Full scale, more delicious than Zibo barbecue

Zibo barbecue has been all over the internet recently, and you must have been attracted by this delicious food. The author analyzes the reasons behind the popularity of Zibo barbecue from various aspects. This successful case has provided a successful model for more small cities on how ordinary students can stand out from top students. Let's take a look at it together.

The reason why Zibo barbecue has such a huge traffic is that it breaks through the limitations of barbecue as an object and establishes the image of people in the city, and even the personified image of the city.

A chewy pancake, dipped in salty and spicy sauce, with a few pieces of meaty barbecue and a piece of sweet spring onion. Recently, on those nights when you are addicted to your phone and don't want to fall asleep, I wonder if you have also seen the sizzling Zibo barbecue on the small stove, and impulsively switched apps for it - ordering a takeaway in full, or passionately buying a high-speed rail ticket for the weekend.

Data shows that since March this year, the search volume of the keyword "Zibo barbecue" has increased by more than 770% year-on-year across all platforms. As of April 10, during the upcoming May Day holiday, accommodation bookings in Zibo have also increased by 800% compared to 2019.

(Zibo barbecue stall photographed by netizen @刘英杰)

A month ago, when talking about Zibo, many people couldn't point out its specific location on the map. Within a month, with the explosion of Zibo barbecue, this unknown small city finally came into people's sight and became a popular domestic tourist destination. This surprised many netizens, who jokingly said, "The last time Zibo was so lively was in Qi State." But many netizens were also surprised. Isn't it just barbecue? How can it be so delicious?

(Comments from netizens)

Five years ago, the documentary "A String of Life" launched by Bilibili recorded more than 500 barbecue stalls in nearly 30 cities in China. As a representative of street food, barbecue has long been a regular on the Chinese table. It is not easy for a small city like Zibo to stand out among the many provinces and cities famous for barbecue in the country. Fortunately, it did it.

1. How to break the circle, far more than just barbecue

Zibo barbecue first gained some fame by riding on the trend of college students' special forces tourism: college students in Shandong Province and its surrounding areas chose Zibo within a two-hour high-speed rail circle and posted Zibo barbecue recommendations on social platforms. Among these recommendations, Zibo barbecue's unique barbecue style first attracted the attention of netizens.

It perfectly combines barbecue with "everything wrapped in pancakes" and Shandong green onions, which not only retains the flavor of barbecue itself, but also satisfies people's imagination of Shandong customs, and establishes its own local identity among the various barbecues across the country.

(Netizens named Zibo BBQ Zibo taco)

This fresh way of eating, which is full of Shandong characteristics, coupled with the affordable and delicious taste in small urban residential areas, perfectly meets the travel needs of college students. As a result, Zibo barbecue has gained the vitality to expand its dissemination and accumulated early popularity. However, the real explosion of Zibo barbecue is not only due to barbecue, but also the market supervision work of the local government.

On April 8, Douyin blogger B Tai released a video of his visit to the Badaju Market in Zibo. In the video, he randomly bought food weighed by kilograms from several vendors, and asked them to weigh the food without plastic bags or to weigh it again with their own scales. All requests were readily granted and confirmed to be correct.

(Screenshot of the work of Tik Tok blogger @B太)

This seemingly ordinary video quickly received millions of likes, and netizens expressed their gratitude and support in the comment section, which invisibly built an image for Zibo as a model of honest business operations.

Looking back at the blogger's previous works, it is not difficult to understand the reason. In the cities he has visited in the past, such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen, and Chengdu, from mobile vendors at the subway entrance to rented stalls in formal markets, the phenomenon of defrauding consumers such as using 8-liang scales, 6-liang scales, and weighing without peeling is common, and it is not uncommon to see stall owners who know their mistakes but refuse to correct them, have a tough attitude, and refuse to sell.

(The problem of short weight in the same market @B Tai)

What is particularly ironic is that even next to the "fair scales" in the market, and in the face of yellow card warnings for "short weight stalls", such behavior is still difficult to regulate. These videos made many netizens realize for the first time the poor consumer environment they are in. They are angry about the betrayal of trust, dissatisfied with the supervision of relevant departments, and frustrated by the difficulties in defending their rights.

(Comments from netizens)

In contrast, the performance of Zibo vendors is like a fairy tale, full of innocence and kindness, rekindling people's longing for a good consumption environment. As a result, more and more Zibo check-in videos are pushed to the audience, covering all aspects of tourism such as taking taxis, staying in hotels, and barbecue consumption.

At a time when people have become numb to the practice of overcharging tourists, Zibo has been shaped into a tourist paradise by short video narratives. What is even more rare is that this paradise is not floating with aesthetic filters and fairy air, but rather a bit rustic.

(Taxi-hailing experience in Zibo shared by netizens @梨花语)

The establishment of the Zibo Barbecue Association has made many netizens exclaim that Shandong is indeed a province with a large number of civil service examinations, and even a small barbecue restaurant can be considered a "unit" for management. The Zibo Culture and Tourism Bureau boarded a barbecue train to serve passengers, which made many netizens flattered and joked that "the director can't retire now, he has to become the mayor."

