With 50 million members and member contributions accounting for over 50%, how does Dicos operate its private domain?

"Private domain" is a hot operation concept nowadays. It seems that everyone around me who is doing operations is doing "private domain". In this article, the author disassembles how Dicos operates private domain and summarizes the relevant methodology. Recommended for people who are interested in private domain operations.

Western fast food has a history of several decades in China. Compared with KFC and McDonald's, which entered China in the 1980s, Dicos did not open its first store in China until 1994. Two years later, it was acquired by Ting Hsin Group and became a brother of Master Kong.

Faced with the competition from foreign fast food giants, Dicos chose to focus on second- and third-tier cities, relying on popular products such as "crispy fried chicken" and "rice burgers", as well as the "membership system", and gradually formed differentiated competition with McDonald's and KFC.

Since 2014, Dicos has started to digitize its membership system, and has since further connected its store membership system. After 2020, Dicos has deeply operated its private domain, directing traffic to corporate WeChat and social groups through third-party channels.

From September 2020 to date, Dicos has 50 million members, and more than 50% of its revenue is contributed by members.

So, how does Dicos conduct private domain operations? Let’s analyze it in detail below.

1. Case Background

1. Brand Introduction

Dicos is a restaurant brand affiliated to Ting Hsin Restaurant Group. It was formally established in 1996 and is headquartered in Tianjin. Its owner is Lan Zandeng. Its main products include fried chicken, hamburgers, snacks, desserts, etc.

Since its inception, Dicos has been adhering to the brand concept of "dare to pursue", taking "the most Chinese-style Western fast food restaurant chain" as its brand purpose, constantly deepening its understanding of Chinese tastes, and striving to provide consumers with better products, better services, as well as love and care from the company.

Today, Dicos has more than 2,500 stores, covering 32 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country.

2. Market size

The scale of China's catering market is about 4 trillion yuan, of which the market size of hamburger products in Western fast food has reached hundreds of billions of yuan. In addition, urbanization and the increase in residents' income levels have boosted the rate of Western fast food dining. It is expected that the scale of Western fast food purchases will increase by 8% to 13% annually in the next five years. This shows that the Chinese hamburger market has broad prospects.

According to data from iMedia Consulting, the size of China's Western fast food market was 280.07 billion yuan in 2021, and is expected to exceed 380 billion yuan in 2023.

3. User portrait

According to Dicos’ internal market research, Dicos’ consumer group is mainly users aged 30 and under, and the majority of them are female users, accounting for 55%.

2. Traffic Channel Analysis

1. Private Domain Platform

(1) Official Account

The official account "Dicos" publishes a tweet once a week, with 5 articles each time. The content includes new product promotions, welfare activities, brand publicity, etc., and an entrance for private domain traffic is set up in the official account.

Path: Menu of the official account "My D Member" - Member Center | Membership Gift - Enter the Welfare Group - Add the company's WeChat to the group

(2) Mini Programs

In the "Dicos Member Center" applet, an obvious community drainage entrance is set up on the homepage, and users can enter the community by clicking.

Path: Enter the welfare group - add the company WeChat account to join the group - scan the QR code to join the group

2. Public Domain Platform

(1) Video Account

At present, the homepage of Dicos’ official video account has a special window for private domain traffic diversion.

The main contents include welfare activities, brand promotion, product recommendations, etc.

(2) Tik Tok

Dicos has set up an account matrix on Douyin, with a total of 1.91 million followers, of which the main account (Dicos) has 1.002 million followers.

The video content is mainly about brand promotion and product recommendation. The account [Dicos Chicken Club] will broadcast live every afternoon, mainly using coupons to stimulate orders and anchors to promote products.

(3) Weibo

Dicos has 4.546 million followers on Weibo, and its main content is brand promotion and event publicity.

Dicos’ Weibo is updated frequently, with 3-4 posts every day. It also often organizes fan draws and cross-industry cooperation activities to increase fan activity.

3. Disassembly of Private Domain IP

Dicos’ corporate IP is taken over through corporate WeChat, and the content published is mainly brand promotion, welfare distribution, and event announcements.

Below is a detailed analysis using the corporate IP I added as an example.

1. Personal positioning

Nickname: Li Jiangang (employee real-name system)

Avatar: Cartoon avatar of a pig wearing a crown

Role positioning : Brand welfare officer

2. Automatic welcome message

After adding, send a self-introduction as soon as possible, inform the user of the benefits provided, and send a QR code to guide the user into the community.

