Going undercover in the Tustin community, I found that its road to counterattack is not easy

KFC's Crazy Thursdays are well known because it attracts users with discounts. So how can Tustin, which offers different "poor meal packages" every week and can offer low prices every day, open more than 3,000 stores in three years? The author "undercovers" its community and analyzes its operating strategy. Let's take a look.

Don’t just know about KFC’s V My 50 Story, did you know that there is a different “poor guy’s meal” every week?

On social media platforms, there is a joke that makes even the poor get fat:

Everyone must be familiar with these fast food brands, but how did the new face among them, Tustin, blend in and stand shoulder to shoulder with other well-known brands? While other catering stores were hit hard, Tustin achieved a rapid growth of more than 3,000 stores in three years, and it became stronger and stronger with its expansion. How did it achieve a counterattack with the "Chinese hamburger"?

1. I never thought that one day I would be able to achieve "hamburger freedom"

Not every store has the "poor man's meal" every day, but there are always people who can spend a week in a store on the "poor man's meal" as long as it is cheap enough.

One Wednesday morning, a friend forwarded a Tustin discount wheel to me: 3.3 yuan for a hamburger. I decided to use my "African hand" to draw a prize, and I actually won the "3.3 yuan spicy burger and cola coupon"! Compared to the past, isn't this a bargain?

Above the turntable, it is highlighted: "Community Benefits", which shows that this discount can only be received in the community. After tasting the good fruit once, I decided to sneak into the community to find out.

When I first join the group, the welfare officer of Xiaota will send a welcome message to the group and guide me to receive the "Newbie Welcome Gift", which includes a 12-yuan single product coupon package, which includes three coupons, namely a 2-yuan no-threshold single product coupon, a 10-5-yuan single product coupon, and a 15-5-yuan single product coupon.

Regardless of which channel the user was initially introduced into the group, this welcome gift also leaves a good first impression on the user. At the same time, in the benefits overview, the member day every Tuesday is highlighted, which is also a major feature of the benefits in the joke.

However, there is a 1-2 minute delay between issuance and notification, and there is no guidance in the group joining announcement, which leads to confusion among users who have just joined the group. Several users who came for the coupons asked about "how and through what channels to collect the coupons."

In the benefits overview, Tustin's operations officer @小塔福利官 emphasized that there are exclusive discounts in the community every day. After two weeks of "undercover" in the community, I discovered some of their discount strategies. Except for the limited Tuesday membership day, the rest of the big discounts basically need to be obtained through the big wheel lottery, and the probability of winning varies.

Monday: 10% off spicy burgers

Tuesday: Buy one get one free on a single burger

Wednesday: 3.3 yuan hamburger and coke

Thursday: 0 Yuan Popcorn Chicken

Friday: 3 people help, get half-price coupons for single items/scratch cards to get single meal discounts

Saturday: $29.90 Super Value Wing Bucket

Sunday: Double/Triple (28-46 yuan)

*The above is only a reference to the activities in the past two weeks, compiled by the author

If there are some festivals, Xiaota Welfare Officer will issue multiple additional discount links, push regular benefits at around 11 am every day, and push other holiday benefits at 5-6 pm during festivals.

On March 15th, I waited for Xiaota to distribute coupons as usual. After all, trying my luck every day is something to look forward to (of course, when I am lucky). However, when it was 7:30 in the evening, I still didn’t get any coupons, so I asked a question, but there was still no response in the group and no notification.

The Xiaota welfare officer in the welfare group is more like a robot that was previously set up to automatically push the day's benefits. All questions that need to be consulted must be chatted with the customer service Xiaota, and it is not a manual customer service, so it needs to be transferred again for consultation. The path for problem consultation and suggestions is too long, and many people may not want to give feedback after seeing half of it.

Putting these aside, there is no redundant information every day, and simply receiving benefits may be the original intention of every user joining the group.

After all, as long as you are lucky enough, it is not a dream to have a "poor man's meal" every day. Compared with the well-known brands with an average price of 30+ yuan per person, the hamburger meal of about 18 yuan per person is still quite cost-effective.

Among mature fast food brands such as KFC, McDonald's, and Burger King, there was nothing remarkable in the "undercover" community during the two weeks. How were users attracted to Tustin and paid for it and spread the word?

2. What made Tustin able to make a comeback?

Tustin has only become really popular in the past two years. Established in 2012, Tustin did not originally sell "Chinese hamburgers" but a "pizza" brand. At that time, there were less than 100 stores and many people had never even heard of it.

It was not until 2020 that it found its own direction and launched the "Chinese Hamburger" category positioning, and its decoration also tended to be in line with the national trend.