Some netizens summarized Zibo's reaction as "a small city desperately grasping a rare opportunity to make itself better." This statement personifies Zibo. In front of many popular first- and second-tier tourist cities in China, Zibo is indeed like an ordinary student among a group of top students, trying its best to write its own inspirational story of counterattack.

(Comments from netizens)

This resonated with many residents of the small city, and Zibo no longer just relied on the delicious barbecue to attract diners, but also relied on the sincere city attitude and inspirational city "personality" to attract more tourists. The sincerity and "inspiration" of the government echoed the enthusiasm of the people. Shandong people, who have always been famous for their "hospitality", showed their simplicity and generosity. Some netizens in Zibo even said that they spontaneously had fewer dinners on weekends to avoid overcrowding and affect the travel experience of tourists.

(Comments from netizens)

All the above videos and discussions have comprehensively constructed the city image of Zibo on the Internet: delicious barbecue, responsible supervision, and enthusiastic locals. At this point, even if you are not a big barbecue lover, you will probably yearn for Zibo and want to find out more.

Robert Park, an American sociologist, pointed out that cities are by no means simple material phenomena, but the product of human attributes. The reason why Zibo barbecue has such a huge flow of traffic is that it breaks through the limitations of barbecue as a thing and establishes the image of people in the city, and even the personification of the city.

(Comments from netizens)

From being centered on scenery or objects to being centered on people, the whole city is united. From this point of view, Zibo is unique in the field of tourism city promotion and city image construction.

2. How to break the circle and experience worth copying

Zibo's sudden popularity has made many cities envious. In recent years, it is not uncommon for unknown small cities to become popular tourist destinations, but most of them are too accidental, such as Litang, which was made popular by Ding Zhen, and Jiangmen, which was made popular by "Kuang Biao".

(Jiangmen travel post on Xiaohongshu)

Faced with these cases that are difficult to replicate, people often feel lost, but facing Zibo, they seem to see a glimmer of hope. There is no doubt that the popularity of Zibo barbecue cannot rule out accidental factors .

The tourism boom after the epidemic has diverted more attention to it. The deteriorating consumption environment has highlighted its honesty and simplicity. The social psychology is in tune with the algorithm recommendation system. Every spread of Zibo barbecue is an accident with opportunities. However, to be able to grasp the accident again and again, there must be some inevitability behind it.

(Weifang Kite Festival promotional video)

After Zibo went viral, netizens from other cities in Shandong Province also took advantage of the popularity to cheer. Netizens in Weifang, which is adjacent to Zibo, worked especially hard to promote the local special kite festival, and finally put "Weifang Kite Festival is the human imagination" on the Douyin hot list. The Shandong Provincial Government also launched the "High-speed Rail Tour of Shandong" package project, which not only facilitates tourists but also "locks" them in Shandong Province.

(“High-speed Rail Tour around Shandong” project)

In fact, like many industrial cities in the north, many cities in Shandong have been facing severe transformation difficulties. In order to awaken the vitality of the old industrial base, they have made many attempts: music festival projects that have blossomed everywhere, scenic spot ticket reduction and exemption actions, and a complete cultural and tourism complaint and reporting mechanism, etc. These are all strong evidence of the down-to-earth work of Shandong's cultural and tourism departments. The experience accumulated in these works has also become an important foundation for seizing opportunities and breaking through the circle today.

(Music festival project hosted by Shandong in 2021)

The road to transforming from an industrial city to a tourist city is full of difficulties, but Shandong seems to have explored a very effective path.

One of the most important principles of this road is to truly start from the needs of tourists. Looking back at the many videos posted by Douyin blogger B Tai, we are still shocked. Integrity management and honesty, what Zibo has done is not pioneering innovation, nor large-scale projects with huge investments, but these daily routines have made it set off a huge wave on the Internet.

(Comments from netizens)

After that, many netizens followed suit, bought their own scales and carried them with them to test the small vendors around them, but the results were equally not optimistic. From this perspective, Zibo's popularity is embarrassing. This is both a glorious medal for a city and a shameful complaint for many cities. It reminds people that there is still a long way to go in the construction of China's cultural and tourism industry. China's consumer market is in urgent need of major rectification.

(Comments from netizens)

The favorable consumption environment makes Zibo unique and attractive, but it also worries many netizens: Is Zibo ready to deal with the sudden increase in tourists? Can it turn the short-term ups and downs into a long-term steady stream? Two years ago, Erke and White Elephant, two companies that were also highly sought after for their "conscience", were also very popular. However, the damage caused to the companies by consumers' impulsive consumption is still vivid in people's minds.

(Zibo Badaju Market)

At present, Zibo tourists have complained about long queues and barbecue restaurants having difficulty recruiting workers. It is still unknown to what extent this paradise can cope with the challenges of entering the world and what image it will be built into. These unknowns require not only active intervention from the government and operators, but also consumers to optimize their consumption concepts and face them together.

(Comments from netizens)

What lessons can other provinces and cities learn from Zibo's boom? Perhaps the most important thing is to establish and maintain a good consumer market. We hope that one day, Zibo will no longer be an isolated case, and it may be more meaningful to talk about tourism in a healthy consumer environment.

Author: Fried Cake

Source: WeChat public account: "Zhizhu.com (ID: covricuc)"