3. Moments Operation

Release frequency: 1 post every 2 days

Release time: Unfixed

Moments cover: None

Content in Moments: Content mainly consists of welfare activities and product recommendations.

4. Analysis of Community Operation

The Western fast food industry has the obvious characteristics of high repurchase and high sharing, and is one of the most suitable industries for private domain operations. Dicos has also grasped this point and actively operates the community, taking the community as the main battlefield for its private domain marketing.

Below is an analysis of the community I added.

1. Basic information of the community

Group nickname: name + store name + group number; example: Dicos Hangzhou Yunhe Shangjie Welfare Group 1

Group positioning: welfare group

Group announcement: Introduce recent community welfare activities and remind customer service functions

2. Community Welcome

When a user joins the group, an automatic welcome message will be triggered immediately, mainly introducing the community benefits, recent activities, and finally stating the service attitude.

3. Community Operation

The Dicos community will post product recommendations and welfare activity content in the group on time at 12:00, 18:00 and other time periods every day.

The promotional content is in the form of text + mini program link, and users can directly receive coupons and place orders. Coupons are issued to stimulate orders at low prices and generate repeat purchases.

5. Membership System Analysis

Nowadays, the "membership" model has long been commonplace in private domain operations. It can not only better serve high-quality users, but also lock in users' consumption for a period of time in the future. Especially in the catering industry, paid membership is also becoming a trend.
Dicos has followed the development of the times and launched a membership system based on "paid membership". The following is a brief analysis of Dicos' membership system, which mainly includes three parts: paid membership, basic membership, and points system.

1. Paid Membership

Currently, Dicos has three types of paid memberships, with different themed cards designed for different groups of people and usage scenarios, as follows:

• Exclusive Card (128 yuan, 1 year): When you open the card, you will receive a set meal worth 150 yuan, and enjoy 20% off on full-priced items within one year, free delivery, and on Super Member Day, you can get two full-priced items for an additional 1 yuan, and receive a gift package worth 890 yuan.
• King Blast Pistol Leg Card (17.7 yuan, 1 month): You will receive a pistol leg worth 26 yuan when you open the card, and enjoy 30% off on designated breakfast two-piece sets, 9.9 yuan for afternoon tea with designated snack combinations, 5 yuan coupon for coffee, free delivery fee starting from 19 yuan, and other benefits.
• Super Value Deyi Card (29 yuan, 1 quarter): Get a set meal worth 38.5 yuan when you open the card, enjoy 30% off on designated breakfast two-piece sets, 9.9 yuan for afternoon tea with designated snack combinations, 5 yuan coffee coupons, free delivery fees starting from 19 yuan, and other benefits.

2. Basic Membership

Nowadays, membership benefits have become an important means for brands to attract users into the private domain. In addition to paid memberships for specific groups of people, Dicos also has its own basic memberships.

Users only need to register to become members. Members can enjoy exclusive gifts, dedicated customer service, 15-day no-reason returns and other multiple gifts.

3. Points system

Currently, Dicos allows users to order food through the APP, stores, and mini-programs, and accumulate points through consumption.

In the mini program "Dicos Member Mall", users can use their points to redeem product coupons, peripheral products or other benefits (movie coupons, NetEase Yanxuan membership cards, etc.).

In addition, Dicos points can also be used for lucky draws, with a draw held every 500 points. The prizes include products, peripherals, and even an iPhone.

Relying on the powerful resources of Ting Hsin Group, Dicos’ points system is relatively mature and users can enjoy relatively rich rights.

VI. Summary

Finally, let’s summarize the highlights and shortcomings of Dicos in private domain operations:

1. The layers are detailed enough

Dicos’ mini program and paid membership have refined the stratification to facilitate use by users with different needs.

2. IP image is relatively weak

Compared with its peers, Dicos' IP image is relatively weak. The recognition of the corporate WeChat profile picture is average, and the circle of friends is not finely operated, lacks background, and the frequency of posting is unstable, resulting in low customer trust.

3. The membership system is relatively mature

Relying on the powerful resources of Ting Hsin Group, Dicos can cooperate with well-known companies such as Master Kong. Users can enjoy rich rights and interests based on the points accumulated through consumption, thus continuously attracting users to consume in the private domain.