1. Product differentiation, creating a national style brand

On Tustin's official website, we can see such a promotional concept: Express Chinese culture with Chinese flavors and bake creative Chinese burgers by hand.

As the Chinese hamburger trend is in full swing, Tustin seems to have caught the wave, claiming to be "the leader of Chinese hamburgers", and its Chinese hamburger decoration makes people eager to try it.

Source: Photographed by the author

The "hamburger crust" is hand-rolled and baked, and it does taste different from other brands of hamburgers. The "hamburger crust" is also very chewy. Many consumers who have eaten Tustin hamburgers for the first time said that the "hamburger crust" is good and has its own characteristics.

With the unique "hamburger skin", there are also a variety of hamburgers that suit Chinese tastes, from fish-flavored shredded pork to Peking duck, each one embodies the characteristics of Chinese cuisine.

2. Focus on the lower-tier markets and capture young users

Most of Tustin's stores are located in second-tier, third-tier and fourth-tier cities, and are close to residential areas. From the location of its stores, we can see that Tustin is taking the same route as Mixue Ice City, focusing on the sinking market, with stores spread from county towns to cities. In first-tier cities, Tustin first develops in residential areas with large traffic, and then radiates to office workers in the city center.

A spicy chicken burger costs 13 yuan, which is relatively affordable compared to KFC and McDonald's. During this period, there were multiple discounts, such as buy one get one free burgers on Tuesdays, community benefits, and gift packages for deposits, which helped Tustin gain a large number of new users.

In addition, Tustin is good at grasping the characteristics of young people and taking the route of young people. For example, the joint name with "Peace Elite", holiday marketing and national trend marketing are all ways that young people pay attention to and can be attracted, trying to resonate with young people.

3. Official memes promote the brand

Whenever there is a popular festival, Tustin takes advantage of the situation, formulates relevant marketing strategies, and officially leads the way in playing with memes.

During last year's Thanksgiving, we combined the popular song "Listen to Me Say Thank You" and played a pun "Ting I Say Thank You" to express our gratitude to consumers and to repay every love with delicious food.

On Double 11, Tustin launched the "Double 11 Post-Holiday Life Rescue Plan", which provides super gift packages with a total value of 40,000 to help shoppers recover after the holiday, so that consumers can have some time to relax after the crazy shopping on Double 11 and avoid "eating dirt".

The most outstanding one is the "Black Pineapple" which became popular on the Chinese Valentine's Day. The name "Black Pineapple" is taken from the homonym of "I like you" in Cantonese. When you buy the "Black Pineapple" on the Chinese Valentine's Day, you can also get the "Chinese Valentine's Day Limited Confession Card". The word "Black Pineapple" is a double entendre, which is both a confession to consumers and a medium for consumers to express their love to their loved ones.

4. Rooted in local life, focusing on Douyin live streaming

In addition to "undercover" in their welfare community, I found that they are also very good at local life group buying. In February of this year, they won the first place in the monthly local life group buying sales list of Douyin, surpassing other catering brands in one fell swoop.

In the field of local life, in addition to some group buying packages in Meituan, Tustin is more focused on Douyin live broadcast and short video promotion.

During the Douyin live broadcast, the account used was "Tustin (Chinese Hamburger) Food Bureau", which focused on low-price group buying marketing. The store price for a "spicy chicken leg burger + chunky potatoes + cola" was 28 yuan, but the live broadcast group buying flash sale price was only 16.8 yuan, and the single meal was sold out immediately.

In the official account of its Food Bureau, Tustin interspersed brand products with situational stories, created relevant topics, and tried to resonate with users.

3. After the marketing, where should Tustin go?

Since the two weeks of "undercover", the number of users in the community has continued to grow, but has slowed down. However, since it is positioned as a welfare group, the users in the group are all there for the welfare. There is no interaction in the group. If the welfare is simply distributed, the community will be overwhelmed over time. We can also say that Tustin's focus is not on the community at present, but all in Douyin.

At the same time, as its popularity grows, what needs to be dealt with is the trade-off between "freshly baked" and "customer waiting time". Many consumers have reported that they placed an order on the online mini-program, but still could not get the food after an hour, and there were even more delivery guys at the door.

The imbalance between order quantity and production time is bound to reduce consumers' experience.

As Tustin's stores expand rapidly, the quality of franchise stores varies, resulting in different flavors in different regions, leading to mixed reviews among consumers.

After some consumers have a very bad experience, the gap between their original high expectations and reality will greatly reduce their experience. When others ask how the food tastes, it is difficult for them to give a high evaluation.

If these problems are not solved in a timely manner, how far can Tustin's Chinese hamburger journey go?

Author: Ginny; Official Account: Yunyingpai (ID: yunyingpai666)