It is the largest and most comprehensive catering hotel yearbook in Europe and the world. More than one fifth of French people will use or read it at any time, even if it is only for a gourmet divine comedy. As a guide book, it is even powerful enough to influence consumers and practitioners:
According to The New Yorker, losing a star means losing 25% of the turnover.
After a star-rated restaurant in Dublin lost its star rating, its turnover dropped by 75% within one year-from last year's? 535 10 has been reduced to? 12,472。
At the same time, Michelin's secret unannounced visit selection mechanism made it impossible for the restaurant to know who the talent scout was, let alone withdraw from the selection. As a result, practitioners often face the inevitable selection and great pressure to protect the stars. Under this invisible pressure, even the person in charge of the restaurant committed suicide:
-20 16, Samsung chef Beno? T Violier shot himself at home, only 44 years old. The police believe that he committed suicide under the dual pressure of his father's death and keeping his star.
Interestingly, such a food guide, which is very important for the catering industry, was actually produced by Michelin, a tire company.
This makes people ask: Michelin sells tires, why? How did you make the world-famous Michelin dining guide?
0 1
Foresighted original intention
From 65438 to 0900, there were only 3000 motor vehicles in France, and Michelin's main business was to produce bicycle tires. In fact, it was not until 1908 that Ford's Model T came out that motor vehicles gradually became popular. You know, in 1895, there were only 350 cars in France, and even France had not established an extensive road system.
In the eyes of the public, the car is still a controversial product: no one thinks that the horse may be replaced. In the eyes of the public, cars are just toys for the rich and can't be driven too far away from the garage. Therefore, when edouard michelin and Andrei Michelin invented the world's first pneumatic tire in 1900, the shrewd brothers quickly realized that their competitors were not other tire companies, but "are rich people willing to buy a car and drive?"
Because if no one buys a car, no one buys tires.
Coincidentally, Andre's job is to be a cartographer in the government. Inspired by this, the two brothers came up with a solution: Michelin's logic is simple. In order to increase the demand for tires, we must first increase the demand for cars. In order to increase the demand for cars, of course, we should encourage everyone to travel far away, so that we can believe that there are more attractive places to eat and play in the distance. To this end, they compiled the first Michelin guide.
02
Make advertisements into products
The first edition of Michelin Catering Guide distributed 35,000 copies for free, including travel tips, location of gas stations, maps and tire changing instructions. Travel guides for Switzerland, Bavaria, Britain, North Africa, Italy and other regions have also been released. /kloc-one day in 0/920, Andre Michelin found in a tire seller that he had used several Michelin guides to pad the workbench! The Michelin brothers didn't want to play the lute to a cow and decided not to distribute these pamphlets for free, because "people will only respect what they pay for". This valuable auction opened a new chapter in Michelin Guide. They began to pay more attention to its content. Moreover, because the map is too practical and detailed, there are rumors that in the Normandy campaign of 1944, the British, American and Canadian Coalition forces even successfully landed in Normandy, France with Michelin Green Paper.
The practicality of the manual laid the foundation for Michelin's operation in the next 20 years. With the continuous development of the company, they began to launch versions of various countries throughout Europe, which was welcomed by many people. Crowded readers are not only willing to spend money on the guide, but also keep writing letters to help improve the guide and put forward suggestions for revision.
One of the suggestions is to separate the restaurant from the driving map, which is why today's Michelin guide will be divided into the red version of Michelin restaurant guide and the green version of Michelin travel guide.
Michelin's attention to readers' suggestions is not only reflected in the separation of red book and green book.
After discovering that people were particularly interested in restaurant guides, Andre hired Michelin's first batch of anonymous restaurant commentators to eat all the top restaurants in France for free, and then evaluated the best ones.
1926, Michelin's star standard was finally born. But there was only one star. After 1930s, a three-star system was introduced-
A star ★:? It is a "worth a visit" restaurant, which is particularly excellent in the same kind of food style;
Two stars ★★★★:? The cooking in the restaurant is superb, and it is worthwhile to take a long walk.
Three stars? ? ? This is a restaurant worth visiting.
According to insiders, according to the price positioning of foreign Michelin three-star restaurants, the per capita consumption is usually between 3,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan. Of course, even a Michelin star is already a high honor in the European and American catering industry. Although Michelin Tire Company published Michelin Restaurant Guide only to advertise its own products, in the end, they made this advertising brochure into a product. And make everyone willing to pay the bill. You know, in the second half of the 20th century, when the world economy was advancing by leaps and bounds, before the birth of computers and iPhone, the paper travel and restaurant guide market brought considerable benefits. So that although this tire company realized the dream of letting the elite buy a car as early as half a century ago, it did not close its two guides.
03
Selling products is a way of life.
Michelin advocates a novel lifestyle of "driving out for a picnic on weekends" through Michelin Guide.
