: a cup of Coke is 2.8 yuan, a hamburger and a cup of Coke for a single person is only 9.9 yuan, "a Chinese hamburger with mapo tofu + a cup of Coke" is only 14 yuan in total, and a two-person meal is only 32.8 yuan. In addition, 10% off hamburger coupons and buy one get one free for a single hamburger are also common.

Tustin TikTok account matrix

For those users who are most likely to follow Tustin online, it is easy to find a store offline and go in to consume. These consumers are usually active users of social platforms, and from the "薅羊毛" style poor ghost package guide to the taste evaluation of different products, they have brought a wave of "tap water" traffic to the brand.

The reason why Tustin is betting heavily on TikTok is to capture the affordable consumer group.

Some of Douyin's heavy core users are young people in lower-tier cities, and some are college students. These people have a large overlap with Tustin's consumer group. They are very receptive to Western fast food such as hamburgers and even love to eat them. They have certain requirements for quality and taste, and they also pursue cost-effectiveness.

Moreover, this year is the bonus period for Douyin's local life. According to LatePost, the total payment transaction volume of Douyin's life service in the first half of 2023 exceeded 100 billion yuan, and in 2022, the annual transaction volume of Douyin's life service was close to 90 billion yuan. Douyin surpassed last year's performance in just half a year. The rising GMV and more than 700 million daily active users attracted many offline merchants, and Tustin is one of them.

By frequently promoting low prices and constantly attracting new customers, Tustin has reached a large number of consumer groups in the sinking market and maximized traffic conversion. In Tustin's live broadcast room, the sales volume of a single product reached more than 700,000. On the Douyin local life group buying list, Tustin ranked top 5 for 5 consecutive months, with the highest monthly sales exceeding 7 million. Local life services have become a cake that major manufacturers are competing for.

Among them, Kuaishou, which focuses on the sinking market and the trust economy of old friends, also has certain advantages in user scale and consumption potential. The latest financial report shows that in the second quarter of 2023, the DAU (average daily active users) and MAU (monthly active users) of Kuaishou application were 376 million and 673 million, respectively, an increase of 8.3% and 14.8% year-on-year, and the user scale reached a historical high. Sensitive brands will naturally not only deploy Douyin.

According to Kas, Tustin also opened an official live broadcast room on Kuaishou this year. From the early days of live broadcasting for 6 hours every day at noon and evening, the duration has been gradually increased to now, from 10 am to 10-11 pm.

@Tustin Chinese Burger (Food Bureau) Kuaishou video screenshot

In addition to the brand's own live broadcast, Tustin also invited some group buying experts to promote the product on Kuaishou, further expanding the audience and driving sales. The brand's official Kuaishou store homepage shows that 600,000 group buying items have been sold, among which the popular spicy burger four-piece set priced at 19.9 yuan has sold as many as 297,000 pieces.

Online group coupons need to be redeemed offline. Therefore, to occupy a wider sinking market, stores must be opened in places closest to consumers.

According to Zhaimen Canyan, as of the end of August, Tustin had opened 4,783 stores in 237 cities across the country, and its store scale was second only to Wallace, KFC and McDonald's in the Western fast food category.

Among them, nearly half are located in third-tier and lower cities, 44% are located in second-tier and new first-tier cities, and less than 7% are in first-tier cities. In terms of location, Tustin has 1,112 township stores, accounting for 24.7% of all stores; there are 144 school stores, accounting for 3.2%.

3. Is Chinese hamburger a good track?

Tustin's rapid rise also reflects the popularity of a track. According to Red Can Big Data, from August 2022 to January 2023, the number of fast food restaurants named "Chinese Hamburger" increased from 1,772 to 3,533, doubling.

Among them, "Limburger", "Chu Zheng Chinese Burger", "Oddington Burger" and other new brands are all attracting much attention. Catering giants have also set their sights on the fat piece of "Chinese burger". In 2022, Northwest launched the "Jia Guolong Jiuniang Air Bun" project, which was renamed "Jia Guolong Chinese Burger" this year; in June this year, KFC also launched a new product "Bread Burger".

Image source: Xiaohongshu user

With many companies investing heavily, is Chinese hamburger a good track?

Kas believes that Chinese hamburgers are essentially still "hamburgers". Their sudden popularity is partly due to the popularity of the "new Chinese" concept in the past two years. For example, traditional categories such as milk tea and baking have begun to be infused with "Chinese elements"; on the other hand, it is because localized innovations have been carried out in this area to cater to the tastes of young consumers.

However, Chinese hamburgers also have their own problems.

First, as far as many current Chinese hamburger brands are concerned, they all have homogenization in terms of brand building, main highlights and product features, and consumers' sense of novelty and curiosity will gradually disappear after trying them.

Second, hamburgers are prone to unstable taste, stale ingredients, and dry and hard crusts. For example, Tustin's signature freshly baked hamburger buns are made on site by hand-rolling the dough, and the difference in the strength of rolling and stretching the dough may cause certain differences between the crusts. The fresh baking step improves the taste of the hamburger buns, but also increases the difficulty of standardization.

Tustin hamburger bun production process (Source: Internet)

According to public reports, as a franchise brand, Tustin has many problems with food safety. Although its biggest advantage is its low price, these problems will still reduce consumers' favorability and form a rebellious mentality. What new tricks can the rapidly advancing Chinese hamburger market bring? Are you willing to pay for "Chinese hamburgers"?

Author: Lou Xingchui

Source: WeChat public account: "CaasData (ID: caasdata6)"