Because Michelin's main business is selling tires, which are accessories for leisure toys of the rich in France. Therefore, the red edition of Michelin Restaurant Guide has only one goal from the beginning of separation: to serve the rich elite in France.
In order to support drivers to drive and travel longer distances, they not only provide information guide sorting services to hotels and gasoline suppliers all over France, but also make road signs to help travelers.
Michelin's rigorous evaluation mechanism also makes Michelin restaurant guide a lifestyle mentor for elites. In order to ensure the impartiality and authority of Michelin Restaurant Guide, Michelin has always adhered to five commitments: anonymous visit, independent evaluation, careful selection, annual update and consistent standards. The selected judges are professionals and veterans in the catering and hotel industry, and all of them must pass the formal Michelin guide training in France.
Judges are forbidden to talk to reporters and reveal their identities, and will ignore the opinions of restaurant waiters before reaching a conclusion. Like ordinary customers, they reserve seats, order food, eat and pay the bill in advance, and they don't take notes like ordinary food critics at all.
In order to understand the consistency of restaurant quality and ensure the accuracy of evaluation, they usually visit a restaurant repeatedly within six months, but in order to hide their eyes and ears and try to avoid going too many times, they will go together and pretend to be husband and wife or business people, because eating alone is easy to arouse suspicion. At the same time, it will be discussed comprehensively according to the results of different reviewers at different times, and finally the score will be given.
With such a strict evaluation mechanism, the evaluation of Michelin Guide has been criticized by many people since its birth, but its authority and influence in the food industry are hard to deny. Paul Bo Gu, the godfather chef of new cuisine, once said in the heyday of Michelin Restaurant Guide1960s: In my eyes, Michelin is the only restaurant guide in the world.
1954 An article in The New Yorker was written in this way. "No other restaurant guide can undertake Michelin's bloody local guide. They are completely losing money. They have lost millions of dollars. But it is precisely because of this that it can gain the trust of the most critical French elite and get the evaluation of' thoroughness',' attitude' and' unparalleled'. "
04
Cross-border food marketing strategy of tire manufacturers
Policy 1: User participation
User participation is indispensable in any marketing strategy. The activities that lack participation are ups and downs, and the expected turnover cannot be obtained. Only when users actively participate can we gain word-of-mouth and effect in emotional interaction.
Michelin shared the experience of car trip through tasting and evaluating restaurants, which led readers and diners to explore and try early, and formed a good interaction with each other. As time goes by, it will generate strong topic discussions about food and travel, as well as strong public recognition of Michelin brand.
Strategy 2: Persistence and authority
If any marketing can't make the audience feel authoritative, it can only be a smash hit, as gorgeous and short as fireworks. Just like Michelin's Gourmet Guide, if it is just a book about pure food and there is no authoritative star system, it will certainly not be as successful as it is now. Because most of the "food detectives" employed by Michelin graduated from the School of Hotel Management, each food detective travels an average of about 30,000 kilometers a year, eats in different restaurants about 250 times, and stays in more than 160 hotels. In order to ensure the fairness of the results, Michelin will conduct a comprehensive discussion based on the different results of the "spy" at different times, and finally give a score. Although the evaluation work has been criticized by many people since its birth, its authority and influence in the food industry is undeniable.
Strategy 3: Increase recognition
People who love food like to punch in the Michelin restaurant, so as to pay attention to and choose Michelin tires; Consumers who have used Michelin tires will also choose to try Michelin food guides out of curiosity. The public relations director of Michelin North America once said: "Tires are not sexy products." Michelin Guide is of great benefit to Michelin Company in brand image. When people associate "Michelin tires" with "Michelin restaurant guide" in their minds, Michelin can establish a similar and more recognizable impression of "this is an interesting company" in everyone's mind.
05
Jump out of inertia thinking and look for new possibilities.
According to the statistics of Auto Service World, Michelin ranked second in the list of the top 34 global tire companies in 20 19.
The two Michelin guides, red and blue, are indispensable for Michelin tires to stand out and build a strong brand with weak categories.
Classification is inherently unfair. There are differences in strength and size from birth. Products belonging to strong categories have a high degree of brand attention. People will pay more attention to its brand after using it and recommend it to people around them.
And tires obviously do not belong to the strong category. People don't care if they use brand-name tires, and they won't take photos and share them with friends after using this tire, telling everyone that they have used this tire. In addition, its frequency is still very low and it only needs to be replaced once a year. It will not be missed by everyone from time to time like food, and it will be remembered every day. If you don't eat a meal, you will starve to death.
Low frequency is not easy to share, not a strong category, and the brand is difficult to remember. If you want to get high-frequency attention, you need to associate it with a high-frequency thing. This is also the reason why Michelin still has to do in the internet age when Michelin guides can no longer make money.
Many times, we always talk about building strong categories, but not all categories can be rebuilt and transformed into strong categories. At this time, you don't have to give up in a hurry. Just like Michelin, jump out of inertia thinking and look for new breakthroughs. Perhaps, there will be unexpected gains.